As Christians, we all share one and the same universal ministry — to be “ambassadors of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20), the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-16). But just as every part of the human body has its own specific purpose, so also for us, as parts of the Church, which is the body of Christ, God has a particular ministry (Romans 12:4-8).
Sadly, very few believers today have heard and received God’s call to their personal ministry, and even fewer are established in it. God calls certain people to be part of the so-called “fivefold ministry” (Ephesians 4:11-12), which gives leadership to the church. But without “the proper working of each individual part” (Ephesians 4:16), the body of Christ on earth cannot grow. The church today needs not only pastors, but also prophets, exhorters, teachers, worship leaders, choir members, musicians, journalists, people to care for and work with children, and youth leaders. The need is especially acute for people in supporting ministries such as cleaners, ushers, hosts, those who care for the facilities, and others.
The first reason for this imbalance in ministry is that many believers are unwilling to submit to the Head of the body and take up the ministry the Lord has appointed for them.
The second reason is that many of those who have heard God’s call to their specific ministry very soon give up on it or fail.
In 2 Peter 1:10 we read:
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. (2 Peter 1:10)
And in Matthew 22:14 we read:
For many are invited, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:14)
From these two verses of the Bible it becomes immediately clear that there is a difference between calling and election, between being called by God to a given ministry and being established in it.
THE FAILURE OF KING SAUL
This is seen very clearly when we compare the stories of King Saul and King David. Both of them were called by God to be kings of Israel. Both were anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit so that they could carry out their ministry with divine power.
King Saul, however, failed. Two years after he became king, at a moment when he needed to show patience, courage, and faith in God, his nerves gave way and he tried to take matters into his own hands, disregarding God’s command and sovereignty (1 Samuel 13:8-14).
He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul’s men began to scatter. So he said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.” And Saul offered up the burnt offering. Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him. “What have you done?” asked Samuel. Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.” “You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.” (1 Samuel 13:8-14)
The prophet Samuel told King Saul that if he had endured this test, he would have been established forever; but because he failed, he would be rejected.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF KING DAVID
Utterly different was the story of King David. He was anointed to be king over Israel while he was still a boy, but many years of testing and character-building passed before he took the throne, and even more before he was established in that calling.
In 2 Samuel 5:11-12 we read:
Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs and carpenters and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David. Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. (2 Samuel 5:11-12)
To be successful in our Christian ministry, we must not only be called but also established in it. To be established means to be approved because you are suitable, to be set in place, made firm, made solid, decisively directed in a certain direction; it means your position is unshakable, stable, and secure. To be established means that you have successfully passed the probationary period and will go on holding the place where you are.
Spiritually, we see that the main credit for our establishment belongs to God (1 Corinthians 1:8).
He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:8)
In 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 the apostle Paul says this even more emphatically:
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)
And yet God’s Word clearly shows us that we too, as people, must fulfill our part in the process of establishment. Without the corresponding actions on our part, we could not be established.
What is required of us in order to be established in our ministry? The Bible gives us seven principles of establishment. If we align ourselves with them, this will contribute to our establishment; and conversely, ignoring them would lead to our failure.
OBEDIENCE
In 1 Kings 15:4-5 it is written:
Nevertheless, for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by raising up a son to succeed him and by making Jerusalem strong. For David had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord and had not failed to keep any of the Lord’s commands all the days of his life—except in the case of Uriah the Hittite. (1 Kings 15:4-5)
The reason David’s kingdom was established was his extraordinary obedience to God. There is hardly a more desirable commendation for true Christians than the one God gave for David’s obedience (Acts 13:22):
I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do. (Acts 13:22)
The first condition we must meet in order to be established is to be obedient to God, to hear His voice and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Disobedience would ruin us, just as it did King Saul, just as it did Absalom, just as it did all the kings of the later northern kingdom of Israel.
Most often we break the principle of obedience through our own sinful self-initiatives. Sometimes, after we have heard God’s call and understood God’s will for our life and ministry, we suddenly rush to accomplish it in our own strength. Tooth and nail we begin our personal battle to secure a certain position in society, at work, or in the church. But elbowing your way through is not God’s will. If God has promised us something, He has the power and the means to bring it about. And He will do it in His time.
WAITING FOR GOD’S TIMING
In Psalm 40:1-2 it is written:
I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. (Psalm 40:1-2)
To wait for the fulfillment of a promise is to have faith in it. If you keep waiting for something, that means you are one hundred percent certain it will come, even though at present it cannot be seen (Hebrews 11:1).
When we begin to doubt that God will come and intervene, then we become nervous and hasty — we start doing things on our own and by human strength, and naturally we fail. That is why the prophet Isaiah said to the Jews (Isaiah 7:9):
If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all. (Isaiah 7:9)
Waiting for God’s timing is an expression of our trust in the Lord, of the fact that we rely on His leading, guidance, and intervention. In Proverbs 16:3 we find a wonderful promise:
Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. (Proverbs 16:3)
Waiting for God’s timing requires not only faith but also patience. While Saul was pursuing him, David had several opportunities to kill him and usurp his throne, but he did not do it (1 Samuel 24:4, 6, 11, 12, 15; 26:8-11). David had every right to kill King Saul, because Saul was hunting him to take his life. But to David, King Saul was an untouchable person, because he was the Lord’s anointed. David waited for God’s timing.
