Preparing for Mission, part 1

Prepare for Mission by David A Posthuma

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You are Royal

How do you see yourself? When you attend a social activity, how do you introduce yourself? How do you describe yourself to others? Does the interaction go something like this?

“Hi, my name is David”. “So, David, what do you do?” “I‘m a Ministry Systems Designer”. “Oh really…Who do you work for?”

It may be normal in our fallen world to describe ourselves this way, but let’s consider for a moment how the introduction might differ if Jesus introduced us to others at a party….

“Hi, this is my friend and brother David”. “Oh really, what does your brother do?” “David is a Princely Warrior”. “A Prince and Warrior…Whose kingdom does David serve?” “David serves his Heavenly Father who adopted him as his son, made him a Prince within his Kingdom, and has given him all authority and power to accomplish a significant mission assignment that will help restore this fallen world, destroy the power of the Evil One, and bring all things under the leadership of my Father in Heaven.”

There’s quite a difference in the two descriptions, isn’t there? The first is rather bland…it certainly doesn’t make David out to be the life of the party. In contrast, the second description seems too incredible to believe…yet it is true. From a Biblical perspective, this is how God views every Christ follower. We are God’s adopted sons and daughters through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ…who being in very nature God, took on flesh to become like one of us, to suffer like one of us, and to die for the penalty due to us for our sin-nature and sin-acts; on the third day following his death, Jesus was raised to life and has since ascended to heaven where he intercedes to God the Father on our behalf. Through faith in Jesus, we have been adopted into God’s royal family, and so you and I are now also royalty, we are princes and princesses in God’s presence and emerging Kingdom. The Bible describes us as “co-heirs” with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:17). Reflect for a moment on the ramifications of that assertion! We are co-heirs with Jesus…everything that is his (status, power, position, authority, glory, and suffering) belongs to us as well! Sadly, however, few Christ followers live their lives based upon their royal position. In fact, to a certain extent, I believe we are all guilty of living short of our royal status. All of us live like the hero in the story: “The Little Princess” (Frances Hodgson Burnett, St. Nicholas Magazine, 1904) whose father possessed great riches, position, and power; yet in ignorance of her inherited status, the princess lived in poverty and servitude.

How we perceive ourselves…our self-image…impacts all our life choices, values, and goals. If I see myself as a princely warrior who serves in a vital capacity within an epic battle, then my life decisions will support my self-perception. If I perceive myself as just a “Ministry Systems Designer”, then my life decisions will support that version of my self-perception. If I perceive myself to be weak and of little value, as Satan would deceive me to believe, then based upon that belief I would cower from accomplishing anything of value for Christ’s Kingdom. From God’s perspective, you and I are indeed princes and princess warriors with vital mission assignments intended to help take-back this fallen world for Christ.

It is important that we perceive ourselves correctly, the way God intends. A healthy Biblical self-image is essential not simply because God adopted us as royalty, but also because our unique design points us in the direction of the mission-purpose God intends for us. God designed us exactly the way we need to be to accomplish the ministry mission he ordained for us.  I also believe the more we learn to appreciate our unique design, the more we will learn to appreciate our unique Designer, whose image we were designed to reflect.