Ministry Gifts - The Calling Of God
3 Separate Teachings - The Calling of God, Faithfulness, Variety and Balance.
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-16 (NLT)
Ministry Gifts - The Calling Of God
David’s Notes from Bible College
Whoever God calls into the ministry He gives His Equipment for the job.
A. The ministry gifts are people - people who are called of God into the full time ministry.
1. Philip was called by God to be an evangelist.
2. Peter was called by God to be an apostle .
3. Paul was called by God to be a prophet and a teacher first, and later on in his life he was called an apostle.
4. Other people in the New Testament were called by God into different ministry gifts.
B. Those people (ministry gifts) whom God calls, He gives equipment called spiritual gifts.
1. These ministries are not based on natural human gifts, but on spiritual gifts - supernatural gifts. If a person does not realize these gifts are supernatural, then the results in the Church and the ministry will only be in the natural realm, and this is not healthy for a church or ministry.
2. When a person is born again, God has already in His mind what He has called that person to do. With a new spiritual birth, (Born Again) a person is equipped with certain spiritual talents to give them the equipment to stand in wherever office that God has set that person in the Body of Christ .
3. Being filled with the Holy Spirit enhances the gifts that God has given to a person.
4. God gives equipment to people with the spiritual gifts necessary to be able to operate in the office God calls them into.
a. People not called to the ministry can have spiritual gifts operating occasionally through them . But ministers will be especially equipped to minister regularly with the gifts necessary to be able to stand in the office they are called to.
b. Spiritual gifts operating through the minister will carry a greater anointing.
Example: Tongues and interpretation or prophecy operating through the ministerial level carry a greater anointing than when operating through people that do not have a ministry calling on their lives.
5. Education is good - but we need more than an education. We need a ministry that is equipped with supernatural gifts.
C. The ministry gifts consist not only in name, but in the power of God.
1. It is easy to call yourself something, have a title, but that doesn't make you that title. You can sit in a garage and call yourself a car, but that doesn't make you a car . 2. You can call yourself a pastor, but that doesn't make you one. You can call yourself an apostle, but that doesn't make you one . The proof of the ministry to which you are called will be evident in your life. You will have the divine enablement or an endowment to stand in the office to which you are called.
D. All the work of the ministry comes under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the Head of His body, the Church . The Head and the body are one; therefore, Jesus directs all the operations of His body from the right hand of God the Father in heaven.
MARK 16:20
20 And they went forth, and preached every where, THE LORD WORKING WITH THEM, AND CONFIRMING THE WORD with signs following….
Notice in this verse it was the Lord Jesus working with these early disciples .
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church.
a. Jesus is the One who gave people gifts.
b. Jesus is the One who calls people into ministry.
c. Jesus is the One who gives people the equipment needed to fulfill His mission.
d. Let Jesus bring it to pass, If He has called you HE will do it.
Faithfulness - Be Faithful to what God has called you to do.
Apply yourself to the calling of God upon your life . Ministries don't just happen in life any more than marriages just happen in life. You will have to work at a marriage, you will have to work as you do the ministry God has called you to do.
A. Study Time. Preparation time is never lost time with your ministry. You will need to study the bible.
2 TIMOTHY 2:15
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
B. Dedicate yourself to the work God has called you to do. Along with the ministry of God on your life comes your dedication to the call.
C. Consecrate Yourself. Along with the ministry goes the consecration of your life. Give yourself fully to God’s purpose and plan for your ministry.
D . Submission to the will of God. Along with the ministry goes a submission to the perfect will of God for your life.
Comments: When you're first beginning in the ministry, you don't start out on top. Even in climbing a ladder, no one starts out on the top of the ladder. They start on the bottom of the ladder and then climb up . You will have to do this in ministry. And sometimes the first years of ministry are a great sacrifice to you. But if you know the call of God is there, you will stay in the course God has for you no matter what it may cost you.
You will have to say to yourself, “ I'm staying with this ministry because God called me to this ministry.” God will bring you though any storm you many face in life. Stay connected to God at all times and you will succeed in ministry. God will put you on top, just stay with Him and His plan for your life.
E. Be a person of integrity and develop character.
1. Psalm 15:4 gives one of the characteristics of a spiritual pilgrim as, "...He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not."
2. People who have the ministry of God on their lives are also people of integrity, honest and sincere. They do the right thing in life at all times. Develop, Mature and Grow with the ministry God has for you. Ministries are developed. Take time to develop the ministerial gift on your life. It takes time for people to become spiritually and naturally equipped and mature to do what God has for them to do .
