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Dear Brothers & Sisters; Well, it’s been quite a while since I last sent one of these letters out. No, it isn’t because I’d forgotten about it; it’s because I had it half done for two months, without knowing how to finish it. I feel that God wants me to share with you some of what God’s been dealing with me about. Although these are lessons for me and my ministry, I’m sure that I’m not the only one who can benefit from them. God keeps having me share these things wherever I go. From the testimonies we’ve received of changed hearts, I’d have to say that what he’s working on in my life isn’t limited just to me. Did you know that there is something more powerful than the Word of God? No, I haven’t gone off the deep end, Jesus said there was in Mark 7:13: “Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition...” Now, I know that Jesus was talking to the Pharisees, but really they weren’t all that different than we are today. The Pharisees were the most right on, radical, on fire for God group of their day. Yet, even with all that going for them, they still missed it my letting their traditions get in the way of what God was doing. Are we any different? No, we aren’t. We too have our traditions that get in the way of what God is wanting to do. I’ll have to say though, ours are more subtle than the ones that the Pharisees had. Ours take form in the way we conduct our services, and what we decide is “Christian behavior.” Of course, we tend to forget about looking in the Bible to see if that’s what God said to do. Take a moment to look at your traditions. I’m sure that God will be glad to point them out to you, if you are truly seeking. Oh, and by the way, be sure to have a blessed Christ-mass this year. In Jesus’ Precious name, Rev. Rich Murphy
MINISTER UNDER THE ANOINTING As we travel, we see all sorts of things happen in the ministry. Some of the pastors and ministers we meet are truly anointed ministers, fulfilling the work that God has called them to do. Others seem to be stuck in a rut, marking time, trying to keep going, without necessarily being sure where they are going to. They’ve lost the spark that they once had, and are marking time until they manage to get it back. It’s not that these other ministers don’t want to do God’s best, it’s more like they’ve lost the understanding of how to truly give something of God to His people. They are missing the anointing of God in their ministry. If we, as ministers, step in front of God’s people, without taking whatever steps necessary to insure that we are ministering under the anointing of God, we are short changing those same people of the fullness of what God has for them. God has sent them to us in order that they may receive from Him through us. We must make sure that nothing prevents that from happening. We ourselves have no power to positively affect someone’s life. All we can do is teach, exhort, and correct in our own understanding. Unfortunately, there aren’t any of us that have a full understanding, so any help in our strength isn’t going to do much good. On the other hand, God is more than sufficient to meet every need. When we minister under the anointing power of God, manifested through His Holy Spirit, we can expect that people will be healed, delivered, saved, and set free. Not because of us, but because of His presence ministering through us. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.” (Isa 10:27) The anointing power of God is supplied to us in order to take away burdens, and break yokes. Looking at the Body of Christ today, it is obvious that they need some burdens removed, and some yokes destroyed. Jesus said “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mt 11:30). One of the problems with the church today is that we’re running around with the wrong yokes. We’re not carrying Jesus’ yoke; we’re carrying the world’s yoke. When we start ministering to people from the anointing of God, then we’ll begin to see change in people’s lives. People talk about the anointing all wrong. They act like some have got it, and some don’t. That’s missing the point entirely. It isn’t some special charismatic magic power that a privileged few are fortunate enough to posses. No, it is the manifest presence of God walking, talking, and ministering through the person. The anointing is the person of the Holy Spirit working directly through the life of a minister. It isn’t any special power... it’s God Himself... showing up to conduct the work of the ministry. That’s the secret... God Himself. We need God to show up in our meetings. Not just because we stand upon Matthew 18:20 - “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” No, we need to bring God into the meeting with us. We need to walk out of our prayer closet, having been in His divine presence, and escort Him into the throne in our church sanctuary. It is our responsibility as a minister of God to bring His presence with us, not only into the church service, but wherever we go. I remember a story about Smith Wigglesworth. He was riding a train home from a meeting that he had conducted. Although he was always looking for some opportunity to witness, none had occurred on the train. As the train was nearing the end of the voyage, he went into the rest room in order to wash his hands. While he was walking back to his seat, a young man fell on his knees saying “You convict me of my sin, what must I do to be saved?” Revival swept through the train car. Instantly, others were on their knees crying out to God. Smith preached to them, then led many to the Lord. This is probably one of the finest examples I have ever heard taking the presence of God with you. Even though Wigglesworth hadn’t said a single word to anyone on that train, he had brought God on board with him. That was enough. It was the presence of God, not the presence of the man that worked in those people’s hearts. The fact that you are called into the ministry dictates that you are anointed by God for that ministry. God doesn’t call you, and then let you flounder out there on your own. No, when He calls he equips, anoints, and provides for. The anointing is there for you. How much of that anointing comes forth in your ministry depends upon how fully submitted to the will of God you are. God does not increase the anointing in our lives as we grow into the ministry He has called us to. Rather, He fully supplies the anointing we need for His work. As we grow into His calling, we appropriate more and more of that available anointing. Therefore, how anointed a minister is at any particular time isn’t up to God, it’s up to the individual. The “anointing level” can fluctuate up and down, depending upon where the minister is in his or her walk with the Lord. What can we do to increase the “anointing level?” Submit to God. The truly anointed ministers of Christian history are those who understood their utter dependence upon God to do the work through them. They would spend hours in prayer crying out their