Chapter 6
A while back we were at a beach birthday party for a friend. The adults were sitting around sharing stories and playing instruments, and the kids were running around in the sand when a friend realized his three-year-old daughter wasn’t nearby. We all started looking and calling out her name while her father ran to the water and waded in, hoping against hope that she hadn’t gotten sucked under a wave. In sheer panic we spread out — some to the parking lot, some to the restrooms, others asking everyone on the beach if they’d seen her. Several minutes passed and she was nowhere to be found.
At some point I noticed a large sand dune and decided to climb it to get a better vantage point. When I reached the top, I saw a tiny speck about three football fields away. I had no idea if that was her, but I took off running as fast as I could. As I drew near, I was so relieved to see it was my friend’s daughter, crying hysterically. The poor thing was so vulnerable and helpless— I just cannot tell you what it felt like to sweep her up in my arms and tell her everything was going to be okay. I ran back to my friend, who saw me from a distance and took off toward us. When I placed his precious daughter in his arms, my friend responded with tremendous emotion, expressing his thankfulness again and again. What a privilege it was to bring back a lost child to the arms of her loving father.
As I begin this chapter on our final “D” – deployed – this story is on my heart because it is such a beautiful picture of the privilege each of us have as followers of Jesus. Do you realize you are called to go out, find the lost children and put them back into our Heavenly Father’s arms? To me, there is no greater honor, no higher privilege and nothing more rewarding than this. What could possibly compare to knowing you get to be a part of healing God’s heart that is broken for our lost world?
The Bible says that Jesus came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10 AMP). This was His mission, and His message was clear and simple: “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” When God’s kingdom is near, not only are lost children brought home to experience His reign in their lives, but heaven comes to earth and amazing things happen. Because God is good and perfect, His kingdom is the best news any person, family, culture, society or nation can experience! Jesus taught this, modeled it, and sent His followers out to do the very things He did to bring His kingdom, saying: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). Are you ready for this? From the moment you decided to invite Jesus into your heart, you were deployed, whether you knew it or not!
Everybody Gets to Play
I loved sports growing up, but in junior high I had an accident that ended my football career and put me in and out of the hospital for a whole year. By God’s grace I was eventually supernaturally healed, but by the time I could play sports again, I was in college and had fallen way behind my peers because of lack of practice. I was terribly disappointed when I wasn’t asked to be on the intramural football team because I hadn’t played football in high school. I envied the comradery of all these other guys as they shared the excitement of the battle and the joy of victory. As a former athlete, this was painful and emotionally challenging.
It is no fun to sit on the sidelines, in sports and in life. We’ve all experienced the hurt of not being invited in, of feeling left out or being picked last, as if we had nothing to offer. But God’s heart is to draw each one of us in, to give every person who is willing a part to play in His purposes for the world. God has no favorites and doesn’t want to leave anyone on the sidelines.
A lot of people think only Jesus’ twelve disciples were on mission, but that is not true. Jesus deployed His whole church, beginning with the twelve:
And he called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. And he sent them forth to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. … And they departed, and went throughout the villages, preaching the gospel, and healing everywhere. (Luke 9:1-2, 6)
Then He brought in a group of 72:
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “…Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” (Luke 10:1, 9)
And just to make it clear that Jesus has a place for you, look at what He prayed at the end of His life:
“As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world…. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.” (John 17:18-20)
How incredible is it that Jesus prayed for you and me, affirming that He was sending us into the world in the same way His Father sent Him? You are called, commissioned, and sent forth to bring the kingdom near wherever you go every day of your life! Jesus has deployed you! Now you might be thinking: “Me? I’m not a preacher” or “I work in an office” or “I stay home and take care of my children” or “I’m just a student” so how can I be deployed? Let me just tell you that no matter what your life circumstances, if you have made a decision to invite Jesus into your life, He has a mission for you. Everybody gets to play!
