The Consultant
With every birth, each new mother can expect a visit from a very special person at the hospital, the “Lactation Consultant.” With the visits I recall from sitting at the bedside with my wife, I can remember each one coming in. Cheerful ladies, there to help encourage the new mother, and share with them the benefits of nursing.
It has been through conversations with these knowledgeable people, and the life lessons my wife and I have experienced that I find myself teaching a lesson on spiritual nursing.
In the last post, we discussed spiritual abandonment. People, born into the kingdom, left to find their way alone. Many times this happens in the spirit for the same reason it happens in the natural. How many times on the news did we hear the tear-filled explanations of teens who abandoned their infants in restrooms or street corners? “I just wasn’t ready to be a mother. I wasn’t prepared. I wasn’t equipped.”
Sadly today, I believe many in the church have been fed the same lie. Satan runs through the room whispering into each ear and feeding our self doubt. “You aren’t a teacher. You aren’t a pastor. What makes you qualified to say anything about God?”
It is those doubts that cause us to abandon them, NOT because we don’t care, but because we are afraid. The verse plays through in our mind, “It is better to have a millstone…” Then comes the doubt. Then comes the fear, and inevitably the questions. “What if I cause one to stumble? What if I cause one to fall?”
When new mothers would fall into doubt or worry, the Lactation Consultant was never far away. Soon she would sweep into the room with soothing words of comfort, “You aren’t alone,” or “You aren’t the first to have this problem,” and most comforting of all, “I’m always here if you have a problem or a question.”
Even after leaving the hospital, the Lactation Consultant was always just a phone call away. Without hesitation or reservation she would answer the call to encourage the new mother with comforting words and useful bits of knowledge and experience.
The Apostle Paul had a different description for spiritual consultants. In Ephesians 4, he described a five-fold ministry, created by God to encourage maturity and growth in the church.
As I write this to you as a spiritual consultant, I feel the need to encourage a few. You are capable of helping those you have led to Christ. You are capable of sharing with them the revelations that God has shown you, and you are capable of praying with them and caring for them when they need a shoulder to cry on.
We CAN see healthy children raised in the kingdom, and you are one that God can use to see it happen.
It has been through conversations with these knowledgeable people, and the life lessons my wife and I have experienced that I find myself teaching a lesson on spiritual nursing.
In the last post, we discussed spiritual abandonment. People, born into the kingdom, left to find their way alone. Many times this happens in the spirit for the same reason it happens in the natural. How many times on the news did we hear the tear-filled explanations of teens who abandoned their infants in restrooms or street corners? “I just wasn’t ready to be a mother. I wasn’t prepared. I wasn’t equipped.”
Sadly today, I believe many in the church have been fed the same lie. Satan runs through the room whispering into each ear and feeding our self doubt. “You aren’t a teacher. You aren’t a pastor. What makes you qualified to say anything about God?”
It is those doubts that cause us to abandon them, NOT because we don’t care, but because we are afraid. The verse plays through in our mind, “It is better to have a millstone…” Then comes the doubt. Then comes the fear, and inevitably the questions. “What if I cause one to stumble? What if I cause one to fall?”
When new mothers would fall into doubt or worry, the Lactation Consultant was never far away. Soon she would sweep into the room with soothing words of comfort, “You aren’t alone,” or “You aren’t the first to have this problem,” and most comforting of all, “I’m always here if you have a problem or a question.”
Even after leaving the hospital, the Lactation Consultant was always just a phone call away. Without hesitation or reservation she would answer the call to encourage the new mother with comforting words and useful bits of knowledge and experience.
The Apostle Paul had a different description for spiritual consultants. In Ephesians 4, he described a five-fold ministry, created by God to encourage maturity and growth in the church.
As I write this to you as a spiritual consultant, I feel the need to encourage a few. You are capable of helping those you have led to Christ. You are capable of sharing with them the revelations that God has shown you, and you are capable of praying with them and caring for them when they need a shoulder to cry on.
We CAN see healthy children raised in the kingdom, and you are one that God can use to see it happen.
1 Comments:
As is your habit... a stimulating morsel to strengthen the soul.
By Anonymous, at Friday, October 21, 2005
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