In our previous post, we covered a simple definition of spiritual gifts and some key points about gifts. In this post, we’ll explore why using spiritual gifts is critical on the missions field.

As we’ve mentioned in our spiritual warfare posts, our encounters with spiritual warfare during our first short-term trip to Thailand opened our eyes to spiritual realities. It also made us begin to seek out the Holy Spirit and learn about spiritual gifts. As we discerned our calling to go and sought out development and preparation before launching, this category of the Holy Spirit (listening prayer, spiritual gifts, spiritual warfare) was a blind spot for us. As we heard stories from movement practitioners on the field, they shared about healings, demons being cast out, Muslims having dreams of Jesus, and supernatural usage of spiritual gifts. We studied Acts and saw miraculous signs and wonders accompanying the proclamation of the gospel.

It made us ask the question – how come these supernatural acts seem so prevalent on the mission field but feel so rare in our home context? And, if these things are happening and are critical to the work, what can we do to learn about the gifts and access them?

Part of the answer has to do with our own cultural and theological perspectives about the spiritual world, what Paul Hiebert calls The Excluded Middle. Another reason is that we simply are more self-reliant on our ‘natural’ skills and giftings rather than the Spirit’s power when we are in our own comfortable culture. Laboring cross-culturally can humble you quickly and turn you towards looking for power beyond yourself.

The truth is that we need the Spirit’s power for supernatural impact just as much at home as we do on the mission field – it just isn’t as apparent to us. But the field has a unique way to draw out the reality of our need for the Spirit’s power.

The Missions Field is a Pioneering Environment.

Floyd McClung coined the term ‘apostolic passion,’ which he defines as “a deliberate, intentional choice to live for the worship of Jesus in the nations.” It’s drawn from Paul’s ‘ambition’ in Romans 15:

“And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”

– Romans 15:20-21

I think many, if not most, cross-cultural workers have this apostolic passion. We not only desire to see Jesus worshipped among the nations, but have what McClung calls the apostolic abandonment and focus to give our lives and time and efforts towards making disciples among the unreached.

Those with apostolic passion will go to start new work among people and places where Jesus is not yet known. These missions fields are what I would call pioneering environments, where the methods, systems, structures, institutions, and the sufficient number of disciple-makers needed to reach a people or place do not yet exist. As such, pursuing disciple-making and church planting in a pioneering environment requires different approaches than in reached areas, including increased innovation, more flexible methodology, a higher rate of experimentation and failing forward, and more agile teams that can adjust quickly to change.

But above everything, pioneering environments require spiritual breakthrough.

The Pioneering Environment Requires Spiritual Breakthrough, Including Spiritual Gifts.

And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

– Mark 16:20

As much as I believe that strategic and innovative approaches can be helpful in starting movements, too often we see cross-cultural workers put their hope in their strategies and tools rather than in the Spirit’s power. These unreached communities have been resistant to the gospel for potentially hundreds of years, and there are too many cultural, religious, historical, and most of all spiritual barriers to the gospel in these pioneering environments for human ability to make a dent. Even the perfect persuasive evangelism tool has no power to change the heart of someone who lives in darkness. Seeing people among the unreached repent and believe the gospel requires the Spirit to move in power!

Paul tells us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12), and that “the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4). Throughout the New Testament, we see signs, wonders, gifts, and power coincide with the proclamation of the gospel in the mission field, whether through Jesus himself (Matthew 9:35), in the disciples (Luke 10:19), or through the early believers in Acts (Acts 14:3).

These spiritual realities of warfare that faced the early church should inform how we approach the pioneering environments that we are in! For every hour of planning, how many do we give to prayer? For every resource we develop, how much do we focus on receiving and using the Spirit’s power and gifts? Do our approaches even allow for “divine power to destroy strongholds,” or are they weapons of the flesh and human wisdom? These are questions that I need to ask myself often!

