The Right Priority - By Bert Clenndenon

We can know God and be born again, but if we don't get our priorities right, as given in scripture, we will live our whole life climbing ladders, looking for something we'll never find. We should not fear failure as much as succeeding in things that are not important. In the end all the wood, hay, and stubble in our lives will be burned up.

1 Corinthians 3:6_9 provides a good sense of God's priorities: I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither is he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

This passage outlines three levels of ministry: ministry for God, ministry with God, and ministry unto God. One plants and another waters. This is labor done for God. In this category come "outer court" ministries done in response to a precept or scriptural command. Everyone needs to get involved at this level: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel."

But look out for dangers at this level of ministry. It's easy to get so busy working for God that we fail to work with God. Jesus added another command to His great commission: stay put until you are endued with power, until the Holy Spirit is given. We are not to go out and build monuments to ourselves, nor are we to go out in our own power.

Most of the pastors I know are just glorified business managers. They run the church and do everything, never finding time for prayer. Many are puzzled if you call for a prayer meeting during a revival service. Similarly, some evangelists have memorized a half dozen sermons and run around promoting their programs and tape sales, and nothing matters to them except what they perceive as their ministry. Usually such work is done in the energy of the flesh, requiring no intimate relationship with God.

So it is essential to move on to the second level of ministry described in the text: ministry with God. We are laborers together with God. Our work is done not in response to a precept but to a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew 11:28, Christ says to "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me." A yoke is never one but two; we must be partners with Him in the yoke.

Working for God brings restless activity. Some preachers can't even take time to have dinner with you. They are busy answering phones or chasing an ambulance or hearse. But working with Christ brings rest. This level of ministry takes us from the outer court to the inner court.

God is using His entire body to carry on His work; He doesn't want preachers to do it all. Today we have deacons in the church, though there is some confusion about what a deacon is. Preachers call deacons and give them the same anointing and vision that God has given the preachers. I never call a deacon until I see by his work that he already is one. When I see a man serving others and doing the work of the church, I call him, lay hands on him, and ordain him as a deacon. Preachers must quit their flurry of activity for God and let God use them to bring vision and direction to others. And they will get their vision and direction only by yoking themselves with Christ.

We find the third level of ministry in 1 Corinthians 3:16: Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? This is ministry unto God. The temple is a place of worship, of communion with God, and at the table of the heart God sits down to commune with us. Ministry unto God is a ministry of prayer. Without this ministry all other ministry becomes a product of the flesh; this ministry moves us beyond ourselves and into the Holy of Holies.

We see a lot of headlines today about the Republicans wanting to put prayer back in the schools. I told people 20 years ago right after they took it out that the day we put prayer back in our own lives we will get it back in the schools. The day we make prayer our top priority we will find God working in every sphere of our lives, from home to church to school.

In the Holy of Holies we must wait on God, and that takes time. God is not going to talk to us during a commercial or half-time. If your television is more important to you than God, then forget God and get on with that. I have heard people say, "I'm asking God for this, and if He doesn't do it by Friday, I'm going to do this instead." I answer, "You ought to go ahead and do it today. Don't bother to wait for Friday." You cannot put God on a timetable.

I have learned that to be much for God we must be much with God. Much time waiting on and ministering unto God is a prerequisite for effectual ministry. And effectual ministry doesn't mean success in the world's terms but ministry authentic with God. We must minister unto God before we can minister unto people.

When the church in India and China was undergoing terrible stress, Hudson Taylor wrote to his sister Alice and said, "It looks like everything is dissolving. I don't know whether anything is going to be left or not. But it's His church. If He is through with it, so am I." That attitude comes from waiting on God, knowing He is the vine and we are the branches and we can produce no real fruit apart from Him.

Daniel said, "They that know their God shall do exploits." Not they who know about God but they who know God. We can know everything about food and starve to death. We have to eat. We can know everything about God and never know God Himself, and no real fruit will come of our ministry. The two disciples on the Emmaus Road had a deep theological discussion concerning Jesus and His death, but when Jesus Himself joined them they didn't know Him. They discussed the theology of Jesus but were blind to His presence. How true that is in much of the church today. But when the two disciples sat down at the table of intimate communion with Jesus, their hearts began to burn, and they knew Him.

Sound doctrine is an absolute must, of course. To know Christ outside of the Bible is fanaticism. But in many of our doctrinally sound churches today we find only a shell, an emptiness, because the living Christ isn't present. Paul said the end of the age would be marked by a form of godliness without power. I am a member of the Assemblies of God. Our doctrine today is the same as it was nearly 80 years ago, but it's not producing the same kind of people. It is a form without substance.

