The Honeymoon

Have you ever noticed that when most people first become followers of Jesus they get so excited about being able to do something really important for him. Something personal. Something that really matters. I remember when it happened to me. We like to call this the Honeymoon Period, and rightly so, because it’s when we discover how truly wonderful God is and all we can think about is how He loves us and how we love Him.

But then something happens.

Truly we have found the everlasting, all powerful God, but we didn’t leave ourselves behind in the process. And obviously, we are at least half of the relationship. Becoming like Jesus can be quite simple: crucify our flesh and follow Him. Simple, but so difficult! Most of us take YEARS to figure out this simple thing, as we slowly chip away at our old habits, fears, pains, cultural sins and worldly identities. Some simply never do it, expecting God to do everything. But God won’t make us love him, or obey wisdom, or follow the leading of His Spirit — that’s OUR job.

When we take responsibility for our relationship with God, it’s a good moment. We stop blaming God for our sins, stubbornness, and failures — and instead turn to Him for help to overcome these roadblocks. This is the start of our effective life in Christ and it may come in a decade or in a day.

Also, churches are usually organized with a tight hierarchical leadership structure which uses only three to seven percent of the people to do ALL the work of the ministry. Many times these are people who have dedicated their lives to the ministry and many have gone to seminary, bible college, or been ordained by a major global denomination. Others may have grown up in ministry, or as part of a ministerial family and so are experienced leaders and are accustomed to being in charge, teaching from the pulpit or organizing meetings.

People who are ‘only members’ often feel lost in the crowd, that no one cares if they come or go, that no one gives them any important tasks to do, and no one cares that they feel in their hearts that they can do so much for God!! Many have come to accept that all of God’s work is done just on Sunday by one or two ordained ministers and everyone else is just a sheep — Baaaaahh! Baaaaahh! Baloney!!

This is obviously not God’s plan. If He did not want you to help to do His Work, he would not have put His Spirit in you, burning like a fire, giving you a desire to help. Also, if he designed you to sit on the sidelines he would have created you without a brain, a heart, without eyes, ears, a mouth or hands. As far as I know, and I may be wrong, most people do not fit this description. Anyway, God will use anyone willing as a tool of His Spirit, so if you are at least WILLING then God really does have enjoyable ministry work for you to do. I want to use three scriptures to explain this idea: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4.

DIE! To yourself, that is!

First, you need to understand that Jesus took your death away. He took your sins and he is now busy interceding for you, and everyone else, at the right hand of God’s Glory. He died for you and now asks, wants, needs you to live your life on earth for Him. You should live like you appreciate his DYING sacrifice for you by being a LIVING sacrifice for him. That means don’t just go on living your daily life the way you did before you knew God. Don’t just live selfishly for your own wants and desires, but instead live your life to fulfill God’s desires and do his work. Love God and Love People. This is what is commonly called presenting your own body as a ‘living sacrifice’ to God. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

So we let God use us for his purposes. And just as God is so very big, and the needs of people he wants to fulfill are diverse and numerous, so also his work on earth is big — too big for any one person, one church, or one organization to fulfill completely, obviously. Anyway operating like that is just not God’s style. Jesus trained people to participate in his ministry and he worked through hundreds of people, not just 12 either!! Like when he sent 72 others into dozens of cities at the same time, two by two, to preach and cast out demons In His Name. (Luke 10:1-17) He said in John 12:24, "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." He of course was talking about his death, resurrection and the subsequent empowerment of believers through the Holy Spirit that fell at Pentecost. He couldn’t preach the Good News to the ends of the earth by himself, AND AT THE SAME TIME intercede in Heaven to Father for our sins, so he gave US the job of doing his earthly ministry of preaching and even doing miracles while he is away. Yes, that’s exactly what he taught!

There are varieties of gifts . . .

It’s actually just like working for a normal company that sells life insurance or something. No one person can do everything the company needs to be done all by themselves. Many different jobs need to be done, many at the same time, like accounting, administration, computer maintenance, sales, debt collections, etc., and they may need five, ten, twenty, or even one thousand people to do any one category of work at the same time. So they hire people and empower them to do all these jobs in the name of the company.

So here we are doing work FOR JESUS, praying for what he would pray for, asking for what he would ask for, teaching what he would teach, doing the things he would do, only it’s not him doing it directly, but it’s us doing it for him, doing it IN JESUS’ NAME. That’s why the Scripture says, "As he is so are we in the world." (1 John 4:17)

Paul also explained it by saying that we are actually like parts of Christ’s body, like cells or even like organs that carry out his life’s work, working together to fulfill his purpose for the world IN HIS NAME.

We can take a look around and tell so easily that there is so much harvest to gather, so many people that need to hear his Good News, and so many that need to be set free from the bondage of sin, that Jesus needs LOTS of HELP!

That’s where we come in. We are his employees, empowered to do things for him, doing things In His Name. And God is big. Not only in size, but also in the scope of his abilities and in the way he manifests himself to fulfill the needs of those who call on him. He acts on his own, through the Holy Spirit, through angels, and also through people like us who he has to teach to each do our own part for the Kingdom, but also to work as a team, to cooperate, share duties and responsibilities; as it is written, "for one plants and another waters, but it is God who brings the growth!"

