The adrenaline of ministry (and maintaining your private life with God)

"I’ve told generations of ministry students now, that the greatest challenge you’re going to have as you go on doing ministry work, is not fundraising, its not getting a proper staff, is not learning how to preach or teach or things like that”” the biggest challenge is gonna be maintaining a solid private life with God. Because the more successful you are in what you’re doing, the more demands are gonna be put on you, the more you can thrive on the adrenaline and doing stuff for God, rather than being with Him.

And that’s been my great challenge over the years: the adrenaline of ministry (the fact that I always feel so gripped to write, to speak, to do this, to do that) whereas God wants first and foremost that I stop and be with Him. Not primarily to be praying about things, although obviously that’s part of what we do in prayer and intercession, but first and foremost to be with Him.

Here, look at it like this (I don’t know if I’ve ever used this illustration) but think of your life in God being kind of like a solar panel. Right? So the solar panel is just being, it’s just drinking in the sun light, but it has to do that in order to transmit heat and electrical power (whatever it does). So in the same way, us being with God is kind of like the solar panel effect, we are being in His presence and therefore sensing His heart more, and therefore becoming more like Him….

What’s most important to Him? What’s most necessary for us? And the question I ask is: What are we really? Not the public persona””I mean, we’ve seen enough scandals recently””not the public persona, but who are you really in private? Think of prayer as the roots of a tree. Here’s a giant oak tree that withstands a hurricane, not just cause the tree is so strong but because the roots are so strong. How deep are our roots in God? How deep am I in God?”

”” Michael L. Brown

The Unheeded Secret
By Oswald Chambers

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Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world." ””John 18:36
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The great enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ today is the idea of practical work that has no basis in the New Testament but comes from the systems of the world. This work insists upon endless energy and activities, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation….For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). It is a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives to be seen by others, while it is the innermost, personal area that reveals the power of a person’s life.

We must get rid of the plague of the spirit of this religious age in which we live. In our Lord’s life there was none of the pressure and the rushing of tremendous activity that we regard so highly today, and a disciple is to be like His Master. The central point of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship with Him, not public usefulness to others.

It is not the practical activities that are the strength of this Bible Training College”” its entire strength lies in the fact that here you are immersed in the truths of God to soak in them before Him. You have no idea of where or how God is going to engineer your future circumstances, and no knowledge of what stress and strain is going to be placed on you either at home or abroad. And if you waste your time in overactivity, instead of being immersed in the great fundamental truths of God’s redemption, then you will snap when the stress and strain do come. But if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in Him, which may appear to be impractical, then you will remain true to Him whatever happens.

🙏🏻 Amen and thank you for sharing this timely word.
Personally, I’ve never felt such a pull in my life from distractions and even "demands” of the world,.. and it is at times a difficult struggle where all too often I fail the grace of God in my negligence to what brother Brown is marking as key to any hope of success in our walk of faith... as this is essentially keeping our lamps full and wicks trimmed, how else can we realistically have a hope in such a world as we find ourselves in ?

Thank you all for your great and insightful imput here. Simply wonderful. And yes, too often the focus in the Christian life is placed on what we do for God. Yet that is putting the cart before the horse. It is making the fruit, the root. Mary of Bethany simply sat at Jesus' feet and drank in his life and presence without saying or doing anything. Her focus, heart and affection was firmly placed on Him.

Taking time for relationship to happen is of utmost importance. When that is in place, we are ready to walk with Him to deal with life's many challenges. I like what I heard someone say about how to properly love your children, "Love is spelled T.I.M.E." And of course they mean quality time of engagement and interaction, not just sitting near each other.

And there are two places in the New Testament where Jesus is talking to professing Christians and delivers a shocking statement.

Matt. 7:22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’

And in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins we have this ending: Matt. 25:11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying "Lord, Lord, open to us!" But He answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you."

So of first importance is having a close intimate love walk and relationship at the heart level with Jesus and God the Father. Without this being primary, the very pursuit of living or reason for being is lost or squandered.

Again, thanks for the great post. So timely and important.

-Daniel

Aren’t we supposed to have fellowship/intimacy with Jesus when we walk in the light or obey Him ? Isn’t intimacy connected to living life with Him even when it’s ministry ?

Anyone that is doing Christian work without spending time in prayer, and by the power of the Holy Spirit is not accomplishing anything that the Lord can use for His purposes.

God has given to each of us talents that He expects us to use. We are co laborers with the Lord. However, it is only as we abide in Christ, living the crucified life, and allowing Christ to live in us will there be fruit that remains.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Mark 1:35

I think you may be misunderstanding me. I'm not saying we shouldn't spend time with Him alone. Of course. Prayer/praise/devotion/meditating on His word/hearing Him by the Spirit. All. As often as we can.

I'm adding that as we walk with Him in obedience in the light, filled with the Spirit, there is a constancy of intimacy that is possible.

I've found that if I am doing what He has gifted me, burdened me and called me to do, that I can "feel' or perceive His presence and pleasure. As we walk in His ways, in His Spirit, in love, we come to know Him better and more intimately. That is the way of fellowship with the Spirit.

I'm not advocating not doing private quite time. I"m just hopefully being Biblical to the notion that fellowship through the Spirit with the Father and Son is possible as we are in obedience.

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of Jesus' promise that He will manifest Himself and we will experience the love of the Father and the Son as we love Jesus and obey HIs commands, especially when we love the Brethern in deed and truth. John 14:21 and 1 John 3.

Robert- ideally you are correct. I believe the admonition is to not get so busy with Christian service that we neglect the most important thing. But I certainly agree that intimacy with Jesus is possible in the midst of service if we choose to include Him. Often we don’t.

In regard to the original post, the excerpt below from Leonard Ravenhill would be another way of expressing it....

"I believe I could line the altar, indeed I've seen the altar lined with hundreds, night after night in mass meetings, and yet I believe, at the end of the day, Jesus Christ could say to me,

"Thou gavest Me no kiss."

Why?

Because I was so busy serving Him, I forgot to worship Him.

...And I say again, I like what Wesley said, "Let me kiss Thy bleeding feet and bathe and wash them with my tears."

When did you last seize Him by His feet and say,
"Master, I can't go another inch without meeting You this morning."

Dr. Tozer told me as a mature man in his sixties that there where times when he lay on the rug for an hour, two hours, three hours, four hours and never uttered a word of prayer, and never uttered a word of praise. He said, "I'm lost in adoration, I see Him in His glory, in His majesty, in His beauty. I can hear those holy beings crying, 'Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord.'"

And he said, "I'm silent in adoration before Him. I had no language, it is beggered." And he had a vocabulary as good as any man I know, and he had read more of the mystics, I think, than any man I know, and he had some of the closest encounters to God of any man I know.

....And I try to do this: I try to say at the end of the day, "Lord, it's not what I preached over TV, or radio, to millions. Or two, or three,
or one person I visited who was sick...But, Lord, did I kiss You today?

Or did You look down and say,
'Son, you were very busy, very active, you made some new friends, people
said you preached well, but listen son but

....thou Gavest Me No Kiss.'"