To us it often seems as though God is somehow late. But the truth is that God is never late — He always comes exactly on time.
In Psalm 105:16-22 the experience of Joseph is described while he was in Pharaoh’s prison. God had given him a dream that he would be raised to great honor and authority (Genesis 37:5-10). Instead, Joseph was sold by his brothers and unjustly thrown into prison. His soul was tormented by inner struggle. “How long will I have to wait? When will the time finally come for the word God gave me to be fulfilled?” The answer to these questions we find in Psalm 105:19:
till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him true. (Psalm 105:19)
Joseph’s dream was fulfilled at the appointed time. What God has promised us in His Word will also come to pass. The vision He has given you for your ministry will also be fulfilled! In Habakkuk 2:3 we find confirmation of this statement:
For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. (Habakkuk 2:3)
Waiting for God’s timing requires not only patience but long-suffering. But it is worth it, because if we do not have long-suffering, we will hardly be established.
INTEGRITY
Concerning the connection between integrity and establishment, Psalm 41:12 says:
Because of my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever. (Psalm 41:12)
Joseph was unjustly accused and thrown into prison. But he was blameless, and therefore at the appointed time God brought him out of there.
To be established, we must maintain within ourselves a blameless heart. Unfortunately, the devil’s temptation to us is often to compromise — to use means God has not permitted in order to gain a certain advantage. But this is a deception of Satan, because in Proverbs 12:3 the Holy Spirit declares categorically:
No one can be established through wickedness, but the righteous cannot be uprooted. (Proverbs 12:3)
If we want to be established, we must speak and walk in the truth (Proverbs 12:19):
Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment. (Proverbs 12:19)
To be blameless means not only to be without vices in our conduct, but also to guard ourselves from the so-called “sins of the tongue” such as gossip, flattery, slander, “obscene or foolish talk” (Ephesians 5:4), “unwholesome words” (Ephesians 4:29), and so on.
In Psalm 140:11 it is written that “slanderers will not be established in the land.”
Sometimes we tell ourselves — “well, everyone does it…” But God clearly declares to us that a person with a wicked tongue will not be established (Psalm 50:19-21).
You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. You sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother’s son. When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But I now arraign you and set my accusations before you. (Psalm 50:19-21)
Lord, help us to be blameless not only in our words, but also in the innermost motives of our heart!
PRAYER
Psalm 90 is titled “A prayer of Moses the man of God.” Moses, like David, was an established servant of God. He was a man of prayer. He knew that having God’s promises and knowing His plans is not enough. For them to be realized, they must be prayed into being. That is why in Psalm 90:17 he writes:
May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands. (Psalm 90:17)
Moses was one who prayed. He was an intercessor, but something more than that — he was a man who had a very solid relationship with God. He talked with Him (Exodus 33:11). They were close. Moses did not want to live outside God’s presence (Exodus 33:15). He asked, and God showed him His glory (Exodus 33:18-19). If we want to be established, we must have and maintain such a relationship with God.
Sometimes prayer is an easy, gracious, and pleasant delight. We are immersed in the anointing of God’s presence and can almost hear the sound of the wings of the angels who day and night praise and worship before God. But other times prayer is hard and exhausting work that requires willful perseverance (Colossians 4:12-13). It is a struggle in which God changes us and in the end gives us His blessing. Then the victory won is sweet.
In Isaiah 62:6-7 it is said:
I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth. (Isaiah 62:6-7)
The Lord encourages us to be constant in prayer (Romans 12:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Colossians 4:2). To pray that God would establish Jerusalem, establish our local church, establish His work, and establish us in the ministry He has entrusted to us.
ABIDING IN THE WRITTEN WORD
In the Acts of the Apostles 16:4-5 we read:
As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. (Acts 16:4-5)
Before we are established in ministry, we must be established in our faith.
During those first years of the church, many Christians had doubts about how it is pleasing to serve God. Among different groups of believers there was disagreement over the question of the way of salvation. They were not established in their faith. But when Paul, Silas, and Timothy delivered to the churches the apostolic decisions that were inspired by the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:28), they became stable in their faith, and this led to an increase not only of believers but also to the founding of many new churches.
Today we are privileged to have the final and completed canon of the God-breathed writing of God’s Word. And if we want to be established in our faith and ministry, we must adhere strictly to it. We must not allow divisions on the basis of “new” teachings and revelations. We must never forget that Christian doctrine was finally completed already in the first century. In the third verse of his epistle, the apostle Jude writes:
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. (Jude 3)
If we abide in this faith, we will have the seal of God’s approval and blessing upon our ministry. If we depart from it, we cease to be God’s servants.
