“The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come in order that you might have life—life in all its fullness”. John 10:10 GNT
The one thing that God wants to see above all else in me, and that He prizes above all else, is spiritual life.
So highly does He prize this in me that He makes it a condition of service. Aaron was chosen as high priest for Israel because his rod “budded” (Num. 17:8 KJV); it sprouted with blossom and fruit because God had miraculously given it life. The lesson is obvious: unless I possess spiritual life, I will be fruitless.
God’s people have institutionalized spiritual service. We call a man to be a pastor, and because he is officially a pastor, we expect him to be a mouthpiece for God. The title is not the life and the office is not the fruit. God does not bless an office or a title; He blesses a person and He blesses him/her because they evidence the flow of spiritual life in their life.
Jesus was a Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 5:6). Why? Because Melchizedek was a priest in function, not in office. He had no temple, no sanctuary, no ritual; but his life was a continuous outpouring of the life of God in his heart, which blessed others, including Abraham.
Spiritual life is what God requires and what the world craves. Nobody, not even the outspoken agnostic, will refuse the life and fruit that God gives through His Church; but everyone will bitterly denounce the phony aspect of Christianity, form without life.
If I am to minister to the world I must have life, the “more abundant” life that Jesus came to offer. Men have no use for “rods” or “sticks” that are beautiful in appearance but helpless to make things new. God is the Reviver of dry bones and the Restorer of parched deserts; He is the Giver of His Spirit, by whom I become gloriously, over flowingly alive (Ez. 37:14).
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