The Ministry of Glory

This ministry requires extreme purity. Each one must stand before God and serve Him and, at the same time, have a goal with people. Paul’s goals for those he worked with were very high, and he labored with great diligence and energy. “Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.” Col. 1:28-29. We have received the ministry of glory—a ministry that leads people into the same glory that is in Christ—a glory that does not fade, but will remain with us into the eternal dwellings.

It is not easy to preach this glory if you don’t radiate some­thing from God yourself. If you are deeply happy, thankful and joyful in your own life, you can pray for the grace and ability to express more clearly your longing and what is within you. As the servants of the Lord, you must understand to judge yourself in your situations so that you grow and de­velop. Then the people you associate with will taste and see that the Lord is good. If not, it will soon become the ministry of the letter where what you do and say is correct, but it is not the Word of faith which reveals the thoughts and intents of the heart and which has power to bring people’s hearts into contact with the kingdom of heaven. When you speak in fel­lowship with the prophetic Spirit, you speak words of com­fort, exhortation and the edification for others. You must be­come more conscious of this so you can also be an example in spirit—in enthusiasm.

In smaller churches it can be easy to speak to one another about what you think the others need light over. This brings division, and destructive powers will take over the church. This can cause many hurtful and damaging things in church life, and the young people, not to mention the children, suffer because of it. This also happens when the preaching is mostly about outward things. If, on the other hand, we preach God’s Word, it has the power to pierce and divide the hidden thoughts and intents of the heart. It will work as an anchor for our restless souls. The friends will receive nourishment for their inner life so that they can be built up in peace.

By God’s grace we work with the secrets in man. Rom. 2:16. The intention is that the glory that the Scriptures speakabout comes into our body so that we are transformed and the glory of Christ radiates from us. I can become a new person! By the ministry of the Word, God’s light will pierce even to the division of soul and spirit, bones and marrow, and reveal the hidden thoughts and intents of the heart. Our thoughts are thereby corrected and brought into alignment with God’s thoughts. Because of the fall, sin has permeated mankind, so we cannot simply assume that all our thoughts are right be-fore God. Rom. 5:12. They must be tested according to the Word. Through humility they will be brought into line so that we are freed from ourselves—from our own thoughts and opinions. This is the task of the prophetic Word, and it was the task and the ministry that the apostles focused on.

Paul writes very powerfully about this ministry in 2 Corinthians 3, and he concluded with verse 18: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” We cannot stand in this ministry if we haven’t partaken of it ourselves and be­come happy through it. God has given us the directions for such a ministry in His Word, and the intention is that our spir­its become increasingly freed from our self. In this develop­ment, the glory that radiated from the life of Jesus will radiate more and more from our lives too. We cannot work on the others’ joy if we ourselves have not become happy through the gospel.