If we can see the battle is spiritual, just as Elisha’s servant had his eyes opened (2 Kings 6:17), the good news is that the “weapons of our warfare” are already promised and given. I love that in every one of the Great Commission passages, power is promised to accompany the commission to make disciples and preach the gospel. One significant aspect of this power is through the spiritual gifts that each believer is given.

We should expect, depend on, and regularly use the gifts of the Spirit in the work of pioneering movements.

Our Thai partners greatly outpace us in this category. Their primary method of entering new communities is by praying for needs. We train and practice praying for people with a simple prayer, and then see if God moves and opens their hearts to hear more about Jesus. Often, people request prayer for physical ailments and illnesses.

Early on in our partnership with Mint, we went with her to visit one new believer’s house that was 40 minutes down a dirt road. After going through a new believer lesson with the new believer Sarah, she introduced us to her mom. Sarah told us that her mom hadn’t been able to stand or walk for several months, and a doctor told them that she would likely never walk again because of severe osteoporosis. Together with Mint, we gathered to pray for Sarah’s mom. Nothing happened. We said our goodbyes and Mint told Sarah that she would come back next week to go through more discipleship lessons.

A week later, Mint and her team went back to Sarah’s house. And they prayed again for Sarah’s mom.

And Sarah’s mom stood up and walked down the stairs for the first time in months.

The next week, she walked into the nearby creek to be baptized by her daughter.

As more and more disciple-makers were trained to engage the harvest, reports of healings, miracles, and salvations began coming in weekly. 

• One new believer was beaten by her husband so severely that her right eye swelled and she was blinded in that eye. She came to the local house church and had the believers pray for her. The next day, she woke up, and the swollenness was gone and she could see! 
• In another province, a new believer discovered he had the gift of healing and met a sick woman while selling bus tickets. After praying for her, she invited him to her nearby village where he healed an entire group of elderly ladies and started a new group! 
• Another new believer was in the hospital and prayed for a person in the bed next to them that had stopped breathing and was declared dead – and they came back to life! 
• At one training, we heard one leader yelling “Go out! Go out!” into the phone which is the same word in Thai as the go in “go and make disciples” from Matthew 28, so we thought he was training. But one new believer was working on a rubber farm and a coworker put on an amulet and became possessed by an evil spirit. She didn’t know how to cast it out so she called this leader to cast it out over the phone!

Over the past 7 years of partnering with this network of church planters, we’ve heard dozens, if not hundreds, of answered prayer stories like these, and probably have missed hundreds more. We start almost every meeting or training with the question – is there anything you would like to praise God for? And stories begin flowing out. One of my favorites is where one new believer prayed for rain on their farm, and the storm poured out rain just on their land and stopped exactly at the border between their farm and their neighbor’s!

These types of supernatural breakthroughs are common and normative in movements, like those in the book of Acts. When normal, faithful disciples (and almost all of the above stories are from new believers) are released to operate in power, God shows up! Are we expectant of these things? Are we asking the Spirit for them?

Though All Gifts Are Useful, Certain Gifts Are Particularly Helpful in the Pioneering Environment.

Certain spiritual gifts are particularly useful in pioneering ministry work, and others are more useful for building up the body in the context of a local church or mission team.

To give some examples:

• Healing and Miracles – We see this as a standard aspect of bringing the Kingdom of God to the world. Accompanied with the proclamation of the gospel are signs and wonders like healing and miracles. The several stories from the previous section are examples of what it can look like!
  
• Evangelism – Obviously, evangelism gifts are valuable to pioneering environments! All believers should share the gospel regularly regardless of gifting, and, those gifted in evangelism should use it frequently! People with an evangelistic gift just seem to very easily connect with people, and can have more effectiveness in sharing the gospel and winning people to Christ.
  
  Before we launched as a team to Thailand, we tried to live out disciple-making rhythms in preparation for overseas work. Out of our team of 12, one teammate who was evangelism gifted had led more people to Christ than the rest of our team combined! We will talk more about Ephesians 4 later, but evangelism-gifted leaders shouldn’t only exercise their gift in sharing the gospel, but need to use their gift to equip others to share.

