In praying this we don’t want to be presumptious or greedy for some sort of a high position in the church, but rather we utter this deep prayer as the Lord enlightens us and inspires us for His building. For the church to be built up and for the building up of the Body of Christ what we need is not the great gifts but the ones who have the ministry of life.
The main requirement for the building up of the church is not having great speakers with sound teachings or those who are able to expound the Bible, etc. What we need is the ministry of life which is produced the riches of Christ being wrought into us through many sufferings for them to become our reality.
Paying more attention to the ministry than to gifts
In the church life, we need to pay more attention to the ministry of life than to the gifts. The church is not built up by gifts, by a good theology, by a sound expounding of the Bible, or by brothers who are good CEOs in the world and so they know how to manage things in the church; the church is built up by the ministry of life. If there is no ministry of life, there is no building!
What is a gift? A gift is a particular ability the Spirit gives to someone or an ability a brother possesses that is temporarily useful to the church. It is useful for a while, but not for the long run! What builds up the Body is the ministry of life and not the gifts.
The church history proves that the church has been divided by gifts. If we focus our attention on the gifts which the Lord gave some people, the church will be divided. Many eloquent speakers started so well, but then they took their followers and formed yet another division in the Body. One who has the ministry of life never argues with others and never tries to prove he’s right in his doctrine – he just ministers life!
If we focus all our attention on the ministry of life, we will have nothing to argue about. There is the need for some young adult brothers to take the lead and take responsibilities in the church, but the way is the ministry of life.
Constituted as ministers of Christ
In 2 Cor. 1:4 we see that God comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort others who are in every affliction through the comforting with which we ourselves have been comforted by God. This is not a gift, but this is the producing of the ministers with the ministry of life.
The ministry is produced by, constituted with, and formed by the experiences of the riches of Christ gained by us through sufferings, consuming pressures, and the killing work of the cross. These processes constitute the ministers of Christ and produce the ministry for God’s new covenant! We need to see that God desires us to be ministers of life and honestly pray to Him,
Lord, please give me the experiences that I need that will produce this ministry!
Paul received great revelations (see 2 Cor. 12:1, 7), and he also passed through a lot of suffering (see Col. 1:24). He didn’t just go right away and tell people what he saw – this would have been mere knowledge. After he received revelations, God “put him in the oven”, into the fire, to be burned and to suffer.
The revelation needs to be burned into us, just as the painting on a vessel of clay needs to be burned into that vessel through the process of passing through fire. We receive the revelation by having a personal contact with the Lord and being open to His speaking; then, this revelation needs to be burned into us so that it may become one with us, even to become us!
Who will take the way of the ministry?
This is the question that many of the older saints in the Lord are asking today, as they see that the Lord desires to return and there are so many who are still Christians in a general way while some may have some gift. Who will take this way, the way of the ministry? Who will take the costly way to produce the ministry of the new covenant?
The ministry comes out by the working of the cross – it is by the way of the cross that we have the riches of Christ wrought into our being to become part of us, so that we may minister them to others also (see 2 Cor. 4:12). We need the Lord’s mercy that we would not take the way of the temporary usefulness of a gift but the eternal way of building up the Body through the ministry of life.
The ministry is something that is constituted into your being through the work of the cross under the light of the divine revelation. The Lord in His sovereignty saved us and is now continually shining on us; under the shining of His light we need to pray, Lord, please give me the experiences that I need that will produce this ministry! This will initiate the process and will give the Lord the permission to work in us to produce the ministry in us.
The gifts may be useful in the beginning but divisive and damaging in the long run. How much life and how much reality of the riches of Christ we can minister to others depends not on the gift we have but on how much revelation we have received and how much we have suffered for what has been revealed to us (Eph. 3:8).
Lord, have mercy on us. Shine on us, Lord, and give us more revelation from You concerning Your heart’s desire, Your economy, and Your intention. Grant us that we would take the way of the ministry and not choose the way of gifts. Lord, constitute us as ministers of the new covenant, those who minister life. Give us, Lord, the experiences that we need which will produce the ministry of life!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from, The History of the Church and the Local Churches (by brother Witness Lee, ch. 8), and brother Ron K’s sharing in the message, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Lead as Elders and Responsible Ones, week 3.
- Further reading on this topic: 2 Cor. 1:4, footnote 1, 4:12 and note 1, 4:1 and notes 1 and 2;
- Hymns on this topic:
# Lord, grant me the experiences / To produce such a ministry. / Through revelation and sufferings, / Lord, constitute Yourself in me.
# The new covenant ministry—a ministry of God — / is the ministry of the Spirit who gives life.
# We work together with God by a life: / All-sufficient, / All-mature. - Picture source: nature wallpaper.
