Foreign Missions and the Successful Christian Life

In order to have the most success in the Christian life, one must be interested in foreign missions. The last command of our Lord before leaving this earth was, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matthew 28:19, 20). Here is a command and a promise. It is one of the sweetest promises in the Bible.

The enjoyment of the promise is conditioned on obedience to the command. Our Lord commands all of His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. This command was not given to the apostles alone, but to every member of Christ's Church in all ages. If we go, then Christ will be with us even until the end of the age. If we do not go, we have no right to count on His companionship. Are you going? How can we go?

There are three ways we can go. We must employ at least two of these ways if we are to enjoy the wonderful privilege of daily personal companionship with Jesus Christ.

You may be God's Missionary

First, many of us can go personally. Many of us should go. God does not call each of us to go as foreign missionaries, but He does call many of us to go who are not responding to the call. Every Christian should offer himself for the foreign field and leave the responsibility of choosing or refusing him to the all-wise One, God Himself. No Christian has the right to stay home until he has offered himself definitely to God for the foreign field.

If you have not already done it, do it today. Spend time alone with God and say, "Heavenly Father, here I am, Your property, purchased by the precious blood of Jesus. I belong to You. If you want me in the foreign field, make it clear to me and I will go." Then keep watching for God's leading. God's leading is clear leading. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). If your are willing to be led, He will make His will for you clear as day.

Until He does make it obvious, do not worry that perhaps you are staying at home when you should go to the foreign field. If He wants you, He will make it clear in His own way and time.

If He does make it clear, then prepare to go step by step as He leads you. When His hour comes, go, no matter what it costs. If He does not make it clear that you should go yourself, stay home and do your duty at home. There are other important possibilities for you.

Go Through Your Gifts

We all can and should go to the foreign field with our gifts. There are many who would like to go to the foreign field personally, but whom God providentially prevents. These people are still going via the missionaries they support or help to support. It is possible for you to preach the gospel in the most remote corners of the earth by supporting or helping to support a foreign missionary or a native worker.

Many who read this book are financially able to support a foreign missionary. If you are able to do so, do it. If your are not able to support a foreign missionary, you may be able to support a native helper -- do it. You may be able to support one missionary in Japan, another in China, another in India, another in Africa, and another somewhere else -- do it.

Giving Is A Privilege

Oh! The joy of preaching the gospel in lands we will never see with our own eyes. How few in the Church today realize their privilege of preaching the gospel and saving men, women, and children in distant lands by sending substitute missionaries to them. That is, by sending someone who goes for you, where you cannot go yourself.

They could not go if it were not for your gifts. You may be able to give only a small amount to foreign missions, but every bit counts. Many insignificant streams together make a mighty river. If you cannot be a river, at least be a stream.

Learn to give largely. The generous giver is the happy Christian. "The liberal soul shall be made fat" (Proverbs 11:25). "He which soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully," and "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:6, 8, 9).

Generosity Equals Success

Success and growth in the Christian life depends on only a little more than liberal giving. The stingy Christian cannot be a growing Christian. It is wonderful how a Christian begins to grow when he begins to give. Power in prayer depends on liberal giving. One of the most wonderful statements about prayer and its answers is 1 John 3:22. John says, "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." He received because he kept God's commandments and did those things which pleased God.

The immediate context shows that the special commandments he was keeping were the commandments about giving. He tells us in the twenty-first verse that when our hearts cannot condemn us about stingy giving, then we can have confidence in our prayers to God.

God's answers to our prayers come in through the same door our gifts go out to others. Some of us open the door such a little bit by our small giving that God is not able to pass in to us any large answers to prayer. One of the most remarkable promises in the Bible is found in Philippians 4:19, "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." This promise , however, was made to believers who distinguish themselves by the size and frequency of their giving. (Refer to verses 14-18.)

Of course, we should not confine our giving to foreign missions. We should give to the work of the home church as well as rescue work in large cities. We should do good for all men as we have opportunity, especially to those who are fellow Christians. "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith" (Galatians 6:10). Foreign missions should receive a large part of our gifts.

Give systematically. Set aside a fixed proportion of all the money or goods you receive for Jesus. Be exact and honest about your giving. Don't use that part of your income for yourself under any circumstances.

The Christian is not under law, and there is no law binding the Christian to give a tenth of his income. But as a matter of free choice, a tenth is a good proportion to  begin with. Don't let it be less than a tenth. God required the tithe from the Israelites, and Christians should give the same or more than what God required in the law. After you have given your tenth, you will soon learn the joy of giving offerings over and above your tenth.

Participate Through Prayer

There is another way in which we can be a part of the foreign field. That is by our prayers. We can all go this way. Any hour of the day or night you can reach any corner of the earth by your prayers. I go to Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, India, Africa, and to other parts of the world every day by my prayers. Prayer really makes things happen.

Do not make prayer an excuse for not going personally if God asks you. And do not make prayer an excuse for small giving. There is no power in that kind of prayer. If you are ready to go yourself, God willing, and if you are actually going by your gifts as God gives you ability, then you can do dynamically with your prayers also.

Missionaries Need Prayer

The greatest need in the work of Jesus Christ today is prayer. The greatest need of foreign missions today is prayer. Foreign missions are successful, but they are not as successful as they could be. They could be more successful if Christians at home, as well as abroad, were living up to their full potential in prayer.

Be specific in your prayers for foreign missions. Pray first of all that God will send forth laborers into His harvest -- the right sort of laborers. There are many men and women in the foreign field who should not be there. There was not enough prayer about it. More foreign missionaries are greatly needed, but only more of the right kind of missionaries. Pray to God daily believing He will send forth laborers into His harvest field.

Pray for the laborers who are already in the field. No group of men and women need our prayers more than foreign missionaries. No group of men and women are objects of more bitter hatred from Satan than they. Satan delights in attacking the reputation and character of the brave men and women who are at the battlefront for Christ. No one is subjected to so many subtle and awful temptations as foreign missionaries.

We owe it to them to support them with our prayers. Do not merely pray for foreign missionaries in general. Have a few special missionaries whose work you study so that you can pray intelligently for them.

Pray for the native converts. We Christians at home think we have difficulties, trials, temptations, and persecutions, but the burdens we have are nothing to what the converts in heathen lands bear. The obstacles are often enormous and discouragements crushing. Christ alone can make them stand, but He works in answer to the prayers of His people.

Pray often, pray earnestly, pray intensely, and pray with faith for native converts. We learn from missionary literature how God has wonderfully answered prayer for native converts. It is best to be specific in your prayers for converts and have a specific geographic area about whose needs you keep yourself informed. Pray for the converts in that area. Do not have so many that you become confused and mechanical.

Pray for conversions in the foreign field. Pray for revivals in specific places. The last few years have been years of special prayer for special revival in foreign fields. From every corner of the earth news has come of how God is amazingly answering these prayers. But the great things that God is beginning to do are small in comparison with what He will do if there is more prayer.