MINISTRY: Its Function and Preparation in the Mind of God.

One of the first divine laws that is made known in the Scriptures is the absolute fact of God’s Sovereignty over all things, a fact that includes with it the absolute necessity of His divine anointing.

It was revealed in Creation and is shown throughout the entire history of God’s plan and purpose.

As with the pattern set down from the very beginning, it was His governing sovereign thought that formulated the entire system relating to His design.

Every detail in the movement onward of His salvation plan is abounding with the stamp of His anointing upon it.  

Without this anointing, there was no going forward but only feeble attempts by man to circumvent God’s divine thought.

But, the Lord had His chosen vessels all along to insure its advancement.

These distinct luminaries with equally distinct ministries were given to hold spiritual things to His full thought and the full interpretation of His own Word.

In our last study, we saw how the degradation of the priesthood and the desecration of Jehovah’s sanctuary at the time of God’s sovereign call to Samuel opened up His eternal purpose once more to His people.

The display of His omnipotence in the choosing of a vessel who would yield to His molding, shaping, and guidance

according to the gradual accomplishments of the divine
Hand was unveiled in the call to the lad, Samuel.

Here was a channel who would be totally agreeable to God’s sovereign choice in an abandonment to a divine function, to a divine purpose that would serve as part of the whole plan of God.

He became part of the measure of divine appointment that would contribute to the comprehensive thought of God that would one day be summed up in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is in the Book of Samuel that the history of the renewal of theocracy, divine government, is described.

The Book does not start with the call to Samuel, but, instead, begins with an account, first, of the degeneration of the priests under the jurisdiction of the priest, Eli.

The priests failed to resist ‘the growing apostasy of the nation’, to resist ‘the temptation to cast aside God’s government’, and to resist ‘the natural tendency to not walk before Jehovah and yield to Him in His path toward the full spiritual developement of His thought’.

God’s thought and mind in the history of His people was disregarded and abandoned, which left the nation in a sad, spiritual state.

Then, on the other hand, the account continues with the indication of a few, in this case, Samuel’s parents, who were serious with Jehovah.

Their pleas, especially on his mother’s part, attested to some hearts that were responding to Jehovah in spite of the spiritual disgrace of the nation.

This mother’s heart’s desire is sandwiched between the news of the ruin of the temple services and the announcement of, and the fulfillment of, the judgment that was to fall upon the house of Eli because of this lack of spiritual vitality.

That was followed with the manifestation of the omnipotence of God upon the enemies of the people, by the chastisement of the Philistines for carrying off the ark of the covenant, and the victory gained over their oppressors through Samuel’s prayer in 1.Samuel 7:5-14.  

Later on, Samuel installed Saul as king over the Israelites, as well as anointing David as Saul’s successor.

It was through David’s lineage that God’s ultimate purpose would be perfected to completion in Jesus Christ.

It was at the very outset, in Hannah’s prayer, that there is a prophetic glance at the Anointed of the Lord (2:10) which foretold of the establishment of the monarchy which would ultimately lead to Christ’s coronation and exaltation as King.

1.Sam.2:10: “Those who contend with the Lord will be shattered; against them He will thunder in the heavens, 
the Lord will judge the ends of the earth; and He will 
give strength to His anointed King, and will exalt the 
horn (i.e. the strength) of His anointed.”

Christ was to be the ground of spiritual advancement that would be guaranteed to always be effective in bringing on
God’s kingdom.

Thus, it is seen in this quick history of Samuel, that God’s Sovereign Design would not be annihilated, overthrown, nor cast aside for any reason.

His anointed purpose, in His chosen vessel to carry on, would be fulfilled.

And this would always require prophetic ministry that was under the anointing of God Who had this one purpose in mind: to move onward in His Anointed, Jesus Christ.

And so, Samuel was obligated to relate everything to that full, original, ultimate, divine purpose.

He could do nothing less nor anything more under such a divine restraint.

Under the anointing, he exercised the same restraint that Balaam did in Numbers 22:18: “...I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more”.

The Sovereignty of God was his indisputable Guide.

And, in doing so, he carried everything along to the fulfillment of all that was needed to the Greater David’s Kingship upon the earth, the bringing in of Jesus Christ.

Speaking generally, as we look back, upon the history of the Christian world, it is evident that there has been much said and done about the Lord’s full, comprehensive thought.

And it has led to a quandary about the means, methods, materials, provisions, and carriers to bring this about. 

