Daily Encouragementنموونە

The ideal fulfilment of the Great Commission involves the Spirit of the Lord, the Church and the missionary. In the church at Antioch we have a classic example of this combination.

The whole operation is initiated and directed by the Holy Spirit. He makes known to the church his will that certain individuals are to be set apart for missionary service. He calls the individuals concerned to the work he has appointed for them. The church and the workers are of “one mind.”

The church is sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s direction in fulfilling its missionary responsibility. Its first concern is worship. It submits to “the Lord of the harvest” and looks to him for the workers. It does not seek its own and then ask his blessing upon them. It prays for labourers with an earnest heart, as the reference to “fasting” indicates. The church gladly sets apart those whom the Lord calls, even when he calls their best men!

The missionaries respond to the call of God and submit to be set apart by the church. The setting apart is twofold.

It is firstly for the Lord - “set apart for me,” and secondly “for the work.” There is a priority here in which the missionary finds his strength and which he forgets at his peril.