Occupation vs Vocation
“What are you going to be when you grow up?” is a question that adults ask kids, and kids ask each other all the time. I remember for the longest time telling people I wanted to be the President of the United States. Then I wanted to be a Disney animator. Then I wanted to be an actor in movies. In college I stressed out when they asked me to declare a major because I felt like I was being forced to choose what I would be, and I still wasn’t sure. That is probably why I changed majors four times!
But then God clearly called me to be a pastor, and I got really focused on that. I started to daydream about it, determining to get as much education as I could so I would have tons of letters after my name. I wanted to be Pastor Herber, Rev. Herber, Dr. Herber, Robert Herber, PhD. I thought if I could get as many degrees as possible, I’d impress people and look like I had an important job. Then one day, just when I was positive that I was about to get a pastoral position at a church, I had a meeting with my pastor, who told me I wasn’t ready. Although I know now how right he was, at the time I felt devastated and deeply disappointed.
The next day as I walked and talked with God, I felt Him saying He wanted to give me a life vision statement. I was excited and waited expectantly for something profound. The first thing I heard was: “Robert I want you to love Jesus.” And I thought, boy that is simple, but it is Biblical too, and I thought of the verse that says to love God “with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength” (Mark 12:33). Then I said, “God, is there anything else?” and immediately the phrase “feed my sheep” came to mind. I thought, that is Biblical too as I remembered in John 21:15 where Jesus said to Peter “if you love me, feed my sheep.” I felt like that was still really simple, so I asked again, “God, is there anything else?” And immediately the phrase came, “fish for men.” I remembered Mark 1:17 where Jesus told his disciples to come and follow him and he’d make them fishers of men.
What came next was truly profound. I felt like God said, “Robert, no matter what vocation you have in life, whether you are a pastor or work behind the counter at the corner store, whether you are a doctor or a garbage man, no matter what you are doing, if you do these three things—love Jesus, feed my sheep and fish for men—you will be incredibly successful in my kingdom.”
Love Jesus (God) Mark 12:30
Feed his sheep John 21:15
Fish for men Mark 1:17
These three things became the foundation of my life. Every day I invest time in my relationship with Jesus. Every day I try to make disciples and care for Jesus’ followers, and every day I look for the lost around me and for opportunities to bring them the gospel. This can all be summarized as building God’s kingdom.
The important lesson I learned that day was that my occupation was far more important than my vocation. The dictionary defines occupation as “the principle business of one’s life.” Let me just say that Jesus does not want any job, whether it’s waiting tables or computer programming or managing an office, to be the principle business of your life. He told us what he wants it to be in Matthew 6:33: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” You see, we all have the same occupation — to build God’s kingdom in every area of our lives, wherever we go.
On the other hand, the dictionary defines vocation as “a summons or strong inclination to a particular state or course of action.” In His brilliance, God deploys each of us to build His kingdom in unique ways across every sector of society through our different vocations. In Jesus’ initial group of followers, there were fishermen, doctors, accountants, wealthy society women and historians, to name a few.
Look at the variety in the early church alone:
Paul was a tentmaker, along with Priscilla and Aquilla
Cornelius was a military officer
Simon was a tanner
Onesimus was a household servant
Dorcas was a clothing designer
All of these played an important part in spreading the gospel and establishing God’s kingdom.
So, whatever your vocation might be, I want to encourage you that Jesus has a plan for you to fulfill His call, and you don’t have to be a pastor or an overseas missionary to do it (although He might call you to that too!). The question isn’t whether you have been deployed, but what you have been deployed to do in your situation. We are going to see that all of us are deployed to do what Jesus did, to get the gospel to the ends of the earth, and to active duty in a wartime world.
Deployed to Do What Jesus Did
The Bible describes a typical week in Jesus’ life like this:
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:35-36)
In this passage, we see what Jesus did and His heart behind it. The Gospels often describe Jesus as someone who had compassion, and this passage says His heart was moved because He realized how harassed and helpless people were. Don’t you just love this about Jesus? When Jesus deploys us, He gives us a heart for the hurting people in our world, and we can’t help but have compassion on them.
