Ministering At The Altar

You need to be in a place of continual growing and learning to be effective in ministering to others. If you don't use it, you will lose it. If you don't practice the things of ministry, you will grow cold. Always be in a place and position of ministry. Get in with some people who will hold you accountable for it.

Ministry Tools

We have shared several ministry tools and models with you in this teaching series, as well as in earlier ones in the Healing-School series of teachings. Review these tools and keep yourself familiar with them, since you never know what will come up in ministry and which tool you will need at which time. Some of the helpful tools include:

• Ministering salvation - bringing people into a personal relationship with Jesus. (See Lesson 3)

• Ministering to those in spiritual surgery - helping them to cooperate with what God is doing in their life to transform them. (See Lesson 2.)

• Ministering physical healing - helping a physically sick person receive healing from Jesus (see Healing-School Mini-Series 1, "A Beginner's Guide To Healing," http://www.godspeak.net/hs_lessons/hs1_index.html). Within that, pay special attention to some of the ministry models, such as the Vineyard five-step model, blessing what the Lord is doing in physical healing, evoking God's love over the person, commanding sickness to leave, cursing a sickness or blessing a body part with health, etc.

• Ministering deliverance - removing demonic influences against the person through the authority of Christ (see the Healing-School Mini-Series 4, "Ministering Deliverance," http://www.godspeak.net/hs_lessons/hs4_index.html).

• Ministering emotional healing - praying for the Lord's healing over emotionally troubling/painful issues. If someone comes to the altar ready to deal with an issue, pray it through with him, God has prepared them so He will probably want to meet them in this particular issue during the altar ministry time. (See Lesson 4)

• Ministering to a given situation - praying for a person's difficult circumstances, inviting God to come into him and work His glory in him. (See Lesson 4)

• Ministering blessing prayer - simply blessing what God is doing on the person, blessing His will and His call and His purposes in their lives. (See Lesson 4)

• Ministering God's Presence and Filling - helping a person receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit or a fresh touch from God. (See Lesson 5).

• Ministering Pastoral Care - The church is full of walking wounded and many churches are not handling this well. They push the ministry to trained Christian counselors who make their livelihood from counseling fees. Most Christian counselors are able to help people get a handle on what the problem is, but can't offer a lasting resolution of the problem. That's because we need Jesus to bring true healing to the person and most Christian counselors don't take the person to Jesus for healing. There is one ministry technique that can be used in the local church called theophostic ministry, which seems to be highly effective and can be safely administered by trained lay people because the "minister" simply brings the person to Jesus and Jesus is the one who does the healing. (See Lesson 5)

Ministry Experience

You can have all the teaching in the world, all the knowledge in the world, but that won't make you an effective minister in and of itself. You need minstry experience. You need time. You need to practice applying what you learned, working with the Holy Spirit to do what He is doing in a given ministry situation.

Even will experience, you will never "learn it all." I have a lot of time under my belt with inner healing, and I seem always to learn. I'm always learning. And along with that, God frequently works in my own heart and life; as I minister with Him, He also ministers to me and causes me to mature and grow. Do not enter the process if you aren't going to let the Lord deal with you. If you want God to use you to minister to others, you can be assured that God will also put His finger on areas of your life He wants to touch.

Let me give you an example. When I began to learn to minister theophostic healing, I knew God would deal with my inner issues as well. When I started this process it was like pulling teeth to find anything in me. I would ask the Lord, "Is anything ever going to come out of here?" Half way through, all of a sudden, God started working. It took Him awhile to tune in to me. It took me awhile to figure this thing out, and to be able to recognize the times when there was a feeling that didn't quite match the stimuli.

God will work within you and transform you.

He will also teach you to follow His lead in ministering to others. The more you minister, the easier it will be to tune in to what God is doing in each situation and to work effectively with Him. Typically it takes awhile praying for the sick before you start seeing consistent results (e.g., healings). It takes awhile to learn to minister inner healing or to minister deliverance or to minister God's presence/filling. The more we minister, the more we fine-tune our ministry "skills" - e.g., the better we get at seeing what God is doing in the ministry situation and doing it with Him.

