WILLS POINT, TX – K P Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia (GFA World), which inspired numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, and Metropolitan of Believers Eastern Church, to assist the poor and deprived worldwide — shares on the suffering that the Body of Christ is subject to in the pursuit of living for Jesus, and how we need each other to help one another cross the finish line.

The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:12, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer” (emphasis mine). How do you take that kind of concept and translate it into the life of those of us in places where no one is beating us up or screaming at us or anything like that?

A More Subtle Form of Suffering

Let me ask you another question. It says in 1 Peter 2:21, “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow in His steps.” Is that only talking about His suffering on the cross? In that case, I must come to you and say, “Can you beat me up?” And then I will go and buy some lumber and make a cross and say, “Would you please nail me to the cross?”

No, that is obviously not what St. Peter meant.

I think the kind of suffering Peter was talking about was this: Jesus was God on earth. And He could have thought one thought and the whole earth would have gone up in smoke. And yet He was called a bastard. People basically said, “Who are You? You got a mother, but where is Your father? So, don’t try to be smart with us.”

And then, when He would do the best thing for people, they said, “Oh my goodness, here is a man working with the devil.” And then, with all these miracles He performed, the people who were intimate with Him, who saw Him day and night, they still didn’t understand Him. Then in the end He said, “You know, where is your faith? Don’t you see this?”

So, you see His suffering? It wasn’t just when He sent to the cross. It was being misunderstood; it was emotional pain; it was loneliness.

When we make the choice to live for the Lord, really take the hard road, try to be faithful to Him, decide to go against the current and stand for God, we will find that this is part of our struggle also. Cooperating with God means choosing the cross and the way of difficulties to continue the ministry of Christ. It means choosing to follow in His steps of suffering.

Think about the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians. He talks about being burdened down to the point that it felt like it was going to crush Him. I’m sure he dealt with fear and anxiety. If you look at those verses at the beginning of 2 Corinthians, it sounds like he was on the verge of mental breakdown; he just didn’t know how he was going to survive the next hour.

We can say all kinds of spiritual Christian things about suffering, but you know what? It isn’t easy! It’s hard, and our flesh hates it. And we can blame others or circumstances, and not realize we are dead center in the middle of a sermon illustration and at a choice in our hearts.

The first thing we need to do is to recognize what’s happening. If we really are in the midst of actively pursuing God and His purposes and our hearts are right, this is part of our choice to follow Him and to follow Him in His suffering. It’s not just something nice to say on Sunday, but it’s real life hardship. This kind of life is part of picking up our cross daily. It is never easy. But it is worth it.

We Need Each Other

The second thing we need to realize is that we are not alone. The enemy is so quick to tell us we are and that the whole world is against us. But we are not. We are a part of body of Christ, a body, that is all connected. A body that hurts when one of its members is hurting.

Yes, we keep on meditating on Jesus, and look unto Him. But we also need the people around us. A human touch of kindness that we can see with our eyes. The problem is that you and I don’t see Him. We want Jesus to talk to us and to figure out something from Him. But maybe He is not talking to us. He is not giving me a hug.

See, this is where we can become the Jesus for our brothers and sisters, I become the Jesus for my brothers and sisters. That is the reason Hebrews says, “Encourage one another as long as time remains.” This was written to people who were going through tremendous amount of suffering which included a huge amount of physical problems and rejection and loneliness and being isolated. They were being killed for their faith in Christ. Because of their desperate situation, they were told to: encourage one another while you can. Let this be for us today. The way you incarnate Christ now, so others can see and touch and feel and smell and taste, it is going to be through us.

I have a little poem that I wrote “You Be My Jesus.,” You can read it here. I wrote that poem after counseling someone. And in the end, this brother made this statement, “But I don’t find Him, I don’t know where He is.” I shared with him that I’ve been through this. “Don’t give up,” I said, “This is part of the journey of following in the footsteps of Christ. “ And I prayed with him.

So, who is here to help us all to continue the journey, when we face these kinds of difficulties?

It is the rest of those in the Body of Christ; it is the Church.

None of us will make it to the finish line on our own. As parts of the Body of Christ, we hold each other up. I need you and your prayers. And you need me and my prayers. We don’t have much time left. Let us in this time before us, lift up one another. Be hand of Jesus reaching out to the one beside you, and by the gift of prayer to the one across the world.

