Christians, God recently gave me a revelation about ministries and how they should function together. He showed me that ministries should never COMPETE in doing the will of God, but rather they should COMPLETE the will of God. Two words, ever so similar in spelling, ever so opposite in meaning. God showed me that the word COMPETE lacks an L, which represents LOVE. You see, a ministry without LOVE will compete against other ministries, whereas a ministry with LOVE will COMPLETE the work God is doing in the body of Christ.
I was recently challenged myself with this idea. God had given me a different revelation about something, it was a really good revelation. I had not written it out to completion, but I had shared the idea with a friend who I knew it applied to. I could see instantly that it struck a chord, they wrote it down, they even said they could see a whole message about the topic. I was excited for them, but as I left, I felt somehow conflicted. That was a revelation God gave me, but I felt like that person was taking it and making it their own. The thing is I love that person, I love God, and my ultimate goal is for people to be affected by the truth of the message, whether it came from me or not. It was not meant for us to compete for this message, rather they could help complete the message.
We must look at all areas of our lives and when we feel like we are competing for positions in ministry; are we loving the people making decisions, is our focus on our own personal position, or the position of God in the ministry? You may say that you have no ministry, but you do. Ministry does not mean Pastor, teacher, missionary, it actually means SERVICE. Wherever you serve in the church from janitor to pastor, usher to worship leader, nursery attendant to the guy who drives the church van/bus, you have the opportunity to either compete for position or complete the work God is doing in love.
Do we dare go deeper? These two words have longer versions; COMPETITION and COMPLETION. The differences in these words, further reflects the different mindsets you will find in ministries. The L stands for the same Love I talked about earlier. Now in COMPETITION there is an extra I and T. I asked God what these stand for, He said Time and Interests. When we have people serving for a long time in positions, that can affect the Interests they have in the vision. When someone new comes in, who has not been there as long, and is put in a higher position, it can cause competition. However, if you forget how long you have served, and forget what interests you had in your positions, and you love that person, you will see the COMPLETION and feel no COMPETITION towards the position.
The enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy. That includes ministries. One of the main tactics he uses is competition. I witnessed a Church split firsthand years ago. The people on the opposition side were trying to appear as though they had a legitimate, biblical concern for the Pastor and his position, they deceived many people. It came out much later that their main issues were with how the church was progressing, they felt like they had been their longer, given more tithes, and therefore should have more say in the direction of the church. They did not love their leader, they had their TIME and INTERESTS laid bare and eventually their motives were exposed, but it split the church.
We must avoid competition at all costs, we are called to complete the work Christ started on the earth. Now there are some of you who may quote the competition bible verse. “Run to receive the prize”, but those verses are to encourage you to be focused on your calling, to train, to prep, to run your race and receive your crown for your calling. However, you can complete your calling, I can complete mine, and we can have no competition, we will receive our respective prizes and live in love ultimately completing the will of God. I pray that God expose any areas of competition and that He will give us the strength to remove our time, and interests from the equation, that we may bring His will to completion, in Jesus Name, Amen.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:3-5 (NIV)
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. Philippians 1:4-6, 9-10. (NIV)
It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. Philippians 1:15-17 (NIV) [Paul’s letter to the Church in Philippi]
The key to being COMPLETE is LOVE:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. I Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV)
written and posted by Daniel Poggensee | 2016
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