Every Place you set your foot

Pioneering Every Place

“I will give you every place where you set your foot” Joshua 1:3

Why is it that, with a promise like this for us to claim, the Church still stays in its own comfortable sanctuary? I suppose it should be prefixed by, “If you allow me to direct your footsteps, then I will give you every place where you set your foot.” Nevertheless, why is it that the Church has remained so resolutely and stubbornly within the safety of its own four walls? 

The Great Commission tells us to “GO . . . . . “ so why on earth do we stay?  Luke 10:1  tells us that “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.”

This is basic stuff. The Church, over the years, has changed it to “Come – all are welcome – but come to us”. Rather than going and seeking the lost, the Church still says words to the effect of, “If you are lost, we are here to help you find your way.” How will a man know he is lost unless someone seeks him,  finds him, and tells him? How will a man know he needs to hear about Jesus unless someone tells him? How will a despairing man know where to look for respite unless someone seeks him,  finds him, and tells him?

“Go, seek, find, tell, and every place you set your foot” – sounds like a call to pioneers to me.

The church has always sent out missionaries to do this kind of work. Church people have always sighed a huge sigh of relief that ‘someone else’ is doing the missionary work. Then, to give him his due, he has dug deep and supported such people. Times are changing though, and our church has been discussing a new sign to go over the exit door of our church – “You are now entering your mission field.”

It has been truthfully said that, in any church, 20% of the people do 90% of the work. I would love to tell you that things are changing. Sadly, they are not, BUT I believe they are about to change. I believe there is a coming move of the Holy Spirit that will change those who allow it into mission churches and pioneering churches. Churches who really do believe that as they leave the building, they are entering their corporate and personal mission fields.

In Isaiah 6:8-10 we have what I believe the Lord is saying to the Church today. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Will you be a pioneer for the Lord in these coming days? Will you ‘GO’ rather than stay? Will you heed His call? Will you “Go, seek, find, tell, and every place you set your foot . . . . ”??

Your mission field is not inside the Church. Your mission field is out there, where the rubber hits the road, where life meets reality, where lost souls wonder what it’s all about. Go seek them, find them, and tell them.

Just do it.