dependency towards God. Then, when they went before the people, they became empty vessels, available to be filled fully with the Glory of God. People get set free when the Glory, the manifest presence of God, shows up. Smith Wigglesworth said of himself that he was a “broken man.” It wasn’t until after he became broken that the anointing of God manifested itself in His life in a great way. Or, how about Kathryn Kuhlman. She talked about “the day that Kathryn died.” After she died, that is her will died, then Christ was able to minister through her. When we die to self, and allow Jesus to live through us, then, and only then, do we become truly effective in allowing the anointing of God to minister through us. We need to die to self daily, kill off our own flesh nature, and not allow it to rear it’s ugly head again. Okay, you might be saying, that sounds great. But, what do I do if I get up some Sunday morning, and the anointing of God doesn’t seem to be there. Then what do I do? The answer to that is so simple that it might be dismissed out of hand. What do you do then? You sit down. There is nothing, other than tradition, which says a pastor is required to preach in our church services. According to Jesus, a pastor is likened unto a shepherd. A shepherd doesn’t spoon feed his sheep; he just takes them to the food. It’s up to the sheep whether or not they eat. Your responsibility is to make sure your sheep have food to eat, not necessarily to do the feeding yourself. Maybe God’s plan for that day is that someone else in your leadership has a word to minister to the people. That’s okay, it doesn’t have to come out of your mouth for it to be God’s Word. Don’t lock yourself into thinking that you’re not doing your job if you don’t preach. Nor does it mean that you’ll lose your people. If God is moving in the house, they won’t have any reason to leave. It might not even be God’s plan for anyone to bring a message for that service. Many of the services we’ve been in that we would call the “best” services, were ones where nobody ever got around to preaching. Maybe He sees a need for your church to spend the entire service in worship to Him. Or, He may desire for the congregation to gather at the altar for prayer. Then again, there might be a prophetic word that’s brought forth which calls people to repentance. Let’s let God be God, and have the Holy Spirit run the service, instead of our tradition doing it. If you allow the Holy Spirit to run your services, I guarantee that there will be a lot of variety. God has a tremendous amount of creativity, and He doesn’t like doing things the same way every time. If you don’t believe that, just take a look at His creation. What variety! Too many ministers spend their time seeking after the gifts instead of the gift giver. They spend their whole lives working to perfect their ministry. Although they know the Lord, they don’t know Him to the extent that they could. Their study time is devoted to learning more that they can prepare great messages with. Their prayer time is spent on asking God to give them the Gifts of the Spirit. Their work time is spent on trying to build their ministry. These people miss the high mark that God has set before them. They might reach a level of achievement and success, but it is nowhere near the level that God has in His vision for them. Instead of seeking to improve the working of the Gifts of the Spirit in our lives, we must seek to perfect the working of the Fruits of the Spirit. The Fruit of the Spirit can only be perfected by a work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We ourselves have no ability to learn or perfect them. Only God, working His surgery upon our hearts can accomplish this work. As the Fruits of the Spirit are manifested in our lives, we become more like Jesus. His character is manifest in us, while our own character, the fruit of the flesh, is being removed. This is part of that “dying to self” process. The more we die to self, the more we can allow Jesus to live through us. Or, put another way, the more we die to self, the more we can allow the anointing to flow through us. To do this however, we must quit trying to seek only the hand of God, and instead turn toward seeking the face of God. Get before Him, in His presence, and learn to know Him. Let Him change us first, then He can work through us to change others. I think that people in the ministry should have more testimonies of how God is changing them than anyone else. Yet, we find the new believers giving those testimonies, while those of us in the ministry only talk about how God is using us. If God is truly using us, He will also be changing us. That’s an even greater testimony to His power. When I prepare for a service, I spend most of my time in prayer, seeking God to move in that service. Not in preparing my message. Yes, I prepare messages. But that isn’t part of my service, preparation. I prepare a message when God gives me one. That usually isn’t part of my service preparation though. My service preparation consists of getting before God’s face, seeking His will for that particular service, and asking in faith for Him to move mightily. What I minister isn’t as important as how He ministers through me. Even though I go into a church with an idea of what I think I’m going to preach on, that often doesn’t happen. God usually tells me what to preach on during the worship time, while I’m on my face before His throne. So, if I had spent a lot of time on sermon preparation, it would all be wasted. God would mess up my sermon and find me something else to preach. So, why does God give me sermons beforehand? So that I can study and write notes. Quite often, what I end up preaching on is pieces of different messages that He’s given me. It might be part of one message, the conclusion from another, and some new revelation from the Holy Spirit sandwiched between the two. By spending my preparation time in prayer I get my heart into a place where God can flow through me. That’s much more important than any other preparation I can do. Once I’ve done that, then the anointing power of God can accomplish the work. Otherwise, if I don’t spend the time seeking God’s will, I’m stuck with trying to minister out of my own strength and knowledge. That isn’t going to do anything for anyone. I can’t cause people’s hearts to be changed, only He can. We live in an age where God is accelerating His will upon the earth. If we are to become part of this move, we must allow God to work through us in a greater way than we ever have before. The time is short, the work is critical, there are souls needing a touch from the hand of God. I encourage you today. Seek God! Seek His face! Come to a place where His anointing power can flow through you. Don’t let anything get in the way of God moving in your life, and in His ministry that is operating through you. |
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Copyright © 1998 by Richard A. Murphy, Maranatha Life All rights reserved.
9 December 1998
