By Dr Edward Tamale-Sali
According to Matthew 10:1-10 and Luke 9:1-3, Jesus sent His disciples on a mission. It was a long journey that required them to travel for several days.
Normally, one would want to adequately prepare themselves and pack different requirements for such journeys.
But Jesus told His disciples: “Take nothing for the journey – no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra coat.”
Why did Jesus caution the disciples to carry nothing with them?
His Journey, not ours
The first reason was: the journey and mission were His. We must understand as believers that the journey is not ours, but Christ’s.
God has set and planned the journey. He also set the destination. The disciples were required to walk and go wherever their Master sent them.
The journey Jesus invited His disciple to take can be equated to life on this Earth.
None of us chose to be here. We all found ourselves on this journey, prepared by our Creator. This means we ought to walk with His guidance.
There is no doubt that God provides for each of us along our journey on Earth.
It is, therefore, upon each of us to find this God-given path and take it.
We pray that all the journeys we are in, are the very journeys prepared and ordained by our Creator and Redeemer!
But while we pray, we should be able to establish whether the journey and path we are taking are God-given.
God prepares us when He wants to send us: “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
Christians need to know their lives belong to God. The journey of life that begins at conception in your mother’s womb is prepared and planned by your Creator.
We are discouraged from creating our own journeys, taking shortcuts, or even taking detours.
Just like Jesus prepared a journey for His disciples, God did for us and will provide for us as we take this journey of life He has given us.
Go the way you are
Since God has prepared this journey for us, we only need faith in His provision because He has good plans for us.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).
Travelling a long journey with nothing is a passage of faith.
Only true believers in God will accept to go on a journey without extra items for their use.
Jesus asked His disciples to take nothing because only God can provide for those He commissions.
While taking our own invented journeys, we have to carry bags or extra clothes, but on God’s journey He asks us to trust Him and ‘just go’.
Testimony
Way back in 1951 in Vancouver, Canada, a pastor was praying and saw a vision of fire with the word ‘Uganda’.
Without knowledge of what Uganda was, she consulted her senior pastor, Ray Layzell, to understand and get an interpretation of this vision.
They checked in the encyclopedia and learned Uganda was a country in East Africa.
A few years down the road in 1955, Pr Layzell sent his son, Hugh Layzell, to Uganda.
On arrival, the then government, after consulting the four major religious bodies in the country, was advised not to issue a permit to this Canadian missionary couple (Hugh and Audrey Layzell).
They were, therefore, not welcomed. Jesus had told His disciples: if a home does not welcome them, they should leave and ‘dust off their feet’.
“If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet” (Matthew 10:13-14).
(Photo/Makerere Full Gospel Church)
This young couple left and went to Mombasa, Kenya where they waited upon the Lord. While in Mombasa, they established a Church. That set the foundation for the establishment of Full Gospel Church in East Africa
Fortunately in 1960, the then British Governor to Uganda permitted them to come and start their ministry.
The full narrative is found in the book, Gospel of Power, by Hugh and Audery Layzell.
Through the Gospel revival started by the Layzells, many people across East Africa have been blessed.
In this testimony, we see God’s provision to these missionaries.
He made a way for them even when the government of Uganda had rejected them at first. God will always provide if He has created the journey.
