info DAY 5 // VISION TO GO
BRIAN MASSMAN – TRI-STATE COMMUNITY CHURCH IN DUBUQUE, IA
“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.”
Matthew 9:35-36 (NIV)
I think about this verse often when I think about the world we live in. Jesus went about teaching, preaching and healing. The last word, healing, humbles and quiets me. It makes me pause and pray for this needy world. While Jesus certainly healed and still heals physically, I am mindful of the overwhelming emotional pain I witness in the world around me in workplaces, families, neighborhoods, and churches. I confess at many times this overwhelms me and I wonder If I can be much help at all in light of the pervasive pain of those around me. And, of course, we can’t do anything out of our own strength and resources.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5 (NIV)
The fruit we need to bear to help this needy, sin-saturated world is not our fruit; it is Jesus’ fruit. We bear His fruit as we surrender to Him daily and moment by moment. When connected with Jesus, we will display the joy of the Spirit of God to all those with which we communicate. As we prepare for Fusion, we are relieved that it is the Spirit of Jesus living in and through us that will impact the world around us for His glory and their healing.
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.
For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?”
2 Corinthians 2:14-16 (NIV)
What can you do to be working with the Spirit in peoples’ lives?
