Until the
spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then judgment shall dwell in
the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of
righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of
righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever. And
my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in
quiet resting places. When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the
city shall be low in a low place. Blessed are they that sow beside all
waters…
Isaiah 32:15‑20
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he above passage describes
what happens when the Spirit of God descends upon his people. The wilderness
becomes a fruitful field. First, the Spirit of God brings water into the
desert. People who have been hard and unreceptive and closed, under the refreshing
presence of the Spirit, begin to soften ... their eyes open and they see the
working of God for the first time. Then they begin to sow. They take advantage
of the Spirit's presence in the land, and "sow beside all waters."
Has this not been our
experience? For a long time it seemed as though we
were farming a wilderness. You go out and try to get a response, and nobody's
interested. You talk about Jesus and they want to push
you away. Then the rain falls, the Spirit of God descends, and the whole
situation changes. Suddenly people become receptive ... no longer are we
beating our heads against the wall wondering, "What shall I do?"
..."Where can I go that I might get a response?" Now our problem is
... "How are we going to handle the cries that come to us?"
In the places where we work, the neighborhoods
where we live, perhaps among our relatives, we're beginning to see a response
that we did not see some years back ... or even a few months ago. Never have so
many people from so many backgrounds found their way into our fellowships. The
same Spirit that creates the fruitful field and causes this response is also
about the business of raising up laborers to handle it all. Many of us are
hearing the Lord calling us out of our marketplace of spiritual idleness to
labor in this fruitful field ... he is fitting us together to get the job done.
Now you are
the body of Christ and individually members of it.
And God has
appointed in the church
first apostles, second
prophets,
third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers,
administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all
teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all
possess gifts of healing? Do all speak
with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher
gifts. I
Corinthians 12:27-30
Having gifts
that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy,
in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who
exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives
aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
Romans
12:6-8
But the only way we're
going to find out exactly what our function is in the Body is to begin by
sowing beside all waters, to grasp the opportunities that are in front of us
now.
We don't wait until we get
our degree from seminary ... we don't wake up one morning and decide, "I'm
a prophet and I'm not going to do anything else in the Body of Christ but
prophesy." Or, "I'm an evangelist, don't be
asking me to run errands or drive people to the store, visit the sick in the
hospitals. I'm called to be an evangelist and that's all I'm going to do."
Or, "I'm a teacher, don't ask me to waste my time
listening to people's problems. I'm going to concern myself with teaching the
living word."
Didn't the apostles say in
Acts,
"Look ye
out from among you seven men of honest report whom we may appoint over this
business of serving tables, but we will devote ourselves to the ministry of the
word and to prayer." Acts 6:3,4
True, but there is
sufficient evidence in the book of Acts to assure us that this was not a rigid
law ... as if the apostles never helped to distribute what was needed to the
widows ... or the seven deacons who were appointed by the apostles did nothing else
than serve tables. Stephen, one of the deacons who was called to serve tables,
was the first one to be martyred for preaching the word. And Philip, what's he
doing up there in
Blessed are
they that sow beside all waters ....
Imagine what it would have
been like if Philip had said to the Ethiopian eunuch, "I'm sorry, I can't
explain Isaiah 53 to you, I'm a deacon. Now if you need a hamburger and a coke,
I'll help you out. But you're going to have to wait until you find an
evangelist who will open the scripture to you."
On the contrary, Philip
took the opportunity that was there. He got up into the man's chariot, opened
the scripture to him by the light that Philip had. By the time we get to Acts 21, Philip, one of the seven deacons, is now called
Philip the Evangelist. This is not to say that evangelist is higher than
deacon. The point is that, as we function in obedience where we are, we will
surely find the ministry that God has given us.
We can take the entire
ministry of the Body, everything that has to be done,
and break it down into seven areas. If we are faithful sowing beside all waters
in all of these seven areas, we will begin to find
exactly what it is that God wants us to do. There may be one particular
area that is our specialty. But
don't say; "I'm not going to do anything else." Be faithful ... sow
beside all waters ... and you will find what God wants you to do ... how you
fit into the Body.
The first area in which we
are all called to minister, without any exceptions, is prayer.
The basic ministry to which
you and I are called is to pray. First we minister to
the Lord before we ever minister to men. And we minister to him in worship and
thanksgiving and praise. And as we do this we discover
that this is not some extra frill; this is our joy and our life ... it is the
source of all our strength. The psalms
are a great help in private worship.
As we learn to worship God
alone in prayer, we soon come to the place where we begin to intercede
effectively for others: We lift people up before the Throne of God and call
down God's blessing upon them. We plead the blood over them ... we minister
healing and light to them in our prayers by interceding. Mothers and fathers do
this for their children by name, every day. And if we pray for our children,
our mates, our parents, our brothers and sisters, why stop there? God has set
us in a congregation, so we pray for our brothers and sisters in the Body ...
by name ... day after day. Now we pray for that person on the job, that
neighbor across the street, or that person who's giving us a hard time. And as
we exercise our ministry, faithfully, in prayer, sowing
beside that waters, we begin to experience life we
never knew before.
The second area in which
all of us are called to minister, second in importance only to prayer, is simple
serving of other people.
We get the idea sometimes
that there are certain "Christian peons" ... the little one‑talent
people ... who are supposed to run the errands, go to the grocery store for
others, drive hither and yon, carry things, while others of us are committed to
more weighty responsibilities. We're too busy with the important matters of the
kingdom to serve in such lowly ways. A dangerous thought! A lie from Satan!