Ask God who He wants you to be Jesus to this week.

At the end of Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 1:9-11 he says: “you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.” We will make it in the end through each other.

WILLS POINT, TX – K P Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia (GFA World), whose heart to love and help the poor has inspired numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, and Metropolitan of Believers Eastern Church, to serve the deprived and downcast worldwide — shares about the decision we need to make between the easy road of comfort and the hard Calvary road of following after Jesus.

We live in a culture in which, unless we consciously and deliberately seek to swim against the current, we will hardly make it as followers of Christ . . . at least, not the Christ of the New Testament, who said, “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27).

The Church at large has adapted to the trends of the culture. Frequently the Christian message is presented in a way that caters to people’s perceived needs and their desire for an easier, better life. Man and his comfort have become the main focus, and God is obligated to meet these expectations.

This has created a generation of believers who know little or nothing of sacrifice, suffering and self-denial for the sake of Jesus. We have become conditioned to always seek for a soft cushion, at the least a thin one, if we are asked to sit on a hard bench. Even in ministry, we avoid difficult tasks or things that are foreign to us, and we question anything that demands physical and emotional discomfort or spiritual battles or that might tax us in any way.

This is in sharp contrast to Jesus, who rebuked Peter for counseling Him not to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die, and later for trying to rescue Him with his sword in Gethsemane. Commanding Peter to put his sword away, Jesus said, “Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?” (John 18:11). Jesus was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, and He came to suffer and die for our sins. Knowing His purpose and submitting to the Father’s will, He chose the hard road, the one that led to Calvary.

Examples for Us to Follow

Christ set an example for those who followed Him then and for all who want to follow Him now. He said, “Where I am, there My servant will be also” (John 12:26). You see, God is also asking us to do hard things. For example, Jesus made this statement, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).

God is telling us there is a choice left before us. We have to make a decision between the hard road on which God asks us to go or the easy road everyone else travels.

For Noah, preaching 120 years without results meant choosing the hard road year after year. Nehemiah, building the wall of Jerusalem, faced constant harassment by enemies from within and without. The easy road would have been to quit, to go back to Persia and live at the king’s palace in peace. But he chose the hard road because he was not seeking his own, but the things of God.

We cannot honestly, authentically, reasonably and deliberately serve our Lord without our willingness to accept difficulties and inconveniences—the hard road. We must follow in the footsteps of a Savior who didn’t hesitate to lay down His life for a dying world.

Amy Carmichael, an Irish pioneer missionary to India, wrote a poem that is actually a prayer. In it, she asks for nothing less than deliverance from her self-seeking nature so that she may serve Jesus freely and totally.

From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher,
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.

From subtle love of softened things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
(Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified)
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire;
Let me not sink to be a clod;
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.

If there is anything that is holding you back from giving your all to Jesus, following Him and choosing the hard road, you need to start calling out to the Lord for His help just as Amy Carmichael did. Freely give it to Him.

There are many who are in great need around the world. Consider doing something this Christmas beyond your own circle and sacrifice for someone in need. Look into GFA World’s Christmas Gift Catalog.

WILLS POINT, TX – K P Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia (GFA World), has been the model for numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, and Metropolitan of Believers Eastern Church, to help the poor and deprived worldwide — shares about the daily decisions we make, and the importance to consider the future by faith, in light of eternity.

Abraham had just heard God’s voice telling him to leave his country, his relatives and his father’s house and go to a land God would show him. How was Abraham going to make the right decision?

Logic told him to stay where he was and not listen to mysterious voices. Furthermore, for him to leave his relatives and father’s house would mean that he had no one to protect and rescue him should he get in serious trouble. Besides, it made no sense to trade his present affluence and comfortable lifestyle for a harsh, nomadic existence.

It’s amazing that in spite of all these reasons, Abraham still decided to walk away from everything he knew and follow God’s call to the Promised Land. What caused him to make the right decision?

It was the fact that he did not look to the present with all its comforts and benefits—but rather to the future and to the far greater blessings God promised him: “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great. . . . In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. . . All the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever” (Genesis 12:2–3, 13:15). What a statement!

We, too, make decisions every day: what college we should attend, whom we should marry, where we should live, how we should spend our funds and finances, how we should vote in government elections, what we should do with our time, what church we should be part of, in what way we should serve the Lord—and a thousand other choices. We can learn a vital lesson about making the right decisions from Abraham: The most significant element in making the right decision is considering not the present condition, but the future. In other words, what does our decision mean for the kingdom of God and in the light of eternity?