3. Usually people start out in a different area of ministry from what God called them to.
a. Saul (Paul) is named as one of the five prophets and/or teachers in Acts 13 . Later on in his life the New Testament calls him an apostle . But he didn't start out with an apostle's ministry. He started out as a preacher (Gal. 1:11,15,16,23).
b. Philip started out in the ministry of helps (Acts 6:1-6). He was faithful in that ministry. Later he was then moved to the office of the evangelist (Acts 8 :5-7; 21:8).
c. If God called you to pastor, you will not begin pastoring a church of 1,000 people . You will not know how to handle the job. You may start with a small church congregation, or as an assistant or associate pastor, youth pastor or another type of ministry at first.
d. God may have called you to be an evangelist. You may eventually preach to 1,000 people. But you won't start out preaching to 1,000 people . You may start out by preaching to five people.
e. The ministry may start off small. With God’s anointing, plan and purpose on your life and ministry it will grow. Do not make little the day of small things beginnings. (Zech. 4:10).
4. Take time to wait, pray and see what God wants you to do . Let God make you the minister He wants you to be. You cannot choose a ministry. God is the only one who puts people in ministry.
b. Don't try to be like someone else. Just be yourself. Take the truth of God's Word that is revealed to you and let God use your own personality. Be yourself, then the message becomes your message.
c. If God has a ministry for you and He will put you in that office. It will develop as you are faithful . You must first determine whether or not the call of God is there. Then be faithful to work for God wherever you are . (To preach and to teach the Word of God is always the right thing to do.)
5. Take time to wait on God. Take time to fast and pray. Take time to find His perfect will for your life and ministry.
6. The Ministry of God is Holy. Respect the ministry God. Stay in the ministry God has for you. In the Old Testament if someone besides the High Priest walked into the Holy of Holies in the Temple of God, they fell dead instantly. They had walked into the wrong office. Always respect all the ministries God has in the earth.
7. Develop Character.
1. More is required of people who are separated unto an office.
2. Set the right example to other people, always.
3. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
4. Fill your ministry office with respect and dignity.
If you are called of God to stand in an office, that office demands respect . If you have respect for the office you are in, you will teach people to have respect for that office.
Variety and Balance in Ministry Gifts
A. One of the most fascinating things concerning the ministry gifts of Christ is their variety.
1. Apostles. The apostle's office seems to embrace almost every type of ministry.
2. Prophets. The prophet's ministry is inspirational. He speaks by direct, divine inspiration and revelation.
3. Evangelists. The evangelist has a direct endowment from the Lord to PREACH the Word for the salvation of souls.
4. Pastors. Pastors are the shepherds of God's sheep. They love their sheep.
5. Teachers.T hose who fill the office of teacher teach the Word, not by natural ability, but by the divine ability of the Holy Spirit.
B. These ministry gifts have been given to the Church to bring a balance in the Church.
1. We see an example of ministry gifts working together in the church at Antioch (Acts 13:1).
2. The matter of a balance of ministry gifts in the Body of Christ is vitally important to be effective.
3. One ministry gift office alone cannot hope to effectively be able to minister to all the needs of the entire Body of Christ. We need all the ministry gifts working together to supply the Body of Christ with a variety of gifts to have a healthy church.
4. Some extreme people think a minister doesn't have a valid ministry unless he ministers mostly by manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit, rather than by teaching or preaching the Word. This is not true, you need both to have a healthy church.
C. The Body of Christ needs to realize that Christ gave a diversity of ministry gifts to the Church for a reason. All of them are essential in order for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ to come unto full stature in Christ.
1. Teachers can sometimes think evangelists are too wild, flamboyant and sensational.
2. Evangelists can think teachers are to dry and boring.
3. Evangelists and teachers often agree saying that prophets can sometimes be intense and extreme.
4. All such attitudes are wrong.
5. There can be extremes in all usage of ministry gifts . We must not repress the gift of God, for we may quench the Spirit of God.
D. It is God's divine plan that each ministry gift complements each other.
1. The prophet is to inspire the teacher.
2. The teacher is to steady the prophet.
3. The evangelist is to continually remind us of the lost and dying world and its need for the gospel.
4. The pastor is to demonstrate to us that souls still need much nurturing and care after they have been won to the Lord .
5. And the apostle, above all, is to inspire and lead the way for gaining ground by establishing new works for the Lord.
E . The ultimate goal of all ministry is to unite - not divide.
Ephesians 4:13 reads, "Till we all come in the unity of the faith," and not, “Until we are all divided into separate groups doing separate things."
F. A person can stand in more than one office; we separate ministry offices so we can define them.
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