Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke has preached to multiplied millions of people. Since 1987 our ministry, Christ for all Nations, which Evangelist Bonnke founded, has received more than sixty-seven million registered decision cards during our massive evangelistic campaigns around the world. It is truly one of the most remarkable ministry success stories of all time, and it is still continuing. But it wasn’t always cake and ice cream. In his autobiography, Living a Life of Fire, Evangelist Bonnke tells many stories of the difficulties he faced, especially in the early years. His beginnings in Africa were humble. He often preached to small handfuls of people who were uninterested and did not want to respond to the gospel message.

The tide began to turn, however, when in four consecutive nights he received a prophetic dream in which he saw the continent of Africa being washed in the precious blood of Jesus, and he heard the voice of the Holy Spirit cry, “Africa shall be saved!” He took hold of that promise with all his might and began to move out in faith, but everyone did not welcome his ambition or enthusiasm. Provoked by jealousy, other missionaries began to complain to their denominational authorities that Reinhard Bonnke was able to exercise more freedom in his ministry than they were, and this prompted the missions board to order him, in writing, not to expand the ministry any further.

“My soul was smitten within me,” he wrote, “as if I had been disowned by my own family. I had to . . . go off by myself in desperation. I needed to talk with God, and even more, I needed Him to talk to me.” He decided to take a sabbatical to fast and pray. “I want to be at peace with my brothers,” he pled. “I want to submit . . . and stop being driven by the burning vision You’ve given me of a blood-washed Africa.” It was then that the Lord spoke to him words that shook him to the core. “Yes, you can do this,” the Lord responded. “But if you drop My call, I will have to drop you, and I will have to look for someone else.” That ultimatum was the only word he needed to hear. He immediately went home and wrote a letter of resignation to the mission board. “Let everyone else drop me,” he prayed, “but, oh, Lord, don’t You drop me.”

Had Evangelist Bonnke dropped the vision of a blood-washed Africa, God would have found someone else to reach that continent with the gospel. We often mistakenly feel we are indispensable, but the reality is that our failure to answer the call of God will not cause the purposes of God to fail. Rather it is the one who chooses to disobey who will suffer. God’s plan will still come to pass, even if He has to raise up someone else to fulfil it.

John the Baptist gave a sobering warning to the Jewish leadership of his day. He knew that, as part of God’s chosen people, they felt superior to other races and had a sense of indispensability. But in Matthew 3:9 John says, “Do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham” (nas). God is able to raise up the next world changer overnight. He can take someone from the gutter, like Esther, who was a “nobody,” and put her in the palace—and He needs no one’s permission.

Mordecai told Esther essentially, “God’s purposes will come to pass one way or another, with or without you.” But his warning became even more severe. Mordecai went on to tell Esther, “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance shall arise for the Jews from elsewhere, but you and your father’s house will perish” (Esther 4:14, amp). God’s purposes are like a freight train that cannot be stopped, and the most dangerous place in the world to stand is in the way of those purposes because they will not slow down to avoid running over you. If you doubt this, just ask Pharaoh, who refused to let the children of Israel go in the Book of Exodus. God has absolutely no chance of losing. We are the only ones who stand to lose when we fail to obey.

In the amazing book Burn: Melting into the Image of Jesus Eric Gilmour brings the weight and gravity of the situation home.

“Every man will one day have his final thoughts; he will turn around on life’s path and see where his blood has been spent. There, in that moment, will undoubtedly be the true test of a man’s love. For our lives are one long love letter to God, written today and presented to Him and read aloud before all saints of the ages and angels in glory, tomorrow.”

My friend, we have been placed in this world for a purpose: to propel God’s kingdom forward. This is more than a preference or privilege; it is a divine responsibility and duty for which we will be held eternally accountable. Propelling God’s kingdom forward is not a side issue—it is the reason you were saved, it’s the reason you were born. You have come into the kingdom for such a time as this!