A Missionary Church — Keith Malcomson

The Missionary Church in Antioch

I want you to turn here with me to Acts chapter 13. We're going to read from verse 1 to verse 12 here tonight, and we're continuing directly on from where we left off last week in part 5. Now we're coming to part 6, and as we read from Acts chapter 13, my message, a missionary church.

We have dealt with all the aspects of what the Antioch church is, and I'm not trying to preach everything and every doctrine and all that's important. All I'm doing is teaching you what the Holy Spirit has left for us written, inspired infallibly and perfectly.

The information He's given us about Antioch is what I'm preaching to you. So I'm not giving a singular message on prayer in this entire series, though that comes within the whole sphere of it. All I'm doing is step-by-step teaching you what the Holy Spirit says to us about Antioch.

So I'm not inventing messages. I don't need to search for messages. I don't need to search for my information. I don't need to strain the verses. All I'm doing is giving you explicit statements, information that are very notable here.

Reading from Acts chapter 13 verse 1, now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers as Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Mannion, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul.

As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia, and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. And when they were at Salamis, they preached the Word of God in the synagogue of the Jews, and they had also John to their minister.

And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bargesus, which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the Word of God.

But Elimus, the sorcerer, for so is his name by interpretation, withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said, O fool of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right way of the Lord?

And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.

Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. Now when Paul and his company loosed from Pappos, I'm going to finish there. Let's pray here tonight.

Father, we thank you again for the Word of God. Father, we realize that these stories, these testimonies, the written Scriptures inspired by the Holy Spirit, that He is here right in the midst of this church, that this church is a temple of the Holy Spirit, that each one of our bodies is a temple of the Holy Ghost and that He indwells us.

He actually lives within us, the same Holy Spirit that's given us the written Scriptures. And Father, we thank you. We put a great value, a great worth on the written Scriptures. These aren't mere stories.

This isn't mere information, nor, God, this is inspired to instruct us. You said that all Scripture, including the book of Acts, nor, God, is given and is profitable for doctrine, for teaching, for instruction, nor, God, we pray, O God, that these messages from the book of Acts, from the written Scriptures, given by the Holy Spirit, that here tonight that He would bear witness, lead us, that He would guide us, that He would help us, and, Lord, God, that You would enlarge this church, that You would prepare it for the days ahead.

In Jesus' mighty name, Amen. Amen. My message here tonight, part six, as we look at the Antioch church, is it is a missionary church. I call this a missionary church, but I want to define the word missionary.

Defining Missionary as One Who Is Sent

I do not think of missionary as all think of missionary. I believe missionary is a term we need to interpret, we need to define, we need to explain. The word missionary, and we all know what missionary looks like, someone heading off with their bag.

If you live in America, more so than in Ireland, if you live in the Western world, usually that involves a team of young people with some older ones thrown in, young in their faith, zealous in their experience, immature in their understanding of the Bible, going as a team, spending lots of money to go to some foreign country for two weeks.

They take one day off each week to sightsee. They take lots of pictures, enjoy the local food, come back with stories. They all minister to much older Christians, then they come back in, they're missionaries.

They're at least an element caught up in missionary work. They are a local church that is a missionary church because they've gone on a mission trip. Oh, they wouldn't call themselves a missionary, but they are at least caught up in the work.

Now, that in part is what today we think of missionary, so let me define it. The word missionary is actually a Latin word. Our English word comes from the Latin word metto, meaning to send. So missionary is a Latin word.

Why use a Latin word when, why not use a Greek word or why not use our biblical words? So a missionary means to be a sent one. Now, let's come over to the New Testament. And what most people think about as a missionary, they will apply it to Acts chapter 13.

They'll say Paul was a missionary, Barnabas was a missionary, others were missionaries. And just like they go and do the work of missionaries, so we go and do the work of missionaries. William Carey was a missionary, David Livingston was a missionary, Judson was a missionary.

Many other men were missionaries, and so we get our concept of missionary. But what is a missionary in biblical terms? You see, I believe because so many say there aren't apostles today, and no one can claim to be an apostle, and we can't point to anyone who's an apostle, we now say there are missionaries.

So we're not claiming to be apostles, we just say we're a missionaries who go out and evangelize in foreign nations. But listen, in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11, it gives five ministries that are given by Jesus Christ into the church for the church to be members of the church.

