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Read Part I HERE

Pray, Risk, Pray Harder

1 Kings 18:36-37 (NLT) At the usual time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, “O lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.”

I said in our last post that often we don’t PRAY BOLD because we have never allowed ourselves to get into a situation where we REALLY need God to show up. Praying bold requires RISK. Elijah’s prayer is all the more bold because he is standing on Mt. Carmel in front of the leaders of Israel and 450 false prophets with an altar that has been doused with water three times and if God doesn’t answer in the next few seconds, he is going to be cut into little pieces! Nothing elicits bold prayers like getting yourself in a jam that only God can get you out. BOLD PRAYERS go hand in hand with BOLD RISKS for God.

1 Kings 18:38-39 (NLT) Immediately the fire of the lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The lord—he is God! Yes, the lord is God!”

Looking back on the greatest personal stories of answered prayer in my life, I’m amazed that so many times it was when I had felt the nudge of the Spirit to step way out on a limb for Him and I was absolutely in trouble if He didn’t come through. That will make you pray bold prayers! The Holy Spirit and I have some things in the works right now that scare me to death! Whether BOLD PRAYING or just terrified CRYING OUT best describes it, I can’t quite tell but I am knocking hard on heaven’s door right now!

What little nudge or perhaps giant push from the Holy Spirit have you been shrugging off because it seems foolish, scary, ridiculous, irresponsible, or maybe even “calling fire down from heaven” level absurd? Maybe God in His tender lovingkindness wants desperately to show you an astounding miracle if you will just trust, step out… and pray like crazy. Jump out of the boat! You might just find yourself walking on water…

I’ll never forget the time my wife and I needed to travel 800 miles to preach somewhere. We counted up our nickels and dimes and realized we had only enough gas money to travel 600 of the 800 miles and no money for food. We decided that we would head out anyway. We would fast and we would pray that our little car got the best gas mileage of it’s life or that God would give us a strong tailwind all the way. We prayed like crazy. But God didn’t do either. As our fuel light was blinking 600 miles in, we pulled over to a little truck stop in the middle of nowhere to use the restroom, lay hands on the car, and pray until God showed up. When I came out of the restroom I saw three rough looking men speaking to my wife and she looked concerned. I walked over and introduced myself. They asked us to sit down at a table in the diner with them and we reluctantly agreed. They began to ask about our ministry and it was then I realized we were both wearing matching ministry T-shirts. As we told them about what we were doing for the kingdom they became very excited. One of the men asked if we had eaten and could he buy us dinner. I said, “Oh, no thank you. We are fine.” I felt my wife kick me under the table. Of course, they knew nothing of our current situation. We talked a little longer and then we told them we had to get back on the road. As we stood to go, the same man reached into his pocket and handed me the exact amount of money we needed to get to our destination. He said he felt the Lord wanted Him to invest in what we were doing. We thanked him profusely, walked outside, and began to dance around the car praising God! That trip lead to over 1 million people hearing the gospel. To this day I half believe that those three men were really angels but I don’t know. All I know is God shows up when we PRAY BOLD, RISK BIG and PRAY HARDER.

 
[quote] “I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.” ― William Sloane Coffin Jr.[/quote]
 
[quote] “But God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn’t come through.” ― Francis Chan, Crazy Love[/quote]
 

Suggested Further Reading: Hudson Taylor: The Man Who Believed God by Marshall Broomhall>

 
See previous posts in this series
 
A big thank you to our dear friend and ministry partner, Shannon Arnold, for prompting this series…

“Take care of giving up your first zeal; beware of cooling in the least degree. Ye were hot and earnest once; be hot and earnest still, and let the fire which once burnt within you still animate you.” – Charles Spurgeon

