Three Ways to Minister to the Lord: Individual, Church, and Group Prayer

How is the proper way to prepare yourselves for ministering Christ to the church? How? By coming together and ministering to the Lord. How do you do that? I’m going to tell you how: go find out for yourself. That’s how. Go find out. Go find out. I don’t remember anyone who does this, or I would give you some help. I can give you some pointers. You are going to have to find out.

There were five brothers: Lucius, Manaen, Niger, Paul, and Barnabas, who were prophets and teachers in the church in Antioch. Do you figure that was all the prophets and teachers? I went back to my scriptures this morning in the Greek, and as I read it again, it is so difficult to say. There’s a word that could be translated “both”, or it could be translated “among those who were.” It’s hard to say. If it’s “both,” Barnabas, Saul, Lucius, Manaen, and Niger, then it means five people. But if it translated “among whom were”, then that means that there were probably many, many more. Brothers and sisters, my own heart is at rest. I am absolutely certain there were many, many more. I can’t prove it, though. I have no scripture for that. I just believe it.  Here were five men who had a burden for the church. The church was four years old. I don’t want any of you to get the idea that you are now a prophet or a teacher. When this church is four years old, there should be some discernment.

Let’s say the Lord gives Brother Mike something. Praise the Lord, it’s rich. Mike is ministering to the Lord, and the Lord ministers to Mike, and he is touched by life. Mike shares this with about 15 brothers and sisters. There is a sense of enlightenment. One of the brothers says that the whole church needs to hear this. Oh, praise the Lord. What does Mike do? He has his choice. Mike may wait until the whole church is together, or go and share it with one of the other groups meeting. You may go around…I know these brothers went around Antioch ministering to the church, even when it did not meet all together. And I know that they also ministered when they all came together.

But Mike, I want to ask you something: Just because the Lord gives you the gift of teaching or prophecy, do we have to put up with listening to you every time we meet? No. That’s the only balance I would like to say. Brothers, if the Lord gives you something, don’t go hog-wild with it. Don’t grab it and run with it. It’s what he gives you. Nonetheless, these brothers lived in a church, now matured with prophets and teachers, and they were not sitting down studying the word of God. They were not working out sermon outlines. They were not preparing one-hour and 15-minute messages. What were they doing? They were ministering to the Lord.

Alright, brothers and sisters, I put on you today the burden of coming together. And I’m now talking about something utterly new. I put on you the burden of seeking out ministering to the Lord. Maybe a whole Saturday afternoon. How are you going to do that? I don’t have the vaguest idea. Yeah. Praise the Lord. I don’t know. Praise the Lord. Maybe if some of us come together, we’ll minister to the Lord, and the Lord will give us something. Praise the Lord.

Well, what else were they doing besides ministering to the Lord? Well, praise the Lord. Are you still so excited? They were ministering to the Lord and fasting. What is the point? They were taking this seriously. They were taking the business of ministering to their Lord seriously. Have you ever fasted? Yes, I missed breakfast once. Have you ever gone all day without eating for the Lord? Have you gone two days without eating for the Lord? Have you gone three days without eating for the Lord? I don’t know how long the Lord might put it on you to fast, and I’m not saying you could begin fasting right now. I really am not. But the more the Lord puts on you ministering to Him, and the more you see the need of coming to Him, and opening yourself to Him with a group of brothers or sisters, that you might bear the burden of life in the church.

These brothers were bearing the burden of life in the church. Not teaching, not doctrine, not sermons; they were bearing the burden of life in the church. What an awesome responsibility for any men. And all we know is that in Antioch (and it didn’t have to be true in any other church), on an occasion after the church was four years old, quite matured, something brought five men together who were prophets and teachers. They put aside everything and fasted to give themselves totally to the matter of life. Totally to the matter of touching the Lord and offering to the Lord His Son in praise, in prayer, in thanksgiving, and in whatever way came out of their fellowship together. They met the need of the Lord. When you feed the Lord, He always feeds you. When you minister to Him, He always ministers to you. I have watched Christianity for many years. I have never seen a group of prophets and teachers come together and minister to the Lord.

But that’s not the point. The point is: what came out? They were ministering to the Lord and fasting. Not praying. It doesn’t say that. That’s very fascinating, isn’t it? It does not, does it? Verse 1, they’re ministering to the Lord and fasting. Verse 2? Okay. What did the Lord do? You know what God did? I’ll tell you what he did. He changed the course of human history. In that prayer meeting, God changed the course of human history. One of the most distinct changes in the course of human history that man has ever known, or history has ever recorded, began in that meeting of brothers fasting and ministering to the Lord. And the Lord went before, and He raised up two new apostles to begin an utterly new work on the earth. Praise the Lord. This is what came out of a small group ministering to the Lord and fasting.

What did they do after the Lord said this to them? Then they prayed and fasted. In verse 3, they prayed and fasted, then they laid hands on them. I want to stop here and get off on another subject.

Let us say that there were 500 people meeting in Goleta. And four or five or six brothers had come together to give a day (as they probably frequently did) to praying, fasting, and ministering to the Lord. Tell me something. Here’s where some of our concepts have got to go. Normal, naturally, who do you think those five men should have been to have such authority? The elders. Now that’s a religious concept. You think about it for a second. If that happened in a mature church, wouldn’t somebody get up and say, ” Did you consult the elders?” There wasn’t an elder in the bunch. Why? Let me tell you why. One reason is that elders aren’t the greatest thing on earth. I mean, praise the Lord, Father, forgive me. They are the greatest thing on earth. In the church, they hold the highest position. In a local church, they hold the highest position, but that position is primarily administrative. Handling the matters of funds, handling the needs of people, but do not think (I know that you will meet together as brothers to pray and bear the burden in the weight of the church, that you should do), but remember that ministry is not in the hands of the elders. The ministry of life is not in the hands of elders. Now, it’s very possible that some of those brothers in that meeting were elders, but they were not acting as elders. I don’t know whether they were elders or not; the Lord doesn’t tell us. They could have been elders, but there, they were prophets.

Do you know what this passage says to me? This passage says, “that church was in unity.” For five brothers to get up and say, “Brothers and sisters, God just separated Barnabas and Paul for preaching the gospel in unknown lands.” There was an immediate endorsement by the church that God had spoken to five men. Can you, brothers and sisters, see such liberality in the church? Such uniqueness, such love and faith and trust, that five brothers can be praying, who have no authority, and they come to say the Lord has spoken…and the church responds without question. But how could they have such trust? Because these men were the kind of men they were. And what kind of men were they? They were men who gave themselves to minister. Not to the church, but to the Lord. That’s the only ministry we have. Any other ministry comes out of that. And if it doesn’t come out of that, it’s not really ministry.

Do not think that I have said to you that the only way that you should minister here in the church, and to the brothers and sisters, and speak to them, is for five brothers to get off in a corner somewhere, praying and fasting. But there is a spirit here, there is a principle here. Brothers and sisters, look what God did to some brothers who are gathering together to really, really, touch the Lord. You already know more than you realize. Pray as the church, and you will see what authority the Lord gives you. Brothers, in the matter of ministering to the church, take the burden of ministering to Christ, and you don’t know, you don’t know what will come out. Praise God, you don’t know what will come out.