They are gifted ministries. One of them is an apostle. It's the first of all the five ministries is an apostle, and we're going to deal with this tonight, because when I talk about a missionary church, I mean an apostolic church.

The church at Antioch didn't send out missionaries, it sent out apostles. It was apostles that went out, not missionaries. You don't have missionaries like we talk about missionaries in the New Testament.

You have apostles gifted, called, and separated onto it. Now when we go to the word apostle in the New Testament, it's the word apostolos. Now I'm not talking about the 12 apostles of the Lamb. There was only 12 apostles of the Lamb, not 13.

There can't be 15. There were only 12 unique apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were utterly confined to 12 in number. Their names would be written on the New Jerusalem. Only those 12 names are written there.

So I'm not talking about those apostles. Those apostles were before Christ's crucifixion and resurrection and ascension. I'm talking about apostles given to the church after the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven.

This is Him giving ministries to the church. And so we're not looking at the 12 apostles, but we are looking at apostles given to the church, which today are confused, are called missionaries because it eases our conscience.

So we can call someone a missionary and say, oh no, they can't be an apostle. They can't be that. So we just call them missionaries and the evangelical church doesn't argue about it or discuss it. Now listen to what the word apostolos, the Greek word means.

Apostolos. This is what it means in Greek culture in the first century. It meant a commissioner. It was the name given apostolos to an admiral of a fleet of ships, not one ship, but a fleet of ship. He overseen them all.

Or a pioneer of a new colony where you sent an apostolos from your nation to another country to begin establishing your culture within that new country. And so you begin to understand what is an apostolos.

It's here in the name. When you go to the New Testament, there are at least 24 apostles outside of the 12 that are named in the New Testament, 24, and maybe as many as 28 dependent on how you counted.

In our Bible, Paul, of course, is called an apostle, but so is young Timothy, timorous Timothy, fearful, trembling Timothy. Timothy, who's a younger man, he's not an apostle Paul, but he's still, the Bible calls him an apostle.

And Silvanus, all three men are different. They all operate differently. And yet Timothy is an apostle. So is Titus. All of these men were uniquely called apostles. I'm just laying the foundation for where we're about to go here.

Distinguishing Genuine Apostolic Ministry from False Claims

Now I'm not NAR. I reject the NAR heresies, and that's an ill-defined term. It's a badly defined term. Most who talk about NAR, NAR, don't have a clue what they're talking about. They can't even define it.

Before the term was created, I stood against all of those so-called apostolic ministries. So I want to tell you, most of those that call themselves apostles, I reject their ministries. I consider them heretical, false teachers, and in fact, it's very unusual to meet a genuine apostle.

I believe the ministry's still alive today. I believe it's biblical. I believe it was never removed from the church. Let me just give you two examples of two men who I'm fully persuaded were apostles in the body of Christ.

Both of them, many online will not have ever heard of them. At least one of them, all of you ought to know. The other one, you ought to know, but none of you will possibly know it. The first one is WFP Burton, or Willie Burton as we knew him.

He arrived in South Africa in 1914. He had no financial support, no backing of the churches, no missionary society sent him out there, and his co-worker who arrived a year later didn't even have a passport.

He got on the boot in England, left for South Africa, didn't have a passport to be accepted, but somehow managed to still get into the country. They ended up having a four-man team traveling north into Congo.

One of them died. Two of the other of the four-man team almost died. And once they reached their destination, one of the men took all the money. He was an American, but nothing against Americans online, and he actually deserted them at their greatest hour.

He took all the resources, everything. Listen to what Willie Burton's co-worker who helped him in those first few years said. They poisoned our water and our food. They tried shooting poisoned arrows at us and then bullets.

We were among people whose language we had not learned one word of. In those first months, I tramped from place to place preaching the gospel until my body was soaked with malaria. They labored month after month without seeing one convert.

It was hard work, discouraging work, dangerous work. But listen, in 1960, it was 1914 when they arrived, and by 1960, when Willie Burton left Congo, there were 75 missionaries, 14 mission stations, over 1 ,000 very good functioning assemblies, all with their own eldership established, and there were 43 ,000 born-again Christians.