Making Eternal Choices

Although Abraham received God’s glorious promises for the future, some of these promises were still decades—and others, centuries—away from becoming reality. What did Abraham do in the meantime? He lived in anticipation of seeing these promises fulfilled, and he made his daily decisions by faith, in preparation for what he believed was going to happen in the future.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:8–10).

Abraham acted just like rice farmers in India, who right after the monsoon season prepare their paddy fields with their water buffaloes. Then they sow the seeds all over the field. They cannot see them, though, because the field is flooded. But if they just wait a few weeks, all the little green plants will come up; and if they wait a few more months, they will reap a rice harvest.

In ministry as well as in our personal life, even though we’ve planted the right crop, it doesn’t guarantee there won’t be trials along the way just because we are believers. Often when we encounter difficulties, inconvenience, pain and relationship problems, our immediate reaction is to second-guess the decisions we made. And if things don’t change in our favor soon, we walk away, telling ourselves that it must not have been God’s will after all.

Sticking with Our Decisions

Abraham was different. Although he encountered hardship, famine, enemies, war, personal failures, family problems, 25 years of waiting for a son and the Mount Moriah test in his Promised Land, he never reversed his decision and quit his life of faith. And what happened? God used each of these difficulties to teach him, change him and cause his faith to grow stronger.

If we determine to stick with the right decision regardless of the adversities we face, God will use each one of our trials for a greater purpose. Our character will become more Christlike, our faith will grow, and we will become more useful for God’s kingdom. My dear brothers and sisters, only eternity will prove and show what our life meant here on earth. When Abraham made his decision, I don’t think he had a comprehensive understanding of the significance of his choice. In fact, I think he was surprised when he went to heaven and learned the significance of his role in God’s purpose for the nation of Israel, for the coming of the Savior of the world and for us, the Bride of Christ.

WILLS POINT, TX – KP Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia (GFA World), which inspired numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, and Metropolitan of Believers Eastern Church—shares about the danger of losing our First Love, and the importance of searching our hearts for our reason for serving God.

Once I watched a program on which a reporter interviewed passersby on a busy city street, asking each one the same question: “How can someone get forgiveness of sin and receive salvation?” You wouldn’t believe the answers people gave just off the cuff. Most of them spoke totally out of their vivid imaginations.

The Bible has very definite and unchanging answers to these crucial issues. However, it seems people either don’t know the Word of God or they just prefer their own opinions on the subject. Likewise, millions of believers cling to their own ideas when it comes to serving the Lord and exercising faith.

But this is of huge consequence. God cannot bless us, change our circumstances, heal our bodies, fulfill His promises or put His stamp of approval on our service to Him until we align our thinking with His thinking.

We can mark it down—God will wait and work with us until we change and come to a place where we abandon our own ways of thinking and accept His. However, we can only accept His ways if we know what they are. It takes us deliberately seeking to search out and understand God’s heart through the passages we read in His Word.

The Church of Ephesus

Let’s look, for example, at the church of Ephesus in the book of Revelation.

On his second missionary journey, the Apostle Paul preached the Gospel in this city. Incredible miracles happened, and many were impacted. The believers in Ephesus were stood in the midst of severe persecution and became known for their great love for Jesus, their perseverance and their hard work.

By all New Testament standards, they were far ahead of most of us, especially in the areas of love, dedication and spiritual discernment.

But as time went by, they became cold in their hearts toward the Lord. And we read in Revelation 2:4–5 these frightening words of warning from the lips of Jesus, the Head of the Church: “I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”

If we are honest, it looks rather unfair to us that Jesus threatens to put the light out in this exemplary church. Why would He want to burn the whole barn down for one small rat? After all, this church in Ephesus had 99 things right and only one thing wrong.

The Reason Matters

What, then, is God’s real reason behind pronouncing such a severe judgment? God’s heart concerning work, sacrifice and service sharply differs from ours.

To God, everything we live, say or do as believers is valued by the underlying motive found in our hearts. When He looked upon the situation in Ephesus, He saw that the reason for their faithful service had changed. Their true motivation was no longer love, but duty. For them, the visible service had become most important, but for God, it was the internal condition that counted.

