Did you know that we are all called to be ministers? This does not mean vocational ministry or church leadership, but every believer has a ministry to God and to others.
The first and primary ministry of every Christian is actually to minister to the Lord. For many people, the idea of ministering to God sounds blasphemous. God is perfect and needs nothing. He does not need to be preached to or encouraged. Our prayer and care are not required to sustain Him. He is self-sufficient.
Yet in the New Testament we find one of the most influential church hubs of Christianity doing this exact thing. In Acts 13:2, it says that the church at Antioch “ministered to the Lord with fasting.” At the core, to minister to God simply means to worship God. The people of Antioch were worshiping the Lord, praying and fasting, and this became the missions base from which God sent the apostle Paul to take the gospel to the Gentile world. But it all started with ministry to the Lord.
We find this same pattern throughout the Scriptures. The “vertical” ministry to the Lord with worship, prayer, fasting and intercession fuels the “horizontal” ministry to others with evangelism, healing, teaching, pastoring and missions.
In the Old Testament, it was the priests who would minister to God by offering burnt offerings. As they worshiped in this way, it says that the sacrifices would arise to God as a sweet smelling aroma to Him. First Peter 2:5 says that the body of Christ is now a holy priesthood and that we offer God “spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
Our ministry to the Lord does not help God or change God. But when we worship Him, sing to Him, pray to Him, thank Him, surrender to Him and express our love to Him, it is also a pleasing fragrance to His heart. God is actually “ministered to” by our worship!
How exactly does this ministry to God work? And how do we know how much time to give toward ministry to God versus ministry to others? Learn more in Episode 58 of Presence Pioneers on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}
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