Sent Ones

Awhile back I started to think about how important a true sending of God is. Though we are already equipped to go, maybe the idea of being sent speaks more about unique and specific sendings. It could be that God’s intention is not always about us going and initiating but sending what is resonating.

My own observation is that many Christians are trying to fulfill the Great Commission in their own strength. It makes for religion and redundancy.This may be in part why Jesus said to pray that the Lord of the harvest would “send forth laborers into His harvest”. Spirit-empowered sending, the kind that “came upon” the book of Acts church, does not find its origins in a law-based, guilt-driven evangelism. No! Going forth is compelled by a kind of apostolic necessity in the inner man. No wonder the apostles said in Acts 4:20, “But we cannot help telling (we cannot keep quiet about) what we have seen and heard”. When our spirit is quickened and yearns to move out in expression and demonstration of the grace of God, the result is a testimony that inherently contains and spontaneously creates living faith in the hearer. This is the sort of message that comes from a sent one, led by the Spirit. (Acts 8:29, Romans 10:14,15)

So, do we sit around in inactivity “behind closed doors” until heaven comes knocking? No. In Acts 4:29-31 we see there is a ministry before the Lord, receiving from Him that which will insure much sending. Emboldened by God, we are filled with such life that the Lord must advance it out to overflow onto others. It is said that the early apostles flooded Jerusalem with their message (Acts 5:28).

I believe there is coming a greater esteem for the phenomenon of God’s sending. Where we realize the church and the world not only need to be assisted but also “turned upside down” by the reality of God released through sent ones. (Acts 17:6) There is, in the the sending of God, an apostolic distinction that continues to identify one of the church’s essential characteristics from the beginning.

In God’s sending, He imparts to us a love and a fearlessness to face people who may be intrinsically hostile, bound up, or indifferent to our message. (Phil.1:28-30 Amp) The way of entrance into hearts is the way of being sent: having been with Jesus, bearing a sent word, coming out from His presence. As Jesus said, “He who sent Me is with Me…”.