By Sharon Greiffin, General WMB Coordinator of The Church of God
“And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:23).
As the servants of the Lord, we are required to fill the Master’s house by obeying His command to go out and to bring them in. In this parable, Jesus illustrated the need to go outside of the house to seek lost souls. The job of the servant is to go searching the highways, or to the public areas, reaching the lost with a compelling message to come in. We cannot wait for souls to come to us, rather the Master’s invitation must be given behind the pulpit and outside the church house. The mission requires the messenger to carry the gospel to the hedges, or outside the walls of the city. There are many things we sometimes encounter in trying to reach the sinner. Many obstacles may be in the way; walls may be blocking the pathway in reaching that lost soul. But the Master says, “GO!” If we do not know how to reach them, we need to ask God to show us how. Highways lead to many places and hedges may keep the sinner walled in. But behind the walls, there is a soul we must reach out to. We need to break through the barriers by praying and fasting until there is an opening made within the hedge that allows us to walk through. We may not know where the highway will take us, but if we trust the leading of the Lord, we will find ourselves led by the Holy Ghost to lost sheep who need to be compelled to come home to the Master’s house. Highways lead to home!
We must go to the highways of Africa, the hedges of China; the hard places to go to and the easy places to reach because… THIS HOUSE MUST BE FILLED!