And no one human can be or give all that God wants to be or give, no, not even to ONE other person. And it’s not just a matter of not being superhumanly skilled, either. It’s also a matter of how many hours are in a day. It’s a matter of relationships, because you can’t minister to or share with people who don’t like you, who AREN’T like you. It’s a matter of distance, because the world is large and there are more people alive on the earth right now than there are seconds in more than 200 years. What? Yes! There are more people alive on earth right now than there are seconds in more than 200 years. So if it took you only ONE SECOND to help one person discover God, it would take you 200 years just to reach the whole world by yourself. There are also so many diverse needs among people that he needs us to be able to be used in a great many different ways.

So he made some people with certain skills and attitudes, desires and abilities, and others who are their opposites, others who are the reverse of them, still others who have nothing at all in common with these first ones, to do the things they are too busy or too narrowly focused to think about or even notice. That way as a BODY of believers we can let God work through us in a complete way as God would if it were him doing it personally.

So spread a little sunshine!

Now read Romans 12, and 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4 and pay attention to the kinds of skills, gifts God made for people, and the kinds of jobs God make people for.

I originally thought that there were only five jobs in the Church as listed in Ephesians 4: Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd (pastor) and Teacher. And I thought that I had no acceptable service to God until I could fit into one of those high callings. But in Romans 12 Paul makes a non-exclusive list of seven jobs: prophesy, service, teaching, encouragement, contributions, aid, and acts of mercy. And I realized that God’s calling for me could be simply to encourage people!!!!! Yes, it’s THAT easy and THAT Fun! Spread a little sunshine! Smile! Hug someone and tell them you care. That’s what Jesus would do if he met someone in distress. He’d love them in whichever way they needed to be loved. See, it’s so simple!! And if we add 1 Corinthians 12, which focuses mostly on supernatural gifts, we have nine gifts: the utterance of wisdom, the utterance of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophesy, the discerning of spirits, speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues. Such things operate by faith, but are still very real and very helpful. Paul then goes on to mention positions God appointed in his body and lists: apostles, prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, and speakers in various kinds of tongues, which could mean supernatural tongues or maybe even different human languages.

What this means is pretty clear, at least to me. God made us with many different skills, abilities and desires and he wants us to contribute whatever we have for the work of his ministry. Isn’t this what is patently clear in the reading of Matthew 28:19-20? He just says "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . . teaching them to observe all that I commanded you . . . ."

All are Leaders, All are Ministers

I was at a John Maxwell leadership seminar recently that was taught at the Vine Fellowship in Sheung Wan by One Voice for Asia, where they defined leadership as simply the ability to influence people. They said that even the most introverted person still affects 10,000 people in their lifetime. So every one of us is a leader, but how many are great leaders? What makes a great leader? Again according to Maxwell, there are at least five different stages of being a leader, or five different levels of leadership. First is Positional, where you are more of a "boss" who commands by fear and threats, and not really a leader at all, but this is where we all have to start it seems. Then it goes on to the level of Permission, where you focus on building relationships and show people you care, which makes them listen to you. Then Production, where you are focused on making results and people like what you can do for the group. Then the fourth level is People Development, where you focus on raising people to do things on their own, where you make disciples, etc. Finally you reach the status of Personhood, where you are more of a legend, than just a leader!

This is very practical knowledge for those of us who are working to reach the world for Christ through organizations, as being more effective in leadership will make us better ministers for Christ.

So effective leaders desire to raise up others to surpass them in areas where they are weak, to reach the people they can’t reach themselves, and to succeed where they failed. But many leaders incorrectly believe that their people are not yet ready to do anything for God because they are not skilled in the same way as the leader personally. Maybe they see their people as not being skilled in teaching, or not being talented public speakers, or as lacking developed organizational skills, or lacking a qualification. But what qualifications does one need to encourage people? Or do acts of mercy, or pray, share words of encouragement or contribute? According to Paul in Scripture all these are also roles of ministry that Jesus created people to do. If you are called to be one of the people whose face everyone knows because you preach in front of the church on Sunday, or teach Sunday school, that’s fine. But when we confuse our role as a public teacher with the need for individual ministry to personal needs — which is hands-on, private, and the kind of ministry that really changes lives — then we run the risk of discouraging people from doing the work God made them for. Remember, personal ministry is the most effective way to love people; that means privately, in person, after church hours, during the weekdays, on public holidays! In fact what many people don’t realize is that working as a domestic helper places Christians in a very key position to be a personal minister inside tens of thousands of mostly non-Christian homes. Their personal ministry is to be a witness to the light of the truth of Jesus to those people, to pray for the needs of Hong Kong’s next generation and also for their families. The importance of this ministry on the future of Hong Kong cannot be overestimated. So give people your time, your heart and help them to meet the God who can free them from the bondage of this fallen world — and do it personally — not just via satellite. We need people to teach via satellite, but we also need those who can touch people in person.

So one person’s job is to teach in front of a hundred people, and it takes them several hours to prepare, and uses up most of their energy. We therefore must recognize others are needed to do what that person doesn’t have the time and energy to do. After all, sharing the responsibility, and encouraging others to grow is the heart of Jesus. That’s the heart of Love. That’s what Jesus taught us to do. Do YOUR part, but don’t stop others from doing THEIR part as well.