The crowd was waiting in highly charged anticipation for the arrival of the special guest.  Scores of people were expecting something special – someone special.  They hadn’t had a visitor like this before.  His appearance had been promoted for quite some time prior to the date of his coming.

They had many guest presenters before, but never like this.  When he arrived the lights were dimmed and the music began to play.  The theme song to Mission Impossible was the catalyst to supercharge the atmosphere with excitement.  They could barely contain themselves.

He slowly made his way through the crowd in a black suit, dark sunglasses, black leather gloves and a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist.  He definitely had an air of mystery about him.  The crowd went crazy when he was introduced.  So, who was he really?  Or more accurately, what was he?

He was a Secret Agent.

It was Missions Week at Kelowna Christian School.  The crowd was a classroom of grade 1 and grade 2 students.  My sons were two of those students.  And who was the guest speaker?  Well, that guest speaker was me.

I was the Secret Agent.

Let me explain…

When the school administration announced that Missions Week was coming up I inquired what exactly that meant.  I was informed that missionaries would be coming to the school to speak to the students about missions.  The school wanted to expose the students to the world of international missions and create the opportunity for the kids to catch an interest in and passion for missions.

I was told Missions Week can often be the time when some students begin to feel called to “full-time ministry”.

Great, I don’t have a problem with that.  However, it’s important we understand that we are all  called to full-time ministry.  Full-time ministry is not a unique call given to a select few super Christians.  Jesus didn’t call anyone to give Him part of their life.  He has called each of us to give Him our whole life.

We’re all called to be ambassadors for the Kingdom of God – the Government of God.  God’s rule extends into all aspects of society.  Locally or globally we are representatives of God’s rule and reign: God’s way of living.  God’s Government is meant to be lived out by all of God’s people in every area of our culture and society: education, business, justice/law, arts/culture, health/wellness, media, the charitable sector, government, etc.

Our mission is to facilitate God’s Kingdom coming and God’s will being done in us and through us in everything we do.  It’s how we are called to do life.  I wanted to somehow help the students understand this truth.

So, believing as an entrepreneur I was called into full-time marketplace ministry, I asked the school principal if I could speak at Missions Week.  I wanted the students to understand about marketplace ministry.  I wanted them to know that we are all called to be full-time ministers of the Kingdom.

Enter the idea of a Secret Agent.  I decided to introduce myself as a Secret Agent as a metaphor for the truth I wanted to convey.  I believe we are all “secret agents” of sorts.  You see, a secret agent is on a covert mission.  In order to participate in the covert mission they need a “cover” of sorts to enable them to blend in to society and fulfill their mission.

You and I are on a mission from God.  We are on a mission to see God’s Kingdom come and His will be done in us and through us in everything we do.  This is why we work, this is why we go to work.  If you go to work just to ‘make money’ you are missing the point.

We work to see God’s kingdom come and His will done in us and through us.  The work we do is our cover.  We are ‘disguised’ as teachers, business people, mechanics, lawyers, gardeners, painters, programmers and myriad other occupations.  Our ‘cover’ enables us to engage in our mission.

Your work is your cover for your real mission: an ambassador of God’s Kingdom.

You are a Secret Agent.

Colossians 2:23

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,”

Matthew 6:24

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

2 Corinthians 5:20

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

Matthew 16:24

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’”

HELP!!!!!!!!!

Have you ever prayed that 4-letter prayer?  It is a deep, guttural prayer that comes out of the pit of your stomach motivated by an overwhelming, paralyzing fear.

We were standing at the edge of an economic Red Sea.  I could hear the sound of Pharaoh’s financial chariots bearing down on us.  I had no job, and no prospects.  I was terrified.

Anne and I and our 2 “toddler” sons had left Winnipeg to move back to BC.   I’d been working with the Winnipeg Jets, who were going to Phoenix.  We believed the Lord was leading us back to BC.

I had spent a lot of time during my last year with the hockey club cultivating an employment opportunity with a Kelowna organization.  They had indicated they wanted to hire me to start a program I had presented to them.  There were a few details to work out, but they were excited to bring me on.

So, with faith in our hearts that the Lord was calling us to Kelowna, and the assurance of this organization that they were intending to hire me, we sold our home and shipped all our belongings to Kelowna.  We headed to Langley for a few weeks to stay with Anne’s parents prior to the anticipated date for the start of my new job.

Then the day came of the dreaded phone call.

