94. PIONEERING
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By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went (Heb.11:8).
1. Pioneers must have the vision to see what no one else can see; the faith to believe things no one else believes; the initiative to be the first to try it, and the courage and the guts to see it through!
2. You can pioneer something new everyday if you pray!
3. On the soft bed of luxury most kingdoms have expired.
4. Impossible is a word only to be found in the dictionary of fools.--Napoleon.
5. Millions saw apples fall but Isaac Newton was the one to ask why.
6. If you never stick your neck out, you'll never get your head above the crowd.
7. The most uncomfortable place for a Christian is a too comfortable place.
8. Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.
9. Most of our inventions have been produced by fairly uneducated men--maybe they didn't know it couldn't be done.
10. David Livingstone, great explorer and Christian pioneer, wrote in one magnificent sentence, "I will go anywhere--provided it be forward!"
11. Move according to your own faith, choose your own team, set your own goals and forge ahead under your own steam! Be led of the Lord according to your own faith, initiative, vision and courage.
12. It's changing the World that really takes somebody to get in there and push and pioneer. The things already rolling will take care of themselves. It's starting something new that takes a real push, and we're the only ones that can do it.
13. Beaten paths are for beaten men, but mountain peaks are for the mighty!--The mighty pioneers!
14. You only hear about people who either made it, or died trying.
15. It's no use pioneering and getting new beachheads if you lose ground you've already gained!
16. Hit the road and get a blessing!
17. The wild birds are like the faithful missionaries who go out into the new fields and sing! They're the first to wake people up!
18. If there's not enough harvest handy, then we need to lift up our eyes and look abroad.
19. A provisioner is a pioneer!
20. Want a big job?--Pioneer!--The toughest and biggest job of all!
21. You didn't do a very good job of pioneering if the souls that you won to the Lord do not eventually become indigenous.
22. When you're moving off to pioneer a new field, you get the "before-the-battle-blues". You're just like a soldier before the battle...but when you get in there fighting, you really get the victory!
23. As a foreign missionary on a foreign field in unfamiliar circumstances and with unknown dangers, you must pray, Beloved. God says that ever inch of ground you put your foot on, He'll give to you. So claim the Scriptures and the land and stick both feet on it and claim it for the Lord, and if you find the right place, march around it and claim it no matter what the Devil tries to tell you!
24. We specialize in the rare and exceptional, the unusual and pioneering!
25. Too many Homes can spoil the city.
26. Men of faith climb unscaled walls
And sail uncharted seas.
They dare to cross convention's bounds
To set the captives free.
27. God's law of progress should not be forgotten!
If you don't keep on getting,
You'll lose what you've gotten!
28. God gives burdens for different mission fields to different people, and then He gives them the faith for reaching those people.
29. You've got to take the first step, you've got to pioneer, you've got to get in there and try, even if everybody else says you're crazy! Maybe we're crazy, but we're sure accomplishing a lot, crazy as we are!
30. Thank God for a little craziness from God, something different, something new, something a bit crazy, new initiative, and the people with the courage, faith and vision to see it through!
31. Make each new step to each new country a loving step, and let each new leader be a loving leader, and each new Home a loving one!
32. Who makes news?--Who makes history?--The nonconformists, unconventionalists, individualists, iconoclasts, rejects, dropouts and revolutionaries!
33. Pioneers must have Vision--Faith--Initiative--Courage!
34. It's better to die on the mountain than to live in the valley!
35. If there's no way to do it, pray and invent a way!
36. Dare to be different, venture to vary from the norm which the systematic System addicts have established.
37. The true pioneer is only happy pioneering.
38. When you stop pioneering you start backsliding.--You're either moving forward or backward!--You can't stop!
39. Pioneering is the most challenging, the most exciting, the most glorious, the most accomplishing, the most satisfying, but the most dangerous and sacrificial ministry in the World!
40. The Earth is yours and all that is therein, take it! Don't be ashamed of taking a little bit of what is already yours and enjoying it.
41. A pioneer must think in terms of sacrifice and service and where can he be the greatest use to people, where can he do the most good?
42. Forget about closed countries that are so closed you have to worry about every word and every kind of show you do. If they can't stand your mentioning Love and a little mention of God, much less Jesus, then there's no use preaching to them. Forget it! Let them go to Hell!
43. I'm not all that interested in these so-called closed countries unless they are really receptive to the Gospel and open enough that we can give it to them and receptive enough that they can respond and that we can get some results and fruit.
44. I've found that God usually gives me the most severe tests, allows the Enemy to tempt me and test me the worst just as I'm considering or about to begin a new task or a new project for Him. You have the most difficult times and the most difficult trials and the most severe testings because God wants to know if you are really going to go through with it, live or die, sink or swim, and if you really mean business. What the Devil attacks most is your getting started, and if you can just get started, you can usually make it the rest of the journey.
