Copyright
© 2019 Michael A. Brown
‘He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant –
not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives
life.’ (2 Cor. 3:6)
‘My
message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a
demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s
wisdom, but on God’s power.’
(1 Cor. 2:4-5)
The Reformation changed many things in the
life of the Western Church, the most significant of which, of course, was the
removal of the Mass, effectively replacing it with the public reading of
Scripture and the regular preaching and teaching of the word of God to God’s
people, so giving rise to the emergence of the evangelical movement. However, as many historians tell us, the
Reformation did not go far enough, and it was only in the following centuries (through
the movements of God’s Spirit which gave rise to Pietism, the Moravian
missionary movement, the evangelical revivals and the later Holiness and
Pentecostal revivals) that the real life-giving power of the Spirit of God was
birthed once again into the fabric of the life of the Church.
In the new covenant in Christ, God’s
purpose has always been that his Church should be a community of people
characterized by the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the seal of this covenant,
so God has promised to pour out his Spirit on all people, and we are intended
to be the very dwelling place and habitation of God on earth:
‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people…’ (Acts 2:17)
‘He saved us through the washing of
rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.’ (Titus 3:6)
‘And in him you too are being built
together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.’ (Eph. 2:22)
Several motifs are used of the Holy Spirit
in Scripture, including fire; a
gentle dove; fresh, flowing water,
and a moving breeze of air. It is the
presence and power of the Holy Spirit in such ways as these that makes all the
difference in church life. Instead of
meetings being formal and lifeless, there is a life-giving presence which
uplifts and sets free. It is the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit which revives, refreshes and brings new life and growth
to the community of God’s people:
‘For I will pour water on the thirsty
land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your
offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.’ (Isa. 44:3)
‘…till the Spirit is poured upon us
from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field
seems like a forest.’
(Isa. 32:15)
The presence and power of the Holy Spirit
inspires faith and empowers spiritual life.
So church is not meant to be a lifeless, dry, cold, religious and
irrelevant place, but rather a place filled and animated by the pervasive and
overflowing presence of the Holy Spirit in and amongst believers. Hence, ministry in the church is intended by
God to be done through the empowerment of the life-giving Holy Spirit, rather
than being merely formal or doctrinaire:
‘You show that you are a letter from
Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of
the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.’ (2 Cor. 3:3)
‘He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant –
not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives
life.’ (2 Cor. 3:6)
‘…will not the ministry of the Spirit
be even more glorious?’ (2 Cor. 3:8)
Although the ministry of Jesus was unique
in terms of him being our Saviour and Redeemer, yet in the more general terms
of the anointing of the Spirit being upon him and walking in the demonstration
of the power of God (as well as preaching and teaching God’s people), his
ministry is the model that we need to study and follow as ministers of the new
covenant:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the
prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to
proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ (Luke 4:18-19)
Jesus’ ministry was permeated with the
presence and power of the Holy Spirit, and it was this presence and power which
gave rise to the miraculous and supernatural nature of what took place in his
ministry. It is this empowerment of
the Spirit which is the authentic seal of what it means to be a minister of the
new covenant. Without this, much of
what happens in public gatherings of believers centres mainly and simply around
singing, a few prayers, perhaps a testimony, and then listening to someone
speak for what can be quite a long time.
There is often no place for the free operation of the Spirit of God
apart from what he can do through worship and the direct ministry of the
word. However, when Jesus ministered, he
was walking so close to God and was so permeated with his presence and power,
that the operations of the Spirit worked through him quite naturally as he
ministered.
For instance, when he began to teach in
Capernaum, filled and empowered by the Spirit, one of the first things that
happened was that an unclean spirit manifested itself openly through a man in
the synagogue meeting and was then cast out by Jesus (Luke 4:31-36). The light and presence of the Holy Spirit’s
anointing upon Jesus was so strong that evil spirits could not endure it and
could not hide from it, and they cried out through the people they were
oppressing and possessing. Similarly,
the power of God was so upon Jesus that as he laid hands on the sick they were
healed:
‘But if I drive out demons by the
Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.’
(Matt. 12:28)
‘When the sun was setting, the people
brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on
each one, he healed them.’ (Luke 4:40)
These ministries of exorcism and healing
(as well as the working of the miraculous in other ways too) were regular
features of his ministry, and they also characterised the ministry of the early
Church in the book of Acts. In the
ministry of this new covenant, we can see many examples of and references to
dreams and visions, words of knowledge, miracles, healing, prophetic utterance,
people being filled with the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands,
speaking in tongues, and other gifts and operations of the Holy Spirit. For example:
‘All of them were filled with the
Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.’ (Acts 2:4)
‘Your sons and daughters will
prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I
will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.’ (Acts 2:17-18)
‘When the crowd heard Philip and saw
the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he
said. With shrieks, evil spirits came
out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed.’ (Acts 8:6-7)
‘When they arrived, they prayed for
them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not
yet come upon any of them… Then Peter
and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.’ (Acts 8:15-17)
‘In a vision he has seen a man named
Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.’ (Acts 9:12)
‘One of them, named Agabus, stood up
and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the
entire Roman world.’
(Acts 11:28)
‘While they were worshipping and
fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work
to which I have called them.”… The two
of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia…’ (Acts 13:2,4)
‘When Paul placed his hands on them,
the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.’ (Acts 19:6)
‘His father was sick in bed,
suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul
went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him.’ (Acts 28:8)
‘I will not venture to speak of
anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles
to obey God by what I have said and done – by the power of signs and miracles,
through the power of the Spirit.’ (Rom. 15:18-19)
‘Now to each one the manifestation of
the Spirit is given for the common good.
