TOWARD AN EFFECTIVE MINISTRY

 

Chapter 3                               THE FINGER OF GOD

 

"...Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste,

and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided

against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say

that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out

demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them

out? Therefore they shall be your fudges. But if it is by the

finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of

God has come upon you...."

Luke 11:17‑20

 

 

When Jesus talks about casting out demons by the finger of God, he's describing his ministry and ours. Every one reading these words who is now a follower of Jesus is called to that kind of ministry ...a ministry that could best be described as one in which the finger of God is operative. Most of us have a watered down and weak idea of the ministry to which we've been called. Even our modern day Christian heroes are often weak specimens of the ministry to which every single one of us has been called. Who do we think of as a successful Christian worker? So often, it's somebody who starts a church which quickly grows to a thousand members ...or somebody who begins a new movement or opens a new mission field. Then they write a book about his life.

 

We've been called to minister with the finger of God and as we do we move in a realm which is not visible to the human eye ...which abhors human glory.  In this realm we are driven by one desire: to be so alive to God that we are able to fit in with the mysterious movements of his kingdom. Again and again we find ourselves in the right place at the right time ....able to touch some life with God's mercy or visit it with healing or to drive away evil with God's finger.

 

This is the kind of ministry our Lord had. It was not flashy even though healings took place in abundance. Jesus was so sensitive to his Father that he always was at the right place at the right time making the most of every opportunity that came his way ...right up to the cross. To the apostles he gave the same authority. They likewise fit in with God's movements so that in the ordinary daily round these men and women did supernatural things. But the whole view of these things is so bent out of shape by modern slick Christianity that it's very difficult for us to even grasp the concept of ministering with the finger of God.

 

Perhaps people who had the clearest sense of what this is were the Hassidic Jews of two hundred years ago. These people were living under oppression, (from nominal Christians). As they sought refuge in a relationship with God the Hassidim, (pious ones), they would cluster around a Tzadik, (a righteous one). It was believed that the Tzadik was so single‑mindedly devoted to God that it mattered little whether people admired him or what happened in the world around him. Wherever this man went angels opened the way. He could read hearts and heal and drive away evil. The Hassidim tended to draw their strength from the Tzadik. Conversely the Hassidim gave their strength back to the Tzadik and ministered through him. It was as if only the Tzadik worked the works of God while the Hassidim stood apart as spectators.

 

But suppose that instead of having one worker of wonders surrounded by a congregation of Hassidim who watch and admire, we have one Hassid, (merciful one), who somehow transforms every life that touches his into a worker of divine wonders ...a vine sustaining many branches which bear fruit that abides forever. This is precisely what Jesus does to those lives that truly unite themselves to his ...he transforms each one into a Tzadik, (a righteous one), and send us forth to touch human lives with the finger of God.

 

                   You did not choose me, I chose you and ordained

you that you should go and bring forth fruit.

 

 We have been ordained by Jesus to accomplish much more than what we have thought of as our normal Christian life. We have been sent to perform the redemptive work of the Lord in the time that is left. We are to do exactly what the legendary Tzadik was to do: to be in the right place at the right time ...to so touch human lives that the broken image of God in their hearts is restored.

 

                   And these signs will accompany those who believe: 

in my name they will cast out demons; they will 

speak in new tongues ...they will lay their hands 

on the sick and they will recover.

 

And so we begin to understand that God has indeed given us a grace that brings light to people and that conveys peace wherever it goes. And once we taste that we turn our backs on slick churchianity and get on with the work of a ministry hidden by the hand of God but shining with the true glory.

 

The same Jesus who calls us to the ministry of the finger of God also warns us that there are certain things which will threaten this ministry. There are areas where we have to be on our guard. If we flounder in any of these areas we may still build churches and draw crowds and write books, but we will no longer be able to touch human lives with God's finger.

 

1. The relationship between woman and man. Before you came into the Kingdom of God and were given this ministry you may have been married five times. Perhaps you lived in the gay bars. You may have been a porno addict or read True Romance every night before you went to bed. But now that you've come into the kingdom and have been given this ministry, your relationship with the opposite sex must be not only morally pure but absolutely right. When Jesus talks about marriage and divorce, or when Jesus warns of the danger of lust, he's not putting his finger in a condemning way on your past...your past is under the blood. He is talking about your present. Each of us is either a eunuch for the Kingdom of God, (you're living a single life in all purity, sustained by God's grace), or you are married ...or on your way to marriage.  If you're married or on your way to marriage then your re­lationship with your mate must be sanctified by the love of God in you, so that in your relationship with your mate, (or the one who will ultimately be your mate),  God comes first. And you are careful to love your mate with the same merciful, forgiving, self‑giving love that has been shown to you in the Lord. And your relationship with your mate is absolutely pure. You are true to your mate not only in your actions but in your imagination and your thought. If we allow ourselves leeway in this area then our ministries are going to be infected. And if we don't quickly remove the infection they will be destroyed.