When you first get started in ministry, you might want to team up with someone who has a bit more ministry experience and work together with him or her. When you first start ministering, all you have is the "head knowledge," knowing different ministry models and having a scriptural foundation for ministry and an understanding of the types of things God will do in ministry. But as you minister, you gain experiential knowledge. You experience God showing up with His anointing and power to meet people. You begin to gain confidence that God is going to show up to move when you minister to others. You begin to see how reliable and dependable God is. You begin to recognize His leading more clearly. And it becomes easier for you to discern what He wants to do in a given ministry situation and to flow with Him in it.

Anointing to Minister

Matt. 7:7-11 encourages us to ask God for good gifts. I am sure you are already familiar with it. Luke 11:9-13 is a parallel passage. But instead of encouraging us to ask for good gifts, Jesus encourages us to ask the Father for the Holy Spirit. Verse 13 says, "...how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

So, ask God for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Ask Him for a fresh infilling, that you might be effective to minister for Him.

We must have a greater confidence in God's ability to bring us into truth than in the devil's ability to bring us into deception. Some of us think the devil and God are equal, but they are not. The word of God is stronger than anything the devil has. Have the confidence that you can ask God for His Holy Spirit and stand in the Word of God and know He will give it to you. If we are going to ask God to give us the Holy Spirit, to fill us with the Holy Spirit, we can expect Him to do it. If we ask, He will do it.

Often we have an expectation of how the Holy Spirit comes. In Scripture, sometimes they laid hands on the person, and sometimes they didn't. There is no set pattern. It is different every time. We may feel something. We may not feel anything. It depends solely on the promise that if we ask Him, we are going to get it. That Spirit has already been poured out on mankind, so we do not have to wait. First you receive it, then you maintain it. Be continually filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5). This is the pattern. Get filled, and then keep getting filled. Keep getting a fresh filling.

Please join me in praying this prayer for infilling:

Lord, we stand upon Your Word that says if we confess our sins that You are faithful and just to forgive our sins. Cleanse us from all unrighteousness, Lord. We stand in that cleansing. Now Lord, we want Your Spirit to give us a fresh anointing and a fresh outpouring today.

Father, we release every expectation we may have, every word that has been put upon us that You would come in a particular way, or that we would manifest in a certain fashion. Everything that has been over us that would stop us from receiving, Lord, we ask in Your name that Your Holy Spirit would go in, cut that off and remove that lie out of our life.

We speak the truth of Your Word. Your Word tells us that if we ask we can receive. We know Lord that it is Your intent for all of us to be anointed with Your Holy Spirit, to be empowered with Your Holy Spirit for the ministry You have called us into. We stand on the truth, Lord, that we have received Your Holy Spirit through regeneration and Your Spirit is in us.

We know this is not a second act of grace, but it is all You. It is how You operate. You are simply anointing us for ministry. So, Lord, we want to receive the anointing for ministry, the anointing upon us. Lord Jesus, we ask You to come and rest upon us. We ask You to come and rest upon our heads and our hearts. We come and ask that you would rest upon our hands and anoint our hands for the ministry You have called us to.

We ask You to come upon our feet and anoint our feet for the places You would take us. We ask you to come and arrest our lips that we would speak the words You have called us to speak, that we will say what You want us to say, Lord, that we would operate in the anointed life, that we would see what You are doing, hear what You are saying, do what You are doing - doing nothing on our own initiative, Lord, but only what we see You doing, what You are teaching, what You are saying, to do everything through Your life.

I ask that You anoint us with a fresh revelation of You. Anoint us, Lord, to hear. Anoint us, Lord, to discern. I ask, Lord, that You come upon us and anoint our ability to discern the things of the Spirit in a greater way and a greater fashion. Father, You have come upon most of us for an anointing, and I ask that You increase it and move it up to the next level of anointing. I pray that You will give us a greater outpouring of Your Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, we ask You to come and fill us up to full measure, that we can fulfill the promise of John 7, that rivers of living water will flow out of our being. Lord, that it will flow out. We pray, Lord, let it come. Holy Spirit, come.

Holy Spirit, bring more of Yourself.

Now, wait upon Him and allow Him to come upon you.