I’ll focus on Jesus – which is easier for many of us and is a splendid fallback position when you are not doing as well or being as resourceful as you prefer. You can talk to one, two, or all of the Trinity – one at a time or together.
This is your genuine family. The root and basis of who you really are.
So…to minister with Jesus, or through Jesus when you need to depend on him even more and especially when you are not ready to be more active, here’s how to experience this.
Tell Jesus what’s on your heart. Ask for guidance or how to pray, just as in the links above. Or, when you want to intercede and ask God to help – ask Jesus to take care of what is already on your heart. It’s a brilliant way to intercede. Intercession is asking God to do something for someone – so literally do this!
Minister with Jesus. Minister through Jesus. You can do this. And it’s as easy as having a conversation. Because that’s what prayer is – having a conversation where you share your heart and where you are attentive to and allow Jesus to share his heart with you.
He loves you that much. He wants to minister that much. He wants to minister with you and through you. And he loves it when you minister with him – and when you minister through him. He loves this much.
So minister with Jesus. Minister through Jesus. Love and serve, with and through our Lord and Savior. You can do this! He makes it easy.
Put your compassion to work. Add your faith – you only need a teeny, mustard seed size bit of faith. Or have someone pray with you and allow them to use their faith. This is one of many excellent reasons for having prayer partners. (More on Prayer Partners, soon.)
Ask for Guidance. Best is to be full of Holy Spirit, first. Easier to notice and receive.
When you receive Guidance, make note of it. Best is to write it in your Prayer Journal or Conversation with God Journal, or Guidance Journal – best is with your own handwriting, but a computer will do.
Pray for your Guidance to succeed. That you will be faithful and follow through to see whatever is about is finished and complete.
Getting Guidance isn’t enough. We need to follow through. To complete what the Guidance is about. So praying for that is also a “best practice”.
Journal about your guidance. It’s an excellent way of supporting yourself, so you remember better and follow through.
An outstanding idea is to get support from people who want to encourage and support you and help you do what is valuable and important to you. Just because it is important and valuable to you.
If you do not have such support, go get some! You can even ask for Guidance how to best do this.
And – follow through. <warm grin>
Persist in following the Guidance gives you. The Guidance you receive is God telling you not only how to do something, but if you think about it or ask God – it’s also God telling you what to do. You have heard God’s “Voice” for this. It empowers you to do what God said to do. To do otherwise is to fail to do what God has asked you to do. Oops!
Persist. Until the doing of what you have asked for Guidance about – is complete and done.Finished!
Jesus taught lots of things; in particular, there is an important series of things to do in order to minister more like Jesus. From one point of view, here’s an overview:
First, it’s valuable to know what an Ecclesia is. That’s a Greek word frequently translated as “church” in many bibles, today. And that can be confusing because the meaning has changed over the years.
When the Roman’s conquered a new territory, one of the things they would do was to appoint people to transform the local culture to Roman culture. To teach them how to talk, dress and in many other ways act like Romans. So that when the Emperor would come, he would feel at comfortable and at home. These people were backed up by the power of the Roman Empire.
Jesus apparently borrowed the term and used it to mean local Christians, disciples, who would meet in small groups – such as peoples homes (in addition to public places). Encourage and build each other up. Teach and help one another And, to change and transform the surrounding culture – into becoming a Christian culture with lots of disciples. An Ecclesia is backed up by the Kingdom of God, led by Jesus – our King.
This was a period of extremely rapid growth of the Body of Christ, and this was a huge method of helping that to happen. Ecclesia’s made of disciples were very important to the rapid spread of Christianity.
They practiced what is now called “Marketplace Ministry”. Not in local churches with separate buildings where they sat passively as one mostly person spoke. Everyone participated and many were business owners – fishing business, sheep business, a tax collector. Jesus was a worker of wood – making many different things. Later St. Paul was a tentmaker. At that same time there was also a dealer in expensive dyes. And others….
How were such disciples made? Through Ministry. It went something like this:
-Jesus and later his disciples always began with prayer. Prayer, prayer and more prayer. Always much prayer before growth in numbers ad in effective ministry happened.
–Then to go. Going for the Harvest of souls. Going took several forms, which we will explore later. The key point: people were sent.
-Then in that context, the healing of the sick, freeing those bound by unclean spirits; and also the cleansing of lepers and raising the dead. (I often speak of this as being healing the sick and freeing the bound for a shorter phrasing as well as focusing on what is more usual these days. The other two items are still valid.) This attracts a lot more people!
