TOWARD AN EFFECTIVE MINISTRY

Chapter 6                                        GOING FORTH

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion:

we were like them that dream.

Then was our mouth filled with laughter: and our

tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen:

The Lord hath done great things for them.

The Lord hath done great things for us: whereof we are glad.

Turn again our captivity, 0 Lord: as the streams in the south.

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious

seed: shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,

bringing his sheaves with him. 

Psalm 126

It cannot be stressed too strongly that the major aspect of our ministry is that which goes on alone before God, away from the sight of man. Our ministry begins alone in prayer, in worship, drinking in God's presence ...ever bringing into ourselves a fresh measure of the Spirit. It then rises into intercession. Inevitably our worship of the true God moves us into the essential labor of lifting others before the Throne. The more we engage in this labor the more we appreciate its value. But there comes a time when the seeking of God's face, ministering alone before him, must be followed by a going forth to minister to others.

And the disciples went forth and preached

everywhere, the Lord working with them

confirming the word with signs following.

You come to a point where you take what you have received and go out and do something with it. This does not necessarily mean that you have to catch a plane and go into the jungles of the Amazon, (unless God sends you to do that) ...or that you have to take a soap box and stand down in the city square and preach at the top of your lungs, (unless God sends you to do that). But it does mean for every one of us that we go forth from our spiritual shells.

It begins with a going forth from self. We are hindered from going forth from self by the idea that we first have to acquire an inner feeling of confidence. Didn't the believers on Pentecost go forth into the streets and speak, as the Spirit gave them utterance without fear? Were they not overflowing with confidence? And did not Peter and John stand before the elders of Jerusalem without self‑consciousness? They couldn't but speak the things that they had seen and heard.

But we don't feel so confident ...we lack that certainty. We feel that we need to wait for that upsurge within. Please don’t get the idea that the apostles always waited for that confidence to come. While they had periods like Pentecost when they were filled with confidence they also had periods when they were scared to death ...but they still ministered.

Consider Paul's ministry in Corinth:

"When I came to you I came to you in weakness and

in fear and in much trembling."

Paul's ministry in Galatia began with an infirmity that was repulsive to look at. God alone knows how many times Paul launched out into strange territory in weakness and fear and in much trembling. We can do the same ...we can go forth from our fragile shell of self even when we are scared, conscious of our weakness, self‑conscious ...even when we're weeping.

They that sow in tears: shall reap in joy.

He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed:

shall doubtless some again with rejoicing,

bringing his sheaves with him.

We're not going forth to a picnic. While the work we've been given to do is awesome in its power to transform lives, this work is done against the background of an evil which is so far‑reaching and so over-whelming and so utterly clever and subtle that we can't possibly begin to grasp it with our minds much less cope with it in ourselves. We are announcing the word of the living God to a world which is so indifferent one would feel like sitting down and crying.

If we are going to do this (not in the spirit of "slick‑Christianity" which rarely gets close to people who suffer and hurt), but in the lowliness of our Lord Jesus (who always stayed close to the hurting ones), it is often going to be like batting our heads against a wall. It is often going to seem as if any minute our fragile ship of faith is going to sink and be forgotten in a sea of indifference.

Every time we go forth with confidence there will be nine times when our going forth will seem to be utterly without promise of fruit. We need to learn to accept the indifference, the hostility, the sneers and the derision as normal; knowing that if we keep going ...even though we weep and tremble …the outcome will be supernatural, lasting, holy, abundant fruit.

He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed:

shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his

sheaves with him.

A woman in our fellowship was sent into the next world through the bullet of a thief. As her body crumpled to the floor this woman doubtless entered into a liberty and into a relationship with Jesus so clear and so wonderful we can't begin to conceive it ...there was a going forth through death into life. In a similar way, every time we go out of ourselves, expose ourselves in the name of Jesus, to situations that make us conscious of our weakness and of our inadequacy, we also taste life. For instance, your favorite uncle thinks you're a wonderful person until you reveal that you've become a believer. His verdict: "Ever since you started this Jesus stuff you turned into a creep." Consider the death we experience when we open our mouth to talk with our best friend about the Lord. Consider the risk of rejection when we offer to pray for someone who is sick. We write a letter to ask for forgiveness and we mail it with trembling hand. There is no such thing as going out of ourselves and not dying.