Every one of us is called to run errands, to serve in simple ordinary down‑to‑earth
ways all the time.
We're to serve
unobtrusively, simply, naturally. If you're too busy to drive people to the
doctor, to visit the sick, to help the weak, to put yourself at the disposal of
the elderly, if you're too busy doing "more important" things, you're
"too important" to get through the door of the
The third area where every
one of us ... without any exception ... is called to sow beside all waters, is
in evangelizing.
As soon as the word
"evangelizing" is mentioned people think of an "evangelist"
standing at a
microphone before 20,000 people. But that's not evangelism at its
best. Evangelism at its best is one person dealing directly, faithfully, wooing
a single soul to the cross of Jesus. Mass evangelism may have its place, but it
is not nearly as important to God as it seems to be to so many Christians. The
essential evangelism is one‑to‑one. It can be done anywhere ... to
assure the person on the street corner while you're waiting for the bus, or the
one who's crying on the telephone, that the Lord has something good for them.
To call them to turn around and let God direct their lives, to point them to
Jesus and cause them to hear his merciful voice --- this is basic evangelism,
The fourth area where every
one of us is called to minister is in the area of healing.
God didn't give the
ministry of healing to celebrities, he gave it to his
church ... to every believer.
These signs
shall follow them that believe ....
They shall
lay hands on the sick and they shall recover....
Mark
16:17,18
"You believe in
healing? Oh, praise God, I want to take you to a healer I know." No, you,
minister healing! Just as surely as
you're called to proclaim the good news concerning Jesus to people you meet
along the way, you are also called to believe that the word that you will speak
will be confirmed with signs following, as God pleases, in the lives of those
who respond to the truth of what you said.
Don't be afraid to lay our
hands on somebody who's sick, and pray ... or to point
them to the great physician who is Jesus. A healing ministry is imparted to
every follower of the Lord. Granted, certain ones are gifted ... certain ones
are called to a ministry of healing in the Body that becomes special ... but they
will do it the way Jesus does. They will heal and they will say, "Be quiet
about it." And if we find ourselves led in that direction, may God give us
the wisdom not to make a production out of our gift!
The fifth area to which
every one of us is called to minister is in the area of preaching and teaching.
Go
ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every, creature....
Mark 16:15
Go make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I
have commanded you...
Matthew 28:19,20
Does that only apply to the twelve? Obviously the Body of Christ has to
do teaching all the time – and that includes all of us.
Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of
Here's a beautiful illustration of some people
sowing beside all waters. Apollos is doing the very best he can by the light he
has. He doesn't say, "I'm not going to do any preaching and teaching until
I graduate from Union Seminary." He sows beside all waters with the light
he has. Priscilla and
They did not pour cold
water on what Apollos was doing. But they expounded to him the way of God more
perfectly. On his side ... notice also ... Apollos doesn't say, "I'll
listen to Aquila but I refuse to listen to Priscilla
... she's a woman. Doesn't she know that it says in scripture that women aren't
supposed to teach men?" There are occasions when you and I are called to
teach, to expound. And if we're faithful and God has something more for us in
that area, he'll open doors. It can take place on a bus, a
street corner, in your living room, in the lunch room
at work, or in a hospital ward. If we will sow beside
all waters God will open more doors for us.
The sixth area where every
one of us is called to sow beside all waters is in the area
of counseling.
Now the term
"counseling" as we think of it is not used in scripture that way.
Yet, wherever you read in scripture about exhorting or encouraging or rebuking
people, listening to one another's problems, you have counseling going on. It
went on then as it goes on today. And the equipment we need to be effective in
counseling is not the mouth so much as the ear. God will give us the strength
to let this ear stretch way out and truly listen to the cry of the heart that's
underneath the words that are being spoken to us ... and let the other ear go
up toward the Throne for whatever guidance the Lord would have for us. God
help us to learn to listen!
Truly to listen to each
other and take time with each other and pay attention ... some who draw near to
be listened to will be believers and some will be outside the kingdom entirely
... They have a problem. Perhaps it's a marriage problem, a financial problem,
a physical problem, a mental hassle ... they desperately need someone to
listen. It may well be that the Lord has appointed you to be the listener. And
when you have listened well, he may also give you a few words of counsel to
share.
Finally, all of us are
called into the awesome labor of binding and
loosing.
Truly I say
to you whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth about
anything they ask, it will be done for them by my father who is in heaven. For
where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the
midst of them. Matthew 18:18-20
This is normally done in
company with another brother, or sister or 'two' or 'three.' We don't usually
do this by ourselves. There are spirits that are harassing and afflicting and
condemning and tearing to shreds the minds
and hearts of many people.
These spirits are to be bound in the same way
that our Lord bound them.
In his name we are called to loose and set free these
souls who are imprisoned and inhibited and paralyzed by their fears, their
resentments, their anxieties and self‑consciousness. Who of us has not tasted these struggles ourselves?
There can be no other
reason why so many troubled and afflicted spirits are being drawn to our
fellowships these days. There is no other reason why so many are coming to us,
except that God would have his people, in the name of his Son, and by the power
of his Spirit, set the captives free ... bind the spirits of evil and loose the
children who have been in bondage. Surely he's calling
us all today.
"Blessed
are they that sow beside all waters."