A few more thoughts on ministry!

The poor are not always meant to be fed by us! Father is always feeding them, but not always through us.

Our ministry cannot be led by other’s needs, it must be led by Him. We are not healers, He is! If He wants to heal someone through us and our own gifts, then that will flow out of our relationship. He will tell us, hey, I want to teach you something about Myself through your helping of this person or that place.

We move in that same way Jesus did while on earth—we try to only do what we see our Master doing. When we do, we meet and get to know Him through helping others! We do not get thrown off by ministering to others, because it is no longer out of our own soul power, but flowing out of our relationship with Him. “He is the third between us and other’s needs!”

 In order to truly bless the poor sometimes, we are lead to be heading towards the Cross (our own healing) instead, or Jerusalem (knowing who we truly are in Him), or to partner with Him in whatever way He is leading. This isn’t easy for those who feel called to, and constantly aware of, and sensitive to those in need around them. And yet, as many who are truly led by Him are becoming the sons and daughters. We are those who regardless of our gifts and sensitivities are meant to be led by His Spirit in blessing others.

When Jesus was on earth, He did not just go heal everyone, He sat with His Father and waited to see what part He was meant to download in each situation. That’s our model. There are many needs around us daily, but we are the ones who are meant to meet Him through all we do.

As one minister friend put it:

“We cannot be guided by other’s needs. We must be led by the Father to move in Jesus’ way. It is easy to think that our gifts can be applied anywhere, harder to let them be used with and in Him to give Himself to others. Once we realize our gifts, we want to give them everywhere at once, but Jesus model is to offer them over and again to His Father, and say, where would You like to plant my gifts today.”

That’s the practice. The poor will be with us always, the needs of others will never end, but we are those led by the Father, and becoming the Sons and Daughters of the Most High.

We try, in Him, to only do what we see the Father doing, regardless of needs around us—this is a real challenge for those of us who are able to sense the needs of others around us; yet, we too, must be led by the Father.

One sign of this, is when we are actually meeting God and amazed by Him and His Ways as we give to those in need (which, in the end, we all are!) If Jesus would have ministered only to needs, He would have never made it to the Cross. He cared, but was not distracted by all the wounded souls around Him. He knew, if He followed the Father, He would end up blessing all of them in the end.

When we meet God in helping others, it is symbiotic-we are mutually blessed! Us, by experiencing how amazing the Father is in His nuanced kindness to each person, and those we bless in Him, in how remarkably concerned He is with both of us.

Ministry is a mutual blessing. It transforms all involved, in a way which makes us all mutually amazed by Him! And His Burden is light to us. He shares a moment of the weight, so we realize that He Himself is carrying it.

My burden is Light (which is heavy for Him, but light for us! He showed me this clearly in a vision where I was trying to carry His light—many candles on my shoulders, but, in the vision, the metal container for the candles was teetering on my shoulders, then He told me, you can’t carry my glory, but I can!) Let me, but you can empathize with Me, and I’ll meet you in this space of co-carrying the burdens! But we are not meant to carry it! But He already has, and is still!

I have a friend who told me, “I used to get depressed after helping others. I was carrying their needs and bearing their burdens: then, i realized that He was the only one who could do that, and I got freed up to get to know Him through helping others. It was a big breakthrough for me in understanding how Jesus and I are meant to work together! I don’t have to heal others. He does. What I get to do, is partner and facilitate His presence into each situation, and watch Him do it, and be co-amazed with the other person, at how deep and thorough His Love is!”

We are just co-bearer’s of His Cross. Little examples of those who chose to follow His! We are mini-priest, His little lovers, who get to co-bear His Cross, as our little crosses. Take up your little cross as a way of knowing His Enormous Burden which He already and continuously carries. All our helping others is about knowing how deeply He loves and cares for others. As caretakers, we get to know the Greatest Caretaker who laid down His life for others. We are privileged to move in His Way, as tiny examples of His sacrificial Kindness!

Ministering to need versus ministering from and in Him! Ministry should be overflow from our growing intimacy with Jesus. What leads us in ministry? Is it really about getting to know, love and therefore overflow His Life into others; or is it something more selfish-like the need to feel helpful. Is our ministry soul led, or truly led by His Spirit and our growing intimacy with God. Who would you be, if He asked you to fast from all ministry? This is a question a mentor asked me, which started making me meditate on my real spiritual motivations for helping others.

