"And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits." Mark 6:7 ESV
What does this passage say to you? I woke up thinking about this. I think that evangelism works this way today also. It is God pairing together two or more people, sometimes strangers or people who have little in common, and sending them out So that they can bring people back to Him after a witness of power on those two people's lives.
This isn't about me being a nice person at work. That's fine but it isn't necessarily evangelism. I see a structure. I see people going out that have a place... a place where a person is manifested... to bring people home to.
I have seen people leave the structure that allows them to evangelize and then that aspect of their life drys up. I have seasons like that. Let's face it not everyone has the make up to disciple people in faith one on one. Most people need a group or at least the support of a group. I was always taught that winning someone and then leaving them undiscipled is paramount to abandoning a child. You just don't do it and I see the logic of that. A person who believes in Jesus has become new. They have a new identity and they need someone as a guide or it would be very easy to get lost in the woods.
I'm very glad God used a group of people to come and get me. That imperfect team had the power of love. I saw that love and that imperfection. It was a group that could live as imperfect people made perfect in a thinking atmosphere of grace and truth. I go because that group went and I don't have to be perfect to do it. I do however need a place to bring people home to where they can meet Jesus.
I'm not saying that 'place' needs to have a name over the door and a cross on the wall but how else does this 'two by two' dynamic happen? What does that passage say to you? Can you afford to tear it out of your Bible or write it off as being written to some other group of people? There was a power placed on those two people. If we live outside that structure isn't it right to say that we might also be living without that power?
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