We had been at Anne’s parent’s farm for 4 weeks when I got the call that the deal was off.  What?  Did I just hear you correctly?  We have been talking about this for a year…everything was planned…everything was about to fall into place…

I was gutted.  I was winded.  I was devastated.  How could God let this happen?  We were following Him. He was supposed to provide.

I went for a desperate prayer walk with the Lord and prayed that gut honest 4-letter prayer – HELP!  I felt like we were the Israelites who had been led out of Egypt only to be trapped at the Red Sea, waiting to be slaughtered by Pharaoh’s financial forces.  The economics of reality were about to drown us.

In the midst of my fear laden, anxiety ridden, terrorized state, the Lord asked me a very simple question.  He gently whispered to me,

“Do you believe I still part waters?”

I was taken aback.  What?  What does that mean?  I hadn’t initially seen out situation through the lens of the Israelites escape from Egypt, but the similarity of our situation began to dawn on me as I chewed over what the Lord has said to me.  We believed the Lord was leading us to a new land.  We had moved a great distance to take hold of that which we believed the Lord had promised us.

But now there was something in our way we had not anticipated.  We were trapped by something we didn’t know how to get around.  I realized I had no option.  I had to believe that God can still part waters, or we were dead.

I confessed, “Lord, if you don’t part the waters I don’t know what we’ll do.”

It was at that point I felt the Lord tell me to start my own company.   Are you kidding?  I have no idea how to start or run a business.  I don’t even know how to spell “entrepreneur”.

Unbeknownst to me, this was the beginning of an amazing entrepreneurial journey the Lord has called me on.  He completely changed the trajectory of our lives.  This was the beginning of discovering my new found glory.

And it started with a shattered opportunity.

Are you facing a Red Sea of sorts?  Are you staring into a pile of broken dreams wondering what on earth is going on?  Do you feel abandoned by God when you stepped into the very thing you believed He had promised you?

I am here to tell you that God still parts waters.  God will make a way.  As you cry out to Him, surrender your expectations and ask Him for direction He will make a way through.

God still parts waters.  He did it for the Israelites, He did it for us, and He can do it for you.

Exodus 14: 13, 14

“Moses answered the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.’”

Psalm 32:8

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.”

Isaiah 30:21

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”

They spotted me.

I could hear their commander barking out orders,

“Bravo Charlie – bogie 10:00, move, move, move!  Surround and terminate!”

What the…what’s going on?!  My two fellow combatants immediately ran away.  They were not up to a fight with these guys.

Before I knew it, I was all alone.

Being alone was bad enough, but by the time I thought through what had happened, what was happening, and what was about to happen, it was too late.  I had not moved from the position in which I was originally spotted.  They not only knew my location, but they had moved with such precision they now surrounded me.

I was behind a very large west coast cedar tree, which provided me with some cover, but any lateral movement made me wide open to their expert marksmen.  So I did what any cocky early twenties weekend warrior would do – I froze with fear.  I know, I know, I should have wheeled out from behind the tree with guns blazing, but I didn’t.

I’d like to say that I fought bravely and died quickly.  But it would be more accurate to say that I thought slowly and died quickly.  These guys we were fighting against knew how to keep moving forward as a unit, and we didn’t.  I got caught alone; I got caught standing still.

And now I was dead.  They simply confirmed their kill and kept moving forward.

It was the early 80’s and a group of my friends and I were playing this newly created war game known as Paint Ball.  We were in the woods of BC and just happened to be pitted against the reigning BC Champs.  These guys were serious weekend warriors.  Truth be told, they were a little odd, but they knew how to fight together.

They sure dispatched us with expert precision.

I learned a valuable lesson that day: if you want to live, keep moving forward.  And I learned that sometimes to move forward you need to move sideways and even backwards.

If I had kept moving, together with the rest of my fighting friends, I would have lived to fight another day.  Or at least I would have lived for more of the day.

Moving = life.  Standing still = death.

I believe this is not only a principle for success at Paint Ball, but it is a principle for spiritual success as well.

If we are not intent on moving forward in Jesus; if we do not keep “pressing on toward the goal” as Paul says, we will find our faith declining.  If we think we can rely on “yesterday’s manna” we cannot sustain a vibrant spiritual health.

I thought I was safe where I was comfortable in a good hiding spot, but the enemy soon found me, surrounded me, and killed me.

If we choose to say in a safe, comfortable place in regard to our relationship with Jesus, or in regard to how we are choosing or not choosing to serve Him and serve others, we will begin to die.  Faith is like a muscle, if it is not exercised it atrophies (shrinks) and gets weaker and weaker until it has no strength left.