Read the beginning of the series HERE

It quickly became obvious to us that the forces of darkness were not happy about God sending us a new daughter. My sons and I worked building high-rise buildings while we were planting churches and three weeks after Mercy came through our door all three of us were laid off from our jobs on the same day. I was unexpectedly laid off from a six figure income job that day and was consequently out of work for almost a year and financially we have never recovered. But the three of us getting laid off was not to be the height of the spiritual warfare for that day. We came home, gave the bad news to the girls and mom, and decided to go to dinner and forget our fears and worries. On the way home from dinner an old man who was off his medication tried to run my wife off the road in our little, safe, gated community where we lived. She pulled over and the boys and I got out to see what was going on and he accelerated to about 30 miles an hour and just missed me and hit my oldest son Luke sending him smashing head first into the man’s windshield and then he flew over the car and landed on the pavement as the man sped away. Immediately Lisa took off and caught up to the man and blocked his car with hers and brought him to a stop. My heart sank to my feet as I watched all of this just a few feet from me. But God! Even though the man’s bumper, fender, mirror and windshield were dented and shattered Luke jumped up off the ground and we discovered he had no broken bones or internal injuries and only a small scratch on his head. The EMTs who arrived shortly after and saw the damage to the car could not believe that Luke had even survived much less was unharmed. That day we knew we were in a war.

Over the next several months our entire family’s lives were wrapped up in ministering to Mercy and the spiritual warfare continued on every front. We couldn’t believe the persecution we began to receive from people, even our own extended family, who didn’t think it was right that we had adopted a black girl. We were stunned. Surely no one who named the name of Christ and knew the Bible could feel that way. Families left our church over it even. Friends whom we counted among our dearest quit speaking to us. And Mercy deep down was very angry. She was all alone in another country, didn’t understand the language, didn’t understand these crazy white people and their rules, and we quickly realized just how far out of our depth we were to help this precious girl. It was very difficult for Mercy and our whole family but continually God showed up in stunning ways to show us that He was the author of this and we were on His mission.

Many days I held Mercy in my arms while she wet the front of my shirt weeping out her anger and pain and confusion. Like the Grinch in the animated Christmas special, I felt like my heart was growing ten times its normal size. Many nights my girls sat up with her and worked with her. Day after day Lisa worked trying to help her learn English, get caught up in school (she had missed several years of school due to the Liberian civil war) and adjust to her new culture. All the while we were still writing, speaking, pastoring, and doing odd jobs trying to keep afloat financially. We made more mistakes than we care to remember now but God was expanding our hearts and minds at a blinding pace and we were learning to see, feel, and act like Jesus to the least of these.

When Mercy was dropped on our doorstep we simply took her in. At the time we didn’t even consider what to do legally not to mention with preaching and pastoring and speaking, we simply had no time to even think about it. But after a year my daughter Beverly came to me (she had just graduated high school at 16) and said, “Dad, put me to work in the ministry. Give me something to do.” So I asked her to hire a lawyer, hire a social worker, do the research, and figure out what it would take to adopt Mercy legally. And she did just that. Once in awhile she would show up with some papers for Lisa and I to sign or she would tell us we all needed to go to the doctor on such and such a day to get physicals for the adoption. Finally the date was set for our home study and the lawyer and the social worker called me (I had not yet spoken to them) and said, “Mister Bullen, we were getting worried that we hadn’t heard from you or your wife in all this time and the only person we have dealt with is your 16-year-old daughter. But we looked you up online and read some of your writings and realized that you are training Beverly to be a leader and a world impactor and not just being irresponsible with your adoption and we want you to know we think its awesome.” Whew! I hadn’t even considered how it might appear! Finally the day arrived and we went to court and signed all of the papers and Mercy was now a real Bullen. Oh happy day.

Within a year of Mercy’s arrival we had experienced a total financial collapse and were on our way to losing everything. The financial meltdown of 2008 – 2009 was in full swing and we were hanging by a thread. But God was working in us in ways we hadn’t previously known was possible and our faith and our determination were growing leaps and bounds. We began to experience, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace” in a whole new way.

