Middleman

Ever hear the phrase, "give a man a fish, feed him for a day...teach a man to fish, feed an entire village"? Well, most fisherman I know like to wander off into the woods for days to fish, only to come back dirty, smelly, and hungry. Plus, I don't even like fish (a.k.a. aquatic varmints). But, I guess it does make sense to get fish directly from the source rather than just taking a handout. Yeah, cut out the middleman!

I think many people aren't very spiritually mature simply because they never cut out the middle man. They become dependent on pastors, worship leaders, and teachers to connect them with God's truth. And they don't even have to work for it. This is inefficient. A while ago, I shared with a friend a spiritual lesson I'd learned, and I got a minimal reaction. A few months later, he came to me very excited and said, "Hey! Guess what God just told me". And he proceeded to say something very similar to what I'd told him months prior. It makes a much bigger impact to hear something directly from God, than to hear it from me (or you, or anyone else)! This is always the case. It needs to be a priority in ministry to cut out the middleman - to get people to a place as quickly as possible where they hear directly from God.

"But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ." (1 John 2.27)

After all, that's why Jesus went back to heaven, and didn't stay on earth (that, and probably the fact that earth is lame compared to heaven). He was cutting out the middleman, so the Holy Spirit could come and teach all of us, all the time. We need to do the same thing in ministry - make ourselves less of a hot commodity, and more of "just another one of those many people that hear God's voice and share it with others". That takes humility, baby.