But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings…” Jeremiah 23: 22, NKJV.
Our Savior and our GOD, here we are once again in Your holy presence waiting for You to speak to us words of wisdom; words of hope; words of comfort; in the blessed name of Jesus; Amen.
Two days ago we started looking at the responsibility that lies with ministers of the gospel. Among other things, their duty is to faithfully feed God’s sheep and His lambs, with His Word. We are to be so emptied of self, that His Holy Spirit can fill us and use us for the glory of God! Today, let us look at some of the blessings that will accompany the labors of the ministers who are willing to do things God’s way.
Speaking in the name of the LORD, the prophet Jeremiah says the following: If God’s ministers had stood in His counsel, and caused His people to hear His words, they would have “turned [the people] from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.” This brings us to a fundamental truth: None of us can give to others what we ourselves do not possess! And there is only one Source from which we can garner appropriate food with which to feed God’s people; that Source, is God Almighty!
The benefits that are to be derived from every minister of the gospel having his or her personal religious experience, or spiritual journey, is that from their relationship with GOD, they will have what they need to feed God’s flock. The best that we possess is not good enough, if it does not have its origin in God! The words that come from the pastor’s mouth must have as its source, “rivers of living water,” that flow from the throne of God.
Jesus told the woman at the well, ” ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’ The woman said unto Him, ‘Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw’ ” (John 4: 13-15). Yes, dear friends, what people in our congregations want, is what Jesus has to offer!
The woman with the flow of blood for twelve long years, had spent all that she had on the doctors of her day, but to no avail. According to the Bible, “She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse” (Mark 5: 26). That is, until Jesus came! The story continues, “[F]or she said, ‘If I but touch [H]is clothes, I will be made well.’ Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease” (28, 29).
Jesus is the One who heals both body and soul! What the church needs is Jesus! Dear friends, oftentimes, we believe that it is the world who needs Jesus. And it does. But the church has an even greater need of Jesus; because it is the church that Jesus has commissioned to take the Good News of salvation to a world that is dying in sin! His Word tells us that if God’s spokespersons had been faithful in receiving from Him, and sharing with the people, His Words; the people would have turned from their evil way and the evil of their doings.
If we truly love God’s flock, and want to see them saved; then let the people hear the Words of the LORD!