This morning, we’re continuing our ministry training series called “Equipped.”
So far, we’ve covered that ministry is just a word meaning ‘serve’ which we are all to do. Ministry to people should just be a continuation of our ministry to God.
Jesus didn’t serve every single need that He encountered. Rather, He said that He did only what He saw His Heavenly Father doing. True, Biblical ministry can only be done through relationship with and in cooperation with God.
We began learning about how there isn’t a specific formula or method to successful ministry. By God’s own design, it is supposed to be an adventurous scavenger hunt. It’s a pursuit of seeking and finding; of secret things being revealed as Heaven invades Earth!
In joyous response to Zacchaeus’ salvation, Jesus responded to the muttering and gossiping about Him hanging out with “sinners” by declaring:
Luke 19:10
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
Jesus and the New Testament church never displayed an attitude of “If we build it, they will come.” They did not construct a building and then call people into it.
No, they went out wherever Holy Spirit would lead them or angels would guide them or Jesus would tell them and do whatever it was that they were instructed to do.
Jesus went from town to town, sending His disciples ahead of Him in pairs, to seek and to save the lost. The miracles that He was performing, He gave His disciples the ability to do as well.
This isn’t exactly the way that we send out our apostles, which for some reason we now call missionaries, now, but this is how Jesus sent them.
Luke 9:1-5 (NLT)
1 One day Jesus called together his twelve disciples and gave them power and authority to cast out all demons and to heal all diseases. 2 Then he sent them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 “Take nothing for your journey,” he instructed them. “Don’t take a walking stick, a traveler’s bag, food, money, or even a change of clothes. 4 Wherever you go, stay in the same house until you leave town. 5 And if a town refuses to welcome you, shake its dust from your feet as you leave to show that you have abandoned those people to their fate.”
In the next chapter, Jesus sends out seventy-two disciples in the same way with the same message, “The Kingdom of Heaven is near!” Seeking and saving the lost! Not only inviting people to receive salvation, but showing them the Kingdom of Heaven that they are being invited to receive!
Our job is to share the good news; to tell people about God’s Kingdom and to invite them to receive it. The results aren’t up to us. Whether people receive it or reject it is between them and Jesus.
Luke 10:16-24 (NLT)
16 Then he said to the disciples, “Anyone who accepts your message is also accepting me. And anyone who rejects you is rejecting me. And anyone who rejects me is rejecting God, who sent me.”
17 When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!”
18 “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! 19 Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. 20 But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.”
21 At that same time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and he said, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way.
22 “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
23 Then when they were alone, he turned to the disciples and said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you have seen. 24 I tell you, many prophets and kings longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.”
In fact, it was for this very reason that Jesus spoke and taught so often using parables. Common, ordinary things that the people He was speaking to were very familiar with. Yet, revealing deep spiritual realities through them. Secret things revealed!
Matthew 13:10-13
10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
11 He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
God is speaking constantly, but are we hearing?
God is revealing constantly, but are we understanding?
God is acting constantly, but are we seeing?
Last week, we were sent on a life-long spiritual scavenger hunt.
Praying continually, asking for clear and simple clues, and expectantly seeking.
What we were asking for is what the Bible refers to as a word of knowledge in 1 Corinthians 12:8. This is when God reveals a simple fact to us that we could not have learned without Holy Spirit revealing it to us.
Before venturing further into the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we’re first going to spend some more time on learning how to discern and understand God’s voice.
Remember from last week that if we have received Jesus’ salvation, we are His sheep and we hear His voice according to what Jesus said in John 10!
Most often, I believe that we downplay or ignore God’s voice thinking that it is simply our imagination. After all, since God speaks to us through His Holy Spirit within us, His voice is an inner voice and not an audible one as we are most familiar with.
Our minds are constantly churning through thoughts. These thoughts are words based on countless voices. Our minds are constantly processing information based on knowledge and past experiences.
It is in this processing where we learn to discern God’s voice and separate it from all others.
In today’s culture, we are constantly consuming so much media that there are countless voices speaking to us. Whether it be our families or teachers or church leaders or friends or social media posts or podcasts or binge watching movies or TV series or news or any other source. We allow many voices into our minds!
God’s voice is among the many and it is important for us to learn how to discern it.
Imagine that you are at a large festival in the middle of thousands of strangers all talking at the same time. Now, before you go into a panic attack, just stay with me. All of the sudden, you hear your best friend calling your name.
