Living Missionally is for Everyone

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” -- Acts 1:8 (ESV)

I love missionary stories, especially those that focus on self-sacrifice, daring journeys, and bold faith. The more well-known stories tell of missionaries who took the Gospel to foreign lands. People like Hudson Taylor (China), David Livingstone (Africa), and Amy Carmichael (India). Personally, I’m grateful for Harvey Hoekstra who took the Gospel to the jungles of Ethiopia where my adopted children were born. (Read From Knotted Strings to Talking Bibles.) And I’m challenged by Darlene Diebler Rose’s story of serving God as a prisoner of war in a Japanese camp in what is now known as Papua New Guinea. (Read Evidence Not Seen.)

These brave Christians fulfilled Jesus’s prophecy in Acts 1:8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” To the disciples, “Jerusalem” was home; “Judea” was the neighboring country; “Samaria” was a foreign land filled with outcasts of mixed Jewish heritage; and “the end of the earth” was beyond the edges of the map—areas left for explorers to discover. In effect, Jesus was telling the disciples to share the Gospel with all people regardless of their background or location.

Do you dismiss the command to take the Gospel to all peoples because God has not called you to foreign missions or vocational ministry? Think again! God uses every kind of person in every kind of place to share His Gospel to every kind of people.

I think of the pastors who serve Arab immigrants in our city, of my godmother who was a missionary kid in China and somehow weaves the Gospel into every conversation with Chinese people in her Pacific Northwest hometown, and of the young woman who disciples high school grads at a Gap Year Bible school in Colorado. These are everyday people fulfilling God’s Acts 1:8 prophecy because the power of the Holy Spirit enables them to do it.

We can share the Gospel when we rely on the Holy Spirit’s power—wherever, whenever, and to whomever.

We don’t have to fly into an African jungle to share the Gospel, though some might. We can share the Good News with an overwhelmed mama beneath the playground jungle gym. (Much better than chatting about the expense of diapers!) Start a conversation with the soccer mom sweating it out beside you on the turf through another long practice. Or invite the missionaries on furlough to share how the Gospel is being spread in Papua New Guinea through helicopters and native speaking translators—then share that story with others!

Living missionally is for everyone. Praise God we all can be on mission through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Questions for Reflection:

1. Do you consider yourself a missionary of the Gospel of Christ?

2. How would relying on the Holy Spirit’s power change your feelings about sharing the Gospel in any situation?