Every Ephesians 4 ministry gift either ministers locally and/or travels or a little of both. Others may be called and sent to live and minister in other nations as missionaries. Unless you’ve been called to the ministry you will never fully understand the unique challenges that go with the faith, consecration, and obedience required to live as a full time minister.
“It is commanded that those who preach the gospel shall live from the gospel.”
(1 Corinthians 9:14)
For example, I heard one pastor recently say that most traveling ministers are lazy and they need to work. Of course, that may be true in some cases, but this pastor has never traveled full time nor had to depend solely on God to provide for him. He lives off the tithes and offerings of the people in his church. He was seeing things through his own lens of experience.
I’m not against ministers being bi-vocational and holding a job, but you can’t label one who lives fully from the gospel as necessarily being lazy. You could say the same about any minister. Pastors could be lazy. Missionaries could be lazy. It’s a matter of faith and consecration. We are to minister in the sight of God.
WE STARTED AS MISSIONARIES
Carolyn and I started as missionaries. This required us leaving the security of our secular jobs or careers and launching out by faith to raise support for our mission. You certainly don’t go into the ministry to become rich, although today that is not altogether true either, as the “gain is godliness” message has exemplified.
When Carolyn and I answered the call to be missionaries, still as singles, our weekly paychecks stopped coming in. We opted out of social security. We were young, zealous, and full of faith. We counted it a great privilege to do the work of the Lord, and He took care of us. Much of our belief system and being convinced in our own minds to let go of our jobs and careers depends on our associations and how we were trained, and of course, our level of faith and how the Lord is leading us. Much wisdom is required. As ministry trainees and missionary candidates called by God, we were trained to burn our ships so we could never return to life as normal. This is what Elisha did.
“So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.” (1 Kings 19:21)
Elisha was a farmer. He killed his oxen and used their equipment to make a fire and burn their flesh. He answered the call of God and he was not going back. That’s kind of how we started and have continued.
TAKING A PAY CUT
I know one local elder with a definite calling to preach and teach who has a lucrative career and won’t take a pay cut to serve full time in the church. As I said, its a faith and trust issue and how the Lord is leading you. At the same time, we must understand that the system of the world is a system of unbelief, and that can carry over into the ministry where you are depending on punching a time clock to receive a paycheck every week — filling a position instead of a calling. There is a difference. Those kind of people can be lazy too in their faith and consecration. It can be a form of unbelief.
BEING BI-VOCATIONAL
On the other hand, the apostle Paul was a tent maker and even he at times had to work with his hands to provide for himself (Acts 20:34; 18:1-3), and even others on his team. What a bondslave! The Bible also does say that if a man doesn’t work he shouldn’t eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10). To work bi-vocationally can require faith and consecration, too. Pastors who’ve had to do this to pioneer a church are my personal heroes. A real man does what he has to do to provide for himself and his family. But there is also this element of giving yourself completely to prayer and the Word. However, not every minister may be in a position to do this. If I hadn’t done that there’s no way I could’ve written 21 books to this date. Study and prayer gives birth to God anointed books, not just because you have a gift to write.
Personally, I came to a place as a young man where a love for continual prayer and the ministry of the Word pushed me out of secular work. It was easier because I wasn’t married with a family to provide for yet. But I wasn’t happy doing anything else except preaching. I possessed a burning fire to preach the gospel and teach the Word. The call to preach full time is really a sacred calling and a personal matter between you and God.
“… but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:4)
Furthermore, over the years I’ve also noticed that often the anointing wanes in ministers who are bi-vocational. They get tired from working so much and having that pressure on their minds to provide for their families, and that can certainly cause a decrease in the anointing. When you are really moving in faith there is a rest in your soul that comes from trusting the Lord and from knowing the Lord is leading you. If He has spoken to you and is leading you into the full time preaching/teaching ministry He will provide for you and take care of you.
TRUE MINISTRY IS WORK TOO
We have to also remember that true ministry is work, too, although a different kind of work, but conversely, it’s not necessarily work that pleases God, but faith (Hebrews 11:6). I know many people won’t accept this, but as I’ve already stated, working a secular job when the Lord is calling you to give yourself more fully to ministry work can be a symptom of unbelief.
THE TRAVELING MINISTRY OFTEN REQUIRES A HIGHER LEVEL OF FAITH & REVELATION IS AN INDICATOR IF YOU ARE BEING LAUNCHED OR TRANSITIONING
I said all that about the ministry to say this:
When Carolyn and I launched out into the full time traveling ministry after returning to America from the mission field , and then later when leaving a paid position in a school of ministry in Pensacola, it required more faith and trust in the Lord than our initial separation to missionary service. At times Carolyn had to work a regular job to supplement our income that we were deriving from the gospel. Sometimes you just have to do what it takes to keep moving in your calling.
Where things began to change for us in the traveling ministry was in 2013 when our son Daniel went off to college and we were led by the Lord to start traveling together on a regular basis. Initially, it wasn’t easy for us to let go of our son and time at home. But something wonderful and holy began to happen in our lives and ministry at this time that filled us with joy and faith and liberty in the Spirit.
As we began to pray together more frequent revelation started coming. This kind of grace and revelation is usually an indicator that the Lord is birthing or launching you into a ministry. It was like being in a classroom and the Holy Spirit becoming our Teacher in a greater dimension. We began to know things supernaturally about churches we were traveling and ministering to, and revelatory messages were birthed in this place of prayer and waiting on God.
Additionally, some of the books I’ve written were birthed in the Spirit from such times of prayer. Much of this revelation we received came through Carolyn’s vessel. The Lord actually gave us a traveling strategy and how He wanted us to minister. You see, that’s why it’s so important to be led by the Spirit in regards to stepping out in faith and/or transitioning into another ministry flow.
The Lord told us not to just go with a message any more.
“For you now, first it’s the MOVE! Then the MESSAGE and then the MINISTRY.”
When we asked Him to explain that, He told us that we were to stay filled up with the Word and the Spirit, and He would start highlighting certain things to us about the churches and places and people He would send us to. Then a message would come out of that move and then some ministry would usually take place. It didn’t always happen in that order, but when we prioritized what the Lord said we became more fruitful itinerants in the traveling ministry. In a way, and I say this humbly, it made us specialists and not just general practitioners.
That’s been our experience anyway. I could say more about the role churches should play in all this, especially your home church. But that will have to be for another time.
I hope this has been a blessing, especially to those called to preach or teach in full time service to the Lord.
Bert Farias' books are forerunners to personal holiness, the move of God and the return of the Lord. They also combat the departure from the faith and the turning away from the truth we are seeing in our day. His recent five-book bundle, written under a fresh anointing, is a forerunner of what the Lord is doing in His church today. His newest release, Turning Your Trials Into Gold, is a powerful testimony of how God raised up Bert and his wife Carolyn from a sick bed and near death.
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