Fulfill Your Ministry / Part 1: Know Your Ministry

II Timothy 4:5  “…fulfill your ministry.”In II Timothy 4:5 the Apostle Paul is encouraging Pastor Timothy to fulfill his ministry. Paul wants Timothy to fulfill, to complete, his ministry- not someone else’s ministry, but the specific and unique ministry that God had called Timothy to. God has given to each of us a particular calling for what He wants us to do in serving Him and His purpose.There are many of us who want to fulfill our ministry and are on our way to doing that. There are some who want to fulfill their ministry, but they don’t know how to get started. There are some who feel like they’ve gotten stuck in a rut and can’t get seem to move forward in their ministry. Others feel like they’ve gotten off track somewhere and don’t know how to get back to their calling. Still others feel like they have completely derailed themselves from God’s plan for their life. In this article, we’re going to take a look at what the Bible has to say about finishing the course that God has set before us.1.    Know your ministryEphesians 1:18 “…that you may know what is the hope of His calling…”Before we can run our race, we have to know which race is ours to run.  If I’ve been signed up to run a relay race, but I run a long distance race instead, I’ve lost my race. Even if I outran everyone in the long distance race, it doesn’t matter because that wasn’t the race I was entered into. Similarly, I can’t live my life just doing good things for God, I need to find out what He specifically wants me to do and then do that. At the end of my life, I will stand before God to give Him an account as to how I lived my life. He isn’t going to ask me if I did good things; He is going to ask me if I did what He asked me to do.For example, if God called me to start a church in a village in India, but instead I started an evangelistic ministry of traveling the world, what do you think I’m going to have to answer to God for? I can tell Him about all the good things that I accomplished through my traveling ministry, but I still will have to answer to Him for the people I was called to in that village in India. I will be responsible for the particular race I was called to run. I will be responsible for the people I was called to reach. My obedience is much more important than any of my sacrificial good works, and my obedience is what I will give an account for.Before you can fulfill your ministry, you have to know what it is. For Jonah it was evangelism in Ninevah, for Moses it was to lead the Jews out of Egypt, for Jesus is was to go to the cross as our ransom, for Paul it was to cross borders to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. What is your ministry? If you don’t know, then ask God. Ask God how He wants you to serve Him in ministry. You might be called to be in church leadership or you might be called to a be in a supportive role, but whatever it is, do it.When you know your calling and you let God set you in the place that He has called you to, there is nothing and no one that can remove you from that position. When it is God that establishes you, you can be confident that He will also sustain and keep you. When difficult times come, and they will come, you will be able to remain firm and finish your assignment. Keep your eyes on the prize and complete the race that is set before you.Acts 20:24 “But none of these things move me; not do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”God wants you to be confident in His choice of you. In John 15:16 the Lord says that He is the One who does the choosing; we don’t choose ourselves for ministry. You may not understand why God would choose you for the work He has shown you to do, but if He has chosen you then you can rest in His choice, for it is not simply you, but God, who is at work in you. And God is greater than you, and God’s grace is more than enough to work through you and to handle the task at hand. So just be glad that God’s hand is on you and be willing to obey. Be willing to open your heart to receive all that God intends for you and your ministry. It’s not up to you and your ability, but it is up to God and His ability. So be happy about it, because God will be lifted up for His decision to use you. No, He doesn’t make mistakes, and He doesn’t change His mind. He is never caught off guard, and He doesn’t take something back once it goes from His hand. God has got you. He will see you through.