But let me just say that having a heart for people is only the launchpad for the things we get to do as people who are sent. This passage tells us that Jesus went around “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.” The same thing happened when Jesus “called the twelve together…and sent them forth to preach the kingdom of God and heal the sick” (Luke 9:2). Then He sent out the 72, telling them to “heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you’” (Luke 10:9). When Peter preached the good news at Pentecost, 3000 people got saved, and Scripture says the people were “filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles” (Acts 2:43).
And so it has been for over two thousand years. We get to share the good news of salvation and pray for miracles so people will know that the kingdom of God has come. Supernatural experiences like healing or deliverance demonstrate that there is no God like ours! All over the world, people all are coming to faith in Jesus Christ because they’ve seen signs and wonders and heard the truth about Jesus’ death for their sins. It is incredible that we get to be a part of this! Jesus has deployed us to do what He did: to preach the good news of salvation to a lost world and to help heal their physical, emotional and spiritual brokenness by bringing His kingdom.
Deployed to Get the Gospel to the Ends of the Earth
Jesus gave a final deployment message to the disciples as He was about to return to heaven, saying: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This wasn’t a new idea to the disciples. As we saw in our chapter on making disciples, Jesus had already told them to “Go and make disciples of all nations….” Earlier He’d said they were going to experience some really tough things, but then he promised them this: “And this “gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14)
Jesus was making a huge claim, that history as we know it will come to an end once every nation has heard the gospel. You and I are not just off on our own little deployment—we get to be a part of God’s plan to reach all the nations of the world! This is what heaven is all about, as Jesus showed the Apostle John in a vision:
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9-10)
Here’s the crazy thing. For the first time in history, we are at the point where every tribe, people, and tongue can actually be reached with the good news of Jesus. I recently sat in on a conference with an organization called Finishing the Task, which is a group of missions organizations and churches that have come together, and through the use of satellite imaging and artificial intelligence have identified every single ethno-linguistic people group on earth. During that conference, the last people group on their list was adopted by some believers who are committed to getting the gospel to them.
Are you seeing this? You could be the generation that ushers in the return of Jesus. You may not go to the ends of the earth, but you get to help make it happen. How? You can pray, you can give, you can go on a short-term missions’ trip, you can support missionaries, and some of you will actually pack your bags and go for the long haul. The point is, Jesus has deployed us all to work together to reach every tribe and tongue with the Gospel, and once that happens, He is coming back.
I don’t know about you, but I want Jesus to come back. I look at this dying world and I see the pain and the suffering. I see more human slavery than in the time of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. I see more suicide than any time in history. I see a raging epidemic of bondage to pornography. I see crazy greed and materialism. I see sexual morality completely disintegrating, families torn to shreds and total confusion about what is truth and what values even matter anymore. I also see a people distracted like never before. It is crazy what has happened in just a few decades with technology. Not only are our brains being rewired in harmful ways, but our bodies are physically changing because of our addictions to our phones and digital devices.
So yes, I long for Jesus to come back, but in the meantime, you and I are deployed to bring His kingdom here and now, until He returns. This will take something that is almost unheard of in this day and time — people who will deny themselves and take up their crosses like Jesus did, to become like Him in His death. There’s never been a harder time to die to your own will and desires than in this generation. You can sit in your room and let the world come to you — you can be entertained or have food delivered or play video games or text endlessly or immerse yourself in social media for hours every day without ever looking up or out. You can absolutely waste your life and not even know it.
Deployed to Active Duty in a Wartime World
This brings me to the final point about deployment, which is that you are called to active duty in a war that began before this world was created and will not end until Jesus returns. The summer Stef and I got married, we took off to Southeast Asia to lead missions teams in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. We had a one-week break in between, so we headed to the tropical island chain of the Maldives for vacation. It had been a crazy busy semester of work, and then everyone knows pulling off a wedding is no small feat, so I was very excited to have some time to relax on a beautiful beach. But things didn’t go quite how we expected. At the airport upon entry there was a sign forbidding Bibles or other religious materials. I hid my Bible and kept going.
