In Acts 4:36–37, Luke shows us how Barnabas’ trusted ministry began—it began with a demonstrated freedom from the love of things and a heart of love for people. He sold a field that belonged to him and gave all the proceeds to the apostles to use for the movement. In this story, he stands as the example of what the grace of God and the spirit of revival does in the human heart.

Antioch Sending Centers are always deeply marked by the lives of fathers and mothers like Barnabas who long ago “sold their field” to be a part of what God was doing on the earth. They have been radically transformed by grace. They have seen Jesus as supremely worthy, and they have responded with all their hearts. What you do today is setting the stage for what you will walk in, five, ten years from now…

In the tests of delay and promotion, Jesus pries our grip off of what we imagined the fulfillment of the promises over our lives would look like so that we don’t reject the promise when it comes. In the delay, Jesus addresses the levels of our identity and self-confidence that are wrapped up in our “dreams” and our “callings”. He breaks down all the confidence in what we think qualifies us and produces a brokenness that is a sweet fragrance to God.

Jesus is looking for something dynamically different than what the world is looking for in leadership potential. Men are enamored with giftedness, intelligence, charisma, skill, and strength. Jesus is looking for purity, love, humility, and a willing spirit. Our destiny and assignments are dynamically affected by how we respond in the grace of God to Jesus’ leadership in every season of the journey…

Communities of corporate prayer and worship become the slingshot for laborers. The kinds of laborers needed for the harvest in the nations are born, nurtured, and sent from worship and prayer communities. Jesus has zeal that these laborers would reproduce this culture in every city and nation to which they are sent. (Mark 14:9, Malachi 1:11)

The majority of your New Testament can be traced to a House of Prayer in a city called Antioch. Many have never even heard of this prophetic community that could arguably compete with Jerusalem in terms of its implications for New Testament Christianity and lasting impact on the Church in the earth…