Recently I left my office to invest myself in a couple of D.A.W.G’s. (Days Alone With God.) These seasons of fasting, solitude and reflection help me maintain spiritual equilibrium plus gain clarity in my person and ministry life. These days soften my heart and position me to hear when the King speaks. One practice I embraced in these days was to read old hymns and pray in response to their message. Orin Munger co-authored “The Vision.” (Hymns of Glorious Praise, 285) Gospel Publishing House released it five years after Munger died on the mission field as a 25 year old husband and dad. The second stanza gripped me. “All my life I’ve longed to catch a vision, That would lift me to the Christ of love; And I found it in the dying millions Reaching for the message from above.”
“Dying millions” have names like Sarah, Juan, Ali, Annie, Rosa. Some are displaced by earthquake devastation, others walk miles to find water which probably will not be safe but they must still drink it. Some live in sophisticated, urbane apartments, others in mud huts. Some farm with $500,000 equipment and others use stone age tools.
These “dying millions” live in Kansas, Africa, Haiti, Europe, Indonesia, my neighborhood and your town. They may not know they are “reaching for the message from above” but they are.
Giving them this Pentecostal gospel through methods and language they understand IS our mission. Local strategies differ but a local strategy is imperative. The Spirit is ready to act alongside us IF we will mobilize the people of God to act with His compassion and passion.
In one of his last letters home, Orin Munger told his family and friends, “It is not in great numbers of missionaries that the evangelism of the world lies, but in the intense glow with which the firebrands burn.”
“Holy Spirit, I agree with Your desire to reignite the intensity of your Flame with corresponding strategies for action in me and in every Pentecostal leader in the Assemblies of God, Kansas District. Please do this for the fame of YOUR name and the sake of the “dying millions.”
In Jesus’ name!
Posted on
Thursday, February 4, 2010
by Terry Yancey