Impossible Mission

What hope is there for this world? Ask your average “Man on the Street” – Christian or non – what hope there is for the world and you’ll get answers like:

• “Things just keep getting worse and worse.”
• “Mankind will eventually destroy itself.”
• “Our best days are behind us.”
• “Many have tried and failed to make a difference.”
• “The devil is just too powerful.”

If we looked around and took our cue from what we can see, we would come to the same conclusion. It is natural to be pessimistic. Cynicism grows on the wounds of life. But we choose differently. We believe that the Golden Age is still in our future. When the church wakes up and does what she was created to do, this world will become transformed and enter a spring time of blessings that will touch all nations and all people. This we believe. This drives us. This keeps us going.

Where do these convictions, so uncommon in our day, come from? Here are a couple of thoughts.

1) We live by faith

God is invisible. We can’t physically see him. Often his work is also invisible, behind the scenes, in the shadows, and in secret. When things look the darkest, God has not forsaken us. He’s still at work.

We believe that God has been working behind the scenes to prepare the city of Vancouver for a great spiritual renewal that will touch the entire world. This is why he called us here.

2) We live by hope.

Hope, along with faith and love, are three things that will remain. Hope offers us the constant sense that the best days are ahead. We do not hope because of what we see, we hope because we trust that God is the God of tomorrow. We believe that the future will be better than the past, because our God is a God of hope. We expect him to show these things to us on the earth so we can know of it’s reality eternally.

Hope is what will be our greatest joy in heaven. No matter how long we are in heaven – we will know that far better things are ahead of us, for we believe in a God of hope. Like little children awaiting Christmas morning, we’ll have trouble sleeping every day in heaven – because our God is the God of hope.

3) Revival is coming

Many Christian leaders who study the history of spiritual renewal in the church say that the earth is ripe for a time of spiritual transformation. The results of this will be akin to the Reformation, the Renaissance, or the Great Spiritual Awakenings of the past, producing moral, cultural, and spiritual renewal.

4) Courage requires optimism.

People accomplish great things in life because they believe that the object of their dreams is attainable. The same goes for Christians. When, within the very core of our being, we are convinced that revival is not only possible but also coming – and yet somehow dependent upon our very work – we will work hard with all our hearts.

However, if in the pit of our stomach we think that all is lost and things will just continue to get worse, the devil has already won, then why should we even bother trying? Pessimist about the future breeds despair and kills passion and Godly ambition.

5) We create the future.

We believe that the future is not set in stone. Our behavior makes a big difference in what will happen. According the examples found in the Bible, a people’s future is not predetermination or fated but dependent on the behavior of the people.

The city of Nineveh provides a vivid example. God sent his prophet Jonah to that city with a prophecy that condemned the city to certain and absolute destruction in 40 days. There was no ambiguity or conditions on God’s statement. There was no way they could get out of it. God did not say, “This city will be destroyed unless you repent.” His word was final and total. But the people of that great city decided to fast and pray for mercy. God looked down, saw their changed hearts, and recanted of his judgment. You might say he “changed his mind.”

The stories in the Bible are there for our instructions. We can learn about God’s nature and how the world works by studying these stories. The story of Jonah, and many others like it, illustrate that we create our own destiny. Nothing is set in stone.

6) Our presence in the world is an act of mercy

After God condemned Nineveh in the heavenly court, he sent Jonah to visit. Jonah was an unwilling prophet but God insisted that he got to the focal point of terror of the ancient world. God did this because he did not want to destroy Nineveh . God wanted the Assyrians to hear the message and to change so that He could change his judgment. The presence of Jonah in the wicked city was evidence of the desire of God to bless.

Similarly, when God came to the earth with judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah, he came first to Abraham. This man of faith prayed 6 times for God to stay his judgment. God came to Abraham because God wanted to spare these cities. Unfortunately, Abraham did not pray enough.

In our day, God has placed the church in the world as an act of mercy. As long as we are here, here is hope for God’s mercy – even if judgment is called for – because we know how to pray, we know God’s nature, we know what to do.

7) God has given us a great vision of hope

Here is a piece of the testimony from John Martens, the founder of The Connection.

Years ago, while living in Manitoba, Canada, God was working powerfully in my life. You might say I was undergoing a time of personal renewal. I would pray for 3 hours everyday and each weekend I’d fast and worship. (During this time I was also studying toward a PhD in physics!) Nearly every day I would spend time in worship and singing. I found a joy and selflessness in worship that I had never known in life. And for the first time in my life, I absolutely KNEW that God was real. I knew it not by head knowledge alone, but by personal experience.

During these times my heart also changed. I felt a brokenness for the hungry, the wounded, and the hurting, I cried for those who did not know Jesus. I could not imagine anyone going to hell because they had never had a chance to fully understand the love of God. I prayed with deepest despair for the world. I told God that I could not live if the world could not be reached. If God did not give me a chance to reach the world for him, I did not even want to go to heaven. Heaven would not be heaven for me if people from all over the world were not there as well.

