Amen! Throughout the years of my teaching of the Word of God in the area of mentoring, adjustment and edification of the man who does the ministry. I have found that the biggest problems for many young ministers are in the areas:
· Answer the question of how, when, who and where of your ministry.
The question of if my name is
The question of how do I know that my real name is
The question of how I fulfill my ministry.
I have preached/taught several messages answering these questions, but by the grace of God these articles will give an answer to the above questions as the Spirit will help because not much can be said in article form.
AM I CALLED?
Jesus gave a commission that everyone should go and preach the Word. The Bible says ‘you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain’ John 15:16.
Jesus instructs all of us to participate in this call, but this does not mean that you are called to the ministry as many will call it. God does the establishment and the calling, not man. You don’t go into the ministry – any of his phrases – just because you feel he is a Holy calling and you would like to respond.
You cannot become a ministry gift and it is dangerous to do something just because you want to.
You don’t get into the ministry because someone else tells you you’re fit for it. I have seen people in the church who were fit to work for God and I believe that some of them are called. The call to serve in the ministry is not determined by your service in God’s vineyard, some church members will even come and say ‘Brother/sister, um, you’re wonderful, I could see you’re called’, but who told them? ?
You don’t enter the ministry because someone else called you.
Don’t go into the ministry because your wife or husband is called and wants to put you in the ministry; do not make a shepherd out of your husband or wife.
Do not enter the ministry because your father, your mother or your pastor called you.
There is a divine call to ministry. You determine whether or not it is in your life. Do not try to enter the ministry without a call from God to do so.
How can I know a divine calling?
The truth is this, you will know.
You will have the belief in your spirit.
You will have the testimony in your heart.
You will have the spiritual equipment, the gifts of the Spirit, that accompany the office or offices to which you are called.
God deals with the spirit of man, he learned to learn your spirit. The young minister misses him in this area. Many young ministers are waiting for a voice to come saying ‘I have called you…’ waiting for that prophecy and dreams and that voice. Ok, these are nice, but they may not arrive the way you thought.
A young minister thought that whatever Pastor ‘A’ was called I too will be called. Our God does not work that way, our God is dynamic, mysterious and full of knowledge.
Personal experience: I entered the ministry without any kind of ‘supernatural’ visitation (if you want to call it that, really, everything about our God is supernatural). I entered the ministry with an inner insight, a knowing.
Learn to listen within yourself and you will know many things that you do not know. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2: 10-12, but God has revealed them to us through his Spirit. Because the Spirit searches everything, yes, the depths of God. For what man knows the things of man but the spirit of man that is in him? Thus no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that proceeds from God, so that we may know the things that God has freely given us.
1 John 2:20, 27 says ‘but you have received the anointing of the Holy One, and you know all things.
But the anointing that you have received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you about all things, and it is true, and it is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will remain in it.
Marvelous! When we walk in and by the Spirit, we will understand and know the things that have been freely given to us. And there is a place of the Anointing of the Holy Spirit in every ministry.
Do not try to function in the ministry for which you have not been called, for which you have not been graced and for which you have not been anointed or for which you do not carry the anointing. (Read my article or order of ‘The Meaning of the Anointing and The Minister and the Anointing)
See for yourself if you are just playing neither hot nor cold. If you are completely dedicated and consecrated to God to do whatever He wants you to do, you will become aware of that something within yourself.
There will be a divine compulsion within you.
The methods to which men are called are not important, but have to do with obedience.
If you haven’t been called to the full-time ministry, don’t try to do it; you will be a misfit.
The Bible says: “And tell Archippus: Take care of the ministry you have received from the Lord, so that you may fulfill it” Colossians 4:17.
This is wonderful. Some verses in the Bible translate it this way ‘the ministry that has been given to you, the ministry that has been given to you’.
That shows that you do not do a ministry, but God gave it, delivered it. Seeing a need is not a call to the ministry, only the ministry given by the Lord can be fulfilled.
Keep in mind that having a ministry does not make you a pastor or building and shepherding a church.
THEN HOW, WHEN, WHO AND WHERE OF A MINISTRY
The most important thing is to know that you are called and to have this understanding that you are called is not enough but to answer the question of how, when, to whom and where of your ministry.
In everything we do there is always a question:
How do I do it? (In preparation, what to use…)
When to leave? (Timing)
The goal and location
So these too are important to God. When God calls a man, he doesn’t leave him alone, he tells him how he should do it, the things he needs and the things he needs to fulfill his call.
There is a place of preparation, all those that God calls, prepares and equips them. Jesus was ready, Moses was ready, Daniel was ready, and Elijah was ready…
Personal experience: When I was in college, my friend usually tells me this ‘I know you are called and have the ability, but there is a place for you to prepare…’ That was true.
The call of God is different from the sending of God, there is an interval that exists between the calling and the sending, the interval is called the stage of preparation. In fact, the process of answering these questions is like the process involved in making a pot (read my article on pot making or order my tape).
It is very important that we understand this stage. Everybody wants to get to the top, getting to the top is not the problem, but how long we stay at the top matters and the preparation will tell.
When God calls a man, he gave a kind and special message to a group of people, a minister is not sent to everyone but to a group of people, so it is important that he knows the people to whom he is sent .
God respects location, so when God calls a man, he feels him in a location. God’s call on your life does not mean that you are sent everywhere.
It is important that you know that at no time do you have the thought that ‘maybe I am out of God’s will’, even as you check yourself, remember that He said ‘Go’.
Like what Wigglesworth said:
I am not moved by what I see.
I am not moved by what I feel.
I only move what I believe.
In the fulfillment of his earthly ministry, the Bible says in Colossians 4:17 ‘And I gave to Archippus. Take care of the ministry that I have given you so that you can fulfill it.
The fulfillment of a ministry is necessary and a ministry can only be fulfilled according to the caller or the way the caller has given it, that is, according to the standard that the caller gave it.
The only ministry that can be fulfilled is the ministry that was given to you by the Lord, the ministry that you received, that was delivered to you. Not a ministry by demand, seeing a need, by desire.
In the fulfillment of your ministry, these laws will help you:
Law of Divine Commandment
Mentoring Law
focus law
Law of Total Abandonment
Fulfilling the ministry also has to do with bearing fruit and that the fruit remains.
Read my article or order my tape on ‘Fulfilling Your Earthly Ministry’.
Hallelujah! Not much can be said in the article, because there is a place of understanding and being under the influences of the Holy Spirit. For further ministry support and clarity or for ministry engagement on various ministry issues, I have preached: