Missions, from the very beginning of the church after Jesus ascended, has been central to Christianity. There have been ebbs and flows of intensity, but none the less, the striking last word of Christ to “Go and make disciples of all nations” has rung in the ears of believers for thousands of years. Prayer, while we know it is something we “ought” to do, seems to be of less importance. After all, it’s easy to get people to sign up for a missions trip into the nations to help children in an orphanage, but its so hard to get believers to attend a prayer meeting! I get it, I really do…I want to go to the nations too:)
But while we may see “missions” and “prayer” as two different realities, I believe that in the heart of God they are very much the same; you cannot have one without the other. How? We cannot have effective missions that are not birthed in prayer, and we cannot have prayer that does not motivate missions. Let me elaborate: Missions will not bear much fruit if not first revealed as part of God’s will and then also sustained by His love as the labor continues. Taking to Gospel to other nations to make disciples is not easy, it is laborious. Jesus said we had to “pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers” (Matt 9:35). Why? Because labor is hard, and most don’t want to do it or don’t know how! Thus we must hear from the Lord in the place of prayer the labor He want sue to put our hand to, and also sustained by Him in prayer to continue. Prayer is what missions flows from. Without prayer, our missions will be less effective and our missionaries weary!
Prayer cannot be seen as separate from missions. As we talk to and engage with the One who was so zealous for the nations, we cannot help but to receive His desire and power to go and make disciples. As the disciples met in the upper room after Jesus ascended, they prayed and worshiped together. It was then that they received the “Promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4) which empowered them to preach and be full of the Holy Spirit even in the midst of persecution (Acts 4:13-22). They knew that they were to go into the nations (Acts 1:8), and as they waited upon Him they received all that they needed in order to go and be effective without compromise. But it began in the place of prayer.
Missions and prayer are an endless cycle: prayer births missions, missions and missionaries are sustained by prayer in the labor, they make disciples who then serve and connect with God through prayer, who then receive new missions from God to go elsewhere and make disciples who will pray. It just keeps going and going, and we cannot have one without the other.
While these two realities are dynamically connected, I believe that the end of it all is prayer, or worship rather (which is a type of prayer;). When we look at where all of human history is going- to a wedding where the bride is full of worship and praise for God- we know that one day missions will cease, and worship will arise. We cannot have one without the other now, but one day missions will be obsolete and we will all be united with one voice, praising and thanking the Lord for bringing us back to Him and destroying the works of the Devil, forever (read Revelation 19:1-9).
Living For Another Age 