“Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” And they proposed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles.” Acts 1:21-26 NKJ
Throughout my life I have been a part of many ministries and churches. I have seen numerous people appointed to leadership positions who were not ready for the ministry assignment there were given. They had a desire to serve but lacked the spiritual disciplines of a mature disciple whose heart was prepared by the Holy Spirit to enter ministry. Time and time again I watched these people try to fill a position of leadership only to witness them become overwhelmed with the responsibilities and step down within a short time. This passage of Scripture in Acts shows us the importance of praying for the Holy Spirit to grant wisdom and discernment when choosing the people who will fill ministry positions.
It is so important for us to understand that being in ministry is a calling, not a job. Anybody can be trained for a job and they have the opportunity to succeed if they are given the right training and work hard to fulfill the requirements of the job. But no human training can prepare a person to succeed in ministry; no matter how good the training is. It is God who calls and appoints man to the ministry of Jesus Christ. While we are all called to be witnesses of God’s love, and teachers of the Word, we are not all called to the position of authority in a church or ministry.
Ephesians 4:11- 13 confirms this truth. It says, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;” In order to equip, edify, and promote unity; a person has to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit because those requirements are very difficult things to accomplish. In fact they are contrary to our human nature. Only a mature disciple who has been called by the Lord can fill the positions of authority and not burn out when they encounter the pressures and attacks that come with a ministry assignment.
Someone who has not been called by the Lord cannot handle those pressures and attacks and they end up reacting to them in a childlike manner. They become confused and disoriented and are given to believe and teach things that are contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Verses 14 says, “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,” This is the very image of what happens to one who is not called of the Lord to be in ministry.
But the image of the disciple who is called to be in a position of authority looks like this. Verses 15-16 says, “but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” The one who is called walks, talks, and acts in love and they know how to cause growth in the body of Christ by edifying others in love.
This is why it is so important for all of us to pray for the ones who are called to be in ministry and to pray for those in ministry positions to have discernment when choosing people for positions of authority in ministry. The ministry of Jesus Christ is not a man made job that can be discerned from a humanistic approach. It is a calling that can only be discerned by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. I want to encourage you to spend time praying for the Saints who are called by God. If you feel you have been called ask others to pray for you so you can discern where the Spirit is leading you.
Prayer: If you know people who have filled a job opening in a ministry pray for them to realize what they have done before they burn out and walk away. Pray for the leadership in churches and ministries to have discernment with these people so they know how to ask them to step down, before they fall down. Spend time praying for the entire body of Christ to become sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit so we all begin to operate as one body effectively working together; for the purpose of furthering the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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