-Then was the making of disciples (of all ethnos, – all people groups). People who learned and who applied and practiced what they were learning. And reported back to a rabbi for more instruction as needed. Most people went on with their lives, happy for the ministry help. A few even said, thanks. A much smaller number were open to learning and to applying what they were learning. The custom among in Israel at that time (where Jesus was ministering) was that a rabbi would teach, disciples would go practice and report back to the rabbi. Who would give more teaching to help, as needed.
-The disciples would in turn become sent ones, who prayed for their areas, then were sent to represent the Kingdom and make more disciples by going through this progression of steps.
-The disciples who were going through this progression and making more disciples would also meet to encourage, help, minister to, and teach one another. All participated. Leadership had the purpose of helping them achieve unity in the faith, maturity in Christ, and to prepare these people for ministry – and more. Ministry was to be done by people helped by leadership to be prepared to do such ministry. This was the biblical pattern.
And this was the progression. Prayer, then going to help gather the harvest – sent in a few but somewhat various ways. Proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Healing sick, freeing the bound – prisoners and captives. Making disciples of all people groups. Planting Ecclesia’s who prayed massively for the local area, ministered generously – who shared the Gospel, healed the sick, freed the bound (attracting many people), making disciples who again applied this progression that Jesus taught – and who made yet more disciples. Then ecclesia’s were planted who continued these continuing cycles leading to rapid growth.
When this pattern is followed, evangelization and ministry spreads faster better and more powerfully than any other method I have ever heard of. This is what Jesus taught. It’s Scriptural. It works powerfully. It helps Missionaries avoid money trouble, when the other methods of sending are added. (Can’t wait? See Luke 10; and also Matthew 10.)
When you pray from within the Kingdom of God – the place God rules from – which is now always within reach – literally. You pray from a place of Love, Power and Holy Spirit Guidance.
The Presence of our Lord is powerful. Within reach, always. The Glory of our Lord emanates from his holy Presence. Some see this as light, other times, missed, other times a weight – being weighed down.
This is a magnificent way to pray.
A lot of us have not thought to pray from here; yet once you consider this, it may be obvious that this is an outstanding thing to explore and learn about. And to do.
This is what Jesus did; and his prayers and commands for healing were – successful! Powerful. Full of compassion.
You can be this way, too. And hear and do what Father shows you, through Holy Spirit.Ministering more like Jesus.
Some additional thoughts, in response to a request for more on this:
The Kingdom of God is the love, power and Presence of God ruling in a situation or place. Where there is righteousness and joy in Holy Spirit. This is always at reach, at hand rather. All you have to do is reach out in your spirit, your heart. God and his Kingdom are within reach. This is the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
The King is in his Kingdom, this is where Jesus is. You can call on his name, or ask for the other Comforter he sent, Holy Spirit. You have already Holy Spirit in you.
You can always ask for more of Holy Spirit with sincerity – and receive by faith. Your experience may not be dramatic, but you receive more of Holy Spirit when you ask sincerely with faith, confidence and trust in God.
With more of Holy Spirit you can pray for others. You can ask how to pray and receive guidance for that.
It is more practical to continue praying and to be praying always than many of us have thought. It’s easy, it’s good to do – and it can be important, even life saving.
The first time this happened, and I was led with conscious awareness by Holy Spirit was after my father collapsed and threw up a rather large amount of blood.
He was rushed to the hospital, and immediately sent to emergency surgery. Which took a surprisingly long number of hours.
I prayed for him and for his surgery to go well and for his healing. Holy Spirit was directing me. I saw a star, a smallish star, and I knew I was to keep my attention on this star as a part of my prayer.
So where ever I was, what ever I was doing, I kept part of my attention on this “star”, as I was being gifted and led to do.
I was helping, I was praying, and I would be learning from this.
It turns out that when they thought they were finished with the surgery, they miscounted sponges and thought they were missing one. So they opened him up and looked for it.
As they were looking for this sponge, they found a small artery that was bleeding. They said it would have killed him, but was small enough so that there would be no dramatic symptoms right away – which would delay or even keep them from knowing they had to cut him open again to find the bleed and save his life.
The found the small bleeding artery, closed it, and closed him up. Surgery was successful, and he lived.
He not only lived, he went on to change his life in other good and needed ways – which gave him a longer life and a better one. That’s another story.
From what I could tell, the time I the star and the flow of intention and dunamos energy stopped was about the same time the opened him up again, found the bleeding artery and fixed it.
