S. Sekou Abodunrin
1 Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. Acts 13: 1 - 2
That phrase is all encompassing – “as they ministered to the Lord”. This was a gathering of ministers, in reality a ministers' conference. It is true that at this conference there was ordination of ministers, prophecy and the likes, but these came secondary to ministering to the Lord. In fact it seems they didn’t gather to prophesy or ordain people to the ministry, those really happened in response to the expressed will of the Lord after they had ministered to him and not firstly to one another. There is a rarity of the expression of this concept. It seems to the carnal mind that there can be nothing spiritual about shutting yourself out from doing things for the Lord or for one another. There are pressing needs to be met all around us so it is easy to justify continuously darting all around and getting “busy” meeting these “needs”. I want you to notice that these are ministers – prophets and teachers. It appears that the proper measure of the prophet and the teacher and in fact any ministry is the measure to which we minister to the Lord. Notice this is not about ministering FOR the Lord.
It is noteworthy that the piece in Acts 13 is sprinkled with all the giant spiritual words “fasting”, “prayer”, “prophecy” but it didn’t start with these, it says “ministering to the Lord and fasting” – ministering to the Lord and fasting - often these two go together, but in reality fasting is quite a separate and distinct entity from ministering to the Lord and in God’s mind they do not mean the same thing at all. There are people, religious people, who are champions at fasting, but who know little or nothing about ministering to the Lord. It is the easiest thing as a Christian to minister to our own needs. We have those that are slightly more spiritual – they minister to others’ needs, but there is a need to awaken to the fact that God should also be ministered to and in fact that should come first! You have to learn the deep spirituality of seeing your needs and other’s needs as secondary to ministering to the Lord. Ministering to the Lord is not the same thing as meeting other people’s needs, there is a place for these things, but they are given a place that steals the show from properly ministering to the Lord. Real ministry flows from ministering to the Lord.
Contrary to religious thinking, God is not primarily interested in using you to reach others. Surely he wants to reach others, but firstly he wants you to himself exclusively. Think about it, when Adam and Eve were in Eden, there was no evangelism, no church to minister to, nor were there any lost people to discuss about, yet the bible talks about God coming to fellowship with his man in the garden – hmm what were they talking about? Adam only understood Eve because they stood in the presence of love. The love that Adam had for Eve was a byproduct of the love that he received from God. this love exchange is fellowship. In reality many folks will be totally out of place in that kind of atmosphere. Strip many Christians of their needs, the needs of other believers or the needs of the lost world and their basis for fellowship vaporizes! There is a primal need in the heart of God and we meet that need by ministering to the Lord. You realise that the bible describes Adam and Eve as being "naked and not ashamed". The immediate thought is that they pursued intimacy without any sense of condemnation as they stood in one another’s presence only because they knew God's love. As soon as they sinned, they lost a consciousness of God's love and they covered up for the loss of this intimacy. They didn’t just withdraw from one another, that was just the symptom. The real tragedy was that they withdrew from love [God]. They were still busy, but they were withdrawing from the wooing of love. Somehow they interacted more with trees than with God!
When that which you do for God takes the place of ministering to him, even that which we do for him becomes meaningless. Ministry for him flows from ministering to him first. It’s very much like a man who would rather leave his family out in the cold than get the car dirty in a snowstorm. The car has lost its reason for being, for it should come secondary to the family and not replace it. God wants so much of you that he indwells you by his Spirit. He is as much at home in you as he is at home in heaven. This is the genius of the new birth – God lives in you. While it is noble and proper to want to minister him to others, we must never forget that the main thing is to minister to him in the sanctuary of your spirit.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: Gen 1:26a
The bible shows that man is created in the image and likeness of God. This is not just stating the fact that we look like God, but that man is primarily a mirror of God. God wants to mirror what he is like for creation to gain an insight into what our Father is like. In simple terms we are to function very much like God and exhibit characteristics that can be found in God. God is not man, nor is man God but it is obvious that every human carries a capacity to receive and give love. This love characteristic does not originate in man, but in God. God wants to give and receive love. He has given his love, but very few believers respond by also loving him back. Sometimes what we call praise is not truly praise, but a “spiritual” bribe disguised as flattering words or words spoken to keep him from getting angry. The mouth is declaring the majesty of God, while the heart is focused on overcoming some demon, getting a new house or scoring religious points with God. In that religious system praise is the money of the kingdom. Definitely God wants us dwelling in goodly houses, but we do not trade praise for houses. We praise him understanding that it is our ministry of love to our father.
We must learn the reality of covering God with spirit-born, heart-felt praise not born of duty or obligation but of love and adoration. It must sink into your consciousness that God needs ministry too. You see, love must have an object of its affection otherwise love is not in full flow. God is love and so he expresses himself in showering us with his goodness. Whatever gives love is also capable of receiving the same, therefore God has a need to receive love also. We don’t praise him because he is having a bad day or worried about the happenings in Iraq or some corner of the universe. He is love, so he gives love and yearns to receive love back. Our praise is a form of ministry; we are returning love to God. Our conversations with him must be filled with an awareness of him. We are interested in saturating the atmosphere of God with our thoughts towards him.
