Jesus commissioned every believer in His name to proclaim, not only His resurrection and power with miracles, signs and wonders; but to also proclaim His reign over all of the earth. In doing this, He told the early disciples after His resurrection, and just before His ascension into the heavens:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 NIV
This was the plan from Christ in evangelizing the earth, which He gave to the disciples who saw Him after His resurrection.
Today we’ve all been called as believers in His name, to continue along this plan. It is the only plan that can work in bringing salvation, healing, deliverance and prosperity to any place, where the Lord has called you to serve Him.
And everything that we do in the ministry as Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, Teacher, Worship Leader and so on; should be in conformity with His plan for us to the end of the earth. The God who created the heavens and the earth knows how best to get it saved.
But over the years, as the Body of Christ continued to grow, some Christians have been devising their own plans through the religious traditions of men, and other means of the secular world. And whereas men’s plans has failed, God’s plan as delivered by Jesus to His Church has always prevailed.
Those who are abandoning this blueprint of Christ has forgotten that, when He commissioned every believer in His name to go into the end of the earth; He expected all of us to use our faith, if we are ever going to be fruitful as we are following the plan.
And to go with the plan, Jesus also gave us the very strategy, which He used while on the earth. His strategy works when applied together with His plan. And in giving us the strategy to fulfill His plan:
“He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
Mark 16:15-18 NIV
The framework of this plan and strategy worked for Jesus, as He went from Nazareth to Capernaum. From Capernaum to the whole of Galilee, Judea and as far as Syria. And everywhere He went Jesus was always returning back to Capernaum, where He had established His ministry’s headquarters, within the three and a half years of ministry on the earth.
After spending some time at His ministry’s headquarters in Capernaum, to teach, disciple and prepare His followers for what was about to happen to Him; He went through Samaria until He finally reached Jerusalem.
Jerusalem was His final destination. He later ascended up to the Father, after his crucifixion and resurrection; but with a promise to return back again. Before ascending up to the Father, He gave the command to every believer in His name, to go to the end of the earth preaching the gospel in His name.
The plan and strategy which worked for Him, is still working today for all who are following Him. This plan and strategy still remains as the real deal for the Body of Christ today.
Follow the pattern of Jesus to the nations
Christ Jesus’ home at Capernaum, on the northwest shore of the Galilean Sea, from where it is possible to see the fishermen on the sea.
When Jesus fulfilled the mission of Heaven on the earth, He traveled everywhere on boats, donkeys and by foot. He had twelve full time paid Apostles on His payroll (Mark 3:13-19) and seventy two part time Evangelists (Luke 10:1). His ministry headquarters at Capernaum was fully operated, by numerous women (Mark 15:40-41 and Luke 8:1-3). Many of these women volunteered to work under His ministry. They were women with notable backgrounds from within the community who were wealthy.
Jesus had a perfect organizational and administrative structures for His ministry. The groundwork for this were not laid out until He arrived from Nazareth, to make Capernaum His home base and ministry headquarters. When Nazareth rejected His ministry (Mark 6:1-6), He then decided to move on to Capernaum for a fresh start.
Religious tradition had always taught, that Jesus was homeless. But that was never the case. Do you know that the “Great Prophet from Nazareth of Judea” had a beautiful house of His own in Capernaum? He had boats that were big enough to travel on with His ministry team. If He were to be living in our world today, I personally believe that, He would have had airplanes also. But He used boats and donkeys to travel, because that was what everyone used during that time for transportation.
And He got all of the boats by believing God for them, without raising money from His followers at the time. God supplied everything for Him, just as He will supply all of your needs also for you, as you release your faith in God for them. God loves you as much as He loves Jesus, and He will give you anything you want (John 17:23).
The reason why religious traditionalists often describe him, as not having a place to lay His head is because, of this statement that was once made by Him:
“ .. Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
Matthew 8:20 NIV
But the truth is that Jesus never stayed constantly in the house (Mark 10:10). He had to fulfill the will of His Father. He was constantly on the move, traveling from one place to another. And every time He was in the house, the crowd never allowed Him to rest, and to have His quiet moments with His Father. Jesus had the women always in the house. And it served as His ministry base from where He ministered to the whole region.
Jesus had everything by faith to complete His mission on earth. And if you are seeking the best organizational and administrative structures, for what you’ve called by God to do; you’d better mirror His own.
