Our Role in the Great Outpouring of the Spirit

What is Our Part in the Great Outpouring?

Welcome to ​“Asked and Answered,” the podcast series that answers all of your mission’s related questions. With me in the studio today are Ron and Charis Pearce.

Joy- Hi guys, welcome back!

Ron, Charis –Hi!

Joy- Okay, I have a good question for you, well, they are all good of course but this one is a little bit different I think, do believers in North America, now keeping in mind Empower’s mandate, role, how are believers in North America directly impacting national believers?

Ron- Okay, let’s back up and answer this from a different perspective. I’m going to get to your question but I’ve got to back up here a little. We just did a podcast recently on this talking about the first century church and the modern revival, shall we say, the great outpourings of the Spirit. I’m going to take parts of that and explain something first and then we will move on to your question, okay? There were various things that are common but enhanced today from what was going on in the early church, for instance; in the early church it was the Roman Empire, a lot of persecution, a lot of death everything like that. This caused an unquenchable hunger to find answers to life because death was around the corner. They were always at death’s door from starvation or disease or being killed by a soldier, something or other. Well, it’s the same thing today, people are looking for answers and they are wanting those answers because their world is falling apart with what we are living in right now. So those are the things, that is the work done and created by the environment and that is really God orchestrating the stage where everything is played out. So He orchestrated the early church in the Roman Empire and He is orchestrating what disasters, problems, and governments, remember what governments have been put in place by God, He is in control, so all of these situations are being orchestrated by Him. So that is the first thing, this is God’s part in this whole thing in missions and these great revivals. First is an unquenchable hunger for Him and for truth. Two, the speed of witnessing. Remember we talked about how evangelists are able to go out on buses and motorcycles and pastors, national pastors, going out all over, and planes, trains, automobiles, all of this is taking the Gospel very, very quickly to all the areas. In the early church that wasn’t the way it was. So all of these tools that we are putting together for the pastors like giving them a motorcycle, giving them a car, giving them bus money, giving them all of these things to get around, that is the part that another force is doing. That would be the Western believers giving to the national church the money so that they can have that motorcycle. Because in their natural way of doing it, they can’t afford that and we are just enhancing it so that is shall we say, us over here. That is God, first one, unquenchable, He is doing the circumstances, and we are providing the tools. Then you get into something else, then you talk about the miracles that are happening and all of that, well, that is God doing that and this is God out there creating the hunger, yes, but He is also showing his presence. Dreams, miracles, healings, all of these things. So that is God saying I’m here, I’m here! He’s putting His part into it. Next, you’ve got the work of the national pastors who are going out all the time and are working so hard in the field to take the Gospel to everyone. We sometimes give them some food and some scriptures of course but food, clothes, and other things when disasters happen and they are taking those and they are working feverishly to get the Gospel out to all the people. So that is the national church. So now you’ve got God, now you’ve got the national church, and now you’ve got us over here. What do we do? We are supplying, they are working hard, God is creating the circumstances and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Then you’ve got the saturation of the Bible and this is where we are saturating countries right now with the Word of God. It is inexpensive compared to other items, for instance, a full Bible now is, I’m going to say $2- $3.25 for a full Bible in a country and we can do hundreds of thousands of those now mass-producing them, and delivering them free of charge. And then you’ve got New Testaments that go out as well for maybe $0.75-$1.15 or $1.20. So that is the sort of pricing to get the Word of God. That is basically how God has given us the tools and we are purchasing and providing those tools, the scriptures, to go to the hands of the pastors who are giving it to the believers who are growing in Christ. They could never afford to print 100,000 Bibles for their people! They couldn’t afford it in the areas because the areas where the great revivals are happening are the poor areas of the world, the areas that are not rich. Over here in the West, we go buy a Bible! Over there in those parts of the world, they can’t find them and secondly, they can’t afford them and, therefore, that is why we provide them with love. And then you’ve got all the other things, the organizing of the house churches, the discipling that the national pastors are doing. They’re doing that and they’ve got all the necessary tools to go out and to organize the church. So Joy, what I am saying is this, that you’ve got three actors on the stage of these great revivals. You’ve got God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and you’ve got God setting the stage, pouring out His Spirit, doing the miracles, giving the energy, everything that is necessary from his point of view. Then you’ve got the national pastors that are working feverishly around the world not wasting a minute. And they are getting on their motorcycles, they are walking, riding camels, whatever it takes to go around, to find these lost people and to share the Gospel. Then you’ve got us over here. Now we are at your question okay, finally I got there. Now you’ve got us over here in the West who have the ability to take and put into their hands all the tools that they need which is the Bible, the food, the clothes, the love, compassionate assistance, training materials, all of these things, we can buy that, ship it to them and have it. And at times we do other things as well for them and we give them encouragement. They still look at us in many parts of the world as their spiritual parents simply because missionaries gave birth to a lot of these indigenous movements around the world and they took the Gospel. The missionaries sacrificed so much over the years to introduce these people. Now the Spirit of God has raised up national leadership, indigenous leadership, but they still look back at us as far as like, thank you. Thank you for bringing us the Word of God, thank you for the message, thank you for your example. And therefore, in that way, that is us. We can pray for them, we can encourage them, we can put tools into their hands, we can put motorcycles under their seats shall we say, we can do all of those things that are necessary to help them do the job under the work of God and the Holy Spirit. That is where three groups are involved in this.

