The Ministry of Life for the Body, Message 6

My Great Delight in God's Word

The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body, Message 6

The Ministry of Life

In the previous chapters, we have learned how to prepare our lives, by cleaning the vessels of honour through which the Lord can dispense His life to other members of the Body. We have also seen His revelation about us, Himself and our enemies. We are now going to learn what the bible says about "ministry." Even though this word is commonly used, as we can see numerous ministries in this world, it is crucially important to discern if a ministry is considered as "true ministry" according to God's holy word. The Church, the body, urgently needs this kind of ministry, which will surely promote her growth in life up to Christ, the head of the Body.

There is only one ministry - ministry of life.

There are so many ministries in this world today. They are too numerous to count. A church may even have so many ministries. But what the bible says about this commonly-used word?

⁵ Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
⁶ who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:5-6 NKJV)

According to 2 Corinthians 3:6, we all are ordained as ministers of the new covenant. And the apostle Paul further explains that the ministers of new covenant really are the ministers of the life-giving Spirit! Therefore it can be said that we all are the ministers who serve God in the ministry of life. All the ministries are but under a big umbrella called "ministry of life." In God's eyes, there is only one ministry in this world, as we can see that the apostle Paul uses the word "ministry" in singular form in 2 Corinthians 4:1. All the ministries are one!

Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. (2 Corinthians 4:1 NKJV)

Because all the ministries are involved in the ministry of life, they should work together to nourish the body of Christ so that she will grow in life. All the ministers are to be the ones who receive more life from the Spirit, enjoy the abundant life they have, and share this life to others.
Therefore if we are going to be involved in a ministry, we need to ask whether it aims to promote the growth in life of the body or not. Many ministries are all about entertaining people or providing for their physical needs. They are not bad in themselves, because they may basically aim to outreach the lost and eventually bring them to the source of life, or supply more life to brothers and sisters. However, if the intention of those activities is not that the people would gain more life from the true source of life, those activities are not a part of the ministry of life.

God is the only true source of life.

What is the first thing we need to do in the ministry of life? The answer is simple. We need to come to the true source of life. We cannot minister life if we are deficient in life. And we cannot have enough life unless we regularly come to God, the true source of life, and be filled with His life. We need to come to the fountain of living waters, and drink it.

For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns --- broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13 NKJV)

One may think that it is a small thing to trust in something else beside God. However, God's word may not agree with him. Shockingly, Jeremiah 2:13 tells us that there are 2 serious crimes that God hates. Both of them were committed by the people of Israel, resulting in destruction of the nation and desolation of the land. Firstly, even though they had obviously seen God's grace and mercy throughout the history, they eventually forsook God. That is a sad story, is it not? They were about to be God's chosen people who would bring God's blessings to all the nations by being His representatives and ambassadors. But they decisively forsook God, who is the only true fountain of living waters. Moreover, they also did another severe crime. Instead of turning to God in times of trouble, they turned to something else for help. However, all they could find were nothing but the broken cisterns that could not hold water. All their attempts appeared to be in vain, because there was no any other fountain that can give them life.
Therefore let's learn from their mistakes. Don't forget that there is only one source that provides us life. The rate-limiting step of the growth in life of the Church is the connection to the source. The success of the ministry of life does not substantially depend upon good planning or excellent administration or involvement of the capable ones. It mainly depends upon the seamless connection with God, by using our spirit to contact Him.
We may think that the most dangerous things to the ministry are the obviously bad things, such as secular thoughts, corruptions, false teachings or any forms of sin. Yes, we need to avoid those things. However, Satan sometimes uses the things that seem to be good to distract us from the connection with the source. They include the services themselves. Some people are serving the services, instead of serving God. A right service should promote the intimate relationship between the servant and the Master. It may not be an easy job, but the servant will gain much more experience with God, and personal and relational knowledge of Him.
Oswald Chambers says in the book, "My Utmost for His Highest," that "The greatest competitor of true devotion to Jesus is the service we do for Him." Therefore let's examine ourselves regularly if we are serving God with the true devotion to Jesus and the good connection with Him. The most important thing is not about what we do or how much we succeed, but about what the source of our service for Him is and how healthy our relationship with Him is.

We are to minister life to others.

When we receive more life by using our spirit to contact God, we then come to the next step of the ministering.

For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So then death is working in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:11-12 NKJV)

The ministry of life comes out in no other way but by the working of the cross. We need to be delivered to death at the cross, so that the life of the Lord will be manifested in our lives. By this means, others will gain more life through us.
Our God is gracious. He never asks us to give up anything without promising us to replace it with a far greater thing. He requires us to give up our lives. But He promises that as His Spirit dwells in our spirit, we will live His life instead. Therefore to lose our lives means to gain the abundant life of Him. This life is so abundant that our lives will be filled to overflowing with His life. We will always have a surplus of life so as to minister this life to others.
In the Church, ministering life is the means by which all the members grow in life. All of us are to be the receivers of life, the enjoyers of life, and the dispensers of life. Interestingly, the more we minister life to others, the more we will also gain life from God. Moreover, while others will gain more life from us, we will also gain more life from others through the horizontal fellowship when our spirits contact each other. Consequently, the Church will be rich in life.
Let's now learn about life ministering from one scenario mentioned in 1 John.

If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. .... (1 John 5:16 KJV)

When we see one brother committing a sin, what should we do? Should we gossip about it? Or should we ignore him or try not to associate with him? God forbid! The apostle John suggests us to do 3 things in 1 John 5:16: to see, to ask, and to give life!
Firstly, we need to take care of each other, as all of us are responsible for shepherding His people. We therefore are to see if our brothers and sisters are well, or if they are falling into temptation.
Secondly, when we see any of them committing a sin and that one does not realise that or does not repent, the first reaction is to come to God. We need to be prepared by receiving more life from Him.
And thirdly, we will then have to give him life that we have received from the source. In other words, we will have to function as the vessel through which God dispenses His life to that brother.
You may see many modern translations rendering the second "he" in the verse as "He," or "God." For example, the NKJV translates this verse like this: If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and "He" will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death." However, according to the grammar of the original language, the second "he" should be the same person as the first "he." In other words, the asker is to be the life-giver. Therefore, brothers and sisters, it is our responsibility to minister life to the ones who are falling into the temptation.
May God help us that we will fully participate in the ministry of life, by receiving more life from Him, enjoying the abundant life we have in Him, and dispensing this life to others.

Further reading

• The Holy Word for Morning Revival: The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body, week 6.

Thirayost Nimmanon (Tony)