The end of all things is at hand; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. I Peter 4:7–11.
The New Testament order of preaching is to speak the utterances of God, to be God’s mouthpiece, not His interpreter; not to try to explain what God is saying but to speak what God would bring forth. This difference is important. The Word says that the early church went everywhere preaching the word, the Lord working with them, with signs following. Our efforts are not to do something for God—He doesn’t need anyone to work for Him—but to work with God. It is a mutual expression. Paul says we are laborers together with God. Whatever we do is a function of God working with us and through us. That is the key of ministry.
I would rather have criticism than become a man compelled to serve people at their request, instead of serving them at direction of the Lord. If we minister, we minister in the ability God gives; if we speak, we speak the utterances of God, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. I Peter 4:12; 14.
You will not always be able to see the glory resting on your brethren, but if they are suffering for Christ, if they are going through the fiery trials, if they are reviled for the name of Christ, on them rests the Spirit of God. The fiery trials must come—the final refining of fire. The dross has to go.
The fiery trial will increase until the real intent and purpose of our hearts will be discovered. How much do we really want this walk with God? We are facing a new kind of testing in which God will deal with us until we look within ourselves to see what is the defect in dedication, for we must become the ministries who will speak the utterances of God. We will minister by an ability and power that God gives, and we will be linked with His omnipotence and omniscience!
There is faith arising now, a sustained miracle faith. We must enter into the rest and pursue after the will of God with a joyous heart that trusts God and appropriates a gift of faith. The gift of faith differs from the gift of miracles. When Jesus was in the boat on the stormy sea, He slept as the disciples rowed and did their very best to survive. They wanted a miracle, so they went to wake Jesus. They said, “Carest Thou not that we perish, Master?” He got up and rebuked the wind and there came a great calm. A miracle had occurred. The gift of faith was operative in Christ, a sustained miracle faith. That boat couldn’t sink, because Jesus was on board with faith. The gift of faith will sustain a miracle in the midst of storm, in a lion’s den, or in a fiery furnace.
We are sustained by faith. A miracle could occur to change our whole situation, but God has taught us the way of faith by making us trust in God and just be sustained in trials and testings. This is important, because before us is a great tribulation in the earth. When it comes, God’s people will see many miracles, but the greatest one will be the faith that sustains them. The labors are put upon us until we wish God would perform a miracle that would take all the work away. He doesn’t, but He does give that sustaining grace of God through the gift of faith.
Because Jesus was more aware of the Father than He was of the storm, He was sound asleep. The disciples were wide awake, believing that their own efforts could help them. When they found their efforts were worth nothing, they woke Jesus up saying, “We’re going to perish. Don’t You care?” They did not have that sustaining faith.
How many times have you prayed for the situation to disappear, the problem to go away, and it doesn’t? Instead He teaches you how to trust Him, and as you do, He has a way of dealing with the problems and getting them out of the way, too. I’d rather have the gift of faith than have the working of miracles. The gift of faith would help me to be sustained as a servant of the Lord, to speak the utterances of God day unto day, and to be true: no fluctuations, steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because I’m sustained in that gift of faith from God.