We are going forth weeping. There is no way that you're going to plant the living seed in dry ground unless you water it with your tears. Somebody says, "Wait a minute. Isn't the water that's supposed to make this seed sprout and grow the water of the Holy Spirit?"

Of course it's the water of the Holy Spirit. But have you never noticed the connection between the coming of the Holy Spirit into dry ground and the shedding of your tears? Without the shedding of tears ...without some kind of concern on your part ...nothing's going to happen. Jerusalem will not be visited by the redemptive power of God simply by your criticizing Jerusalem, making fun of Jerusalem, standing aloof from it saying, "I want no part of those hypocrites!" The only thing that's going to bring the redemptive power of God to Jerusalem is when someone starts to care enough about Jerusalem to cry over her. The Lord who answered the heart‑cry of the widow of Nain when he saw her weeping and raised her son from the dead, the Lord who said, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted," and the Lord who himself wept over the city is waiting for some evidence in us that we care enough to weep.

A lot of people are complaining about our cities and our nation, but how many people are weeping? Many are condemning the church, but how many people are weeping for the church? And what about that one person to whom you know God has sent you?...that twisted, warped, sick life. You can analyze that person. You can say, "He's lazy ...he's a slob ...she's a gossip," but the Lord is waiting to see whether we'll ever get to the place where we'll begin to see that person with his eyes. When we see that person with his eyes we're going to start to weep. Granted we're going to hold on to the cross as we do this or we'll be so overwhelmed with what we see we'll sink under it. But when our eyes are open so that we begin to see as the Lord sees there is nothing we can do but weep. And if we can't do anything else we can pray, "Lord, give a vision, of what you see until it's so overwhelming ...until it so burdens my heart ...that I too join you weeping over Jerusalem. Break this hard heart! Help me, Lord, to get this fallow ground moving."

We're not talking about crocodile tears, we're talking about tears of the heart. Perhaps nothing runs down your cheeks but God knows the tears within.

We go forth bearing precious seed.  What a difference it makes when we realize that what we have is the one thing that's going to bring light ...it's the one thing that's going to bring healing. Precious seed, seed that has life in itself. You drop it in and it takes root...it begins to grow if there’s any kind of response at all. The Lord has given us "the tongue of the learned, that, we might learn to speak a word in season to him who is weary."

You have been given a word and that word will not return to God void if it's spoken in God's Spirit and in obedience to him. It will accomplish that to which it is sent and every life to whom you speak that word will be changed in some way ...it will never be the same. Even if it does not respond, even if it turns its back and walks away, it is never the same again. What an awesome thing! There are people who have heard the word of God from your mouth, have turned their backs and walked away, but they know what they heard and they will never be able to say, "Lord, I didn't know." They know ...and they know they know.

We go forth knowing that we’re going to come back with our arms loaded with harvested grain. Just as surely as Jesus died for our sins and rose for our justification ...just as surely as he poured out his Spirit upon his people, and is pouring out his Spirit upon you as you read ...and just as surely as he is sending every single one of us forth ...so surely there will be a response. There's no such thing as going out there with this word and coming back with nothing. The more generously you sow the more abundantly you will reap.. The more freely you give forth what God has given you so mercifully, the more freely you're going to find yourself bringing redeemed, God‑praising, God‑serving, God-glorifying people to the temple of God ...to the table of the Lord. You will see results! You may not see results today or tomorrow or the day after...you may go for years seeing nothing. But make no mistake, the day will come when all those years of serving by faith will be rewarded with armloads of ripe grain. You will return to the Father's house loaded down with an abundance of lives that have found the living God.

In Isaiah 53 Jesus is described by Isaiah as the suffering servant who "shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied." And what do you think he sees as he looks out over his flock right now? Is it not true that Jesus sees the result, the fruit, of the travail of his soul... lives that have been so radically changed.  The only explanation for it is the travail of the soul of the Messiah dying on that cross. You and I are living proof that his blood gives life.  And what a joy this brings to him and what a joy this brings to all heaven. And so now he sends us forth to enter the ministry of his cross that as we go forth out of ourselves into his death ...and as we begin to weep with him ...and as we begin to speak forth his living word …we will see the fruit of the travail of his soul.

He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed:

shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, .. bringing his

sheaves with him.