We have seen that there’s a governing vision of the Bible, which is that God desires to work Himself into His chosen people to make them His corporate expression.
Today we are on the matter of our work for God, our Christian work. What is the intrinsic element of our Christian work?
Is it just to do many good things that God would be pleased? Is it to do the things that God puts on our heart to do for Him? Is it to do our best with what the Lord gave us to meet the current need in the church?
In the Bible, we see that the intrinsic element of our work in the Lord and for the Lord is that we minister the building God and the builded God into others for the building up of the Body of Christ (see Matt. 16:18; Eph. 3:17, 4:4, 12, 16).
We first need to allow God to work Himself into us and build Himself into our being, and then we need to cooperate with Him to minister to others the God who has been constituted into us.
What a high view of the intrinsic element and the basic principle of our work for the Lord!
What is The Intrinsic Element of Our Work?
As long as you are a believer, you are one who works for the Lord since He as a living Person lives inside of you and leads you to do things for Him.
There are so many things that need to be done in God’s kingdom in a practical way in the church life, like preaching the gospel, nourishing the believers, shepherding the new ones, perfecting the saints, prophesying for building up, establishing churches, etc.
Our God is a living God and He is very active: He has a lot of activities, and we as the living people of our living God are also very active, doing many things for God. But what is the intrinsic element of our work for God?
We see that, before the judgment seat of Christ, He will reject the work of some and He will tell them, Depart from Me – I never knew you!
What makes our work be accepted by the Lord? What makes our work be precious in His sight? How can we build with gold, silver, and precious stones – and not with wood, hay, and stubble (2 Cor. 3:6-7)?
The Intrinsic Element of Paul’s Work
Let’s take the Apostle Paul as an example. What was the intrinsic element of Paul’s work? Did he just work a lot outwardly, preaching the gospel and healing the sick and establishing churches?
In Acts 20 we see that he labored for 3 years among the Ephesians, day and night, encouraging them and perfecting them. He did a lot of outward works, a lot of visitation and from house to house, and he left a pattern to the saints.
In Eph. 3:14-19 we see that it wasn’t all about the outward work for Paul: he prayed for those whom he served that Christ may make His home in their heart.
The intrinsic element of Paul’s work was that Christ would be wrought into the believers in Ephesus, so that they would corporately become His glorious expression.
In Galatians we see how Paul was physically ill, weak, and his eyes had some problems (the Galatians would have plucked out their eyes and give them to Paul if they could have). Yet still, he labored among them and did a major work in that area.
In Gal. 4:19 he says, My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is being formed in you. Wow!
So Paul’s goal wasn’t doing many things for God, and not even doing many outwardly great things “to glorify God” – he travailed, he was in labor, so that Christ would be formed in the Galatians.
The same it is in Colossians – at the end of chapter 1 Paul says that he is struggling to present every man full-grown in Christ.
The intrinsic element of Paul’s work was clearly to minister Christ into the people he spoke to, and to cooperate with the Lord to minister others the God built into his being.
Minister the Building and Builded God into Others
The goal of our Christian work and of our work for the Lord should be to minister the building and builded God into others.
First of all we need to allow God to be built into us, and then cooperate with God to minister the building God into others. We cannot minister more than what we have – we can give others only up to the measure of God that has been constituted into us.
The principle of our work is not simply to be faithful in what God entrusted us or do our best with what we have, but cooperate with God to minister Christ into people.
We need to desperately pray that the Lord will teach us to work in the way of ministering the processed and consummated Triune God into others (see 2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Cor. 3:9-10, 12).
As we endeavor in the church life to carry out the God-ordained way by begetting new believers, spiritually nourishing the new ones in their homes, perfecting the saints, and building up the church, our work must be based on God’s dispensing, on God’s building Himself into His redeemed people and building them into Him (see Acts 8:4; Eph. 4:12; 1 Cor. 14:1, 3-4, 12, 31).
If we really see that all God desires is to work Himself into His chosen people, then the goal of our work will be to minister God into others so that the Triune God may build Himself into their being.
This is not about having skills to speak about God or to move people’s heart when we speak – it is about seeing that the only way we should work for God is by ministering God into people.
God does the work: we don’t have to work, we just need to minister Him into others, and He will do the work!
Being Not Merely a Man According to God’s Heart
Many people take David as their pattern, and they desire to be just like him, a man after God’s heart.
