Spiritual Gifts by Jill Briscoe
CHAPTER 1 - The Spiritual Art of Ministry
What does God want me to do with my life? Ministry.
Ministry is not something for the professional Christian only - someone who has been to seminary or bible school or on the mission field. It is for all who have become new persons in Christ Jesus and have experienced "the old things passing away, and all things becoming new". It is for those who have had a radical change in their lives because of their conversion and who want - more than that, feel - a responsibility to make sure everyone has the same opportunity.
Ministry is being a blessing. It's serving and giving and not counting the cost. It's what we who love Jesus and supposed to be doing all day, every day. Ministry is talking about Jesus, serving Jesus, being Jesus where people are in need of Jesus. Ministry is the most exciting, stretching thing in the world. It's an art - a spiritual art.
Ministry - helping people - happens all day every day and all night every night. Ministry goes on all over the world and on all 7 continents. Old people and young people ministry. Black people and white people. wealthy people and poor people. Sick people and healthy people. Ministry is a full-tme 24 hour thing. An "I can't wait to get going in the morning" thing. An "I don't have time to sleep" thing. An "I can't believe I have the privilege of doing this" thing. It's a hard thing, a glorious thing, a stretch, a reach, a "pulling you in every direction" thing. it is exhausting and exhilarating, an emptying of yourself and a "filling up to overflowing" thing. Ministry is in the end an art of the Spirit - a spiritual art.
A Chain of Blessing
Christian ministry is a chain of blessing that begins with someone getting blessed - someone coming to faith in Jesus Christ and being converted, turned around, transformed from the inside out - and in turn being a blessing to everyone in their orbit. It's a chain. A chain of blessing.
Ministry is for all of us - those of us who have grown up in the church and those of us who have come to Christ from the outside of "Christian everything". So don't say, "But I don't have any opportunity to ministry. I have no training." Ask God to show you the hundreds of opportunities that are right under your nose every day.
Ministry in Difficuties
Some people see a difficulty in every opportunity, while others see an opportunity in every difficulty. It's a question of the way you look at life. Something unfavourable happens to us that we are not expecting - how do we handle it?
Sitting in a cold, dark jail cell, Paul wrote to the Philippians "What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel" (chapter 1 verse 12). He declares that because of his chains he has this marvellous opportunity. Paul considered himself a prisoner not of Rome but of Jesus Christ. He was there as an ambassador to represent his Lord and Saviour. In Acts 9 verse 16 the Lord had said of Paul "I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." God had also promised Paul that he would one day take the gospel to Rome, the heart of the empire (Acts 23 verse 11). When something hard happened to the apostle Paul his instant reaction was "How can I use this as a platform to explain the gospel?" Paul didn't know how he would ever get to Rome but he knew in his heart when God said something it would usually happen.
This is difficult to fully appreciate - how many times have I not said "that's not fair" when something happens? Here in this letter to the little church in Philippi, Paul was sitting in a cell in Rome waiting his trial. He was not expecting to win his case but he is happy - if God has planned for Paul to be executed or released, he will accept it - "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Paul was busy using his unusual opportunities and exercising the spiritual art of ministry.
Taking every opportunity for Christ doesn't only means talking to people but also involve praying for them. When trouble comes, we need to train our minds to go to God first and foremost in prayer and then to keep on going.
The Ministry of Prayer
A friend sent me a get-well card that said The world says, 'laid aside for illness.' Christ says 'called aside for stillness.'
After he gives his greeting Paul is found in the opening lines of his letter praying for his friends, and he tells them so. He has had hours and hours of uninterrupted time in his cell to talk to his heavenly Father about his friends and their troubles. If he had been free, it wouldn't have been so easy to make the time. true, he is uncomfortable and a guard is attached to him at all times of day or night - but no matter it is downtime.
Paul's prayer in chapter 1 verses 3 to 11 tells us much about him. This prayer isnt first filled with a list of prayer requests for his health or laments about the conditions "inside" though elsewhere he does ask people to pray specifically about his practical and personal needs, but Paul shows us here the heart of prayer by telling the Philippians that they are the focus of his thinking.
He tells them what a sheer joy they are to him. So often we pray for people and there's not too much joy in the doing of it. What a boost to our own faith when someone is bringing us joy, and how it encourages us to keep on praying for those who make our hearts smile.
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