How to Fail as a Missionary - Part 5
T.L. Osborn came back from India feeling like he had failed in his mission. He felt that he had failed to reach the Indian people with the message of Christ that He was called to share with them.
After leaving the mission field in defeat, he attended a William Branham meeting in Portland, Oregon. That night T.L. had a vision of Jesus stepping into the body of William Branham and working miracles through this man. Riveted, T.L. watched as person after person was healed and delivered, walking away free from their sickness and oppression.
As he watched, suddenly it seemed as if a thousand voices were speaking to T.L., saying, “You can do that!”
Faith arose in his heart through this spoken word, according to Romans 10:17, and T.L. and Daisy Osborn began to read the Bible through new eyes, believing that everything that Jesus did in His ministry could happen today!
T.L. and Daisy Osborn returned to the mission field with the power of God and changed the world, bringing miracles and healing to many countries and leading thousands of people to faith in Christ Jesus through their crusades.
The power of the Holy Spirit made all the difference in their ministry. Without the power of God, T.L. freely admitted that he was a failure, but with the power of God, the world was changed through his missionary efforts!
We shouldn’t be surprised at the results that T.L. Osborn experienced with the power of God, or the failure of his ministry without God’s power.
The power of the Holy Spirit is so essential for success in outreach ministry that Jesus told His disciples not to go anywhere until they had received it.
“Don’t leave Jerusalem yet. Wait here for the Father to give you the Holy Spirit, just as I told you he has promised to do. John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”—Acts 1:4-5 (CEV)
Why was the separate experience of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit so essential?
Jesus tells us a few verses later.
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”—Acts 1:8 (NKJV)
The baptism of the Holy Spirit brought the power of God into their lives, enabling them to be witnesses of Jesus. The same can be true in our lives!
Can we be true witnesses for Jesus if we do not have God’s power in our lives? Jesus didn’t seem to think so.
We must change our concept of what it means to be a “witness for Christ.” Traditional evangelical approaches teach that to be a witness for Christ means to tell in words what Jesus has done for us. That is a very weak, powerless concept of a witness.
If we limit the Gospel message only to a persuasive story about a God who once sent His son to save us years ago, but we offer no demonstrations of power to prove that He exists today, then we may have a form of godliness, but we are denying His power. We cannot call ourselves true witnesses of Jesus.
A true witness of Jesus demonstrates through his or her own life and actions that Jesus is alive and present and His word is true by doing the same things that Jesus did.
“But if I use the power of God’s Spirit to force out demons, this shows that the kingdom of God has come to you.”—Matthew 12:28 (ICB)
Jesus promised this to us in John 14:12:
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (NIV)
We become witnesses to the truth of Jesus Christ when we do through the power of God what we could never do in our own strength or abilities.
“Now when they saw the boldness and unfettered eloquence of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and untrained in the schools [common men with no educational advantages], they marveled; and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
“And since they saw the man who had been cured standing there beside them, they could not contradict the fact or say anything in opposition.”—Acts 4:13-14 (AMPC)
When Jesus sent His disciples out into the cities, He directed them to use demonstrations of power to validate the Gospel of the Kingdom.
“and heal those in it who are sick [authenticating your message], and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’”—Luke 10:9 (AMP)
If you are a true witness for Jesus Christ, you must prove it with demonstrations of God’s power.
“The followers went everywhere in the world telling people the Good News, and the Lord helped them. By giving them power to do miracles the Lord proved that their message was true.”—Mark 16:20 (ERV)
“And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.”—Acts 4:33 (NKJV)
Demonstrations of power are necessary. Jesus said that some people *need *demonstrations of power in order to believe the truth of the Gospel message.
“Jesus said to him, ‘You people must see miraculous signs and wonders before you will believe in me.’”—John 4:48 (ERV)
This is not optional. We cannot be true witnesses of Jesus Christ without demonstrations of the power of God in our lives. The Apostle Paul exhorted us to stay away from believers who deny that God’s power is available and necessary for us today.
“For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it [their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession]. Avoid [all] such people [turn away from them].”—2 Timothy 3:5 (AMPC)
Blasphemous Rejection of the Holy Spirit
The greatest period of darkness in the 20th century was likely caused by a blasphemous rejection of the power of the Holy Spirit.
At the time of the Welsh Revival of 1904 and the Azusa Street Revival of 1906, a Holy Spirit revival also started among a group of Lutheran priests in Mülheim Germany. In response to this movement, Lutheran church leaders gathered and formally drafted a resolution known as the Berlin Declaration of 1909.
In this document, these religious leaders of Germany officially rejected the move of the Holy Spirit that was catching fire in their country, declaring that this move was “not from above, but from below.”
This official rejection of the Holy Spirit plunged the entire nation into deep spiritual and political darkness. It was this atmosphere of darkness that allowed the rise of Adolph Hitler and spawned the darkest period in modern history.
Realizing the catastrophic error of their fathers, German religious leaders gathered again 100 years later in 2009 to fast, repent, and ask God’s forgiveness for the error of rejecting the work of the Holy Spirit, formally revoking the 1909 Berlin Declaration.
Germany is recovering, but sadly, there is still much spiritual darkness in this country, especially in the former East Germany where atheism had been enforced as the state-sponsored religion.
Consequences of Rejection
After his transforming experience of seeing Jesus Christ Himself ministering in the body of William Branham, T.L. Osborn “felt compelled by the Spirit to bear a miraculous gospel to all the world.” (Cauchi)
In the 1950s, T.L. and Daisy Osborn traveled to Cuba, where over 50,000 people gave their lives to Jesus Christ through their miracle crusades.
Sadly, many leaders of the organized Church in Cuba officially rejected the work of the Holy Spirit that was demonstrated in the meetings of T.L. Osborn, declaring that this was not of God and warning their church members not to be involved with these meetings.
It was only a matter of months after this official rejection of the move of the Holy Spirit’s power by religious leaders in Cuba that the nation’s government was overthrown, and the entire nation was plunged into an era of political and spiritual darkness and oppression that continues to this day.
Conclusion
There are many ways to fail as a missionary. We must do things God’s way in order to ensure success, looking to Jesus as our model for ministry.
References:
Berlin Declaration (1909). Memim Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://memim.com/berlin-declaration-1909.html
Cauchi, T. (n.d.). Thomas Lee (T. L.) Osborn - December 23, 1923 - Feb. 14, 2013. Thomas Lee (T. L.) Osborn - 1923-2013. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.revival-library.org/revival_heroes/20th_century/osborn_tl.shtml
Dan Holt. (2015, September 2). T. L. Osborn tells about William Branham. YouTube. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://youtu.be/miASQlEYFCI
Johnson, P. K. (2012, August 1). Is Revival Emerging in Germany? Charisma Magazine - Spirit-led Living. Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://charismamag.com/propheticrevival/revival/achtung-deutschiand/
Taylor, T. (n.d.). The Cost of Rejecting Holy Spirit - The Berlin Declaration & The Rise of Hitler. 1Church1Day. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.1church1day.org/blog/the-cost-of-rejecting-holy-spirit-the-berlin-declaration-the-rise-of-hitler
Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, October 13). Germany. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany