By Manny Vazquez, M.S., LMFT, Christian Counselor, and President and CEO of Vazquez
Counseling and Ministries Inc.
Monday, August 10, 2026
What should be the mission of every single believer in Jesus Christ? I’ve mentioned before in
these blogs that to know and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not enough to be saved, for
even the demons know the Gospel, and they can never be saved. One must also be born again
to be saved, and that is solely the work of God.
Our mission that our LORD Jesus Christ ordered us as His followers to complete can be found
in Matthew 28:16-20:
“The 11 disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them.
When they saw Him, they worshiped, but some doubted. Then Jesus came near and said
to them, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And
remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” (from the Holman Christian
Standard Bible [HCSB] version of the Holy Scriptures)
I have some questions for you regarding this passage. In His commission to us, did the LORD
tell us to take over the world? Did He order us to judge others for their sin? Did he command us
to take up arms against unjust governments? Did he ask us to go to church every Sunday, sit in
a pew and sing worship songs, then live like pagans the rest of the week? No, he didn’t ask us
anything of the sort.
At the end of His ministry on Earth, Jesus commanded us to continue His mission, to make
disciples, to baptize them in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And His ultimate
promise that He would be with us until the end of the age should bring us great joy. That means
that not only does He expect us to do great things for Him, He empowers us to do those things
directly through our Precious Holy Spirit.
The Great Commission by our LORD Jesus is simple to understand, for everything that our
LORD has commanded is fairly basic stuff. We’re the ones who complicate things.
Ask yourself this question, when Our LORD returns, what will He find me doing? Are you a
Christian on Sundays in church, but during the rest of the week, your lifestyle is
indistinguishable from the life of an evil pagan? Do you praise God on Sundays, then denigrate
your co-workers and your family during the week? In other words, are you a hypocrite? A casual
reading of the Gospels will tell you that our LORD Jesus had his harshest words for the
hypocrites of His day; these were the Jewish leaders who were supposed to be leading God’s
people into the light, and instead, they were leading them into utter darkness.
Sure, God hates the devil and his minions, but he hates hypocrites even more, for these are
demons in disguise, those who pose as leaders in church but are actually in it for the money or
for themselves. These are the televangelists who are driving around in limousines, or flying
around in private jets, and eating in sumptuous restaurants, while the poor in spirit, the ones
that Jesus pointed to in his Sermon on the Mount, and the people that they are supposed to be
serving (Matthew 5:3) starve. Our Blessed LORD calls us to serve the poor in spirit because to
them belongs the Kingdom of God. We are not to serve ourselves, and if we do, the Truth of
God is not in us. That’s how serious this is because if the Truth of God is not in you, you will go
directly to Hell when you die.
I have personally witnessed many people walking into fancy restaurants and dismissing a
person poor in spirit who is asking for a few dollars for something to eat. The Bible teaches us
that sometimes, the LORD is testing us when a stranger approaches us for help.
In Hebrews 13:1-3, the Scriptures teach the following:
“Let brotherly love continue. Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some
have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it. Remember the prisoners, as though
you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were
suffering bodily.” (the HCSB version of the Holy Scriptures)
If we are to take the Scriptures literally, this passage means that angels have often manifested
themselves amongst us to test us. How many times have you rejected someone who is poor in
spirit because they were dirty or they smelled funny, or they seemed crazy to you? I want you to
seriously consider the passage above from Hebrews 13 and think long and hard about how
many of these people that you have summarily dismissed in life were actually angels that the
LORD sent your way to test you to see if were really a follower of His Son.
The purpose of Vazquez Counseling and Ministries Inc., which we opened on 7/1/26, will be to
minister to the poor in spirit because we believe that the Kingdom of Christ belongs to them, as
Jesus asserted in Matthew 5:3.
One thing that I have learned in my many years of studying the Bible is that God does not say
things just to hear Himself talk. There are so many promises in Scripture that we do not get
because we are not listening to God with spiritual ears. Well, it is time that we started listening
to Him because He has a lot to say about how we should be treating others and how we should
be living our lives, starting with loving and serving our loved ones whom He has placed in our
lives. Amen and Amen.