To get ready to be a missionary, study Acts

A conversation with a friend the other day sent me today to my marked up copy The Acts of the Holy Spirit by Peter Wagner. Let me commend it to you – it really makes the book of Acts come alive. I used it to teach my children about God’s heart for the world. We spent an entire school year studying Acts in the morning for 20-30 minutes before school and it was fantastic. And it culminated in a month-long church planting trip to Peru with four of the five of them.

My kids met Secundina, a lady dying of cancer. They prayed for her, and she was healed; later becoming the cornerstone of one of the churches we planted. I’m telling you, something of God’s heart for the poor was transferred from my spirit to my kids that summer. And the study of Acts helped get us there.

For example, in discussing Stephen’s speech, Wagner makes the point that a general principle of the OT examples he gives is that “God’s people must move out in mission” and that by indirectly mentioning Samaria twice, he was setting the stage for Phillip’s missionary trip to Samaria.

If you’re either a missionary or getting ready to be a missionary, get this book and form a Bible study with others like you. For me it was more powerful than the Perspectives study.