We got to the resort that evening and were taken to our Bungalow and things went downhill from there. I can only describe that evening as the worst of my life. All I can say is that I was demonically attacked while trying to sleep that night. I felt a lot of oppression on my body and then I began to see all kinds of demonic images crawling on the ceiling. I had to wake up my sweet bride, who desperately tried to stay up with me as I was traumatized by the experience and couldn’t sleep.
As I prayed the next morning and asked God what was going on, I heard a still, small voice, and I will never forget what He said: “Son you can’t come into a war zone— a place of stronghold for the enemy, a place where he has had a strong grasp, and just relax and take a vacation. You have to fight.” So, Stef and I checked out of the resort and took a boat to the capital city to do our own version of a mission trip. We would spend the mornings in prayer and intercession over this country that had no known believers, no church and no missionaries that we knew of. Then in the afternoon we went out asking God to direct our steps.
Our first afternoon we made friends with a young waiter who’d been a professional athlete in that county. We ended up spending much of the rest of the week with him and his friends, even going into his village. At one point the young man explained that he dropped out of soccer because of an ankle injury that still affected him. I asked if I could pray for him, and right there in front of his friends laid my hands on his ankle and prayed. Immediately after I finished, he looked at me in wide eyed wonder and said: “You’re a magician!” as he moved around excitedly declaring he’d been completely healed. I told him I wasn’t a magician, but this was the power of Jesus, the power of the One I’d been telling him about. That day he gave his life to Jesus.
It was not an easy week, but it was a victorious one. That week the war for souls became real to me. In John’s vision we read about above, every tribe and tongue is worshipping around the throne, but he also had a vision of another scene that happened long ago:
Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back“ But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. (Revelation 12:7-9)
There was a war in heaven. We know this happened. Satan wanted to be worshipped like God, and thus he was hurled down. But where to? This is where people are confused. They do not understand that Satan was hurled to earth. According to Scripture, Satan is the prince of the power the air and the god of this world (Ephesians 2:2, 2 Corinthians 4:4). People have too low of a view of Satan — they think he isn’t real or is hanging out in hell. But let me just tell you — the reason there is so much destruction, hate, rape, genocide, terrorism, murder and on and on is because Satan is at war with the people of God and will do everything he can to keep us from bringing Jesus’ kingdom to the darkness in this world.
We are at war, and you have been deployed to active duty! Although Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it,” it feels like the hordes of hell are destroying the earth. Why? Because “we don’t live like the devil is on our doorstep, waging war against us. We’ve been lulled to sleep by our own wants and desires, our own hunger for comfort and insatiable appetites. We’ve come to believe that following Jesus is just about making our life a little more pleasant.
One time on a long flight, I watched the movie Captain America, and it absolutely captivated my heart. The premise is that there is this young, weak guy with a huge heart who can’t get into the military but gets chosen to receive a serum that will amplify what is in his heart. Ultimately, he becomes Captain America — strong, intelligent and courageous. When his best friend and others are held captive behind enemy lines and no one else is willing to take the risk, out of loyalty and love Captain America goes fearlessly on a mission to rescue them from destruction.
Everyone loves Captain America. But do you realize that God has made this your story and mine? We feel weak and inadequate, but Jesus wants to clothe us with supernatural power from the Holy Spirit, so we can be a part of his end times rescue mission! Scripture says:
“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4)
Right now, there are people who need rescuing all over the world, who need to know the truth about God’s love for them. God wants to save them from eternal destruction, and He’s calling you to active duty to go behind enemy lines and bring them home. Then and only then will you be who you are called to be.
Has the war become real for you? Do you wake each day, knowing that there is a battle ahead, that there is an enemy who rules this world and will fight to keep you from rescuing others? I want you to know that Jesus is stronger, that you are an overcomer because “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world?” (1 John 4:4).
But still, we have to fight! Please don’t live your life in a battle zone trying to relax. Go across your office, across your street, across your classroom, and even across your living room to fight for the souls of men and women and children that Jesus longs to save! You are not “alone — the Holy Spirit fills you with power, and your fellow soldiers are all around you, ready to join arms to win the victory! War is upon us.
You are deployed!