Awakening the Nations Side of Who You Are

Part 1

There is a nations side to who you are because you are the heir of 

• One Story
• Two Dynamics
• Three Questions

Part 2

To awaken the nations side of who you are, you must

• Practice intentionality
• Practice affinity
• Practice surrender

Part 3

“How do I start growing in these three?”

• Explore how to move from proximity to affinity
• Pray well informed prayers about a people and a place 
• Establish a life circuit among a people in a place

Part 1 Explored

There is a nations side to who you are because you are the heir to 

• One story: from Garden to Global Garden City (Revelation 21:23-22:2)
  • Examples
    • Cuban ban on certain buildings causes a contagion
    • Dubai runs a forbidden film

• Two Dynamics
  • The Father seeks worshippers (Haggai 2:5-9, John 4:23)
    • Examples
      • Dreams of the Nepali and his wife.
      • TikTok viral response from dream of Saudi woman

• The nations seek God (Acts 17:26-27)
  • Examples
    • Persian man turned back at the Macedonia border
    • Chinese philosophers long for “the original word”
    • German leader appealing for sent ones from Africa

• Three Questions
  • Pilate’s Question: “What is truth?” (John 18:38)
    • Examples
      • The Rabbi of Kabul
      • The Hajji and his wife
      • The soldier reads chapter 53

• Crowd / Jailer’s Question: “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 2:37 & Acts 16:30)
• Example: Abdullah’s blood-stained hands. 

• Christ’s Question: “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15, Mark 8:29, Luke 9:20)
  • Example: Abdul’s dream of a servant king washing the floor with a mop dipped in his own blood

Part 2 Explored

To awaken the nations side of who you are, you must

• Practice intentionality
  • Examples
    • Zahra and the lamb. Husband reading. 
    • Truck wreck in Kunar
    • The Rainbow people of Islamabad

• Practice affinity
  • Examples
    • Spectrophotometric chemist and atheist board gamers in Athens

• Practice surrender
• Surrender to the “umpire” of His peace (Colossians 3:15)
  • Example: choosing between Mazar or Kabul.
  • Example of the quality of our homes in Kabul, Faizabad, and Herat; the quality of our relationships, even friendships with enemies, albeit in suffering. (See the Lord’s promise of homes and families for those who surrender all in Mark 10:29-31. See also Matthew 16:25.)

• Other Examples:
  • Silicon Valley friend in N. Korea
  • Modeling the Lord’s Prayer in Dari
  • Alyssa’s Pooh Bear after fleeing the Taliban 

Part 3 Explored

“How do I start growing in these three?”

• Explore how to move from proximity to affinity
• Pray well informed prayers about a people and a place 
• Establish a life circuit among a people in a place

• Explore how to move from proximity to affinity
  • Move from simple to serious to spiritual in conversations
    • Food, fun, family, faith, finances
  • Live “fully alive” among a people in a place
    • Vocation, skills, spiritual gifts
    • Examples
      • Alabama carpenter and Ohio Motorcyclist in Afghanistan 
      • Austin watercolor artist in Morocco 
      • Greek grandma’s cooking class in Burkina Faso

• Pray well informed prayers about a people and a place 
  • Read memoirs, biographies, and firsthand accounts
  • Read the Scriptures with a view to the people and place
  • Serve a person of peace
    • The Lord calls them a “man of peace” or “son of peace” in Luke 10:6  and a “worthy person” in Matthew 10:6.
    • They are trusted by their people because they have street cred. They are looking to the interest of the community. They seek the greater good of their relational network. They are judicious and don’t  play favorites. People come to them to settle difficult matters. They make the call and the people abide by it.
    • The role of the person of peace
      • They receive you as a trustworthy person
      • They receive your message
      • They make space for grace and truth among their people 

• Establish a life circuit among a people in a place
  • Consistency in the marketplace, living spaces, places of activity and community centers
    • Become a guide for others in what you learn
  • Abide with them in their crises
    • Example: Mourning at the funeral of five youth
    • Example: “Salam with their own blood” Karen reciting. Fiance reading. 
  • Rejoice with them in their celebrations
    • Weddings and “It’s a Boy!” gathering
    • What the elders said when al Qaeda visited

Scripture Meditations

Read the passages below. Look at it in a second translation if you prefer for added exploration. 

Ask these questions

1. What do we learn about the nations in this passage?
2. What do we learn about the Lord in this passage?
3. What is one thing I can do in the next twenty-four hours based on what I see in this passage?

Haggai 2:5–9, Orthodox Study Bible. Translation of the Septuagint |  “My Spirit remains among you; take courage!’ For thus says the Lord Almighty, ‘Once more I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the choice things of all the nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty.

Acts 17:26-27 (ESV) | And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods [opportune times] and the boundaries of their dwelling place [where they would settle], that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. 

Mark 10:29-31 (NLT) | “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, ³⁰ will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life.

John 4:23 (NLT) | But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.

Revelation 21:23-22:2 (NLT) |  And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory. Its gates will never be closed at the end of day because there is no night there. And all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city. Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.

© Kurt Mähler