MINISTRY
I am amazed at how many people have come into a walk with God in recent years and have never heard a basic explanation of ministering and how to minister. We need a simple explanation of what we are—spirit, soul and body—and how we function.
There is nothing worse than to get into a habit or a ritual until what we do is mechanical and without the expression of our whole being emanating the life of God.
This is why we are always getting away from forms that function without power or effectiveness in our lives. We must break with a ritual when it is not ministering life to us or others and go back to the basics to find out what God really wants from us.
For instance, at the present time the laying on of hands has more meaning to us than it has had in the past. In the past, people experienced the laying on of hands but many times did not understand the depth of its purpose and how to really bless one another.
I want to explain a little bit of Scripture so that you’ll understand what you are and the basic limitations you have because of what you are.
I Thessalonians 5: 23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the parousia of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
Paul also talks about spirit, soul and body in I Corinthians chapter 2.
Everybody is talking about body, soul and spirit, but they get it backwards. They are more aware that they have a body than they are of anything else; therefore, they emphasize ministry on a physical level. But reaching people on all three levels—spirit, soul and body—is the whole basis of ministering.
I never try to reach a person quickly; I want to get a handle on the spirit, soul and body of a person before I try to minister.
If a man given to worry comes to us and says, “I hear that the gifts of healing are real, and I would like to be healed of ulcers,” we could very easily cure the ulcers. But how long would it last when he goes out to eat some hot chili and starts worrying some more?
Ulcers are caused not so much by what you eat as by what is eating on you. If we heal the thing that is eating on you, then we can say, “Okay, now you are healed of the things in your soul or your mind that are the cause of the problems, and the physical body will have a healing that is permanent.” In other words, there is a depth we try to reach.
Anything we do can be nullified if we do not deal with the whole man. Let’s learn how to get to the spirit and to the soul of an individual. We need to do more than just help him a little bit with emotional or physical problems. We need to teach him some basic principles, if we can, of both how to receive and to give a blessing.
HOW TO MINISTER
Without an understanding of how to draw on a flow from God (where authority resides) and how it can be ministered, you go through a form without knowing how it works. If it works, you’re surprised; but the next time you try to do it you can’t, because you don’t know what you did right the first time. But if you understand everything about it, you watch how it works, you can be a consistent ministry.
For example, we are learning how to put Spirit into words so that they are not just sounds, thoughts and concepts only, but are a lifegiving force.
I Corinthians 2:1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.
I Corinthians 2: 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Paul was speaking of things eternal.
Yeshua said, “My words are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).
You can hear many words that are just words. Paul wrote in a number of places to avoid those who speak empty words—words without blessing, words of contention (II Timothy 2:16–17).
Someone can speak all the right words, but it is just like feeding people sawdust. People say, “Well, I go to church, and they preach the Scriptures to me.” That doesn’t necessarily mean there is life. Just because someone can quote Scriptures doesn’t mean they will have the anointing of the Spirit or life in the words.
We want the ability to impart—spirit to spirit. We want to be able to say, “I bless you,” and see people blessed.
Something will happen to them, but we need to get a couple of keys to make it work. Once you get the idea, you will start living in the realm where you can bless a person and see positive change that lasts a lifetime. One word can change people.
That’s why the enemy battles so hard to get you to voice negativity. James said, “If any man offends not in word, the same is a perfect man” (James 3:2)—meaning that words can be a channel for whatever is in you.
The Lord said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).
So, the mouth speaks forth, activating things in the spirit and in the soul.
You can say, “I don’t have the wisdom to solve my brother’s problems. I don’t have all the answers.” But you can listen to your brother, and after you’ve listened, you can say, “Let’s cast it all on the Lord and I’ll bless you.” You can accomplish more with that blessing than you can by having all the answers.
WORDS OF SPIRIT
Paul said, But just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard. and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those, who love Him.” For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. I Corinthians 2:9–10.
Let me explain that. Your eye hasn’t seen it. Your ear hasn’t heard it. Not even in the imagination of your mind and heart have you ever conceived what God really has for you. It is beyond the knowledge of the physical senses—beyond anything that the faculties of the soul or body can discover. But God begins to reveal those things by the Holy Spirit to your spirit, so that you know.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God (He has it for you, but you’ll never get the revelation of it without some input from God’s Spirit to your spirit), which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. I Corinthians 2:12–13. Spirit words have Spirit and life in them.
I want to teach you how to speak a Word with Spirit in it. When you speak, draw the Spirit into it.
But a natural man (the man of soul) does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. II Corinthians 2:14.
