In a way the heart of the matter comes down to how we minister. The core expression of the Gospel in public is not handing out a track or even preaching, it’s showing people the Holy Spirit is with us. Anyone can talk, talk is cheap. Paul said the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of POWER. He said when he came to minister he DID NOT come with sermons of eloquent words trying to convince people like a salesman, or like any kind of man at all. What did he do instead? How did God train Paul to minister?
Paul came INSTEAD in a DEMONSTRATION of the SPIRIT of God. It can be easy, it’s not just walking in miracle healing power. Do people FEEL the Presence of God when you arrive? When you speak? When you pray? This needs to be your focus if you want to spread HIS Kingdom, to PROVE God is with you and debunk the proliferation of doctrines and ideas of man that God is not behind and does not endorse.
What we have most commonly in Christendom now is pretty much the OPPOSITE. There are over a dozen kinds of ministries and functions Jesus set forth in the Body, we have cut them all out but only really allow pastors to remain, a role Paul didn’t even mention existed to either the church in Rome or Corinth. We not only have only one main type of ministry, but what do they do primarily? Just talk. Talk, preach and teach. It’s a lot of ideas, opinions and words. Yet the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of … something else.
In defense of this practice people quote two verses, ‘Faith comes by hearing,’ and ‘Knowing the truth will set you free.’ Yes, we preach, Jesus preached, Paul preached, and there is value in correct teaching, talking, sharing. But there is much more value in the presence of God energized to DO what your words only can talk about. Know the truth, it will set you free. So a pastor talks two hours and says Jesus can do all kinds of miraculous things, heal, restore, speak to you … but then walks away without showing you any of it is true. How can you KNOW what he said is true if he won’t demonstrate it? See the rub? Instead, by releasing the Holy Spirit you can impart not just understanding, but also the real experience of God’s love, and even miraculous touches of his healing, deliverance, prophecy and so many more graces.
Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. That’s hard grammar. What does it mean exactly. Well what Jesus told me is simply that when God speaks to us and tells us what will happen, what he will do for us, what he will do to our circumstances, that God speaking creates in us faith. It’s a normal consequence of hearing God speak. That’s how he explained it to me. He said it’s a consequence of God’s voice touching our hearts. Yes, the pastor can read a verse and this can take place in your heart too, we hope so. But if the pastor speaks and the Holy Spirit is not backing him up, it can also not happen. How many cults use the bible yet still disbelieve Jesus is Lord? How many preachers openly deny the active presence of the Holy Spirit even today?! They read the same verses, but their understanding is darkened, and so they are not releasing faith or the Holy Spirit when they talk, but ignorance and unbelief. Yes, I know God can supersede this and I heard a story of a woman being healed during a sermon on why God does not heal today. God remains sovereign, but we as his people are getting lost in the translation because we have been taught Man’s ideas, Man’s ways and actively oppose the Holy Spirit when he tries to move. Be careful what you hear [Luke 8:18 , Mark 4:24]. People in church teach the doctrines of man as if it were the truth of God, but sadly the way most people minister in Church Jesus told me, will NEVER Produce his Kingdom. You mean the proof is in the pudding? You mean we need to minister with the Holy Spirit during the church service?
What I mean is that the Holy Spirit IS the ministry. The Holy Spirit IS the service. That’s what Jesus told me.
Water Delivery Man
I was at the subway in Hong Kong, maybe you know the stop, Sheung Wan. Jesus told me to go upstairs. There was something he wanted to tell me. There’s a small mall at ground level; it had a nice coffee shop downstairs and a Deli France upstairs, but it was rare I could eat there since I had so little money while God trained me to walk with him. But that’s another story! So I went upstairs and looked around. Now what? I felt to go over by the window overlooking the side street. I could see the main road from here. Not Dex Voeux Rd, the other one, I forget what it’s called. … Oh, ok, Connaught Road. Yes. So I was looking out the second floor window by Deli France, looking towards Connaught Road, waiting for God to tell me why I was here and what he wanted to tell me. Why can’t he just tell me downstairs? Then suddenly the Spirit highlighted a bus going by, like it ‘quickened’ my spirit to see that bus. It was a double decker bus, chock full of people. Zoom, it went past. Then right after it was an office water bottle delivery truck that was just about as tall as the double decker bus, and just as full but this was full of water!! Zoom. And he said, “See!? It’s simple. There’s the people. There’s the water. That’s all I want you to do, just bring the water to the people.” He was talking about ministry. The Holy Spirit is the water, our purpose as ministers, as servants, is to serve the needs of the people by delivering the Holy Spirit to them. It’s that simple!
Also read 1 Corinthians 1-2 more closely. Paul said he came NOT ministering in eloquent speech or people would place their faith in man’s wisdom–WAIT A MINUTE! What? Yes, he said if we minister in WORDS people will place their faith in MAN’S WISDOM!! How awful! Instead he said he ministered in a demonstration of the Spirit and Power SO THAT people would learn to place their faith in God’s power instead. What kind of faith are you modelling in the people you are preaching to? Faith in man’s wisdom or Faith in God’s Power?
So now do you see where we err?
We must reclaim the apostolic practice of demonstrating the Spirit when we have a service. We must restore the early church practice of partnering with the Presence of God when we minister. Forget the fancy words, we must simply deliver the water of the Holy Spirit to the people–don’t just talk about it, say it, or make a nice three point sermon on it—DO IT! Deliver it, release it!
Sadly, we have not only eliminated 85% of all types of ministry functions Jesus created to meet our needs through, but we kept the one that probably has the least impact. Sure, that pulpit ministry in Jesus’s hands would still be dynamite, but in our control we do a double disservice and use it just to talk.
What we talk is also a problem as I’ll share next time in Teach Revelation, as we only talk the ideas of man, the lower wisdom of the earth and great ideas of the fallen vain imagination. Yes, we must talk, and teach, and share, and preach, hand out tracks and make three-point sermons, do all that … but what we talk about must be Divine Revelation, not man’s earthly opinions … But that’s for next time.