International School of The Bible

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Every disciple of Jesus has a ministry.

Our reason for being is to glorify God,  to make Him known.  That is our ministry, and we all have a different calling for that according to God's plan.

We all have a calling, as Paul said, "Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own" (Philippians 3:12 Amplified).  Jesus apprehended us or laid hold of us for a purpose, and now we must lay hold of that purpose.  If we do not, we may be greatly disappointed in the future.

Ministry comes by fruit.  God wants us to spread the light.

However, often we get our own efforts confused with the potential for fruit, which comes through us but is produced by God.

Ministry comes as a result of overcoming, by the defeat of Satan in our realm of life.  A major part of what most believers call "ministry," in God's eyes is really dealing with Satan through the overcoming process.  "And they overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death" (Revelation 12:11).  If you were to follow the theme of the Book of Revelation to its conclusion, you would see how the anointing to be used by God, the pure and true anointing, most often comes after a major overcoming battle in which Satan has been dealt a defeat in and through our lives.  Our testimony will be powerful and anointed.

In 1 Corinthians 12-15 Paul discussed ministry by the gifts of the Spirit.  However in 2 Corinthians Paul describes ministry in a different way.  He says that ministry is effective through "death," and resurrection in one's life. "So then death is working in us, but life in you" (2 Corinthians 4:12). 

Watchman Nee said, "Christianity is neither the elimination of weakness nor the power of the Lord alone.  It is the Lord's power manifested in man's weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).  This is what Christianity is all about."

Jesus spoke about how ministry happens in the Kingdom of God. 

This is His last mention of how the Kingdom works in this Sermon on the Mount in Matthew that we have been covering in the previous chapters.

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.   Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'  And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'    Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.   But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell.  And great was its fall"  (Matthew 7:21-27).

While I am not entirely sure of what Jesus meant to those who said "Lord, Lord," and "depart from Me," I believe it is at least a comparison in ministry by human effort and ministry by fruit bearing.  Note that the unwise believer  who did not build on the rock was just like the unbeliever, who is referred to as the fool, one who does not know God at all.

I believe that Scripture supports the idea that real ministry comes from the breakings and trials that you have been through in life.  Certainly our natural gifts and the gifts of the Spirit are used, but real deep ministry comes from our "death and resurrection."  Paul was an example of this.  He stated that in spite of all of his gifts and training, that real ministry took place when he went through something that made him totally disabled.  He even stated that he preferred this, that when he was weak, that Jesus was strong (2 Corinthians 12).

Ministry will find you!

If you have been the wise person who has built his/her house on Jesus, the Word, the Rock, and have survived the storms of life, then you can be sure that those who were washed away  by storms will be looking for refuge in your house.  Ministry will seek you out; you don't have to go looking for it!  People are hurting and are looking for answers.  If you are an overcomer, the Lord will make sure to send people to you. 

Notice, there were two kinds of people in this story, and both of them had storms!  Which do you identify with?

On a recent trip to a Communist nation, I saw the persecuted church growing in unprecedented numbers.  The believers I met told me that their pain, their torture, their imprisonment, even their deaths, is what is used to grow the Kingdom of God in their nation.  You may not live where such persecution takes place, but your life may be experiencing great pain of some kind.  You can apply the same principle to your pain as the persecuted believers apply to theirs, and watch your overcoming displace Satan's kingdom with the Kingdom of God!

Caution!  There are two sides to the Cross!

One needed requirement for any seed is that before it grows into a plant and bears fruit, it must die.  A resurrection requires a death first.

"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.  He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also.  If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.  Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ' Father, save Me from this hour'?  But for this purpose I came to this hour.  Father, glorify Your name.  Then a voice came from heaven, saying, 'I have both glorified it and will glorify it again'"  (John 12:24-28).  Yes, Jesus is now the victorious Messiah that the crowds back in His days on earth were looking for.  However, He is also the suffering Messiah that few could comprehend back in those days. 

I believe that our "prosperity," or our fruit, comes after our trials and suffering, and after our vision and seed "dies."  Refer to the Parable of the Sower in Mark Chapter 4.  Satan comes to steal the seed.  He causes great trials every time we have a single eye and receive a seed-Word, or a rhema and promise from Jesus.  Often we have to see our vision as dead, we have to face hopeless circumstances, but if we persevere with a single eye for Jesus and don't waver, we will inherit the promises of His Kingdom and see Him as the Rider on the White Horse coming as the conquering Messiah into our circumstances in life.  He will turn them from "Junk to Jewels."  His purpose is not so much to bring us our "comfort from problems" as it is to displace Satan's rule with His Kingdom of God rule.

The key is to have a "single eye."

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!  No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:21-24).  The only way to overcome, and to thus have an effect in ministry, is to keep a single eye when the storms come. 

Obedience and the discipline of a godly lifestyle makes the difference.

Obedience to the Word of God makes the difference.  Two types of people heard the Word, but only one type survived and thus was used in ministry.   The difference was obedience to the Word.  Many attempt to shortcut the step of obedience, but that detour leads to "being washed away with the world."  It takes faith and discipline to obey the Word, because during the time when you hear the Word and the fruit is manifested, Satan, circumstances and your own thoughts will attempt to cause you to be disobedient to the Word you heard, to forsake the promise and give up.  Or perhaps your disobedience will be manifested in an ungodly lifestyle, and then you will wonder why God did not come through for you.  I am not talking about being perfect, but about being perfectly repentant.

Repentance is a powerful force!

"Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away"  (2 Corinthians 3:16).  None of us have perfect "eyes."  However if we repent our way through in life, we will continue to see Him with brighter eyes than before.  We will go from glory to glory.

There is something about a heartfelt repentance that allows God to rush in and give one a real experience of His presence! 

Look at this Scripture in Hosea.  When the backslider said "What have I to do anymore with idols," or in other words, mammon, then suddenly he said, "Your fruit (Lord) is found in me."

"Those who dwell under his shadow shall return; They shall be revived like grain, And grow like a vine.  Their scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.  Ephraim shall say, 'What have I to do anymore with idols?  I have heard and observed him.  I am like a green cypress tree; Your fruit is found in Me'" (Hosea 14:7,8).

Breakings.

I believe that as we go through these "storms" in life that our eye becomes even more single and less evil little by little.  I was 39 years old and had my eye in the wrong place; the place of the world's success, the place of my own abilities, the place of my selfishness.  In 1979 I knew that all that my eye had brought was meaningless, even the "good things."  Most of what I had achieved was failure.  What a blessing to be this broken!  Then when I turned my eye towards Jesus, I saw Him!  I knew and still know for sure that only Him, only His light, only His will and power is worth anything.  My struggle was not over, but my eye was fixed.  I knew the proper direction to keep my eye; toward the light.  I can testify that since that day, God's fruit has overtaken me beyond my greatest dreams and even prayers, in spite of my inabilities, my inadequacies and weaknesses.  However, I can also testify that the fruit only came after "death," or in other words different degrees of suffering and/or discouragement.  First death, then resurrection.  "Never give up; never give up," said Winston Churchill.