The Path of Least Resistance
Several months ago I was in a Sunday morning service at one of WME's new partnering churches. During the service there came a time when there was some prophetic ministry. One of the elders of the church gave me a word that at the time sounded very strange. He said something like, "David, I know this sounds unusual, but I think the Lord is telling me to share with you to take the path of Least Resistance".
I must admit, at the time it sounded somewhat goofy. I had a bit of a hint in my mind what it might mean (if it was a genuine word from the Lord). Like all things prophetic that are not straight from the Bible, I set it on the shelf, but pondered it. At the time, we were in one of those seasons where there seemed to be a good bit of resistance and warfare in certain aspects of the ministry. The economy was "eating our lunch" as it has been for a lot of ministries, and even in Honduras, though churches were being planted, it was a tough season in a lot of ways, including the recent violent deaths of some pastors who were about to be trained in CPM.
As a matter of fact, a few weeks after that, I was at a key event in Nashville concerning Disciple Making Movements in Africa. That day we were engaged in a hard prayer battle over some immigration issues related to our strategy coordinator's family. Resistance had been mind boggling. I had been praying some really violent prayers! When we got to the event in Nashville I got a call from Keith Travis who told us a miracle story of how the breakthrough had just happened! Then I got on the phone with Randy Travis who had just received some wonderful reports from Honduras, which was our first hint that we might be seeing the beginning of CPM occuring! I was euphoric. So I was sharing with some of my friends at the meeting the good news we had just been told. Something in all of that reminded me of the "least resistance" word. So after the event that night I mentioned that word to one of my good friends who works with Wycliffe Bible Translators. As soon as that word about least resistance came out of my mouth, he told me that he would definitely not recieve such a word as from the Lord.
I told him, that I understood where he was coming from, but that I really did not think that the word was meant to say what it sounded like on the surface. It is surely true that in one sense, missionaries and pioneers of the gospel take anything but a path of "least resistance". The missions call is a call to the hard places, the least reached places and peoples. Powerful organizations like Wycliffe have dug out the work through blood, sweat, and tears! Many people have laid their lives down in the context of Pioneering the Gospel. If the path of least resistance is taken to mean "Play it Safe" then I agree, no such word is from the Lord.
But as I explained to my friend, and as I am coming to believe more and more, the path of least resistance can be a way of explaining a counterintuitive principle of Disciple Making Movements.
For one thing, it is not the Path of No Resistance. Spiritual Warfare and Persecution are present in 100 percent of DMM work....so much so that they are listed as 2 of the Critical Elements.
But I think that "Take the Path of Least Resistance" could be a way of framing the truth that, in the midst of Warfare and Persecution, we look for and follow through the open doors and straight paths that the Holy Spirit makes for us. Take a look at these scriptures:
Revelation 3:8
I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
Isaiah 40:3
A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God."
The first scripture is to the church of Philadelphia, and the 2nd is prophetically speaking of the work of John the Baptist. Especially in the 2nd case, John prepared the road for Jesus, but no reading of the gospels would indicate that Jesus therefore took the path of No Resistance. There was plenty of warfare (with Satan Face to Face!) and persecution (Crucifixion) in the path that Jesus took. Yet it was a "Prepared and Straight Path" and the work of John the Baptist was a pioneering work that laid the groundwork.
So I believe that that was a word from the Lord a few months back, but the meaning was this: Expect God to open some new doors of opportunity and make straight and clear paths for WME as it goes forward. And that is just what is happening now. Doors are opening and we are going to have to pray for wisdom in order to know when and how to go through them!
Here are a few of the paths and doors that are opening right now:
I must admit, at the time it sounded somewhat goofy. I had a bit of a hint in my mind what it might mean (if it was a genuine word from the Lord). Like all things prophetic that are not straight from the Bible, I set it on the shelf, but pondered it. At the time, we were in one of those seasons where there seemed to be a good bit of resistance and warfare in certain aspects of the ministry. The economy was "eating our lunch" as it has been for a lot of ministries, and even in Honduras, though churches were being planted, it was a tough season in a lot of ways, including the recent violent deaths of some pastors who were about to be trained in CPM.
