Launch Your Ministry Chapter 4 of 27
<-Chapter 3 Chapter 5-> Return to FulltextThe Godhead in Ministry
Condensed Version (Completed)
I would like you to see that there are different levels of ministry.
Ministry is man working with God to make things happen in the earth. We make ourselves available to the Lord so He can work through us in this world.
You cannot do true ministry without the Lord. He must be an integral part of what we do in ministry.
How God is Manifested
In my book on Bible Doctrine Made Easy I show that God is manifested in three different ways. He is a Father, a Son and a Holy Spirit.
Each of these manifestations of God leads to a different kind of ministry.
We see firstly, the Lord Jesus, and under Him there is a certain level of ministry. Then we have the Holy Spirit, and He is involved in a different aspect of ministry. And finally we have God the Father, the director and originator of all things.
It starts with Jesus, then we add the Holy Spirit, and finally we move up to the Father. When you were first saved, the first one you came to know was the Lord Jesus.
Did you experience the Holy Spirit? Yes, it was actually the Holy Spirit that caused the New Birth to take place in you. Did you experience the Father? Yes the Father was there, because He manifested Himself in and through Jesus.
You always have all three together, but usually you deal with only one at a time.
So when it comes to ministry, you will find that your early ministry experiences are directed more under the influence of the Lord Jesus, because He is the one you got to know when you were born again.
Later on you find out that there is a little more involved in getting to know the Lord. There is the power of the Holy Spirit that is available to you.
From the moment you are born again and you get to know the Lord Jesus as Savior, you start getting involved in a certain level of ministry.
And your first ministry involvements in doing things for the Lord tend to be almost naturalistic.
Body Ministries
Paul gives us a list of the kind of ministry involvements you can have. You can read about them in Romans Chapter 12, verses 5 to 8. These are what I like to call the Body Ministries.
Most people see ministry as someone who goes to Bible School and then into 'full time ministry'. But every one of us, from the moment we are born again has become a member of the Body of Christ.
The human body consists of many members all joined together to make one person. So also each of us is like a different member of this invisible body, which is the Church of God all over the world.
Now that we have become a member of the Body, every one of us has something that we can do.
A hand it does one thing, while the foot does something different. Nose, eyes and ears and each part of the body, all have different functions and they all work together.
As a believer God has something for each of us to do. It is not only something we do on Sunday at church. It is something we do all the time, wherever we are, every day of the week.
Whatever we do will involve working with other people. Ministry is always working with other people. It is like being a waiter or server; serving other people.
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