We need both sound doctrine and an intimate revelation of Christ. The two go hand in hand and should be inseparable. On the road to Emmaus, Jesus expounded on Himself through the writings of Moses and the prophets, preparing the two disciples for that moment of intimate communion when their eyes were opened and they knew their Lord. They knew Him doctrinally and they knew Him personally.

We cannot know Jesus unless we follow Him. The first priority for true service is to follow. "If any man will serve me, let him follow me." God didn't walk with Enoch; Enoch walked with God. At that time people lived hundreds of years and many generations lived together. Perhaps Enoch knew Uncle Adam, and Adam told him about walking with God in the garden. Enoch fell in love with God and walked with Him, until one day he just walked right up to Glory.

What does it mean to follow Jesus? Set your heart on Him, seek to know Him, and minister to Him in prayer. When we seek the Lord in prayer and search His word to know Him, we are at the highest point of our usefulness. Today's religion has us all in a froth, running and sweating and doing all we can, wearing ourselves out for God. But our highest usefulness comes when we tuck ourselves away with the Word and lay hold of God in prayer. We must hunger and thirst for the living God.

You know the story of Jacob and Esau. Today Esau would pick a good Amish church, for he was a man of the soil. He was a good man, doing everything Papa taught him. But God hated him. Why? Like the Pharisees, he had a lot of form and ritual but no real thirst for God. His brother Jacob, on the other hand, wanted spiritual blessings so bad he would steal for them. In spite of his sins, Jacob thirsted after God. If a man wants God that much, he will get to Peniel even if it takes 20 years to do it. Every Jacob will get to Peniel, but every Esau will be ruined by that self-righteous, religious mess. God had to work on Jacob a long time to get him where he needed to be, but God could do that work because Jacob had a fundamental thirst for God that Esau was lacking.

God doesn't give His gifts to the most talented or most educated or most beautiful. He gives to those who hunger and thirst for his presence. I had a janitor who worked for me for 25 years. When I would get sick, I would go to him and say, "Brother Peoples, shut off that vacuum cleaner and lay your hands on me." The old janitor would put his hands on me and cry. God healed me every time. The man was consumed with God; I never talked to him when he wasn't talking about God. He's retired now, and people in the church continue to go to him.

All levels of ministry are seen in the life of the great preacher Paul. As a Pharisee, he persecuted the church, throwing men and women into prison. If you had asked, "What are you doing, Paul?", he would have answered, "I'm working for God. There isn't a man more zealous in Israel than I." Jesus had warned that those who persecute and kill His disciples would think they were doing God a service.

Then Paul was gloriously converted and began to work with God. He became the greatest missionary the world has known. But after years of fevered activity, he wound up in Rome, where he was put in prison and his "work" shut down for three years. I know he was sent to Rome through a revelation, but I believe he was drawn there for other reasons too, for he saw that the magnitude of his work was going to consume him. "First thing you know, I'll be back like I was when I was a Pharisee. I'll be pointing that finger. It won't be life; it will just be something I've learned from doing."

Three years he shut down his work. Most of us can't shut it down for a week. He learned the secret of ministering unto God, and he came forth with a pure revelation of Christ. When he was working for and even with God, his life was focused on a need, and he touched only a small core of people. When he moved to the third level and learned how to minister unto God, he touched the entire world and still touches it today.

How many of us are affected by the ministry of Paul? The first time I went to Rome I saw the dungeon where they say he was kept. A grill to the street let in the only light in the whole cell. My son, 17 at the time, was with me. I said, "Son, he had to sit right here or he couldn't see anything." I sat and worshiped there.

Legend says that officials kept chaining guards to him, but the guards would get saved and have to be replaced. Even then none would do what the officials ordered. "Sir, we must tie your hands," one would say. Paul would say, "Oh, just leave them free." Another would say, "Sir, we must blindfold you." "Oh, no. You understand that I must see." Another guard was ordered to cut off his head but refused.

After three years of continual and intimate communion with Christ, Paul cried out, "Oh, that I might know Him." After all that, Paul had a deeper hunger than ever for his Lord. His hunger was to know Christ, not to heal the sick or cast out devils or walk on water. To know Jesus Christ.

When I discovered the Holy Ghost, I wanted all the gifts of 1 Corinthians 12. But one day I ventured into the 13th chapter and what I read gripped me: "I am going to show you something better than all these gifts. I will show you a more excellent way." What God said to me was, "I'm a whole lot more interested in character than I am in charismatics." We can have all the power of chapter 12 and listen to people ooh and aah, but our relationship with God is what counts. "Oh, that I might know Him."

