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Our Ministry
by
T. Austin-Sparks
My word to you is one of
reminding you of the ministry which we have felt to be
committed to us by God. It is but one among many given to
His people, but it is one which is fulfilled with an ever
increasing sense of its necessity.
May I say again, in the
first place, what it is not. We claim no new
revelation. We aim at no new
''movement". We desire no new body of
Christians as apart from all the Lord's people. We never
say to any, ''You should come out of your church, or
mission, or society". We deprecate being called a
''Fellowship", in the sense of being people in and
for a special association. We have nothing but horror of
a peculiar phraseology and shibboleth. Exclusiveness and
legality are far from our thoughts and hearts. Finally,
we do not fail to recognize the value of all other work
and ministry which has the knowledge of Christ as its
object, and is carried on from a true love for Him.
What then is our
ministry? We did not set out with this as a full-orbed
vision at the first. The Lord just wrought in us a deep
and terrible sense of spiritual need and dissatisfaction,
and created an intense longing for something altogether
fuller than we could find. Then He led us by way of such
exercise, and its resultant quest in prayer through deep
experiences, which made possible and fruitful the
unfolding of His fuller thoughts, intents, and ways for
us, and for all who would ''go on'' to His full end. This
has gone on through many years, and every bit of new
living light has come out of a deepening suffering and
cost. So that nothing is just theory; it is experimental.
Thus there has steadily grown this sense of Divine
purpose and concern that the people of God should come to
''the fullness of Christ.'' ''Each several part'' in its
''due measure,'' and the whole ''Body'' to the ''stature
of the fullness. '' Every practical issue has to be a
personal matter between those concerned and the Lord. We
have made mistakes in the course of the years, but we
have learned the more deeply by these. Many have
prejudiced our ministry by misapprehension,
misrepresentation, and precipitate action. We expect such
a ministry to have many adversaries, and we shall not
seek to vindicate ourselves. But our desire is that no unnecessary
obstacle shall lie in the way of the Lord' s people
receiving any value from Him through this
instrumentality.
It is clear that, even
in New Testament times, not all believers were ready to
go right on with the Lord, and more than ninety per cent
of the New Testament was written to urge Christians to do
so. The rise of the Convention movement amongst
Christians in many lands is itself a strong evidence that
this urge is greatly needed. But Divine fullness is only
going to be reached by a progressive and ever increasing
revelation of Christ and His significance. Such a
revelation, unless we misunderstand the record of God's
ways from of old, comes firstly to an apprehended
instrument which is taken into the deeps with God; then
it is given forth as His truth for His people; and then
it becomes the inwrought experience and knowledge of such
as really mean business with God - not as to their blessing,
but as to His purpose and inheritance in them. In
relation to this end, each one must know for himself or
herself what God requires in any given matter, and it
would be unsafe for us to say what they should do. We can
never do more than enunciate the principles of Life and
growth. To ''present every man perfect (full-grown,
complete) in Christ'' is, then, the burden of our hearts.
''Let us, as many as be perfect (undivided in heart or
mind) be thus minded.''
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