THE SERVANT MENTALITY AND THE BREATH OF GOD
A church is transformed from a “club for nice people,” to a true
manifestation of the Body of Christ, when it chooses to take on a Servant
Mentality, an approach to life that shows up in…..
- in their homes,
- here in the Body,
- in their neighborhoods,
… servants.
"You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I
then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one
another's feet. For I have
given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Truly,
truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than he who sent him. If you know
these things, blessed are you if you do them." John
13:13-17
It seems to happen when people start coming to church, not so much with
the question, "What am I going to get out of it today?" but,
"What is the Lord giving me to do in there today?" We're learning to
serve.
- To serve God in worship.
- To serve each other with words and deeds of encouragement, up building
and help.
- To serve the searching ones out there in the world with a living word.
Serving is a mind-set ... it's a way of thinking ... and it creates an
atmosphere which always draws the Spirit of God into our midst.
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting (it says in Acts 13
...i.e. while they were serving the Lord), the Holy Spirit said, "Set
apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
This is the pattern of heaven....
- the Holy Spirit comes to a servant Body, to a servant people.
- the Holy Spirit inhabits the servant mind.
If we will persevere with this servant mentality we will see the Holy
Spirit work among us with resurrection power. The simplest expression of this
comes from the mouth of our Lord in Luke 11....
And he said to them, "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at
midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine
has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will
answer from within, 'Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children
are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything'? I tell you, though
he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because
of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
And I tell you, Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who
asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give
him a serpent, or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then,
who are evil; know how
to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
This is the classic teaching in all scripture of the promise of the Holy
Spirit ... and it begins with a person who deliberately makes himself a
servant.
A friend comes to you in the middle of the night. Your friend is not a
moocher ... he doesn't make a habit of sponging off people and calling it
"living by faith"... he has a genuine need.
So you make yourself his servant, her servant.
You want to give him something to eat to refresh him, but you discover
that your cupboards are bare ... you have nothing in the house. But you have a
friend, the living God, who has all the bread you could ever want. So you go to
your friend in the middle of the night and wake him up.
But notice you're going there as a servant. You're going there because you
have a guest who needs what you don't have and you want to serve him. So you
cry out to God...
"Friend, I need three loaves of bread. A friend of mine has arrived
on a journey and I have nothing to set before him."
And even though the heavenly Father seems to be giving you a hard time...
"It's too late! My children are with me in bed ... come back
tomorrow!",
you persist.
"But friend, I have a hungry guest. I have a needy one. I must have
the bread tonight."
So the heavenly Father pours out his Spirit on you,
- his breath,
- his life,
enabling you to feed your guest with living bread.
No doubt we all agree that our greatest need as a Body of believers is to
have more of the Spirit of God so that we have power to;
- give good news to the poor,
- deliver the captives,
- give sight to the blind,
- give freedom to the oppressed.
There is a steady stream of hungry souls coming into us, coming across our
path at work and in our neighborhoods, calling us on the phone, spilling their
guts to us at family reunions ... and we want power from God to genuinely help
them. So we make this a priority – a burden in our daily prayers.
The promise is that we will be given this power if we will only ask...
"What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a
fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If
you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much
more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
But it's a strange thing: the only ones who ever really catch on to this
teaching of Jesus and take hold of it, and make it work, are those who fit into
the first part of the teaching ...who enter into that servant mentality
when the friends arrives in need. And the only congregations of believers that
are capable not only of receiving an outpouring of the Holy Spirit from God,
but also translating this outpouring of the Spirit into flesh and blood deeds,
into something that lasts, are those congregations that are ruled by a servant
mind.
Without the servant mind we have a little hooting and hollering and
jumping up and down ... a few months or a couple of years of charismatic
excitement with little or no lasting fruit.
But when we have the servant mentality, the Spirit of God stays and his
work among us goes on and on and bears fruit that lasts. To cultivate a servant
mentality in our walk with God there are four things we need to aim at:
1. A servant strives to please
the Master, not the whole world.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who,
though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be
grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the
likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8
Jesus did not come here to put on a show for the human race. He came here
to serve his Father, his one desire was to please his
Father. This gave Jesus tremendous freedom in dealing with people.
- He never had to worry about his ratings.
He didn't care whether they loved him or hated him, he loved them.
There was only one eye he had to please, one eye which was his joy to please:
the Father's eye. And now we are his servants, we are servants of Christ and
stewards of the mysteries of God.
- When our eyes are on him,
we cannot fail.
- When our heart is eager to please him,
we are a success every time!
When we become discouraged and confused and defeated it's always because
we've taken our eyes off the Master and we're making a pitch for the approval
of our audience.
Even if the whole world begins to clap and shout, "Bravo!" we
know in our own soul that we're failures and hypocrites, until we get back to
pleasing our one glorious Master ... his eye alone is the eye that counts.
2. A servant knows who he/she is.
Everybody else is confused about his identity, but the servant knows who he is.
And during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of
Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had
given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to
God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a
towel. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples'
feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. John 13:2-5
- Knowing the Father had given all things into his hand....
- Knowing that he had come from God and was going to God....
Jesus knew this never more clearly than when he was serving his Father by
serving those disciples. He knew this most clearly when he was serving his
Father by laying down his life on the cross as a ransom for many. He knew who
he was, because he was a servant.
And the man or woman who is a servant of Christ, that man knows who he is
... that woman knows where she's going.
Commit yourself again today to being a servant of Christ and your identity
crisis will be over ... you will know who you are.
3. A servant is unafraid to take
initiative.
And he said to them, "Which of you, who has a friend
will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a
friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before
him'...."
When you're serving your guest in Jesus' name, you know what you have to
do and you do it. If you have to pound on heaven's door in the middle of the
night you do it.
When you're a servant of Christ you're not afraid to speak a
straightforward word,
- you write that letter,
- you make that phone call,
- you gather those friends together, you start that Bible study,
- you go and visit that sick friend. You are Christ's servant and this is
what needs to be done, so you do it.
4. A servant is confident that
the Master will provide the bread ... the Holy Spirit.
"...and he will answer from within, 'Do not bother me; the, door is
now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you
anything' I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because
he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him
whatever he needs."
.....because of his importunity.
.....because of his persistence. This
servant knows his friend will give him bread because the friend who has the
bread is the Master.
If God is my Master and I am his servant, I can ask boldly for what I
need.
If Jesus is my Master and I am his servant, I can ask boldly for what I
need.
The people who pussyfoot and hem and haw before the throne of God, never
sure if it's worth asking,
or if it's proper to ask,
or if it will do any good to ask, are not servants, they are the
spectators, the critics, the arm chair prophets of
Christendom.
The servant always has a clear shot.
"Father, I need bread!".... and gets it.
"Father, I need the power of the Holy Spirit!" ....and gets it.
"Jesus, give me a word for these; hungry ones!" ....and it
comes.
We have been called, not to be a club for nice people, not to be a
Christian social agency.
We have been called to be a servant church, an army of servants of God.
Each one of us;
- a servant who strives to please the Master not the whole world,
- a servant who knows who he/she is,
- a servant who is unafraid to take initiative,
- a servant who is confident that the Master will give us the bread; the Holy Spirit in power.
If we will aim at being servants,
If we will pursue a servant mentality,
heaven will open upon us and the power of heaven will
pour through us like a river of living water.