Jesus said in the Gospel of John, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." (John 7:24). Why? Paul gives us part of this answer in the book of Ephesians,

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Eph 6:12).

Man’s problems do not have any one simple solution. Man’s problems are complex in the sense that in any one given situation we do not know whether it is a heart (conscious, subconscious, and soul), mind, conscience, physical, emotional, or a spiritual problem involving demonic forces. Given a hundred alcoholics, you can have a hundred different root causes. This is true for physical illness, mental problems, spiritual, or demonic problems. We are not qualified to judge the cause of a man’s problems in any one of these areas from a purely surface standpoint.

Now, if you are any kind of normal human being, your response to all that has just been discussed, as you view your qualifications for ministry in yourself, are probably something like Isaiah’s,

"Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, Yehovah of hosts." (Isaiah 6:5).

By now, to a certain degree, you probably feel totally inadequate in your ability to minister anything accurately. You are probably thinking, "If man’s problems, constitution and personality are this complicated; and if according to the Psalmist his thoughts and heart are unsearchable, then who can be an adequate qualified minister to the complex problems of man?" If this is your feeling at present, good! I have accomplished my present purpose which was to destroy your confidence in yourself and to show you how inadequate you are in yourself alone to minister to the complex problems of man. If you have not come to this conclusion, well, we will keep praying for you.

Understand clearly that my purpose here is not to get you to give up ministry nor do I mean to give the implication that you must have a degree in theology and psychology before you can be a qualified minister of the Gospel anymore than a person without a degree. In some cases a degree becomes more a hindrance to successful ministry than a help, yet at the same time we are not saying education does not have its place in its proper perspective, but not necessarily as a basis for ministry.

I have brought you to this place, whether you are educated or not, so you can understand why the basis for ministry I am going to explain now is the only solution to your problems and others. We asked the question, "Who can be an adequate minister to the complex problems of man?" Man’s problems are complex, but man’s solution is so simple we all stumble over it:

Jesus is the only qualified minister and answer to man’s problems. Jesus knows intimately the thoughts, heart, conscience, soul, emotions, and spirit of man. Jesus knows every atom, neutron, and proton in our body and their exact angle and position in space. The Apostle Paul wrote,

"And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate, as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (2 Cor 3:4-6).

You may say, "Oh Yeah! I know I can only be saved by putting my trust in Jesus and Him alone, but I did that ten years ago." We are not talking about the act of salvation here. We are talking about ministering to the simple and complex problems of man. Just as true as it is that Jesus is the Savior of our souls, so He is also of every little and big problem that we or any one else encounters.

Education does not make a person qualified for ministry and neither does the lack of education make you qualified for ministry. Recognition of your dependency on Jesus makes you qualified for ministry, nothing else. If you recognize your need of Jesus in what to say or do in ministering, you are more qualified than an ordained minister who trusts in his knowledge alone. Neither knowledge, nor the lack of it will make you qualified. If you recognize your total dependency on Jesus, then you’re qualified to be a minister of Jesus no matter how little you know.

Man is not the answer to man’s problems. Jeremiah the prophet wrote,

"Thus says Yehovah, ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his arm; and whose heart turns away from Yehovah. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant.’" (Jer 15:5-6).

Knowledge is not the answer to man’s problems. Jesus said to the Jews,

"You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life." (John 5:39-40).

This does not mean that we are not to read the Bible, memorize it and know it. Jesus said, He who is of God hears the Words of God. (John 8:47). But Jesus did not say that knowing the Bible in itself makes us a qualified minister in ourselves. Some of the most dangerous people walking around are Christians who slam the word of God on people out of their own reasoning (Prov 12:18). Jesus said, in the Bible, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me. (John 14:6).

Jesus is the way to our salvation. Jesus is the only one who knows the truth and the root of our problems and which Scriptures apply to our situation. Only what Jesus ministers and initiates through our lives brings life, healing, and the change Jesus desires to the one being ministered too. Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who creates-life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life." (John 6:63). The Words that Jesus spoke at that moment were Spirit and life to those listening, because what Jesus was saying was not out of His own initiative, but the initiative of His Father at that moment through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He was not just speaking truths for truth’s sake.

The Apostle Paul said in the book of Ephesians, "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." (Eph 6:17). Paul said that the Word of God is Jesus’ sword through the Holy Spirit, not man’s sword. Since only Jesus knows the root of man’s problems, it is only logical that He is the only one who knows what passages of Scripture apply to a given situation. Man does not know because man in himself does not know the root cause of the simple and complex problems of man.

When we minister a Scripture or speak or act out of our own initiative, unless we are really lucky guessers, we do not minister life and the true solution. We in fact divert and more greatly confuse the issue and push the person farther away from the solution. In fact, when we do not minister through Jesus’ initiative through the Holy Spirit, we actually put condemnation onto the person and throw him into strife. The writer of Proverbs states, "There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing" (Prov 12:18). Also, as was stated in an earlier Proverb, "Through presumption comes nothing but strife, but with those who receive counsel is wisdom." (Prov 13:10).

If we are to be effective in ministry, then we must learn how to relate to Jesus properly so that we can receive the root answer to our needs in relation to ourselves, in our relationship to God, and in our relating to others. We also must learn how to know what is truly Jesus’ voice.

In this section we want to deal mainly with how to relate to Jesus, and how to go to Jesus to receive the answer to our needs. In Section 3 titled, "The Sanctifying Work of Jesus," we will deal extensively with how to know what is truly Jesus’ voice.