Seeing the titles of my classes at the March 2009 Tulsa International Soul-Winning Workshop, a gracEmail subscriber requests some discussion here about "revolutionary" people, power and purpose.

The message concerning "revolutionary people" has two prongs. First, God intends for all believers, as individuals and together as the church, to play an integral personal part in his work of redeeming and transforming the world. Second, although our participation in God's agenda is "of the essence" of that agenda (in that sense, "essential" to it), it has nothing to do with our knowledge or practice of salesmanship, psychology, marketing or public relations. "Revolutionary people" are not people who are gifted at "selling Jesus." Indeed, Jesus and his gift of grace are not products to be sold.

The universe of marketing does not provide a model for authentic evangelism. Instead, the often-seamy sales world provides important warnings -- against improper motives of self-advancement and greed, and against unworthy methods of flattery, manipulation and deceit (1 Thes. 2:1-5; 2 Cor. 2:14-17). But while we are not God's "sales force," we are called to be his agents -- women and men who "work out" what God "works in" (literally "energizes") -- people through whose daily lives he brings to full flower his intent to redeem an innumerable company from among humankind (Phil. 2:12-13).

It is awesome to contemplate that God is present in our lives, and that he works through our daily circumstances and activities to achieve his saving purpose. Because God is energizing both our desires (the "willing") and also our implementing those desires (the "doing"), our lives constitute an arena of supernatural operation. The more aware we become that we are divine agents in God's saving agenda, the more we will develop a constant mindset of reverence and awe (Phil. 2:13). This expression, "reverence and awe" ("fear and trembling," KJV) occurs throughout both Old and New Testaments, where it always describes the attitude appropriate to those who discover themselves standing in the scene of divine activity.

Seeing the titles of my classes at the March 2009 Tulsa International Soul-Winning Workshop, a gracEmail subscriber requests some discussion here about "revolutionary" people, power and purpose.

Because God is pleased to accomplish his saving purposes through his people, we are to "work out" what he "works in" us, with reverence and awe that we are God's agents in this revolution against the kingdom of darkness. Our model is Christ Jesus, who humbled himself by becoming a man, whose obedience included accepting crucifixion, and whom the Father then exalted and glorified in heaven (Phil. 2:5-11). Now Paul calls believers to radical obedience as well (Phil. 2:12-13). This obedience results from having the mind-set of Christ (Phil. 2:5) and manifests itself in humble service in meeting the needs of others.

Such obedience attracts the positive attention of a surrounding world, which lives out from a different mind-set intent on producing self-serving results. Revolutionary people are thus attractively obedient. If someone protests that such a life is impossible for us, we agree, and remember that our assignment is only to "work out" what God "works in" (literally "energizes") us -- both in resolving and in performing what is good. Individual morality is an important element here -- we are to be "blameless" in a crooked and twisted world (Phil. 2: 14-16).

But so is our communal life as people of faith. Because the world is familiar with grumbling and disputing, what attracts its favorable attention are relationships where such conduct is conspicuously absent. A faith community like that is as noticeable as stars in a dark night sky! To have Christ's mind-set is to set one's mind on things above (Col. 3:1-4). We are to put to death destructive attitudes, words and conduct (Col. 3:5-8), replacing them with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience (Col. 3:9-15). Peter also notes that such lives, lived in such community, are not only observable but are attractively so (1 Pet. 2:11-12).

A gracEmail subscriber requests some discussion here about "revolutionary" people, power and purpose, the titles of my classes at the March 2009 Tulsa International Soul-Winning Workshop.

We began by noting that revolutionary people are believers who, both individually and as regional communities of faith, manifest attractively obedient lives before the watching world (Phil. 2; Col. 3; 1 Peter 2-3). Every other characteristic of revolutionary people that we will mention will presuppose this first reality. Unless the profession of those who claim to be Christ's people is confirmed by attractively obedient lives, their words are practically guaranteed to be wasted on the breeze.

However, with such lives, revolutionary people are also continually prayerful, as illustrated in our second key text. Paul twice makes the point. "Continue steadfastly in prayer," he instructs Colossian believers. They are also to pray for Paul, "that God may open to us a door for the word" (Col 4:2-4). The act of changing hearts requires revolutionary, supernatural power. But before God opens hearts to the message, he usually opens doors for the messenger. Each day we are to seek God's face, asking him for opportunities to speak to people who are ready to hear. We ask this for all God's people everywhere. The kingdom of God of which we are privileged to be a part is a worldwide enterprise that knows no earthly boundaries.

Those who are continually prayerful must also be constantly watchful. Having asked God to act, they wait expectantly for him to do so. "Continue steadfastly in prayer," the apostle urges, "being watchful in it with thanksgiving" (Col. 4:2-4). Having prayed, we look for an opportunity. We watch for a special moment, a "time," a (kairos -- a unique situation which God prepares for us to use for him (Col. 4:5-6). Paul urges believers to "make the most" or to "make the best use" of such occasions. Inside this verb is the Greek word for the marketplace. As God's agents, authenticated by obedience, continually praying and constantly watchful, we are now ready (like a skillful shopper) to utilize completely every opportunity which God prepares and places in our path.

A gracEmail subscriber requests some discussion here about "revolutionary" people, power and purpose, the titles of my classes at the March 2009 Tulsa International Soul-Winning Workshop.

As God's agents, believers are called to live seriously and reverently in this world, making decisions and carrying them out in the energy that God supplies. As they do this, both individually and as a community of faith, their unselfish and well-ordered lives become attractively obedient -- to God and to their fellow earthlings. Knowing that they are agents of God and not independent contractors, such believers are also continually prayerful to God who is at work in them. Then, having given themselves over to God's use, they are constantly watchful in order to detect his leading and to discern the opportunities that he sovereignly provides and intends to bless.

Their watchfulness is not wasted. Unbelievers touched by God eventually speak up. When this happens, God's agents are ready to be graciously responsive. Sometimes this means answering questions stimulated by the exemplary lives unbelievers have observed (Col. 4:6). At other times it means the believers are explaining their hope based on Christ which sustains them in this troubled world (1 Peter 3:15). Whatever the content and whatever the circumstances, they are always to speak graciously and with respect. Unbelievers do not yet know God's salvation, but they are nevertheless God's creation, bearing his image and whom he wishes to be saved.

Finally, God's agents, whose desires and deeds he energizes to accomplish his saving purpose, are wholly dependent on God (2 Cor. 4:7-10) . They are fragile clay pots, in whose care God has placed the gospel treasure. Because they depend on God and live from his strength, two things result. On the one hand, they personally are afflicted in every way, perplexed, persecuted, struck down -- indeed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus. On the other hand, they aret not crushed, not driven to despair, not forsaken, not destroyed -- and through their bodies the life of Jesus is manifested day by day.