A is for ACCELERATE

One more day without access to the gospel is one day too many. We play our part, following the Spirit's leading, to speed the fulfillment of His promise of blessing for all peoples.

It's been over 2,000 years since Jesus gave us the Great Commission and there are still over 7,000+ people groups who have yet to receive a culturally relevant witness in their language. We could call this the greatest injustice.

A natural response to injustice is to get upset and indignant. Sometimes getting upset is the right response. One more day without the Gospel, is one day too many, and we need to feel strongly about that. A righteous response to injustice can appear intense or extreme. Jesus drove out the money lenders from the temple; Phineas took extreme measures against corruption; Nehemiah was not gentle with the leaders of the people.

Yet when our first reaction is to fly into a frenzy of zealous activity and to rack our brains for better strategies, we are more likely to give ourselves spiritual hernias (or maybe actual ones) than we are to change things. When much of our talk is about how hard mission is, how hard it is to get people to care about the unreached, how hard it is to find provision for our ministries, we know something's missing.

Our heart's desire—to see Jesus high and lifted up among the nations—is right. But our heart's positioning needs to be right, too.

Ironically, to accelerate things, we must slow down. That's because mission is ultimately God's work. No matter how big the task, He is the one who does the heavy lifting; He is the one who brings acceleration. He does so not by accelerating tasks but by accelerating us.

He doesn't focus on tasks the way we do; He focuses on hearts. This is why He told His disciples in Acts 1:8 to wait. God tells us to wait so that our "first inclinations" can die. Our fleshly cleverness and indignation can die, and something new can be born in its place. This is the place where mental belief becomes heart belief—in the face of challenge, trial and uncertainty.

We learn to wait on God and to wait with one another. We rediscover our God who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. We are strengthened in the knowledge that He himself is setting a feasting table before all nations and will remove the shroud that covers the peoples (Isaiah 25). We begin to forget our lists of unreached peoples and get an inkling of His glorious dreams of a body of followers, lovers, friends who stand in the full and glorious stature of His Son.

We at Frontier Ventures often emphasize the importance of skill and passion in Kingdom work, which is important. Yet those who would join the Father in His mission need to first come to the end of themselves so that His work can truly begin. He grips our hearts not only with vision and excitement for a task, but also a vision for how we as a body come together to love Him and be loved by Him. This equips us to truly love one another and love the peoples of the world (John 13:34-35). Holy Spirit acceleration is about first love that compels us to give first fruits.

Of course, we can accelerate things; we do it every day. We learn productivity techniques; we find a better route to the grocery store; we create bullet trains and maglev technology. The world now moves at the speed of social media; stories and YouTube videos "go viral." The world's operating system has sped up, and so should we in many ways. We should be innovative, in our own right, in order to be good stewards who bring a return.

But we cannot afford to neglect the deeper acceleration that only God can do. He is drawing us to himself that His body might be built up into the full stature of Christ across denominational, organizational and cultural lines. His heart is to add to us everything we need to follow and obey Him. In His presence, we will look and sound and smell like Him.

This kind of change comes from deep fellowship with Him and with one another, united under a common purpose. He is preparing new wine skins to contain the new work He wants to pour out on the nations to accomplish His dream: to gather the family of God together in worship and shalom. Our part is to believe in Him and respond to Him who is always at work in us and among the nations.

May the Lord of the Harvest accelerate His work in the world through His people!

This post was written by Jonathan Pon, Creative Director at Frontier Ventures.

Click HERE to read the Introduction to the A-Z of Frontier Mission.