The Spiritual Need of Sending and Leaving

By the time you read this I will be back in Ohio to see my family.  These times of returning are wonderful but I am also reminded of the time in which I had to leave them to pursue the ministry to which God was calling me.  Those days, which now seem like a lifetime ago, were both sad and exciting.

I recently read Acts 13:3 in which Luke records, “So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on [Paul and Barnabas] and sent them off.”  The Lord has been showing me the spiritual significance of leaving and being sent—of coming out from under the shadow of the leader.  Imagine if Paul was never sent off to start churches all over Mesopotamia.  Imagine if Jesus never left his disciples to establish the early church as they did.  Imagine if I had decided to just stay with what was familiar to me instead of trusting God’s move to Houston.

As followers of Jesus who are seeking to be disciple makers we must be eager to both leave and to send.  It is in our leaving, even as Abraham left his father’s country, that we put our faith in God like never before.  It is in our sending others that we show that now they too are disciple makers.  Every one of us finds ourselves in a place of preparation for either sending or leaving.  What are you doing to get ready?  How are you listening to the voice of the Lord for his direction?  What will you say when he says, “Go”?

In Him,

Pastor Tim


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