God is a sending God and He has always had His mind on the entirety of His creation in all His dealings with humanity. When He created Adam and Eve, it was so they could influence the entire creation. When He called Abram, He said all the families of the earth will be blessed through him?. The nation of Israel was chosen to be a nation of priests so that other nations can be brought into relationship with God. The Lord Jesus came to save all who were lost. He is the savior of the world- all the peoples of the earth. In heaven, there will be people from all nations and tribes and tongues. Reaching out has been foremost in the heart of the Father and the Son and should be in our hearts too! Sometimes I believe that our healthy existence is dependent on our reaching out to others. A lot of the value and quality that comes into our lives can be directly linked to our willingness and ability to reach out. Helping others to be with the purpose of being all God wants them to be is the surest way to becoming all that God wants us to be.

A great commitment to the great commission produces a great community of believers. The great commission is clearly stated in Matthew 28:19-20: 'Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age'.

The church in Antioch is a typical example of a church that embraced the mind of God on this matter. Acts 11:19-28 - here we see a church with Apostolic authority taking responsibility for Kingdom advance in the region. There is a lot we can learn from the concept of the Church in Antioch. They had proper vision, structure and capacity to raise, nurture and release leaders into the harvest of their times. We need to do the same. Why do we have problems obeying God? I believe it is because of the presence of strongholds in our lives. A lot of times we think it is mere disobedience to God. Disobedience to God will always open the door to the enemy. He hides in these areas of disobedience and carries out his work of stealing, killing and destruction. He uses strongholds to keep many in disobedience. Somebody once described strongholds as wrong thought patterns and ideas, which Satan and his demons influence, and behind which they hide, that can govern or dominate individuals, communities, nations and even churches? Strongholds need to be demolished, otherwise they continue that domination. Our way of thinking could have been influenced by culture, past sins, upbringing, experiences and events of the past. Before we can deal with territorial influences, we need to deal with the influences that cause us not to be willing to do the will of God. There are many strongholds in people's lives. What we erect as a protective shell to prevent ourselves from being hurt becomes a hiding place or stronghold of pride and selfishness that will keep us from full obedience to God’s Word.

The stronghold that militates against a church or individual embarking on missions is mainly the stronghold of poverty. The spirit of poverty is the spirit that is responsible, operating through strongholds established for the purpose of keeping us from walking in the fullness of the victory gained for us at the cross and of the blessings of our inheritance in Christ. This can be anything from the quality of our marriages, to the anointing for ministry or other resources needed to do the will of God. The goal is to keep us from the will of God. Some may have riches and are still kept from the will of God under the influence of the spirit of poverty.

The goal of our faith is to live at the level of having all sufficiency in all things according to 2 Cor.9: 8. The way this stronghold will be destroyed in addition to prayer is to give. We give simply because it is God's nature to give and it produces results like nothing else in our lives.

These affect our orientation to missions as God’s uppermost thoughts. In studying Matthew 6 we see Jesus discuss 3 subjects and all are related to missions: giving, praying and fasting. All these are also involved in pulling down strongholds either personal or territorial ones. Today we look at giving as a tool to break the stronghold of poverty. (Our messages on the tape/cd set on giving and receiving has done some thorough work in understanding this). There are different types of giving and each type has its own potential to destroy something of the spirit of poverty. Tithing is the honorable giving of a tenth of our income to the storehouse of God. Abram did it before the law so it is not under the law. Gen 14. Giving for the gospel's sake as recorded in Mark 10, is another type of giving. This type is for the gospel to go round. Giving to those who minister to you as recorded in Gal 6 is another type. Then we have giving to the poor.

For all giving, the Lord rewards you accordingly. Every giving should be done in faith and expectation. Giving is what God used in redeeming us back to Himself. He gave His best to us. We imitate Him when we give our best to God. Many testimonies abound concerning giving, especially when we give till it hurts. Some strongholds come rolling down when we make giving our lifestyle. It is time to check our lives and ensure that we cultivate a lifestyle that destroys and prevents strongholds from being built up again in us.

Finally, we need to watch out for a critical spirit. The poor are known to criticize the rich and they usually stay poor. Criticism, murmuring and complaining were things that open the door to destruction in the lives of the Israelites in 1 Cor.10: 10. This is also the result of a stronghold in their minds. They left Egypt but Egypt never left their minds. All the challenges they faced were viewed from the perspective of the stronghold. We need to always act on the Word of God and watch strongholds come down. May the Lord bless you.

Visit our website and take advantage of the many messages and articles on this subject at www.fowmint.org.

Order for the tape/cd set on Giving and Receiving (Two Tapes/CDs) and learn the principles of giving and receiving that can change your life. It may be true that many have abused this subject but we have not stopped driving simply because somebody destroyed a car through bad driving.

Rev. Kola Ewuosho