• Teaching / Training – At first glance, it’d seem that teaching would be a gift more appropriate for within the local church. But for teams trying to start movements with a ‘Be Barnabas’ approach, catalyzing near culture believers to share the gospel means there’s a lot of training! It means that those with a teaching gift who are able to handle the Word simply and equip near or in-culture believers to share the gospel, make disciples, and multiply churches is extremely valuable! Also, teaching gifts can be crucial in developing simple, reproducible, biblical curriculum that can be used in new multiplying works.

• Helps – Another gift that seems like it would be more suited to within the local church is helps. But a Be Barnabas approach means that the National Apostolic Visionary (NAV) leader is the “Paul” that God has chosen to pioneer new ministry among their people, and our role as outsider is to serve and support that leader. If we want to Be Barnabas, it requires a humbling of ourselves to serve that leader, and those with the gift of helps will be particularly suited to caring for, supporting, and providing whatever is needed for that NAV leader to thrive and multiply.
  
  One of our teammates gifted in helps walked alongside a local believer who was going through burnout. That believer wasn’t implementing movement practice or actively making disciples, so Jenn and I questioned if that was really the best use of that teammate’s time. But after helping this Thai friend take a sabbatical, this local believer came back and said – I want to devote my time to multiplying disciples! – and has recently started a number of new groups! As people not gifted in helps, we saw that time investment as questionable, but to our teammate, she was drawn to serve through her gifting. That’s why it’s critical that all the gifts have an opportunity to participate in the Great Commission! Side note – this is why we love the Be Barnabas approach! The apostolic and evangelist will clearly have value in supporting the NAV’s ministry, but so do the teachers, shepherds, and helpers in a very different and much needed way!

We Should Have the Ability to Identify and Develop Spiritual Gifts In Our National Partners.

Lastly, it’s critical that we have studied, practiced, and developed our own gifts and gifts in others so that we can identify and develop spiritual giftings in our national partners. When we’re looking for a “Paul”-type national partner who can catalyze movements, part of that is looking for a specific type of gifting. It’s in the name – a National Apostolic Visionary leader. We break down some of that in our article about what a NAV is. We’ll also have a future post further exploring the word “apostolic” including the apostolic gifting.

Although we have a certain eye out for apostolic leaders, we should also partner with local believers that have other giftings. Anyone who is ready to be obedient to the Great Commission to share the gospel and make disciples is worth investing in! At the end of the day, the goal is to multiply healthy churches, and that requires all of the gifts, though different gifts might be emphasized at different phases of ministry. For example, apostolic and evangelistic gifts might be most helpful in pioneering in a new area to win people to faith. But as churches grow, gifts like pastor/shepherding and teaching will need to be emphasized. As issues needing correction come up in the church, giftings like exhortation and prophecy will need to be elevated.

Do we know what the Word says about each of these giftings? Are we able to identify them in emerging leaders? Do we know how to develop these giftings and encourage local partners to use them to advance the work of multiplying churches?

In our next post, we’ll explore how different spiritual gifts can help edify the body, either in the local church context or on missions teams. Below are some questions for reflection about spiritual gifts and the missions field.

Reflection Questions

• Are you expectant for the power of the Holy Spirit to work in you and in your ministry? Why or why not?
• Have you seen the Holy Spirit’s power working actively in your ministry? In what situations, experiences, or people have you seen this most clearly?
• Are you, your teammates, and your national partners regularly using spiritual gifts in ministry? Why or why not? Where do you, your teammates, or national partners need greater development in this topic?
• How could God specifically use your spiritual gifts to move your ministry forward?

One of the biggest questions we had before launching to the field, and one of the biggest questions we still get from people preparing to go, is about spiritual warfare. Is it real? What does it look like? How should I respond to it?