SPIRITUAL GIFTS
When God calls us into a certain ministry, He does not expect us to carry it out with our natural abilities. No. All spiritual ministries are supernatural, and in order for us to be successful in them, God gives us the grace, power, and abilities of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual gifts, and not our natural talents, lead to our establishment. The apostle Paul evidently understood the role of spiritual gifts very well, for in his Epistle to the Romans 1:11 he wrote:
I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— (Romans 1:11)
Very often God teaches us how to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit through His servants who are already established as such. As an established apostle, Paul was used by God to bring others into ministry, to build them up, and to establish them. One such disciple of Christ was Timothy. Addressing him, the apostle Paul says (2 Timothy 1:6):
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. (2 Timothy 1:6)
Very often God uses His established prophets or people with a prophetic gift to reveal the gifts and ministries of young servants and to encourage them to reach the potential they have as His servants. In support of this, in 1 Timothy 4:14 we read the exhortation of the apostle Paul to his young disciple:
Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. (1 Timothy 4:14)
As people who are young and not yet established in the ministry to which God has called us, we need spiritual fathers — some who are already established as ministers, people whom God uses for His glory, who hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and do not delay to follow it. People who can impart to us some of the spiritual gifts that already operate in fullness in their ministries.
But also, we must not only want to receive blessing through them, but also be open to receive God’s corrections and remarks about our character and personal life. True are the words of King Jehoshaphat, who says (2 Chronicles 20:20):
Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful. (2 Chronicles 20:20)
FAITHFULNESS
I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his priestly house, and they will minister before my anointed one always. (1 Samuel 2:35)
These words of God were spoken on a tragic occasion — the rejection of two servants of God.
Hophni and Phinehas were the sons of the high priest. When they came of a certain age, they were anointed to minister as priests in the tent of meeting. But instead of thanking God for the trust He had placed in them and for the privileges they had as priests of the Lord, they began to abuse the position they held and to demand for themselves a portion of the sacrifice that was to be offered to God (1 Samuel 2:12-17).
Hophni and Phinehas were unfaithful not only in their ministry but also in their families. They committed adultery with the women who served at the entrance of the tabernacle (1 Samuel 2:22). Even when they were rebuked, they did not repent but went on doing whatever they pleased (1 Samuel 2:25). Because of their unfaithfulness, everyone suffered (1 Samuel 2:17, 22, 24). God’s ark of the covenant fell into captivity among the Philistines (1 Samuel 4:11), Israel suffered a very great defeat from its enemies (1 Samuel 4:10), and the Lord withdrew His glory from His people (1 Samuel 4:21-22). Therefore Hophni and Phinehas were killed on the same day, and their descendants were cut off from full ministry (1 Samuel 2:36; 1 Kings 2:27).
But God’s plan did not fail. He had provided for Himself another priest and prophet — Samuel (1 Samuel 3:20):
And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. (1 Samuel 3:20)
Samuel became an established prophet of God. He was faithful in prophesying — all his prophecies came to pass (1 Samuel 3:19). But before he became faithful in prophesying, Samuel was faithful in serving (1 Samuel 2:11, 18; 3:1). Before he became a prophet, Samuel was a cleaner and an attendant. He was faithful in the little things — he diligently swept the courtyard and the holy place. He cleaned the ashes perfectly from the altar and polished the sacred vessels until they shone. The Lord saw him and said: “I will raise up for myself a faithful priest” (1 Samuel 2:35).
When God entrusts us with a certain ministry, however small it may be, He gives us a kind of “credit of trust.” In 1 Timothy 1:12-13 the apostle Paul says:
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. (1 Timothy 1:12-13)
Once we have received this “credit of trust,” we must make every effort to fully justify it.
To be servants is something different from being owners. We are not masters but stewards of God’s household (Luke 12:42-46). We do not serve with our own gifts but are stewards of God’s talents (Matthew 25:14-30). We do not preach our own life-wisdom and philosophy but are stewards of God’s truths (1 Corinthians 4:1). And in 1 Corinthians 4:2 it is stated very clearly:
Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. (1 Corinthians 4:2)
Before we are established in our ministry, God will test our faithfulness. He will see:
- whether we are faithful in the small things (Luke 19:17):
“Well done, my good servant!” his master replied. “Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.” (Luke 19:17)
- whether we are faithful in serving someone who has greater responsibility than ours (Luke 16:12):
And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? (Luke 16:12)
- whether we do the maximum with what we have at our disposal (Luke 16:10):
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. (Luke 16:10)
If we despise the ministry God gives us as small and insignificant, we will never hear the blessed words from the Gospel according to Matthew 25:21:
Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness! (Matthew 25:21)
ESTABLISHED TO THE END
Let us not think that once we have believed in the Lord, repented of our sins, and been baptized with the Holy Spirit, we have already experienced everything Christianity can offer us. God has a ministry for each one of us — a ministry that will bring us even closer to Him and give glory to the Lord’s Name. A ministry in which He wants to establish us.
Let us strive not to disappoint Him! Let us not stop halfway! Let us not be merely among the invited, but among the chosen! On the day when we stand face to face before our heavenly Father, may we be able to say to Him, as the Lord Jesus Christ said in John 17:4:
I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. (John 17:4)