God saw an empty shell void of the wonderful life the church of Ephesus once had, and He was going to remove their lampstand. Yet in His mercy, He revealed to them His thoughts and showed them the way to recover their loss: Repent and do the first works.

Outwardly they didn’t have to change anything, for they had always practiced the first works. But inwardly they needed to give up their own ideas about what successful ministry was all about. They had to realize that it was not work and more work, but loving the Lord—and then serving Him motivated by this overflowing love in their hearts.

The Lord knows that we so easily impress ourselves by the outward appearance of our accomplishments for Him: the hours we spend in prayer, the knowledge we acquire about spiritual things, the donations we give for Christian causes, the position we hold in a church group or in a ministry and the number of people we teach.

Search Our Own Hearts

I believe the Lord wants us to examine closely the reason why we do all these wonderful things. After all, like the Ephesians, we also could end up building a structure made of wood, hay and stubble (see 1 Corinthians 3:10–15).

What, then, is the only safe measuring scale for our work for the Lord? It is finding God’s heart about our service for Him—as revealed in His Word. His thoughts should permeate every aspect of our lives. God does not want us just to change our behaviors, but our very being. As we change our heart to His, He will change our attitudes, our actions and our very lives. Our life will then bring forth lasting fruit.

Today, seek to know your Lord’s heart.

WILLS POINT, TX – Metropolitan KP Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia (GFA World), which has been the model for numerous charities like Gospel for Asia Canada, and Metropolitan of Believers Eastern Church—makes the statement that regardless of our circumstances we are free to make progress in our Christian walk.

I was stunned and amazed to no end when I received a 19-page letter a man wrote me with all kinds of allegations. He not only blamed me for all the mess he had made of his life, but he also pronounced severe judgment and terrible curses on me from God and the devil.

Never in my life had I received anything so full of poisonous hatred. The most incredible thing was that I had never met the man in my life. I had no clue of the situation to which he referred.

Because he had the audacity to make me responsible for all his tragedies and setbacks, I sat down to write him a fitting defense to his wild accusations. But just as I finished, I asked myself, “What am I doing?” I tore up my letter and threw it away.

Then I took a piece of paper and wrote him a one-sentence reply: “My dear brother, no one on earth can destroy you, not even God; only you can destroy yourself.”

You see, the man’s real problem was that he never searched his own heart for the root cause of his crisis. Instead, he believed that if I straightened up, his problem would go away, and he would be happy and successful in his endeavors.

Waiting for Others to Change Is a Trap

This man is certainly not alone in thinking he can blame people around him for his lack of success, peace, comfort, happiness or spirituality. That’s why a husband looks for his wife to change and a wife wants her husband to shape up.

Wanting to feel good and grow spiritually by changing everybody else becomes a vicious cycle. We are convinced that our progress depends on their compliance. We seldom stop and honestly look at ourselves. It is true that others can be a source of trials, disappointment and challenge, but we cannot blame them for our own lack of spiritual vitality. That’s a matter of our heart and not of outward circumstances.

In fact, throughout Christian history, those believers who went through immense trials, horrendous persecution and martyrdom were the very ones who carried the Christian faith forward. They gained their spiritual strength and endurance in the midst of adversity, and their faith was refined as gold through fire. In order to grow spiritually and become faithful until death, they did not depend on people around them to change. Even in chains, they were free to make progress in pursuing God.

The truth is that no one person can hinder our spiritual growth or destroy us if we walk with the Lord and put our faith in Him. He will be our shield and defender just as He promised.

Ultimately, I am the only one who can destroy me. By my own choice to reject Jesus as my Savior, I can spend eternity without Him. As a follower of Christ, if I violate God’s principles, I will bring destruction upon my marriage, my home, my work and myself. And if I don’t walk by faith according to the Scripture, I can prevent God from fulfilling His promises toward me.

The Choice Is Ours

How can we detect the real hindrance to our spiritual growth and remove it? The Apostle Paul advised the Corinthian Christians to examine and judge themselves (see 1 Corinthians 11:31–32). It starts with us being willing to be honest with ourselves. Instead of blaming others, we should search our own hearts when we find that we are not making progress in our Christian walk.

But it shouldn’t end there because “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind . . .” (Jeremiah 17:9–10). Our hearts can appear innocent to us so that we don’t suspect our troubles could be self-inflicted.