The poor were with Him always, but He only did what He saw His Father doing!

Jesus did not let His ministry be led by the immediate needs around Him, He was thinking much more long term, and He was looking constantly to His Father and their relationship, to see what each day was meant to be.

We cannot let our ministry be led by the needs of others, we must instead be led by His Spirit. As many who are led by His Spirit are becoming the sons and daughters of God. The poor will be with you always. If Jesus would have ministered led by need, He would not have made it to The Cross. We too must not be led by other’s needs, but rather by His Spirit.

Having ministered for years and walked with many in ministry, i see this as a huge need and warning. There are always those who need around us, but we are to be the ones who are looking to The Father, then He will share His ministry with us for that person, if He choses, and we choose to partner with Him. It is soulful or soul led to go and use our gifts willy nilly, or as we choose. Jesus instead, only did what He saw the Father doing. So should we.

We feel good when we help others. And God likes to help people. But we cannot get our validation from our ministry. We get our validation directly from The Father, and He gives us the things we are meant to do along our path (Ephesians 2:10).

The good works prepared beforehand to be our way, He knows. He can reveal what these good works are, as we follow Him! We cannot just offer our own good works to Him and expect Him to bless us and be pleased.

We must do the actual good works which He has prepared for us! That’s a key to living ministry of His Life to others. Our ministry is a medium through which to get to know and Love God firstly and fore mostly. If we are not firstly meeting Him, we should not be ministering. When we do, we minister a false image of God to others. We misrepresent Christ to others. And they may feel helped, but we have not helped them eternally, or seeded their deeper heart or inner man.

I have seen this pattern of people getting their validation from helping others over and over. And I myself did so in my 20’s. I knew my spiritual gifts, but not yet how to follow God. So I used them to help others in order to feel good about myself. That is the opposite of Jesus Way. Jesus knew who He was when He laid down His Life, and He knew what He was doing. He was not doing it to validate His Own Identity, He knew He was a king while being treated as a thief. He was not victimized by the Cross.

In our days, the needs of others is increasing as the earth shakes ever more violently. Thus our focus on the Father must grow even or acute and specific. Many are doing more overt spiritual practices daily to keep the “main thing, the main thing.” Our relationship with God is much higher in importance than our ministry, and it is what we must be daily cultivating. Our growing intimacy with God is really all that matters. If He allows us to minister His Life to others, then wonderful, but for first we must be growing in His Life. He knows when to make us guardians of other’s souls. And He gives us His Authority to do so, in His Timing. But we are those hidden and grounded and founded in His Actual Life. This is our core spirituality.

Each of us has a path or way, according to Ephesians. Part of this way is caught up in the true church, His Body. But there are specific ways each of us are made to participate in that great spiritual organism, which is His House, Our Head. Our paths, are revealed by God as we seek Him daily.

We are all called to minister His Life, but first He ministers His Life to us. Jesus often retreated to the garden prayer space to be with His Father. He modeled our basic spirituality in doing so. He gave freely to all those who asked, but He also knew who The Father was giving to, and how. And those He gave more deeply to, and exactly what the Father was giving them. Our discernment is meant to reveal what is of Him and what is not of Him—what is in rebellion or transgression.

The ways of the world, the laws of death are always around us. And we, as ministers are displacers of death with His Life. We get to be salt and light-those who preserve and bring understanding; but we must do so from the firmness of our relationship in and to and with Him. Jesus modeled this clearly. He did not just go around helping everyone, and throwing out every dark spirit. He addressed what The Father was addressing through Him daily. Some days, He only taught His friends. Others, He delivered people from darkness or healed them. Others, He taught in the temple. He knew what to do daily, as His Eyes were always fixed on His Father.

The ways of death have to be weeded out of us daily. And in certain seasons of our own lives, that is His main concern. Other seasons, He offers us, firstly to His Own Body or House, and then outwards to those He is drawing in. But our main concern remains, to know and love and be formed, and in-formed,  by God.

We are His lovers firstly, then we come to love what He is loving, and in the way in which He is loving. His Sheep hear His Voice, because they are with Him constantly, and speak in His nuances and tone. That tone is love. God is able to love all those you cannot. And God will give you in and from His Own Heart, those you are meant to minister His Love into! Sometimes these folks are poor other times rich, but they are the ones you are given to minister His Life into, from the overflow of your ongoing conversing with Him.

