By George E. Markakis, 21
Aug 2008
We need the
correct Kingdom spectacles to filter everything in ministry in the proper way.
How clean, or, how dusty (or scratched, or with added colour) our glasses are,
determines how clearly we see and perceive what the Lord wants of us. Let us
review such important filters of perception, which are also practical steps, in
order to lay the right foundations for a ministry:
1) God's will for each
specific situation
That is the most important piece of information we
need. When we are motivated by all sorts of other sources but not the explicit
will of the Lord, we then move in various degrees of
lawlessness, rebellion and witchcraft (even when we dedicate all to Jesus
and call upon Him to bless it).
2) Divine confirmations
God's specific will comes to us first as a feeling,
or, perception of instruction, but then needs additional witness for
confirmation and clarification. Because of the uncleanness of our minds, and
the world surrounding us, also because our theologies are tainted and our minds
have a long way to go before we think the way God thinks, we ought not
rush into things before supernatural additional witness has confirmed and
clarified what the Lord wants of us.
3) Supernatural activity
The ultimate confirmation and perfect assurance that
God is at work, comes when we rest almost inactive, and things begin to flow
supernaturally, through a source of power that is generated apart from us and
outside of us. What God wants to do, He will make it happen.
I am not saying we ought never do anything, because
God works through us - but our actions need to be aligned with His, and if we
learn how to wait on Him and trust Him to have the initiative, He then steps in
supernaturally and makes the first move.
4) Specific people
assignment
For each type of ministry and specific work at hand,
God assigns specific people for the task. There may be millions of others
around, even more qualified, but only the person-s assigned by God for a task
will have God's Hand with him/her/them.
When a new assignment is given out by God, the
leader-s of the work need to identify who are the people that God summons for
the task. They also have the responsibility to bring them together and form the
corporate heart and mind through which the assignment will be worked out in
practical terms.
5) Understanding the
Scriptures
The Bible has an amazing way of holding secrets hidden
from the eyes of other people, to be revealed only to the right set of eyes,
with regard to specific assignments, and types of ministry, which the Lord
reveals. The revealed Scriptures are always at the heart of all our activities
and determine our course of action.
We need to understand which Scriptures does the Lord
provide in relation to our assignment, so that our minds may be renewed in that
specific field, so that we may become more aligned with God concerning that
ministry.
6) Alignment with the Body
Becoming aligned with God will always manifest through
alignment with some section of the Body of Christ, relevant to the
assignment/ministry. At this point we need to recognise that the Body is
universal, and not confined to land restrictions. Even though there is such a
thing as territorial anointing and localised moves of God, proper alignment
with the Body is not restricted by time or space. Proper earthly alignment is
only the result of being aligned with God, who is timeless and not restricted
to space.
Therefore the earthly alignment may
manifest later in time (it was always there but not seen yet) and it
may not be aligned with any other local section, but some part of the Body
which may actually be in another part of the planet. Unfortunately, experience
shows us, that when it comes to local Bodies there is more competition and
opposition than alignment, and God often works alignment regardless of
distance in order to overcome that local opposition and competition.
7) Corporate Authority
Corporate authority comes in various levels, as family
is higher level than individual and church is higher than family. Likewise,
national is higher than regional, and global is higher than national. The
higher level of corporate authority we tap into, the greater power and freedom
we shall experience in ministry.
Tapping into corporate authority is a function of
covenant relationships and accountability functions - in simple words: to
operate in a global corporate anointing, you need to be in covenant
relationship with a ministry that operates on such global authority.
That means, you need to be "under" that
authority, or, better said: "within" that corporate anointing and
respective authority. If you are "within", you are then
"under" the wings of that authority, which in turn needs to be followed
by your accountability and availability for instruction
and direction, as well as correction and discipline.
8) The foundation of
Apostles and Prophets (Eph.2:20)
In the Acts, Philip was sent by God to people and
places. It was an individual assignment. But Philip was already ordained as
deacon by the Church of Jerusalem, hence, he was "within" that
corporate authority and "under" the protection-power-provision
available to that Church corporately. His alignment with and submission to
the corporate authority became manifest in Samaria (Acts 8). Even though Philip
went there on an individual assignment, he was not able to complete the
building of the local Body without the additional ministry of the Apostles from
Jerusalem.
That principle follows us to this day; that is why
many well-meaning people who follow God's leading fail to reach the fullness of
their calling, and some see a collapse of their work, because they kept the
word of the Lord for themselves, and were faithful to do what God told them to,
but, failed to become corporately aligned and submitted to the apostolic
authority and anointing which could lay the proper, deep and strong foundations
of/for their personal work.
This is a topic that needs much much more teaching and
in depth revelation to be properly understood, since we should not drift into
human organisations and servants of God lording it over others. The role
of the prophets in this needs to also become better understood and explored -
even more so: be put to practice.
Last but not least: with reference to Principle 1, it
ought to be God's Will that determines who are the Apostles and the Prophets
with whom the right foundations are laid, and from whom the higher level
corporate authority and anointing flows over the ministry and keeps it under
Perfect Protection-Provision-Power! (P.s. also don't neglect the comment about
Philip having being ordained before he could minister with power).
9) Practical work
With all other 8 filters put in place, we
can then be free and well directed to move on to practical work that makes
ministry become a reality in this world. Practical work here is relevant to the
specific ministry, and wisdom needs to be applied so that our work can be
effective and productive. Further, our practical work must be anointed of God
and the spirit of the world must be kept out, otherwise, much of our work may
serve other things, than God and His divine plan.
10) Ministry and moving on
to perfection
If we have gone thus far, we are now ready to start
doing the ministry itself. Once we start, we can take steps of correction to
make things better, so that it will be an ever-growing process of moving on to
perfection. Several things need to be part of this process, including the
continual input of the Apostles and the Prophets, who help us fine-tune things,
teach us the things which we did not know before, and be the vessels in God's
hands to lead us to deeper revelation and greater power and
fruitfulness.
11) Running the House of God
More principles then come into the picture, such as:
guarding the gates, keeping law and order inside the house, keeping the house
clean and proper, standing guard on the wall watching out for
enemies, warring against the invaders, expanding territory when God says
so, learning/applying the seasons of sowing and reaping, releasing fruitfulness
and multiplication, etc.
12) Fatherhood
A strong concept of the
Scriptures, which helps us understand an important aspect in the life of
ministry. That concept is shown throughout the Scriptures, from start to end,
but one needs to have the proper understanding to see it. Out of many
scriptures, I will quote one which is a key of understanding: Eph. 3:15 from
whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name…
The literal translation of the original Greek would
be: "from whom all fatherhood..." -- "all" in the
sense of "each", therefore: "each fatherhood". The Greek
word there is PATRIA, derived from PATER, which is also the root of the
English word Father.
In summary: God does everything through
"fatherhood". He calls forth a father, and the ministry becomes his
child (these are non-gender concepts; women equally qualify for such
fatherhood, which is not fleshly, but spiritual). Still, fathers need to go hand
in hand with mothers... let me not go into it at this point.
Also, each father is a son of another father.
Therefore, each new fatherhood draws from the heritage of the parent-ing
fatherhood. That is not a compulsory element (some people are orphans), but it
is good if a father can learn from and draw on the heritage of a previous
fatherhood.
Fatherhood, when it comes to ministry, is also
subject to the Laws of the Kingdom, which include the strong concept of
Adoption. I.e. a son (who is called to become a new father) can be adopted into
another fatherhood (family). Adoption happens a lot in the Body of Christ,
since we are all adopted sons of God.