The timing was to teach me something about how prayer goes.
And I learned consciously how to pray in the Spirit, with my spirit. How to notice and respond to the signals I was given, to obey and continue. Until it was done.
You can do this too. Pray in the Spirit, noticing and paying attention, obeying what is given you, until it is done.
You will be praying continuously, and can continue until it is complete: until the prayer work is done. You will know when it’s done, because a part of you is still and continuously paying attention.
You can pray in the Spirit. With your spirit. Notice what you are given to do, led to do; and to obey until it is complete.
You will over the course of your lifetime, by doing this, help many people in many situations. Including following Holy Spirit as someone heals. Lives will sometimes be saved. Other blessings will accrue.
Pray in the Spirit as directed until it is done and complete. You can do this, and our Lord wants you to do so.
Thus you will be doing what you are shown, and ministering more like Jesus.
This morning I received a request for further healing help through a friend, for someone my friend knows and cares about. Someone I know of.
I immediately saw a micro-vision, a picture of a heart. And I knew on the inside that I was being directed to send love. That is how I am to respond, this morning. It was fast, and fortunately, I was paying attention and ready.
The flow of love was going well. Agape, the Jesus kind of love, which he has taught me so much about.
I thought at first this would be fast because I got that direction. I was mistaken. The flow continued for a while…and I am not finished with praying until it’s done.
This is one example of how you can pray and receive direction for healing (or other) prayer. Even healing at a distance. And as long as the flow is continuing, you are to continue.
That’s better than what I used to think – well, I do a bit of what I’m told and that’s sufficient. We learn. I learn, you learn. Especially as we pay attention to Holy Spirit.
Keep paying attention, doing as you are shown. Follow Holy Spirit. And continue until it is done.
Praying for healing at a distance with the help of Holy Spirit is a wonderful opportunity you will be given often. Honor this.
Do as you are shown, and continue until it is complete. Minister more like Jesus.
Mark 1:15 gives us the shortest – checklist or bulleted point version – of the Gospel, the Good News, that Jesus preached.
Good News is big news – news that changes everything. It was modeled after how the Romans announced a new Emperor. Messengers were sent out, proclaiming how there was a new ruler. Who would protect the empire, and the peace – the Pax Romana. All were to bow down to the new ruler and worship. So much was this modeled after what the Roman Empire did, I am surprised that Jesus wasn’t killed for announcing this way – and killed far earlier. But God had other plans.
Jesus uses the term Good News in Luke 4 where he gives the longest version of the gospel in the Synoptic, the first three Gospels. He is quoting from Isaiah 61. Israel was very familiar with Isaiah.
So the term “Good News” had multiple meanings to the people of the times in the Roman Empire, including in Jerusalem. It was a strong term.
Let’s take a look at the short version of the Gospel so we don’t overload ourselves at first look.
There are a couple of things about the context that are best understood. You may remember that scripture tells us that Jesus was called to preach to the Hebrews, to Israel, first. The Hebrews were well versed in Torah, the teachings of the first five books of our bible.
They knew well of, and understood much about the Fall of Man and the curses of this broken world that we have inherited. This was written about in Genesis 3:15, and the Hebrews knew this scripture well.
That’s what I like to call the Bad News: we live in a broken world full of curses and problems, such as sickness, death, taxes, relationship difficulties, financial problems, bad politics, imperfect and even evil rulers…the list goes on and on. All of us are affected by at least some of these: the Bad News is personal to us all.
So…the Good News that changes everything is greatlyneeded.
Jesus told us that Now is the time. The time of his coming and of his Kingship (he is the King of the Kingdom of God) – his Kingship had been coming for a long time. And when the human mind hears the word “Now” spoken, without realizing it, we tend to think of now. We momentarily experience ourselves in the present. A side effect of this is that we are more present, and we are more whole minded. Decisions have an even wider impact, helping them to be more solid and long lasting, unlike too many New Year’s resolutions.
Remember, this is being spoken by the King who is present. The Anointed One who has Holy Spirit on him since his baptism in water, Holy Spirit for a purpose – which is an important part of the human experience of the Anointing. (Luke 4 and Isaiah 61 tells us what the Anointing is for. The Hebrews knew this well and were looking forward to the coming of the Anointed: the Messiah (transliterated from the Hebrew) or the Christ (transliterated from the Greek).
