It doesn’t matter where or what God has called you to; what matters is that you are doing what He has called you to do, and you are labouring right where He has placed you. It doesn’t matter if, to everyone else, that appears to be a forgotten, neglected, overlooked, tiny, and obscure back corner paddock where nothing appears to be happening or growing and where all seems a waste. If God has called you there, and you are faithful with all He gives you to do, that is where eternal fruit for the kingdom of God will grow!
Nowhere else and under no other conditions would that same fruit grow for His glory, pleasure and delight. The reason is so simple, yet it seems hard for us to understand; fruit is Spirit-grown. It must be a work born out of the Spirit’s leading, empowerment and purpose. To do anything else, no matter how big and impressive it may appear, will be fruit failing on the vine before its time. It will not be a pleasure to our Lord’s taste.
Our heavenly rewards won’t be determined by: how much we did, how long we laboured for, how many people were saved under our ministry, what great works we performed, how many healings took place, how far we travelled, how much we sacrificed, how many sermons we preached, how long we endured, how much we gave up, how many people we spoke to, or who we spoke to, how many house churches we started, how many institutional churches we started, how many books we wrote, how many meals we distributed to the poor, how many mission trips we went on, how many countries we visited, how many air miles we clocked up travelling for the gospel, how well known our ministry was, how large our ministry became, how broad its influence reached, or how many people groups it touched and affected. This list could go on and on…
The real value of our work is whether we did what God asked of us. This includes where He has asked us to go, do and say. This is what will matter on that Day when every believer will give an account of their words and works: what was initiated and orchestrated by the Holy Spirit or whether all that we did was accomplished out from a place of human enthusiasm and energy as it pertains to our natural life.
We need to ask ourselves, how much of what we have built originated from the Spirit of God? If we have been directed by the seemingly extraordinary suggestions of others or the apparent monumental undertakings of certain groups and individuals, from good or seemingly clever ideas, human ingenuity, or something we just thought needed to be done, there’s a problem. Just because there is a need, does not mean God is working to fix it.
Recall the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee when they ran out of wine. Jesus’ mother, Mary, turned to Jesus and said,’ ‘They have run out of wine’. Regarding this situation, T. Austin-Sparks says,
You notice what the Lord Jesus said. He turned to His mother and He said, “Woman, what do I have to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.” There are two things there, a seeming necessity is not the grounds on which Jesus works. Just because it is something that seems to be needy, He does not do that. He is waiting for something. He says, “My hour is not yet come. I cannot do this now. I understand how serious the situation is, but I cannot do it now. I may have perfect sympathy for these people, but I just cannot do anything!”
Why could He not do anything at the moment? He was abiding in the Father, He was not living in the circumstances. In His Spirit He was saying, “Father, do You want this done? These people are in difficulty; My dear mother says I ought to do something. But Father, I cannot do anything unless You tell Me to.” He was living in the Father. And as He waited for the Father, it seems that the Father says, “Yes, all right, go on.” And then He said, “Fill the waterpots with water.” That is the first illustration of how Jesus lived in the Father.1Austin-Sparks, T. “God’s Ways Are Different From Our Ways”. That They May All Be One, Even As We Are One, 1964. https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001068.html
As I have said elsewhere, Jesus faced many different problems, but He only ever attended to the ones He saw His Father involved in.2Batty, Derek. ‘The Heart of Love’. Wanted Workers for the Work of God. Prepare to be Sent. A Renewed Call for Apostolic Ministry. The Ancient Pathways Publishing. NSW Australia. 2023, p. 271.
Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. (John 5:19-20, NAS95)
The Lord has called us to produce fruit that remains. This fruit is grown due to our obedience to what He has asked of us to do. The fact that He says the fruit remains speaks of its eternal value, nature and quality. Anything that is out from God remains, it is eternal because God is eternal.