Evangelism in the book of Acts did not take place by itself. It grew out of worship and prayer, out of an intimate relationship with Christ. On the day of Pentecost, 3000 souls were saved, but the service began as a prayer meeting that became spiritual anointed worship. Peter was the spokesman, the same Peter who had denied Christ three times only weeks before. But at Pentecost he preached the most profound message in the Word. Why? Because he had prayed for 10 days. He prayed for 10 days and preached for three minutes and saw 3000 converts. Today we get it backward and pray for three minutes and preach for 10 days and wonder why no one gets saved.

In Acts 2, all were speaking in tongues, and the supernatural-inspired worship drew the crowd and provided an opportunity to preach the Gospel. In Acts 3, a healing took place while the disciples were on the way to the temple to worship and pray. In Acts 13, the church sent forth Paul and Barnabas after prayer and fasting, with clear direction from the Holy Spirit. The pattern is the same. The key is worship and prayer.

Today we have a board meeting. We appoint a committee. We figure it out ourselves.

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into jail. With their backs a bloody mess, with vermin crawling about, and with the stench and filth of a dungeon, they began singing and worshiping God. Their praise and prayer brought down the presence of God and revival broke out. The jailer and his entire family were saved and baptized. Paul and Silas were not preaching sermons or even praying for souls. They were ministering unto God, and evangelism sprang out of that.

Worship is the key to the release of God's presence. The church cannot minister to people until it ministers to God.

Moses knew the secret. In Exodus 32 we find him on the mountain getting the people what they needed, while Aaron was at the bottom giving the people what they wanted, the golden calf. Moses came down from God's presence to confront Israel's sin.

Later, when Moses entered the tabernacle, the cloud of glory descended and the people worshiped God in the doors of their tents. Any man who can walk from his prayer closet into the sanctuary and call God's glory on the people will find results in ministry.

Moses gives us the steps to becoming a bearer of God's glory in Exodus 34. God told Moses to go to the top of the mountain alone--"no man shall come up with thee." To minister unto God we must meet God in the secret place, alone and undistracted. God wants to deal with our inmost being, the thoughts and desires of our heart.

When Moses was called up, he went. He obeyed God. As Samuel says later, "To obey is better than sacrifice." The word "sacrifice" there can be translated "worship." Some people in the charismatic community can come together and get the music right with a lot of jumping and carrying on. They call it worship. But they are worshiping a God they haven't even been talking to. They think they can just run into His presence and act like they're on intimate terms with Him.

With obedience, however, our worship becomes authentic. Moses engaged in heart-felt worship on that mountain. "Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped."

Then he repented. As God gave His revelation, Moses repented for his people, for the revelation of God's Word breaks men and brings repentance. Repentance and brokenness are what attract God. "To this man will I look, even to him that is of a poor and contrite spirit and trembles at my word." And again, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit." Only the broken can become the bearers of God's glory.

Moses, indeed, became the bearer of God's glory. He had to veil his face, for it shone with so much glory the Israelites grew afraid. He had spent 40 days in God's presence without food or drink, waiting patiently, and God was able to use Him to show forth His glory. If we are to bear God's glory we must be willing to spend time--much time--in His presence, ministering unto Him in the Holy of Holies.

Dr. Cooksey, head of the Bible school, once brought in Mr. Wigglesworth to minister. Mr. Wigglesworth was known for being rough with the devil, and when a woman came in with a big tumor, he laid hands on her and began shouting orders to the demon within her. "Get up." He pulled her up and she fell down again. "I'm telling you, stand up." Other men came to him to calm him down, but he said, "I'm not talking to the woman. I'm talking to the devil." She passed a tumor nearly as big as a basketball, but a lot of gossip began going around about how Mr. Wigglesworth was too rough with the woman.

So the next morning Dr. Cooksey went to Mr. Wigglesworth's room to talk to him. He knocked on the door but got no answer. Finally he gave up and went for a cup of coffee. An hour and a half later he returned and Mr. Wigglesworth answered the door. Dr. Cooksey said, "I came here a while ago and knocked. I heard you but you wouldn't answer." Mr. Wigglesworth said, "Don't you know it's terribly ill-mannered to interrupt a man when he is in conversation? I was talking to God. I'm not going to answer any door when it's my time to talk to the Almighty." Dr. Cooksey found he could make no complaint to Mr. Wigglesworth, for he could see that Jesus was everything to him.

Mark a time when you can come into the presence of God. If you just say "I'll get around to it," you never will. Make it a priority. What a joy and privilege we have to minister unto God.