We are by no means experts on this topic, but this post is adapted from the simple introduction and training we do as a part of our new staff orientation for people coming to Thailand. The first post is about spiritual realities and warfare, and the cultural lenses we bring into understanding this topic. The second post is about how to prepare against spiritual attack, how to know when spiritual warfare is happening, and best practices for how to engage in it.

Spiritual warfare can look very different in different places and with different people. This post isn’t meant to be all-encompassing, and some people may disagree with our perspective on it. We all have the lens of our own experiences, but for us, we try to reconcile what we experience with the unchanging foundation of the Word of God. Thankfully, Scripture actually has plenty to say about the Enemy, spiritual realities, and spiritual warfare.

The Reality of Spiritual Warfare

The topic of spiritual warfare can bring up a variety of responses – some good, and some bad. 

Some will hear about forces of evil and fear it. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control,” so we reject fear and embrace the power we have in Christ.

Others will reject this reality, and some will become engrossed by it. C.S. Lewis says, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves (the devils) are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

We want to approach this topic sober-minded, with Scripture as the foundation. A lot of our ideas about spiritual warfare have probably been poorly informed by what we see in TV shows and movies.

Ephesians 6:10-20 is one of the clearest passages that describes the reality of spiritual warfare.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. [11] Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. [12] For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. [13] Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. [14] Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, [15] and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. [16] In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; [17] and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, [18] praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, [19] and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, [20] for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Ephesians 6:10-20

There’s plenty of great commentaries on this passage, so we won’t break it down here. Put simply, Paul tells us that our struggle is not against physical, flesh and blood opponents, but against cosmic powers, spiritual forces of evil, and schemes of the devil. This reality is repeated again and again throughout Scripture – there will be a list of passages at the end for people to consider.

Secondly, Paul tells us that we are to combat these forces by standing firm with the armor of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with perseverance. Thirdly, he connects the response to spiritual warfare with his ministry of proclamation of the gospel.

For leaders on the mission field, it’s essential to help your team understand and be prepared to face spiritual realities and spiritual warfare – for themselves but also for the work of ministry they want to engage in. Too often, we see missionaries who are not well prepared for the field, but even for those who have gone through training and preparation, this category of preparation is missing. There can be theological, cultural, ministry, and character training which is all great, but without being able to engage in spiritual warfare, it’s like being the most well-equipped fish fighting an enemy on dry land.

The Excluded Middle

Another aspect that keeps most Westerners blind to the realities of spiritual warfare has to do with our worldview and ethnocentrism – essentially the idea that we evaluate other cultures through the preconceptions and lens of our own culture’s standards and customs. Paul Hiebert was a leading missiological anthropologist that coined the term, ‘the Excluded Middle,’ that helps us to understand our own biases and why we might be missing some of the spiritual realities that many other cultures understand and live in daily.

The Modern Worldview, which most of us from the West will have, stems from the Enlightenment and is based heavily on empirical science and data. In general, those with the Modern Worldview may accept the ‘high supernatural’ realities like God, angels, and demons, but we assume those reside in the detached ‘heavens.’ Our natural world doesn’t interact much with that reality, meaning there is an Excluded Middle zone where we don’t engage with these spiritual realities on a daily basis.

Hiebert says, “People pray to God for their salvation, but turn to modern medicine for healing and psychology for deliverance from so-called demon possession, because demons exist in the heavens, not on earth. Western missionaries influenced by this dualism affirm the cosmic battle between good and evil, but deny the realities of witchcraft, spirit possession, evil eye, and magic in the cultures where they serve. Consequently they fail to provide biblical answers to the people’s fears of earthly spirits and powers, and fail to deal with the reality of Satan’s work on earth.”

In contrast, those with a Tribal Worldview see spirits throughout their reality on a daily basis, whether ancestors or witchcraft or in nature. “They help those who serve or placate them. They harm those who oppose their wishes or who neglect them or refuse to honor them. Humans must placate them to avoid terrible disasters.”