You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. (John 15:14-16, NAS95)
Recall the ‘certain men’ (Galatians 2:12), the ‘Judaizers’,3Judaizers were Jews who confessed Jesus as Messiah, believing also that the Mosaic Law and particularly the rite of circumcision should be required of Gentiles. The views of the Judaizers are explicitly cited in Acts 15:1, 5 and can be inferred from Galatians, Philippians 3 and Romans 2:25–29; 4:1–12. Hawthorne, Gerald F, et al. Dictionary of Paul and His Letters a Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship. InterVarsity Press, 1993, pp. 137–138. who in their exhaustive efforts to discredit the apostle Paul’s ministry, laboured believing the work they were doing was God’s work. They travelled far and wide following hard on the heels of Paul to discredit his work in every place he had been.
Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved”. (Acts 15:1, NAS95)
We can toil after wind, and produce nothing. Or we can slow down, and seriously consider whether what we are doing is what God has asked to do. How do we determine this? Well, I suppose there are a number of things we could look at as a measure. I have listed some of these following:
- Is this something that is beyond ‘my’ ability to do?
- Is this something that has been confirmed by an external source? Like another person who knew absolutely nothing about it.
- Has this been confirmed multiple times, or more than once by independent sources?
- Do I have an abiding sense of peace that bypasses my capacity to understand why?
- Is this a totally new idea to me, in that it is something I haven’t thought to do prior to now?
- Has it been confirmed, ‘seeming good to us and the Holy Spirit’, by trusted more mature believers?
- Do all the surrounding conditions seem right and in place for this to happen, those within my immediate and surrounding environment?
- Is there an evident inner witness, an ‘amen’ from those who come into contact with the ministry, the fruit and the content you are producing?
- Are people being changed, transformed, built up spiritually, helped and encouraged in the Lord?
- Is there an abiding conviction, an absence of doubt, a faith as you go about what you do?
- Are others attracted by what is going on, by what the ministry is producing? Is it having a building effect?
- Is it something that you just can’t shake; you try and forget it but remains with you no matter what?
- Do you see consistent interventions from the Lord to guide and lead you in the very thing you are doing?
These are just a few but I am certain there are more you could add to the list. The point is that whatever ministry or work we undertake for the Lord it MUST be out from Him. If it isn’t then we can waste a whole lot of time and energy failing to produce what is precious to the Lord. The God of heaven is only interested in that which comes out from heaven, not from the earth.
I am grateful to the one who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me faithful in putting me into ministry. (1 Timothy 1:12, NET 2nd ed.)
Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.”(Zechariah 4:6, NAS95)
God accomplishes all of His work through those He has called, prepared and sent to do His work. He has chosen to co-labour with us to work with Him, by Him and for Him.4See author’s book on how God calls, prepares and sends workers for Kingdom work. https://www.amazon.com.au/Wanted-Workers-Work-God-Apostolic/dp/0645705101
After reaching their hometown of Emmaus, the two disciples immediately encounter the risen Christ as He reveals Himself to them. This encounter immediately directs their next steps from that place back to Jerusalem and to their brethren. Upon reaching the disciples who were still together, the two tell them of their seeing the Lord. Immediately, the Lord appears to them all!
And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.” They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and *said to them, “Peace be to you.” (Luke 24:33-36, NAS95)
This situation is an example of true ministry. We can only pass on to others what we ourselves have received. Christ appears to the two Emmaus disciples and then they go to tell the other disciples; in doing so, Christ immediately appears to the eleven. This is God’s ministry pattern being revealed.
The difference now is that it is not a physical revealing but a spiritual revealing (revelation) to the inner eyes of our heart or to the human spirit. It says in Luke 24:31 ‘Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.’
The first set of eyes mentioned here, ‘their eyes were opened’ is referring to the illumination of the eyes of their inner man, the eyes of their spirit, enabling them to see Jesus. The word ‘opened’ in Gk. is dianoígō, and means make understanding possible, similar to when Elisha prayed for his servant to see the angelic hosts surrounding the city, (see 2 Kings 6:17, ref. also, Gen 3:5, 7).5 William Arndt et al., BDAG. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 234. The second set of eyes in this verse, ‘and He vanished from their sight’, is referring to their natural physical ability to see.
Finally brethren, the tiny, forgotten patch of dirt that you are working in, that no one seemingly knows about, acknowledges and/or even shows any interest in, if it is all initiated by the Lord, KEEP working at it faithfully, for the God of heaven will be with you! He will watch over you, working there right alongside you to enable you to produce eternal fruit for His everlasting kingdom!