Then when he got to the end of his life, he spent his last two years living out of a suitcase traveling and preaching the gospel. He was called a Trump preacher. He went through Wales. He went through England.

I've got some of his audio cassettes from those days. By 1971, when he died, there were more than 2 ,000 assemblies there in Congo. Remember just a few years ago when the revolution happened, that's why he had to leave.

He had to leave them. He left them as fully functioning Congolese churches, and within 10 years, they doubled. Once he removed his influence, they doubled from 1 ,000 to 2 ,000 churches. Now, what is this ministry?

This is apostolic ministry. I believe this man, he never called himself an apostle, but he was a true missionary. He was an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he died in 1971. But even during the last 10 days of his life, he personally won 13 people to the Lord.

That's a true apostle. Let me mention another one who's a hero of my faith, James McCune. My mom remembers him. He was a big man walking into their church in Northern Ireland, Tremor, Northern Ireland.

She remembers him preaching in their church all those years ago. In 1937, he left for Africa with the vision of planting a branch of the denomination that he belonged to, and he was going to establish it in what was called then the Gold Coast that later become Ghana.

But through various problems, he had to start all over again, establish his own church, go independent, no finance, deserted on every side. He lost his work and his churches a few times over. It was very discouraging.

He used to tramp out into the forest for three days at a time and just preach the gospel on foot out into the wilds of Africa, preaching the gospel, reaching souls for Jesus Christ. But he created a whole new church called the Church of Pentecost in Ghana.

But once it was finally established across the nation, once he'd grown in years, some 30, 40 years later, do you know what he'd done? He said, I slowly have to ease my way out and leave it as a fully functioning national church.

And that's what he did. 1974, they raised some money, bought a little tiny two-bedroom bungalow outside of Balamina in Northern Ireland. I spoke to people who knew them at that time, who knew him very well.

He slowly withdrew himself and listen to this, in 1985 at their convention, 125 ,000 people gathered in Accra, bringing the city's traffic of an entire city to a standstill. The Church of Pentecost was the fastest and still is fastest growing evangelical church in the entire Western region of Africa.

He left behind him 3 ,000 functioning churches with a total membership of 270 ,000 people. It was represented in almost every town, every village in the land, and it spread into over 40 different countries of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, including Ireland.

All the result of one humble. I believe James McCune is one of the most humble men of church history that I've ever read about. He was a simple, humble, broken man. He had no desire for money, fame, reputation, control, manipulation, or anything else.

He left a vast worldwide movement all out of a humble man. And then he separated himself, drew back, and eventually he stopped answering. They'd say, come live here, when his wife died. Come live here.

No, I'm not coming. Come and die amongst us. No. He stayed in that little apartment in Balimena, went into a local church, sat in the back row for one year. Nobody talked to him. It's Elam Church in Balimena.

Nobody talked to him. No one invited him for dinner. No one asked him to testify. He left this movement behind him. He just sat there humbly, nodding his head, amening, praying for each service, just sitting there.

Then this revival team came through all of the British Isles from Ghana. And as they stood in the pulpit, they pointed him out and said, that's the man. It's because of him that we have revival in our nations.

You know what he said to a friend of mine? He said, do you know what? I was so surprised they asked me to preach after that in the church. The same friend, he actually, Derrick Prince, that notable preacher, I know he was wrong on his teaching on demonology, but a very well-known man.

He asked my friend, he said, I want to go and meet James McShone. There's no man I want to meet more than him. Took him that little apartment, that little bed set in Balimena to sit humbly in the room.

And he says, don't you tell him who I am. And afterwards, when he found out, he says, what? You had Derrick Prince here in my house and you didn't tell me who it was. He was a humble man. Let me bring you to my sermon.

I'm not wasting words here. It's just, I want you to understand what we're dealing with. I'm dealing with Antioch as a missionary church, a missionary church, but I want you to understand what I mean by that.

I'm not talking about what many talk about as missionaries. I'm talking about powerful, dynamic ministry and its function in today. There are apostles today, but most of them don't even call themselves an apostle.

Most of them won't even allow you to talk about them, but yet they leave the fruit of ministry behind them. They are humble men. That's one of the marks of them. Let me give you three points here about Antioch being a missionary church.

