Andrew Owen is the author of several books, founder of Destiny Ministries, Senior Pastor at Destiny Church Glasgow and Principal of Destiny College. He also oversees a global apostolic network of some 1500 churches, hallmarked by a deep passion for the Word of God, social change and authentic leadership. Andrew believes that the greatest transforming power on earth is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Andrew and his wife, Sue, currently present a TV programme that broadcasts 5 times a week into the UK and mainland Europe, reaching several million viewers. Andrew & Sue have been married for 39 years and say they have been on a God adventure with their 5 sons, lovely daughters-in-law, 4 grandsons and 1 granddaughter, with many personal stories to tell of God’s miraculous power at work.
That the scriptures were full of hustlers, murderers, cowards, adulterous and mercenaries used to shake me. Now it’s a source of great comfort.
Bono, U2
Benjamin Disraeli, former British Prime Minister, said that ideas rule the world.
Ideas are told through the narratives of movies, sung in songs in the popular charts, written into the backstory of novels and propagated by politicians all over the planet.
Ideas captivate the imagination, motivate the soul and move a person to action.
Ideas give a person something to live for, and for many people something they will die for.
Ideas are invisible yet find life in the words of men and women, young and old. Ideas are brought to life as they are told, repeated, spoken and considered.
Ideas don’t just hold the high ground of office, but ideas roll out around kitchen tables, café meetings and pub pints.
Ideas create enterprise, compose music, disrupt industries and introduce wonderful benefits for humankind. Ideas imagine the unimaginable and create new worlds around us.
Ideas are not born equal: some are horrendous, designed for death and destruction; some are indifferent, nothing more than a ‘nice’ idea; but some ideas … these are revolutionary.
God had an idea, and you were in it. That’s why you are here. The prophet expressed that idea when he said, “The earth will be filled with the glory of God.”[1] Jesus expressed that idea when He said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”[2] John the disciple expressed that idea when he said, “What kind of love is this?”[3]
We would do well to examine the ideas that we hold, for these ideas in the end will hold us.
We would do well to examine the ideas that we hold, for these ideas in the end will hold us.
We should discard ideas that are indifferent and fear-inducing, but embrace with all our might those that are God-glorifying, life-giving, faith-enhancing, for they will truly hold us tight.
God’s idea was of a people, His people gathering and forming around the earth. All nations, all ages, all kinds. All invited. All moving under one supreme head – Jesus Christ, God’s Son – gathering not just for the now, but for a glorious eternal end-game in the victorious Kingdom of God.
For this idea to become a reality, it would require the massive injection of a most potent factor, this factor we call grace.
For this idea to become a reality, it would require the massive injection of a most potent factor, this factor we call grace.
Grace is both an attribute of God and an ongoing work of God. Grace is so integral to God that it is indivisible from anything He is or anything He does.
True, we don’t read in the Bible a clear-cut definition stating God is grace, but we do most definitely read God is love. But how does the love of God reach “the undeserving, the hustlers and murderers,” as Bono puts it? How does that love reach me?
The conduit of love is grace.
The conduit of love is grace.
We all know God can do anything; healing, saving, providing and forgiving. But lurking in the recesses of our minds and hearts is the formidable question; not ‘Can He?’ but ‘Will He?’ And, if He were to do it for me, ‘Why?’ ‘How could He possibly commit to do anything for me, when I so often fail for Him?’
When I realise and when you see that God does extraordinary things through very ordinary people like you and me, then the work at hand becomes filled with hope and expectation.
Jesus said prophetically, “A body You have prepared for Me,”[4] not “A building you have bought for me”! Our mission is not buildings-dependant, but grace-dependant.
And thankfully that grace is not in short supply.
“Those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!“
Paul to the Romans
Notice that Romans 5:17 does not speak of those who achieve God’s abundant provision of grace, but to those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace.
As leaders, let’s refuse to get on the treadmill of self-effort and burn out. Let’s not run in the lanes of comparison. Let’s avoid the hurdles of doubt, and believe that if God made a promise He meant it, and meant it for me.
As leaders, let’s refuse to get on the treadmill of self-effort and burn out.
I don’t know about you, but I want to be the receiver of grace. Only then will I be the achiever of call and successfully walk the mandate of missions.
[1] Numbers 14:21.
[2] Matthew 16:18.
[3] I John 3:1.
[4] Hebrews 10:5.
Ascension Forum 