Fight for Ministry and Growth!
In John 10:10 Jesus says that the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. But he said, I have come to give life and give it to the fullest extent.” There is a battle raging in our world and around our spiritual lives between the enemy who is seeking to destroy us and Christ who is seeking to bring us life. It is up to us to decide which of the we will cooperate with!
If we think that personal spiritual growth is automatic as time passes, then we have fallen into the trap of the religious and pious. Religious people think it is enough to have an association with the church and even to have some kind of involvement, but as far as sacrificial investment is concerned, they have sidestepped a radical call of God to hardcore, lifetime devotion. It is hard to serve God, and it is especially hard to deepen one’s walk with Jesus Christ. The enemy resists and hinders us at every turn. He is literally seeking to steal, kill and destroy.
Ministry is the same way. To do the will of God in service and obedience requires the persistent effort of a sold-out and totally faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. The ramblers and wanderers in the church will never know the joy and satisfaction of sold-out devotion, and they tire easily of the efforts of the passionate in the church. It rocks their boats and shatters the peace of their quiet religious world. But Jesus said that the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, so effective and productive ministry has to be fought for inch by inch and yard by yard! It won’t come easily, but in the end it is worth the sacrifice, when God is well pleased with his servants and blesses their efforts with an anointing of power and success!
Paul the apostle said, “I have finished my course (run my race), I have fought the good fight” (2 Tim. 4:6-8). His metaphor was a serious, not a poetic one. Paul saw himself as a runner for the prize whose focus was narrowly, exclusively and obsessively toward the goal of his devotion to Christ (cf. Phil. 3:12-14). Every effort and energy was put into his fight to obey God and glorify his Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Paul was no wimp disciple. He was rugged fighter who fought for the kingdom and to express his devotion to God. He suffered hardships and difficulties all of his life and ministry, only to enter heaven at the sharp end of a Roman executioner’s sword (cf. 2 Cor. 6:3-10; 11:23-29).
If you are not prepared to fight for ministry and spiritual growth in the church, then please get out of the way of those who will. If you do not care to sell out your heart and soul in passion and devotion to God and his will, if you will not fight for ministry, then please don’t mock, hinder, grumble and gossip about or resist those who will. They are on the side of life, life lived to its fullest in Christ.