Antioch as an Incubator for Apostolic Ministry

Point number one. And I'm talking about not so much the apostles, but what the church was to the apostles. And point two, I'll really cover about the apostles, but I want you to see more. What was the church to this ministry of the apostle?

Point number one, an incubator for apostolic ministry. Antioch served as an incubator for apostolic ministry to be birthed forth. Do you know what an incubator is used for? And you don't hear it much today, but in my younger days, you heard about all the time an incubator would be used for chicken eggs for them to hatch.

And what an incubator done, you put all the eggs in there and it kept it at a certain stable atmosphere. That incubator could be freezing outside. It could fluctuate outside. But inside that incubator, you had a steady temperature.

And that temperature is what the eggs needed to bring forth the little chicks. So that incubator birthed forth the chicks healthy at a right time, kept them in a stable atmosphere. You know when I say Antioch was an incubator, I mean an atmosphere was created in that church of prayer, of worship, of ministry, of preaching, of lifestyle, of fellowship.

All of those things were in that local church. And I believe in the midst of that environment, they created such a vital, real environment in the local church that gifted ministries could arise, unique ministries could be birthed forth.

It was safe. You know, often in churches, ministry or people in the church can be threatened by new ministries. They will subdue it. They will kill it. They will hinder it. Remember Jerusalem? They sent Saul of Tarsus far away.

They didn't even know where he was. Here's a man that's going to have one of the greatest apostolic ministries, and yet twelve apostles don't even create an atmosphere where Saul can come up in it. But here's Antioch.

They have no apostles. They only have prophets, teachers, and an entire church, and yet an atmosphere is created where Barnabas and Saul can actually grow into ministry. Can I ask you, is this church and is this leadership such that this church can birth forth ministries?

Is this a place where you can grow into ministry? You can begin to function. You could even make mistakes, and yet it's safe here to say that a ministry will arise. Many years ago, from I was about 22 to 29, I functioned in a local church in Scotland.

It was called Hoyick Outreach Church. We never grew more than 30, but I used to stand, I used to feel sorry for them every time I preached, and I told them it was burning. I knew everything God was going to do with me.

God had shown me even things still to come. He showed me where I would go, what I would do, things that would happen, and I'd stand to them that back could be on in this secluded place in Scotland, small community, small church, and I'd speak to those people and say, you don't realize.

Wherever I go, whatever I do, I'll always be able to say, it was because of you in this church. There were mostly older believers than me. There was Pat, Ivor, and all of many others. These become my family.

What you are to me, they were to me. But I used to tell them, I'm just learning to preach. I felt embarrassed that anyone had to listen to me. Almost felt like apologizing every sermon. But do you know what?

There was an atmosphere there where I could grow, get established, learn the Word of God, begin to preach, and it was the same with Barnabas and with Saul here. Look what it says in Acts chapter 13 verse 2.

And as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them and they sent them away.

Remember what we dealt with last week about ministry and ministering church. As they ministered to the Lord, the Holy Spirit spoke. And this is what I want you to see in this point, an incubator for apostolic ministry.

And there's three things I want you to see here under this. I want you to see the call of God, separation to ministry, and then sending. This happens within a local church, in unity with the local church.

In other words, they're not going to get separated onto this ministry. It's not going to come to an hour where the calling gets discovered or they get sent without the help of a local church. Apostles aren't operating apart from the church, they operate out of the church.

And so here, what you have is, as they ministered and fasted, the Holy Ghost said. The Holy Ghost said. He spoke. Do you know what this proves? The sovereignty of the Holy Ghost in the church. When it says, He said and He gives the command, do you know what that means?

The Holy Spirit speaks to the church. He thinks. He acts. He actually acts. He names individual. He reveals callings on individual people within that church. It shows the personality of the Holy Spirit.

Here He is commanding the church what to do. Separate these men onto the ministry I have called them to. Do you see that ministry is the work of the Holy Spirit? It can't operate in this church unless the Holy Spirit is operating.

Ministry, preaching, life's being called of God. It will not happen unless the Holy Spirit is allowed to speak. You could not know this unless the Holy Spirit speaks. I actually believe the Holy Spirit still speaks today.

It actually says here. It says in Acts chapter 20, 28, there's Paul later speaking to the elders at Ephesus. Listen to what he says. You the elders at Ephesus take heed therefore unto yourselves and all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers.

