Do
you remember when you first gave your life to the Lord? What was the
first thing you wanted to do? You wanted to tell someone right. You had
a burning desire to tell someone….anyone…about Jesus. The spirit of the
Lord within you created a deep longing to be a witness to the truth of
the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. You were
willing to tell anyone who would stand still long enough to listen
weren’t you?.
Then, if you were like most people, you were
told that the first thing you needed to do was to get into a good
church. So, off you went like a good little sheep to that good church.
In that church you met other saved people, friendly people, people like
you who had found Jesus. You probably got involved in the choir, or
perhaps you volunteered to hand out programs on Sunday morning. Maybe
you were an usher. Some were even tapped by the pastor to teach a
Sunday school class. Soon you found yourself busy with the work of the
Lord. And slowly, over a period of time that good church with all its
programs and man made traditions took your desire….that desire to tell
someone about Jesus…that desire implanted in you by the Holy
Spirit…they took that desire and crushed it right out of you.
Eventually
you were conditioned to believe that being involved in the church was
the same as being a disciple of Christ. Over time you began to
understand that the role of the Christian was to attend church once or
twice a week, pay your tithes and offerings, maybe volunteer to help
with the Sunday night pot luck supper and leave the real work of the
ministry to the professionals.
My God in heaven how did we ever come to this?
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets;
and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ: Eph
4;11-12
The
church as God established it has been perverted beyond recognition. Few
people see this because the church in its present form is all they’ve
ever known.
Her priests have violated
my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference
between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference
between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my
sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Ez 22:26
How can
a blind man comprehend the majesty of millions of stars shining in the
night? How can one describe the beauty of a forested mountain range
without ever having seen it? How can one know the power and might of
the true Body of Christ in the earth when all they’ve ever known is
this weak, frail, sickly man made imitation that claims the name but
denies the power of that name.
I must admit that I have never
physically seen the true church. I have only had glimpses of it in the
spirit. I’ve only known the barest outline of its form as contained in
scripture. But the Most High God has stirred something in my spirit. I
have a longing, a yearning to see the true church formed in the earth.
I desire with all my heart to witness the construction of the true
Every born again believer is a
minister of the gospel. Every person who is filled with the Holy Spirit
is called a king and a priest upon the earth. You have a place. You
have a position within the
You
are not called to serve your pastor. He is called to serve you. It is
his job to prepare you, to make you fit for service in the kingdom. It
is the job of the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher to
make believers ready and able to be witnesses to the death burial and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. All the teaching, preaching,
exhortation, and prophecy should be for the express purpose of finding
your ministry gift and honing that gift to perfection.
When we
come together as a body it should never be just to listen to one man
hold forth. All should be encouraged to share. All should be encouraged
to bring a song, a teaching, a testimony of what God is doing in their
lives. When we pray it should be both corporately and individually.
Every believer has the power of God to lay hands on the sick. Every one
should be able to pray the prayer of faith and expect God to answer.
When
we go out to our daily lives in the world it should be for the sole
purpose of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. Every day we should seek
opportunities to be a witness to a dying world. Every day we should ask
God to open doors, to bring people across our path, that we might show
forth the power of God in our own lives. We should learn to speak as an
oracle of God in every situation, in every place.
Do you have
a burning desire to be a minister of the gospel? What are you waiting
for? Don’t sit around, living for yourself, expecting the professionals
to do the work of the ministry. You do it.
Do have a desire to
help the needy? What are you waiting for? Make some sandwiches or buy a
sack full of hamburgers, get some bottled water and go find someone who
is hungry. Take some groceries to a needy family. Buy some inexpensive
blankets and give them away to people living on the streets.
Go
to a hospital and ask God to direct you to people who need and will
accept prayer. Visit a nursing home in your area and ask people if
they’d like for you to pray for them. Be the church. Don’t expect
someone else to do it. Ask God to open doors for you. Ask him to show
you your ministry. Allow Christ in you to come forth and do the works
he has always done, heal the sick, bring sight to the blind, set the
captives free!
Since it is obvious none of this is ever going
to be done by the religious establishment, God is doing it himself. He
is searching for his sheep. He is making them ready and sending them
forth in the world. He himself is building his temple. Will you be a
part of it? Will you say not my will Lord but thy will be done. Will
you say send me oh Lord, send me?