How Big Is Your Vision?
by Luis Palau
Have you ever tasted a nice, cool, refreshing Coke?
Congratulations! So have hundreds of millions of other people all
around the world. And it's all Robert Woodruff's fault.
Well, not all his fault. But he's largely to blame.
You see, Woodruff, while president of Coca-Cola, had the audacity to
state during World War II that "We will see that every man in uniform
gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents wherever he is and whatever
it costs."
When the war ended, he went on to say that in his lifetime he wanted
everyone in the world to have a taste of Coca-Cola. Talk about
vision!
With careful planning and a lot of persistence, Woodruff and his
colleagues reached their generation around the globe for Coke.
Say, how big is your vision? Have you ever thought about what God
could do through you to influence our own generation?
I'm not kidding. Neither was the Lord Jesus Christ kidding when He
called His disciples to gain a vision of impacting the world for His
name.
The Twelve (minus Judas) listened intently as Christ sought to
prepare them for His imminent betrayal and subsequent death.
"No matter what happens," He told them, "believe in Me. I am the Way
and the Truth and the Life. I am in the Father and He is in Me. We
work in unity. If you can't believe My words alone, at least believe
Me because of the miracles you have seen."
Then the Lord startled the apostles by saying:
I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have
been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am
going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so
that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask Me for
anything in My name, and I will do it. If you love Me, you will obey
what I command (John 14:12-15).
Don't underestimate those words. Read them again. Here in capsule
form Christ challenges His disciples--and that now includes you and
me--to dream great dreams, plan great plans, pray great prayers, and
obey His great commands.
Dreaming Great Dreams
In the disciples' minds, time was fast running out. For more than
three years they had hoped that Christ would be the one who would
redeem Israel and reign as Messiah. But now He was saying that one
of them would betray Him and deliver Him up to the Jewish leaders to
be crucified.
They couldn't accept what He was telling them. "I will be with you
only a little longer.... I am going to the Father.... I am leaving
you."
Everything within them screamed, "No! This can't be true!"
So imagine what the Twelve thought when Christ went on to promise, "I
tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have
been doing" (John 14:12a).
Around the upper room table sat Peter, who had almost drowned trying
to walk on water. And Philip, who waved his arms in exclamation when
stating the impossibility of buying enough bread to feed the
multitude. And Andrew, who with a number of the other disciples
could not even heal a boy who was demon-possessed.
To each disciple Christ said, "You can continue the work I have been
doing." And His promise is the same to you and me. He calls us to
dream great dreams of what we can do to impact the world for His
glory. How is this possible? The key is two-fold.
First, because Christ was going to the Father, He assured the
disciples that He would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to
indwell all believers. Christ would now continue His work through
us!
Second, Christ qualified His promise with a condition. Notice that
He said, "Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing."
The Lord challenges us to have faith--not necessarily more faith,
but to have faith in Him. It is an on-going faith.
Renewing Your Vision
Have you stopped seeing great things happen in your life? Perhaps you
have stopped believing that God can work in a mighty way in our
generation. But what limits the work of God here on earth?
Is God somehow incapable of renewing the churches in America? Of
turning the hearts of multiplied thousands to Himself? Of causing
the fires of revival to spread throughout this country and beyond?
Of course not! Yet God has chosen to limit His works, at least in
some measure, to those things we trust Him to do through us.
Why is it that so few Christians ever accomplish great things for
Christ? I believe it is because we lose the ability to dream great
dreams. You see it happening all the time.
New believers are notorious for their enthusiasm and almost childlike
trust in God. Accounts of such heroes of faith as Hudson Taylor,
Corrie ten Boom, and Dawson Trotman inspire them to step out and
attempt what others consider presumptuous.
But as time goes by, hardening of the spiritual arteries sets in and
we become cynical. We lose the joy and thrill of the Christian life.
We hear of something wonderful happening and say, "Oh?" as if it
were nothing. How nonchalant we become about God's work around the
world!
In order for God to use us again, we need to confess our unbelief and
say: "Lord Jesus, renew my vision of Your power. Renew my confidence
in Your abilities. Renew my trust in Your resources." Then begin to
dream again!
Christ Himself never limited His disciples' vision. Even though He
restricted His own public ministry to Palestine, He came and lived
and died for all mankind. And after His resurrection, He
commissioned His followers to "make disciples of all nations"
(Matthew 28:19) and sent them first to Jerusalem, then to all Judea
and Samaria, and ultimately to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
But the early church did what we all do--they hesitated to dream
about what God wanted to do in their own generation. It finally took
the stoning of Stephen and subsequent conversion of Saul to shake
them out of their complacency.
While other believers scattered throughout Palestine, the Apostle
Paul took Christ's great commission seriously and devoted the latter
half of his life to traveling and proclaiming the Gospel to the
Gentiles.
In Romans 15 Paul records a summary of his first missionary journey.