This went on for months … years. Through this time God spoke to me. Not in words but in a compelling and long lasting impressions that broke my heart and changed my life forever. Here is the impression – as much as I can put it into words:

The world can be reached if we do 3 things:

• Renew the church
• Redeem the media
• Use the resources of North America

So there I was … a physics student, with few other skills, faced with an impossible challenge.

8) We are small

We believe that we can do great things for God, because we realize that we are not especially gifted, powerful or skilled. That is true of our entire team here at The Connection. It would be just like God to do incredible things through people who are very ordinary. This way God gets the glory not us.

9) God has already used us

God has already done some pretty astonishing things right here in Maple Ridge through our very small and ordinary team. Just scan around this web site to see. You must remember that the things that have been done so far have been done with very little time, energy or resources. Somehow God made it happen.

These great things that “we” have accomplished should stand out like a 90 ft tall Neon sign that says, “GOD AT WORK!” What we have done in the past is indisputable DNA evidence that God wants to do much greater things in the future. God is poised and ready to act. He just wants us to get involved.

10) We are used to doing impossible things

John … Tiffany … Kyle … the people that God has been bringing to The Connection seem to each have a special trait: they have been in the habit of tackling seemingly impossible tasks and getting them done. Like John says, “The only talent I have is that I don’t know when to quit. I guess I just wear the devil down.”

Here are a few examples from John’s life.

• He finished a PhD in physics. During this 10 year journey, he often wanted to quit but didn’t.
• While studying physics John wrote several screenplays without instructions or training. For that matter, he hardly knew how to spell. John had not learned English until he was in Grade 4. Writing screenplays also looked impossible and was beyond his abilities. But he finished.
• Later, while living in Indiana , John dug a crawl space by hand. John & Tiffany had bought an older house that later developed bad plumbing problems. John dug out the entire crawl space starting with a flower spade and a single bucket. The access to the crawl space was so small that the buckets of dirt had to be passed through a 1 foot by 2 foot hole one at a time!! Then he had to learn plumbing, electrical and many other skills in order to finish the house.

Over his life John has been faced with many such tasks that seemed impossible to him at the time. Maybe God was preparing him for the task at hand.

Kyle could share similarly incredible things. While still in High School he produced an entire season of a Christian sitcom. He learned everything without any training. He gathered all the volunteers and workers himself. Maybe this is why Kyle was brought to work at The Connection. And maybe this is the type of person that will be attracted to our vision.

11) We finally understand spiritual power

Of course, we can’t change the world by man’s power alone. The Bible says that we are fighting a spiritual battle. That means we need to use spiritual weapons. But what are these weapons?

When John & Tiffany first sensed God calling them to Vancouver , they knew this would be a difficult experience. They knew that the devil would stand in their way every step of the way. So John spent many years researching how one gets access to as much of God’s power as possible.

The conclusion of his study was simple:

1/ God wants to work in this world.

2/ God works through the Church.

3/ God’s power is limited only by our obedience.

So what is it that we must do to maximize God’s power in our lives? Of course, we must pray. There are also various other things. Each of these 8 “steps” or “elements” is crucial to allowing God to work in our world.

 At The Connection we will constantly reference these elements of Spiritual Power. Our first movie, The Scarf, offers illustrations about several of these elements. The study course on the Occult presents some basic insight into many of these. We are also preparing a more detailed Bible study on Spiritual Power.

We believe that one of the most important contributions that The Connection will make to the worldwide body of Christ will be teaching churches how to become all they can be and have God working through them as powerfully as possible.

For the first time in history we have had a coherent understand into spiritual power. When the church applies this knowledge she will become much more affective in combating evil. She will be able to achieve what previously seemed impossible.

12) God’s wants his Kingdom to come!

John teaches that there are 2 basic types of prayers: “Please Prayers” and “Kingdom Prayers.” A please prayer is one for our own comfort, ease or blessings. We should still pray those prayers but we should always make sure we add, “but your will be done.” This is what Jesus did when he asked God if he had to go to the cross.

The second type of prayer is Kingdom Prayers. These are items that we know are God’s will. We need to study Scripture to see where God’s heart is. If we know something is God’s will we can pray with perseverance – and we should not take “No” for an answer. We know God wants this to happen. We do not need to add, “If you will.” Our job is to pray.

This is where spiritual power comes in. The church knows that reaching the world is God’s will. He said so. He also does not want anyone to go to hell. God calls us to pray and do everything we can (see spiritual power) to achieve God’s will on the earth.

Jesus gave the distinct impression that he wanted his kingdom to grow and become dominant in the world. The only thing that stands in the way is the obedience of the church. (See Scriptures.)

13) The Devil can be defeated

Better said, the devil has already been defeated. When Jesus gave his life on the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world, He also redeemed us from Satan’s power and dominion over us. The Devil has no more rights. He is a usurper. He is a rogue. Our task is to let the church be the church and take the authority we have in Christ.

(See Scriptures.)

Conclusion

We hope that these points give you new conviction to march forward with courage and achieve all that God wants you to do. It is time for Christians everywhere to say, “Mission Impossible? Bring it on!!”