15.2 Ministries of the Spirit
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Christ—out from Whom the whole body, being joined together and being held together through every joint of its supply or provision, according to the energeia inside the sharing from every part, causes growth of the body into the construction of itself in love (Ephesians 4:16 – JSV).
According to the energeia inside the sharing from every part.
The word, “sharing” is koinonia, but in this case, the fellowship aspect of koinonia – that which is outward among life together. This “energeia,” then, is the emanating frequency of the Spirit arising out from each individual person in the community. That energeia is known in the community through each act or moment of contribution coming from each person.
Rivers Flow. When I am chopping onions in the kitchen, when I am laughing at your jokes around the table, when I am speaking in the sharing service, when I am hammering nails, when I am giving an assignment to a class of students, when I am taking out the trash, when I am prophesying Christ arising in you, I am emanating the energeo of the Holy Spirit that is the life force of this living Body that is Father’s Home.
And you, through your every action in life together are doing the same.
Rivers of living water flow out from us in every moment, through every action, BECAUSE we believe in Jesus, that is, because we know that our every interaction together IS the Lord Jesus through us together as His Body.
The Purpose of Ministry. The entire purpose of ministry – the ministries of the Spirit – in the Church is to ensure that the life force energeoing out from the faith of Jesus in each individual person is healthy and alive and filled with the knowledge of Christ among us and as us. The energeia of the Holy Spirit does not emanate life in the community except through the fulfillment and joy of each individual person.
If I am an elder in a local community of Christ, then my one task of that function is to ensure that the fulfillment of your joy – in the knowledge of Christ in, as, and through you in all things – is living and complete. With that understanding fully in mind, let’s set the ministries of Christ into the Church.
Gifts of Ministry. Having then differing gifts [let us use them] according to the grace given to us. If prophecy, [let us prophecy] according to the measure of our faith; or service, [grace] in the service; or teaching, [grace] in the teaching; or exhorting, [grace] in the exhortation; giving in generosity, leading with zeal, showing mercy with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:6-8 – JSV).
And indeed, God has placed [set forth] in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then demonstrations of power, gifts of healing, helping and administering, and various kinds of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:28 – JSV).
And He Himself gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some shepherds and teachers, towards the preparation of the saints for the work of ministry, into the building up, the construction of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-12 – JSV).
Joy and Completion. Later in the course, we will spend a session on the overall fabric of God’s ministry in the Church. In that session, we will place, especially, the role of the apostolic and the prophetic, assigned here by Paul as “first” and “second.”
I finally understand ministry and how it fits. I cannot tell you how much joy and completion writing this course is bringing to me. Always I have felt that all the many cords of truth I have shared, are just “out there,” flapping in the breeze so to speak. Now, as I progress through each session of this course on our life together as a community of Christ, every one of those cords has come back in to find its place of fulfillment and completion.
Having Done All. Everything fits. The tree of life indeed embodies an entire practical universe, yet a universe we have never before known.
This is the last “course” like this that I will write (for now). Yet as I see the end of these texts on Symmorphy, I am so full. I know that I will be at complete peace inside my account before God. I will have delivered to you the full extent of that which has echoed in my heart from my youth, longing to “get out.” And having done all, I stand. Thank you again for your prayers for me, that I will be enabled to finish this course in strength and in joy. The terrible winds of judgment are at the door. Yet all things wait upon the completion of God’s Church.
Christ Speaking Christ. This session is on the windows of the Spirit, that is, the entrance of the practical and tangible effects of the Holy Spirit among us together. For that reason, in this lesson, I want to talk about Spirit ministry in general, it’s purpose and place.
You see, all ministry is Christ. And even though there is a need for specific gifts of ministry in the assembly, still Christ is in, as, and through every individual member. Ministry is Christ speaking Christ into Christ. And this speaking of Christ is not religious pronouncement, but rather, tender regard and uplifting kindness. Yet our words are also Spirit, rivers of Spirit in which we live.