As a matter of fact, a few weeks after that, I was at a key event in Nashville concerning Disciple Making Movements in Africa. That day we were engaged in a hard prayer battle over some immigration issues related to our strategy coordinator's family. Resistance had been mind boggling. I had been praying some really violent prayers! When we got to the event in Nashville I got a call from Keith Travis who told us a miracle story of how the breakthrough had just happened! Then I got on the phone with Randy Travis who had just received some wonderful reports from Honduras, which was our first hint that we might be seeing the beginning of CPM occuring! I was euphoric. So I was sharing with some of my friends at the meeting the good news we had just been told. Something in all of that reminded me of the "least resistance" word. So after the event that night I mentioned that word to one of my good friends who works with Wycliffe Bible Translators. As soon as that word about least resistance came out of my mouth, he told me that he would definitely not recieve such a word as from the Lord.
I told him, that I understood where he was coming from, but that I really did not think that the word was meant to say what it sounded like on the surface. It is surely true that in one sense, missionaries and pioneers of the gospel take anything but a path of "least resistance". The missions call is a call to the hard places, the least reached places and peoples. Powerful organizations like Wycliffe have dug out the work through blood, sweat, and tears! Many people have laid their lives down in the context of Pioneering the Gospel. If the path of least resistance is taken to mean "Play it Safe" then I agree, no such word is from the Lord.
But as I explained to my friend, and as I am coming to believe more and more, the path of least resistance can be a way of explaining a counterintuitive principle of Disciple Making Movements.
For one thing, it is not the Path of No Resistance. Spiritual Warfare and Persecution are present in 100 percent of DMM work....so much so that they are listed as 2 of the Critical Elements.
But I think that "Take the Path of Least Resistance" could be a way of framing the truth that, in the midst of Warfare and Persecution, we look for and follow through the open doors and straight paths that the Holy Spirit makes for us. Take a look at these scriptures:
Revelation 3:8
I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
Isaiah 40:3
A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God."
The first scripture is to the church of Philadelphia, and the 2nd is prophetically speaking of the work of John the Baptist. Especially in the 2nd case, John prepared the road for Jesus, but no reading of the gospels would indicate that Jesus therefore took the path of No Resistance. There was plenty of warfare (with Satan Face to Face!) and persecution (Crucifixion) in the path that Jesus took. Yet it was a "Prepared and Straight Path" and the work of John the Baptist was a pioneering work that laid the groundwork.
So I believe that that was a word from the Lord a few months back, but the meaning was this: Expect God to open some new doors of opportunity and make straight and clear paths for WME as it goes forward. And that is just what is happening now. Doors are opening and we are going to have to pray for wisdom in order to know when and how to go through them!
Here are a few of the paths and doors that are opening right now:
1. Opportunity to train a key organization in CPM and disciple making in Tegucigalpa Honduras.
2. Opportunity to train in South Central Honduras.
3. Opportunity to train in El Salvador.
4. Opportunity to train in Colombia.
5. Opportunity to train in Guatemala.
6. Opportunity to train in Mexico.
7. Opportunity to train in Cuba.
8. Opportunity to train in Costa Rica.
(From these you can see that doors are opening to impact not only a Honduras Church Planting Movement, but to see expansion to a Latin American CPM)
9. Opportunity to connect with key Disciple making movements in Southern Africa, and connect it to one of WME's missionary families to begin CPM training in Botswana, Africa.
10. WME Missionaries preparing to deploy to the Indonesia region in early 2013 to begin CPM type work among multiple Muslim people groups.
Will you join us in prayer that God will continue to multiply the work in Honduras and will give the wisdom, timing and resources necessary to go through the doors that He is opening.
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