Process and Event (4)

Welcome to the PMF Workshop for September, 2022. I’m your host, T. M. Moore. Each month we provide teaching, encouragement, activities, and resources to help you in working your Personal Mission Field so that you can become more consistent and effective in realizing the presence, promise, and power of God’s Kingdom in your daily life.

This month’s Workshop is the fourth of a multi-part workshop entitled, “Process and Event.” This is Part 4, “Take a Stand!” Our text for this month’s workshop is Daniel 3.16-18:

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”

Keep the process going
We’re making the point, in this series of workshops, that evangelism is a process. It takes time, effort, prayer, and the willingness to wait on the Lord to work with whatever seeds of the Gospel we might be able to sow. Salvation is an event, but that event is not in our hands. It’s the Lord’s work. For our part, we’re interested in watching the process that leads to that event as it is at work in the life of King Nebuchadnezzar, who went from being an enemy of God to a joyful evangelist of His greatness. We’re trying to discover how that came about, and we see that God had placed Nebuchadnezzar in the Personal Mission Fields of four faithful servants – Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. These young men made up their minds to study and prepare themselves to serve the king to the best of their ability, and thus to be near him and available to God however the Lord might lead.

We saw also that Daniel, by letting Nebuchadnezzar in on God’s secret, had created an interest on the king’s part about the Lord, which indicated the beginning of a change of heart in Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel had pointed out that God knew Nebuchadnezzar and that He cared about him and his concerns. And I have no doubt that Daniel reminded the king of this little secret many, many times in one form or another.

We must do the same, preparing diligently to get to know the people to whom God sends us, listening to their concerns and learning their needs, and letting them in on our secret so that they begin to consider that perhaps God does exist and might care about them. As we, like Daniel, befriend, help, comfort, encourage, or just listen to the people in our Personal Mission Field, God might begin to work in their hearts a change toward openness, and that may be all the Spirit needs, in His time, to give them a new heart of faith.

But doing the work of evangelism is not an easy road. At times – whether in conversations or activities – we may need to take a stand, just like Daniel’s friends did with King Nebuchadnezzar. The king insisted that everybody in his realm should worship his chosen idol. But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego took a stand for the Lord and refused to do so.

You may find yourself in a position of having to take a stand against people in your Personal Mission Field. If you’re asked to cut moral corners, participate in unseemly conversations or activities, join in a conspiracy to denounce or undermine a co-worker, or any of a thousand other invitations to violate your conscience and go against the ways of Christ, you’ll need to be ready to say, politely but firmly, “No thanks.” There may be consequences, as there were for Daniel’s friends: shunning, backbiting, angry rebuffs, or worse. But the Lord Who was with those youths in the fiery furnace will be with you in your trial as well. Take a stand and look to the Lord. Let no one lead you to compromise your faith or dishonor your King.

And then what?
Nebuchadnezzar’s first response to Daniel’s friends was to be done with them. He ordered them thrown into the fiery furnace and the furnace heated to extra hot. But notice that when he saw that his threat did not deter them and that, indeed, they had come through his vicious response unscathed, and in the Presence of one “like the Son of God”, and you might see something else.

Notice how Nebuchadnezzar is moved just a little closer to being open to the Lord: “Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, ‘Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own God! Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; because there is no other God who can deliver like this.’”

Nebuchadnezzar moved from being the enemy of God to the knowing object of His attention. Here he positioned himself as the defender of the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego! He was persuaded that there was “no other God who can deliver like this” and in so thinking, he was totally correct. He had not come to salvation, but the process of evangelism was clearly at work in his soul.

Whenever it’s called for or necessary, politely but firmly take a stand for Christ, and let people know why you won’t go along with their schemes or ways. You may not get promoted like Daniel’s friends did (Dan. 3.30), but you will increase in the Lord Jesus and the power of the Spirit, and you’ll be ready for the next step in the process of evangelism, as soon as the Lord sets the stage.

…

Here are some activities you can practice and some resources to help you in working your Personal Mission Field. 

1. First make sure your Personal Mission Field is updated, and you have included in your Personal Mission Field worksheet any new people God has brought into your sphere. Keep your map with you, so you can take it out and pray for the people you’ll be seeing throughout the day.
2. As you pray in the morning, think carefully through the day ahead. Whom will you see? Where will you go? Ask the Lord to show you where there might be pitfalls in your walk with Him – temptations or trials or invitations to depart His path. Pray earnestly about each of these, asking the Lord to help you take a stand when necessary.
3. Try always to be aware of the idols people around you worship: fleshly desires, wealth and advancement, self and prestige, or mere frivolity. Prepare yourself – heart, mind, and conscience – to resist bowing down to such false ideals, and to stand firm in your faith.
4. Pray to have a conversation that moves Godward, first by launching a prayer to the Lord (cf. Neh. 2.1-4), then by listening for an opportunity in your Personal Mission Field. How should you prepare? What can you pray, as you’re in a conversation, to allow you to let your friend in on your secret? I encourage you again to download a free copy of our ReVision study on “The Art of Christian Conversation” to brush up your conversational skills.
5. Order a free copy of our book, Revived!, and discover how you can help bring revival, renewal, and a great awakening about Jesus to our troubled world. Learn more about this book and order your free copy by clicking here.
   
   

That’s it for this month’s Personal Mission Field Workshop. Until next month, for the Fellowship of Ailbe, this has been T. M. Moore.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.