An Invitation to Co-Create with God

Have you ever wondered how to coincide your passions with God's purpose?

I’ve seen different scenarios in which someone joins missions and shortly after their DTS is wondering why it is that God gave them the desire to pursue photography, or sports, or health, or what was the point of taking 4 years to study law at university if now God is calling them to missions. As if passion and calling/purpose were separate things.

I quickly became passionate about people understanding that they’re gifts and even their studies can be used for the Kingdom and can be used in missions. It’s part of another facet in co-creating with God.

Co-creating is not just coming up with a new project for a social cause that will help people. Yes, that is wonderful work and if the Lord is calling you to that, do it! However, you shouldn’t feel pressured to do that because that’s what “most missionaries do”. With the freedom given you by God, so is there freedom to use the things you like to do for Him.

A YWAM base in Africa (I can’t specify the precise location), works with child soldiers and sharing the Gospel with them. When the time comes and they are ready and wanting to take a DTS, they discover a whole new world that offers a deeper relationship with God. Through this discovery, many of these once-child soldiers-turned-missionaries, go on to finish their basic education and go to university. Today many of these young men and women have returned from their studies, after a radical transformation, and become the lawyers, doctors, physical educators and all other professions for missions! 

A Crossfit ministry in Hawaii sends teams to places like Nepal, India, Thailand, Cambodia, to set up Crossfit gyms through which they train the locals in this sport, teaching nutrition as well as technique, and through this gateway share the Gospel to all who come to train!

A couple in India opened a cafe through which they cater to many backpackers as well as locals with delicious coffee and snacks. They spent months learning about coffee and joining this passion with their heart for missions.

These are just some of the examples of people who joined a passion, a profession or a hobby with missions. Thus, co-creating and pioneering new initiatives with God. Will God ask you to set aside a love for cooking for a time? Maybe, but chances are He wants to use your gifts and interests and desires and through a relationship with Him, the hope is that you would want to use them for Him too.

One of my passions? Film. I had a hard time reconciling film with missions because the general view on film is the one Hollywood presents. I came to understand that my passion for film meant that not only could I use that in missions by producing a documentary on a people group, project, or anything else… but also that I could see the film industry as my mission field! I could reach professional filmmakers with the Gospel. 

This understanding took me to learn more about my passion and take a film school that I found in YWAM. The world of filmmaking now stood before me, offering me the chance to grow in the craft and effectively tell stories through a visual medium. How could I use that in missions? For one, so many cultures around the world are oral story-telling cultures. Many people groups don’t have the Bible written in their language. How could I transmit Biblical messages, Biblical stories to them? Make a movie!

I began to discover that these interests I had, were all a part of a bigger picture I could not see. What was I to do with that? Take one step of obedience at a time, practice, steward my relationship with God and with others. Co-creating with God meant involving Him in the process and asking what He wanted me to communicate through film, or through sports, or through any other area I might be interested in. 

He has sent out the invitation to a partnership. Could I decline the invitation? Yes. But what would I be missing out on? If God can take me further, if He can make my life more meaningful and purposeful, then why would I decline? It only seemed logical to me to accept.

1 Corinthians 3:9

“We are co-workers with God…”

“We are co-labourers, together with God…”

If God has given you a gift in some area or called you to some work of ministry, of course you still need His gifts, His guidance, His anointing. But you also need to use your God-given gifts; you need to sharpen your skills and become better and better at what God has called you to do. As well as the things that come from God’s side (his call, gifts etc) I would suggest that you need to contribute the following:

Practice (makes it better!)

Professionalism (Daniel had a spirit of excellence, so should we)

Personality (Peter had a very bold personality and didn’t try to hide it…let yours shine.)

Presence (we need to be carriers of the presence of God)

Prayer (we need to be in continual communion with God)

Predictability (I don’t mean be boring, I mean be consistent in style and quality)

Do what only YOU can do, and let God do what only HE can do:

“I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollo watered it, but it was God who made it grow.”

1 Corinthians 3:6