Some months ago, a colleague mentioned that she was going on her annual leave. I enquired and she told me her intended location was London. I asked if she had ever taken a “vacation” to visit some missionaries working in remote areas, to encourage and work with them. “No!” She replied. “That has never occurred to me.” I told her how I had done that once and it had marked a turning point in my life, and given me a new perspective about life and Christianity. I recommended that she do the same, probably during her next vacation. Her response (really indicative of the attitude of most believers today) was “Tope, You know it’s not easy to do such a thing, one has to be led by God.” Then I responded with a ‘check question’ – Were you led by God to spend your vacation in London? To which she responded “Hmm, you’ve got a point there”.

It is a point – a scriptural one and that is what I’d like to stress today. There is no leading from God that can be more powerful than what He has written in the scriptures. God always honours His Word. The Word of God says to us – “Go into the world. Go everywhere and announce the Message of God’s good news to one and all.” Mark 16:15 (MSG). We don’t need another leading from God before we make this move. The message is crystal clear – Go everywhere! But what do we do today? We merely sing that we are “standing on the promises of God” while in reality we sit on the premises of procrastination and gold. We claim to be waiting on God’s leading to do His work, but we obey our own ‘leading’ to do other things. There is nothing wrong with going to London; I have been there and I know that like many locations in the world, there are many ‘unreached’ people there. I am particularly interested in what we do when we go there? Do we obey God’s command found in the scriptures? Well, it is not difficult to tell. I’ve got an indication from Facebook.

Let’s use Facebook to illustrate. We share pictures from our trips abroad, our weddings, and different views of our faces, cars and houses. But do you wonder why we rarely share pictures of our exploits for God’s kingdom? Why are believers swift to “like” it when people share gossip, jokes, football gist, or other things that would interest mere men who have not met Jesus, but display nonchalance when people share the message of Jesus Christ or evidence of impact of God’s Word? If Paul, Peter and Luke had Facebook in their time, would they have handled it the way we do today? Has this generation of believers lost its real focus? Has God saved a soul through you this year?

The purpose of God for every believer is that we stay wholeheartedly committed to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to every creature. Everything a believer does must be directly or indirectly traceable to his/her purpose on earth. You eat good food so your body will have nourishment for the work. You go to church to get encouragement/ edification for the sake of the work. You work in that blue chip Company because it gives you access to some unbelievers that God wants to use for His work. You administer the public address system in your church so that every attendee can hear the Message and be fired up for His work. Every asset and access you have is for the work God has committed to your hands. Don’t be distracted. Don’t claim to wait for God’s leading. Go! Go everywhere you can! Announce the Message of God’s good news with your words and lifestyle and in every place you find yourself.

– Tope Aladenusi