Marketplace Ministry Part 3

Continuing my thoughts on equipping people for marketplace ministry, I mentioned in an earlier post that many traditional pastors are ill-suited for this task because they don't have much experience operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the marketplace. However, if we read Ephesians 4:11-16 carefully, we find out that there are four other equipping ministries listed:

1. apostles

2. prophets

3. evangelists

4. teachers

These are not governmental offices in the church, these are leaders who can train people to minister (serve) effectively in the marketplace.

Along with this let us consider the ministry of the Holy Spirit in and through the members of the church. This is a mystery, but when we surrender our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, God himself comes to live in us through what the Bible calls his Holy Spirit.

Paul the Apostle writes to the community of believers in Jesus in Rome in the 1st century:

"All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God...." (Romans 8:14-15)

All who trust in Jesus as Savior and surrender their lives to His Lordship receive the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

This same Holy Spirit is the one who empowers every believer with spiritual gifts. Each believer in Jesus has a dominant spiritual gift as well as other spiritual gifts. Many churches do not teach much on the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer and in the life of the church, but this is a very important area - especially for marketplace ministry. The Holy Spirit is the true Agent of Transformation in our own lives and in society.

 The Holy Spirit gives gifts, also called "spiritual enablements," to every person who has surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. For those in marketplace ministry, we can serve the people in our place of business or activity (e.g. sports, leisure interactions) through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told us that "without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Therefore it is vital that we depend on the Holy Spirit to work through us in supernatural ways in the marketplace.

These gifts are given so we can serve other people out of a motivation of love. Love is simply defined as the desire and resulting action to do good for someone else. The Bible tells us that Jesus went about doing good and healing people because He was empowered by the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:38). When we are empowered by the same Holy Spirit we can follow in the steps of Jesus!

 

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