About this time a Tres Dias brother, David Richardson, emailed me to say that he was going on a trip to Colombia, South America with Allen Pate (the guy who broke my heart for orphan ministry) and they felt strongly that God wanted me to go with them. I told him that we were weeks away from being on the street and had our hands full with pastoring and Mercy and there was just no way I could go visit orphanages in Colombia with him. Four more times over the next several weeks he reached out to me insisting that “he knew” this was from God and that I was supposed to be on this trip. Time after time I told him no. Three weeks before the trip was supposed to leave I finally found a job back in construction with some dear Christian friends that was going to put us back on top financially. “Yes!” I thought, “God has answered our prayers. Good thing I didn’t take David up on that crazy idea to go visit orphans in Colombia.” I called David on the phone and told him that I had just been hired at this company and there was absolutely no way I could go to Colombia. I’ll never forget his response. “Well, ok brother, but I just know you are supposed to be there. Don’t be mad at me but I’m going to keep praying that you will go.” “Fair enough,” I replied, and that was it. The next morning I walked in to my new job and my friend/new boss’s face was white as a sheet. “Matt, I’m so sorry but the contract we hired you for was canceled this morning and we can’t use you now.” I assured him that it was ok and walked out the door but as I stepped across the threshold leaving that place of business I was reaching for my phone, hands shaking. “Hello, David? This is Matt. I think I’m supposed to be on that trip to Colombia with you. I don’t know where I will get the money but count me in.” I went home and told my family what had happened expecting them to be upset, especially my wife, but quite the opposite was true. They had just been watching a movie called Faith Like Potatoes and they insisted I sit down and watch it. I didn’t feel like it but agreed. The story in that movie touched me to the very deepest catacombs of my soul. To this day I can’t watch it without crying. At one point in the movie (which is a true story) the lead character Angus Buchan says, “The condition for a miracle is difficulty. The condition for a great miracle is impossibility.” That exploded in my heart because I was sitting in an absolutely impossible situation and yet I knew we were on the edge of something crazy amazing and I felt the Holy Spirit’s peace waft over me and then my wife said, “You know, Beverly will turn 18 while you are on the trip to Colombia…” “Oh!” I said, Then I shouldn’t go?” “No,” Lisa said, “What I meant was you should take her with you. What better way to spend her 18th birthday than loving on orphans in Colombia with her dad?” “But we don’t even have the money for me to go”, I replied. “Well if God can send one, He can send two,” she said. And then she finished with, “The condition for a great miracle is impossibility!”

Three days later a man in our church called me and said, “Pack your bags Pastor Matt. Some of us men are pitching in to pay your way. You and Beverly are going to Colombia.”

And we did…

Aflame For God 17 – Gasoline On A Bonfire

In John 4 the disciples return from a food run. They had left their Master hungry and exhausted sitting next to a well but now they return to find Him speaking with a Samaritan woman, which was totally taboo, but they don’t have the nerve to ask Him, “What are you doing Jesus?” and then when she leaves strangely He doesn’t even seem anxious to eat the food they have brought Him. They urge Him to eat and His timeless reply is

John 4:32 “I have a kind of food you know nothing about.”

Jesus had just shared a tender moment with a lost daughter of Eve and her life would never be the same again and the joy of that encounter and of fulfilling His Father’s mission was better than earthly food.

John 4:34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.”

I think about this passage all the time. When I look at my own life and ministry I can honestly say that the fuel for pressing harder and harder into the harvest comes from the joy of those tender moments where Jesus shows up, touches someone through me, and changes their life. Having a taste of that “kind of food” becomes a holy addiction that I wouldn’t trade for anything in this world. I woke this morning thinking of and praising God for the almost countless “Jacob’s well” experiences that He has blessed me with in just the last few months and for the immense joy and motivation they bring to my life.

I think of the discouraged pastor in his 50’s who hugged me weeping after I preached at a pastor’s conference in Bogota, Colombia and said, “I love you. I came today under a heavy burden and the Holy Spirit has refreshed me through you.” Wow! Praise you Jesus!