David was indeed a very good man, a good pattern, and he was after God’s heart, but because he didn’t have God wrought into his being and built into him, he also failed in a terrible way.
A person may be according to God’s heart, and everyone else appreciates him and sees it, yet he may be without God, not having God wrought into him.
God eventually told David in 2 Sam. 7 that even though David was a man after God’s heart and he had the intention to build a house for God, before David can do anything for Him, God had to build Himself into David and reconstitute him with Himself.
With us it is the same today – before we can do anything for God that is accepted and approved by Him, we need to be those who are not just according to God’s heart but those who allow God to work Himself into their being, build Himself into them, and build them into God.
God is more concerned with the intrinsic element of our work which needs to be present while we are carrying out the practical things.
We need to truly consecrate ourselves to the Lord by giving Him more ground in our being to work Himself into us and build Himself into us, so that when we do something for Him, we would just minister God into others.
In our time with Him in the morning and throughout the day as we stop and spend some time with Him, whenever He touches us or speaks to us, we need to just open to Him and give Him more ground in us.
As God is building Himself into us and as He is building us into Himself, we are qualified to work with Him by ministering God into man for the building up of His Body
Reconsidering Our Work for the Lord
We need to reconsider our work for the Lord in this light. We need to ask ourselves,
Lord, in my work for You in the church, do I focus on ministering God into people? In my arranging chairs, cooking for the home meeting, giving a ride to the saints, outing with the students, taking care of the children and the young people, preaching the gospel, playing basketball with the young ones, visiting the elderly, visiting the new ones in their homes, and in so many other things – do I minister God into others?
We should reconsider the work that we are doing for the Lord, and ask how much of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God has been wrought into those whom we have brought to the Lord and whom we shepherd (Gal. 4:19; Col. 1:28).
In all our service to the Lord and in our work for Him, we need to practice one thing – ministering God into others so that He may build Himself into their inner man!
What does this mean? How do we do this? How can we do something so that Christ would be formed in others? How can we help others grow in life? We need to ask the Lord and pray to Him that He will teach us how to work in this way.
First we need to grow in life by allowing Christ to make His home in our heart, and then we can minister to others something of the Christ who has been wrought into our being.
Lord, build Yourself into me for the building up of the Body! Lord, teach us how to allow You to make Your home in our heart more for the Body. Lord, build Yourself into us and build us into Yourself. Lord, have a way in us. We want to cooperate with You to minister God into others. May the intrinsic element of our work be the same as Paul’s – to minister God into man. May Christ be formed in the ones we shepherd!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Ron Kangas’ sharing in this message and portions in, Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel (msgs. 30-31), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery, week 1 (entitled, Knowing the Work of God—the Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery).
- Hymns on this topic:
# To the lost world minister Christ, / The very Christ you enjoy, / Imparting Christ to all your friends / As all their boast and their joy.
# Christ to minister is service / Both to God and others too, / Christ, the surplus, e’er supplying, / Off’ring Him as service true.
# Lord, grant me the experiences / To produce such a ministry. / Through revelation and sufferings, / Lord, constitute Yourself in me. - Pictures credit: created for the blog by friends on facebook and here.
About aGodMan
I would ask you to reconsider the work you are doing for the Lord. Perhaps you have opened up a region or have brought many people to God. But I ask you this question: How much of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God has been wrought into those whom you have brought to God? If we are sincere and genuine, we will humble ourselves and confess that not very much of the Triune God has been wrought into the ones we have brought to God. Therefore, we need to practice one thing—to minister the processed Triune God into others so that He may build Himself into their inner man. In every aspect of our work—preaching the gospel, feeding the believers, perfecting the saints—the intrinsic element must be that we minister the building and builded God to others. I would urge you to pray that the Lord would teach you to work in this way (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, pp. 200-201, 205-206)
I really enjoyed this point,
"If we really see that all God desires is to work Himself into His chosen people, then the goal of our work will be to minister God into others so that the Triune God may build Himself into their being."
It is crucial for us, as those who are working for the Lord, to have the right view so that we may also do an acceptable work. We need to see that our God desires to work Himself into man so that He may have building on this earth that is in and with humanity.
Then we must do a work that is focused on ministering Christ into people of dispensing this building and builded God into them. This is only possible if we allow the Lord to first, build Himself into us. Only then we can minister such a One into others.
Thanks for this enlightening post.