How To Minister

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This is 15 Minutes With Jesus. Today’s program is called How To Minister. Let’s turn to Luke 16:10-13, He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?  No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Jesus spoke these Words, and He said, He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is unjust in much. God starts you out in what may seem to you as a little thing to see if you will be faithful in it. It may seem little to you, but it is not so to God. With God the little things are the big things because how you handle a small thing will affect how you handle all things, even the big things. People desire to do great things; to have a great ministry, to be a great man, or a great woman; to be a great man of God. It starts with your money; how you handle money; your job. Are you faithful with a little money? Can you manage the money that God gives you and obey Him with it? Are you faithful in your work; in your job; with your family and friends? Jesus said, If you have not been faithful with the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? Wherever God has placed you, be faithful in it. Do excellent work; provide excellent service; as unto Him, and not just pleasing men. God will prepare you for bigger things as you remain faithful with the things He has already given you. Remain where God has you, being faithful and diligent, until He leads you on to the next thing; just as an athlete may spend years in training and developing his or her skills before he or she is ready for the big games. If they were not properly trained and developed they could not handle the contest and they would fail. God does not want us to fail, but He wants us to be truly successful; overcoming every weight and the sin which so easily besets us. Jesus said, No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. God will prove you with money to see if you will be faithful to Him with it, or if you will love money and the things of the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Jesus Christ is our Lord and Master. Only in truly serving Him from the heart can we truly bring forth good fruit and glorify our Father in Heaven. We must be proven in that which is least to be faithful to Him in that which is bigger. We must yield to Him and follow Him in the path He is leading us in; asking Him, and sincerely desiring Him to purge us of all pride, and self-righteousness, and every evil way. 

Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? It is good if you have believed in Jesus; if you have been baptized in water into His death and burial, and raised with Him to serve Him in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. All of us must receive the Holy Spirit coming upon us, with evidence of speaking in other tongues and prophesying; the earnest of our inheritance, so that He may be with us to lead us and comfort us every day. Jesus said to His disciples, when He was soon to leave them and go back to the Father, He said, I will not leave you alone; I will come unto you. When you have the Holy Spirit, then you can yield to Him and be led by Him every day. That’s how Jesus leads us; that’s how we follow Him, in every situation, to do the Father’s will; just as Jesus said, I only do what I see my Father doing; I only say what I hear my Father saying. The Holy Spirit will lead you where He wants you to go to the people He wants you to be with. As you continue to pray in the Spirit in other tongues, He will lead you in your prayers to overcome powers of darkness that would hinder you from overcoming and doing the Lord’s will. He will lead you in prayer; in forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth to those things that are before.

I want to speak to those of you who believe that God has called you to be a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: Has God really called you? Do you know your calling? Have you been proven with money; with little things that are not so little? Have you been faithful in that which is another man’s; faithful in your job; faithful in your fellowship? Have you truly been baptized in the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in other tongues? Have you learned from Him, as you have been taught by Him the Word of God? Is He leading you? Are you following Jesus? Can you hear His voice? He said, My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Are you willing to lay down your ambition; your desire to be great; your life, for Him. Do you really love Jesus, or do you love yourself and the honor of men? Are you ready to bear the glory; the honor that God puts on a man’s life to minister to His people? Or, do you need to work a job for another season, and wait on the Lord to start your ministry; being faithful with your job, serving Him; faithful with your money, with your wife and children, and let God decide when to send you, and where to send you, and what He wants you to speak and minister. Do you really want him to be glorified through your life, even unto death, or do you really want the glory for yourself? If any man speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God gives, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever. If you are serious about your calling from Him, then get serious about these things with Him. Ask Him to deal with your life. Seek Him to cleanse you of all unrighteousness and vain glory. He will do it, if you really mean it. Then you will be able to continue and be faithful in the ministry He gives you, and as you grow in strength and experience, He will move you on, and you will be able to stand and truly edify His people and glorify the Lord, and you will be rewarded in that day for your good service to Him and His people. If God hasn’t sent you and given you a message by His Spirit, you have nothing to give. If you love Him and His people, you will wait upon Him and seek Him until He answers. If your ministry is not founded in love for God and for His people it is rubbish. We must be converted; not just saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle Peter. Jesus said to him, at the Last Supper when He told him that he was about to deny Him three times, I have prayed for you that your faith fail not, and when you are converted, strengthen your brethren. Later, after He arose from the dead, He asked Peter, Do you love me? Peter said, Yes Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my sheep.   Do you love Him?   Do you love His sheep? Will you wait upon Him to give you the Words and the works that he wants you to speak and do to truly edify His church? Jesus did not do any ministry until He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and He was led by the Spirit in all that He did. He said, It’s the Father in me doing the works. I only do those things that please Him; the Father in Him, and He in the Father; Jesus in you and you in Him. Without Him we can do nothing. And the Scripture says, If any man says that he abides in Him, let him walk as He walked. You can do all kinds of things and speak all kinds of words; build a big ministry in His name, but if it was not initiated by Him, it is nothing and it profits nothing. And when it is tried by fire in the last day, it will all be consumed.  What you may think to be a small thing in your eyes, if you will be faithful in it, may turn out to be gold, silver, and precious stones in that day.

Those of you who are reading this, those of you that you know God has called you and you want to be a true minister of Jesus Christ, I want to ask you to pray with me right now; just join with me in prayer: 

Father, in Jesus’ name we come before you. Father, I just want to thank you for every person reading this whom you have called into the ministry, into your ministry, whatever it may be. The Bible says you have called some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Hallelujah! So Father, those that are reading this and you have truly called them; I pray you would help them to hear your Words, to humble themselves before you this day and cry out to you, and to understand, with all their being, that they cannot do anything without you, and only what you are leading them to do by your Spirit will be of any profit to anyone. Thank you Lord. We thank you Lord, in the name of Jesus, thank you Father, Amen.

I’m reminded of what Jesus said, in John chapter six, that he is the bread of life, and He told the people that were listening to Him, unless you eat my flesh and drink my Blood, you have no life in you. And many were offended at this statement, and they said, How can we eat this man’s flesh? Many of them left Him, and He turned to His disciples and said, does this offend you? In verse 48, Jesus said,  I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, How can this Man give us His flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. In verses 61-63, Jesus said, ...Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? He said, It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. If you are called of God, you need to give place to God; let God be glorified; let Him give you the Words by His Holy Spirit that He wants you to speak, and He will be glorified. He will minister to His people. You cannot do anything without Him. It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. If you don’t have the Holy Spirit, you need to seek the Lord to be baptized in the Holy Spirit; be filled with the Holy Spirit, and be sent by the Holy Spirit. In Romans 10 it is written, how shall they believe on Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent? You must be sent by the Holy Spirit! You must seek Him and call upon the Lord, and be willing to wait upon Him until He sends you; as the prophets and teachers did in Acts 13. They were fasting, they were praying; they were waiting on God; seeking God, and the Holy Spirit said, Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work that I have called them to do. Then they prayed and they fasted again, and they laid hands on them and the Holy Spirit sent them out. And they went where the Holy Spirit sent them, and they preached the Gospel, and they started many churches, and it was all a work of the Spirit that continued for many years, even to this day, through the Bible; we read the Words that the Apostle Paul wrote to those churches; and the Apostle Peter, and the Apostle John. All of these things were done by the Spirit. Those men were full of the Holy Spirit when they wrote those Words. So it’s the Spirit that profits. The flesh profits nothing.