As we grow in the Lord and begin to step out in faithfulness and obedience to minister to others this becomes our “Spiritual Internship”. It is here that we learn the many principles of the operation of the Holy Spirit.
The most important of these is that God honors the government of the heart when it yields to Him even though that person’s spiritual understanding might be incomplete or different than mine. We are not imparting knowledge but spirit and life. Even though I may be the one who is ministering, God is actually accomplishing something beautiful in both of us.
It is the overarching principle of all ministry that we are each being brought step by step into the unity of the faith by rightly relating to the Lord right where we are in our walk. Even though we are both in different places we are each in the very center of Gods will as His life flows between us.
The foundational principle of ministry is that only the Holy Ghost can impart truth. The target of this truth is the spirit and not the mind. The Kingdom of God advances when that truth finds its way up from the spirit through testing and proving into the good ground of a heart that has been prepared and is yielded to the rule of the Spirit.
Many who are young interns in the Lord attempt to minister revelation that is simply information that puffs up the mind but leaves the spirit untouched. This information can be proven to be 100% spiritually accurate yet it has no eternal value. The written words of God (past tense) require the breath of God (present tense) before they can impart “Spirit and Life”.
The only “person” who can use the word of God rightly is the “person” of the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth and the Comforter. He will make you quite uncomfortable (conviction and correction) with your present condition before He comforts you (creative word) with a word of grace that will take you to a new place in the Lord.
We each must come to a place in our walk and ministry where we see that the true unity of the faith is knowing that only the Holy Spirit can impart truth. Words birthed in our spirit are “quickened” and anointed to carry the grace of His life as they are imparted spirit to spirit. He is the one who will lead us and guide us into all truth until ….
Ephesians 4:12-13 (Christian Standard Bible) “equipping the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, UNTIL we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness”
Curtis Crews