Steer Clear of Operational Ministry

Don't we love to categorise, schedule and track each and every thing these days, up to a point that we now have a ring to track our sleep pattern. We have calendars which track all our meetings, even reminders to wish somebody on their birthday. Alarms to drink water, daily limit restrictions to take breaks from our scrolling, counting steps to track our fitness activity and the list goes on. While this may be good for the world, where the rapid pace of the rat race has you reliant on technology to track your future which is sometimes already planned for months, is it good for the work of Ministry?

As Christians, we are called to live differently, set apart from the world. This means that what ever is common in the world should not always be the norm for us. We are called to live in the spirit and not the flesh, to be still and not in a hurry. In Matthew 6:34, Jesus says "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.", we need to live a day at a time. If each day has sufficient difficulties of its own, why do we go on thinking about what to do tomorrow or the next weekend? This frees up space in our mind, allowing us to keep our attention entirely on the days troubles. But this not being a common practice, in our own strength we would become anxious on all that which the future has for us.

As we walk by faith, we believe that our future is in God's hands, and we look to surrender our will to Him. This is the way out to the rising anxiety in us, as it is mentioned in Philippians 4:5-6 that "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus". Notice that here that Paul is talking about how to overcome anxiety, and the end result is you having peace, not certainty, surety or prophesy of the future. In this peace, our actions shall produce fruit untold, and this happens only in surrender, not in tracking. Although God may reveal things about our future, even to the specificity of date and time, this could cause an inverse effect for some where they are constantly anticipating the moment to come, rather than living in the present.

This constant anticipation will cause us to make up our hearts on how to respond, react, reply, even to a point where we decide how the events will take place. This leads to the flesh, the mind, the wisdom of the world taking over the planning and execution of what was meant to be the guidance of the Holy Spirit, making us fall short of the perfect will of God. Sadly, we do not even accept that this takes place, falsely believing that praying before and after planning causes God's will to happen. While it may happen, this does not fully indicate an intimate relationship with our Father, rather, an impersonal relationship which asks for wisdom, protection and success, while sometimes overlooking His direction, purpose and Will. Even if we do ask for these in prayer, the question is if we are actually determining these and knowingly putting them in action.

If we do not know His will, we are many a times trying to accomplish His work in a way I would like to call the "Hit or Miss" approach. We pray the right prayers, then do what we can do without a response, hoping that we have accomplished what His will was. There are two major risks in this, among others, one being that things outside His will can also seemingly succeed, we see this many times in scripture where the wicked prosper. The other being us believing a lie that we have done His will and become cold toward His heart, which is also a theme in scripture. Jesus says in John 8:32 "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”, which tells us that without knowing the truth of God's will and its completion, we will never really experience freedom.

Knowing this, we should start determining these things before we plan, for it is written in Colossians 3:9-10,"Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator", in which Paul urges us to not lie to each other, I would say including ourselves, about the continued false practices we maintain. Here the world 'knowledge' comes from the Greek ἐπίγνωσις (epignōsis), here which translates to relational knowledge or personal acquaintance. This means our new self must be renewed out of the relationship that we are having with God, with the aim to conform to His image. Relationship is a two way street, which implies that if we asked for His will to be revealed for a specific action, He will reveal it to us.

Do not believe that God's will can be revealed? Look to Romans 12:2 which says "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.", which says it with certainty that we will be able to not only know, but test and approve His will. This should be our go to in every situation, knowing that His will can be revealed to us and we can knowingly fulfil it to our capacity. As we renew our mind and make it void of self, we hope to know and walk in our Fathers will.

The other way ministry tends to become operational is becoming very robotic in nature. God has not created us with the intention of making robots, which complete tasks, are focused on getting the job done, onto the next task as soon as one is done, cold and lacking empathy. This is extremely common, as people are in a rush to complete things, to go back home, to tend to the next person or task, or are just overwhelmed and see things to completion. One of a more genuine reason could be a imbalance in the amount of ministers to the people who need ministering, as Jesus says in Matthew 9:37 that “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.". But most of the reasons we do have are very much rooted in the flesh.

Holding a plan together for the kingdom of God is going to be overwhelming for us, whether we like it or not, for His plans are much bigger than we can imagine. In this we may find ourselves looking to technology or people, but the only way we can hold His plans together is by allowing His will to unfold. Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.", in his work we must find rest and there must be no overwhelm, for His burden is light. Knowing this, still we find ministers suffering burnout, leading to eventually turning away from the plough. However, let's not lose hope, keeping in mind that we can by faith take His yoke upon us.

If we take His yoke, He will lead the way. It's more like, we are in the passenger seat of the car and Jesus is the driver. We still have to face the road, its dangers and uncertainties, the traffic and the long journey. But He is driving, so He would be taking most of the load. So lets ask ourselves this question today, are we in the drivers seat, or in the passenger seat?