Ministry: God’s Testing PlatformAll this raises question about God’s real purpose for our participation in ministry. If ministry is so fleeting such that we should not centrally devote ourselves to it, and if we are essentially unneeded to ministry, then to what ultimate purpose for us does it serve God to draft us into ministry?
The surprising answer is revealed by the Son Himself in Revelation:
The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and feet like burnished bronze, says this: … “I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.” Rev. 2:18, 23
The word “deeds” in this verse has a specific reference to ministry, and most particularly to worship ministry. To see the full force and effect of this, we must connect this word to two other passages:
Each one’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each one’s work. If anyone’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet only so as through fire. I Cor. 3:13-14
The fire mentioned so far in these passages is the same. It is a fire of testing that comes by way of the piercing eyes of the Son of God into the inmost parts of those in the church. The “works” mentioned in the Corinthians passage are the same as the “deeds” in Revelation 2. The works in Corinthians specifically refer to works of ministry in context of the building of the house of God, i.e., the church.
In turn, these two passages must be linked with a third:
“…And the Lord, whom you are seeking, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of armies. “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderer’s soap. And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.”
Mal. 3:1-3The Malachi passage rounds out our perception of the Revelation passage. Again, the fire is the same. It is the fire of the Son’s piercing gaze into the inner man. As a fire of testing, it also has the objective of “purifying” and “refining” what is refinable. It is redemptive as well as judgmental.
The subjects of this testing (“each one of you” in Rev. 2) are now specifically identified as the “sons of Levi;” and the works/deeds of the previous passages are now identified as “offerings.” This begins to bring home the present matter at hand with Mike Bickle and IHOP-KC, which is specifically a priestly ministry in the form of offerings of ceaseless prayer and worship.
With the full picture in hand, we now look again carefully at what the Son is telling us in Revelation:
“The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and feet like burnished bronze, says this: … ‘I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.’” Rev. 2:18, 23
Here we see two phenomenal things. The first we have already mentioned, which is that our deeds, being works of ministry, and specifically offerings of praise and worship, are under a constant state of testing and proving. This scrutiny is a dedicated purpose for our call to ministry. We are not tested because we minister. Rather we minister because we are ordained to be tested. But what then are we to be precisely tested for?
This brings us to our second point. It is that our call to ministerial deeds, works and worship is ultimately for proving what is in our minds and hearts for Him underlying that ministry ahead of our eternal appearing. (Our ministry is not primarily for accomplishing outward visionary ends here and now.) The Son is searching for what is in our hearts for Him, and using how we handle ministry to prove that to Him.
The Son wants to know, “If I entrust an earthly ministry to him, what will it prove about his fidelity to Me? According to what that proves determines how I will relate to him forward in My eternal kingdom.”
This matter of proving personal internal fidelity is a serious lifelong issue to the Lord that trumps anything else He cares about relative to achieving outward “ministerial objectives,” like healing the sick or casting out demons or building 10,000 houses of prayer around the globe.
Thus the Son is perpetually examining for the internal/external integrity and consistency between what we are doing by the Spirit and who we are in Him—in intimate union and Christ-character—from within our hearts and minds. He is watching how we steward ministry to prove the reality and viability of who we are internally as children of God, as sons of God, as priests of God.
Remember, we have already proved that ministry is fleeting, that we are needless to it, and that it is not intrinsic to who we are. Therefore this testing of our ministry against our inner heart and mind can only be for the purpose of proving and perfecting the genuineness of who we are in Christ, which is eternal and will never fade away.
Our ministry will not follow us into eternity. “It shall cease” as Paul says, and we shall “rest from our labors” as the Spirit says. But the test results of our ministry will most certainly “follow us” there (Rev. 14:13). To repeat: How we engaged the test of participation in ministry will be used to prove the soul-quality of who we eternally became and remained in Christ in order to determine our entry-worthiness into the eternal kingdom.
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This now harkens back to all we discussed concerning relationship to ministry in this article. The questions under the searchlight are going to center on how we handled temporal public ministry relative to guarding our core intimate eternal identity and obedient affection for Christ within:
§ Did we overcomingly resist the seductive lure to move our identity out of Christ and into ministry itself? (Did we become idolaters of ministry in Jesus’ name? Did we become devotees of our own mass corporate energy in the name of ministering the anointing and “hosting the Presence of God?”)
§ Did we successfully defy the pull to create a ministerial persona for projecting a false holographic image to the public?—to become something on stage other than who we are in private—a hypocrite?
§ Did we succumb to using the power of ministerial persona to walk in denial of hidden sin, or even to justify participation in sin (especially sexual sin)?
See, people, this is what Jesus is looking at each and every Sunday service and at every ministry engagement and event in the house of God:
§ He’s not looking at you singing to Him on that stage. He’s looking at whether you’re lusting after the girl on the third row while you appear to be singing to Him on that stage.
§ He’s not looking at you going up to pray for people at the front during the altar call. He’s looking at who you choose to go pray for and why—maybe to make a social connection, or maybe to pray from a hidden agenda?
§ He’s not looking at any of your preaching or healing or whatever you can giftedly demonstrate. He wants to know if you are subconsciously trying to make a good image this moment for video cam no. 3.
He wants to know if you are tailoring anything you are doing in His name to make a certain impression with the audience or to achieve a self-satisfactional end.
This is only the mild side of what we are talking about. We haven’t moved to the grosser more sensational sins. But let’s do that now.
[Continued in Part 3]
Chris Anderson
First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org12/23
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