We must involve the Lord on this quest. We must be willing to be honest with ourselves and then invite God: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23–24). Only He can tell us the truth and help us see ourselves as we are. That’s why each of us needs to follow David’s example— coming in humility to the Lord and asking Him to perform the examination.

God was always faithful to point out a sin or a wrong attitude in David’s heart that compromised his relationship with God and hindered his spiritual progress. David responded by humbling himself, repenting and accepting God’s correction. It is the grace of God when He opens our eyes and shows us our true condition. And if we respond as David did, the hindrance that held us back will be gone, and we will be set free to make progress on our spiritual journey.

Lord, search our hearts and try us.

Read this article regarding the round table video discussion with KP Yohannan, Francis Chan and Hank Hannegraaff, cautioning the church from pointing fingers at one another.

Keep encouraged and get your regular dose of challenge through other articles on Patheos by KP Yohannan Metropolitan, or on his blog at kpyohannan.org.

You can learn more about K.P. Yohannan Metropolitan by clicking here.

About KP Yohannan

KP Yohannan, founder and director GFA World (Gospel for Asia) and Metropolitan of Believers Eastern Church, has written more than 250 books, including Revolution in World Missions, an international bestseller with more than 4 million copies in print. He and his wife, Gisela, have two grown children, Daniel and Sarah, who both serve the Lord with their families.

About Gospel for Asia

Gospel for Asia is a Christian-based charity serving the “least of these” in Asia since its beginning in 1979, often in places where no one else is serving. Gospel for Asia workers serve on the field as the hands and feet of Christ by ministering to people’s needs so they can understand the love of God for them for the first time. Gospel for Asia helps provide funds for dozens of projects, such as caring for poor children, slum dwellers and widows and orphans; providing clean water by funding wells; supporting medical missions; and meeting the needs of those in leprosy colonies.

Find out more about Gospel for Asia in the video “A Year in Review with K.P. Yohannan.”

Comment below what you learned through this article.

WILLS POINT, TX – K P Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada), Metropolitan of Believers Church, shares on the power of acting upon God’s Word, the Bible, whereby in engaging both the heart and mind, alongside prayer, that transformation comes reflecting Jesus in one’s life.

One of the last things Paul told Timothy was, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

What does it mean to correctly handle the word of truth? It is not just a matter of understanding Scripture, but also applying it. We must live our lives continually reading, thinking about and meditating on the Word of God. We must always give of our time and energy to study it and know what it says about the different aspects of life, learning how to live by it.

But in this we must be warned, carefully seeing to it that we do not fool ourselves by being only hearers of the Word and not doers, as James 1:22 warns us.

There are many believers and Bible students today studying all different facets of theology, but many are deceiving themselves because they are not acting upon the Word. You can study the Word of God for four hours every morning, but if you are not allowing the Spirit of God to use the Word to change and shape your heart, all study is useless.

The Spirit and the Word Working Together

Some Christian circles and churches emphasize the importance of the Spirit of God. Others place the emphasis on the Word of God. But it is both working together in our lives that cause good fruit to bear.

The Spirit of God must never be separated from the Word of God. If this happens, we can have a lot of head knowledge about the Bible, but our lives will bear no witness to its transforming power.

We Are Being Made Like Jesus

God did not give us the Bible to make us smart or so we could argue about it. The Word of God is powerful, and He gave us His Word to change our lives. When that happens—when it becomes part of our lives—then we are handling it correctly.

You see, along with spiritual disciplines like prayer, the Word of God is our contact with God the Father and His contact with us. As we study and live in it, it becomes a mirror for us to see the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit works inside us, taking the words, images, examples, commandments, exhortations, admonitions and warnings in God’s Word and by it transforms us into the image of Christ.

This is why Scripture tells us, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another” (Colossians 3:16). By it we gain the wisdom needed to carry out the ministry given to us by the Lord Jesus as we continue our journey of becoming more and more like Him.

Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). As we go forth in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, proclaiming His love to the world, it is important that we become like Jesus so we can do the ministry of Jesus. The Word of God is one of the tools the Holy Spirit uses to convert us from the inside out and to make us like Jesus.

When we follow this path—committing time to the Word, asking the Lord for His grace and allowing Him to change our lives—we can be sure that the good seed of God’s Word will produce a good crop within us.

