The Bible makes it very clear that Jesus will come back after a multitude from every language, people, tribe, and nation come to know and worship Him, because that’s what heaven looks like (Revelation 9:9). What an incredible moment this will be!
There are almost 11,000 different people groups in this world, representing over 7 billion people. It took until 1804 for world population to climb above one billion, but in just the last 12 years, the world has added another billion people to our population. India will be the first country to reach 2 billion people in a matter of years. To put that in perspective, only 330 million live in the United States.
At last count, 6,732 of those 11,000 people groups wereunreached with the gospel—less than 2% of their population claims to be evangelical in their faith. Over 3,169 of those unreached people groups have absolutely no gospel witness. There is not even a plan to evangelize, disciple, and plant reproducing churches in many places. Of the 7 billion-plus people in the world, over half of them have little access to the gospel, and 1.27 billion of them are very likely to die without even hearing the name Jesus. Not only is that unthinkable, it’s just unacceptable.
So what is the answer? It’s for God’s people to respond to the Great Commission. It is here that we find the utter necessity of revival. During periods of revival, there is a resurgence of interest in missions, and willingness to commit a lifetime to mission service. Every great missions movement in Christian history was born out of some type of spiritual awakening among believers.
Today, we see evidence that God is stirring hearts. A new generation has interest in going to the ends of the earth, giving their lives to reach the most remote corners of the world. But the sad fact that is so distressing to me is that there are now far more people who are willing to go than there are resources being made available to send them. God must stir not only those willing to go, but also the hearts of those who will help them go financially, as well as the hearts of moms and dads who will let them go, and the passions of people who will pray for those who are going.
In my own organization alone, we ended last year with over 600 very qualified individuals who applied to give their lives to global missions, that we could not resource to send. Here’s the simple truth: Apart from revival in the church, the pool of people willing to be sent and the pool of people willing to send them is insufficient and shrinking. Only the Holy Spirit can stir up the supply needed in our churches to meet these great needs.
What a tragedy it would be if we lost our opportunity to play a significant role in God’s plan to save! How tragic to forfeit such vast opportunity because of our unwillingness to surrender to the lordship of Christ! In the book of Acts, the gospel did not penetrate the Mediterranean world primarily on the backs of the apostles. The gospel traveled in the hearts and on the shoulders of men and women who, by their profession, their calling, and sometimes their persecution, went across that area on Roman roads with the Greek language. And so our strategy calls for global strategic mobilization.
One of the greatest needs today is mobilizing that man or woman who sits in the pew, who’s sleeping during the sermon on Sunday morning, but who is going to get up Monday and go to work. One of those believers might work at a corporation that has 2,000 employees—500 of whom are in an unreached area of the world! If that person will wake up and give their vocation to Jesus, then they can become a part of the strategic fulfillment of the Great Commission.
But what will motivate someone to do this? They must experience revival. They must see the big picture. The Great Commission is for every believer!