John 14: 11-21 "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. 15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[c] in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” So I was listening to my new pastor in yesterday's message, and he was speaking about living a life on mission. He quoted this scripture, and seeing and hearing these words got me thinking of the military principal of projection of power. According to Militaryfactory.com, the definition of power projection is the ability of a nation or entity to apply all or some of its elements of power to rapidly and effectively deploy and sustain forces in and from multiple dispersed locations - to respond to crises, maintain or add deterrence, and to enhance stability in the land occupied. Now let's look at God's strategy, according to the gospel of John. Here, in a sense, is his battle plan. Despite the fact that God's Son left this world for a time, He promises that whoever believes in Him will do the works He has been doing. So first of all, all his troops will keep up the march, and will continue to spread the good news as He did. I think it is safe to say that several good minded Christians have begun this process, and several of us continue it to this day. But that's all fine and good until you realize all we can do is spread the message; we ourselves don't have the power. It turns out God has an answer for that in His battle plan as well. He goes on to say that those He leaves behind for a time will do even greater works than He did! How will they do this? Well, God also planned for this contingency; He goes on further and explains that whatever believers ask in His name, He will grant! That's right...if it is in the Name of God and His mission, He will make it happen. Not only that, but He also says that He will leave behind an Advocate...the Spirit of Truth, who will be with us forever. How's that for reinforcements? So we have a constant powerful ally...but what about the lack of power in the troops? God decided to take things even further. He tells us that the Holy Spirit lives in us. So wherever we go in His name, carrying His good news, He is with us - WITHIN us. Do I need to say that again? Do you have any idea what it means to have the most powerful being in the universe on your side? How AWESOME! And if we use the power of prayer along the way, God's will will be done. So it seems the Good Lord is quite the strategist when it comes to mapping out a plan to project His power all over the globe. All we have to do is make that leap of faith, and sign up to join His troops (See John 3:16).