You can learn more about K.P. Yohannan Metropolitan by clicking here.

KP Yohannan, founder and director of GFA World (Gospel for Asia), has written more than 200 books, including Revolution in World Missions, an international bestseller with more than 4 million copies in print. He and his wife, Gisela, have two grown children, Daniel and Sarah, who both serve the Lord with their families.

GFA World (Gospel for Asia) is a Texas-based charity that has been serving the “least of these” in Asia since its beginning in 1979, often in places where no one else is serving. GFA World national workers serve as the hands and feet of Christ by ministering to people’s needs so they can understand the love of God for them for the first time. Gospel for Asia is engaged in dozens of projects, such as caring for poor children, slum dwellers and widows and orphans; providing clean water by funding wells; supporting medical missions; and meeting the needs of those in leprosy colonies. Through GFA World’s Bridge of Hope Program, tens of thousands of children are being rescued from the generational curses of poverty and hopelessness.

Find out more about Gospel for Asia in the video “A Year in Review with K.P. Yohannan.”

WILLS POINT, TX – K.P. Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) shares on the difference the power of prayer makes, bringing the encouraging challenge to not grow weary or lose heart in persevering prayer.

Paul, in his first letter to Thessalonica, tells us “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). My friend, every prayer you utter makes a difference greater than you may ever realize on this side of eternity. God has given us a very powerful gift that we can use for good.

If you’ve never read Paul Billheimer’s book Destined for the Throne, may I recommend it to you? In it, he talks about how vital prayer is in God’s movement in people’s lives. For every person whose life is touched, first there was someone praying. For every move of God in the Church, people were praying. For every person who comes to know Jesus’ love, someone was interceding. For every Christian who remains faithful, someone has been faithful in prayer. For each prodigal son who has been found, prayer was instrumental. For every life changed, prayer plays a crucial part. It is a great mystery, and I do not have all the answers, but I know prayer is vital to the life of the Church.

We don’t always have the ability here on earth to see with our physical eyes the result of our prayers. Yet, we can faithfully pray and stand firm in the faith, standing in the gap on behalf of people you read about in some of my blogs. As we pray for workers in Asia distributing COVID relief, we strengthen them to help people in need with basic items and enable them to show love and compassion like Christ. As we pray for our government officials and honor them, we are a part of God’s work through them and His blessing on them. Years of faithful prayer can impact the world in ways way may never be able to understand. People are touched, communities blessed, and like dominoes falling, we may never truly understand the impact here on earth.

The reason why I’m saying all this is because sometimes we pray in church, we pray with a friend, in our cars or closets; in a prayer group or with our spouses or children at home and we think: “What is God doing? What is happening?” We can become discouraged when we don’t see any answers. The Enemy can tempt us to quit praying, making us doubt that God hears our prayers.

But our prayers are making a difference! You may not see it today. You may not realize it tomorrow, but our prayers are being heard. The impact of our prayers is great. Do not grow weary in well-doing! Do not lose heart! The end of time is drawing near, but God’s power will not be curtailed.

I think the only time when we are going to see the complete result of our lives here on earth is going to be when we see the Lord. Then we will know that it’s all been worth it.

Now as never before is the time to pray, to pray for our nations, our government leaders and to walk by faith and see lives changed.

Share your prayer of faith in the comments section below.

KP Yohannan, founder and director of GFA World (Gospel for Asia), has written more than 200 books, including Revolution in World Missions, an international bestseller with more than 4 million copies in print. He and his wife, Gisela, have two grown children, Daniel and Sarah, who both serve the Lord with their families.

GFA World (Gospel for Asia) is a Texas-based charity that has been serving the “least of these” in Asia since its beginning in 1979, often in places where no one else is serving. GFA World national workers serve as the hands and feet of Christ by ministering to people’s needs so they can understand the love of God for them for the first time. Gospel for Asia is engaged in dozens of projects, such as caring for poor children, slum dwellers and widows and orphans; providing clean water by funding wells; supporting medical missions; and meeting the needs of those in leprosy colonies. Through GFA World’s Bridge of Hope Program, tens of thousands of children are being rescued from the generational curses of poverty and hopelessness.

Find out more about Gospel for Asia in the video “A Year in Review with K.P. Yohannan.”

WILLS POINT, TX – K.P. Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) shares on the one concern and spiritual motivation we need to be able to stand firm when trials come — to be approved by Him, to please Him, to belong to Him.

