by Alan Langstaff

As I have already mentioned, February is my birthday month and I turn 90 on February 26th. I have been looking at some of the older Langstaff Letters this week, so I thought I would reprint a couple of them. This week it is entitled “12 Things I wish I knew” that primarily relates to ministry.

12 THINGS I WISH I KNEW

Why don’t you write an article for the Langstaff Letter on ’10 Things I Wish I had Known 50 Years Ago?’ This was the question asked of me by a pastor friend. It made me think and strange as it may sound, I had a download of what those things were, while in a service of worship at a conference, except that it ended up as 12 things not 10. Here they are, not in order of priority, for all of them were things I wish I had known, way back, when I first entered the ministry, over 50 years ago. At the end of the article, I will share one important factor that colors them all. I need to mention that there were some very important foundational truths that I had embraced before then, such as the authority of scripture as truly the word of God, the centrality of the Cross, the assurance of salvation, and more. The following twelve things primarily relate to ministry.


FAITH

I spent five years in theological seminary and whilst I learned things that were helpful and important, there were other things that were never taught, such as the principles of faith. But when I got baptized in the Spirit in 1971, Dorothy and I were thrust into ever increasing faith adventures. You can read about those early days in Dorothy’s book ‘Called Together.’ Some included: believing God to travel, for money, for food to eat, for our needs to be met and for the ministry we were called into. Inspired by the story of Abraham, we went out, not knowing where we were going or where it would all lead to. It was exciting, yet scary at times to learn to live by faith.


THE HOLY SPIRIT

In the first year I went into full time ministry, I was confronted by a lady in my congregation about the ministry of the Holy Spirit in this day and age. As an evangelical Christian, I held to a ‘Cessanionist’ position and totally rejected that the gifts of the Spirit were for today. It was eight years later, following a health crisis in our family, that in desperation, I cried out to God for something more and received the pentecostal experience, that radically changed both my life and ministry. Through it all, we began to realize the Gifts of the Spirit were for today and that God heals people today, because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. At the same time, we discovered the motivational gifts of Romans 12, which helped us to understand ourselves and others as to how God made us to function.

THE BODY OF CHRIST

I grew up in a denominational church, and I had very limited understanding of the wider church. We generally just paddled around in our denominational pond and very rarely mixed with other believers from other churches. Opening up to the Spirit gave me a new understanding of the whole body of Christ. a tape message by Bob Mumford on the book of Haggai made it so very clear. Consequently, Dorothy and I started a Renewal Ministry, called the Temple Trust. We embraced believers from so many different churches, in a wonderful unity of the Spirit. The conferences in Australia in the 1970’s were incredible demonstrations of God’s people coming together in love and unity.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Later. I was introduced to something bigger than the church. Through speakers like Myles Munroe, I was introduced to the all embracing concept of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is the King and He came to restore His kingdom, amongst his people. Consequently, the challenge was ‘Are you building your own kingdom, or are you a Kingdom person, building His Kingdom? The Kingdom of God has come, and we can be a part of it. The words of the Lord’s Prayer came alive ‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’


THE POWER OF PRAYER

Growing up, prayer was mostly mechanical and ritualistic, following certain methods. But with the Holy Spirit came an intimacy, that brought us excitement and expectancy, when we prayed. We believed God would answer prayer. The concepts of intercession and travailing, coupled with fasting, took on new meaning. Added to that was the discovery of the gift of tongues, as a special expression of prayer, that I personally found to be a powerful way to pray. This in turn led to seeking the presence of God both in prayer and also in worship. To worship Him for who He is; not just praise Him for what He has done.


THE POWER OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP

In the church where I grew up, Sunday services were what I came to call ‘Hymn Sandwiches.’ The services contained four hymns and in between the hymns you sandwiched Bible readings, prayer, offering and the sermon, etc. Then we discovered a Spirit led worship, that majored more on choruses than hymns. Ministries, like ‘Scripture in Song’ from New Zealand, published and presented many of them. In Australia in the 70’s, there was a release of people dancing, that for many people brought freedom. Merlin Carothers book ‘Prison to Praise’ showed how the power of praise could flow in situations in every day life and I discovered there was power in praise and worship.

KAIROS TIME

Discovering the concept of Kairos Times – times when God from eternity breaks in upon man in history for a God appointed Holy Spirit moment, that impacts ones life, sets us on a course, and leads us to fulfill our destiny in God. Looking back, I can see a number of these that were the moments or times that brought change and direction to our lives. Starting off over fifty years ago, I did not have any sense of destiny. I was just responding to a call to the ministry, but God broke into our lives and set us on His course for our lives. All the major changes of direction in our lives came out of God speaking to us in a ‘kairos time.’

THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST

The cross is central to our faith and our walk with God, but we came to realize that this leads to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. A sermon by Loren Cunningham, the founder of Youth With A Mission, at the outreach to the Munich Olympic Games in 1972, on ‘Giving Up Your Rights’ was used of God to challenge me regarding letting Him be Lord of all and prepared me to resign from my pastoral position and, together with Dorothy, begin a walk of faith, establishing a ministry called The Temple Trust, which eventually touched a nation.


FIVE FOLD MINISTRY

Growing up, I simply thought of the church as having ministers (clergyman, pastor or whatever) and lay people. I really didn’t understand what Ephesians 4 had to say about the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Besides which, I was taught that we no longer had apostles and prophets today. All that changed and I began to see the richness, the diversity, and the breadth of ministry that God put in His church and, in turn, began to understand my own calling and how I was to fit in.


SPIRITUAL WARFARE

We knew nothing about spiritual warfare, because we were never taught about it (I believe you rarely experience anything you weren’t first taught), but through both the teaching and writing of gifted ministries, as well as the experiences we passed through, we began to understand there was a real enemy, and that we were involved in spiritual warfare. We also learned that the victory has been won. The enemy is a defeated foe and whilst he is still going around like a roaring lion, seeking to devour us, we are to submit ourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee from us.


HEARING THE VOICE OF GOD

I was taught, as an evangelical, that God had already spoken, and we had His words in the form of the Bible, so one did not expect that God would personally speak to us today, like He spoke to people in Bible days. All that changed when the Spirit came into our lives and we began to discern God’s voice. Hearing God’s voice had to be cultivated and we didn’t always get it right. Sometimes we heard what He said, but wrongly interpreted what it meant, but, particularly as a leader, I began to realize that one of the most important things a leader has to do is to be able to hear the voice of the Lord.


THE GREATNESS AND GOODNESS OF GOD

All along the way we began to realize ‘How Great is Our God.’ He is awesome. We began to discover the Father Heart of God that God really does love us and we can experience that love, as we enter into His presence. We discovered God is a God of surprises and a God of impossibilities who can and does do awesome things. Out of all this, God gave me a life verse, Ephesians 3:20 ‘Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask of think, according to the power that works in us.’ We learned not to put limits on what He is able to do and many times those things happened suddenly.

Well, there it is – 12 things I wish I knew when I started off in ministry over fifty years ago, but I need to add one more thought.


FINAL THOUGHT

Looking back, I realize I could not have handled it if I knew all these at the start. I realized that I came to know and experience them along the way because many of them didn’t simply come out of teaching alone, important as that is. They came out of real life experiences, that God threw us into, so to speak, and we had to find, by His grace and power, the answers to life’s situations. That was the real joy of following Jesus: to be able to look back and realize that, along the journey, He was continually teaching us new things. He is still doing that today. We never arrive. There is always more and I join Paul in saying, ‘I press on towards the mark,’ believing, as I always say, ‘The Best is Yet to Be.’