GIFTS
OF MINISTRY
(see
Romans 12.4 - 8)
Brian
Favell
Part
4 - EXHORTING
The
Revised Standard Version of the Bible begins Romans 12.8 with "He who
exhorts..." The King James Bible says "Or he that exhorteth......".
The Jerusalem Bible says "....... let the preacher deliver
But J. B. Phillips in his own translation of the New Testament puts it,
"If your gift be the stimulating of the faith of others, let us set
ourselves to it". That sounds a bit more like something we can get our
teeth into.
Have
you met someone who ALWAYS sees the bright side of a situation?
Not just a mindless optimist but the sort of man who drives you round the
bend because when all you want to do is to wallow in your problem, he talks of
nothing but the wonderful blessing you're going to get out of it once you've
stopped wallowing? He just might be an Exhorter.
An
Exhorter is someone who has so clear a vision of God's good purpose in anything
and everything that he sees troubles and handicaps ONLY as stepping stones to
the achieving of that purpose, the receiving of God's gifts.
So naturally if you're in trouble the last thing he will do is
sympathise: he's too busy praising God for what you're going to gain out of it.
And if you listen to him it won't be long before you have begun to praise
God too. An Exhorter's
vision of God and his ways is infectious; that is the nature of his gift.
Look
again at J. B. Phillips above: "If your gift be the stimulating of the
faith of others..." he says. And
the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews says, "Faith is the assurance of
things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen".
An Exhorter has in his heart that assurance, that conviction: and he has
it so strongly that our everyday problems and troubles cannot shake it.
He has FAITH, and his principal work is to stir up a similar faith in
others.
Of
course he can do this through sermons, if he happens to be one of the elect few
that our Church of England licenses to preach sermons.
But it is likely that he will work much more effectively one-to-one.
His work will not be counselling in the normal sense: he does not
necessarily minister in any obviously practical way; nevertheless no one can
talk with him and not go away heartened and strengthened.
I
say that an Exhorter may not minister in an obviously practical way: that does
not mean he won't give practical counsel.
He will: but it will be geared to your need for stronger faith and deeper
spiritual life, not to the immediate answer to your immediate problem. His
reaction to your problem will be to have you take your eyes off it and look
instead at what God is doing. And
if you do it his way, you will then find that what you were so upset about has
ceased to be a problem!
An
Exhorter is deeply involved in human life: he is not a man of theories standing
aloof. When you talk to him you are part of his family and he wants to be part
of yours. His strength is
that he is not overwhelmed by human problems because he sees God's design
clearly; his ministry lies in helping you to the same vision and the same faith.
And he CARES whether you see it or not.
He
will observe your growing pains (and his own) - those trembling steps taken
along the line of Jesus' will and prompting - then point to passages of
Scripture and say, "See: it's all here!
THIS is what's happening!"
He
is overjoyed by an obvious response to his ministry - by steps taken and things
done in obedience and faith - and grieved beyond reason if there is no such
response.
IF
YOU SEE AN EXHORTER IN ACTION and don't understand the pattern of his ministry
you may well be put off. The
practical steps that he urges may seem to have no real relation to the problem:
they may seem absurdly over-simple; his insistence on them may seem
unsympathetic, even dictatorial. Nevertheless
he has a real ministry, a real gift from the Lord, and if we shut our ears to
him we will be hindered in our walk with God.
Of
course he has his own temptations: Pride, as always, in the work done through
him; becoming discouraged when visible results are slow in coming, and
conversely not knowing when to stop ministering to someone who wants a spiritual
Aspirin rather than a permanent cure.
Finally,
it has been said that Exhorters are THE prayer warriors.
Once you have discovered that God can be expected to answer prayer - that
prayer is not just a matter of getting something off your chest to God whilst
expecting that he won't answer back - then in times of need you look round for
someone whose prayers are manifestly answered more fully, more powerfully than
your own. An Exhorter is
likely to be that kind of person. He
will help - though of course that doesn't let you off from doing your own
homework as well! If
you are learning to ride a bike you don't give up pedalling just because you
have someone running alongside to steady the bike and catch you if you start to
fall........