When we learn how to activate our spirit and tune into the Presence of God where the Lord meets us, then we can begin to minister the Spirit to others. We can tune into God and then tune in to another so that the Spirit of God can touch their spirit.
There are a lot of people who think they are doing the work of God, who believe they are working for God, but they have no awareness of His Spirit. We are called to be co-labors with Him. We do not work for him, we work with Him, and until we learn how to be aware of His presence we will be moving in self. Without him we cannot do anything of a spiritual value, so that we have to be led by the Spirit so that He can work through us. We need to understand a spiritual principle that God has chosen to work through His people. Apart from the initiative of a born-again human spirit that is learning the ways of God, there will be no outpouring of His Spirit.
Psalm 103: 7He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. Until Moses learned the ways of the Lord, the children of Israel saw none of His acts. Moses learned how to work with the Lord, he heard the word of the Lord and moved in the Authority of that word and the Spirit of God confirmed it with signs and wonders following. This is how God has chosen to move in the earth, he works through human channels.
There are hundreds of things God has promised for us, but they do not work until we learn how to appropriate (to take something that belongs to us, that has been provided by someone else) them. God provides the provision, but we have to learn how to drink and eat of it, to partake of it. There needs to be a contact where the blessing flows. It is like electricity, we have to learn how to plug into it- we have to learn how to appropriate it.
The presence of the Lord does not automatically happen; we have to learn how to appropriate it. We have to learn how to take the initiative to draw near to Him and then He draws near to us. The intensity and the power of God’s presence around us has to be appropriated. God gives us the faith to believe that we can be aware of Him. He Himself is the provision- we have to learn how to lay hold of Him. We have to learn how to touch the Lord, when we touch him or make contact with Him then the blessing of the Spirit flows.
John 15: 4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Jesus is the source of the uncreated eternal life of God, the life that is in Him flows into us when we learn how to focus upon Him where our spirit connects with His. Without this divine awareness of His Spirit, the life flow of His Spirit is not operating in our heart, but we are disconnected and are living on a human level.
God commands us to begin this moment to abide in Him; it is not a command to do continually but a command to do once and for all. We should never for a moment lose our intimacy with Him. By commanding us to do something, he in turn commands himself to do something. If we abide in Him, then He has no choice but to abide in us. We see here that God has given us the initiative to take the initiative. As we direct the focus of our life upon Him, out of our spirit will flow the eternal life of God and the power of God.
If we abide in the Lord, then we shall experience the provision (the promise) – ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. When we are abiding in the Lord through a steadfast focus on the Spirit where His life is flowing in us, we receive revelation (the mind of Christ). Our focus is on pleasing the Father and seeing His will come to pass on the earth, and because of our oneness with the Lord what we ask or say comes to pass in the earth, because we are an oracle of God, his voice in the earth.
John 15: 7If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
What we inherit or possess is made available to everyone who presses into the Kingdom (the Lordship of Jesus Christ).It is a provision for every believer who suffers with him so that their can reign with him as He possesses their heart.
The provision the Lord has made for us is not something to be prayed for, in the sense that we are asking God to do something for us. We enter into the sufferings of Christ so that our will becomes His will. To the degree or the extent that we are submissive to the Lord where He is truly the Lord of our lives to that extent we will have authority to use His name to see the will of God come into manifestation in the earth.
We are the body of Christ in the earth, but the body is not one member but many. We are to speak the truth in love-ministering the Spirit-to one another that we might grow up into him who is the head. We are to bear one another’s burdens and fulfill the law of Christ. This means we are able to discern our brother’s or sister’s need and carry that for them.
In Order to minister the Spirit, our spirit must be free in the lord. If our spirit is being clouded by something in our soul life, we have to confess our shortcomings and get our heart right. In order to minister the Spirit we have to get rid of the cloud of condemnation.
There is an inner preparation we have to go through, in order to minister the Spirit to others. We let the Spirit of the Lord search our heart, renewing our dedication to the Lord to be a minister in His hands.
