Encouragement
Are you prepared for Ministry?
Would you let a doctor operate on you without a license? Neither would I. Would you hire a self-made lawyer even if you found out that he never even went to law school but his father was a top judge? I didn’t think so.
If it is absolutely necessary that doctors attend medical school before practicing medicine and lawyers go to law school before they can practice law, why shouldn’t Christians prepare for ministry?
Even Christ, Son of the living God had to prepare for His ministry here on earth. Yes, He knew what His purpose was but He needed to be able to Hear, Discern and Obey the voice of God in order to do His father’s will.
Jesus took time to be alone with His father. He was “closed in” with God and “closed out” to the rest of the world for forty days or prayer and fasting. As followers of Christ we too, must prepare for ministry. Before you can be effective in God’s work, you must be able to Hear, Discern and Obey the voice of God just like Jesus did.
I am a freelance newspaper reporter and writer. I also serve on the Women’s Ministry at my church. One morning I sat down at my dining room table to have my quiet time. And I began to cry. I didn’t feel like myself. I felt as if I was in the wilderness and really needed to hear from God. I humbled myself before Him.
Desiring to hear from God but not looking for any scripture in particular, when I opened my bible it was already at Luke 4:1, which reads “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry”.
The Holy Spirit said to me, “don’t you dare think that you are equipped for ministry. Before Jesus performed any miracles He had a “wilderness” experience. And you must do the same!
Right then and there, the Holy Spirit impressed upon me that I should fast and pray for forty days. Just like Jesus did. But then satan said, “You can’t do that! You’re breastfeeding and need to eat for the baby.”
This sounded reasonable to me at the time. So I didn’t start the fast.
Two days later I shared with my husband what I believed the Lord was leading me to do. I told him about the fast and how I was thinking about giving up coffee for the forty days. And not just any coffee, but Dunkin Donuts Hazelnut coffee! He told me to pray about it. A few days went by. And I was still undecided. At that point I had already consumed more than 2 cups of coffee.
Again, the enemy said, “You can’t start the fast now, you’ve already had coffee and it’s already Monday. You mind as well get a few more cups in. Think about it you’re going to go forty days without it. Better yet why not just do the forty days of prayer without the fast.”
And you know what? He almost had me. But God had a plan. I started thinking about what’s good, better and Best. I opened the front cover of my bible and in it was a piece of paper that I had written on a few days before this experience. As I read the words it was almost as if they were jumping off the page. I wrote, “ The Holy Spirit brings my mind, will, emotions and actions into the place of obedience and conformity to the Word of God. Be filled with the Spirit”.
When we are filled with the Spirit we walk and live in the Spirit and won’t submit to fleshly desires.
Not wanting to give up coffee was a fleshly desire and God was clearly telling me that my release and breakthroughs will be as a result of my obedience to pray, fast and humble myself before Him. I can’t fast and not pray. Neither can I just pray without fasting. Some things will only come through the power of prayer and fasting.
Besides, would giving up Dunkin Donuts coffee for forty days be too much of a sacrifice for my Lord? I think not.
So, if you are involved in a ministry and you haven’t spent time alone with God, I challenge you to do so right now.
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Fasting is not stressed enough in the area I live in. Good article on the fact that God does still lead us to fast in many ways. Thanks for the reminder.
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