The Nature of Spiritual Influence in Christian Ministry

The idea that impressed me most deeply when thinking about the structure outlined in the last post was the point relating to the nature of spiritual influence in ministry.

I tried to capture what came to mind in the following words: "The spiritual dimension in effective Christian ministry is not the influence of an impersonal force but the co-working of a personal presence."

What did I mean by this? First of all, I wanted to establish that spiritual influence in Christian ministry is not due to an impersonal force. It is rather due to the personal presence of the Holy Spirit working in and with a Christian. In that sense it is not impersonal. And neither is it something that is random or unpredictable. It is the result of the Holy Spirit present within us, actively at work through us. Put another way, it is not the influence of a vague spiritual power that is manipulated by technique. It is rather the intelligent, definite operation of a Person.  

What is more, it is the operation of a sovereign, holy Person who has the glory of Christ and of the Father in his heart. He is not at our beck and call. He is always at hand when truly sought, but never at our disposal. The Spirit never surrenders his sovereignty, nor his commitment to God's redemptive purposes, to meet the whims of those he indwells.

True spiritual ministry, then, is the cooperative activity of a personal human agent with the indwelling personal Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead. In that sense it can be called an act of the "co-working"of two persons. That is not to say that the two parties are of equal status. The Spirit always remains sovereign and the Christian always dependent. Nevertheless, the relationship is never mechanical. In working in and with us, the Spirit respects to our humanity. Our cooperative working is that of persons who love each other dearly, not the mechanical interaction of a technician and a robot, of a tyrant and his slave.

If that is indeed the case, then the foundation of Christian ministry lies in relationship - the interaction of persons - rather than the manipulation of force. That's got to be the starting point of any consideration of spiritual ministry.