… to be continued
1 Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. Acts 13: 1 - 2
That phrase is all encompassing – “as they ministered to the Lord”. This was a gathering of ministers, in reality a ministers' conference. It is true that at this conference there was ordination of ministers, prophecy and the likes, but these came secondary to ministering to the Lord. In fact it seems they didn’t gather to prophesy or ordain people to the ministry, those really happened in response to the expressed will of the Lord after they had ministered to him and not firstly to one another. There is a rarity of the expression of this concept. It seems to the carnal mind that there can be nothing spiritual about shutting yourself out from doing things for the Lord or for one another. There are pressing needs to be met all around us so it is easy to justify continuously darting all around and getting “busy” meeting these “needs”. I want you to notice that these are ministers – prophets and teachers. It appears that the proper measure of the prophet and the teacher and in fact any ministry is the measure to which we minister to the Lord. Notice this is not about ministering FOR the Lord.
It is noteworthy that the piece in Acts 13 is sprinkled with all the giant spiritual words “fasting”, “prayer”, “prophecy” but it didn’t start with these, it says “ministering to the Lord and fasting” – ministering to the Lord and fasting - often these two go together, but in reality fasting is quite a separate and distinct entity from ministering to the Lord and in God’s mind they do not mean the same thing at all. There are people, religious people, who are champions at fasting, but who know little or nothing about ministering to the Lord. It is the easiest thing as a Christian to minister to our own needs. We have those that are slightly more spiritual – they minister to others’ needs, but there is a need to awaken to the fact that God should also be ministered to and in fact that should come first! You have to learn the deep spirituality of seeing your needs and other’s needs as secondary to ministering to the Lord. Ministering to the Lord is not the same thing as meeting other people’s needs, there is a place for these things, but they are given a place that steals the show from properly ministering to the Lord. Real ministry flows from ministering to the Lord.
Contrary to religious thinking, God is not primarily interested in using you to reach others. Surely he wants to reach others, but firstly he wants you to himself exclusively. Think about it, when Adam and Eve were in Eden, there was no evangelism, no church to minister to, nor were there any lost people to discuss about, yet the bible talks about God coming to fellowship with his man in the garden – hmm what were they talking about? Adam only understood Eve because they stood in the presence of love. The love that Adam had for Eve was a byproduct of the love that he received from God. this love exchange is fellowship. In reality many folks will be totally out of place in that kind of atmosphere. Strip many Christians of their needs, the needs of other believers or the needs of the lost world and their basis for fellowship vaporizes! There is a primal need in the heart of God and we meet that need by ministering to the Lord. You realise that the bible describes Adam and Eve as being "naked and not ashamed". The immediate thought is that they pursued intimacy without any sense of condemnation as they stood in one another’s presence only because they knew God's love. As soon as they sinned, they lost a consciousness of God's love and they covered up for the loss of this intimacy. They didn’t just withdraw from one another, that was just the symptom. The real tragedy was that they withdrew from love [God]. They were still busy, but they were withdrawing from the wooing of love. Somehow they interacted more with trees than with God!
When that which you do for God takes the place of ministering to him, even that which we do for him becomes meaningless. Ministry for him flows from ministering to him first. It’s very much like a man who would rather leave his family out in the cold than get the car dirty in a snowstorm. The car has lost its reason for being, for it should come secondary to the family and not replace it. God wants so much of you that he indwells you by his Spirit. He is as much at home in you as he is at home in heaven. This is the genius of the new birth – God lives in you. While it is noble and proper to want to minister him to others, we must never forget that the main thing is to minister to him in the sanctuary of your spirit.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: Gen 1:26a
The bible shows that man is created in the image and likeness of God. This is not just stating the fact that we look like God, but that man is primarily a mirror of God. God wants to mirror what he is like for creation to gain an insight into what our Father is like. In simple terms we are to function very much like God and exhibit characteristics that can be found in God. God is not man, nor is man God but it is obvious that every human carries a capacity to receive and give love. This love characteristic does not originate in man, but in God. God wants to give and receive love. He has given his love, but very few believers respond by also loving him back. Sometimes what we call praise is not truly praise, but a “spiritual” bribe disguised as flattering words or words spoken to keep him from getting angry. The mouth is declaring the majesty of God, while the heart is focused on overcoming some demon, getting a new house or scoring religious points with God. In that religious system praise is the money of the kingdom. Definitely God wants us dwelling in goodly houses, but we do not trade praise for houses. We praise him understanding that it is our ministry of love to our father.
We must learn the reality of covering God with spirit-born, heart-felt praise not born of duty or obligation but of love and adoration. It must sink into your consciousness that God needs ministry too. You see, love must have an object of its affection otherwise love is not in full flow. God is love and so he expresses himself in showering us with his goodness. Whatever gives love is also capable of receiving the same, therefore God has a need to receive love also. We don’t praise him because he is having a bad day or worried about the happenings in Iraq or some corner of the universe. He is love, so he gives love and yearns to receive love back. Our praise is a form of ministry; we are returning love to God. Our conversations with him must be filled with an awareness of him. We are interested in saturating the atmosphere of God with our thoughts towards him.
… to be continued
2 comments:
Thanks for this article, You opened various aspects of our love life. For instance you made it clear that the love of God is the life we received and we ought to let that love saturate us, for He expects us to be conduits of His love to others. Clearly though the major thought here is that in liberating us to love like He does He yearns that we seek to pour that love on Him as the primary and sole recipient of His own love as it fills our lives. This makes the lover superabound in love- now that is life.
This is life at it fullest
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