PASSION
    The apostle Paul was warned by the Spirit of God, in every city that he went to, that "bonds and afflictions" was ahead for him. Did that stop him? No. He said, "None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20.22-24). He had a passion in the Lord that raised him up above "bonds and afflictions". This passion is the first pre-requisite for effective, long-term ministry.
    This passion can be cultivated so that it grows in your life. Here in America, we often have a busy life-style with many distractions going on all around us. It is easy to be born, live, and die in America, and never have the exhilerating experience of giving oneself to minister to others personally, so they are affected eternally for the Lord Jesus Christ. All you have to do is to step out of your comfort zone for just a few minutes, to encounter hungry, thirsty, people who need and desire to know the Lord Jesus. The mission field is all around us.
    I am amazed at how so many people are bound by the traditional concept of being "called to the mission field". So many people sit on their pew doing nothing because they say they are "not called". And, you hear people say, "You must have a special call to go to the mission field". You will never find this concept in the Word. You will find that every person has a special call, and as you are faithful with that call, then God will entrust more unto you (Matt.20.1-16; 22.1-14; 25.14-30).
    Your special call is written in the Bible. Jesus called every believer to go and preach the gospel to every creature (Matt.28.18-20; Mk.16.15-18; Lk.24.46-49; Jn.20.21-23; Acts 1.4-8). All you have to do is dial up your neighbor next door and be kind to them, and be sensitive to the moving of the Holy Spirit, and you have just entered the mission field and you are fulfilling your special call.
    As you give of yourself to meet people's eternal needs through the gospel of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, your passion to meet those needs will grow. You will encounter spiritual hunger, and you will see that hunger satisfied through the power of the gospel--a soul saved from an eternal hell to an eternal heaven. You begin to realize that there are more important things in life than "my life". As you sow into others lives, the passion to see them know God, grows.
    Paul cultivated his passion in the Lord so that he grew beyond himself. As a result, he knew the eternal joys of realizing a long and fruitful life in spite of all the opposition that he encountered along the way. Writing to Phlemon, Paul referred to himself as "Paul the aged" (Phm. 9). Not only did Paul live a long and fruitful life in spite of all the constant life-threatening obstacles he encountered, but he is still enjoying a fruitful life in the Lord. He is still winning souls today through the passion of the Lord expressed through his writings. There is no limit on the fruitfulness that we can experience in the ministry of the Lord, when we live in His passion for souls.
    Step out of your comfort zone today, and stir the flame of the passion of the Lord in your life. Encounter others needs with the love and truth of Jesus Christ. Keep stirring and fanning the flame. This flame can quickly consume you, and you will find yourself going from the neighbor next door to the nations of the world as you live in the flame of His passion for souls.

KNOWLEDGE
    The apostle Paul encountered the Lord, three days later was filled with the Spirit and baptized in water, got something to eat, and then he was out preaching Jesus. The only knowledge he had of Jesus prior to that was that he considered Him an imposter and an enemy of God, and he hated all those that followed Him, to the point of going about killing and imprisoning them (Acts 9).
    You don't have to have a seminary education to be a minister of Jesus Christ. You do need to be born again, filled with the Spirit, and committed to following Him in every way. That knowledge of God is what it takes to most effectively minister the full counsel of Jesus Christ to others.
    Yes, more knowledge and education is good. We need a well-rounded education of the Word of God and the practical ways of God. We need to understand social customs of different peoples and countries. But above all, we need to know Him, Christ, the Anointed One and His Anointing. We need both, education and knowing Him and His Anointing. The Anointing destroys the yoke of bondage in people's lives. Even if you cannot speak a language, if you can heal their sick by the power of God as a demonstration of what the Bible says, you have communicated more in one event than in ten years of powerless Bible teaching.

PHYSICAL CONDITION
    We train to perform athletics. We train to be a soldier who goes to war. We train to look good for the gals or guys. We train so we won't die of a heart attack. We train to simply look good, feel good, and have a good life. Every believer has a special mission in life. We need to be in top shape to accomplish that mission. We need to physically train to that end.
    If we never tap in on the passion, we will probably never find the motivation to train physically for the mission. With the passion comes the motivation. Paul trained for his mission constantly. He kept his body under strict control. He kept his mind only on positive things. He kept his spirit filled with and in tune with the Spirit of God. He had been given an assignment from God. He had also been told there were going to be some challenges along the way to fulfilling that assignment. So, he kept himself ready in every way to face those challenges so he could fulfill the assignment.
    This is just common sense. It doesn't take a "special call" to do these things. We operate by this common sense in other realms of life every day, and fulfilling the work of God is no different, except, as Spirit-filled believers, we have access to the supernatural presence of God at all times with an experience of knowing how to yield to and cooperate with Him. This knowledge of God is so vital. We need the operation of the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis, especially as we minister to others.
    The point is that we need to govern our diet, our exercise, our thought life, what we say, and all areas of our life, so we are able to most effectively carry out our assignments in the Lord. If we find that we are not able to do this, then we need to spend time before God to get our hearts in tune with Him for these areas, so we can have the most effective and long-term ministry possible. We are bought with a price--the blood of Jesus. Our life is not our own. We are to present ourselves in every way for His use, not conformed to the passions of the world. Presenting our bodies as a "living sacrifice" is our "reasonable service" unto Him (Rom.12.1,2).

CONCLUSION
    Passion, knowledge, physical condition--we can cultivate and control these areas and focus them on carrying out our "special call". Some people's passion is their job or their business or their favorite pastime or athletics or a relationship they are having with someone. Some people's knowledge excels in this area or that area. Some people keep their body under control for whatever reason; many people do not.
    If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are called to stir up and focus your passion on getting the gospel to those around you. You are called to have knowledge of the Lord and of the Anointing of His Spirit so that you are able to cooperate with Him in reaching those around you. You are called to get your mind, the words you speak,  and your body under control, so that you are able to be that vessel that God can use for those around you, and to endure and overcome hardships when you encounter them.
    Above all, God wants you to understand that you have a special call that no one else in the world can fulfill. As you walk with God and work together with Him, you will know the joy of fulfilling that special call of influencing others for eternal life in Jesus Christ, in the way that only you can do it. As you are faithful to God to fulfill that call, He will bring you into greater dimensions of that call with greater challenges and greater victories and greater joys, with greater fruitfulness. You can attain unto unlimited fruitfulness, if you will.
    So, you are in training for the mission field. The mission field is here, right now. As Jesus said, and I paraphrase, "Don't say the harvest is going to be out there someday. Just look around you. The fields are white, ready to harvest all around you, right now. Come on, let's go, some will reap, others will sow, but we can all experience the joy of doing the work together that is all around us right now" (Jn.4.34-38).
    Begin training for the mission field today.