Vancouver, Washington
Sunday, January 16, 2011
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On Day Seven of Fasting I Have a Dream
Our
home church is seven days into a corporate 21 days of prayer and
fasting. In fact, I have heard that thousands of churches are doing this
nationwide as well. Different people are fasting from different things
at our church. I have chosen to fast from solid food. Early this
morning, on day seven, I had a dream that I know was from God. Here's
the dream:
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I
was standing on a dusty road, similar to roads I have been on in my
travels as a missionary. In front of me was a big school bus. The bus
was filled with people from different nations. I recognized people from
Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. They all spoke different
languages and each of them had a specific number on them, ranging from
the teens to the thousands. I immediately knew in my dream that each
person in this bus represented an unreached people group. I also somehow
knew that the reason so many people were sitting in the bus was because
of partnerships between churches and different missions organizations
that had been made, specifically I recognized a partnership between IRIS
Ministries and YWAM, but I knew there were many other partnerships.
There was one window of the bus that was open and I was conversing with
two children that were from Latin America. I was so happy because we
were taking this bus load of once unreached people "home" to heaven. All
of the sudden a voice from outside the bus said to me, "Don't bother
with learning their languages. These people aren't important." Then the
bus began driving itself the wrong way down the dusty road. One by one,
the people inside the bus began dying and disappearing. I raced after
the bus and was shouting, "No! No! No!"
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I
then woke up from the dream and realized I really was shouting out
loud, "No! No! No!" Right away I recognized this as a divine dream. Some
of it was self-explanatory. Other parts of it I wanted to ask God for
the interpretation. When I finally got up to really start my morning, I
spent time praying and reading God's Word, asking the Lord about the
meaning of the dream. The first place I opened to in the Bible was 1
Peter 2:9-12.
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1
Peter 2:9 starts out by saying, "But you are a chosen generation." I
knew right away that God was giving me insight into the dream. I have
always believed that there was a special calling on the current
generations of Christ-followers, which we are all a part of, specific to
the fulfillment of the Great Commission to "Go and make disciples of
every nation." I have more recently believed that we could be the
generation that sees every nation (people group, language group) reached
by the gospel of Christ in our lifetime. Statistically, of the 16,597
distinct people groups in the world, 6,916 of them, or 41.7% are
unreached by the gospel of Christ. They have never even heard the name
of Jesus. Verse 9 goes on to say, "(You are) a royal priesthood." Very
simply, the responsibility of priests were to take the hand of God, and
the hand of people, and join them together. This is our responsibility
as Christ-followers. to bring people to God through His Son Jesus.
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1
Peter 2:11 says, "Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims,
abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul." This speaks to
me in two ways: (1) As Christ-followers we are all sojourners and
pilgrims in this life. Heaven is our home. We are just passing through.
Yet so often we can get hung up with the material things of this world
that hold us back from truly being able to really "go and make
disciples." Often we build homes or buy houses with money we don't have
and stake our claims. Many times we incur financial debt that renders us
unable to have much time for anything other than paying that debt off.
How many people have authentically been called to take the gospel to the
ends of the earth, yet are unable to do so because of indebtedness? I'm
not trying to make anyone angry. I'm just asking a question. I know of
many would-be missionaries that this has happened to. I'm not saying
that owning a home is wrong. Nor am I saying that everyone should be
some kind of wandering gypsy. I believe that most Christ-followers
probably ARE called to take root and grow right where they are planted.
God began to reveal to me that the bus full of unreached people groups
were perishing in part because of people that ARE called to the ends of
the earth (either be going, giving or praying) have become choked out by
the cares of this world and are unable to fulfill their calling. (2)
Fasting is really starving the flesh and "abstaining from lusts which
war against the soul." through this fast, as well as others, I have been
able to quiet my flesh enough to hear what the Spirit is saying more
clearly.
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1
Peter 2:12 reads, "having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles (or
nations), that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by
your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of
visitation." Simply put, as we shine the light of Christ in this world,
loving God and loving people, preaching the gospel in word and deed, ALL
nations will glorify God. Jesus died so that EVERYONE can receive
eternal, abundant life through faith in Him.
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Tomorrow
is the day in America where we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s
birthday. He stood for equality of all people and especially that every
person, no matter what color their skin is, would have a chance to
experience freedom. I, also, have a dream, that these thousands of
unreached people worldwide who don't even have a chance at spiritual
freedom apart from Jesus Christ, would be given a chance at the same the
spiritual freedom that many of us Christ-followers enjoy. I know that
it was just a dream that I had. And I have never believed to have
received a word from God for the Body of Christ worldwide in my entire
life. But I really believe that God's heart beats strong that these
6,916 unreached people groups have an opportunity to hear and respond to
the gospel, that they might "glorify God in the day of visitation," and
that He is calling His Bride, the Church to take the stand to see that
these people have the same opportunity of salvation that we have.
Imagine if it were YOU that was born in India or Africa, and you were
just waiting for someone to come share the good news of hope in Christ
with you. Thousands of these people are dying daily only to spend an
eternity separated from God in hell simply because no one has come to
share the gospel with them. We were made for such a time as this! Rise
up, Church! It is truly a GREAT commission we have been given by Jesus,
but He has given us the ability in our generation to see it fulfilled!
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Christian Young
Portland, Oregon
