¨
There is no royal road to the ministry. The ministry is not a professional thing – not a matter of a set, a class. Ministry is born out of that anguish and suffering in which Christ is known as He can be known in no other way.
True ministry springs from the discovery of Christ in deep places. This ministry which is the manifestation of Christ – the many-sidedness of Christ, the deep secrets of Christ, the wonders and the glories of Christ – is born of a necessary experience in which Christ and Christ only, is sufficient.
“We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power should be of God and not of ourselves.” There is little doubt that, in writing of believers in these terms, Paul had in mind Gideon’s mighty army… reduced to three hundred lest Israel should vaunt themselves, that the power should be of God and not of them. What is the treasure? “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ… in our hearts.” What were the vessels in the hands of Gideon’s three hundred? Earthen pitchers and a torch within! They were the means of a mighty conquest. Weakness over against all the power of the enemy!
What a power it was! The Holy Spirit does not hesitate to give us the measure of the power of the Midianites and the Amalekites, and all the children of the East. They were like the sand of the sea. Three hundred men triumphed by treasures in earthen vessels. It is the intimation that Christ is the energy of a new kind of conquest over all the power of the enemy.
For this ministry in greater power – in greater fullness – Paul had discovered God in Christ in a new way through suffering. All this suffering issued in a new apprehension of God in Christ as the power, and glory, and fullness of ministry. That is ministry.
If we aspire to ministry, that is Holy Ghost ministry. It is something more than standing up to preach, and to give addresses – to produce that which has occupied us in the study. This kind of ministry is the personal manifestation of Christ resulting from an apprehension of Him in deep and dark places. If we aspire to true ministry, the Holy Spirit will see to it that by experience we are kept abreast of everything we say. The truth will become a thing inwrought and wrought out.
Is it necessary to say again that this has not to do with a class of people called ministers? We are all called to this ministry. It is not merely preaching – it is a personal manifestation of Christ. To that we are all called.
May the Lord strengthen us unto our ministry.
