Mission Critical
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
Matthew 10:5-8 (NIV)

In today’s times, how will oppressive forces be responded to? How do we change people, and how do we affect them so that they will see the value of surrendering to the coming of the kingdom of God? We do so by accepting a mission.

Jesus tells His disciples: Preach the message of the kingdom. Heal the sick. Raise the dead. And do these with devoted and obedient reliance on God for all your needs.

What do we do to change what appears to be the spiraling integrity of a culture?

Don’t begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don’t try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Instead, go to the lost, the confused, and the people right in your neighborhood and help them to understand Jesus first. And when you engage them, tell them the kingdom of God is here.

It starts with understanding who the Lord has made you to be. The Lord has made you more than a disciple. You, child of God, can’t spend your whole life as just a learner, but you must be empowered to also be a messenger.

We are to announce that the kingdom of God is near, and we are to make sure that God is in every conversation. Whatever else you talk about while engaging in conversation, it is your job to make sure that the conversation doesn’t end without Jesus coming up. Insert Jesus in there somewhere, because the only way you change culture is to restore Jesus’s supremacy in the culture, one conversation at a time.