The first thing we must do is to worship the Lord until we become aware of His presence. Once our spirit is connecting to the Lord then we need to focus on the presence of the Lord. We have to do whatever is necessary so that the Lord becomes real to us until we are so close to the Lord that we can sense what is in His heart. We have to tune into His mind.
Once we make a connection to the Spirit of the Lord, then we have to tune into our brother or sister until we make a connection to them, where the Lord’s wisdom is coming through to us where we become aware of what the person needs. This is something that takes practice, but when our heart is set to be a channel of God that is pure then the gifts of the Spirit will begin to operate.
Until we learn how to tune into the presence of God, where we are filled with His Spirit, where we sense his thoughts and feelings, we can’t effectively tune into someone else. If we try to do this in ourselves it will not work. There has to be a living contact first with the Lord and then with the individual. Until we learn how to reach out and touch God where his life is flowing into us, we cannot minister the Spirit to others.
Just like in the natural where there is a generator (a machine that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy) we have to first plug into it and then plug into the tool we want the current to flow to. We are the wire or the channel in which the power flows through. We tap into the Lord or the source (the generator) then we reach out and make a connection with the brother or sister who has the need. This is the secret of ministering the Spirit, of ministering a living word from God. We have to be so tuned into God where his life and wisdom is flowing into us and then tune into the individual where the mind of Christ is coming through towards them.
The Lord never reveals a need unless he exalts himself to meet that need. His love and provision always comes through so that the need can be met. In this way we minister the Spirit, we minister to the Christ in the person. If we are focused on a person’s flesh, then we judge the person and partake of the judgment ourselves. If we are focused on the defilement of a person’s flesh, it defiles us because we have made contact with it. This is the ministry of self-condemnation, there is only one accuser of the brethren (Satan) and we have partaken of Him.
Everyone in the body of Christ should have a living connection with one another and a living connection with the Lord where they can focus on him where he becomes very real to them.
We cannot focus on the lord and another member of the body at the same time. We focus on the Lord until we touch him and then out of that awareness we focus on the individual until we touch them. Once the connection is made with the Lord and the individual then we will become aware of the mind of the Spirit towards them. We become the channel; the flow comes from the Lord to the individual. We bring the blessing down. And then we switch the current where we take the cares and burdens of the Person and cast them back upon the Lord. We can literally lift oppressions off of people.
As we begin to develop in the ministry of the Spirit we can begin to feel the nature and the power of God flowing through us. Every experience we have in ministering the Spirit will not be the same, the essential thing is that we are able to touch the Lord where our contact with Him becomes real (there will be worship and love and strength in our spirit). We have to keep worshiping the Lord until there is no cloud over us (the weight and sin that so easily besets us).
The best way to start to experience the mind of the Lord concerning others where His Spirit is flowing in us- is in the church service. When people are gathered together (his presence is more concentrated) in His name to worship the Lord (a Spirit filled church) and we learn how to worship the Lord where we have a meeting with Him (our spiritual senses become aware of the Lord) we can then tune into other members of the Body where we can sense the mind of the Lord towards them.
Until we really learn how to open up our spirit to worship and praise the Lord, our spirit is not going to be aware of the Lord. Then all the things we learn are just in our minds and not a living experience. To minister the Spirit we have to be aware of the Spirit and His mind towards others. It is only when we breakthrough and the Lord becomes more real to us than our surroundings, that the Lord will be able to meet others in a life changing experience.
We have to enter into a dedication so that we do not do things or partake of things that dull our spiritual senses. Otherwise we will have weights on us and oppressions and we will not be able to break through into the presence of the Lord where are spiritual senses are aware of Him.
The presence of the Lord does not come automatically, but the oppression of Satan does. Unless we are continually pressing into God, we go backwards. There is a gravitational pull of the world that brings us down. We cannot automatically go up in the air, but once we are in the air we will automatically come down.
So to get in the Spirit, to make a living contact with God, we have to start worshiping, and throw off some clouds and start reaching into Him. It is only when we come into a freedom in our spirit where our soul is no longer weighing it down, that we start receiving revelation from Him. Once our spirit ascends into the heavenly places in Christ, everything we need is there, and then we are in a position to turn and bless someone else.