Who made them overseers? The Holy Ghost. In other words, an elder in the church, the Holy Ghost made them that. It's the work of the Holy Spirit to feed the church which He has purchased with His own blood.

So we see the Holy Spirit in the church raises up leaders to minister locally as elders. He also raises up others who are going to be sent forth as apostles. It is the Holy Ghost. He alone knows the timing.

He alone knows the calling. I want you to see this. Until now Barnabas is a gifted prophet. He's a prophet in this church. He's an elder in this church. What is Saul? Saul is a Bible teacher. He's also an elder.

Until this point you've got these two men in the church, that is their calling. What is the Holy Spirit doing? The Holy Spirit gives a clear command. It's not the decision of the church. There's no planning committee.

There's no discussion. They don't know the timing. You know the Holy Spirit initiates ministry. The Holy Spirit knows when the right time is for an individual and for the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit knows when you as a church can do without Barnabas.

You can do without Saul. He knows when is the right time that Saul is now ready. Only the Holy Spirit knows all those things. He is intelligent. He has articulation and communication. You can't make him simply blessed.

Do you know what? You need to be in a place of ministering unto God. You're not looking for anything. You're not trying to make it happen. You're not asking him to bless it. What you're doing is ministering unto God and he says, oh by the way, yous are now in the right place.

Can you imagine us as a church coming into a right place and God is able to speak? But how did the Holy Spirit speak? It wasn't merely some audible voice. It wasn't that. How did the Spirit speak in the church?

Well look at Acts 13 verse 1. It says, there were there prophets and teachers, men like Agabus, a person I believe it was one of the prophets amongst the five who gave a word from the Lord. He is a prophet.

Remember, the gift of prophecy doesn't predict. It doesn't command. It doesn't give information. Doesn't tell you what to do or what's going to happen. The gift of prophecy does not do that. But the gifted ministry of a prophet can.

The Holy Spirit can speak through a prophet. So I believe it was either one of the gifted prophets who prophesied. The Holy Spirit says to the church, separate these two men out. It's through a man. You know, we were in a church once many years ago and my mom used to say, this brother was really gifted in prophecy.

She says, I always knew it's the gift of ministry of God because he's so negative all the time. Anytime you speak to him, he's so negative. But when he begins to prophesy and the Spirit of God comes on him, he is so clear, so positive, so definite, so biblical.

It's like you're dealing with two people. It was always a contrast. The ministry was a contrast to his own personality. And so you have here, it could have been one of the prophets or it may have been one of the members of the body of Christ operating on one of the nine gifts.

It would either be the word of knowledge or the word of wisdom. Not the prophecy, not the gift of prophecy, but a word of knowledge, given information or wisdom showing you when and how and where and what.

That's a word of wisdom. So it was one or the other. But look at this for a moment. It actually says here concerning the call of God. The church does not know the ministry they are called to. But the Holy Spirit says separate Barnabas and Saul to the ministry that I called them to.

You know what that means? Years ago, these men knew their ministry. I've already told them, I've told Barnabas, I've told Saul, but I didn't tell you the church. You thought that Saul's here as a Bible teacher until kingdom come.

You thought that Barnabas is going to stay here as a prophet in the church, encouraging you all, exhorting you all, winning souls. You thought he was going to be here to kingdom come. But the Holy Spirit said, I already told those two men, now I need to inform you the church through one of your members concerning separating these two men out to a call that you don't even know about.

It's a call different than being a prophet in the church. It's different than being a teacher in one local church. Oh, I've got far more for them. All you see them as is gifted ministry in the church, week in, week out, week in, in Antioch.

I want to tell you, there's a whole bigger dimension of this ministry. They have known about it for years. You're only being told that now actually in the church. Do you see how you can have men with ministries in the church and those ministries are going to change?

Do you realize God can change ministries? You can go from being a teacher to an apostle. You could be a prophet and then be made an apostle. They are different ministries. They don't operate in the same way.

They function radically different. And so you see Saul and Barnabas now revealed to and through the church. It's in the church. You know what? This is a lot easier. It's not Paul and Barnabas saying, we're called, we're going, we're leaving.

