ARMED FOR MINISTRATION
I intend that this message will be for ministers - especially those who are currently in the service of God.
Meanwhile, it'll benefit any good Christian that'll lend his ears to it as well.
What does it mean to arm or equip?
To supply with armour or (later especially) weapons. For example, the king armed his knights with swords and shields.
- Also, to supply with the equipment, knowledge, authority or other tools needed for a particular task; to furnish with capability; to equip.
These two explanations did justice to it. The first is the root word from which the word "arm" originates and from which we have the word, "arms" meaning weapons.
When you are armed with something, you are equipped or piled up with something. Have you seen a beast of burden before? It is usually laid with many loads. Diverse loads!
From that imagery, we can draw what it means to be armed, "it means to be equipped and diversely equipped". It'll mean "not being alone or ordinary" but being filled with something to the brim. In our case, that's the Holy Spirit. We've been commanded not to be filled with wine wherein is excess but the Spirit.
Ephesians 5:18, KJV
"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit..."
When you're filled with the Spirit, you've broken through to a degree. Remember Stephen and Co who were chosen in Acts 6 because they were men filled with the Spirit.
"Being filled with the Spirit" could be likened to a beast laden with burdens or could be likened to the pots that Jesus said His disciples should fill to the brim.
John 2:6-7, KJV
"6 And there were set there six water pots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. 7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the water pots with water. And they filled them up to the brim."
DID you see the part that says, "and they filled them up to the brim?"
Now, before those pots were filled, what was their status?
They were empty! They contained nothing! They held nothing! They had no treasure and could not be blessing to anyone!
However, they were soon armed to the neck (brim) when they were filled with water. It was that water that Jesus turned to wine. In this way, once empty pots became treasure holders. They passed from being ordinary to being important and useful.
Until you're armed, you lack usefulness and cannot give one out. Brethren, you must be filled, not with water but the Holy Spirit!
So, to arm means to "equip with something specific..." that will be to your advantage.
Militarily, it means to be stockpiled with weapons or an arsenal of it. May you be armed even with the Armour of God!
However, let me turn light on the verse or story that inspires the topic.
Let's go to John 5. I'll post it in KJV which describes it well.
John 5:2-4, KJV
"2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. 5:3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water".
4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had."
That's the story that inspires the teaching, ARMED WITH MINISTRATION. However, you may still not be able to make sense of it now. So, I'll expound it.
In this story, the Bible says a great multitude of people are waiting for the moving of the water.
The moving of the water here is the MOVE OF GOD!
Now, this congregation of people have different needs. Some are blind, lame and paralyzed yet waiting for the moving of the water.
The image painted here describes our needy world and our different congregation today. It even reveals many people's status. Many are sick and constantly diseased if you don't know.
So, they need help and what such persons are waiting for is the anointed man - the man that God's move is built around or will flow through. May you be that person.
If the anointing hits you in a special way, you can become like this pool of Bethesda. If you have a church, multitude will always visit to receive ministration through the man God uses. They don't and won't mind when you turn up. They'll wait! They'll hang around! They'll camp until God's vessel shows up.
They'll camp round their own pool of Bethesda waiting for the move of God through you.
Now, the Bible says, "an angel goes down to stir or trouble the water at a certain season".
That's where I'm going.
When something is "stirred", what does it mean?
What does it mean to stir? That word will deliver the effectiveness of what I'm looking for. It's actually that word that inspires this teaching.
"To disturb the content of (a container) by passing an object through it."
That is, "to agitate".
It can also mean, "incite to action, arouse or instigate".
It can also mean, "trouble or disturb". The opposite of a stirred or troubled water is "still waters" as we have in Psalms 23.
The Bible says, "for an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had".
If a sibling reports another one to his mum of troubling him, don't you think it was a repeated act of troubling before the report? Could it have happened once? No! That other person would have troubled or upset the other repeatedly for him to have used the words "troubling me".
Now, as the angel stirred or troubled the water, something invisible was happening. That ordinary water received the healing virtue. It immediately and by process of time as the stirring continues got armed with energy or the healing flow.
Now, if you rub your palms against each other, something happens. You'll feel warmth. Same happens. For the water in this pool to have been described as a "moving water", it must have been stirred repeatedly else it wouldn't be visible to have moved or billowed. It was the stirring that armed the pool with power.
That's where the title came from - Armed With Ministration.
Until this pool was stirred by that arousing, instigating and trouble causing angel, that water never received life or empowerment. It never received the deposit that could heal of whatsoever disease.
But, it had to be stirred long enough for a duration until it became warm and was armed with power. It could then conduct electricity and spark or shock any that contacts it.
This same process is what ministers will pass through to get ready for ministration.
You can stir yourself in the Holy Ghost until you're energized. You can edify or build yourself up on your most holy faith by speaking in tongues for long as a minister. That way, you'll edify yourself before going out to preach or edify your congregation.
Jude 1:20, KJV
"But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost".
Observe that pool! Before it ministers or give ministration to anyone, it receives from God and the visiting angel first of all. It had to be stirred and made ready for the session and ministration it'll give.
You also cannot pour from an empty cup. You must be armed and equipped with what you'll later give. You must be filled up or energized with power first of all.
That's when people can stumble on you and be made whole of whatsoever disease or problem they have.
This pool so much becomes energized that irrespective of the need or disease, once you touch its water, it is healing!
Healing spree! That's how capable it is.
When you also have taken time out to study God's Word, pray often and daily, fast and maintain constant devotional habit in God's presence (whether on the run or at your stop over), you'll just begin to see people stumble upon you share testimonies. They'll say, "now, your pool is armed with energy". Something is different with you now.
Anyone who's armed with ministration (to give) to people will always draw people around himself or herself like people camped round that pool.
People will know answers can be passed through you.
Even Jesus when He was touched, virtue went out of Him to heal the woman with the issue of blood. That tells you things can be stored with you.
You can carry the anointing that can manifest and distribute or apportion itself as virtue meant for a specific purpose to people at a particular time.
Be armed to the neck! Receive the necessary equipping needed for your congregation. Stretch your hands forward like a man who wants to receive a present. I picked that image in the spirit. Receive now! Now, embrace it!
Let your pots be filled to the brim and your pool be armed by God's baptism (infilling) and consequent spiritual activities you'll do. Amen!
© Olusola ADEJUMO,
M'Wings.
