John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth, came through Jesus Christ."
The Church has been taught so many different things over the last two millenniums, that has resulted in controversy and confusion. That's why it's paramount that the Church listens to the Holy Spirit. Many in today's Church have lost contact with the personal relationship and communion with the Holy Spirit. We've turned our liberty to fellowship and learn over to others, expecting them to should our personal time with the Lord. We're to have teachers and pastors in the Church, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but they're not to pray, read God's Word and fellowship for us. They're to teach and train us how to do these things.
A football coach doesn't play on the field, he/she teaches the team players how to do so. The coach isn't the quarterback, but is there to teach the quarterback how to execute the plays the coach calls. No matter how we seemingly want the Holy Spirit to "takeover," He will only call the play. We're to execute the play that He calls.
We don't send the Holy Spirit to the hospital, but we take Him to the hospital with us. We don't just pray for the Holy Spirit to touch the sick, we yield our own hands to Him, so that He can touch the sick. The pastor's job description, isn't to visit the people in their homes or the hospital, all on his/her own. The pastor is supposed to delegate the Church community to do this. It's the job of every believer, to hear the Holy Spirit for themselves and then go where He sends them.
Every member of the Body of Christ, is responsible for having a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. This responsibility doesn't fall on the ministers alone. The pastor is called to teach and preach God's Word to the people. The people are to then take God's Word for themselves, individually. School teachers don't take the test for their students, but teaches the students to do the work for themselves. If a students fails a class, then it's not because they weren't taught, but because that student didn't apply the things he/she was taught. If the student didn't read the course curriculum the teacher laid out, then that student will probably fail the class.
The national news has been filled with college scandals, where the student's acceptance into a certain institution or the student's passing grades were bought by their parents. This won't profit the students, when they're out on their own and can be disastrous for them. Our Heavenly Father doesn't want to tell others what He wants and needs you to do, but He wishes to speak to you personally. We've lost the personal contact with the Father, because we've depended on someone else to do it for us. The time has come for God's family to return to having a one-on-One relationship with the Father. This doesn't mean that we no longer need to have teachers and preachers, but that we need to take responsibility for what they're teaching us. It's not the pastor's job to go all over praying for the sick, but he/she is the teach the people to "Go into all the world" and do the work that preacher has taught them to do, from God's Word.
We read in Luke 10, about Jesus' teaching the people and then sending them out to do the work He taught them to do. They returned from doing the work for themselves, both amazed and elated that they were able to do like Jesus taught them. Jesus could only be in one place at a time, so He trained up many to do the same work, by the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit could be brought into multiple homes and lives that Jesus couldn't be in.
I'm not talking about the Gifts of the Spirit, found in 1Corinthians 12, but about the Holy Spirit Himself, "Who does the work as He wills to profit with all." It's the Father, by the Holy Spirit Who is in you, that does the work. He only needs you, as a vehicle to take Him into the world. Notice how in Acts 9:10-11, God didn't go down and lay hands on Saul of Tarsus, but God sent Ananias to do this. Ananias was God's hands and only needed to answer the call. God did the work through Ananias, just like He did through Jesus.
Please, don't see yourself short of the Glory that abides within you. It's the Same Holy Spirit living in you, Who was in Jesus, Paul, Peter and yes, Ananias. If the Same Holy Spirit lives in you, then He only needs your availability. He has all the availability that He needs. He only requires us to "Go." We don't read about Ananias before or after this even, in Acts 9, but we do know that he had a personal relationship with the Lord, heard God's Voice and obeyed His Voice.
This might have been the only time God used Ananias for such a work, but his ministering to Saul accomplished a great thing for the Kingdom and the Church. Saul became Paul and wrote two-thirds of the new covenant, we're living in today. He was only one man, but Paul accomplished so much for God's Kingdom. If you only ministered to a single person at the Lord's direction and that person was Billy Graham, then you would have done a great service to the Lord and the Kingdom. Don't sell yourself short, thinking that you don't matter to the Lord or aren't in the five-fold ministry. Know Him for yourself and make yourself available to His Ability and HE WILL USE YOU.
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