April 2010

In Oswald Chambers’ essay The Ministry of the Interior, he reminds believers to be servant of God instead of worker of God by first focusing on the inner sanctification with the Lord through prayers.

“That is the meaning of personal sanctification, and that is why the barriers of personal testimony must be broken away and effaced by the realisation of why we are sanctified – not to be fussy workers for God, but to be His servants, and this is the work, vicarious intercession.”[1] In this quote, Chamber makes a distinction between a worker and a servant. The difference, according to Chamber, is the ability for one to let go of oneself, one’s own ability and one’s pride to be completely filled with the Holy Spirit to be at a point where one can actually begin to feel and look from God’s perspective.

“One of the first lessons learnt in the Ministry of the Interior is to talk things out before God in soliloquy – tell Him what you know He knows in order that you may get to know it as He does. All the harshness will go and the suffering sadness of god’s Spirit will take its place, and gradually you will be brought into sympathy with His point of view.”[2]

What Chamber is trying to illustrate is the importance of complete transparency of oneself so God’s glory can be shown. Unlike workers of God who tries to bring glory to God through personal testimony or a calendar filled with ministry, Chamber challenges believers to be like Jesus who calls exhibits the character of a God’s servant.. “The Spirit of God must have a deep indignation at the preaching of holiness that is not the holiness of Jesus. The holiness of Jesus is the most humble thing on earth.”[3] Instead of boasting about the great accomplishment of a ministry and preaching on our own holiness, Chamber calls believers to be humble.

This humbleness entails even a total relinquishment in prayer life. As Chamber points out that it is often easier for us to judge and complaint about other’s wrong doing than to talk and pray to God about it. Even when we do pray for others, we tell God what the wrongs are and what He should do. Chamber makes an insightful statement that “the knowledge of where people are wrong is a hindrance to prayer, not an assistance. ‘I want to tell you of the difficulties so that you may pray intelligently.’ The more you know the less intelligently you pray because you forget to believe that God can alter the difficulties.”[4] When we try to feed God more of our own opinion, we are a worker instead of a servant. Although we claim we are making an intercession for others, we are in fact directing God how to perform His job using our own discernment. In other words, we are using our own ability and intelligence again instead of allowing God to act according to His plan.

Humbleness starts from a re-elevation of our inner self. Are all our ministry obligations bring glory to ourselves or to God? Chamber suggests that if we search carefully, “we will be covered with shame and confusion because of our miserably selfish, self-centered Christianity.”[5] God does not need our help. What He desire is our submissive hearts that can wait patiently for the opportunity to participate in His work. Often time, that means performing the hidden work of an intercessor. Being God’s servant is to be transparent so God’s glory can be seen through us, not by us.

[1] Oswald chambers, The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers, (Grand Rapids: Discovery House Publishers, 2000), 515
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.