How did you discern their voice and how did it cut through so clearly through all of the others? How were you able to ignore the other voices and treat them as mere background noise compared to theirs?
Relationship! Their voice is familiar and you recognize their voice just as clearly as you recognize their face in that same crowd. Relationships take time and intentional effort and trust.
Hearing what God is saying and seeing what He is doing and understanding what He is revealing can only happen through relationship. That is why ministry to the Lord is first and foremost!
We aren’t supposed to listen to every one of those voices. Those voices, in different ways, tell us who we are, how we ought to think, how we ought to view and treat others, and how we ought to behave. Not all of those voices are ones that we should be obeying!
In fact, in 2 Corinthians 10, we are taught to take every thought captive and force it into obedience to Christ! Jesus taught us in John 10 to listen to His voice and not to listen to the voices of strangers. John taught us:
1 John 4:1
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God
That’s right, in our mind we hear God, our own selves, our past experiences, things we have read or watched or listened to, and even the devil and evil spirits. I share this not to cause fear, but to raise awareness and caution of what our reality already is.
You can read through the rest of that chapter to learn a bit more about how to test the spirits, but it essentially all comes down again to what Jesus taught is the most important; love!
Do they acknowledge Jesus as God’s son and only Savior? What fruits will be produced by doing what you hear? Will they be the fruits of the Spirit or the fruits of the flesh? Will they manifest God’s love?
Oh, what ungodly spirits say will absolutely make sense to us and even sound wise, but what fruit will they produce?
James 3:13-17
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
We hear the voice of God, but we haven’t necessarily learned how to discern it. Most of us just think that it is our own thoughts or imaginations, but it is actually the Holy Spirit’s voice within us.
Remember when Samuel first heard God’s voice? He thought that it was Eli; a familiar and trusted voice within his mind. As Samuel responded to God’s voice, it was confirmed that it was the Lord and not Eli. He learned how to hear and discern God’s voice and grew and developed into a great prophet for God as a result.
We, too, can learn and grow and mature and develop our ability to discern God’s voice as well. In fact, it is critically important for us to do this so that we know how to minister.
God’s written word, the Greek word Logos, is so incredibly valuable and important. We must become familiar with it, memorize it, study it, and live it out. However, it is no replacement for God’s spoken word, the Greek word Rhema.
It’s possible to know the written word of God inside out and backwards and have it thoroughly studied and still not know God. Jesus said to the Jewish leaders:
John 5:37-40
37 the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
When the written word of God wrapped itself in human flesh and stood in front of them, they did not know the Word nor recognize it. The living Word of God didn’t act in ways that they expected or speak using words that they anticipated.
We don’t want to become like them and make the Logos our God! Knowing it, but not knowing it’s author. Knowing the word, but not the living word. Religion, but not relationship.
Remember that the Logos, the written word, itself, was written down by people as they heard, Rhema, God’s voice through the Holy Spirit.
2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is God-breathed
2 Peter 1:21
For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The Logos, the written word of God, is a great way to get to know about God and to recognize His voice because He won’t contradict what He has already spoken nor His nature nor His character.
We always test the Rhema, what we think God is speaking to us, always against the rock-solid foundation of the Logos, what is written.
In the Logos, we see that God actively speaks, Rhema, in many different ways. He still speaks through them today as well!
An audible voice, impressions, dreams, visions, through circumstances, through the natural world, through a donkey, in just about any way imaginable! He is a creative Creator, our Creator, and can speak to us through countless creative ways!
As much as I wanted to go over every way that God spoke to people throughout the Bible, I really felt like God wanted us to keep the main point the main point.
It matters less about how God speaks to us and more about us paying attention to it and responding to it. What is the most important key to hearing God’s voice? Persistently pressing into Him; relationship! Jesus said:
Matthew 7:7-8 (NLT)
7 “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
You may not recognize God’s voice right now. You may not think that you are hearing Him at all. Don’t give up! Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking and you will begin to recognize and discern God’s voice in the midst of all of the others.
It will become more and more clear the more you get to know Him. You will begin to value and treasure it more and the other voices will begin to fade away as ignored background noise.
God’s voice of truth with begin to tear apart all of the lies of people and of the enemy that we have been believing and healing and deliverance will begin to rebuild and restore us. Then, ministry truly begins!
The same lab from last week applies and continues this week; God’s scavenger hunt!
Pray continually.
Ask for clear, simple clues.
Watch expectantly.
Next week, we’ll begin learning about the gifts of the Spirit; how to receive them and how they are used in ministry.