My Dear Friend,

Has God called you to personally share the gospel in foreign fields? If so, go! And may God go with you!

If, however, a direct missionary call is not on your life, it does not mean you cannot help fulfill our three great commissions. You may still be Christ's Spirit-empowered witness (Acts 1:8), preach His gospel (Mark 16:15-20), and train disciples unto Him to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:18-20). How?

You can participate now, just as you are, just where you are, in two vital ways: intercession and financial donations.

Prayer in Jesus' name knows no geographical limits. In Jesus' day, supplicants often prayed to Jesus in one place and their needy friends were healed in another (John 4:52-53). This shows us that the intercession of any abiding believer can touch any mission station in any nation on any continent at any time about any need. Jesus promised, "If you remain in me and follow my teachings, you can ask anything you want, and it will be given you" (John 15:7, NCV). By doing so, we "produce much fruit and show that you are my followers" (John 15:8, NCV). Jesus added, this "brings glory to my Father." So, interceding for foreign missionaries, while we walk very closely with Jesus, is a geographically unlimited, abundantly fruitful, and God-honoring work - and you can pursue this vital, world-changing ministry anywhere. Including where you are now.

May I encourage you to prayerfully seek Christ to show you which missionaries and missionary projects He wants you to support? Then be very faithful to support them. Every day take Christ's yoke upon you and stand in the gap for those men and women by Holy Spirit intercession: asking the Holy Spirit's assistance, praying in the prayer language He has given you, and praying in your own language the petitions He brings to mind (Ephesians 6:18-19). Need a few sample petitions?

I suggest you ask the Father to: keep your missionaries very close to Him; open their minds to fully and deeply understand His Word; put Spirit-given, gripping, life-changing words in their mouths; protect them from ruthless and unrelenting enemies; guide them in all their labors; give them messages on the most timely biblical texts and topics; cause their messages and testimonies to draw people to Jesus; strengthen and comfort them as they endure their necessary sufferings for the gospel's sake; release the Holy Spirit's miraculous, compassionate power through their ministries to heal and deliver the afflicted (Acts 10:38); and cause all their kingdom labors to grow, thrive, and endure. But that's not all you can do.

Put your money where your mouth is. After you finish praying, get out your check book, or debit card, or that cash you have hidden away for a rainy day, and give generously to the missionaries for whom you are interceding. You need not only prayer but also financial resources to function in this world. So do they. So, provide practical as well as spiritual support.

To do so, you must learn to use your money wisely. Don't waste your limited funds on selfish or frivolous interests, or unnecessarily expensive purchases, and then have none left for God's missions. Frugal Christians make fruitful givers! Yes, I'm calling you to live simply, inexpensively, or even sacrificially. Why? Two reasons are apparent.

First, like your spirit, soul, and body, your money is not your own, but Christ's; the former things are bought by Him and the latter is provided by Him. Considering our souls and bodies, the apostle Paul taught: "Know ye not . . . Ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Concerning our material possessions, he taught God is our Source: "My God shall supply all your need" (Philippians 4:19). And whatever God provides, God owns. So, why does He give it to us?

He has appointed us as His trustees. We are called to manage His funds and supplies. Therefore, even though He "gives us richly [amply] all things to enjoy" (1 Timothy 6:17), we must not permit our selfish impulses to move us to misuse His finances only for our own desires. Instead, we should let the Holy Spirit's generous impulses have their way when they quietly stir in our hearts. If we do so, we will find ourselves increasing our giving to God's kingdom and decreasing our expenditures for our "kingdom," or sphere of self-centered interests and desires. John the Baptist exemplified this attitude, and encapsulated it in these words: "He [and His interests] must increase, but I [and my interests] must decrease" (John 3:30).

This charitable use of our God-given funds is more than an expression of God's love. It is an exercise of His Spirit's gift of "helps" (1 Corinthians 12:28). It is furthermore evidence that we are growing in the fear of the Lord, and wisdom, that we realize that, at the Judgment Seat of Christ, we will all individually give account of how we spent every dollar with which Christ trusted us.

Second, Christ is coming soon. Without trying to be an alarmist, it is nevertheless very true that the time remaining for us is growing shorter every day. It's time we get serious about completing our commissions. The world's human "fields" are white, ready to harvest. End-Times pressures are creating End-Times problems that are plowing End-Times hearts to receive the End-Times gospel and spark and sustain an End-Times awakening. As faithless leaders, unjust justice systems, dead religious institutions, psychotic gender theories, divisive racial lies, economic uncertainty, and wars and rumors of wars rip up the human race's prideful fallow ground, millions are thirsting and hungering for reality in every part of the globe. And Christ is the only God and Christianity the only religion that offers it - lasting reality, everlasting truth, the gospel! So, it is high time we reach out in every way we can to help Christ's foreign missionaries bring in His eternal harvest in every way they can.

And as we do so, in a very real sense, we are going with them, prayer by prayer, gift by gift. Wherever they go, we are helping them get there. Whatever they preach, we are helping them receive, prepare, and deliver the message they are preaching. Whatever good works they do, we are doing them alongside them. However many lost souls they turn to Christ, we are helping persuade and convert them. Whoever they deliver, we are standing by, agreeing, as their commands expel demons and free captives. Whoever they heal by the prayer of faith, our hands are also laid on them and prayers uttered over them. However many prodigals their preaching returns to the heavenly Father, we are there also, hastening them home. Wherever they minister to the wounded and broken, we are present also, pouring in the Spirit's wine and oil of restoration. And we have done all this without even boarding a plane!

Though wondrous, this is no mystery. It is just what Christ taught us. We are "entering into other men's labors," gathering fruit alongside them "unto life eternal," and will one day "rejoice together" when we see the eternal fruits of our joint labors, all fulfilling a vital part of completing our great commissions and constructing God's glorious kingdom (John 4:35-38). So, why are you sitting there, waiting?

The fields are "white already to harvest" (John 4:35). Today is a missionary moment. Your missionary moment. Don't miss the moment. Seize it!

Seizing the moment,

Dr. Greg Hinnant

GREG HINNANT MINISTRIES