He had already given detailed oral reports to the church in Antioch
(see Acts 14:27) and to the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:12). But here
he simply states, "From Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I
have fully proclaimed the Gospel of Christ" (Romans 15:19).
Now, the distance from Jerusalem to Illyricum is some 750 miles over
land. Yet Paul could look back on that trip and say, "Mission
accomplished. I have fully proclaimed the Gospel in that entire
area." Paul didn't stop, however, and assume there wasn't anything
left to do. Instead, he was already dreaming of the mission fields
beyond.
Impacting OurGeneration
Where have your own dreams stopped? Have they been lost somewhere
between your living room and the house next door? If your dreams
aren't greater than finishing your education, paying your bills, or
raising your children, then your vision isn't divine. Maybe it's
time to consider how God could use you to make a difference in the
lives of others.
Opportunities to serve Christ abound throughout the world. Let me
take you on a quick tour.
In Asia, religions such as Buddhism, Islam, and other traditional
beliefs flourish. Missions experts estimate that only a small
percentage of the Asian population could be called Christian. The
Church there faces many obstacles and needs our help and
encouragement.
In Latin America, traditional religion has flourished for centuries.
In recent years, many Latin Americans have come to know Jesus Christ
personally after hearing the Gospel proclaimed in mass crusades and
broadcasts by radio and television.
During the last couple of decades I have been thrilled to see the
tremendous growth of the evangelical church in Central and South
America. I strongly believe that several nations could become 51
percent born-again believers within 10 or 15 years.
In Africa, Christianity is growing at an incredible speed. Mission
strategists say that some 16,400 people are committing their lives to
Christ throughout this continent each day! The fields are ready for
harvest, but Bible teachers are needed to teach these Africans about
their new-found faith and how to share it with still others.
In Europe, secularism and humanism prevail. The very nations that
once sent missionaries throughout the world are now vast mission
fields.
A BBC newsman in London once asked me why I was wasting my time
trying to preach the Gospel in a "post-Christian" society. "Aren't
you just flogging a dead horse?" he wondered out loud.
"There is no such thing as a `post-Christian' society," I replied.
"One generation may reject the Gospel for itself, but it can't reject
it for future generations. And furthermore," I gladly added, "Jesus
Christ specializes in raising the dead."
The Church in North America has been assisted by the growth of
evangelical movements, Bible colleges, and Christian broadcasting.
But we are still in danger of losing the vision that sparked this
growth. If we drop the baton the previous generation entrusted to
us, then we could become another spiritually dry Europe.
So the opportunities are great throughout the globe. But how can we
impact our generation for Christ? Is it really possible to "preach
the Gospel to all nations"?
I believe it is possible by taking God at His word and making plans
to accomplish great things by His power working in us.
Plan Great Plans
Do you have dreams and plans of what God might do through your life?
Or are you just busy with life's routine, ordinary tasks? Have you
become bored--or boring?
The Lord Jesus Christ challenges us to abandon our complacency when
He says, "You can do even greater things than I have done through my
Spirit who indwells you." He doesn't intend for us to sir idly by
and simply dream of what could happen for His glory. He wants us to
plan great plans so that those dreams can come true.
William Carey upset the status quo of the church in his day when he
proposed sending missionaries from Britain to evangelize other parts
of the world. Older Christians told him to give up his preposterous
ideas. Carey countered their boredom and doubt by writing, "Expect
great things from God, attempt great things for God."
That statement became the creed of the modern missions movement as
men and women followed Carey's example and went to the ends of the
earth with the saving message of Christ's Gospel. Like Carey, God
wants us to attempt great things for Him to reach our generation.
Over the years, God has stretched my own vision. At first, God
burdened by heart for the city of Cordoba where I lived as a young
man, then neighboring areas, then all of Argentina. Finally I dreamed
of preaching the Gospel throughout all of Latin America.
But God wasn't through with me yet. Today, in faith, my co-workers
and I want to let the whole world hear the voice of God. With that
dream, we are planning massive crusades, multiplied by radio and
television, to reach large segments of the world's population. And
by God's grace, as partners in evangelism with other Christians and
their churches and organizations, we are seeing hundreds of thousands
of lives changed.
What about you? Are you expecting great things from God? Or are you
letting the opportunities pass you by? If it's true that the Lord
wants the Gospel preached worldwide, than we can't remain passive.
Whatever our gifts or abilities or resources, we need to work
together as faithful stewards of what God has bestowed on us.
Dream a little. Envision the 4 billion people who have not accepted
the Gospel in this generation. Many have never even heard it
explained to them. What are you going to do about it?
Start doing something by making specific plans of action. Determine
how God could use you to share Christ at work, at school, in your
neighborhood--and beyond. Remember, God wants to use you. Let Him!
Are you willing to gain a vision of what God could do through you to
win others to Himself? After all, God doesn't have a Plan A, a Plan
B, and a Plan C for evangelizing the world. He only has one
plan--and that's you and me.