Walking in the Ministry of Reconcilliation

WALKING IN THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION

St.John 8:28-29

28 Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

2 Corinthians 5:18

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

When we do not walk in the Ministry of Reconciliation, then we are not walking in the will of God for our lives. We accomplish the duties of the church, performing all the requirements but without the agreement of the Father. God has a way of magnifying where the hearts and minds of the people are. We are at a place where He is showing us that we need to grow up inside of our walk with Him. There was a time when we were walking in ignorance and God covered us. Now the Father is showing us the power of agreement. Everything we do in ministry comes with a sacrifice. These sacrifices will qualify us. If we look at the disciples as our example, we saw that their lives were completely dedicated to fulfilling the will of God at any cost, even death. There must be a sacrifice in order to accomplish ministry! We must ask ourselves have we accepted the cross that is before us or have we gotten complacent in ministry? God has a responsibility to us to guarantee that we become what He created us to be at salvation and that is to manifest the life of Christ. Instead, we have said in ourselves and through our actions that we will only go so far. Let us take a look at the results of when we walk in truth and when we oppose it.

St.Matthew 4:1-4

1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

At the end of Christ’s forty days and nights of fasting, being hungry, the first thing the enemy tried Him with was some way to satisfy the hunger. With all the authority and power Jesus had, He made a decision to deny Himself and remained without food so that the purity of the Word could be made available to us today. When we moved to Leesburg in its inception we accomplished ministry by walking the streets, going door-to-door and into churches. God was establishing the Church of the scriptures, one that would be established by sacrifice of our own wants and agendas to satisfy the works of God that we have been called to. As time progressed, we began picking up our own lives again and became complacent in ministry. Some of us got jobs, some went to school, and forgot our original intent for relocating, and ministry became secondary. The Father has now removed Himself from vindicating our ministry because we no longer walk in the direction of the Holy Ghost. We are no longer completely submitting ourselves and our way to the commitment of the same work of Christ which comes with sacrifice.

St.Matthew 17:14-20

14 And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,

15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.

16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.

17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.

18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. 19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?

20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

In the above scripture, Christ gave the disciples the power to heal the sick and cast out devils but God had retracted the authority due to their unbelief. It is time for us to reexamine whether we are accomplishing that thing that He required from the beginning.The Father will never bless or show forth His power through us when there is impurity in the heart.

2 Corinthians 4:7

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Christ knew that the excellency of the power was of God. He knew that He had to have the sanctioning of the Father. He inquired of His criteria to walk with Him. Likewise, we must be certain we also are walking in the Spirit. God will not work with us outside of the mind of Christ. Jesus walked in the mind and character of the Father, “. . . Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head . . .”. Christ counted up the cost of ministry. We, however, look for another route and say that we want to work the works of God. We may not say this with our mouths but our actions display it. If we truly believe that Christ is the measuring stick, then God will not allow us to get away with just anything. We must prove the standard of righteousness in all areas of our lives. There must be no residue of darkness. In a recent prophecy, God instructed us that He has given us “a window inside of a window” to sanctify ourselves - the first window is for the world to repent and turn to God. The second window is for us, the Church to sanctify ourselves. God is going to have a Church without spot or blemish, because there is no darkness in Him at all. There is another season of purging that is taking place in the ministry and because we do not know how much time God is going to allow us, we must hasten to sanctify our lives. Sin is to be dealt with once and for all - we have no other option, we cannot conceive another route. There is no room for any other mind - this must be the mindset of those who lead. WE ARE LEFT WITH THE DECISION. The Father desires that all be a part of His righteousness, but reality reveals that all will not. Will we be as the sons of Sceva - attempting to work ministry while walking in the flesh?