STEP ONE

  • “God, what is your will for my life?” Do you ask this question?

    What’s interesting is how this question assumes there is one single path for your life, and if you miss it, you're out of luck and have failed. This is not the case! God is bigger than that! God is bigger than a one year, five-year, or ten-year plan. You cannot foil his great plans. He is sovereign over everything, and we find great freedom in his guiding hand.

    Instead of asking, “God, what is your will for my life?” We should start by asking, “God, what is your will?” We should start with God. If you consider yourself a Christian, someone who has repented of sin and believed in Christ alone, then your calling is to start with God, not with self.

    If you’ve heard The Traveling Team speak on your campus, then you’ve heard a pretty compelling message outlining God's heart for all nations. From the beginning until the end of Scripture we see the Lord has a focus on all nations (Gen. 12:1–3; Ps. 67; Matt. 28:18–20; Rev. 5:9). The good news of the gospel is not simply for your campus, city, state, country, or continent--it is for the whole world.

    Yet God's will is even bigger than simply understanding that "the nations" is all over the Bible. The recurring words of nations, languages, tribes, and families throughout Scripture point to a larger reality than geography or mission. The story of Scripture is not about Christians engaging in mission. It is about God redeeming a people for himself! God has a heart for all the peoples of the earth and in Scripture we see God revealing that heart and inviting his people to participate. That is God's will!

    This is what Step 1: "Ignite Your Vision" is all about! In this step you will explore God and his will through his Word. We will take a look at Scripture to see God's desire for the world and for his people from the beginning of Scripture to the end. Then we will take a look at the world today and see where gospel gaps are. We will point you toward our favorite resources to further stoke the fire of this vision.

    We must start with vision from the Word, because if our vision for mission is not driven by God's Word, then all our efforts will be in vain.

What to expect from Step One:

We must start with a vision from the Word, because if our vision for mission is not driven by God's Word, then all of our efforts will be in vain.

God, What is Your Will For My Life?
The Goal and Getting There
What is My Next Step?

  • To ignite vision, we must look to the Word. These are some of the core passages in Scripture displaying God’s heart for all nations, and why Christians should engage in this vision.

    GENESIS 12:1-3 - “Go from your country and your family and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”

    GENESIS 26:4 - “[Isaac] I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven... and in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,”

    GENESIS 28:14 - “[Jacob] your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth... and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

    EXODUS 9:16 -“But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”

    1 SAMUEL 17:46 - “This day the Lordwill deliver you into my hand... that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel”

    PSALM 46:10 - “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

    ISAIAH 49:6 - “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel... I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

    HABAKKUK 2:14 - “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

    MALACHI 1:11 - “For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations.”

    JOHN 3:16 - “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

    MATTHEW 28:18-20 - “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

    MARK 16:15 - “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”

    LUKE 24:47 - “Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations,”

    JOHN 20:21 - “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

    ACTS 1:8 - “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

    ROMANS 10:14-15 - How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

    GALATIANS 3:7-8 - “Understand that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

    REVELATION 7:9 - “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb [Jesus]...

    To take a deeper dive into God’s heart for the world in scripture, download this 8-week study, “God’s Heart For The World”.

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