If You Believe

[ Extracted and edited from D2Y2 Magazine – Volume 2 Issue 8, 1999 ]

For those of you who have followed the developments of the AYA Vision closely, you would have heard me say, probably more than once or seen somewhere in my writings, the word RACE, which actually stands for Reaching All through Creative Evangelism.

It is written that God is not willing that anyone should perish but that all should come into everlasting life (2 Peter 3:9). On the 12th of October 1999, researches say that the earth‘s population hit the 6 billion mark. How will the Church catch up at the rate we are going now? Will it be possible to lead all into repentance before Jesus returns? With man this is impossible, but not with God.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, it was void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. The Spirit of the Lord hovered over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”, and there was light.

In the beginning, it was only God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is my conviction that when Father spoke the Word, the Spirit created through the Word. I am suggesting that whatever God the Father said, the Spirit brought forth. Today, it is still the same. God still speaks and the Spirit continues to create. But there is an addition to the equation – Man, made in the image of God was chosen by God above all His other creations to be part of the “creation” process. God has chosen not to go solo, although He can (as proven in the first chapter of Genesis). Instead, He chose to work His miracles through His people. The only condition was and still is, is that we believe, just believe (Mark 5:36).

Discipling A Whole Nation (DAWN) carries a remarkable report in their February newsletter about two young women in their teenage years in Mainland China who had become Christians while listening to radio broadcasts. They both felt an immediate call to be missionaries. They met with their pastor who taught them how to witness right where they were, but the two women insisted they wanted to “go” into all the world in fulfillment of Jesus’ command. The pastor tried to dissuade them because they were young and had only been Christians for six months, but he finally agreed that they could go to Hainan, an island in the South China Sea where they needed workers. Christians there were very few, if any. It was known to be a hard field in which to work.

Believing is taking what God tells us to be the truth and acting upon it.

After two years, the girls were in Hong Kong for a short time to get more Bibles and other literatures. One pastor arranged to meet with them, taking with him several church pastors from Europe who were in the area, he wanted to meet a church planter. When the girls appeared for the meeting and were questioned about their work, they were hesitant to make their report. They reminded the pastor they had only been there two years and that the people of Hainan where they worked were not very friendly. In fact, sometimes they were vicious, called the girls terrible names and threatened to drown the girls in the ocean.

Slowly, through persistent questioning, the pastor drew the report from the two apologetic missionary girls, who were very ashamed of the poor results of their labors. They said they had planted only 30 churches, that were from 250 people to about 5000 people in the churches. The astounded and shamed men were moved to tears. “How did they do it?” they asked in astonishment. The girls’ simple explanation was, “We did nothing…we just prayed…and the Holy Spirit would tell us exactly what to do. We would keep praying and He would tell us what to do and we would do it.”

All things are possible… if you believe.

Faith without works is dead. “Believing”, is taking what God tells us to be the truth and acting upon it. Reaching All through Creative Evangelism (RACE) is all about being led by what the Holy Spirit says. He is the one that creates and we are the ones that obey. They cannot teach you that in the bible school. You learn by doing it. Sure, the task ahead of us is a mammoth one, “impossible” in every human term, but believe this: that God’s Word will not return to Him void but will surely accomplish that for which He sent it (Isaiah 55:11).

Here is the equation again:

God the Father sends His Word + We pray and believe + The Holy Spirit brings everything to pass = ALL will come into repentance.

Will you be part of that equation? The choice is yours. Either make history, or be history.

D2Y2, which stands for Don’t Despise Your Youth, was an official Asian Youth Ambassador (AYA) magazine birthed out in the late 90s. The printed materials communicated dynamic and effective encouragement to and from the Church, with special emphasis on the knowledge and experiences of our Christian youths, which we believe the content is still relevant and applicable in this current generation.