What is your picture of God? If you were to close your eyes and think of God what would you see? I remember hearing a women's response to that question who was suffering with breast cancer, she said, "God has his hands in his pockets and doesn't want to help me." I remember asking a young man who was in trouble with the law, "What is your picture of God right now?" His response was "He is the big boss." Here are two people with real personal responses. Unfortunately, their response is based on their experience, not based on the truth of scripture. This is why they need true believers who can come along side and lead them to the God who is a "present help in trouble." (Psalm 46:1)
A.W. Tozer wrote, "The gospel can lift this destroying burden from the mind, give beauty for ashes, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. But unless the weight of the burden is felt the gospel can mean nothing to the man; and until he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and no burden. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them." HT
How many spiritual leaders fall into this trap? As one who works closely with pastors and church planters I often see the gospel being destroyed in their lives because of their low view of God. They shrink from conflict. They cross moral and ethical lines. They forget their calling. They allow their circumstances to rob them of joy. They cry "Woe is me" when things go bad and "Look at me" when things go well.
As we saw last week, the prayers we pray can be a window into our souls, revealing what we truly believe about God and his mission. The second prayer a missional leader needs to pray is...
2. Father, give me a bigger picture of who you are and your work in my heart.
The Apostle Paul prayed for believers to get a bigger picture of God, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” (Ephesians 1:18-19 NIV)
Paul is praying that these believers would have an ever expanding view of God’s glory (Ephesians 1:12;14) and an ever expanding view of the spiritual blessings we have in Christ through the work of the gospel (Ephesians 1:3-14). His desire is that we get our eyes off our own circumstances and refocus them on the infinite greatness of God. He wants us to get our eyes off our human frailties in order that we can get a fresh perspective of who we are in Christ and to live in the reality of God’s spiritual blessings. As leaders we all need to get a new perspective from God’s point of view. Someone once said, “The difference between a mountain and a molehill is your perspective!”
As missional leaders we need to see God as:
A.W. Tozer wrote, "A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God." HT
When was the last time you asked God for a bigger vision of "Who He is?" and "What He has done for you through the work of the gospel?"
Next week: “Father, pour out a spirit of generosity in my life.”
Excerpt from Gary's book, NextSteps for Leading a Missional Church
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