45. Don't try to go before you're ready. Usually, God will push you out when you're ready by closing some doors and opening others, by the urgency of an undeniable need, by an irrefutable call, an unbearable burden, sometimes even by persecution and tribulation.
46. The tactics of God's tiny minority of prophets have usually been the hit-and-run guerrilla warfare with commando raids, to invade suddenly without warning, strike hard with the truth, release the prisoners and then run when the enemy begins to awaken and strike back!
47. Pour more, witness more, send more, mail more and God Himself will do more, more than we ever dreamed.
48. Try to stick to the kind of territory where we usually thrive--liberal land, youth country, the big city, affluent society where the kids have already had it and know it doesn't satisfy.--Like Universities!
49. Don't start building a tower that you can't finish. First sit down and count the costs, or you may start a war you can't win.
50. Be sure it's right and go ahead--the right place, the right time, the right people--God's Will!
51. Reconnaissance is fine but if it gives away your position and battle plans to the Enemy, it may be worse than no reconnaissance at all.
52. Surprise is one of the prime elements of successful military strategy. Hit'm hard and fast and bowl'm over before they know what hit'm!
53. The enemy always starts shooting when you're going over the stop and attacking him. It's proof that you're hitting him where it hurts and accomplishing something. It doesn't mean that you should turn around and run, it means you should keep fighting all the harder--until it's impossible to fight any longer.
54. Be sure you're led of the Lord and it's confirmed by His Spirit and leadership, else you may be doomed to disappointment, disillusionment and even disgrace.
55. Let's not try to force our way into fields that are either not yet ripe or have already been harvested and there is nothing left but a little gleaning. We have no time to be wasting laborers on fields where there is very little grain left, when they could be in fields where they could be bringing in the sheaves by the armloads!
56. I don't give a damn how we used to do it, if it's not the way we ought to do it now! And I don't care how we did it yesterday, if we should do it differently tomorrow!
57. If you start something and don't finish it when it's going strong, it's virtually impossible to get it going again.
58. If you fail at the beginning and quit, you may kill the work in that area.
59. Nothing succeeds like success, and nothing fails like failure! Paul didn't leave the field until he was sure his churches were well-established and he had checked on them over and over again. It's very important to see the battle through.
60. I would rather see you spend a whole year on one Home that becomes established and solid and will last and that you can confidently go off and leave, then to see you establish 10 Homes a month that fail.
61. There's something about newness and novelty that sets people on fire.
62. You shouldn't start another attack until you've finished the first one. One failure causes others and nothing fails like failure.
63. Go to work on established Homes inch by inch and see that they're going well before you go on to others.
64. We are making the most progress where we have reached the leaders and the rich first.
65. When you stop pioneering it shows you have lost the initiative.
66. It's going on the initiative to the attack that brings victory.
67. God sometimes uses almost anything or anyone or any place to help you get started, and leads you on from there.
68. We always believe in letting the leader choose his own team, time and place according to his own faith.
69. If there's anything a pioneer needs, it's to be led of the Lord.
70. We are not responsible for finishing everything we begin. It may be our part only to begin it; the carrying on and finishing of it may be the work of others.
71. You might call it a mistake but instead why not call it experimentation. We do a lot of things by trial and error. Just because a scientist may not hit the right formula in several different experiments doesn't mean he's making mistakes, he's trying! It's like pioneering or exploring, you've gotta try!
72. If we stopped taking risks we'd have to go out of business! There's an element of so-called risk in everything in this World except for the Lord.
(See also No. B, C, 23, 24, 49, 51, 59, 60, 62, 68, 101, 129, 144, 150, 151, 173, 180, 182, 187, 208, 209, 211, 224, 242, 253, 315C, 318, 325C, 328B, 556, 650, 659, 669, 673, 726, 728, 756, 783, 806, 870, 922, 925, 927, 931, 936, 951, 1003, 1027, 1046, 1049, 1087, 1088, 1096, 1097, 1214, 1314, 1366, HH3.)
73. GEN.12:1-3 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the Earth be blessed.
74. GEN.13:17 Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.
75. EXO.23:20 Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring the into the place which I have prepared.
76. EXO.33:14,15 And He said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto Him, If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.
77. NUM.13:30b Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
78. NUM.14:8 If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
79. DEU.11:24a Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours.
80. PRO.24:27 Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thy house.
81. ISA.6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
82. ISA.45:2,3 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
83. ISA.48:17 Thus said the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
84. MAT.10:11 And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.
85. JOH.13:20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth Me; and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me.
86. ACT.13:2,3 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they send them away.
87. 1CO.16:9 For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.
(See also MAT.10:1-25, HEB.11:8,9,14-16.)
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family