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There are three spirits by which a supposed Christian leader may preach or teach. They are the Holy Spirit, an evil spirit and the minister’s human spirit.
This means a pastor can minister under the influence of the Spirit of God, Satan or his own human spirit. It is up you, the hearer, to discern the kind of spirit by which a Christian leader speaks.
Now, as Jesus Christ is our great and best example for ministry, we ought to learn from Him how He ministered when He walked the earth to help us be effective in ministry.
A student of the Bible knows that our Lord ministered by the authority of the Holy Spirit. That, He did, to the extent that one day, His Jewish enemies said of Him: “No one ever spoke like this man” (John 7:46).
Like Jesus Christ, the early apostles also preached and taught by the power of the Holy Spirit. They did not do ministry by the power of their human spirits. Is it not dangerous to do God’s Work without the Spirit of God?
No genuine minister called of God ministered without the Holy Spirit and divine power of God.
So Paul would write, “…our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction…” (1 Thessalonians 1:5).
Again, Paul said Christ spoke through him (2 Corinthians 13:3). That is, the apostle was conscious of the presence of Christ in his ministrations; he knew that it was Jesus Christ who was doing the preaching, teaching, healing and deliverance through him.
He knew that he was a vessel being used by the Lord. The early ministers understood the declaration of Jesus that He would build His Church.
And truly Christ Jesus was with the disciples in the performance of their divine duties and they knew it. It is written in Mark 16:20 that “And they went out and preached everywhere, while THE LORD WORKED WITH THEM and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.”
The ministers were not alone; the Lord was with them, and they were all conscious of that. And we know the miraculous signs as proofs of the Lord’s presence with the early ministers.
To be able to feed the Church of Christ well, ministers must learn to be carried along by the Holy Spirit, the Author of the Word.
We need to understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ, called the Word of truth, must be preached by the inspiration of the Spirit of truth.
There is the Word of truth and the Spirit of truth. The two go hand in hand. The Word will not function without the Spirit. This is why the Spirit had to come upon Jesus Christ after being filled with the Word.
We also need both the Spirit of truth and the Word of truth in our lives before we can be effective and useful instruments in the hands of God.
By James Quansah