Your structures may not be as large as His own at the beginning. But if you will determine to follow Christ through the scriptures, you will soon learn how to use your faith to build your own ministry’s structures, just as He did.
And every disciple that Jesus called out to follow Him, were called out by faith. He never promised them a pay check; but they were all well provided for within His organizational structure. Jesus taught them to do everything by faith in God, and they never lacked in anything. As they used their faith to follow Him, everything was assigned on earth by God in taking care of them.
Jesus fed the crowd that followed Him (John 6:1-15) by faith in God. He taught the disciples also how to put their faith in God for everything. When they needed to pay their taxes, Jesus directed Peter to the river, to catch a fish. He told him to take the coin from the fish’s mouth to take care of it (Matthew 17:24-27).
The organizational structure that Jesus laid out for His ministry on the earth, later became the structure that the early Church built upon. It is the structure that is still operational today within His Body by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus’ plan always works
As the early disciples followed this plan and strategy of Jesus the scriptures says:
“Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.”
Mark 16:20 NIV
And also:
“ … the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Acts 2:47b NIV
And again:
“With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all”
Acts 4:33 NIV
The gospel is to be preached in this manner, from wherever you may be right now to the end of the earth. You may not know what to say or how to start, but you do have a testimony about what Jesus had done for you before. Your testimony is all that you need to hold on to. It will take you to places that you never knew before. As you begin to testify, God’s grace will start increasing to carry you into your next level. And there is no limit to what God’s grace can do in your life.
The testimony about Jesus was all that, the believers who saw Him ascending to the heavens had. And if it worked for them, it will surely work for you also. Your testimony about being healed in the name of Jesus will heal the sick, as you lay your hands on them to be healed in that name. If you had ever seen people being healed before, in the name of Jesus; you have the authority in that name, to do the same thing as well. It always works, if you can believe that it will.
An elementary school boy here in Texas once saw his Pastor, praying for the sick during the Sunday morning service. That little boy saw the sick being healed in the name of Jesus. And on Monday morning during the school break he went into the school’s restroom, and started laying hands on his classmates, who were sick with the flu. All of them went home on that day completely healed.
Various testimonies came out from the faith of this little boy, as he practiced what he saw his Pastor did in Church. Many parents later came to the school looking for the little boy to pray for them. The whole school was turned upside down, because of a child’s faith to heal the sick.
And when other children started doing the same thing, it triggered off a big reaction from the school’s authority. They had to step in to stop the children, from laying hands on one another; as it was getting difficult for the children to focus on their studies at school. They however did acknowledged that what was going on was beyond their understanding.
The faith of that little boy started a great move of God in that school, that affected the whole community. And your faith can do the same thing for you also, if you will start using it, to do what Jesus commanded us all to be doing in His name.
God wants to work through your life
The early disciples became the witnesses of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension. And their testimonies of all that they had witnessed, concerning Jesus took them to the end of the earth.
What has Jesus done for you? He wants you to start telling people about it. And as you do this everything that you need in obeying Him will be provided. You just need to stay focused on following His strategy. God has given you the grace to walk in doing, what He has called you to do. Don’t let the enemy defeat you, by deceiving you to stay focused on what you don’t have. That’s what has been preventing many Christians from obeying God.
If you do that, then you will never be able to do anything for God. It will hinder your ability to believe and receive anything from Him. It can also hinder your personal deliverance, healing, prosperity and other blessings of God. And it will eventually make you ineffective in fulfilling your calling.
Do you remember how God used a small jar of oil, in paying off the debts of the Prophet’s widow (see 2 Kings 4:1-7). She thought that she had nothing at all. But she later found out that what she had on hand, was enough for God to use in prospering her and her descendants.
Peter and John had nothing to give the lame man at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3:1-6); but their faith in the name of Jesus was more than enough, to give the man all that he needed. Peter and John followed the last command of Jesus, to begin from Jerusalem in His name. And as they obeyed, that one miracle brought more than five thousands souls into the Kingdom of God in a single day.
If their faith worked for them, it can work for you also. Begin today from where you are now – that’s your “Jerusalem” – the place where God has planted you to share your testimony. God wants to start something great in your life. Are you available for Him to use you today?
