Value Adding Ministers

Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. (2Corinthians 6: 3 – 10)

My brother has released a book ‘When we walk with the Lord’ where he challenges the church to look at her practices and beliefs in the light of the scriptures. In one chapter, he remembers a conversation we had concerning ministry (Pioneers and Opportunists) as we were discussing how genuine ministers are shunted from ministry by people they invited or nurtured into it.

But I mention this because of an example he has given there that is so spot on concerning this message. The land movers and other equipment that are used to make (or grade) roads will never be allowed to use the road once it gets complete. They will have to be ferried by other ‘roadworthy vehicles’. Their usefulness ends when the road is completed.

I want us to look at some of us God has called to such ministry by looking at scriptural examples to understand why or even how God does it. This because with this consumerism and self interest that floods our pulpits it is very easy to think that this ministry is an abomination or even worse, that God has no part in it.

I am writing this for that one person who may be getting frustrated to the point of getting angry with God concerning the ministry God has placed in their hands. And that because it is so foundational no other ministry may flourish without or outside it. And we start with the scriptures because that is where we will get the pure doctrine from heaven.

Moses was gifted and well educated and trained. He was also very close to God to the point that numerous times God fought for Him. He also had a great attitude. Imagine God Himself saying that he was the meekest man who ever lived! You would expect that he would be the ideal one to divide Canaan to Israel. Yet why didn’t he?

He was also the one given the commandments, even the minutest details concerning worship and the sanctuary and priesthood. Wasn’t he the ideal one then to take the priesthood?  Why then was his brother, who had made the golden calf, picked? Why did God not pick their father’s family so that at least Moses’ posterity would be included?

And we are sure God and the people had no issues with his performance. He is the one who instituted and anointed the priesthood. He was the one who comes closest to Christ as a bridge to God and intercessor for both sides, always pleading for the people and fighting for God. You even remember God asking him to be allowed to clear the whole race and make him (Moses) a great nation. But he pleaded for mercy. The fact that God had to conceal his grave shows that people revered him. Yet why was he left out of the priesthood?

His assignment was to prepare Israel to transition from slavery to self determination. Nothing else was required of him after completing that. Putting his posterity into the priesthood might have complicated things because it is possible that the community might have allowed them too much slack on account of their father.

Remember Hezekiah? His assignment ended and he pleaded that it be extended, at least so that he can put his seed on the throne. This clearly explains what I mean. Instead of raising a worshipper like he had been he raised the most wicked king, the one who made God send Judah to captivity. I believe God had wanted to protect Hezekiah after his assignment was complete but the king insisted. God certainly had another king on the wings, some theologians say Isaiah the prophet, but he flooded God’s design with his tears.

Do you realize that David owed the excellence of his reign to Jonathan than to any other person? Do you realize that Jonathan literally surrendered his kingdom to David?

As crown prince he was the one, more than even Saul, who was threatened by David’s ascendance. Saul was more concerned for him than his own self when he sought to clear the threat that was David. We see how good he was when we see the advice he gives to his father and his response to his reign. Yet what do we see?

And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle. (1Samuel 18:4)

He literally surrenders his position to David. What did that mean? How does a king willingly surrender his throne to another?

I believe he was very sensitive spiritually and had realized that God had put to an end his father’s reign. This meant that God had instituted another kingdom. He therefore surrendered his ambitions and position when he saw the king in question before him because he knew that God does not change His declarations. His surrender of position to David was therefore an act of worship to God who had deposed his father in the spiritual realm.

And he said unto him, Fear not: for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth. (1Samuel 23:17)

I do not think I can find a higher demonstration of worship in mortals higher that this that Jonathan is doing.

And he was no weakling. He not only commanded half of the army but we see him facing an enemy singlehandedly (1 Samuel 14). He does not surrender the throne because he has found a stronger man. He does it because he sees the chosen one and simply chooses to surrender that throne to him.

Why then did not God allow him to sit next to David as he had wanted?

I believe he had completed his assignment and therefore was taken home to rest.

I believe Jonathan was the reason David could turn the most hopeless characters into the best army. I believe he was the reason David was known to be fighting the Lord’s battles. He had seen firsthand a total surrender of self to God and His agenda.

