Worldly Means To Promote God's Ends

It is sickening to see how people are promoting things Christian via secular means. I just visited a web site which is supposed to help one learn how to start an itinerant ministry. Every thing I saw was based on secular business principles, such as meeting as many pastors as you can, joining a fellowship to get an inroad to pastors, creating letterheads and business cards, attempting to reestablish another ministry schedule after just having one in a church. I suppose some, if not most, of these things will be involved in one's ministry in time and as naturally needed, but why approach ministry via business means? Instead of pushing one's self on everybody why not minister to those whom you can and let God advance you from there? What ever happened to faith and prayer? What ever happened to following God's lead one step at a time and take the opportunities He gives you? What ever happened to believing God will use you and support you as you go about His revealed will found in His word? What ever happened to God's calling one into ministry and His confirmation of it without one pushing and pulling to get doors to open? If God has called one into ministry He will pave and lead the way. We need not employ worldly means to accomplish His will. Preachers in the past would go without any means of support. They believed God would meet their needs as they did His will. All they needed was the Word of God and His experienced guidance. They prayed in absolute surrender the God's will be done in their lives, wherever that would lead them and to whatever circumstances they would find themselves. They believed God when He said, "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left" (Isaiah 30:21), and "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). If that isn't good enough, remember what God told Moses when He called him to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, "And he (God) said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain" (Exodus 3:12). God promised both His presence and a token of confirmation. We are weak and He knows we need a token of confirmation to encourage us from time to time. But we must do things His way as expressed in the Scriptures, following the patterns of His faithful one's in times past. God nor man has changed. What was good and true then is so today. People respond the same way today as they always have and they shall continue to do so.

As I am now contemplating and moving toward the itinerant ministry these things are heavy on my mind. I need and want God's confirmation and blessing in all I do, and that can never come by doing things in a human manner. Success using worldly means does not demonstrate God's blessing and approval. Anyone can start a business if he uses proven business principles. But a work for God is not just for success in this world. It is for the promotion of God and His ways to a world that does not know Him and cannot know Him unless He personally reveals Himself to them by His word and Spirit. One must have God's presence for this to be accomplished and God's presence does not come because someone wants it to. One must have such a spirit and move in such ways as glorifies Him, and according to His revelation in His word. In the end, Solomon told us how to do this, "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths," (Proverbs 3:5,6)