The Kingdom of God

One night in 1986 I received a revelation from the Lord while reading the scriptures, that has always kept things in perspective for me in the ministry of the Gospel. I had been praying for several months for God to show me what my purpose in the ministry is. I knew I had been gifted in the scriptures, in faith, and in the ministry of the word of God, but I wasn't exactly certain what I was meant to do altogether. I found out that night, and I also found out what everyone else in the Lord's ministry is, because this understanding is for all who have been anointed for ministry work in the kingdom of God. I was reading in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and it was in this passage that the understanding came to me: "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building" (I Cor. 3:5-9). Bam! That's right where it jumped out and grabbed me, at that last statement: "Ye are God's building." Actually I saw an inner vision of the holy Ghost, of a hotel building as soon as I read that last verse. The Spirit showed me that God is like an owner of a great hotel, and the most important thing to him is that the people who stay in that hotel enjoy their time there. So that means that the people who stay in the hotel are the ones who are really important to him. I understood that a hotel owner has his livelihood from the people who come to stay in the hotel, so it only serves to reason that they would be his top priority. What I saw was that the general people who are born into the kingdom of God are the occupants of the hotel, and that God desires more than anything that they enjoy their new life of holiness and love that he has given to them through the death, resurrection, and priesthood of his Son Jesus. That is where the ministry comes in. The Lord showed me next this staff of maintenance men who continually service the needs of the hotel occupants, to ensure that their stay is a very good one. I saw that the maintenance men are skilled in many facets of facilitating the needs of the occupants, whether it be fixing a faulty air conditioner or furnace, or plumbing needs, or whatever else may need servicing for the comfort and well being of those staying there.

I also understood that being a maintenance man is not a glamorous job, or one that everyone necessarily would like to be; but it is a very important job to the owner of the hotel, seeing his first priority is the comfort and satisfaction of his occupants. Other scriptures came to mind as I saw this vision, to make a perfect and sensible understanding of what the Lord was showing me. They were scriptures that really drove home the point of the chapter as well, like this one which is in the same book to the same believers: "And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another" (I Cor. 12:23-35). And this one which is actually in the next chapter and is still in the same train of thought in the Spirit: "And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written , that no one of you be puffed up for one [minister] against another" (I Cor. 4:6). This memorable verse from Philippians also came to me: "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves" (Philippians 2:3). And here is yet another verse that was part of that picture: "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith" (Rom. 12:3). Then there's this vastly overlooked verse that really typifies the heart of Jesus that was in the apostle Paul: "For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord" (I Thess. 3:8). That verse really tells the story because it graphically shows that the well being of God's people was more important to Paul than his own life, and that indeed his own life was totally wrapped up in the care of the faith of God's people in Jesus Christ.

This is such an important understanding because in the first several chapters of first Corinthians the apostle was correcting the carnally minded thinking of the believers in Corinth, who were overly esteeming men of God to the point that they were saying things like, "I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ" (I Cor. 1:11). Obviously this mindset was causing division and confusion among the people, and Paul as a faithful servant of the Lord was trying to adjust their thinking to leave everyone else out of that kind of statement except for Christ. As he went on to emphatically state: "Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you?" (I Cor. 1:12). This was the vein of his entire train of thought in the holy Ghost, which was being conveyed in the writing. He finished the third chapter with a powerful statement to nail the right mindset about these things down real tight: "Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's" (I Cor. 3:21-23). So he was trying to convince the general saints that it was they who were the important ones and that the apostles, prophets, teachers, etc. were set in the body to take extra good care of them BECAUSE they were so important to God. Nobody who stays in a hotel looks at maintenance men and says, "Wow, these guys are really something. I wish I could have a job like that." It is simply a job to be a minister of the Gospel, and it is a very important job to God, because it is all about the care of the faith of his people. God's people should know who has been appointed to care for their faith in whatever particular capacity, and also to "esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake" (I Thess. 5:13). But the ministers should remember that their 'work' is to enhance the people's personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and to progressively improve their own access to him in every way themselves. No ministers should be exalted either in themselves or by the people, to become someone that the people are focused on, or dependent upon. ALL of God's people, including ministers, should ALWAYS be focused on and dependent ONLY on the one who WAS crucified for us! That my friend is the job, position, and purpose of any and every minister or ministry; now and for all time. Amen.