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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