The Heart Motivation
There are a number of questions we should ask ourselves before we minister or approach people, whether we are counseling them, encouraging or even prophesying over them. They include:
Do you value and love Jesus? Is your love for Him growing every day? Do you cherish His wonderful Holy Spirit? Are you loving God’s children? Do you love those who do not know Him? Are you genuinely caring for the person you are ministering to? These questions are pivotal, ensuring we have the right motivations for ministry.
Old Testament prophets and leaders were the few chosen spokesmen on God’s behalf. When the Spirit of God was limited to a select few. But now, under the New Covenant, all of us in Christ have the wonderful Holy Spirit and we are all part of the royal priesthood.
The Apostle Peter discusses this, saying, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may declare the goodness of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,” (1 Peter 2:9). In our present day and age, our ministry pattern and type is to be motivated by love, grace and mercy. Before we prophesy or minister, we must remain grounded in Scripture, declaring His goodness to all the world.
1. Our motivation needs to be love—love for God and love for others. Jesus summed up the law and the prophets when He was asked which Old Covenant command is the greatest. In Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
These verses do not state we are to love ourselves, but in saying “love your neighbor as yourself” it implies loving your neighbor as you know God loves you. When I was in India on a mission trip, I remember receiving a revelation of God’s love for the children ministered to each week at an AIDS hospital. I saw His love for them and learned to love them as He loves them. The love and mercy of God on these precious people was life-changing for me as they were responding to the gospel. And that is God’s love in action!
2. Our attitude is to reveal His love. 1 John 4:9-11 says, “In this way the love of God was revealed to us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. And in this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we must also love one another.”
Ministry is not about the one ministering; it is about the one who enables and empowers the minister by His Spirit. Revealing His love is an amazing privilege. The signs and wonders that take place are all to point to His love. For a season in my previous youth ministry we saw God manifest gold dust and diamonds. This overflowed to our larger church meetings for all ages. When asked what these things meant, the answer was that He was revealing His love. And we are to do the same, first and foremost, by sharing the Gospel message.
3. Our character must apply His virtue and love in our lives. 2 Peter 1:5-7 says, “For this reason make every effort to add virtue to your faith; and to your virtue, knowledge; to your knowledge, self-control; and to your self-control, patient endurance; to your patient endurance, godliness; to your godliness, brotherly kindness; and to your brotherly kindness, love.” We need to continually grow in Him and it should be evident to others that we are making these efforts. This is to lead us to maturity, growing in His likeness and image. This is in fulfilling Jesus’ prayer in John 17 for us to be one as He is one with the Father.
God’s love is the key to all ministry.
This article was written by Jared Laskey of Fireborn Ministries. Jarred leads Destiny Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia and lives to see Jesus awaken this generation to the power of the Holy Spirit. He is also the co-author of Veronica’s Hero.