As human beings, we cannot survive any commitment for long without motivation, whether that motivation is godly or self-centered.

Self-centered (horizontal) motivation can be money, power, appreciation—anything that gratifies us—and it can have a spiritual side, too. We may do wonderful things for the kingdom because we want to look good, or because we feel guilty if we do not do this or that or because we got charged emotionally from some challenge we heard from the pulpit. It is easy to fall into the trap of horizontal motivation—our motives may be impure, but we think to ourselves, Who knows? And does it really matter?

It does matter when we convey the outward appearance of holiness without the inward foundation. This type of motivation will not sustain us long. It takes only a few people, a few challenging circumstances or an unfavorable environment to cause us to fizzle out in our activity for the kingdom. We can muster up only so much strength from the inside.

We need continuous input. The physical life, in which we must have food and water to survive, illustrates what is needed in the inner man as well. We need motivation that is objective—from the Lord.

What Keeps Us Going

The life of the Apostle Paul is the story of any “normal” Christian. He crafted tents with his hands, making his living like anyone else. But every tent he made, every trip he made to the market, every voyage he took in a ship, was simply a bridge to his real goal in life: to rescue the perishing.

What kept him going when he was misunderstood and forsaken by those around him? When he was left to die after being stoned? When he was shipwrecked? When he was treated as a criminal and thrown in jail?

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:14 that “Christ’s love compels us.” The Amplified Version uses the words controls and urges and impels. Paul was not moved to live as he lived by any factor other than his relationship with the Lord. He was motivated to do everything he did for one reason: Jesus.

God said to Ananias regarding Paul, “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:16). Later Paul himself, in his letter to the Philippians, wrote, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Paul could live like this and endure hardships because of one thing: He lived constantly for the approval of his Master.

Hebrews 12:3 admonishes us to “consider him [Jesus] who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Unmovable

We as people experience all kinds of hurt, whether through personal problems or situations imposed on us. Our own sins may hurt us, our expectations may not be met, other people may fail us or harsh circumstances may bear down on us. There are many reasons we experience sorrow, pain, agony, self-pity, discouragement, disillusionment, mental breakdown, even suicide.

If you want to stand firm when trials come, not be moved by circumstances, not waver in your faith—then know that you cannot even begin to do it in your own strength. If the people of God are to stand firm and even survive in the days to come, we must relinquish to Jesus our lives and all that they mean.

As you walk through life, every emotion you feel and every circumstance you face will be secondary when your only concern is to be His—to be approved by Him, to please Him, to belong to Him. All that you are and do must be centered around Him and His purposes.

Check out these videos about what the Lord did through GFA World in 2019.

KP Yohannan, founder and director of GFA World (Gospel for Asia), has written more than 200 books, including Revolution in World Missions, an international bestseller with more than 4 million copies in print. He and his wife, Gisela, have two grown children, Daniel and Sarah, who both serve the Lord with their families.

GFA World (Gospel for Asia) has been serving the “least of these” in Asia since its beginning in 1979, often in places where no one else is serving. GFA World national workers serve as the hands and feet of Christ by ministering to people’s needs so they can understand the love of God for them for the first time. GFA World is engaged in dozens of projects, such as caring for poor children, slum dwellers and widows and orphans; providing clean water by funding wells; supporting medical missions; and meeting the needs of those in leprosy colonies. Through GFA World’s Bridge of Hope Program, tens of thousands of children are being rescued from the generational curses of poverty and hopelessness.

WILLS POINT, TX – K.P. Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) shares on God looking for those willing to live according to what they know, committed to a heavenly kingdom, who come to Him with and despite their inadequacies and weaknesses.

My son, Daniel, has always been fascinated with how things work. One of his favorite things to do is to take something apart and tinker with it. He is always inventing, or reinventing, some little gadget. One of his attempts as a young boy was to reinvent firecrackers. He would break the heads off some matches, roll them up in paper and light them, hoping for an explosion.

I never did see one of those “firecrackers” actually explode. On the outside each one looked like a firecracker, but it did not act like one because what Daniel rolled up lacked the explosive charge of a true firecracker.

Living Out the Implications

When we know about the Good News but we do not give ourselves to its life-changing implications and the power of the Holy Spirit—it is like Daniel’s firecrackers. It does no good for us to look good on the outside but lack true power within.