Another way to approach this topic of not ministering only to need, is to focus on allowing ourselves to be given as gifts from The Father to the Son. If that is our primary mission, then when His Son chooses to give us outwardly to others, we are once again happy to be given. But our primary activity is to become gifts worthy of Jesus. If and when He wants to give us away, what another wonderful day, and way of knowing and communing with Our Lord!

In short, our core motivation in ministry needs to flow out of the formation of His Life in us—our deepening friendship with Jesus and His Father, is our basic purpose in life. To be in Him, is to begin to love what He loves and want to serve with Him, as He is a servant. But we must know the Servant, in order to serve In and with Him, and not just in our own power or desire, or need.

We must know His Life first, in order to serve and impart His Life to others. This is how we keep our ministry motivations pure in Him. And it is a basic practice for those  in His Ministry, to return often to our first Love and Lover! Keep allowing Him to purify your motivations for ministry. Are they really flowing from and in Him? Are there any parts which are not? This is the core spirituality of ministers. It is not just being good at helping others meet Him or find their real questions, which it is also, but more importantly, it is to know and deepen our union and love of Jesus and His Father, in the grand power of His Holy Spirit! Then we can consider discipling His Being into others.

If you could not help anyone, would you still know who you are in Him? Was how one of my mentors put it. It’s a good question for those who like to help others and serve Him. Am I really mostly concerned with getting to know God, or doing good things in His Name? To know and love God and to love one another, was Jesus summation of all the law. The first —to love and know God, is primary! When we do this, we will find ourselves engulfed in His Love for others! He shares His cares with His Beloved, which we are, in His Son. Us caught up in Belovedness, become lovers of all He adores!

One way to go about this ministry purification process practically is to ask yourself, am I meeting and getting to know God through helping this person. If so, often He is meeting you in ministry. If not, you are probably just using your gifts for your own enabling or self ignobling purposes not His. Paul taught us to be careful how we spiritually build. Not just to build well, but build with and in Jesus—whatever is not actually in His Spirit, will be burnt away like straw burns! Things which last, are things actually in Him and participating in His Life! So, this is part of taking care of how we plant and build in other’s lives.

There are stages of spiritual growth, where He Himself gives you as a gift to the Body, or to others-it’s barely an honor when it happens, it’s experientially very humbling. Leadership is always a matter of knowing how incapable you are of doing any good in your own power—it is utter dependence, and requires much death to self. It’s not enviable, but when you meet a true elder, you can tell they have died so many times in order to live. Like John the Baptist, they have decreased that He may increase in them. So you feel mostly Him, when you around them. Ironically, you also feel they are very much themselves. That’s what eldership or later stages of maturation of His Life in people look like.

I grew up in ministry, so saw how much inner death is required to really allow it to continue to be your authentic spirituality and not just some religious job. It’s not easy, and to allow Him to elevate your authority in Him, is very humbling. The world wants to quickly elevate based on need and gifts. But Father elevates in His Own Ways for His Own purposes. Always, though great leaders, have this characteristic of thankfully returning to their own personal relationship with God, regardless of how He is using their outer life to help others.

You will know when those stages are reached, and you are starting to get to know Him in true ministry of His Life to others. You will already be close enough friends, that you will sense His leading you out into His Own Fields. But even there, like David, you must keep returning to this core friendship, especially as you move into king and queenly parts of His Life. When you begin to co-minister His Life with Him, you are getting to know Him as Ruler, King, Pastor, Shepherd, Teacher…He guides you into ever deeper parts of who He is over time. Be led by Him alone, and not your own spiritual talents or gifts, and He may plant them one day in soil which lasts forever! Be led by Him, not other’s needs.

Why does this matter? Because we as those who have chosen to follow in Jesus way, constantly being refined in our deepest motivations, even for serving Him. It’s very easy in any type of helping profession to be drawn out from your true life in Him, to use your gifts for your own purposes. When you have spiritual gifts, you are a steward of something from God. And the way to care for and cultivate a gift is to keep returning to the Giver.

