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Ministry to the Lord
by
Watchman Nee
Let us note at the outset that there is little apparent difference
between ministry to the House of the Lord and ministry to the Lord Himself.
Many of you are doing your utmost to help your brethren, and you are laboring
to save sinners and administer the affairs of the church. But let me ask you:
Have you been seeking to meet the need around you, or have you been seeking to
serve the Lord? Is it your fellow men you have in view, or is it Him?
Let us be quite frank. Work for the Lord undoubtedly has its
attractions for the flesh. You may be thrilled when crowds gather to hear you
preach, and when numbers of souls are saved. If you have to stay at home,
occupied from morning to night with mundane matters, then you think: How
meaningless life as! How grand it would be if I could go out and serve the
Lord! If only I were free to go around ministering! But that is not
spirituality. That is merely a matter of natural preference. Oh, if only we
could see that much of the work done for God is not really ministry at all! He,
Himself, has told us chat there was a class of Levites who busily served in the
If an Israelite came along to the
Brothers and sisters, there is a heavy burden on my heart that you
might realize what God is after. He wants ministers who will minister to Him.
"They shall come near to me to minister unto me; and they shall stand
before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood. They shall minister unto
me" (Ezekiel 44:15).
The thing I fear most is that many of you will go out, win sinners
to the Lord, and build up believers, without ministering to the Lord Himself.
Much so-called service for Him is simply following our natural inclinations. We
have such active dispositions that we cannot bear to stay at home, so we run
around for our own relief. We may appear to be serving sinners, or serving
believers, but all the while we are serving our own flesh.
I have a dear friend who is now with the Lord. One day, after we
had a time of prayer together, we read this passage in Ezekiel (44:9-26, 28, 31). She was very much older than I, and she addressed me
like this: "My young brother, it was twenty years ago that I first studied
this passage of Scripture."
"How did you react to it?" I asked.
She replied: "As soon as I had finished reading it, I closed
my Bible, and kneeling down before the Lord, I prayed: `Lord, make me to be one
who shall minister to You, not to the
But what do we really mean when we talk of serving God or serving
the
But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok,
that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray
from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me; and they shall stand
before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith
the LORD God (Ezekiel
44:15).
The conditions basic to all ministries that can truly be called
ministry to the Lord are drawing near to Him and standing before Him. But how
hard we often find it to drag ourselves into His presence! We shrink from the
solitude, and even when we do detach ourselves physically, our thoughts still
keep wandering outside. Many of us can enjoy working among people, but how many
of us can draw near to (God in the Holy of Holies? Yet it is only as we draw
near to Him that we can minister to Him.
To come into the presence of God and kneel before Him for an hour
demands all the strength we possess. We have to be violent to hold that ground.
But everyone who serves the Lord knows the preciousness of such times, the
sweetness of waking at midnight and spending an hour in prayer, or waking very
early in the morning and getting up for an hour of prayer before the final
sleep of the night.
Unless we really know what it is to draw near to God, we cannot
know what it is to serve Him. It is impossible to stand afar off and still
minister to Him. We cannot serve Him from a distance. There is only one place
where ministry to Him is possible and that is in the
The passage we ' have quoted emphasizes not only our need to draw
near to God; it also speaks of standing before Him to minister. Today we always
want to be moving on; we cannot stand still. There are, so many things claiming
our attention that we are perpetually on the go. We cannot stop for a moment.
But a spiritual person knows how to stand still. He can stand
before God till God makes His will known. He can stand and await orders. You
who are leaders need to particularly consider this. Can you be persuaded to
call a halt and not move for a little while? That is what is referred to here:
"stand and minister unto me." Don't you think that a servant should
await his master's orders before seeking to serve him? The Sin of presumption
There are only two types of sin before God. One is the sin of
refusing to obey when He issues orders. The other is the sin of going ahead
when the Lord has not issued orders. The one is rebellion; the other is
presumption. The one is not doing what the Lord has required; the other is
doing what the Lord has not required. Learning to stand before the Lord deals
with the sin of doing what the Lord has not commanded. Brothers and sisters,
how much of the work you have done has been based on the clear command of the
Lord? How much have you done because of His direct instructions? And how much
have you done simply on the ground that the thing you did was a good thing to
do? Let me tell you that nothing so damages the Lord's interests as a
"good thing." "Good things" are the greatest hindrance to
the accomplishment of His will. The moment we are faced with anything wicked or
unclean, we immediately recognize it as something a Christian ought to avoid,
and for that reason, things, which are positively evil, are nearly not such a
menace to the Lord's purpose as good things.
You think: This thing would not be wrong, or that thing is the very
best that could be done so you go ahead and take action without stopping to
inquire if it is the will of God. We who are His children all know that we
ought not to do anything evil, but we think that if only our conscience does
not forbid a thing, or if a thing commends itself to us as positively good,
that is reason enough to go ahead and do it.
'That thing you contemplate doing may be very good, but are you
standing before the Lord awaiting His command regarding it? "They shall
stand before me" involves halting in His presence and refusing to move
till He issues His orders. That is what ministry to the Lord means.
In the outer court, it is human need that governs. Just let someone
come along to sacrifice an ox or a sheep, and there is work for you to do. But
in the
But something is required of us as we stand before the Lord and
minister to Him. We are required to offer Him "the fat and the
blood." The blood answers the demands of His holiness and righteousness;
the fat meets the requirements of His glory. The blood deals with the question
of our sin; the fat deals with the question of His satisfaction. The blood
removes all that belongs to the old creation; the fat brings in the new.
