How Should We Work?

How Should We Work?

The purpose of all spiritual work is to save people: first from bondage to sin, then from bondage to the law and to people and finally from themselves. God has established a new covenant with man, and this covenant is sealed in the blood of Christ. 1 Cor. 11:25. This is the blood that saves us from sin, from bondage to the law and to people and from living for self. God’s Spirit works in a person to set him free from these things. As a co-worker with God, as servants of the Spirit—not of the letter—and as ministers of a new covenant, we need to know how we should work. At each meeting something should get done. We don’t have meetings just for the sake of having meetings. We meet in order to urge people toward the blood of the covenant, toward more godly fear and toward freedom from everything that binds. There are plenty of priests for the people. Their main ministry is to hold meetings just for the sake of holding meetings. That is not our ministry. We are to shine light on the old man, make sure that he is crucified with Jesus and cast down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. We are to release the captives and set at liberty those who are afflicted.

We have often seen people weeping because of the hard treatment they have received, but then we have also had the joy of witnessing those same people shouting with joy after they have been set free. When someone goes to the doctor, he cannot tell the doctor what treatment to give. Neither can anyone dictate to a servant of the Spirit how that servant should treat him. Nor should a servant of the Spirit allow himself to be directed by someone who is bound hand and foot. Such a servant must make up his own mind and then act accordingly. It is impossible to read and study your way into the kingdom of heaven, and it is just as impossible to liberate a bound human spirit purely by studying. A person who is bound cannot free another person from his bonds. He who speaks in the church must speak as the Word of God; speaking about God’s Word is of little benefit to those who are listening. Talking about using the Sword is one thing, but actually using it is something entirely different. We have no new doctrine to “tell” people about, but we must give them God’s Word, which is sharper than any two-edged sword. If they receive it, it becomes active in those who believe. A person can receive teaching with their human understanding, and it is quite satisfying to teach people things they have never heard before. However, we have seen the results of that; those who have received instruction in this way remain just as carnal as ever, and those who have taught in such a way have either been blind or unfaithful in the Spirit. Yet what does Paul say? “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” 1 Cor. 2:4-5.

We need God’s power if we are to drive all idols and images out of people’s hearts. We must not be afraid to go to action and break up the ground in order to lay a solid foundation. The apostle says, “As a wise master builder I have laid the foundation.” It quickly becomes apparent whether a solid foundation has been laid in someone. Such people are not quickly shaken, and they won’t run away. Though a person feels sorry for himself and weeps because he has not been treated so gently, we must not be moved by his tears. The wisdom and power of God are more precious to us.

Jeremiah was set over the people and over the kingdoms in order to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant. Jer. 1:10. There is no point in sowing on a highway or in a forest. There are things that must be rooted out and torn down, plowed and harrowed, before seed can be sown. People definitely do not like to be rooted out and pulled down. However, once they have come through, they learn to appreciate this treatment because the seeds that are then sown will thrive in cultivated ground, and in a noble and good heart.