§ Fasting.
«When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterwards». (Matthew 4:2).
§ Solitude.
«Early in the night, he rose up and went out, and departed into a deserted place, and prayed there». (Mark 1:35).
Elijah was the spiritual father of Elisha. After Elisha closely observed the life of this man of God in his life and saw all the miracles that God performed through Elijah, he understood that the key to Elijah’s success was his love and total commitment to God. So Elisha desired and became hungry for the same anointing and lifestyle of Elijah his mentor. But more interestingly is the fact that Elisha wasn’t satisfied to do just what Elijah did; he craved for the double portion of Elijah’s his anointing.
«All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not fur sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body» (1 Corinthians, 6:12-13).
A disciplined person is always in submission to certain set of rules and order. If you do not have any rules or regulations, if you avoid the word ‘order’, in your life, then you are undisciplined, and you won’t be able to experience any spiritual progress or growth.
Spiritual growth which is related to positive changes in a person’s life is not a heritage meant for undisciplined people. If a person lacks discipline, he will always break and ignore rules and regulations. It does not matter how many sets of rules and regulations he impose on himself for noble purposes, an undisciplined man will break them all as soon as he made them.
It is in ministering to others instead of focusing on ourselves that we discover a fulfilled, happy and satisfied life. Life and joy fill our hearts when we see how God meets other people needs through our ministry.
When we share our talents with other people through ministry, God also fills us with life.
«Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.”
God’s Word is like a navigation system that helps us to see where we took the wrong turn. So God’s Word reproves us. It shows us how we can get back on the right track. So, it corrects us. Also God’s Word helps us to stay on course and not get lost. So, it instructs us in righteousness.
We saw that usually Jesus first served people and helped them practically and then pointed them to the eternal things – to their Heavenly Father. We must remember that the goal of ministry is to help people reunite with God through our good words.
True ministry will require of us to sacrifice something. But we do it for the Lord Jesus Christ and the Gospel
We see that Jesus experienced serious difficulties in the days of His earthly life, but He did not focus on them. Jesus was busy serving the Father and those He was sent to serve. While Jesus served people, the Father made sure people ministered to Jesus; God met Jesus’ needs through His ministry.
When we serve others, God motivates others to serve us. We always reap what we have sown. We do not serve people because we do not have any problems, – we serve people because it pleases God. And when we serve, despite the fact that we have problems, needs and concerns, God makes sure some people that we do not even know serve us by meeting our needs
When we serve people, we should be careful to see to it that all the good works we do, such as taking care of people, giving words of encouragement, gestures and deeds of love are all done for the purpose of drawing those people closer to Jesus and uniting them with Him, and not to glorify ourselves. You should understand that people’s problems will be solved only when they are united with God. If we really want to help people we should understand that nobody can do it better than our Creator.
