Jesus teaches us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We are to launch a revolutionary prayer for Jesus to overcome this world system with the kingdom of God. Those prayers are being answered today in dimensions never before seen since the resurrection. We don’t see it here in the United States so far, but it is happening mostly in the Global South; places like Africa, China, India, and others. God has been answering those prayers for the establishing of God’s kingdom on earth through what is termed Disciple-Making Movements.
A move of God is not categorized as a “movement” unless there has been a minimum of 100 churches planted to the depth of four generations in 3 years. A movement is phenomenal growth; it is multiplication, it produces growth in a geometric progression. It is created by an approach to the Great Commission that is characterized by disciples making disciples who make disciples who make disciples to at least four generations. According to the Global Alliance for Church Multiplication there are currently approximately 690 such movements on the earth right now and increasing regularly. A relatively new friend of mine who attends the Community Group I lead at my church is heavily involved in these efforts. I relish the times we share, and I get to hear the frontline stories of this kind of ministry in places I can’t name online.
I have been doing lots of reading on this topic lately. The oldest of these books I have was published in 2014 and the most recent this year. This phenomenon of Disciple Making Movements is a recent development although it has been in the making for twenty or thirty years. That is how geometric progression works. It looks like nothing is happening for a while and then it begins to explode, and it grows faster and faster each year because each new disciple is making a few new disciples and each new church is planting a few new churches every year.
Here are some numbers from The Kingdom Unleashed to support what I am writing:
Personally, I hunger to participate in this move of Jesus across the earth, and I want to see him work like this in my neighborhood. I have been reading to understand what it is that God is doing and how he is doing it. What I have found is that there are no magic formulas or techniques. There are some strategies that have been rediscovered in the Scriptures and applied in these people groups. But it has also been discovered that if one uses all the latest in what I will call gospel-strategies and one thing is missing nothing will happen. That one thing is a high commitment to prayer and fasting.
I hope this little glimpse at what God is doing on the earth today will whet your appetite to participate in the advancement of the Kingdom of God through prayer and fasting.
The two books I have quoted from in this piece are:
Contagious Disciple Making by David L Watson and Paul D Watson
The Kingdom Unleashed by Jerry Trousdale and Glenn Sunshine
If you want to do lots of reading on this topic, you will find rich bibliographies in both books. Both are (surprise!) available on Amazon.