"Do the Stuff"

from Jeff

"Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." Matthew 10:8

Do you ever wonder what Jesus would teach you to do if he was walking around today? Would he train you to attend church, go to meetings, or be a generally good person? What about his original disciples? He trained and told them to do things. He told them to make disciples of all nations, heal the sick, to cast out demons. But, was he serious? I mean, do you think he would train you to do the same today?

During the trip we started using the phrase "do the stuff." This phrase referred to what we did, and now what we believe all Christians should expect more often to do.

"The stuff" is what Jesus told us to do. The stuff Jesus did. Heal the sick. Cast out demons. Encourage. Preach the good news. Make disciples.

So often on mission trips (not to mention in "Christian life" period) we don't really "do the stuff" Jesus told us to do. We do A LOT of other stuff - stuff like meetings, Bible studies, going to church functions, reading books, talking a lot. But, when do we get to "do the stuff?"

John Wimber, the found of the Vineyard movement, once asked some Christians the basic question, "when do we get to do the stuff?" You see, he believed that Jesus empowered everyone to do what he did. Ministry is not for the well trained. It's for everyone. We are all ministers. We are all priests.

Some will say, "but that's not my gift." Here's another point Wimber made - gifts are not "owned", but rather exercised. We tend to think that people are given gifts and they have that gift all the time even if they never use it. But, we all know that situations can bring forth gifts we never knew we had. We must be pushed outside our comfort zones to see this.

This trip challenged us. We were out of our comfort zones. People flocked for prayer. We had to be ready at any moment. And, they weren't just asking for prayer for their aunt or grandma. This wasn't some prayer time to open or close a service. I can do that. They wanted healing for themselves, right then and there. They wanted to be filled with the Spirit. They wanted God's blessings to fall on them and they expected that we could somehow pray powerfully for them.

We had to remind ourselves that really, we don't "do the stuff". Jesus does. Even so, the Christian life was never meant to be dull. It was meant to have power. It was meant to have life. There are things Jesus told us to do that we rarely if ever actually do.

You get to do the stuff. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine following Jesus and one day he says, go do what I did? He doesn't look at you and say, "get to Church on Sunday, don't miss your small group Bible study, and do good things." No, he says, heal the sick, cast out demons, encourage, preach the good news, make disciples of all nations.

So, by all means, let's do the stuff. Jesus was serious.