Lastly, Hiebert gives the Biblical Worldview, where God is Sovereign over all created things, whether good or evil, and the battleground between these good and evil forces is within individuals, social systems, and cultural systems.

For those engaging in cross-cultural ministry, it’s critical to understand the worldview lens that we bring with us, the lens that exist in the place we’re doing ministry, and what the Biblical perspective is. This applies to almost every category of overseas life and ministry, but is crucial in our understanding of spiritual realities and warfare. Whenever we encounter something in Thailand that we don’t know how to categorize or process, like about spirits or witch doctors, we have to try and understand these experiences through those three lenses, especially the biblical one. It’s hard to engage in warfare when we’re uninformed!

Our Initial Experience with Spiritual Warfare

I (Jenn) want to share a little bit about our own experience with spiritual warfare in Thailand and how we learned about this topic. We first visited Thailand in 2009 on a short term trip while we were still in college. 

Our church background was very conservative – at the time I had very little understanding of the Holy Spirit or spiritual gifts, and I don’t think I knew anything about the spiritual realm or spiritual warfare.

On that short term trip, we slammed headfirst into the realities of spiritual warfare and how unprepared we were to deal with it. 

On the first day of our trip, a girl on our team woke up screaming and crying because she was having nightmares. And everywhere she looked, with her open eyes, she would see evil spirits.

Another teammate nonchalantly rang a temple bell that is used to call spirits and was terrified to find that he couldn’t pray after that.

For the first time, we heard many testimonies from both long-term workers and Thai believers of demons being cast out, stories of healing, stories of spirits (ผี) and their prevalence in Thai culture and society. One experienced missionary told us, “ask any Thai person on the street about an evil spirit that causes sleep paralysis, and every single Thai person that you meet will either have had a personal experience with it or know someone who has.” And that’s just one of many different evil spirits.

When we entered temples during prayer walks, some people would get headaches and nausea, and begin to tremble and shake. Others would be hit by anger, despair, or doubts in God. 

Thankfully, the leaders on our trip had more experience with the Holy Spirit and spiritual warfare, and began to guide us through key passages like Ephesians 1 and 6. They encouraged us to not fear but to trust in the promise that Christ has authority over all rule, authority, power, and dominion (Eph 1:21)!

As we continued to pray and seek God for help, the Holy Spirit met us powerfully, and He began to pour out spiritual gifts over us. Multiple people on our team began praying in tongues, even though they had never heard anyone pray in tongues before! Other believers that we connected with prayed prophetic words over us. I remember having some of the richest times of prayer in my life as we begged God to fight for us and to help the Thai people. 

When we got back from that trip, we were hungry to learn more. We began to seek God in increased prayer, asking the Spirit to fill us and to help us. We met with people from different church backgrounds and studied the Word to see what Scripture said about these things we had never experienced before. At times we veered overly into the experiential where we became fixated on power encounters or the spiritual gifts, and needed to course-correct back to what was biblical.

The work of missions is spiritual in nature, and our enemy is not flesh and blood but the powers of darkness. We believe that if we want to see Thai people freed from evil and the Kingdom of God come to Thailand, we must be able to walk in the Spirit to war in the spiritual realms. And we don’t have to fear because we are guaranteed victory in Christ, who has authority over all things, and who is with us even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20)!

Questions for Reflection

1. Have you had an experience with spiritual warfare? What was it like and how did you respond?
2. What is your biblical perspective on spiritual warfare? What passages of Scripture are behind that perspective?
3. What are your thoughts on the Excluded Middle worldview? Do you think you have this worldview or not? Why or why not?
4. What is the worldview of the culture that you’re serving in?
5. What kind of emotions does the topic of spiritual warfare bring up in you? (e.g. fear, skepticism, curiosity?) What’s an appropriate response to these emotions?

Read more in Part 2.