In the New Testament we have Andrew and Barnabas.

Do you realize that Andrew was always bringing people to Jesus? From his brother Simon to the boy who fed the multitude to the Greeks he was bringing them. Yet he is content to slide back to the background once his assignment is completed without expecting more. The fact that the brother he brought outshines him does not stop him from bringing others. He was content just pointing people to Christ.

He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30)

John the Baptist was not much different. The fact that the first proclamation he made Christ made him lose two disciples immediately did not stop him from pointing others to Him.

Barnabas, like Jonathan, typifies the self-emptying of himself to lift another up. He picks Paul who had been rejected by the church in Jerusalem, at one time going all the way to Tarsus to take him and walks with him to the point that Paul decides that he has no need of his ministry when Barnabas picks another reject, Mark, to walk with them. Incidentally Mark is the writer of the Gospel of Mark.

Was Barnabas a writer? It is probable as his projects took to writing. But we are not in possession of any of his writings. That is unless as I suspect he wrote the book of Hebrews. Again we see him ready to disappear into the woodwork once his assignment was complete.

But it was not because he was just another Jew. As a Levite he knew the scriptures more than most. It is possible that he is the one who took Paul from the corridors of academia to the down to earth apostle we read. And as a wealthy Levite (remember he sold his land) from the Diaspora (Cyprus) he was not only learned but knowledgeable and exposed to the world. Again I suspect that the Paul we read about was more a product of his interaction with Barnabas than his education and Pharisaic upbringing.

Yet he disappears and his disciples shine. And that is the kind of ministry I am talking about.

That is the ministry whereby one is called to raise other ministers only for the sake of his calling authority, God. He will do it as long as God’s call is on him. He will surrender everything, from appreciation to reward to remain focused on that assignment.

Let me give some examples. In the process of empowering Christian writers I have had very different experiences. Many consist of extreme gratitude, yet not all of them.

I remember a person I was brought who was way down there in the real sense of the word. They had no money to have the book I wanted them with. I therefore ended up giving my computer several times to enable them type before I could edit. I was of course doing other ministry as their situation was a great spiritual challenge.

After walking with them for months in the process of making their book publishable and their spiritual situation improve sufficiently as to enable them to stand on their own, I said that I felt that my ministry was coming to an end, explaining the basis God had given me for it.

The backlash I received was hard, and brutal. You would be excused if you thought that I was the cause of their problems. To say that I was hurt would be an understatement. But then God opened me to the reality that that was a pointer that my ministry was effective because someone who was lost could make a decision to dismiss me from their life.

Or this other one I raised from being able to hold a spoon spiritually to a senior pastor. This actually came to teach me to pray since he opined that I could not be able to lift him to such spiritual heights yet remain in the same material status as he had found me unless my prayer life was the problem. Interesting enough God brought him to the level where he was able to recognize the uniqueness of the ministry God has called me to.

Many people I have been involved in were rejects, some that I was warned against for one reason or the other. Yet once the growth occurs and the potential starts showing the same people who were warning me start scrambling for them to the point that they start shielding them from me.

I can’t count the empty promises I have received from people I have been involved with as I am working on them. Yet very few ever remember whether I was a part of their life when they were down there. Many actually shift their allegiance to the people who would have never given them any audience before I got involved. They will remember me when they are in a crisis when they realize that the people they joined have no real help or will for the same. There were those I introduced to my supporters and in a short while they had diverted all the support to themselves.

I will not dwell on me and my ministry because I am just writing the message God has given me. I know there are a few others who are in this kind of ministry, and it is very hard especially at the start to see sense in all the donkey work for nothing, especially in these self glorying moments where even people who claim to speak for God are not only making fun of the ministry but even worse, merchandising it for their own purposes.

Be encouraged that you are doing God’s work the way He has called you. Do not look at your neighbor in envy as what you are doing may not be getting rewards or appreciation here on earth. But the reward for faithful continuance will be great in heaven.

I will leave you with a verse and a passage that are the guiding principle to this ministry (though they should all ministry).

So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do. (Lu 17:10)

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: (Philippians 2: 4 – 7)