WHAT IS A MINISTER?
                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                          By W. G. Guy

          Typically a minister is a person in the position of a pastor of a church providing leadership for the congregation.  It is considered an honorable profession that many look up to.  However this is not the example that Jesus gave to us as He stated to His disciples.

Matthew 20:25-28 –   Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.  Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,  and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—  just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (NIV)

          Thus Jesus said to be a minister is to be a servant, to serve others and tend to their needs.  Such is the role of a shepherd.  In ancient Israel a shepherd was the lowest profession in society.  Moses, a prince of Egypt, had an exalted position in Egypt, but that did not qualify him to be God’s leader, minister and shepherd to Israel.  He had to spend forty years on the backside of the desert leaning how to be a shepherd before he was qualified to lead God’s flock.

          Learning how to serve with loving care is critical to being a true minister of the Lord.  This was driven home to me personally many years ago.  I was a professor at a seminary with two earned Doctorate Degrees, training others for the ministry.  After five years of doing such, at a time when we were having a graduation ceremony for our students; I spent some time in prayer.  This was in 1986, and the Spirit of the Lord spoke to my spirit telling me that I was going to leave the seminary for a change of ministry.

          A couple months later I left the seminary and began seeking my new place in ministry.  For the next four years I was searching and praying for His guidance as to where was my place of ministry, but to no avail – nothing.  I said in prayer, “But God, you said you had a change of ministry for me, where is it?”

          It was not until 1990, being frustrated by not finding a place to fit in, the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me again while in prayer and He said, “Your ministry is to your wife.”  God has called me to be a minister, a SERVANT to my wife.  At that time my wife was paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair.  She came down with polio in 1979 when our daughter at three months of age received the polio vaccine.  My wife caught the polio from the vaccine, as verified by the State Health Department that investigated the event.

          Obviously my wife had a great need of someone to minister to her.  During those years, of course I assisted her, but the Lord was telling me that my utmost devotion had to be aimed at her, making me a servant to her.  “What is going on Lord?”  I had the gift of teaching and preaching His word and now I’m limited to serving a person in a wheelchair.  Of course I was praying healing for her, but she never improved but only got worse as she aged

          The Lord also dealt with me about being a true, loving husband, and what a husband should be for his wife – serving her needs.
Ephesians 5:25 –   Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her; (NIV)

          Jesus gave himself for the church, thus I was to give myself, my life, my ability, my service for my wife.  I thought I was doing this for several years now.  But the Lord showed me that during that time my focus was on obtaining “my ministry” position, not on how to be a servant caring for my wife.  I was reminded of Moses having to learn to serve sheep for forty years before he was ready to fulfill God’s ordained plan for his life.

          Church tradition teaches that the wife must submit to the husband.

Ephesians 5:22-24 –  Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. (NIV)

          Although this is a true statement the problem comes with misapplication of this command.  Submission is not to be imposed!  A wife’s submission is to be earned!  Her submission is earned by being loved and cherished.  When a wife is loved and cherished she willingly responds to that love by her submission because she is made to feel very secure in that relationship.  Thus the command for “Husbands, love your wives”.  This requires the Christ type of love that covers any and all faults that the wife may have: even over charging on the credit card or checking account that the loving husband will cover; or any other type of fault or error that she commits.  Ask the question, WWJD –What Would Jesus Do?

            Learning to be a servant is more important in performing the work of ministry as is taught in man’s formal seminary training to become a minister (servant).  Consider what the LORD told me two months before I left the seminary.  I was at conference of ministers and during a time of worship the Spirit of the Lord told me, “You are not helping me build my kingdom with your work at the seminary.  You are merely reinforcing man made traditions which you will stop.”

          From this I had to learn that the proper place to be prepared for the work of the ministry is in the home and to the family.  Your wife and your children will then testify of your qualifications to be a true minister, a servant of God.  As my wife, my children, and even my grandchildren, havetestified of me.

          What is a minister?  He is a servant to the people as was Jesus!  What is the evidence of a true minister called of God? It is HUMILITY, humbling oneself under the mighty hand of God.  Many who claim to be ministers of the LORD spend more effort promoting themselves and their ministry instead of promoting Christ and His likeness.

Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, O mortal man, what is good.   And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (NIV)

          A true servant is humble under his lord; thus a true servant is humble which allows God to use him in a powerful way; because he gives of himself just as Jesus gave of Himself.

1 Peter 5:6 – Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. (NIV) 

            Then such a minister, or servant, will be able to operate with the power of God in his life as Christ’s representative: a true servant of the LORD.