The Ministry of Beholding His Face
The Ministry of Beholding His Face
(The Ministry of Beholding His Face)
- David Wilkerson
Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord, is there is liberty.
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord
2Cor 3:17-18
Our modern day of concept of ministry is so corrupted.
We think ministry as only a career, ordained licensed men or women, who marry or bury. They pastor churches. They build and maintain institution.
We think of ministry as someone who’s gone to seminary or Bible college and comes out and some denomination or organization ordains or licenses that individual.
We say he is in the ministry.
That is not a biblical concept.
Not at all.
No human being, no bishop, no denomination can put you in the ministry.
They give you a paper, but that does not make you a minister of gospel.
And, folks, God doesn’t judge ministry by effectiveness, by magnitude.
Paul speaks of a ministry that every single one of us listening to me today
have been called to
(2 Cor 4:1)
Paul says it’s a calling that every born-again believer
has been called to undertake.
It’s our first calling.
It’s a ministry out of which all other godly endeavors are birthed.
It’s called a ministry of beholding the face of Christ.
To spend quality time in the presence of Jesus.
Just beholding.
That’s quietly worship.
It’s dedicated focused worship.
It’s time given to Him just beholding His face.
This word beholding is a very serious and strong word
that the apostle uses, not just taking a look.
But in the Greek it’s fixing the gaze.
It’s making a decision that I will not move from this position
This is my calling
Before I do anything else
before I try to attempt anything for God
I’ve got to come out with His presence.
I’ve got to come out with something that
I’ve received in His presence.
That is changing me.
I have been changed.
I have not gotten this in a seminary.
I have not gotten this from men.
I got this alone with Jesus beholding His face.
I have fixed my gaze on Him.
I said this is going to be my life.
If my life is to count
I’m not gonna sit around saying
“What can I do with my life?”
I’m not going to try to figure out
what I can do as a career for career.
I am going to do the one thing
God has called us all to do.
Get alone with Him,
stay in His presence,
worship Him,
behold His face.
It’s the face of Jesus Paul talked about
the glory of God in the face of Jesus.
It’s spending that quality time beholding His face.
And as if we're looking into a glass,
only as if we looking
another words we are studying,
we are looking,
we are fixing a gaze.
Not just a passing glance.
He becomes the center of the obsession in your life.
You know that you can’t get what you need in any other place
It’s into the presence of the Lord.
And the Bible says,
those who spend time beholding Him all transfigure,
they are changing .
It’s the opening up for the heart and the mind to Jesus and tell.
Every time you come into His presence there’s a change.
You may not feel it.
You may not see it.
Others may not see it right away.
There’s metamorphosis taking place
but to change.
Something is happening.
the glory of the Lord is being manifested.
When you spend time alone with the Lord,
(and I think that’s first thing happened)
when you behold Christ in His glory,
you begin to see how short of that glory you’ve come
and how blind you’ve been.
How blind you’ve been!
But it has to be continual thing
because the changes are continual.
Beloved,
before I close I want to tell you something.
Everybody in this building,
Everyone’s hearing sound of my voice,
we are changing.
One way or another we’re changing.
You are in the process of changing.
There’s transfiguration taking place in all of our lives.
Our character is formed and changed by what obsesses us.
Whatever has your heart,
whatever your eyes are fixed on,
one thing that you are going after,
that’s going to form your character.
Whatever you are feeding your soul on,
He’s changing you.
It’s affecting you.
We are all being changed, the Scripture says.
Slothful, lazy Christians.
One thing I dread more than anything else
if anything put a fear of God in my heart.
That’s have been a long period of ease
where there’s no demand made upon me.
I’ve become lazy.
I’m not into the word.
I don’t have that kind of beholding of His face.
Then I know that the growth has stopped.
And I want to tell you.
You start going back the other way.
And I tell you you can lose a very vision
until the face of Jesus begins to fade away.
I would rather die.
I have one that happened in my life.
So, God do what we have to do.
Keep me on my face in the Holy of Holies.
If you’re going through hard time now,
if you’re facing a trial,
the Lord's just put you in the ministry.
So be careful.
Do not bring offense to that ministry by turning into sniffling, complaining coward.
You have to prepare.
You have to have character before impact.
Now the call to this church and all God’s people.
Prepare your heart.
“Your ministry now is to get alone and behold my face,
worship me, get to know me.”
You’ll be ready for anything.
Out of that come this outshining.
This ministry of outshining peace and rest and joy in the Holy Ghost
Folks, time is coming.
Many of you will fall apart.
Because you have not been beholding His face.
That’s your ministry.
That’s mine.
When I get to Heaven,
The Lord, when he opens the book
He’s not gonna talk about,
He’s not gonna be talking about any building I was able to build, any institution.
He’s not gonna talk about Crusade.
He’s not gonna talk about that.
He’s gonna talk about the outshining.
He will talk about the character.
He’s gonna talk about how I respond it.
You came here this morning sharing anguish and fear.
It may be a financial disaster that’s looming ahead of you.
Some of you are facing a situation you say “I don’t know how I am going to take it. I don’t want it to overwhelm me.”
If you love the Lord, you’ve been walking with Him,
you may think you will fail,
you may think you won’t have it.
But, sometimes I have seen some of the most fragile, the most tender people become like rock of ages.
Because the Holy Spirit came and gave strength they didn’t know it is possible whether to have.
Lord, Jesus
It’s meant to produce Christ-likeness in us
what everything that comes into our lives
if we are in trust with you,
if we are walking with you,
we just loving you and resting in your promises in your words.
We are not in fear for what happens around us or to us
Because you said,
“You have everything under control.”