The Ordinary Person God Uses

There is a version of the story of movements that makes them sound like they require a certain kind of person — exceptional, anointed, larger than life. Someone who prayed for three years before anything happened. Someone with a calling so dramatic it could be a movie.

I’ve been privileged to work alongside people who have catalyzed genuine disciple-making movements on multiple continents. And the thing that strikes me most about them is how ordinary they are.

Not ordinary in the sense of unimportant. Ordinary in the sense of available, regular people. You would never pick them out in a crowd.They are the exact opposite of the kind of people on the mega-church stages.

What God Seems to Be Looking For

Look at the pattern in Scripture and you find it quickly. God chooses the younger son. The one with the speech impediment. The fishermen, not the rabbinical scholars. The woman at the well. The pattern is consistent enough that Paul names it directly: God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27).

This is not false modesty dressed up as theology. It is how God actually works. The person He uses is not the most credentialed. It is the person who is the most yielded to Him, and who would never even imagine God would use them.

I have watched this play out on multiple continents over three decades. The people who catalyze movements are usually not the ones I would have picked. They are the ones who said yes and obeyed when others were still calculating the cost. They heard and did what they learned, and weren’t content with just knowing the content.

The Disqualifications That Don’t Disqualify

I hear it from both sides of the world. A pastor in a Western context: “I don’t have a pioneering personality.” A house church leader in South Asia: “I only studied to class five.” A movement trainer in East Africa: “I’m too young for God to use me powerfully.” Imagine sitting in a room where those voices are all in the same conversation — each one convinced their particular limitation is the reason it can’t happen through them. Now imagine Jesus in the room with them. What would He say to that?

These feel like disqualifications to these dear ones, but they are not.

What actually keeps people from being used in multiplication is not a lack of gifts. It is an unwillingness to be inconvenienced and to take action. Sometimes it comes in the form of an insistence on controlling outcomes. A preference for being served over serving.

Ordinary people who are willing to be disrupted by God — that’s the profile of the kind of people I’ve seen God use to multiply disciples in incredible ways.

The Question Worth Sitting With

If the ordinary person is the one God uses, then the question isn’t whether He could use you. That question is already answered.

The question is whether you’re willing to be the ordinary person — not waiting until you feel ready, not waiting for a platform, not waiting for permission — who says yes to the person in front of you today. And if you are a leader, whether or not you are willing to equip and release that kind of person.

Movements don’t start with exceptional people having exceptional experiences. They start with ordinary people making ordinary obedience a habit. And then they grow.

If this is stirring something in you, I’d love to have you join us in the Dare to Multiply membership community — where we go deeper into exactly this kind of practical, reproducible discipleship and encourage one another toward it. You’ll find friends and other disciple-makers there to share ideas and prayer needs and discuss these things with. Find out more at multipliersmindset.com/dtmmembership.

Some Questions to Think About and Discuss:

•What “disqualification” have you been holding onto that might not actually disqualify you?

•Who is the ordinary person in your context that God might be wanting to use — someone you never thought about equipping?

•What would one act of ordinary obedience to the Great Commission look like for you this week?

Share in the comments below or on our Dare to Multiply community