Zambia Hunt

In 1982, as a 16 year old boy, I went forward in a missions conference at Windsor Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, knelt at the altar, and consecrated my life for missionary service. In the year that followed, the Lord was working in revival in my life. I felt a joyful passion to serve the Lord and to give my all. It was all a work of grace; I remember determining not to watch TV but rather to take the challenge of reading through the Bible once a month. I heard someone say that if you read for 45 minutes in the morning and another 45 minutes at night, the average reader can read through the Bible in 30 days. I took that challenge and successfully read through the following once a month for the following three months.

Another book that deeply impacted my spiritual life during this time was “Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret.” This book is a classic Christian biography detailing the life and mission work of James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission (now known as OMF International). It is authored by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor. The book explains Taylor’s deep faith, pioneering missionary work, and reliance on God’s provision in the face of the daunting challenges of reaching China with the gospel. It reveals his “spiritual secrets,” which at its core was an utter dependence on Christ for everything, influencing his approach to missions, his willingness to endure personal hardships, and his confidence in God for the work of evangelism. Reviewing this book’s themes recently, I realized how deeply these “secrets” impacted my teenage mind. Please bear with me as I share some of Taylor’s “Secrets” and my own personal reflections and lessons learned:

1. The “Secret of Living by Faith:

Hudson Taylor’s life exemplified the principle of living by faith, not by sight. He depended on God for financial provisions, guidance, and the success of his missionary endeavors, often in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

As a teen, I longed for God to give me this kind of faith, to believe in God for great things that would be so impossible that it could only be God who accomplished them! Believing God for things so impossible that when they happen, God is made large and is glorified, and the people he used to those ends are forgotten.

2. The “Secret” of the Exchanged Life:

Taylor believed in the “exchanged life,” which means he saw his life as hidden with Christ in God. This meant surrendering one’s life entirely to God and allowing Christ to live through him. This is a strange sort of tension, where we work to the point of exhaustion, but our confidence is only in God that He is the one doing the work through us.

3. The “Secret” of the Joy of the Lord as Strength:

Taylor found his strength not in his circumstances or achievements but in the joy of the Lord. This spiritual secret enabled him to endure hardships, persecution, and loss with a spirit of joy and peace.

I determined that with God’s help, I would gratefully use material things and give my all for Christ and His cause, but that none of the achievements or acquisitions the Lord may grant would be what I lived for. I wanted to live in such a way that God could give and take away; it did not matter because I had Him.

4. The “Secret” of Prayer and Spiritual Intimacy:

A deep commitment to prayer and cultivating a personal relationship with God was central to Taylor’s life. He believed in the power of prayer to move mountains and considered it essential for the work of the mission. I learned this truth from Taylor.

I do not consider myself a man of prayer, though strive to be, and I pray regularly. Far too often, I rush to “do” instead of doing the work of prayer in the way I should. But I learned that God is a powerful God who responds to the prayers of His people. We can pray, ask, and expect God’s hand to move in answer to prayer. In some small way, over the last 30 years of ministry, I have had the joy of seeing God “move mountains” in response to simply asking him to do it.

5. The “Secret” of the Priority of Love:

Love for God and love for the people of China were the driving forces behind Taylor’s ministry. He emphasized the importance of showing Christ’s love through actions, not just words, and sought to live out the love of Jesus in his interactions with others. Not only did Taylor teach me this truth; others did as well, but looking back, he planted the seed.

God put in my heart a desire to love the Lord with ALL my heart, soul, and mind. I came to understand that God loves people I can’t love. I am not to “work up” some emotional feeling toward the lost, but rather, I am to live in submission to God so that His love for the people I deem unlovable is poured through me to them. I also believe it is unloving to be distracted from the urgency to meet man’s greatest need – that they know the gospel, believe, and receive it. Yet, how can I pat the orphan on the head and suggest that they “go, be warmed and filled” without doing what I can to meet their physical needs? I heard many sermons as a teenager against the “social gospel,” and I am not suggesting that social action is the gospel. I’m saying that with an unswerving commitment to preach the gospel, disciple all who believe, and gather them into healthy churches, we meet needs that God sovereignly puts in front of us as we pursue the mission!

6. The “Secret” of Spiritual Fruitfulness through Abiding:

Taylor stressed the importance of abiding in Christ as the source of spiritual fruitfulness. He believed that remaining connected to Christ was key to bearing fruit in ministry and personal holiness. There have been theological debates about this idea in some quarters, but the Lord taught me that I cannot bear fruit in my efforts. I must recognize that my daily submission to Christ and the filling of the Spirit of God is what will produce genuine fruit in my life.

7. The “Secret” of the Sufficiency of Christ:

A central theme of Taylor’s spiritual insight was the sufficiency of Christ for all needs—personal, financial, spiritual, and ministerial. He trusted that Christ was enough for every challenge and opportunity. I learned from Taylor that Christ is enough, and Christ is all. If I have Jesus Christ, in Him, I have everything I need. I do not need to stress, worry, or connive to make things happen. Jesus Christ, who is in me, will meet the need – yes, He uses means, sometimes people, sometimes circumstances, sometimes “Elijah’s ravens,” but regardless of how God meets the need, everything I need is found in Jesus Christ.

8. The “Secret” of a Heart for the Lost:

Taylor’s heart was burdened for those who did not know Christ, particularly the millions in China’s inland provinces. His life was a testament to a passionate commitment to evangelism and missionary work.

I moved to Africa with a burden to see people come to a radical, life-changing relationship with God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. Early in our missionary enterprise in Kenya, I determined that I would seek to disciple those who believed to be fruitful, obedient followers of Jesus. The task in Africa is so large that it can’t be accomplished with shortcuts or by any one person, church, or organization. We must make disciples who faithfully entrust the gospel to someone else and help them grow. The advance of the gospel might appear slow initially, but if we are doggedly faithful to sharing the gospel and making disciples, God will be pleased to produce an army of men and women who will take that gospel everywhere.

When I am driving through the crowded streets, I often think, “How many of these people hurrying down this road are actually rushing headlong to hell?” May God burden us for the loss as He did Taylor! May we never lose sight of the multitudes on their way to hell!

Conclusion

While I have fallen short in many ways over the decades, the seeds sown by Taylor’s biography helped nurture a lifelong desire to live by faith, find my strength in the joy of the Lord, love sacrificially, abide in Christ for fruitfulness, and burn with holy zeal to see people reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ.