When my wife and I were first called to Japan, we were on fire to get there and dive in head first. This was 2018 and we by no means were ready to go. We had no idea what mission work looked like, what we’d be doing, or how we’d even get there. We just had a direction and that was it. What we lacked at the time, was preparation.
A lot of times, we get so focused on fulfilling the call that we forget that it takes time to learn how to do it. Preparation time is one of the most valuable things that you’ll ever have when it comes to not only your calling from God, but anything you do in life as well. Imagine needing surgery, you can be sure that you’re going to want a surgeon that has had their preparation time and even more! As servants of the Lord, we’re called to provide healing to people spiritually, which ultimately, is more important than natural surgery because what we seek to help is eternal. You should never discredit your preparation time or look at it as just something to get through. The Bible is filled with examples of this from Moses and Joshua all the way to Jesus and the Disciples. Here are a few for study reference.
Moses and Joshua
Joshua spent much of Israel’s wilderness journey serving closely under Moses. During that time he learned leadership, warfare, faithfulness, and how to follow God before eventually being entrusted with leading Israel himself.
Exodus 24:13; Numbers 11:28; Joshua 1:1–2
Elijah and Elisha
Elisha was called into prophetic ministry when Elijah placed his cloak on him, but he did not immediately step into Elijah’s role. He first followed and served Elijah, learning under him until the time came for him to carry the prophetic ministry forward.
1 Kings 19:19–21; 2 Kings 2:9–15
Jesus and the Disciples
Jesus called the disciples and for roughly three years they traveled with Him, watched Him minister, received instruction, practiced ministry themselves, and were prepared before being sent out to help lead the early Church.
Mark 3:13–15; Acts 1:4–8
Paul
Paul received a dramatic calling at his conversion, but his major missionary work did not begin immediately. He spent years in Arabia, Damascus, Tarsus, and Antioch growing, teaching, and serving before the Holy Spirit formally sent him out with Barnabas.
Galatians 1:15–18; Acts 11:25–26; Acts 13:1–3
More often than not, throughout scripture we can see that the preparation came before the assignment. Sometimes God gave the vision before He gave the preparation. When God first told us, like I said, we were on fire to go but had no idea how to get there. We were students of Rhema Bible Training College at the time and we were smack in the middle of our training and once we graduated, I thought we were done, I can’t stress enough how wrong that was.
When we finally felt a release from Oklahoma we thought, “THIS IS IT! It’s time to go do the thing”, I remember vividly, a few weeks before we were ready to buy the tickets, God told us in prayer that we needed to go to Alabama first. At first we didn’t know why but we figured “Hey, maybe it’s just to say goodbye to family and friends because it’ll be a while before we’re back.”, so we went. Here we are three years later and we’re still in Alabama but we’re on our way to Japan very VERY soon, as in a few months in Jesus’ Name! We had no idea at the time the things we’d learn while we were here and that our connections in Japan were waiting here for us.
As I look back at the last eight years since we received the call, every step of it was preparation time that we will need once we’re walking out the call God has on us and I thank God for everything we’ve gone through while in our preparation season and I wouldn’t trade it for the world!
If you’re in one of those seasons where you feel like you’re just going through the motions and you’re just wasting time, spend some time in prayer and ask God what it is He’s preparing you for?
The thing to take away from this is this, if you have a mission from the Lord, don’t forsake your training and equipping season. One day, you’re going to move through the preparation into your purpose!