 

2. The way we handle money. Jesus puts much emphasis on the fact that we must handle mammon in such a way that it is clear that we are serving not mammon, but God.

 

He who is faithful in very little is faithful

also in much. And he who is dishonest in a very

little, is dishonest also in much. If then you

have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon

who will entrust to you the true riches? And if

you have not been faithful in that which is anothers,

who will give you that which is your own? No servant

can serve two masters, for either he will hate the

one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one

and despise the other. You cannot serve God and

mammon.

 

The Pharisees who were lovers of money heard all this and scoffed. But he said to them,

 

"You are those who justify yourselves before men

but God knows your hearts... For what is exalted

among men is an abomination in the sight of God."

 

We see Jesus watching the widow putting her two pence in the treasury of institutional Israel and he did not condemn her for it ...he honored her. In his parable of the good Samaritan Jesus makes clear that the Samaritan not only spent time on that wounded Jew, but money...the equivalent of two days wages. "And if you spend more," he says to the innkeeper, "when I come back I will repay you." He keeps his commitment.

 

How many ministries are stunted because we are irresponsible? .... unfaithful to God in our use of money. And how many ministries suffer because we allow ourselves to be deceived by money? ....we think that money is the answer. "If we have more money we can do more good." We start to beg for it, we worry about it, we put stock in it ....we think that money is our security. We will not minister effectively with the finger of God my friends, if we are irresponsible in our use of money or if we are lured by money and begin to lust after it.

 

3. Anxiety about tomorrow. There are two ways that you can face tomorrow ....with anxiety, which is natural to us, or with faith in God. When we're anxious about tomorrow then we start to worry about what we shall eat, what we shall drink, what we're going to put on, or what's going to happen to us. "Maybe I'll get sick ...perhaps I'll have an automobile accident ...what if I am caught in one of those tornadoes... what if there's a war?"...who knows...maybe all these things will happen. The Lord doesn't promise us specific things about tomorrow except that he will be there ...if we walk with him. Whatever you're going to need to face tomorrow, (if we have that long), you're going to have tomorrow...not now. But tomorrow you will have what you need if you walk with Jesus.

 

If we face tomorrow with anxiety, if we don't see this as sin and repent of it, then our ministry evaporates. But if we face tomorrow with the help of the Lord, admitting our anxieties to him, crying, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief,"...if we walk into tomorrow trusting him and throwing these anxieties upon him we go from strength to strength.

 

4. A critical attitude. The Lord who says, "Judge not and you will not be judged, condemn not and you will not be condemned," means what he says. We can't possibly minister effectively if we're full of judging. We love to think of ourselves as Jesus' disciples. But when we indulge in the habit of being cynical and critical and sour about, everything we see that isn't connected with our own ego we put ourselves out of the ranks of disciples and in the ranks of the scribes and Pharisees.

 

"Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's

eye and fail to behold the log that is in your own eye?"

 

For many of us it's almost a compulsion. Every time we go to another fellowship we just have no peace until we find a flaw. For some of us it's simply a habit ...such a habit that we almost think that there's nothing to talk about at the dinner table unless we can find somebody to make fun of or tear apart or complain about. For many of us it's a habit of thought in our inner conversations with ourselves ...we're not happy until we can find somebody we can belittle or something we can laugh at in a derogatory way. But if we're going to minister with the finger of God this must change so that the mercy of the Lord which was shown to us begins to color our attitude in this area toward all people ...believers and unbelievers.

 

5. The unforgiving heart.

 

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who

trespass against us ...Forgive and you shall be forgiven ....

"If you don't forgive men their trespasses," says Jesus,

"neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses."

 

What is this gospel that we have but a gospel of forgiveness? What is the finger of God but the finger that lifts the guilt away from us and puts it on himself. How in this world can we effectively minister with that finger if we have closed the door of our own hearts to God's mercy by refusing to be forgiving toward one other soul? No doubt this is the main reason why God throws us together in fellowship with people of different backgrounds, in order that we might learn to be forgiving. Of course we are going to irritate each other and rub each other the wrong way and try one another's patience...so we are compelled to learn to forgive. God doesn't send us off on all the roads of this world like lonely Tzadiks...he sends us forth as part of a specific congregation where we are continuously learning to forgive. The more effective we become at forgiving one another the wrongs that are done to us ...or that we think have been done to us ...the more freely and mightily the grace of God flows forth to the world. If we're walking around with a chip on our shoulder how can we turn around and bring life to the world?

 

"If I cast out demons by Beelzebul by whom do your

sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your

judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out

demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you."

 

These signs shall accompany those who believe: in

my name they will cast out demons; they will speak

in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they

drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will

lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.

 

So then the Lord Jesus after he had spoken to them

was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right

hand of God and they went forth and preached every-

where while the Lord worked with them and confirmed

the message with signs that attended it.