I think of the young woman and her baby that I prayed for at the altar after preaching in a church in Medellin, Colombia who when I laid my hands on her and her baby she collapsed to the floor as I caught the baby and she gave her heart to Jesus. I later learned that she had never been in a church service before and had never heard the gospel before. She had gone to borrow some clothes from a neighbor and they had asked her to come with them to church and hear the American preacher… Only God…

I think of the woman that I “randomly” sat next to at a ministry meeting whom I had never met before who weeping promptly began to share with me her whole story of horrible abuse and neglect as she kept saying, “I don’t know why I am telling you all of this.” I knew. Jesus wanted to hear her story and give her living water because that’s what He does…

I think of the 16 year old boy accompanying me on a mission trip who broke down and fell into my arms weeping as he watched the Holy Spirit sweep across a church service in Colombia. That young man will never be the same.

I think of the discouraged pastor in his 30’s who wept out his hunger for God as I laid hands on him and prayed over him as he knelt on the board floor of a little church on stilts in a slum in Belize.

I think of the father of a missionary girl in Colombia who wet the front of my suit with his tears as he hugged me and wouldn’t let me go after a sermon I preached in Bogota, Colombia on missions.

I think of the drunk man with the big black eye who wet the front of my shirt with his tears as I held him and shared Jesus with him on the side of a road in Belize.

I think of the young man who hugged me and wouldn’t let me go at the end of a sermon I preached in one of the most violent prisons in the world in Medellin, Colombia. The tears on his glowing face evidence that he had tasted living water.

I think of the precious 20 year old pastor’s daughter in Sibate’, Colombia who after a miraculous night of ministry when her father asked her to join him in praying over me and my ministry broke down weeping and held onto me as she choked out her prayer between great sobs asking God to continue anointing me so that souls continue to be healed through my ministry as she had seen that night. How do you compare anything this world offers with that?

To His praise and glory alone and by His grace alone I could literally tell of dozens more of these tender moments in the presence of Jesus as He transforms, heals, loves, encourages, and restores lives that I have experienced and enjoyed just in the last few months… no drug, no sin, no bank account, no toy, no vacation, no fame, no fortune, nothing can compete with that. It’s a “kind of food” that the world doesn’t know about and the greatest prayer of my life is “Oh God give me more! Live your life through me! Quench their thirst!” This is what keeps me desperate for God. It’s a holy addiction I can’t live without… and neither could Jesus…

Matt Bullen

Executive Director

Mission Critical International

Mission Critical International is passionately pursuing Jesus on His mission among the nations and mobilizing others to join us in this holy adventure.

If you would like to help us you can mail a check to:

Mission Critical International

11743 Northpointe Blvd #1025

Tomball, TX 77377

or give online below.

Mission Critical staff receive no income from the ministry but rather work and pray down their personal needs and travel expenses so 100% of your gift will go directly to support our missionary work around the world.

2014 was an amazing year. One of the best in my personal life. A year of redemption, new passion and dreams for the future. This year God brought me back and gave me a chance to start doing what it is He put me on this earth to do. After running away as hard as I could for two years God intervened and would not allow me to run anymore. I could no longer run from the knowledge that God was calling me to a higher purpose. As Christians we are called to what the modern church calls “The Great Commission” Matthew 28:19 and for years Christians heroes have been going through the whole world sharing the gospel with boldness no matter what the cost even if that cost is their lives. Unfortunately Christianity has turned into a comfortable religion instead of a way of life. “Most churches and ministries are working in the Commission but not the Great commission” – Enith Diaz. Having grown up my whole life in church I can say with authority that the modern idea of what it is to be a Christian is down right tragic.