You can learn some things by using your eyes and ears, and some things you can learn with your mind (soul). But there are some things that you can learn only with your spirit, because your soul will never pick them up.
Paul said that the soulish man can never comprehend the things of God because they are spiritually discerned—only his spirit can tune into those things.
We’re realizing that is it better for us to learn a little bit of prayer and ministry that will reach up through our spirits to God and to one another and to learn how to draw, than it is to try to figure out the things of Spirit in our minds, or to get into them through the emotions, the soul, or the reasonings of the mind. We can come to the place where we have a reality that is spiritually discerned.
But he who is spiritual perceives all things, yet he himself is judged by no man. I Corinthians 2:15.
It’s a realm that can’t be put in a test tube, but it is a realm where the spiritual man knows what he is doing.
For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. I Corinthians 2:16.
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh (we have the Greek word pneuma, meaning “spirit”; we have psuche, meaning “soul”; and we have sarx, the word for flesh), as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? I Corinthians 3:1–3.
LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDING
Jesus said to His disciples, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot receive them now” (John 16:12). Paul wrote, “By this time I ought to be giving you meat, but I have to give you milk because you’re just babes” (Hebrews 5:12–13). There are different levels of understanding.
The only faculty capable of direct communication with God is your spirit. God is a Spirit, and He seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23–24).
There is no reliable revelation, that does not come through the spirit of man. The realm of your spirit can commune with God because He is Spirit.
Everything God is doing in His plan to bring us into His own image is revealed right here. When you have a spirit that lives eternally, fathered by God Himself, you have something made to commune with God.
If you have been able to receive this teaching and have learned how to move in the realm of Spirit, you might not realize how much time you saved and how much futile seeking you bypassed as you sought the truth.
We need to review our terminology, because traditional theologies and doctrines have made many words meaningless.
“Justification”—what does that mean? How will we define the word “revelation”? “Prophecy”—what does it mean now? What did it mean in Biblical times? What do we mean by “blessing”? What do we mean by “cursing”? What do we mean by people being “open” and what do we mean by people being “closed”? What do we mean by “walls”?
We can be accused of creating our own lingo, but the only reason we have done it is because there aren’t any words unless we create them—that can express our common experience in the realm of spirit.
What can we do with our hands? Why do we lift our hands to the Lord? Why do we lay hands on people? Is there a difference between a fist and an open hand? Can it affect your spirit? How do we impart? How do we appropriate? Or how could we combine the appropriation and impartation at the same time?
You need to have your spirit open to the Lord and to your brother and sister. If you are tense or walled off and your fists are clenched, it is difficult to receive or give a blessing. But if you open your hands, then lay them on the hands of the one who is imparting to you and draw, the blessing doubles because you are appropriating as well as receiving.
If you are imparting to someone who is not as open to you as they would like to be, bring in someone they are open to, through whom you can channel the blessing.
Set your mind to believe. Set your will to give and to receive. When you impart, draw from the Spirit just like you breathe. You breathe in and then you breathe out. You draw in and release out. Say to yourself, “I’m believing. I draw from the Spirit of the Lord. I pull the blessing from God and send it through my mouth, through my hands.” It’s like a water fountain flowing.
Faith is largely based on will, not reason. A revelation can become very real to you, whether you can reason it out. Eventually it becomes very reasonable, and you can prove it as you would a scientific formula; but you begin by saying, “This is a revelation from God and I’m going to believe it.”
THINK RIGHTLY ABOUT YOURSELF
What is the first commandment? Matthew 22: 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as YOUR SELF.’
People say SELF-LOVE is wrong. But if you don’t love yourself then you can’t love your neighbor. You can’t love God and despise what He has done, because you are a product of HIS WORKMANSHIP created in Christ for good works (Ephesians 2:10).
You’ve got to say, “I love what God has done in me. I’m a miracle. God has led me every step of the way and I love it.” If you don’t have a higher esteem of yourself—of what God has done for you—you will be worthless when you try to help someone else.
Get rid of self-condemnation. You cannot impart or appropriate when you are burdened with self-guilt. Say, “Lord, give me revelation of myself and what You’ve done in me.” Count the times He has met your heart—the ways He has led and blessed you.
Don’t be ashamed to take blessing. You say, “I’m going to be humble; I’m going to get off in a corner.” You can be humble and sit on the throne! Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth, but He washes feet (John 13:3–5). He can be humble when He knows He has that authority. That’s the key to moving in the Spirit. There is no greatness without humility, but there is no true humility that just beats itself down. At some point you have to say, “I’m humble and I stand before God as one of the meek ones who will inherit the earth!” (Matthew 5:5.)