But such ministry is confined to a certain place: "They shall
enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table to minister unto
me, and they shall keep my charge" (Ezekiel 44:16). Ministry that is
"unto me" is in the inner sanctuary, in the hidden place, not in the
outer court, exposed to public view. People may think we are doing nothing, but
service to God in the
The same passage tells us how they must be clothed who would
minister to the Lord:
They
shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, while
they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. They shall have
linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins (Ezekiel 44:18).
Those who minister to the Lord may not wear wool. Why not? The
reason is given:
"They shall not clothe themselves
with anything that causes sweat" (verse 18 NKJV). No work chat produces sweat is acceptable to the Lord. But what
does "sweat" signify?
We all know that the first occasion when sweat is mentioned was
when Adam was driven from the Garden of Eden. After Adam sinned, God pronounced
this sentence upon him: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life...in the
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Genesis
3:19-19). It is clear that sweat is a condition of the curse. Because the curse
rested on the ground, it ceased to yield its fruit without man's effort, and
such effort produced sweat.
When the blessing of God is withheld, fleshly effort becomes
necessary, and that causes sweat. All work that produces sweat is positively
prohibited to those who minister to the Lord. Yet today what an expenditure of
energy there is in work for Him! Few Christians can do any work today without
sweating over it. Their work involves planning and scheming, exhorting and
urging, and very much running around. It cannot be done without a great deal of
fleshly zeal.
Nowadays, if there is no sweat there is no work. Before work for
God can be undertaken, there is a great deal of rushing to and fro, making
numerous contacts, having consultations and discussions, and finally getting
the approval of various people before going ahead. As for waiting quietly in
the presence of God and seeking His instructions, that is out of the question.
Yet, in spiritual work, the one factor to be taken into account is
God. He is the one Person to make contact with. That is the preciousness of
spiritual work that is truly spiritual-it is related to the Lord Himself In
relation to Him there is work to do, but it is work that produces no sweat.
If we have to advertise our ministry and use great effort to
promote it, then it is obvious that it does not spring from prayer in the
presence of God. If you really work in God's presence, men will respond when
you come into their presence. You will not have to use endless means in order
to help them. Spiritual work is God's work, and when God works, man does not
need to expend so much effort that he sweats over it.
Let us in utter honesty examine ourselves before God today. Let us
ask Him: "Am I serving You, or am I merely
serving the work? Is my ministry truly unto you Lord, or is it only ministry to
your House?" If you are pouring with sweat all the time, it is safe to conclude
that it is the House you are serving, not the Lord. If all your busyness is
related to human need, you may know that you are serving men, not God. I am not
despising the work of slaying sacrifices at the altar. It is work for God and
someone has to do it-but God wants something beyond that. The Sons of Zadok God cannot secure everyone for service to Himself,
for many of His own are reluctant to leave the thrill and excitement of the
outer court. They are bent on serving the people. But what
about us? Oh that today we might say to the Lord: "I am willing to
forsake things, I am willing to forsake the work, I am willing to forsake the
outer court and serve You in the inner
sanctuary."
When God could find no way to bring all the Levites to the place of
ministry to Himself, He chose the sons of Zadok from
among them for this special service. Why did He select the sons of Zadok? Because when the children of
Brothers and sisters, can you bear to let the external structure
go, or must you persist in putting up a scaffolding to preserve it? It is the
I love to read about the prophets and teachers in the church at
God does not want volunteers for His work; He wants conscripts. He
will not have you preaching the gospel just because you want to. The work of
the Lord is suffering serious damage today at the hand of volunteers; it lacks
those who can say as He did: "He that sent me..."
Brothers and sisters, the work of God is God's own work, and not
work that you can take up ac your pleasure. Neither churches, nor missionary societies,
nor evangelistic bands can send men to work for God. The authority to
commission men is not in the hands of men, but solely, in the hands of the
Spirit of God.
Serving the Lord does not mean chat we do not serve people, but it
does mean that all service to people has service to the Lord as its basis. It
is service Godward that urges us out manward. Luke 17:7-10 tells us clearly what the Lord is
after. These are two kinds of work referred to here: plowing the field and
tending the flock. Both are very important occupations, yet the Lord says that
when a servant returns from such work, he is expected to provide for his
master's satisfaction before sitting down to enjoy his own food.
When we have returned from our toil in the field, we are apt to muse
complacently on the much work we have accomplished. But the Lord will say,
"Gird yourself and give me to eat." He
requires ministry to Himself. We may have labored in a wide field and cared for
many sheep, but all our toil in the field and among the flock does not exempt
us from ministry to the Lord's own personal satisfaction. That is our supreme
task.
What are you really after? Is it only work
in the field, preaching the gospel to the unsaved? Is it just tending the
flock, caring for the needs of the saved? Or are we seeing to it that the Lord
can eat to His full satisfaction and drink till His thirst is quenched? True,
it is necessary for us also to eat and drink, but that cannot be till after the
Lord is satisfied. We, too, must have our enjoyment, but that can never be
until His joy is first made full.
Let us ask ourselves: Does our work minister to our satisfaction or
to the Lord's? I fear that when we have worked for the Lord, we are often
thoroughly satisfied before He is satisfied. We are often quite happy with our
work when He has found no joy in it. Blessed are they who can differentiate
between ministry to sinners or saints, and ministry to Him. Such discernment is
not easily acquired. Often it is only by much drastic dealing that we learn the
difference between ministry to the Lord Himself and ministry to the House.
Let us seek the grace of God that He may reveal to us what it
really means to minister to Him!
Born in 1903 in
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