“He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. “ (2 Corinthians 3:6).
A few years ago, a missionary friend of mine was driving down a rural road. Everything was going well as he approached a small village which spread out on both sides of the road in front of him. He quickly realized there was a market on both sides of the road with many people walking back and forth across the road.
My friend slowed down as he carefully neared the market. He sounded his horn to make people aware he was coming. He did all he could do to give people time to get out of the way.
As he watched, all the people got off the road, making room for him to pass. As he proceeded towards the market, he noticed one woman standing by the side of the road. She looked right at him. Not far from her, he sounded the horn again, just to make sure.
Then it happened. Just as he was about to pass the woman, she stepped out in front of his car, too late for him to stop. He hit her and knocked her to the ground.
He felt terrible for what happened. After clearing the matter with the police, he went to the hospital to check on the condition of the woman. At the hospital he asked the doctor, “Why did she step out in front of my car? She looked right at me. She heard me sound the horn in my car. But she stepped out right in front of me.”
The doctor looked at my friend and said, “This woman may have looked at you and you may have sounded your horn, but she neither saw you nor heard you. She is blind and she is deaf.”
I have thought often of the ministry. We talk, preach, witness and teach people who are spiritually blind and spiritually deaf. We may speak well, we may do our dramas well and we may sing very well, but does the message penetrate the hearts of the people we want to reach?
I have often stood before a class of students explaining the Book of Hope and sharing the gospel and wondered how much the students were understanding. What I said was good, but the spiritual blindness and deafness of the students may have prevented them from understanding and accepting Jesus.
This is where the Holy Spirit helps us. It is not our skill in presenting the gospel that is important. It is not how well we do the dramas. It doesn’t matter our education level. Only the Holy Spirit can break through the darkness, the deafness and the blindness. And he does.
We must do all our ministry with a total dependence on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does what we cannot do. The Holy Spirit does what no one else can do. The Holy Spirit brings light into the darkness. The Holy Spirit brings life where there is death. The Holy Spirit can bring sight where there is blindness.
The ministry of the Spirit is not a particular style; the ministry of the Spirit is God working through a person who is emptied of self and totally obedient and totally dependent on the Holy Spirit. God can work through any personality.
The ministry of the Spirit takes place not only in us as we speak, the ministry of the Spirit takes place in the people to whom we are speaking. When Peter spoke on the Day of Pentecost, the people were “cut to the heart” as they listened to him. It was not Peter’s education or his personality that brought about this result; it was the Holy Spirit working through Peter. The Spirit brought conviction, created faith and brought about the new birth in 3,000 people that day.
Whatever our position or responsibility, let us all do it with a dependence on the Holy Spirit. Let us seek to be constantly filled with the Spirit, continually directed by the Spirit and always completely controlled by the Spirit.
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