Warmest greetings in the Savior’s name!
It seems we just got started on 2025—yet in the blink of an eye; we’re already done with January!
But before the month is over—by the time you read these words—I’ll be hurrying to Nepal, ministering there through the end of the month.
Then comes Spain . . .
then Cuba . . .
and Albania . . .
the Philippines . . .
and so on, through the beginning of summer!
Why? Because of what Jesus said in John 4:35: “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest”!
THE HARVEST IS READY! LET’S GO!
I woke up at 4 a.m. today, too excited to wait for my 5 a.m. alarm., eager to start reading the scriptures because of the spiritual journey God has been taking me on over the past couple days . . .
I’ve been pondering the relentless pace of secularization, and how few people really know what they believe—and why they believe it! Suddenly, last night, I felt a forceful power from within, an emphatic statement, beyond any shadow of doubt:
“I believe!”
I was blessed to receive such a strong, clear focus. In that moment, with the rush of the Spirit’s word to me, I was instantly ready to jump out of bed and to proclaim these two powerful words around the world!
I like the Newsboys song “We Believe” . . .
So, let our faith be more than anthems
Greater than the songs we sing
And in our weakness and temptations
We believe . . .
Let the lost be found and the dead be raised
In the here and now, let love invade
Let the church live loud, our God, we’ll say
“We believe, we believe!”
And the gates of hell will not prevail
For the power of God has torn the veil
Now we know Your love will never fail
We believe, we believe . . .
But even that resounding lyric seemed like mild compared to the divine surge that compelled me out of bed and on my way!
I can’t help but remember an encounter with a 60-something year-old woman, a candy-seller on a street in Cuba, more than 20 years ago . . .
“How can I know for sure that God will let me into heaven?” she asked me. I began sharing the gospel with her—only to be interrupted by a “santero,” a priest of the voodoo-like Afro-Caribbean Santería religion. These santeros like to refer to themselves as “gods.”
This one stepped up and demanded that I share “the other truths” with this woman. “Jehovah’s Witnesses have their truth,” he declared. “Mormons have their truth.” I replied with the words of Galatians 1:8—that even if we ourselves, or an angel, were to come with a different gospel, that one is to be anathema forever (or “accursed” in the New American Standard translation).
The santero would not back down. He insisted that he was trying to show me that there are other spiritual realities. I answered, “About those, Colossians 1 says that all things were made by Him and for Him, and if they are not obedient to God’s purpose, they too will be eternally condemned.”
The voodoo man finally cut to the chase. “I am trying to tell you that I can see things that you cannot see!” he announced. “For example, that grandmother of yours who prayed so much for you to go into the ministry, she is standing next to you. I can see her, and you cannot.”
“Do you want to know what I see?” I asked. “What?” he snorted, as if to say, “You can’t see anything.”
“I can see Jesus,” I answered, “nailed to a cross, shedding His blood for you. Can you see that?”
The man did not say another word. Instantly, he turned around, and left as quickly as his feet would carry him.
I have never personally encountered a more dramatic demonstration of the realities of the spiritual world in which we live. We are surrounded! The enemy wants to keep us in a secular mode so that we don’t ignite our understanding of the spiritual realities all around us. In his classic The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis observed the enemy’s strategy of secularizing our thinking. The reality of the spirit world is important.
We must be aware and alert, to stand against the purposes of the spirit world, “lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11).
We must also always keep in mind that there are many honest seekers pondering how they can know God truly, and spend eternity with Him!
This, in fact, is where my conversation began with the Cuban lady selling candy on a downtown street in Havana. “Sir, I have wanted all my life to be able to meet a man like you,” she began, “who could tell me how I can know for sure that God will let me into heaven.”
Each seeker reaches out from his or her own desperate reality.
“How can I escape the pain and misery I am subjected to every day?”
“Whom can I turn to for help out of this horrible reality?”
“Where is God?”
“How can I get in touch with the true God?”
The urgent questions go on and on.
Many times, when I can’t sleep, I think of a poor woman in a sad corner of one of the many countries I’ve visited. She wakes up and cries in darkness and loneliness, wondering if God is there, and if He can hear her. Why does He allow this misery? How can she get Him to come to her rescue? What can she do to find favor from Him?
And I drift back to the Newsboys lyrics . . .
In this time of desperation
When all we know is doubt and fear
There is only one foundation
We believe . . .
In this broken generation
When all is dark, You help us see
There is only one salvation
We believe . . .
Let the lost be found and the dead be raised
In the here and now, let love invade
Let the church live loud, our God, we’ll say
“We believe, we believe”
And the gates of hell will not prevail
For the power of God has torn the veil
Now we know Your love will never fail
We believe, we believe . . .
Do you believe?
Dr. Geisler, my mentor, told me we live only what we truly believe. “Everyone is a theologian,” Geisler said: the guy digging ditches, the man in the shop, the woman caring for her children, and the minister at the church.
We all have a degree of belief—that measure of belief makes us better theologians . . . or merely good theologians . . . or mediocre theologians . . . or bad theologians.
But in these times of desperation, as the song says . . . in this broken generation . . . for the lost to be found and the dead to be raised . . . we need to be good theologians. We need to be “soteriologists”: theologians who know and believe the plan of salvation!
The world is desperate. Billions are lost and dead in their trespasses. This is why God wants us to GO—into all the world—and preach the gospel.
This is what we are to be about together, all of us who have been reconciled, and thus have been enrolled in the ministry of reconciliation: declaring to a hurting world, “WE BELIEVE! We believe in the crucifixion. We believe that He conquered death. We believe in the resurrection. And He’s coming back again!”
Let us practice what we preach. Let us live what we believe.
Let us march into this year with faithfulness.
Let us make 2025 a year of SALVATION for those living in desperation!
Please open your heart as you have done so beautifully before, and give generously to advance the work of our teams around the world. Through your response of Christ-like compassion today, you’ll be investing your life in what you truly BELIEVE!
I believe,
Dr. Manny Fernandez
P.S. Your gift of love today will touch hearts and lives all around the world. You’ll strengthen and expand the work of evangelists and church planters. You’ll shine the light of God’s love into places of spiritual darkness.
You and I both understand that “believing” is only the beginning—we must translate belief into action. Thanks in advance for taking such powerful, practical, personal action through giving today!