Isn't God very wise? He actually uses the body to say, separate me. Then the church knows it's not about Saul wanting to be an apostle or go somewhere else. This is the Holy Spirit of God. The entire church comes to an understanding saying, God is speaking, God is revealing.

These men are called. You know, they have been preaching for several years, both of them. And yet here's a calling they've never operated in. They've never functioned in. No one ever talks about. They are not this yet, but it's a call from God that they've known about.

You know, when Saul knew this calling, the day he got saved, Ananias who prayed for him, Ananias knew it three days after his conversion, says he's going to go on to the Gentiles. On the day he was saved, he actually knew in his heart, I've got to call into the Gentiles.

Here's a radical Jew, a radical Jew on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians. And on the first day, Christ not only saves him, but saying, you know, I'm going to raise you up as a preacher. Oh, he's not a preacher yet.

And I'm going to send you far to Gentile nations. He'd known it all through the years. So they're operating in the call, but not that call. They're operating in preaching, but not that sort of preaching.

They're operating in the church, but now they're going to raise up churches. It is a brand new call. It is a unique calling. Look at Barnabas. He served for years. Saul has served for years, but now here comes a real ministry.

See the Holy Spirit in the church reveals to all this calling. He uses the church. He uses local leaders. He uses local ministries to begin separating these men out. It's beyond this local church and beyond the gifting.

They functioned in Antioch to change the ministry of these men. So I want you to notice that first, the calling on these two men. Do you know the calling of God? You know, preachers in the old days had the call of God come to them.

They'd walk into a meeting and through the preacher, the call of God came personally to them. The old preachers in Scotland amongst the Covenanters, they would go off into the highways and byways to fast and pray to settle a call of God.

Am I called to preach the word of God? Now across the church, we don't have a call anymore. Men are sending themselves. Men are appointing themselves. The church is appointing people. But do you know what?

We need the call of God again. It's not the church that called you. The Holy Spirit called you. Antioch didn't call Barnabas. Antioch didn't choose Saul. The Holy Ghost raised them up, appointed them, called them.

You preachers here, do you know the call of God? It's one thing to preach. You could preach and you're not called. Oh, brilliant. Praise God. Go preach. But the call of God is to a definite ministry. Do you know what you're called to?

Have you heard the Spirit of God? There's a second thing here, separation to ministry. What did the Holy Ghost say? Separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them. Separate.

That's an instruction to the church. It comes to a unique time. It's time for something to happen. What does the Holy Spirit say? Separate me, me. Separate unto me. Separate for I called them. Years ago, I talked to them.

Years ago, I called them to this. They haven't embarked on it yet. Do you think the little teaching ministry at Antioch was all that was about it? Do you think that Keith Malcolmson and I pour myself out here, do you think you're unique or special or God has me preaching here?

Don't you know God has things which you don't even know about my life, my calling, my future? Do you know God has revealed things that you can't even perceive by what you see me standing in this pulpit?

And I know it definitely. It was earlier this year as I'd lost Candace. My life is totally changed. I'm struggling. I am almost on the point of canceling out on Slovakia. It was January. I'm thinking about other things and going, I can't do it, Lord.

I can't go to other nations. It's too much for me. Here's a friend in prayer sends a message saying, when we are praying about you, we remembered an old testimony you said about a vision you had years ago.

I went, ah, I know where the picture is because I drew a picture of it. And I went over, pulled it out, and I found the picture. I drew it when I was 21 years old, exactly 30 years before, it was in January this year, 30 years before, I had a vision about going to the nations.

And for 30 years, it didn't mean much to me. But I tell you, in January this year, I went, I know God is speaking to me, reminding me, reminding me of this vision. I had an army camp. I was on an army camp, 21 years old, and God gives me this clear, explicit vision, and it comes with power to me this January.

You know, the call of God is a remarkable thing. But the Holy Spirit says, separate me. Always get worried at this point in the message, I go, God, help me to finish this, is separate me. The word separate means to set boundaries around, to limit, restrict, cordon off from local burdens and responsibilities.

So you take this person with the call of God, they're in ministry in that local church, they've proved themselves in the local church. You don't need to check their character. They've proved themselves for years.

They've been faithful. They have shown the ministry they have, the type of person they have. You don't need to check character. They've been called for years. But you know what it says, separate me out.