Ministry flows out of being

Another quote from CIT: “Ministry flows out of being and results in doing.”

This was brought to mind again today when I was listening to a sermon by Tim Keller on “Living Grace”. Keller speaks of being and doing after talking about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. We want to read the list and talk about the ones we do well and sort of ignore the ones we do poorly. Tim says we should focus on the weaker, because that is the true level of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. Strong words, and for some they are defeating words. But not when you read verses 24 & 25.

“24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

The flesh with its passions and desires HAS been crucified. The chief desire of the flesh is to make us think we have to do good in order to be found favorable in God’s eyes. We want to put the DO as a prerequisite to the BE. However, verse 26 reverses the order. We live by the Spirit, so now we can walk by the Spirit. Our living produces the walking. Our being results in doing.

Quote from Anne Graham Lotz’s book, “Just Give Me Jesus”

“I was recently privileged to hear Dr. Lloyd Olgivie, chaplain to the United States Senate, relate the following incident to a group of distinguished evangelical leaders. He recounted that when he had been pastor of the Hollywood Presbyterian Church an elderly woman had taken him by the hand… and said when earnest conviction, “I pray your life will be as wonderful as it was in the mind of God when He created you.” Immediately following the encounter with the woman, Dr. Olgivie said that he returned to his study, got down on his knees, and pleaded with God, ‘What did you have in mind when You created me?’ In the silence that followed, to his mind clearly came just one word: Jesus”

I John 3:2-3 “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

Our will power in the flesh has no power against itself. BUT we are alive in Christ, and through that power the fruit of the Spirit will grow in our lives, sometimes painfully slow, and then we can walk in the Light as He is in the Light.