My thought on our call to ministry
2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” What we need to understand is; we all have certain strengths and weaknesses. If we are called by God and continue to walk and live the way he wants us to live, serving Him, he will train us and make us effective in our ministry where He has called us to be. We need not to become discouraged because of the weaknesses you see in your life. Remember, it is in your weakness that God’s power is made perfect.
We need to make sure that we are spiritually mature, by making sure that we don’t neglect our relationship with God. We need to make sure we stay in prayer, study of God’s word, evangelism, and reflection. Just because we get so busy in life with school, work, personal fitness, and family doesn’t mean we neglect our relationship with God. When we don’t fellowship with Him, we get weaker in the spirit. Our battles get harder or maybe don’t even come at all. I say this, because I believe that if you are strong with the Lord and doing His work, we will have struggles and tribulations in this world from the enemy. If we sit idle, he isn’t going to bother us because we are not a threat to him. So I say, lets stay busy doing His work, continue walking in the spirit of God and not in the flesh. Remember, you cannot be angry, broken, and distraught in your life and walk into your job and be gentle, kind, open, accepting, and caring. This is so true because if you act one way in church or ministry and then act one way in the world, we could get into trouble and be called a hypocrite.
I believe that we need to have the ministry skills to be able to do God’s work. Not necessarily meaning that you have to go to school, but what I do mean by this is to ask a minister, preacher, Sunday school teacher if you could sit under them and learn the skills you need to be able to start a ministry or learn the skills that you are being called into the ministry for. We need the right tools and the knowledge to use them and those tools must be primed for use. The bible tells us in Proverbs 19:20, 27 “Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life. If you stop listening to instruction, my child, you will turn your back on knowledge.” So continue in the education, so you will be ready to do the Lord’s work.
What I have noticed, is some congregations put ministers on “pedestals” almost to the point of glorifying them more than they do God. I remember going to church back in Phoenix for a conference. What I saw was not good. I was very disappointed on how I saw the people lifting up the pastor so high, that his head could have been in the clouds. Then he had this body guard or pall barer or what ever they call it, following this young minister around like he was some slave or something. Plus thru out the service they were calling him 3 different titles like pastor, prophet and Bishop. Now come on, which one is it? How can one person have so many, especially when his father is the senior pastor at the church? I read a statement in a book for school one time and it said that “They ‘become the role’ and lose touch with who they really are outside the profession itself.” The thing is, while I was there, the Lord wanted me to have a talk with this young man, considering what/who He has called me into. But, I didn’t. I guess you could say I was disobedient to the Lord in the task that He wanted me to do. I feel bad about it and didn’t have any peace about not doing it, even to this day.
In conclusion, I would have to say and believe that every believer/minister should be well grounded or be willing to be well grounded in God’s word. We need to know the bible basics, i.e. where and how the bible originated, who God is, who Jesus is, who the Holy Spirit is, Doctrine of the Trinity, Creation, Man, the fall and sin, Covenant, Law, Salvation, Evangelism, The Church, End Times. Also we need to know how to defend our faith, also known as Apologetics. In Apologetics, this is where the basics of bible knowledge come into play. In Apologetics, we also need to know about Relativism, Atheism, Evolution, Abortion, and also other religious beliefs such as Islam, cults, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormonism, Roman Catholicism, and open Theism. Also as believers we need to understand that we cannot put God in a box, especially when it concerns His spiritual gifts. We need not to put ourselves on a high pedestal or let anyone else do that and we cannot forget where we came from. God has called us not man.
Shalom,
Daniel Candelaria Jr.