Great Commission Strategy

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matt 5:16

The light we shine is the good works that we do.  Good deeds can actually cause people to praise/worship God in heaven.  Good deeds, deeds done in the natural can point people to a supernatural God.  Good deeds are also salt that preserves the culture here.

Good deeds cause you to shine like a city on a hill.  No matter how hard you try.  People can’t miss you.  Why?  Cause you’re doing good!

The word works, especially in John’s writings, refers to the miracle working power of Jesus.  One of the other ways you shine your light is to do the works of Jesus which are miracles, signs & wonders.

So how do you go about obeying this command?  Leave a comment below letting me know.  I’d love to hear what you have to say about letting your light shine.

Action Point:

For me obeying this command and teaching others to obey this command is pretty simple.  Do good things!  And teach others to do good things!

I remember hearing Dr.Laura on the radio say “Now go do the right thing.”

She summed it up.  Do the right thing.  Do good things to people and it will be a sign of the goodness of God and it will drive them to praise God in heaven!

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  Matt 5:12

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. Luke 6:23

The last Beattitude that Jesus gives us is “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  Then he says we’re blessed when people insult us and falsely say all kinds of things against us because of Him.

And he then follows it up with this command.  Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!  Why?  Because your reward is great in heaven.

This is tough for me to do cause I personally don’t like being insulted and I really really don’t like people saying false things about me.   But by saying that I’m proving that I’m looking at the wrong person.  Look at that sentence again and notice how many times I use the word “me” or “I”  The point of life isn’t “Me/I”  it’s him!

We are called to rejoice in the midst of persecution because our reward is in heaven.  That’s our focus!  What heaven thinks about me trumps what anyone else thinks about me on this planet!

So how do you obey this command on a practical basis?  I have a couple opinions but I’d love to hear yours!  Leave a comment below and share with me how you go about rejoicing in the midst of persecution.

So on a scale of 1-10 (1 being never, and 10 being all the time) how well do you obey this command?

Action Points:

So how do I go about rejoicing in the midst of persecution?

Like I said I’m not that great at this one but when I do succeed this is what I do.

There’s 3 things that effect your state.  Rejoicing is actually a state.  Those 3 things are:

• Focus
• Self Talk
• Physiology

If you’re focusing on you and them insulting you, you’re self talk will be something like “how dare they say that to me!  Do they know who I am?!”  And then your body will reflect the resentment & bitterness that is going on inside of you.  And you then reflect that bitter angry state.

So how do you rejoice in that situation?  You change at least 1 of those 3 things!  If you can change all 3 that’s even better.

Next time someone is persecuting you, just try putting on a huge smile and see what happens to your state.

Or take your thoughts captive and tell yourself “Jesus loves me no matter what these people are saying about me.  He thinks I’m the best!”

This is how I go about rejoicing in the midst of a bad situation.

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Matt 4:17

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1:15

One of the first commands of Jesus is to repent. Now I know that when most people think about the word repent they think of asking forgiveness for their sins. That’s not repentance. That is the result of repentance.

The word repent actually means to change the way you think.

So what is Jesus saying in these two verses? He is saying to change the way you think, why? Because God’s reality, his rule, is right in front of you and if you don’t change the way you think. You’re going to miss it!

Another guy who did a lot of writing in the first century also used the phrase “Repent & Believe.” His name was Josephus. When he used that phrase he was saying “give up your way of doing things and take up mine.”

So if Jesus is using this phrase in the same way he is saying to give up your way of doing things, give up your ideas of what God’s Kingdom is going to look like, and take up my way of doing things.

I guess you could summarize this command like this “Start thinking and acting the way Jesus did and does!”

So how do you actually do this?

I have a couple opinions but I would love to hear how you would go about doing this. So please leave a comment below telling me how you go about changing the way you think and act!

To start thinking the way Jesus thinks we need to immerse our minds in his ways and his acts. In the Old Testament God gave the Israelites specific keys to remembering hundreds of laws. He had them put his law on their doorposts, talk about it all the time, teach it to their children, etc.

So here’s the key to changing the way you think. If Jesus says something about you, or tells you to do something, even if you don’t understand it. Do it!

Then talk about it to your friends. And teach it to your children. It’s amazing how much you learn when you have to actually teach someone what you believe.

On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being I never try to change my thinking and 10 being I immerse my thinking in the ways and acts of Jesus constantly.) rate yourself on How you are actually obeying this command.

Then think about how you might actually teach another person, business, government, nation how to obey this command. Why? Because the Great Commission says to make disciples of nations by teaching them to obey what he has commanded us.

Many Blessings in your journey!

One day Loren Cunnigham (YWAM) was is Colorado with his family on vacation.  He got word from Bill Bright (Campus Crusade) that he was also in Colorado.  So they made an appointment to have lunch the next day.

That night Loren got a word from God to share with Bill when they were eating.  God told him that there were 7 Spheres of influence, of 7 mind molders, in society.  If you want to influence a nation.  You have to take these 7 mind molders because whoever influences these 7 will influence the culture and whoever takes the culture will take the harvest!

Needless to say Loren was pretty excited to share this work with Bill the next day.

When they sat down to eat lunch, Loren said to Bill “I have a word for you” and to his surprise Bill said “I have a word for you too!”  They both pulled out the paper, or napkin, or whatever it was they wrote the word on.  And guess what?!  They both had the same thing written down!

God told them the same 7 things that influence culture which influence the nations. And since Jesus told us to “Make Disciples of All Nations”  this is the strategy for today to accomplish this command.

The 7 Mind Molders are:

• Religion
• Government & Law
• Arts & Entertainment
• Education
• Business
• Media
• Family

These 7 Culture molders influence the thoughts & values of any culture anywhere on earth!

For us to truly finish the great commission we need to find which sphere God is calling us to influence, invade that sphere & demonstrate God’s excellence, to release his commands in that sphere and therefore to represent God’s Kingdom there!

Have an opinion on how to do this?  Leave a comment below!