To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to
another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith
by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another
miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between
spirits, to another speaking in different tongues, and to still another the
interpretation of tongues.’
(1 Cor. 12:7-10)
Such full-orbed ministry of the presence
and power of the Spirit is normative for the new covenant and therefore always
ought to be our aim and expectation. In
this new covenant, it should not be so
much that we minister for God, it should be that the Spirit himself fills and
empowers us, and then ministers freely through us as his channels. Although individual ministries and callings
will always differ, yet authentic new covenant ministry in the power of the
Spirit is invariably characterised by such things as those mentioned above as
he works through us. It is this which caused the early believers
to ‘turn the world upside down’ (Acts 17:6). Without such aspects of ministry, much that
God could otherwise do in and through the Church remains undone, and the
ministry of God is limited in scope and practice. There will always be much that is lacking...
The words of the apostle Paul in 2
Corinthians 3:6 suggest that a person is competent in the practice of new
covenant ministry only when they have developed a degree of competence in the
ministry of the things of the Spirit, not simply when they have become
competent in leading meetings, managing people, gospel preaching, Bible teaching
and other general aspects of pastoralia.
Preachers and ministers need to become men and women of the Spirit, not
simply men and women of the word of God.
They need to become people who will live lives filled with the Spirit’s
presence, who will learn how to walk daily with him, who will learn to pray in
the Spirit, and who are open to him working and operating in whatever way he
chooses in and through them. They need
to become people who live in such a way that their minds and hearts are attuned
to and one with the Spirit within them.
Then they will be led by the Spirit and able to walk freely in the
dynamic flow of his moving in meetings.
As they learn to live consistently close to God, they will discern the
leading and prompting of the Spirit as he speaks to them. As their minds become one with the mind of
the Spirit within them, they will receive words of knowledge and prophetic
words for people as he operates in this way.
As their hearts become one with his heart, the compassion and love of
God can flow through them to bring healing and comfort to God’s people. As they lay hands on people, the presence and
power of God can flow through them and minister to these people. And so on...
This is not to downplay the importance of
the regular teaching ministry of the word of God, of course, rather it is to
emphasize that God’s purpose for his Church goes much deeper and much wider
than simply this and, indeed, that there are many aspects to the purpose and
ministry of God towards people that can be accomplished only through the
freely-moving operations of the Spirit of God, both in and out of formal
gatherings of God’s people. This is the
way it is designed to be. No doubt there
were many competent and respected Jewish teachers of the law under the old
covenant throughout its history, men such as Ezra and Gamaliel, for example. The teaching of the word of God was one of
the main duties of priests and rabbis under the old covenant, and it is still
central to church ministry today, but in and of itself it is no proof of
empowerment. One of the main
characteristic differences between the old and new covenants is precisely that
of spiritual empowerment. The
ministry of the new covenant is the free and full-orbed ministry of the
life-giving Spirit of God through the Church in all its dimensions and aspects.
Apart from the ongoing need for gospel
preaching and the calling of non-believers to repentance, the aspect of ministry
which is most needed in the Church is that of the outpouring and filling of the
Holy Spirit in the lives of believers, that which charismatic and pentecostal
believers call ‘the baptism in the Holy Spirit.’ It is this which is the seal of the new covenant
in the life of a believer. It is
this which is the doorway into a life and ministry characterised by the
presence and power of God, the doorway into the realm of the operations and
movement of God’s Spirit in and through a believer.
And yet (mainly for doctrinal reasons) it
is so often neglected in church life.
Too often believers are conditioned to be satisfied simply with
salvation and a little spiritual growth, instead of going on from this and
entering into experiencing and walking in the presence and power of the Spirit
in their lives, which is always God’s ideal purpose for them. And then we wonder why we get so frustrated
trying in vain to disciple into a mature spiritual life believers who are
living un-empowered and relatively fruitless lives!
No, the normative practice in the early
church was to lay hands upon those who had already become believers, to pray
for them and expect them to receive an empowering infilling of the Holy Spirit. It was this that then led believers into a
life and walk with God which was characterised by the overt demonstration of
the operations of the Spirit through them.
Only this has the power to radically change and transform people’s lives!
My friend, do not settle for anything less
than such a life and ministry in the Spirit.
This is God’s purpose for you. It
has never been his intention for you to live a powerless life as a Christian or
to lack power in ministry. Perhaps your
spiritual life seems more like a desert than a well-watered garden. Perhaps you are discouraged by fruitlessness,
or frustrated by lack of growth in those you minister to. Perhaps you hunger and thirst to see God
healing people through you. Perhaps in your
heart you desire to experience what it is to minister in God’s presence and
power, but you are afraid of what it may cost you or how it will affect the
relationships you have with those around you who may not be open to this. Then resolve that in your own life you will
love and fear God first, rather than living to please people! Determine that you will seek God
wholeheartedly, and that you will keep seeking him until breakthrough comes and
the power of God begins to manifest through you! And when it does, and you experience the joy
and fulfilment that this brings, determine that, just as Ezekiel kept on
walking into the ever-deepening waters of the river (Ezek. 47:3-5), you too
will keep walking ever deeper into this new life and ministry in the Spirit,
bearing much fruit as you do!
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