Joy- You know and it’s quite the choreographed dance shall we say when you talk about these three actors on the stage because you have the national workers doing their thing inspired by the Holy Spirit, then we hear the stories back here and we need those stories because that is what inspires us to want to support and empower and give. You can’t have one without the other.

Ron- No, no, and it was never intended to be one without the other! We have tried this in certain quadrants of Christendom over the years, we tried to do it all ourselves and we figured we don’t need any help, God thanks very much we really appreciate you but we’ll take care of this. So they’re out there doing all the preaching and they are doing it, raising the banners, all that sort of stuff. And they don’t use the national church, no, you guys are good but we know better what to do, we are much more educated so we’ll take care of this. Well, that is not right and it’s never been right and, therefore, what we need to do right now is realize that this is the greatest turning to God of all history. Never before have this many people come to the Lord and it’s all hands on deck, all right? Which means everybody needs to participate in it. Obviously, we are saying God is participating and he is running the show but He has allowed us to come in and help in the national church. He is motivating us to do this and, therefore, from our point we need everybody over here as well as part of this operation to provide these tools, the Bibles, the pastoral support so these guys can get out there and do their job, all the clothes and the computers and the bicycles and motorcycles and the list goes on and on and on. That is why everybody is needed. Over here we need help right now to equip them because this is the greatest turning to God.

Joy- It’s almost a responsibility for believers here in North America to be able to empower the national church.

Ron- It is, the problem is a lot of people don’t understand what this drama is being played out right now, they don’t have any clue. They look into their, well, newspapers aren’t used anymore so they look online at the news items, they look on television, they see the world through very worldly eyes and they don’t see the Gospel situation nor this play. And that is why it is up to some people, ourselves included, to tell the stories of what God is doing through the national churches.

Charis- When you say all hands on deck it reminds me of in the Fall when you see the wheat fields and you know that they are coming due, they are almost there and there is a big storm coming and you see those farmers out there, doesn’t matter day or night they are out there trying to bring in their harvest. And that is what our national workers are. They see the storm coming, they know that it’s urgent, and we are just trying to help them with the tools to bring it in quicker.

Joy- And to take that analogy a little bit further how many times have we just driven past the farmers and thought oh, good for them, we are going to eat, but good for them.

Charis- It’s true!

Ron- And to end this conversation you have to go back to this and using your analogy, Charis, of the wheat field and growing, who caused that growth? It was God. It wasn’t the national church, it wasn’t us over here printing Bibles and building Honda motorcycles, it wasn’t that at all. This was God by His Spirit moving upon those people, showing them their desperate nature, showing them there is a way out and He is causing that growth. Therefore, we cannot take any glory for this or any pat on the back we are bondservants which means we do what the master has told us to do. Therefore, when I say all hands on deck like you just referred to, it’s basically, we don’t need any congratulations at any level, all we need is an opportunity and that opportunity has presented itself today.

Joy- And you know they could always use help because we never use this podcast to ask for donations ever and yet Empower has so many opportunities to empower the national church. We are working in what?

Ron- 50 countries right now.

Joy- About 50 countries and we have campaigns and we have projects and we have opportunities for people to give.

Ron- Absolutely and after you hear these stories on this website or what we are doing and everything of that nature, you don’t have to be super smart to read between the lines here, God is doing this but as you say, Joy, we really need people to buy in both to the program and buy in with participation at whatever level simply because this is what we were built for, this is why we were born in this world at this time. We were born as believers to bring in the harvest like Charis says. So yes, please help.

Joy- And yeah, it can’t be said any clearer than that. Thanks!