And say to Archippus, ‘See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.’”  Col 4:17

  Apparently, what Paul would do is dictate his letters and then sign a greeting with his own hand as a way of saying, “this really did come from me.” Paul gives specific instructions to Archippus here. The word for, “see that you,” is translated in other versions as “take heed,” or “have regard to.” It’s as though he is saying, “You need to take this seriously.” 

  My wife was invited to give her testimony at a breakfast meeting we go to sometimes that meets once a month. But we were both afraid that in the busyness of life we would forget get up early and go. So, I wrote a big note and put it in the middle of the floor. That way I was going to walk across it several times every day to help remind me. Today, I had another activity I wanted to remember, but I didn’t make a note because it was not as important to me. So Paul is saying, “Listen, this is a big deal. Do whatever you need to do to make sure this happens. ”

  Each of us has a ministry from the Lord, whatever it happens to be. And, as a church, we have a corporate ministry to fulfill. New Wine has a ministry from the Lord. We have a responsibility to execute our individual ministry, but we also have a responsibility to do our part in executing our corporate ministry. 

  This churches corporate ministry is to pray, and intercede, and to be a “watchman on the wall” so to speak. We are to cry out for the body of Christ in the area and for awakening. We are also to increase in worship and to prophesy, We are to declare and decree the things of the Lord into the air and to see a shift in the atmosphere over our city. We are to create a revival culture.  We have also been called to minister to kids. We have gone through a lot of transition but transition time is over. It is time now that we, “take heed,” and “see that we” fulfill our ministry. 

Whats on the other side of your But?

1 Corinthians 3:1-4

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

The Apostle Paul identifies two different kinds of people in this passage. One he identifies as “spiritual” people, the other as “people of the flesh.” The KJV would say, “carnal.” People of the flesh, or carnal people does not mean, as I thought for many years, unregenerate people. These he refers to in previous verses as “the natural person.”  So, there are really three types of people; the natural man who is not born again, the carnal person who is born again but acts as though they are not, and the spiritual man.

Carnal believers, while born again, are what Paul calls, “infants in Christ.” He does not call them this because they have just been born again. He calls them infants because in their attitude, speech, thought, and behavior, they are acting as though they are merely human. The obvious implication is that they are more than merely human. The merely human man would be the natural man who is not yet born again. The carnal man is someone who, while born again, is still relating in their thinking, speech and behavior process, as if they were not. Paul wants to bring these people to the place that he calls “being spiritual.” 

Lets look at the thought process of the carnal person. It goes like this, “I’m a son of God, a man with God in me, a man with the very nature of God, BUT here are all the reasons why Satan and sickness and sin and circumstances should defeat me. The spiritual person, by contrast, thinks exactly the same words but switches the order of the two clauses. He thinks, “Here are all the reasons why Satan and sickness and sin and circumstances should defeat me., BUT  I’m a son of God, a man with God in me, a man with the very nature of God.

Can you see the crucial difference in these two ways of relating to the world? The faith that results from the spiritual way of relating to the world is then spoken with command words just like Jesus used. Jesus used words like, “Go” as in, “Go, devil.” or “Be” as in, “Be healed,” or “Stop,” as in “Stop, storm.” He used words in the imperative form and so can we when we walk as spiritual people. When we walk according to our true nature we will have the faith to use such words such as “Move,” as in “Move mountain,” or “Yield,” or  “Change.”  We can walk, not according to circumstances, but according to who we are in Christ.