The Kingdom of God is advancing around the world, permeating every alcove and cranny of the earth. The Spirit of God is coursing over precipitous mountains in Southeast Asia, refreshing communities embanked along Africa’s rushing rivers, and awakening longing spirits in North America’s urban neighborhoods.
We care about this mission, you and I, Christians who love Jesus and want to see the glory of God revealed in our world. Hence, justice ministries, food pantries, foster care programs, and outreach to the homeless. Discipleship communities and worship nights, outreach to the poor and 24-hour houses of prayer, local ministry and global missions—all these are expressions of the body of Christ seeking to establish the Kingdom of God in our world.
Still, admittedly, sometimes it doesn’t seem that the Kingdom of God is taking root in certain parts of the earth.
Why? The media blasts inundate us at every turn with messages about racial tensions, war rumors, overt sexuality, and declining spirituality, making it seem at times that the Kingdom of God is not taking root in certain parts of the earth. So, where’s the Kingdom of God again?
We are emotionally overloaded with absorbing and sorting information, which leads to spiritual numbness. We are like the proverbial “frog in the bottom of a well," 井底之蛙 (jǐng dǐ zhī wā), a Chinese idiom that describes a narrow perspective or myopic view of the horizon.
Admit it: sometimes our entire perspective looks like a small baby blue orb of sky over the lip of the deep, narrow well.
What we really want is to see God’s Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it always is in heaven. In our zip codes, cities, states, countries, and even to the ends of the earth, our hearts beat to see the name of Christ lifted up so that all men, women, and children are drawn to God’s grace and glory.
If that is really going to happen, here’s what we need to start praying: “God, pour Your Spirit into this deep well! Let the waters of Your grace and glory raise me to a broad horizon!”
And as that happens, you and I (the proverbial frogs at the bottom of a well) float upward, and the tiny blue circle expands. A new horizon appears. We see clearly now. The landscape is wide and the world brilliant. The will of God becomes clear, and the peoples in the far-off distance grow important to us.
From our Jerusalems and Judaeas, from our Samarias and even to the ends of the earth—the advent of the Kingdom of God is our greatest aspiration.
The Kingdom of God knows no boundaries. Geographical coordinates are a trivial notion to a God who dwells outside the restraints of time and space. Christian outreach in Seattle, Dallas, or Boston is as meaningful to God as Kingdom ministry in Bangkok, Beijing, Copenhagen, or Cairo.
To love the things of God—to adore God Himself—is to care about the things He cares for, namely, people. People everywhere, not just at home. Souls on the brink of eternity at every geographical juncture of our planet.
Queue and enter the unreached world.
I believe that it is time we, as global Christians, realized that we have long overlooked millions of people. We have not given them a chance to hear the Gospel. We go on mission trips to Western nations, to South, Central, and Latin America, and to much of Africa, where the Gospel has gone many times over. But we completely forget that the task is not yet finished.
Millions are waiting at the other end of our obedience. They are called unreached people groups, and they live in the 10/40 Window. They have little to no access to the Christian Gospel.
That’s got to change.
This is my prayer: as God pours His Spirit into your well and as you rise to recognize a broader horizon, you come to understand the heart of God more thoroughly. Because saying that you love the Kingdom of God—even God Himself!—means you love what He cares about.
Here’s the simple message: God cares about unreached people groups—individuals beyond the sphere of our present evangelistic outreaches. And here’s the simple response: join Within Reach Global in bringing the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth.
God wants to broaden your horizons beyond that small blue orb in the sky. He wants you to see what He sees, to feel what He feels. His heart beats for people who have never heard of Him before.
Does yours?