The Bible is full of illustrations of two groups of people—those who know the truth and say, “Lord, Lord,” but who demonstrate by their very lives that they do not really mean it; and those who say, “Lord, Lord,” and follow His footsteps. The second group are the people who have counted the cost, who look straight at the cross and gladly accept the inconveniences, pain and price they must pay to follow the Lord.

We read about these people of faith in Hebrews 11. Their faith cost them everything but they changed the course of their generation. C.S. Lewis wrote in The Screwtape Letters, “Active habits are strengthened by repetition but passive ones are weakened. The more often [a man] feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.”

How true this is! God’s Word says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22).

A.W. Tozer wrote in his book The Root of the Righteous:

“Many of us Christians have become extremely skillful in arranging our lives so as to admit the truth of Christianity without being embarrassed by its implications. . . . Christians habitually weep and pray over beautiful truth, only to draw back from that same truth when it comes to the difficult job of putting it in practice.”

When we receive the Scriptures with willing, open hearts, the reality of the Good News will penetrate our very lives and break them open, energizing our eyes, our ears, our hands, our legs—every part of us. And when this happens, we become vessels in the Lord’s hands, pouring out our prayers, finances, reputation, lifestyle—and ultimately our very lives.

He Uses “Nobodies”

In my own life I have seen time and again how God uses willing “nobodies” for His purposes and empowers them to answer His call. Sometimes I feel insecure. At other times I feel overwhelmed with all that I know needs to be done. Again and again I struggle and fail.

Where do I go when this happens? To the cross! How many times? Many times a day, if needed. The cross is the place where I can go and say, “Lord, I am Yours, along with all my weaknesses. But Your grace alone is what I need to serve You.”

Perhaps you feel you are useless to the Lord, that you are not good enough, or that you have already wasted your life. But you are still in His hand. Don’t you know that every day with Jesus is a new beginning? The Lord never condemns you or says, “Sorry, you didn’t make it.” His mercies, He tells us, are new every morning (see Lamentations 3:22–23).

The Lord does not ask you to be a success or a superstar. In fact, if you truly desire to live your life unto the Lord, give your weaknesses to God so He can use you. All He requires is a weak, brokenhearted child who will surrender at the foot of the cross.

Look at Gideon’s life. The army of the Midianites had invaded Israel and were plundering everything in sight. We are told that “Midian . . . impoverished the Israelites” (Judges 6:6). Gideon was threshing his wheat in a winepress to hide it from the army when an angel suddenly appeared to him. Did the angel say, “You scared rat, you good-for-nothing runaway”? No, he told Gideon, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior” (verse 12). In God, Gideon was strong. How? “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6; see Joel 3:10).

Let Us Live for Him

Some time ago, I saw a painting that brought tears to my eyes. It was a nighttime scene with a little boy asleep in his bed. He was clutching his teddy bear as he slept peacefully. And there beside the bed was his father, kneeling and praying for him.

As I looked at that picture, I thought of the many times I have knelt beside my son’s bed and prayed, “O God, let him live for You.”

God is calling all of us to live for Him, to pour ourselves out for others. Live your life with the same heartfelt urgency the father in the picture felt for his son.

God is not looking for strong, rich, confident people who look like they have it all together. He is looking for those willing to live according to what they know, committed to a heavenly kingdom, who come to Him with their inadequacies and weaknesses, ready to be filled with His power and live with heartfelt urgency to change the world. He is looking for you.

Do you have a favorite example from Scripture of someone whom God empowered to live for Him? Share in the comment section below!

KP Yohannan, founder and director of GFA World (Gospel for Asia), has written more than 200 books, including Revolution in World Missions, an international bestseller with more than 4 million copies in print. He and his wife, Gisela, have two grown children, Daniel and Sarah, who both serve the Lord with their families.

GFA World has been serving the “least of these” in Asia since its beginning in 1979, often in places where no one else is serving. GFA World national workers serve as the hands and feet of Christ by ministering to people’s needs so they can understand the love of God for them for the first time. GFA World is engaged in dozens of projects, such as caring for poor children, slum dwellers and widows and orphans; providing clean water by funding wells; supporting medical missions; and meeting the needs of those in leprosy colonies. Through GFA World’s Bridge of Hope Program, tens of thousands of children are being rescued from the generational curses of poverty and hopelessness.