At one time Jesus sent out a group of seventy men to preach and demonstrate the Kingdom of God. One of the accounts is in Luke 10 but the story is also accounted in the other gospels. Jesus told them not to take anything with them, no money, food, clothing except for what they wore and no extra shoes. They were to experience God providing for them. When they came back they had a lot of great stories and were excited to have seen what God did in their lives.
There are some people in today's world that God tells to live this way in one form or another. There are missionaries and church workers I know that just trust God for what they need although they may have some support from their home church. On the mission field, these missionaries are called "Faith Missionaries." People have asked me how we finance our missionary work and I have told them we live by faith. Some understand what we are trying to say but others will respond with "we live by faith too." I agree that if you have a normal life, job, paycheck, etc ... and that is what Jesus has led you to do, you are living by faith in a broad, general sense. But when I'm talking about living by faith as "Faith Missionaries", I am talking about those that trust God to put it on some one's heart at the right time to donate to the work they are doing to build the Kingdom.
My wife and I, together with our two daughters have been living as faith missionaries for 22 years. We get about one fourth of what we need from donations each month and then trust God to provide in whatever manner he chooses for the rest. We have found out that when God wants people to live like this that He does provide at least their basic needs. In the last 22 years, there have been four specific seasons that have been more difficult and challenging in terms of our provision but God has gotten us through it.
Each season has been different. One season we found eggs for a very cheap price if we bought a carton of 30 eggs at a time, so that was our sole source of protein. Sometimes people would ask us to come over and would bring food for us not knowing we didn't have money to buy food. We ate so many eggs that for awhile after we were through that difficulty, some members of my family no longer liked eggs. Other seasons we found chicken really cheap and ate chicken most of the time.
It has been an interesting and sometimes very exciting life. There are times when it has been very stretching and a few times we have had to let people know we have a need but God has been faithful to take care of us.
Let me know what you think. Leave me an email or a comment. If you have a prayer request leave me an email and I will pray for you.
Bruce Isom
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