You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you
possess eternal life. John 5:39
Ministry is the expression of Life, and not the taking on of a
uniform and a title. Once I thought that to be in the ministry was to go into a
certain kind of work, to come out of business, and, well, be a minister! So one
got into the thing. Many, many are laboring and toiling in it, breaking their hearts,
afraid to leave that order of things, lest they should be violating what they
conceived to be a Divine call. Many others cannot get out of it because it is a
means of livelihood, and they too are breaking their hearts. It is all false.
Ministry is not a system like that. Ministry is the expression of Life, and
that is but saying in other words that it is the outworking of the indwelling
of Christ. Disaster lies before the man or woman who ministers on any other
ground than that. When the Lord gets a chance in us, and we really will trust
Him on that ground and take our position there, He will show us that there is
ministry enough for us; we shall not have to go round looking for it. The real
labor so often is to get us down to that ground, the delivering of us from this
present evil age even in its conception of the ministry, unto the heavenly
ministry.
The Lord Jesus is our pattern. You see the spontaneous ministry,
the restful ministry of that Heavenly Man. I covet that! It does not mean that
we shall become careless, but it does deliver us from so much unnecessary
strain. That is how it should be. May the Lord bring us to it; the heavenly Man
with the heavenly Life as the full heavenly Resource.
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