Something I read recently struck my heart, it said “Some Christians haven’t even thought about whether they would die for Christ because they haven’t really been living for Him” Jesus Freaks, DC Talk. I will tell you that really made me rethink my life, my roll as a Christ follower and my idea of what it is to be a part of the Great commission. Thanks to God he opened my eyes just a tiny bit more this year. When God finally broke my pride and brought me back to Colombia in April I had no idea I was gonna spend the rest of my life here, but you know, there is absolutely no place I would rather be and nothing I would rather be doing than giving everything I have for the one who gave His everything for me. I am now living the life I was called to. And I would encourage everyone reading this DO NOT run from whatever it is He has put in your heart to do. WE ARE ALL called as followers of Christ, as His kids, as part of His family to go and spread that love and spirit to everybody we possibly can. THAT is what it means to live. We are of another world, this is only our temporary home and nobody is promised tomorrow. Choose to obey now.

My personal dream and my hope for all of you is that we can come to our end the same way Paul did and be able to say “As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. 8 And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6-8.

So blessed to be here, so blessed to be doing what I was born to do… Who is it that God is using you to speak to? who is it that God put in your life that needs Him? What is it that God put in your heart to do with your life? Just something to think about. As always, A HUGE thank you to all you who support us in prayer and financially. It means so much more than you can ever imagine. I could not do this without all of you.

“Don’t let your light go down, don’t let your fire burn out cause somewhere somebody needs a reason to believe, why don’t you rise up now? Don’t be afraid to stand out… Thats how the lost get found” Britt Nicole-Lost get found

To see what God did in 2014 and where He is taking Mission Critical in 2015 please watch the video below.

Love Brooke

Photos of Brooke’s work in Colombia

Like many missionaries, Brooke has no source of income other than love gifts from home.

If you would like to support Brooke you can mail a check to:

Mission Critical International

11743 Northpointe Blvd #1025

Tomball, TX 77377

Give online below.

100% of your tax exempt gift will go to Brooke in Colombia.

Do you ever think about how amazing it was that in Luke 5 after Jesus bids Peter and the others to let down their nets and they pull in what was probably the greatest catch of their careers “they left everything and followed Him.” (Luke 5:11) when Jesus said, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” (Luke 5:10)? I’ve been thinking a lot about this over the last few years.

The passage always amazes me because at first blush it seems like they gave up a lot and they took a great risk leaving their livelihood to follow this Rabbi who “had nowhere to lay His head” and maybe that is part of why Jesus said, “Do not fear” but in retrospect they were trading very little for the most incredible adventure in the history of the world. When Jesus said, “follow Me” there is no way they could have known the incredible adventure that awaited them. In that split second where they made the decision to follow Him there is no way they could have known what that meant. As they were walking away from their father, their boats, their nets, and their wealth there is no way they could have known that they were going to see the blind, lame, diseased, and dead healed before their very eyes! They couldn’t have known that they were going to be on the mount of transfiguration and see Jesus in His glory speaking with Moses and Elijah! They couldn’t have know that they would see God clothed in flesh die to ransom humanity and then see Him raised from the dead and ascend to heaven. Peter couldn’t have known that when he left his nets he would preach and see three thousand saved and baptized in one day! In those simple words “follow Me” were concealed huge miracles, intense suffering, wonderful marvels, deep pain, unspeakable joys, not to mention the presence of Jesus, the most lovable and admirable being in the universe.

The astounding truth however is that each of us have been called by the same Rabbi to “follow Me” and the same adventure is waiting for us if we will leave our shore of Galilee and follow Him and it excites me daily to think that there is no way we can know the incredible things He has in store for us if we will say yes! We may have to leave familiar surroundings, careers, family, and more and there is no guarantee that we will ever return (all the fishermen who followed Jesus from the shore that day were killed in foreign lands for the gospel) but I know that if those fishermen had it to do over again they wouldn’t trade their adventure with God, their Mission Critical, for a quiet life on the shores of Galilee and neither should you or I.

What God sized adventure is awaiting us? There is no way we can know unless we drop the nets and follow.

To Be Continued…