God’s missionary call never takes a break or goes into retreat mode. To fulfill God’s Great Commission, we must continually live focused lives of prayer and obedience to God’s heavenly call found in Matthew 24:16-20:
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This command of Jesus Christ has been referred to as the Great Commission for centuries. Many believe it was 17th-century missionary Baron Justinian Von Welz who first coined the term. Researchers can’t find any record of the “Great Commission” used in reference to Jesus’s command for world evangelism before 1650. Baron Von Welz is possibly the first to use the term, but it was made famous by missionary Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor was a very fruitful missionary to China in the late 1800s. He was the founder of the China Inland Mission, and he and those he worked with took Jesus’s Great Commission seriously.
Hudson Taylor wrote, “The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed.” I believe that! Don’t you?
Unfortunately, according to a recent report published by Barna entitled “Translating the Great Commission,” only 17% of churchgoers had heard of the Great Commission and knew what the term meant. 51% said they have never heard the term. 25% said they have heard the term but were not sure what it meant. This is alarming to me and should be to you. Why? Because it shows that the Great Commission, including missions, is not high in priority in many churches, and reaching the unreached is not on their agenda or of minor importance.
With this in mind, the ambassadors of Christ who do embrace Jesus’ command to reach the whole world with the gospel play a sacred and strategic role. We must be all hands on deck at all times to accomplish what God desires. We see the signs of the times happening all around us, which should awaken us to God’s call for world evangelism, especially since there are an estimated 3.2 billion people who have yet to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. I say yet because many like you and us are determined to do our part to fulfill the Great Commission in our lifetime. With God, all things are possible! Amen!
Right now, there are so many needs in so many places. We get many requests for help from around the world and do what we can as God guides and provides. As the leader of this mission organization, I sit back frequently and pray, “Lord, help us do more.” At the same time, I thank the Lord for allowing us to do what we do each month in Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Peru, and Thailand.
I thank God over and over for those who faithfully help us reach this world through their prayers and donations. Because of you, and by God’s grace, every month, people hear the gospel for the first time, souls are saved, people are healed and set free from demonic oppression, the hungry are fed, orphans cared for, and pastors and their families receive support.
Praise God, Jesus’s message of salvation goes forward because of God’s people who have their spiritual eyes wide open, looking on the spiritual harvest fields. They see what God wants to do and do what God wants to do.
May God bless you for your faithfulness to His call!
Brian Weller
P.S. – Want to support our missions work? If so, click the green button below to find our four ways we can join arms in God’s harvest.
About the Writer
Brian Mark Weller is the founder of Message Ministries and a Christian teacher with a passion for world missions. Brian met the Lord in 1974 and entered public ministry soon after in 1976. In 1988, God gave Brian a special gift — a piercing burden for lost souls on the mission field. Since then, Brian has traveled the nations preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. He has recorded many albums of challenging Christian music and published one stirring book — Backsliding in Heart: 5 Steps to a Backsliding Heart and Back Again. He currently lives with his wife Anne in St. Petersburg, FL. He has three grown children and a growing pack of grandchildren. Click here to learn more about Brian, access his Bible teaching, or invite him to minister at an event.
