Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. [Luke 5]
Jesus often withdrew to lonely places. The word "often" tells us it had been a habit with Jesus. He considered it important, even if he was tasked with saving souls from hell and touching people's lives. It's indispensable. Once you lose your real, genuine quiet time with God, with yourself and family, you lose freedom. How can you help others be set free?
And you don't know what other important things you're losing because you thought ministry was about being busy with people. Nope, ministry is about clearly getting God's will as HE speaks it to you, and obeying it accurately---to the letter. It's not about people's wants or needs and you satisfying them. That results to slavery to people, not freedom to serve God. Ministry is about doing what God wants you to do, and often it's not about people's needs.
One time, some folks asked Jesus for a favor about what they wanted. The mother needed to be assured of her sons' promotion in Jesus' kingdom. But Jesus put the request aside and told them that he was after the Father's will alone, not their wants or needs.
20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. 21 “What is it you want?” he asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” 22 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”
“We can,” they answered.
23 Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.” [Matthew 20]
In short, it's not about what we need or want or desire to do for God. It's about the Father's will alone being done.
Jesus knew what to do and wasn't swayed by men's desires or persuasions because he ranked his Father's will first and last in his ministry. And this as a result of his privacy with the Father. No one could take that away from him.
When we are misled to prioritize ministry that focuses on people's needs and not on God's will, we lose intimacy with God and have no idea how much we've been losing spiritually. Yes, we may win people's favor and probably look successful and make lots of money (and have a mega ministry), but we lose real and eternal benefits. Some smart-Aleck people don't want us to know what's ours.
The people's voice is often not God's--because his thoughts are higher than ours.
Other Benefits
Good health is yours. Prosperity is yours, whether material or spiritual. Healing is yours. Peace and relaxation are yours. All these plus more are available for claiming if you genuinely believe Jesus and his promises. Problem is, we were taught how we can't have them all. And ironically, it's in church, of all places, we're taught that limiting ourselves and not daring to get what God has given us are sound doctrines to believe in. You miss everything God has for you when you don't know what's yours and merely believe what tepid, apathetic preachers and theologians tell you.
The Word says, in Christ:
All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, [1 Corinthians 3]
If you ask anything in my Name, I will do it. [John 14.14]
To me it's crystal clear that we can have everything. I don't believe in a "no" answer to prayer. As long as you're a non-joiner in Christ (not joining the world), you can have everything. But years and even decades of being told in church that God sometimes answers "no." Or that life on earth cannot be perfect. Or that you can't have everything you want. Or that you can't have all your prayers answered yes. These misinformation made us seriously doubt the effectiveness of God's promises. The doubt became the norm, the sound doctrine, and radical belief was seen as rash and uniformed.
...sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything. [2 Corinthians 6.10]
Yes, we believe God's Word and promises in our heads but we don't believe in our hearts the promises can actually happen to us right on the spot--before our eyes--right now, if we claim them. Doing so is cultic, out of context, or plain idiocy, says our theology--the theology that man's church shoves down our throats. Thus, we'd rather believe medical procedures and meds--or pray that God will use them (a theology we invented in place of Jesus' radical miracles)--than actually and seriously take Jesus' word for it.
So, Why Don't I Have Everything?
People look at me and ask how come I don't look like I have everything? Yup, I don't...yet. As I've said, years and decades of being taught in church about everything anti-radical have made it difficult for believers--me included--to seriously and radically take Jesus' word for it. Even after years (I began in 1998) of trying to delete what man's church has taught me and have Jesus' faith particularly on miracles and signs and wonders, I still suffer some side effects.
But I'm pressing on. I know one day soon I will have what God has willed to be mine in Christ.
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NONJOINER discusses how you can quit joining the crowd and see how the bible helps you think independently to develop your unique person as God wants you to and develop an authentic social life.