In our times, people reward charisma or great gifts of healing or spiritual talents…these are not true trophies. The true trophy is the Life of Jesus implanted in us, which shines like a Light in a very dark place. His Glory is over half of our true ministry on earth. To the degree it is formed in us and increasing; that is, to the degree we are growing in His Glory—from glory to Glory, we will bless all around us. We are light glowing air-fresheners on this planet. And our job is ultimately to be bright and fragrant! The world tends to value talents or gifts rather than identity. God, conversely, is more concerned with who we are, and who we are becoming in and through the Life of His Son in us, than what we do in this world. Doing flows from being. Being has to be prioritized. Is our actual inner being being daily baptized into His Name or Identity. That is what God looks at.

Anyone can be a celebrity, even a “spiritual” celebrity. But few have a Godly reputation, one that God Himself bestows! King David had one, even with his brokenness, God chose to spotlight His Life. Abraham had a life like that, so he could be called a friend of God. What an honor. The world accolades for the wrong reasons, and elevates things before it is time. We need to be very careful to allow Him to do all the spiritually promoting, especially in our celebrity culture.

Our friendship with God through Jesus is our core spirituality. From this precious friendship, comes all true lasting ministry. It is wise to cultivate that friendship above all else. If you get to minister with Him, wonderful. But it’s always Who your with and in which matters most!

In meeting a traumatized artist…

When I meet an artist who has been traumatized, as most have, i like to listen, and sense who they were, when they were safe to be themselves. And work from there.

For me, to go a bit behind the mask and offer something which matters (like an interview when two people understand one another’s struggles to be-a real encounter in safety requires enough trust to expose ourselves-so we must be real with one another. That’s the setting where Love can enter.

To go into their art often helps-to discuss what’s going on creatively, and meet them there.

We experience our personal terrors, but behind the coping masks which we put on, there is the real self yearning to be seen, loved and known. To love on the person just behind the mask. That interest me.

We are all masked. But depending on the levels of trauma we have known and embodied, we have more clever or layered masks. I like to see people as they are, off stage, and just being who they were meant to be. Lots of my life, is about hearing confessions as a result, so a person can get towards a moment of true encounter.

Some more thoughts on ministry!

The poor are not always meant to be fed by us! Father is always feeding them, but not always through us.

Our ministry cannot be led by other’s needs, it must be led by Him. We are not healers, He is! If He wants to heal someone through us and our own gifts, then that will flow out of our relationship. He will tell us, hey, I want to teach you something about Myself through your helping of this person or that place.

We move in that same way Jesus did while on earth—we try to only do what we see our Master doing. When we do, we meet and get to know Him through helping others! We do not get thrown off by ministering to others, because it is no longer out of our own soul power, but flowing out of our relationship with Him. “He is the third between us and other’s needs!”

 In order to truly bless the poor sometimes, we are lead to be heading towards the Cross (our own healing) instead, or Jerusalem (knowing who we truly are in Him), or to partner with Him in whatever way He is leading. This isn’t easy for those who feel called to, and constantly aware of, and sensitive to those in need around them. And yet, as many who are truly led by Him are becoming the sons and daughters. We are those who regardless of our gifts and sensitivities are meant to be led by His Spirit in blessing others.

When Jesus was on earth, He did not just go heal everyone, He sat with His Father and waited to see what part He was meant to download in each situation. That’s our model. There are many needs around us daily, but we are the ones who are meant to meet Him through all we do.

As one minister friend put it:

“We cannot be guided by other’s needs. We must be led by the Father to move in Jesus’ way. It is easy to think that our gifts can be applied anywhere, harder to let them be used with and in Him to give Himself to others. Once we realize our gifts, we want to give them everywhere at once, but Jesus model is to offer them over and again to His Father, and say, where would You like to plant my gifts today.”

That’s the practice. The poor will be with us always, the needs of others will never end, but we are those led by the Father, and becoming the Sons and Daughters of the Most High.

We try, in Him, to only do what we see the Father doing, regardless of needs around us—this is a real challenge for those of us who are able to sense the needs of others around us; yet, we too, must be led by the Father.

One sign of this, is when we are actually meeting God and amazed by Him and His Ways as we give to those in need (which, in the end, we all are!) If Jesus would have ministered only to needs, He would have never made it to the Cross. He cared, but was not distracted by all the wounded souls around Him. He knew, if He followed the Father, He would end up blessing all of them in the end.

