A significant part of determining the course of one’s life is utilizing the opportunities and experiences God provides to evaluate one’s giftings and desires in conjunction with one’s experiences. As a result, cross-cultural experiences often serve as excellent means through which a believer may discern whether or not to pursue long-term missions for God’s glory.
Evaluate Your Life
When teaching believers about how to discern God’s will, I start with gifting, opportunity, and desire. Evaluating these three areas of your life—while also allowing yourself to be known and counseled by those in your church who know you well—will help you to best determine the direction that God may be leading you.
Gifting
Do you have the God-given character qualities and abilities to accomplish the task God has put before you? If you want to pastor, do you meet the character qualifications laid out in Scripture? In 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:5–9, Paul says that pastors must be above reproach and able to teach, among other qualifications.
Opportunity
Is God providentially opening doors that would allow you to pursue a move to the mission field? Or, on the contrary, has he providentially put you in a season of life where you ought to stay closer to home? This may look like the need to care for ailing parents before considering a major transition in life.
In Romans 1:13, Paul talks about a providential hindrance in his life that prevented him from traveling to Rome. But, in 2 Corinthians 2:12, Paul says that when he arrived in Troas, the Lord opened a door for him to proclaim the gospel.
Desire
Psalm 37:4 states, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Those who do not seek the Lord ought not to follow their heart because “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9).
However, those sons of God who seek him, dwell in his Word and live for his glory can trust that he is shaping their hearts to desire the “good works God planned beforehand” (Ephesians 2:10). Our Father delights in shaping our hearts to love what Jesus loves.
Consider Participating in Cross-Cultural Ministry
One particularly important way that a believer may help determine a desire for missions is by participating in cross-cultural ministry. Whether it is a one-week mission trip or a two-year apprenticeship, exposing yourself to the challenges of language learning, cultural acquisition, and the difficulties of navigating a foreign land can help you to see how the Lord might be shaping your desires for serving long-term in a cross-cultural context.
Our First Short-Term Mission Trip
For my wife, Heather, and I, our heart for missions began with our seminary and local church teaching, exemplifying the Lord’s love for the nations. After our first short-term mission trip to Venezuela with our church, our eyes were opened and our hearts pricked both to see a lost and dying world presented with the gospel and to encourage fellow believers in the local church worldwide. That first trip kindled a fire within us to go on mission whenever given the opportunity.
Our Long-Term Experience in Latin America
We did not know how the Lord would use our missions service that began in our early 20’s, but we knew that if given the opportunity, we would be open to serving long-term. God used those cross-cultural experiences to shape and then affirm our desire to serve him wherever he might lead.
Ultimately, our church affirmed our desires and giftings, and that led to long-term service in Cuenca, Ecuador. Our love for Spanish, Latin American culture, and observation of the great need for deep discipleship and theological education in the Ecuadorian church became the impetus for moving overseas.
Remember to Trust the Lord
Remember, in the end, God is sovereign over all things. The Scriptures are clear that God has planned out every detail of our lives before the foundation of the world. He knows every hair on our head and every thought before we think it (Psalm 139; Luke 12).
Navigating a foreign land can help you discern if God called you to serve long-term in a cross-cultural context.
Therefore, believers ought to have confidence that the Lord wants to provide experiences and examples for us in which we grow in sanctification, discernment, and an increasing desire for what he has already had planned for us all along.
We get to experience the blessing of simply walking in faithfulness to his commands even as he shapes our hearts to become ever more like his own, including his desire to save a people for himself from every nation.
Jimmy has over fifteen years of missions and ministry experience, including several years serving on the field in Cuenca, Ecuador. Jimmy and his wife, Heather, live with their 6 children in Louisville, KY, and are members of Bullitt Lick Baptist Church. Jimmy is a 4 time graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (B.A., MDiv, ThM, and PhD) where he currently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Apologetics & Worldview.