We Just Forget. Here is what I’m getting at. Right now, I remain alone, just with my family. In this present season, I rest in Christ as me. Yet I so easily forget. Yesterday, I was reading through Symmorphy III: Kingdom. I had been imagining that text to be a “lesser,” whatever that means. I was wrong. Wow! Then, I read the chapter on abundance versus scarcity. I have been living in a mind of scarcity the last while. Even as I read that chapter a great press lifted off of me and I know the overflowing abundance of Father in which I swim.
Now, in the communities in which I lived, in spite of the ministrations of an out-poured Holy Spirit, still, scarcity was our theology, scarcity was our mind-set, and scarcity was what we spoke. You are not enough, and God is not enough.
When a People Know. Nonetheless, walking daily in the demonstration and knowledge of God among us, there grew over many years a deep sense of the certainty and immediacy of God. If you and I were walking together daily, you would undoubtedly, in a gentle and faith-filled manner, have lifted up my thinking back into the abundance of Father long ago. Yet we are not talking about ideas, but power. Yes, as I read again the more-than-enough of Father in which I live, it was power that arose in me, casting off the weights of darkness, setting me free to know that abundance.
But when a people KNOW that rivers of power are always flowing out of them through their words, the life power that is released reciprocally into one another is real and continuous.
Shared Profit. There are varieties of operations [effects of energeia], but the same God who energeoes all inside of all. To each one is given the appearance or disclosure of the Spirit for shared profit (1 Corinthians 12:6-7 – JSV).
Symphero (shared profit): Profit together. From syn, together with, and phero, bring, carry, that is, to combine in such a way that brings increase to both parties and to all.
Now, while reading Kingdom, I also read about the grace that is to come, now come in us, a carried-to-us grace, a phero grace. Then we see that each one of us is given the “phanerosis” of the Spirit, a coming to light, a shining forth upon – each one of us is a window of the Spirit.
Father Made Visible. This is just wonderfully cool. You see, as we walk together daily, God is busy energeoing away in each one of us. Yet the manner and expression of God energeoing in us varies from one to the next. Each one of us puts a different slant on God revealing Himself.
So how does the energeia of God become the light of His House? By shining forth through the windows of each one, the manifestation of the Spirit. And the result is profit and increase, that is the tangible expressions of this carried-to-us grace that is Father made visible among us in overflowing abundance. Through the facets of the diamond, God-Fire becomes visible.
Varieties of Operations. But then we see these words - There are varieties of operations [effects of energeia].
Diairesis (varieties): division, distribution, distinction. From dia, all the way through, and hairéomai, making a personal choice.
Energéma (operations): a working, an effect, the visible results of God’s energeia.
Paul uses these two words only here in 1 Corinthians 12, they are found nowhere else in the Bible. Thus it is very clear, Paul was in no way saying that there are “nine” gifts of the Spirit. The expressions, the windows of the Spirit, are each one of us, many sons to glory. God’s energeia expressed personally through each of us, differing wondrously in effect from one to the other.
God through You. We think we know God; we think we know our self. We have no idea.
Let’s go back to this word, symphero, a shared profit, a reciprocal profit, an increase that comes to us as we see the energeia of God moving out from me to you as one thing and from you to me as another. And as many, say 50-75 people, walk together, each one a window of the Spirit, what effects of light would we know, effects of God we have never seen? It’s not just the effects of God moving out from many different brethren to you that you have not seen, but more than that, you have rarely seen all the effects of God moving out from you to others with whom you are bound in love.
The Kaleidoscope of the Spirit. As John said, we do NOT know what we are; we really don’t. We have not seen; we have not heard; we have not known.
Now, let’s bring in as well what I learned last summer as I visited with different brethren, and which I shared in Covenant. Each person with whom I visited was very different, one from the next, and each one needed something different from me. Thus as I gave of Christ through me as a window of the Spirit, I gave only what each differing one drew out from me. And what I gave was quite different each time. I gave things I did not know I had.