When we meet God in helping others, it is symbiotic-we are mutually blessed! Us, by experiencing how amazing the Father is in His nuanced kindness to each person, and those we bless in Him, in how remarkably concerned He is with both of us. Ministry is a mutual blessing. It transforms all involved, in a way which makes us all mutually amazed by Him! And His Burden is light to us. He shares a moment of the weight, so we realize what He Himself is carrying it.

My burden is Light (which is heavy for Him, but light for us! He showed me this clearly in a vision where I was trying to carry His light—many candles on my shoulders, but, in the vision, the metal container for the candles was teetering on my shoulders, then He told me, you can’t carry my glory, but I can!) Let me, but you can empathize with Me, and I’ll meet you in this space of co-carrying the burdens! But we are not meant to carry it! But He already has, and is still!

I have a friend who told me, “I used to get depressed after helping others. I was carrying their needs and bearing their burdens: then, i realized that He was the only one who could do that, and I got freed up to get to know Him through helping others. It was a big breakthrough for me in understanding how Jesus and I are meant to work together! I don’t have to heal others. He does. What I get to do, is partner and facilitate His presence into each situation, and watch Him do it, and be co-amazed with the other person, at how deep and thorough His Love is!”

We are just co-bearer’s of His Cross. Little examples of those who chose to follow His!

On American Beauty ( a redacted edition)

Listening to and through the Roses on a Sunday, a languid sabbath meditation (thank you Sunday, for letting me overwrite my thoughts, and just be in them!):

We grow lots of roses from different nations on our land. My wife planted an “American beauty” on the curb which faces the old folks home (actually the civil war widow’s home, which still stands along with its 200 year old live oaks across our street). The rose was developed at Texas A and M, which is one of the older and largest agricultural university in America, and is a few hours from our home. Gardening is an old and popular tradition in this region. But none of that is my point.

When I look at the rose named American Beauty, it makes me think of different cultural ideas and ideals of Beauty itself.

This particular rose is what you would imagine America to be like, if it were a rose- very pink, large upright, extroverted, and freely giving itself outwards. Not too much hiddenness like the french roses, not as layered and cupped as the English, not super subtle, but really beautiful and life affirming and visibly unabashedly prolific.

There are more blooms on that bush than most of our other rose bushes. And it is our most public rose. The easiest to share with the most types of people. Everybody likes it.

America has been called a brazen leader, at time presumptuous, immature, but if you look at her ideal beauty, or a flower that you would name as your nation, you see what America likes: hardy extroverted generous, voluminous, multiplying prolific, easy to tend, easy to like roses.

Beauty is not always fragile is one thing this rose is saying today.

Each nation has ideal beauties, but also I think, each culture reflects unique aspects of God’s Beauty.

People are often intimidated by roses, because of their beauty, and perhaps because there have been so many kitschy poems written about them over the years. But roses are plants, and are tougher and more resilient than you might think at first.

Beauty is sometimes hardy. Americans like that aspect especially in the southwest and frontier regions. Historically, people like overcomers here.

I learn a lot from roses, which were developed in each nation. I think about what they reveal about the identity of each place. And how local soils can bring out certain dormant characteristics in roses. Some aspects of a rose, which might not reveal themselves in the south of France, will here. Others get muted in alien soil.

When the nations dialogue, we get new hybrids and new compositions. Some work, some don’t. But the conversation itself teaches us lots about how the gifts of the nations could, and one day will, work together as unity with diversity. We can co-inpire one another.

I think about how the gifts of the nations are revealed in what and how they choose to do gardening, or architectural design, how they cultivate and co-inspire over time, certain characteristics, they want to see highlighted. How outer expression flows from core identity, and how this gets symbolized even in our cultivation and hybridization of nature.

I like this American beauty, though sometimes i get bored with how obvious it is. Still, there are days when i watch an elderly woman smelling or admiring its shape and composition, and I think, yeah America, at her best, is still generous with its beauty. Heavy handed, but also open handed.

Although there is not always enough emphasis on inner or hidden life, she is strong, caring and offers herself and gifts freely. And she really is beautiful, in her own way.

Regardless, i like considering roses, and what they point towards and express from. We can read a lot through a rose.

Another saint’s quick comment on love!

