Inward Stature: Criteria for Ministry
BY PASTOR SUSAN TANG
 Throughout Bible history, we realise that when God raised up His vessels, He first hid them. Unfortunately, when men do the raising (or when we raise ourselves) they cannot wait to expose them, display them or publicise them. Thus they hand these vessels over to an early death. God is never in a hurry or frenzy, but men are.
There are definitely reasons why God wants to hide us. He knows that there are things that must be worked into our spirit as we spend time in seclusion and solitude with Him – things that cannot be learned elsewhere.
Indeed, we need time to build an inward stature. So many of God’s vessels had moved under God’s anointing and the gifts of the Holy Spirit without possessing an inward stature or inward maturity. To minister under God’s powerful anointing without possessing an inward stature or that inward steadfast maturity is sheer foolishness.
What caused Jacob to stand steadfast and un-intimidated in front of the formidable Pharaoh? His inward stature. Jacob was prepared for the experience inwardly. He did not try to impress Pharaoh in any way. He did not abuse his privileges, neither was he ashamed of his own shrivelled image. He did not have to ‘hype’ something up. Even though Pharaoh was the most powerful man on earth and his benefactor, Jacob knew he himself was the greater on the inside because of what he carried within. As a result, he unashamedly extended his wrinkled hand to bless Pharaoh.
And so it was with his son, Joseph. By the time Joseph was brought into the presence of Pharaoh, Joseph knew he had the power and the inward stature to counsel and to instruct Pharaoh. Joseph was not intimidated. He did not ‘bluff’, flatter, lie, boast or ‘hype’ his way through. He spoke as God had directed him. He revealed as God had shown him.
When he finally sat on the right hand of Pharaoh to become the Prime Minister of Egypt, he had within him that stature that could carry him through in his high position with godly integrity. Inward stature and maturity are important. So many today possess the outward anointing without the inward stature. This is why they cannot keep their position and their ministry.
Forty years to ‘Kill’ Moses
Could Moses have learned from elsewhere the things he learned from the 40 hidden years in the wilderness? Definitely no. God hid him in the desert for that long a time because God wanted to ‘size’ him down. God wanted less of Moses and more of Himself in Moses. Moses, who had grown up in the court of Pharaoh, carried that ‘Pharaohic’ stench of pomposity, carnality, sensuality and self-confidence too strongly.
The 40 years among sheep took care of that. What smell do you think you will exude if you have spent 40 years among sheep night and day? And if most of what you heard for 40 years was only the bleating of sheep?
By the time Moses stood before Pharaoh, he probably smelt like sheep and no wonder he couldn’t speak! He had no confidence to speak to Pharaoh and Aaron had to do it for him. Was Moses afraid that instead of speaking coherently, he might stammer out a ‘blah…aah’?
Remember, he had conversed with sheep for 40 years! God understood. This is why He agreed to give him Aaron.
Which school or seminary is able to produce such humility, submission, power and trust in God and make a person adequate to pastor a congregation of three million people without being lifted up with pride and arrogance or breaking down with stress and anger? The seminary in the desert, the one where a man trains among sheep and is hidden for 40 years under very trying conditions.
Ten years to conform to His Master’s vision
Elisha served 10 years as Elijah’s personal assistant doing menial and lowly work before he inherited his master’s prophetic office. Even though he came into his own office and ministry later on, he was still known as the one ‘who poured water on Elijah’s hand,’ or as Elijah’s servant.
Elisha observed his great master for 10 years and this proximity with his master produced something in him. He came to love the things his master loved and hated the things his master hated. God hid him with Elijah for those years so that Elisha’s spirit could be one with Elijah.
How wonderful. Elisha knew that if he had to carry on the work of his great master, then he must have his spirit. When the right time came for Elijah to die, there was obviously much work to be done, and Elisha knew he needed a double portion of his master’s spirit to get it done.
The years of observation and faithfulness at his master’s side had paid off. He asked his master for a double portion of his spirit so that he could continue his master’s work with double effectiveness. He got it.
God knew that the 10 years that Elisha had had with Elijah would produce in him what he needed to steer the cause of Jehovah and to stand up against an apostate Israel.
Great Seclusion Follows the Great experience
The apostle Paul took his years of hiding in Arabia after his great experience with the Lord. He did not ‘jump’ into ministry as many do today. Indeed, he went immediately into seclusion before he even met up with the rest of the apostles (Gal. 1:17–21). Paul did not go into frenzied ministry. He waited on the Lord. He knew he needed some sharpening, and definitely a lot of polishing, before he could get into public ministry.
There is no need to hurry, to pursue ‘self-advertisement,’ to strive and clamour for ministry, just because you have had some great experience with God. When God wants to use a person, He really knows how, when and where to ‘dig us out,’ like the way David dug up the five stones from the jungle streams.
These stones, smoothened by years of friction with the swift currents of rushing waters, Z were hidden in the stream. They were not exposed. Yet, when the right time came, each one was dug up by David and used in the slaying of the giant.
‘Readied Hidden Stones’ will one day be dug up
Each stone has that ‘giant-slaying’ potential, so it does not matter which one David pulled out of his little bag. If the lesser David knew where to pick up his stones, surely our Lord, the greater David, will know where to look for His ‘living or lively stones’ (1Peter 2:5).
In the meanwhile, may all His living stones allow God to hide them and to let His currents work on them, to smoothen them and to place a ‘giant-slaying’ potential into each one. God knows the right time to expose you: after, not before, you have been sharpened, polished and smoothened.
If he has not moved you on yet, then could it be that you have not allowed Him to do anything in your life? You have not given Him the time to sharpen and to polish you? God cannot work with a blunt, dull and un-smoothened vessel.
When the time came for Elijah to move on, God caused his brook to dry up. He was ‘flushed’ out of his hiding and out of his secret sanctuary. When the time came for Moses and the nation of Israel to move on, God spoke unmistakably to them, ‘You have compassed this mountain long enough, now get up and move on!’ When it was Nehemiah’s turn, God stirred up his inner being so that he had no peace to stay within the courts of royalty but had to return to Jerusalem.
With Isaiah, the divine vision he saw so impacted him that he had to cast off his complacency and volunteer to be God’s mouthpiece. God knows how to move people on and to expose them. There is no need for self-exposure.
God knows that over-exposure is bad for His chosen vessels.
Familiarity with people, and with fame, crowd pressure, man’s favour and city hype is not conducive in the making of a man/woman of God. If it is, then God would not have hidden His many choice vessels while they were in the making. Jesus knew that being over-exposed, being over-familiar and courting the crowds with fame was not desirable. This is why He often retreated from the crowd to seek solitude with the Father.
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