Our faith must be exercised to be vibrant and growing – we must choose to keep moving forward in Jesus.  We must choose to walk in communion with Him, listening to and obeying His leading in our lives even when it may be intimidating, or perhaps terrifying.

If you think you can sit still in a comfortable place of hiding and continue to grow, you are fooling yourself.  Your spiritual enemies have already begun to surround you to take you out and take you down.

If we are going to experience the victory and life Jesus has for us we must keep moving forward.  We must continue to seek Him.  We must continue to walk in community with our fellow freedom fighters – the Church.  We must continue to appropriate His Truth in our lives.  We must continue to serve.  We must continue to love.  We must continue to give.

Press on to take hold of that for which Jesus took hold of you.

Keep moving forward.

Philippians 3:13, 14

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Hebrews 12:1

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,”

Hebrews 10:35, 36

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.  You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”

“You said you wanted to know how to get Capone.  Do you really want to get him?  You see what I’m saying?  What are you prepared to do?”

“Everything within the law.”, replied Ness.

“And then what are you prepared to do?…You must be prepared to go all the way because they won’t give up the fight until one of you is dead.”

And so the conversation goes between rookie Federal Agent Elliot Ness and his street smart veteran police officer recruit in the movie The Untouchables.  The Untouchables portrays the real life struggle of Elliot Ness to put notorious criminal Al Capone behind bars.

Ness was born on April 19, 1903, in Chicago, Illinois. He joined the Bureau of Prohibition in 1927 at the age of 24 and assembled a team of Prohibition enforcement personnel known as “The Untouchables” to combat the bootlegging activities of gangster Al Capone.  Ness is the man recognized for destroying the liquor empire operated by Al Capone, including his arrest and conviction of tax evasion.  Ness was instrumental in breaking the power Capone had over the city of Chicago.

The Untouchables movie depicts Elliot Ness as a young, idealistic agent of the US Treasury Department who really had no idea how to bring down Capone.  His right hand man – the veteran Chicago cop portrayed by Sean Connery – knows what he’s up against.

And so, when he asks Elliot Ness, “What are you prepared to do?” it is with an understanding of what they are facing.  He understands the nature of the battle in which they are about to engage.  He knows when they open this door they have to be 110% committed to go all the way.  This battle will not be won half-heartedly.  Victory will only be accomplished if they are wholehearted in their commitment to this overwhelming challenge.

So what challenge are you facing?  Is it daunting?  Is it overwhelming?  Is it terrifying?

Are you filled with faith, or are you full of doubt?  Are you energized and engaged or are you at your wits end and the end of your rope?

“You must be prepared to go all the way because they won’t give up the fight until one of you is dead.” – this is actually a fairly accurate reflection of the nature of the opposition you and I face every day.  Jesus told us that we have a spiritual enemy who is out to steal, kill and destroy.  Our enemy’s objective is our spiritual death, and total carnage in our lives here on earth.

This would be utterly overwhelming if we were on our own.  Sadly, many men choose to live alone and fall prey to the ruthlessness of our spiritual opposition.  However, we’re not alone.  Regardless of where you’re at, Jesus is up for the challenge.  And, He said He would never leave or forsake us.

He’s already triumphed over our enemies by the cross.  The spiritual opposition set against us has been defeated by Jesus’ death and resurrection.  However, we must get hold of what He’s accomplished on our behalf.  In Christ, in His authority, we have victory of the spiritual opposition sent to destroy us and those we love.

We must understand that living in the authority of Christ only comes by surrendering to the authority of Christ; by taking up our cross and following Him.

So, what are you prepared to do to get hold of the life of Christ?  What are you prepared to do to get hold of the victory of Christ?  What are you prepared to do to get hold of the authority, the healing, the deliverance, and the transformation of Christ?

Will you surrender and worship Jesus when it’s difficult?  Will you walk in openness, authenticity and accountability within community?  Will you meditate on Truth and reject the lies of the enemy? Will you pray?  Will you be ruthless with sin in your life?  Will you submit yourself to the input of others who can see your blind spots?  Will you live a life of repentance?  Will you serve and love others?  Will you keep saying “yes” to Jesus?

What are you prepared to do?

Philippians 3:12-14

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 3:8

“What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.”

1 Corinthians 9:24-27  (The Message)

“You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.  I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.”

Colossians 2:15

“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”