The “kaleidoscope” of the Spirit results in endless varieties of energemas, of displays of the Spirit through each one of us.
Increasing Our Knowledge. How does this work, then, in practical daily living? Because we walk in newness of life, we walk in confidence that Christ Jesus is, in fact, moving out from us through our eu-charist, our speaking of good grace into one another.
Now, here is what we know about the Holy Spirit as the window of God. In John 16 and 1 Corinthians 2 and elsewhere, the Holy Spirit’s role is shown to be that of increasing our knowledge of Christ. And that increase of knowledge comes via words, yes, but also in power. By speaking Christ into you, I know that the power of the Holy Ghost is attending my words to increase your knowledge of Christ in, as, and through you.
Two Kinds of Speaking. Nonetheless, there are two kinds of speaking. Most speaking is normal human conversation. That normal conversation includes words of fellowship in the Lord, words of the conversation of friends, and words of work and school. All of those kinds of speaking and listening are Christ among us, and inside the life-power of the Holy Spirit. But they are not dramatic.
Then, there is prophetic speaking. – That you may prophesy. – If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies (1 Peter 4:11a). Peter is speaking of the prophetic word of Christ.
Prophetic Word. Prophetic word is that word which intends to impart the knowledge of Christ our life with power.
Here, however, is where “good order” is important. You see, we are so capable of making the speaking of Christ to be religious, that is, fake, rather than gentle and real. When we gather together in the worship services or at any times of prayer, etc., then it is expected that speaking Christ into one another’s knowledge in the power of the Holy Spirit is a normal part of that time. There, we expect the light of the Spirit to shine brightly.
But in normal conversation, it is the interplay of light and shadow that is the beauty of Christ.
Normal Conversation. We are so accustomed in this world to think and to speak curse, towards ourselves and regarding others or even life in general. When we fit the good-speaking of Christ into the old habit of thinking and speaking curse, the words of Christ become “plastic,” that is, they feel fake.
A huge part of learning Christ is learning to be real, as we are, yet without cursing. Thus the play of light and shadow in our normal daily conversation is a wondrous mix of being real as humans and, in all gentleness and regard, and including a flow of the good-speaking of Christ as a normal expression of our world-view. Words of tearing down or of falling short are gone.
Exploding Power. On the other hand, the prophetic word of Christ, spoken in appropriate times and places, is a word of life-changing power. Christ is in our mouths. If I speak into you, in the midst of community, in the expectation of power, AND – knowing that it is true – “You are filled with all the fullness of God,” your knowledge of God filling you full will, shall we say, explode.
Here is wisdom. Wisdom is when I am able to insert such words of power into the flow of normal conversation and fellowship without being religious or unreal, such that you go away from that conversation mightily lifted up and overflowing with joy.
Reciprocity. Here is something I know. Speaking a prophetic word of power, calling forth the knowledge of Christ into the experience of those hearing, is a two-way street – reciprocity.
This reality works even in the classroom. Those who are hearing draw from the one speaking that which they desire. When I am trying to speak to an audience that is closed off to what I am saying, it feels as if I am ineffective. That feeling profoundly shapes what I am able to share and how I share it. In complete contrast, when there are members of the audience (or class) who, as I see in their eyes, are eagerly drawing Christ (or how to write well) from me, then, lookout, life is coming through in power!
Facets of God. In a community of 75 people, there are 74 others who are drawing from me a different facet of Christ through me, none of which I could know when I am alone. At the same time, I am observing, all around me, each one of these windows of the Spirit, 75 X 75 facets of the knowledge of God through us, facets that I would not otherwise encounter. That is 5,625 facets of God, through which the light shines into my knowledge inside of life together.
And the result is called “FIRE” by diamond experts; most of us just call it scintillating beauty.
Jesus calls it His glorious Church.
Father calls it Home.