Prayer Letter No. 50

Dear Team, 30th August 2007

Should it be WWJD or WDJD?

‘What Would Jesus Do?’ can be a good question in some situations, but it can also be a cop-out at times when we plainly see from the Bible what Jesus did, what his disciples did, and what he expects us in turn to do. J.B.Philips commented after months of in-depth study and translation of the book of Acts: “These disciples didn’t make acts of faith, they believed; they didn’t say their prayers, they really prayed; they didn’t hold conferences on psychosomatic medicine, they simply healed the sick… The Spirit of God found what he must always be seeking - a fellowship of men and women so united in love and faith that he can work in and through them with the minimum of hindrance.”

And yes, the Spirit of God is still seeking the same thing.

The last two weeks in Burundi have witnessed such a bunch of men and women. I’ve just received a report about what the twenty three groups of Harvest for Christ evangelists got up to. Ten in each team, they went to fourteen unreached areas, and had a massive impact. I know some reports tend to be quite evangelastic(!) in terms of exaggerated numbers, but I assure you these guys are the real deal. I’ll just translate Onesphore’s summary:

“From our door-to-door visiting and outreach, 15,890 people believed and prayed to receive Christ, including 47 witchdoctors and 16 Muslims. We burnt talismans and objects of witchcraft in 49 families. There were 45 miraculous healings, including 4 mentally ill and 11 demon-possessed people. 8 couples on the verge of divorce repented and want to make their marriages work. 2 people about to commit suicide were talked out of it. 308 people were trained for follow-up in different churches.”

He goes on: “A famous witchdoctor at Ijenda, Joselyne, gave her life to Christ. Her sister refused to believe, but brought over the demon-possessed neighbour. The latter hadn’t eaten for three days, and Joselyne’s sister challenged the believers: “If you heal this girl, I’ll know that you are serving the one true God.” God duly healed the girl, and 21 people (including the sister) promptly gave their lives to Christ. Elsewhere a group of evangelists were arrested and taken to prison. One lad whilst in his cell led two people to Christ! Another team were beaten up, but continued preaching.”

That’s just a sample. You get the idea! Praise God!

What would Jesus do today? The same as he did back then. What should we do today? Surely the same as his followers did then! I know most of us want to be used by God and to see His power at work through us, but how much do we really want it? What’s it worth? What is stopping us or holding us back? I mean, there was (for the early followers) and will be (for us) a cost to this. He wants nothing less than full surrender.

So that’s my personal challenge today, and it hits me hard.

‘What Did Jesus Do?’ is straightforward enough to verify. Whereas my concern with ‘WWJD’ is that it might allow me to justify by conjecture a more moderate and tame response to the wild and dangerous call to follow the costly way of the cross.

What do you think?

Let’s do it!

Simon Guillebaud

PS Didn’t really mention prayer requests in the above, so here goes: the political situation right now is very fragile, so please pray for wisdom for the Christian President, for the Government to be able to move forward in unity, and for lasting peace and a rebuilding of the economy. On a more personal level, Lizzie, Zac and I arrived today in the USA for a number of weeks of preaching. May they be fruitful and impacting times of ministry. Lizzie is seven months pregnant, so we value your prayers for a healthy new baby in two months’ time. Finally, we are still looking for the right person to run the conference centre we’re building. Any ideas? Thanks!