Living Life on Mission for Jesusنموونە

Advancing the Kingdom of Heaven Day-to-Day

Do you believe God created you with a plan and a purpose to advance the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth? Regardless of your season of life, the circle of influence God has given you, or how much you think you have fallen short of God's best for your life, as one of His followers, you are called to live life on a mission for Jesus.

But what does it look like for you and me to live on a mission for Him? Day-to-day, how does this practically play out? To answer these questions, let's look closer at Jesus' words in the Gospel of John.

John 14:10-11 says, "do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves."

In this text, Jesus gives us an example of how we are to live for Him. Everything He did came out of His communion with the Father. Every word He said, everything He did, and everywhere He went was directed by the Father. In the same way that Jesus allowed the Father to direct His steps, we are to allow the Holy Spirit living inside each of us to guide our path.

Looking closer at Jesus' words in John 14, there are at least two areas we can model as we live on a mission for Him.

First, the words Jesus spoke were formed out of His time alone with the Father in prayer. As we spend time alone with Jesus in solitude and silence, He continually molds and strengthens our public words. In the words of Dallas Willard, "silence provides us with a certain inner distance that gives us time to consider our words fully and the presence of mind to control what we say and when we say it."

Second, Jesus' works were a mirror image of what He saw the Father doing. In the same way, "it is God who is at work in [each of us], enabling [us] both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2‬:‭13‬ ‭NRSV) As we go about our day, the Holy Spirit is our guide, opening our eyes to where He is at work in the lives of the people around us.

Today, my hope for you is that you are beginning to see your unique role in bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth. As you spend time alone with Jesus in solitude, silence, and prayer, He molds your public words and actions so that you might "shine like stars" in the midst of a lost and dark world desperately in ‬‬need of the light of Christ (see Philippians 2:15).