Serve with your spirit.

Romans 1:9
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers,

Every minister of the gospel must understand this truth in order to serve God effectively and with power. In whatever capacity you are serving God, whether you are a pastor, an associate pastor, a sunday school teacher, a worship leader, an usher or a full time minister of the gospel, remember ministry is first a spiritual work therefore you must develop your spirit and maintain a strong and a healthy spirit.

You serve with your spirit. It’s your topmost priority to build your spirit. When the spirit is not developed, man made methods are used and entertained to attract and keep people. Nothing wrong with giving people the best facilities but the impact and power is from your spirit. For example, if a minister is only concerned about the seating arrangement of the choir and the congregation, the lightings for media purposes, the angles of the video shoot, the different video presentations and the arrangement and movement of the offering buckets and never spends time in developing his or her spirit, all the impact seen will be superficial because it never penetrates the spirit of the people. There will not be a genuine change in the people.

A weak spirit results in a weak service. A strong spirit results in a strong ministry. The success of the ministry is measured by the spiritual progress of the people.

Never replace your spiritual development with any other work. You serve with your spirit. Everything else comes later. The Apostles of the Early church, when faced a food distribution problem refused to give up prayer and the ministry of the word rather they appointed seven others to take care of the food distribution for widows.

As a minister, you prime responsibility is to help build the spirit of your members and you cannot do it without developing your own spirit first.

It takes power to do the work of the ministry. You need power to do whatever the Lord has called you to do. I am not talking about muscle power, money power or intellectual power. It’s the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s not by might nor by power but by the Spirit of living God. Moses and Aaron threw their stick and it became a snake. The magicians and sorcerers of Egypt also threw their sticks and it became snakes. But the one that belonged to Moses swallowed the ones belonging to the magicians. It takes greater power to overcome the powers of the enemy.

Without power, you can’t edify people. Without power, you can’t heal and deliver people. Without power, you can’t do much for people. The lady who was bent for eighteen years was bound by a spirit of infirmity. She tried in her power to be upright but she couldn’t. Obviously the evil spirit had more power than the lady. But Jesus, when he touched the lady, the Anointing broke the power of the spirit of infirmity and the lady was free. It takes power to do ministry.

I Corinthians 4.20
For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of words but of power.

Ministry without power is just entertainment with superficial impact. We are dealing with demonic forces of darkness. Jesus said to the disciples, wait till you are endued with power from on high. Jesus knew without power, their ministry will be ineffective and wouldn’t last long. As a minister of the gospel, this dunamis power, also known as the Anointing is in your spirit.

Our responsibility as ministers is to minister God’s word, God’s life, God’s power and God’s healing touch to the people that assigned to us. Therefore our connection to God must be stronger than ever so we can let the Father touch His children any way He wants to by yielding ourselves to His Holy Spirit. We do this by developing our spirit. This is why you see Jesus, Paul, Peter and other apostles giving so much priority to prayer, to speaking in tongues, to worship and to the study of the Word.

I Corinthians 2:1‭, ‬4‭-‬5
And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

This verse again reveals the importance of having a strong spirit for ministers. The Apostle Paul says, he didn’t do ministry with excellence of speech or of human wisdom. He didn’t do ministry with persuasive words of human wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. There would not be a demonstration of the Spirit and power in his ministry unless he had built a strong spirit.

He spoke in tongues more and more. He made himself strong in the spirit through the scriptures. When your spirit is developed, you are sensitive to the Holy Spirit and there is a supernatural flow of power and wisdom to you and through you that edifies, heals, delivers and sets people free.

I Corinthians 2:6‭-‬7‭, ‬13
However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

We know Apostle Paul spoke and wrote outstandingly about various topics including the In Christ realities. He wasn’t taught by man’s wisdom rather it was the Holy Spirit who taught him these outstanding truths. Apostle Paul made sure his spirit was in top condition all the time. What comes from the Holy Spirit through your spirit will transform the lives of people.

You serve God with your spirit. Your mind doesn’t have the answers. Your physical strength does not have the answer. The answer is in your spirit. Build your spirit. Develop your spirit. Stay in close communion with the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to copy others ministers and ministries, you don’t have to run after numbers, financial favors or any other strategies. Strengthen your spirit so you can have ever increasing and ever strong fellowship with the Holy Spirit and He will empower and enable you for His work. He will guide you, show you and lead you in the unique paths He has for you. He will supernaturally connect you to the right people and open the right doors for you. The Holy Spirit is all you need. Serve with your spirit!

God bless you.