When an important truth is spoken, human intuition perceives it, if nothing is getting in the way. Holy Spirit is whispering it to our spirit, and we know; and we know that we know….
So Now is the time. The Time has come. (Kairos moment – anyone?)
Now the big announcement. Here it is, folks. And this is huge. Why, because we live in a broken world full of curses where the adversary rules – that’s a whole other message – but see Genesis.
Now here’s the thing, folks.
When we experience the Presence of God as near us, with us or in us – we experience ourselves as more confident, whole, resourceful and even joyful. (Very much related to the Greek word, salvo – which can mean salvation, wholeness, healing, and more.)
Jesus invites you into his Kingdom. By Sitara.
When we experience the Presence of God as far away or absent, we tend to become depressed and hopeless. We may feel fragmented, we do not experience ourselves as feeling whole.
Want to see these differences dramatized? Read Psalms!
The difference is not subtle. It’s very important.
When we experience the truth and Presence of God as in us, near us or in us – we experience not only more wholeness, but more whole-mindedness. This means that what we decide while being this way, these decisions are more whole minded and thus more stable and long lasting.
So the message of Jesus continues. Now is the time (finally). (The King is speaking. Clearly implied but not said.) The Kingdom of God is at hand – literally within reach.
Which means – those areas where the hearer is experiencing the curses or brokenness of this world – such as sickness, financial or relationship difficulties, and so forth — which are under the rulership of the adversary — are all within reach of help.The rule of God as in Eden (Paradise, Garden of) – can be restored to that area of your life.Sickness can be healed. Freedom can be obtained – “the prisoners freed”.
This is good news. Wonderful news! Literally, Good News that changes everything.
We’ll explore how this applies to practical ministry to heal people’s sicknesses and problems. How to restore to people every good thing originally given to us by God.
So watch for future articles, all based on the foundational teaching about the Kingdom of God that Jesus preached. Including:
The Gospel Process– which underlies healing, exorcism, and restoring God’s Kingdom where Satan had ruled.
John, a revered yet aging Pastor, was crying in the parking lot. It was the end of the day and nearly everyone had left. The parking lot was nearly empty, the smell of car fumes fading in the closing early evening light. I had just finished sweeping, and was headed home.
And, I had never seen a grown man cry like this in such a public place, much less a Pastor. I was uncomfortable, embarrassed, and I had no idea what to do. And I could not look away, I was as fascinated as I was scared. No, I was more fascinated than scared.
Approaching carefully, lumbering along with his long legs came Ben, an unofficial elder in the church. He’d been around for years and never held an official position. Yet when he spoke, people knew to listen.
I knew he’d know what to do and what to say, so I paid close attention.
I did know, and I had heard some of the biting remarks, some people – I guess you could call it a faction, criticized the Pastor for how he did his job. Some people disagreed with how he did things. The Board Meetings had grown longer than they used to be. And when people came out from them, sometimes some of them were clearly unhappy. Or so I had fairly recently heard.
I was too far away to hear clearly. Ben got Pastor John’s attention and said something, I’m now fairly certain he’d asked a question. Pastor John took some time replying. I could not look away, though I tried very hard not to be seen staring.
They talked. After a while, Ben looked over to me and motioned for me to come over. I was scared and nervous; I knew I’d been caught prying. But I came, I had no choice.
Ben looked at me, I was the youngest there, and he told me, in a quiet yet very definite way, “I want you to hear this.” Now I felt caught in a place I had no business being; but Ben was as safe as he was wise. Like a grandfather who makes it clear that you are wonderful, the best, and who always believes in you. So even though I was nervous and had been caught out, I felt pretty safe.
Pastor John had his composure now, and stood looking at Ben with his arms no longer moving as when he was talking; they were just hanging by his sides.
I heard Ben say this, and I’d never forgotten that moment. “Pastor John, have you been doing your very best?” “Yes, of course I have.”
“Have you done what you know or believe what Jesus has wanted you to do, to the best of your ability?” “Always. I wasn’t always as sure as I wanted to be, but I’ve been careful to do my best.”
“Have you acted with loving compassion, as much as possible?” Pastor John thought for a bit, lifted his head and smiled a bit as he answered like he just realized something. Then he answered, in a more definite way than he had been speaking before: “Yes!” He looked almost surprised at his own answer.
“Have you acted with, as best you knew how, with the Holy Spirit?” “Yes, I have”, came Pastor John’s reply with a growing yet thoughtfulness, steadiness and strength.
“Well, then I have something to say. You are a success.”
