Accessibility, generosity, and discipleship. Those are the three most important visions of OMW Kingdom Lifestyle. This ministry started with Dax Batelaan “just hanging out with young people.” From that point on, Dax has visited more than 30 countries with his ministry to spread God’s kingdom. He says: “We need to have a lifestyle that represents the kingdom.”
Image credit goes to Shane Foley.
In 2014, Dax visited the Vineyard Church in Lithuania. He started to connect with the people there, especially the youth. He says: “At that time, young people were really oppressed by negative thoughts.” The region of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia had one of the highest suicide rates among young people. “I really got a heart for the young people, and I just started hanging out.” Every weekend, he flew from Denmark to Lithuania and back.
Creating a ministry
These flights became more and more frequent. “I didn’t have the idea that God was creating a ministry through me. I had those prophetic words, but I thought they were for other people.” But before he knew it, Dax received more and more invitations to other places. He was invited to speak at the Mission Possible conference in the Netherlands, and then visited more and more countries. Eventually, people started asking what his ministry was. Then it clicked: “Oh wait, this is a ministry.”
This meant that Dax had to think about the vision of his ministry, and a name and a logo for it. This didn’t take very long. “One day I was working in church and we had a staff meeting, and I say to the staff: ‘I think this becomes a ministry now.” At first, Dax didn’t really know what to do, but then he got a vision. “During the worship, I saw a logo coming down. When it came, I was thinking ‘oh my God’. So I saw the O coming down, and the M coming down, but then it was not a G, it was a W.”
Dax asked God what OMW stood for. “He says: ‘On My Way.’ Because we are all ‘On My Way’ with God. Even if we didn’t acknowledge Him yet, He’s already walking with us and protecting us.” As Dax spoke, a young graphic designer created the logo. “In like 45 minutes, I get the name of the ministry, and I even get the logo. It was just given from heaven.”
Accessibility, generosity, and discipleship
“The vision is: going and loving people, equipping them where they are.” Accessibility is very important in the ministry of OMW Kingdom Lifestyle. Sometimes leaders are so busy, that they are not accessible. But Jesus was very accessible to people. Dax told his team: “The ministry that we did the last few days starts today.” This means that, when people have questions or want to share things, they can. “That is actually the only requirement I put to people who come along to the team.”
“If God is a giving God, we need to have a giving lifestyle.”
One of the other visions is generosity. “We want to be a generous lifestyle, because God was so generous. If God is a giving God, we need to have a giving lifestyle.” Dax believes that the world can still improve in this, including himself. “We go from glory to glory. So the people who are called in this time, we build on what other people have built before. That is something that I try to do with Gods grace.”
Dax mentions that coming back to the same place is important. “Then you can cultivate and build something together. Especially in the prophetic. When you come two months later, you can hear and see what things are happening.” He tells about a prophetic word from 2015 in Croatia that is happening now. “It was church plants, I saw the cities, I saw them dripping like a map over Croatia. Now there are church plants, and we are allowed to be a part of those plants.”
The third vision of OMW Kingdom Lifestyle is discipleship and walking with people. “It’s hanging out, sharing life. Jesus was sharing life. I think that’s what we need, we want to share life with people.”
The importance of obedience
Recently, Dax spoke at a camp in Lithuania. He tells about what God did at the first evening session: “God said: ‘I wanna touch them’.” The theme of the camp was ‘Revive me’, according to Psalms 119:25.
Dax stresses the importance of being obedient. “It’s hard sometimes, because we think God wants to do this, but be obedient.” Dax obeyed God, and the Spirit of the Lord broke out. “The fruit of the spirit of joy started manifesting.” In the middle of this joy, God wanted to say something to the people there:
So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. – 1 Peter 2:1, NLT
Even though Dax knew this verse very well, he didn’t want to say it in the middle of the joy. “I said: ‘How do I do that?’ God said: ‘Tell them that I have something to say.” When he preached about the scripture, people were touched. “When I was done with the word, God said: ‘Now we can have fun again.” The word turned out to be very needed for the church.
“God is moving.”
“I think we are in a season where we have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, but we also have to be obedient to His word. Then we see what He wants to do. God is moving. He is moving mightily. After the restrictions were lifted, I have never seen God move like this.”
Dax sees people getting set free, people hungry for the Lord and repenting from their sins. “We have to come back to the Lord. The biggest lie the enemy has given us is: ‘Well, you’re just walking with God, you will walk it out.’ No, no, no. A part of walking is repentance.”
Another thing Dax mentions is that God is outside of time. The next generation is not necessarily the youth. “The next generation is the people who say yes today, who decide to follow Him.” He concludes: “We are not failing, never, but we can do better.”
