A Personal Receiving

Our thoughts are on Peter’s description of his ministry, the ministry of the Twelve. We are curious about how he describes the ministry as, the word Of God, then, a bit later down, as the ministry of prayer and the ministry of the Word.

Conviction comes quickly and deeply to all of us who see the ministry of the Word of God on its own. However people think about their ministry concerning the Word of God, whether as preachers, teachers, leaders, counsellors, pastors, deacons and more, prayer must be that ministry also. We must be convicted and changed from any kind of error, misunderstanding and lack in this ministry, whether for ourselves or someone we know. Prayer and the ministry of the Word, in this work for our Lord, must not be taken as two ministries. 

This also pulls us up on the place or part prayer plays in our ministry of the Word. In other words, is prayer simply a starter, just a filler, or even an ender? For the Twelve, prayer is the ministry in fullness, the Word of God.

It’s like living. I am a living person. In conversing with you, I say that I am a living being. A bit further in the conversation, I say that I am a living, breathing person. Does it mean that living and breathing coexist independently or separately? Is breathing a starter, a filler or an ender? Madness, foolishness, utter nonsense, you say. Be convinced then, the same is absolutely true of prayer and the ministry of the Word.

There can never be the ministry of the Word without prayer. Be warned therefore, that all who practise such a ministry, will be like fruit trees showing fullness of foliage, but emptiness and barrenness of fruit. Jesus has already warned about such an evil thing, when He cursed the fig tree. Jesus was hungry and in the distance He saw a fig tree full of leaves. He went to it, because of its showing, thinking He might get fruit to satisfy His hunger. However, when He actually got close enough to examine the leafy tree, there was absolutely no fruit to be had, not even one. Straightway, Jesus put down that tree for good. Let no one eat fruit from you ever again. Mark 11: 14b.

Doesn’t this arrest us in a new and different way? The Word of God is powered by prayer to God. Is not the Holy Spirit, the Person who teaches us and leads us in prayer? Prayer bears fruit in season and out of season, because the Spirit is not under the laws of nature. God is Spirit and He is the Creator of all things. Will He limit Himself through His creation and be untrue and unfaithful to who He is? He is LORD. When we profess that we are servants of the Word of God, pray God daily, without ceasing, that in all seasons, prayer remains producing in us, for prayer produces our impossible.

Through this taste, this whetting of our spiritual appetites, and all that God the Holy Spirit has opened up to us personally, may we know change in our work for the Lord, however big or small it may be.