“Love is the best sermon any of us can give through our lives. Faith and hope only lead to and stream from Love. To the degree we learn to receive and give Love, is the measure of how well we lived, and how deeply we blessed others. Love is the measure or gauge of all things. Love is the litmus test of being!”

We grow lots of roses from different nations on our land. My wife planted an “American beauty” on the curb which faces the old folks home (actually the civil war widow’s home, which still stands along with its 200 year old live oaks across our street). The rose was developed at Texas A and M which is one of the older and largest agricultural university in America, and is a few hours from our home. Gardening is an old and popular tradition in this region. But none of that is my point.

When I look at the rose named American Beauty, it makes me think of different cultural ideas and ideals of Beauty itself.

This particular rose is what you would imagine America to be like, if it were a rose- very pink, large upright, extroverted, and freely giving itself outwards. Not too much hiddenness like the french roses, not as layered and cupped as the English, not super subtle, but really beautiful and life affirming and visibly unabashedly prolific.

There are more blooms on that bush than most of our other rose bushes. And it is our most public rose. The easiest to share with the most types of people. Everybody likes it.

America has been called a brazen leader, at time presumptuous, immature, but if you look at her ideal beauty, or a flower that you would name as your nation, you see what America likes: hardy extroverted generous, voluminous, multiplying prolific, easy to tend, easy to like roses.

Beauty is not always fragile is one thing this rose is saying today.

Each nation has ideal beauties, but also I think, each culture reflects unique aspects of God’s Beauty.

People are often intimidated by roses, because of their beauty, and perhaps because there have been so many kitschy poems written about them over the years. But roses are plants, and are tougher and more resilient than you might think at first.

Beauty is sometimes hardy. Americans like that aspect especially in the southwest and frontier regions. Historically, people like overcomers here.

I learn a lot from roses, which were developed in each nation. I think about what they reveal about the identity of each place. And how local soils can bring out certain dormant characteristics in roses. Some aspects of a rose, which might not reveal themselves in the south of France, will here. Others get muted in alien soil. When the nations dialogue, we get new hybrids and new compositions. Some work, some don’t. But the conversation itself teaches us lots about how the gifts of the nations could, and one day will, work together as unity with diversity. We can co-inpire one another.

I think about how the gifts of the nations are revealed in what and how they choose to do gardening, or architectural design, how they cultivate and co-inspire over time, certain characteristics, they want to see highlighted. How outer expression flows from core identity, and how this gets symbolized even in our cultivation and hybridization of nature.

I like this American beauty, though sometimes i get bored with how obvious it is. Still, there are days when i watch an elderly woman smelling or admiring its shape and composition, and I think, yeah America, at her best, is still generous with its beauty. Heavy handed, but also open handed.

Although there is not always enough emphasis on inner or hidden life, she is strong, caring and offers herself and gifts freely. And she really is beautiful, in her own way.

Regardless, i like considering roses, and what they point towards and express from. We can read a lot through a rose.

I tend to like singular teachers. One of kinders. I like people who have developed their own style of conversation with Christ, and let you overhear it.

Often two different teachers can be streaming from the same well, but the style of naming what they’ve found is remarkably different.

I enjoy that diversity of expression, and when someone has an authentic language for what they have learned and are learning with Jesus.

I like people who are living in their own skin, and are fine with that. If they are misunderstood, they try to translate it enough so the seeds can be shared, but they don’t lose their native spiritual tongue.

A hug or  supportive physical touch at the right moment, changes everything. Just as a word can bloom when given and received from the heart. Find the good soil in one another and plant there. It’s wisdom to bless others well, not just how you yourself get blessed, but how God is blessing them. Having His orientation towards other is the key to lasting ministry into others. It’s important not just to have His information for the other person or situation, but His Tone and Orientation of Love towards them. God gives particularly. So should we. Not just God is loving them, He is loving others in specific ways. This is how He nuances Himself, and how we get to know and reflect these nuances of Grace. Partnering with Him in ministering His Life to others, is another way of getting to know just how awesome and specific His loving really is. Ministry is just a way to get to know and love and appreciate more of God. Without the specific nuances of His Love, we can become nothing more than resounding gongs, useful only to ourselves–sort of narcissistic ministry (ministry to meet our own needs, even the one to feel useful to others), instead of ministry as a way of spirituality-of knowing and therefore overflowing and revealing God to others.