The problem has always been, and is, that man is trying to reach God’s ways by man’s means.

If we are to reach God’s ultimate purpose and His ultimate thought, then it stands to reason that it must be reached by His ways and His means.

He is the One Who knows His own heart’s desire and is the One Who has His own ways and means to get to His own end.

Man cannot take parts of His divine picture and then try to complete the whole picture with his own understanding and his own knowledge.

It just will not work in the spiritual development of life.

It will, at best, be only fragmented and always stamped with a void.

The Son of God Himself was well aware of this divine dimension.

He repeatedly stated that the Son can do nothing of Himself; only as He sees the Father do; only as He hears the Father speak; can the Son do and speak.

And it was written of Him in Psalm 40, and quoted in Hebrews 10:7: “Then I said, behold I have come...to do Thy will, O God”.

It is only in God’s Sovereignty at work and His anointing being exercised that the picture completes itself in its divine fulness, divine glory, and divine splendor.

His thoughts even extend to and spread over the smallest detail of His purpose.

Let us go back to Hannah, Samuel’s mother.

How small and insignificant, and perhaps, even selfish, it may have seemed to Elkanah, her husband.

But God did not consider it such.

Her heart was an anointed heart that prayed right into His anointed purpose.

It seemed to be one of the smallest details of God’s plan, and yet the purpose reached far beyond her own son right into the actuality of God’s own Son.

That fact alone lets us know that it is impossible to actualize the purpose of God except as the very details of it are according to the mind of God.

Every one of God’s chosen vessels that is within our view in the Scriptures had to operate on this very same, serious principle in the furtherance and onward movement of God and His kingdom.

Look at Moses briefly.

He was that God-chosen vessel designed to carry out God’s purpose, functioning only as Jehovah’s luminary to lead God’s people to the fullness of God’s purpose.

How was it done?

Did Moses just get some idea of what God was after and then start working things out as he thought it should be done, hoping it was going to come to the exact place God had in His mind?

As we understand Scripture, not a single thing in line with God’s ultimate purpose was done out of Moses’ intent.

When he tried it on his own, disaster struck.

And Moses learned quickly not to try to carry things out on  his own.

Ministry designed by God to pour out of His chosen vessel presents God’s mind alone.

And it holds it like that until the vessel’s work is complete.

The vessel may undergo and endure all sorts of trials, sufferings, problems, afflictions in order to understand and be fitted as a clear and resonant channel.

And he will see the need of it all in order to rightly interpret the mind of God in all matters concerning God’s intention, to move along in all details as God presents them, and to make God’s purpose govern the movement onward.

This is really what the Anointing is: God brings into mind, through the prepared vessel of His choice, His thought upon the earth that concentrates on His ultimate goal.

He will keep everything true to that one original principle and not deviate one bit. 

His Sovereignty governs it all. 

His Anointing moves it along. 

This is the reason that whatever is God-based is always on a sure, solid foundation - the foundation of Jesus Christ as its Administrator, and the Holy Spirit as the Divine Anointer.

For Samuel - in functioning as God’s prophet and judge - he must have been comforted many times in knowing that he was functioning in the realm of God’s Sovereignty and direction.

He must have known his prophetic ministry as an enlightened ministry, a ministry of vision, which, under Jehovah’s anointing, brought things back to that true position of absolute safety and security in the living God because it was true to the divine intention.

Last week, I started with the statement: ‘There is a deep need in the history of God’s Church for a vision of its purposes upon the earth, a vision that enables to see from God’s vantage point.’

How does this same prophetic function relate to the Lord’s Church today?

The Church, a heavenly thing, is related to Jesus Christ.

And, since that is so, He is committed to keep everything true to the divine principle of having everything move on heavenly ground, with heavenly anointing, and in heavenly progression.

Samuel embodied this in his function and purpose as he projected the mind of God. 

And the Church has this same destiny - to function in Christ to divine fullness.

It is committed to this spiritual ground, for Christ’s anointing is enshrined in the anointed Church that reaches back to the heart of God and thereby completes His work.

The individual ministry by Samuel was only one of the steps that set God’s plan on its rightful course in His salvation history.

But, it is through the corporateness of the Church, with Christ as its Head, that it has become the abiding place of the divine anointing and, through it, carries His work on successfully to its completion.

We shall continue next Sunday, Lord willing, to see what this means for the Church.