Antioch Bridges International

Thailand Experience part II

Prepare to Possess for the Kingdom

Thursday, October 05, 2006

10:18 AM

A Transition in God’s Hand

Last year Thailand made a policy that all the Bible institutes had to be shut down.  To operate legally as well as to be able to issue a diploma, the Bible school had to purchase at least 4 acres of land and have its institute built on the land. 

When Pastor Tommanoon started his church five years ago, he started with 18 people, today the church has grown to around 1800.  Brother Hubert, a missionary from Singapore had gone into Laos, preaching the Gospel and making disciples through career training, farming etc. Through disciple making and outreach, believers across the boarder have multiplied into over 140 cells. Today, the two of them are working together to reach not only the Thai people in the Isan region but also the Lao people across the boarder.  Three years ago, they began a Bible school provide trainings for the pastors and leaders in the field. The Bible school operated underground since the new policy was activated. That compelled them to pursue the new legal process for the Bible school along with a church building plan. To enter in the new phase, they are filing to become a non-profit organization which will cost them $5000 USD.  The plan is to build a church building, a Bible school facility, a café, and a guesthouse that can be used to help the girls coming out of prostitution. It seems like God has used the circumstances to push them into a greater realm in which their vision will become fuller with the possessing of the land.  

The Message is Loud and Clear – Taking the Dominion for the King

One of the things that I learned in Non-Kai, Thailand while talking to our friend Hubert was, a few years ago when there was little population in the region, Muslims came in buying the land, building hotels, apartment complex, restaurants… . Time went by, in the recent two years when population started filling in this area, the Muslims had themselves ready.  They “own” the land, manage the workers (the dwellers of the land), and access with customers (the people fill in the land). Quite opposite, many Christian churches are satisfied if they can have a cubic of space doing repeated activities week after week. It doesn’t bother them if the church brings neither impact in the region nor advancement in the Kingdom while thinking money making is ungodly and working in the world is unspiritual.

This story reminded me of two years ago, when I met a Chinese missionary in Beijing who had just come back from Pakistan. He said when he was there in Pakistan; he saw church buildings spread in the area, mostly empty or occupied by very few congregations. Later on he learned that those buildings were built by Korean Christians in the 70's while Korean churches were experiencing great revival in their own country. Today, 30 years later, when Chinese started coming to the region, buildings started filling and churches became alive. It was as though God has prepared the place and the facilities and waited for Chinese Christians to move in, with special favor from the Pakistan people. Again, the land was prepared until God’s people step out, step in and take the dominion.

With the same perspective, but push the time back a little further, in the late 19 century, Chinese came down to the South East Asia, they started bare handed, began establishing businesses, purchased the land, built the cities… Today if you go to Southeast Asia, 80% of the businesses, mid size or above, belong to Chinese descendents. Throughout generations, they've paid the price to sow, to build, to sacrifice, and they started enjoying the gain and the prosperity today. More over, many Christians have built strong churches and they have made themselves ready to be used by God to reach their Muslim neighbors and even to the rest of the world.

The Five Keys – to complete the Great Commission

Be prepared, finding ways, be smart, put in investments, be sharp, take over the land for the Kingdom while we still have the opportunity. Work not only as individuals but also corporate networks. God created us as a Body; we do not only exist as an individual but one in the Body. We are to function in the way that individuals will be established and at the same time, the Church as a corporate Body can be the agent and the builder of the Kingdom.  There are people and land to be taken before the Gospel reaches back to Jerusalem. I have meditated and discovered that there are “keys” that God has put in His people’s hands to hold on, to place in, and to turn open the doors that the Great
Commission may be fulfilled and that the Gospel may take its effect to the end of the world.

The Keys Are:

1. the Market Place – in that all professions are the ministries and all communities will be transformed. I was in touch with a Muslim community and found out that “Business” is the only language that you can dialogue and further a relationship. And “Love” is the only weapon that can penetrate the unseen wall.

2. the Specific people groups – they speak languages of the people who are scattered in different nations. A friend of mine connected with a people group called “Wei-ur” in northwest China through a business who speaks the same kind of language that many Mid-Easterners speak. Many of the Wiggers are trained to reach out to those nations today. Another minority group in Yunnan is actually connected to the same people in Burma and Thailand. One mission to this one region is touching three nations down the road.

3. the Geographic territories – one location reached, can unlock the others with God’s historical and geographical links. God has strategically prepared His people throughout the history, to position in key places, seemingly scattered in the world. Today, world wide globalization is integrating the forces into one. The new generation, new wave, new trade, and new strategies, will speed up the Great Commission into its final era.

4. the Natural catastrophes – with desperation comes opportunity. More souls will be saved than ever as we do our jobs.

The Tsunami in Indian Ocean that struck in Dec. 2004 brought hundreds of thousands of souls to God. The hurricanes in the southeast United States has connected hundreds of churches for relief labor as well as for active reaching out to the communities affected.

5. the Political/ Religious disturbances – fight the enemy that is behind the scenes, God will let His people go. Divided or united, it’s the test and the choice that God has put before His people. The latter will bring the whole nation together focusing on God’s agendas.

If God’s people know how to use the keys, the Great Commission will be soon fulfilled and the Coming of Jesus Christ will be at hand.