Where does all this obvious-needs situation take us? If we ever see a person naked and half dead, we will know what to do, right? Jesus is trying to teach us more than that. What Jesus is doing is training us on being ready to minister to the obvious needs. Jesus is going to respond to a lot of obvious needs. All we have to do is be ready to respond at a moment's notice. Are we ready? Probably not. We all see the obvious needs. We even see the obvious need that God wants us to be involved in. We all feel sympathy for those who have those obvious needs. The question is, will we walk over and help? Something has to happen in our heart before we will do that. The priest and the Levite were already otherwise engaged. They probably didn't have an appointment book or appointment device like we have. But, their schedule was full. Their day was planned. They probably didn't have a minute to spare. When this happens to us, it leaves us with no room for Jesus' ministry. For Jesus to do His ministry through us, we are going to have to be available to Him. If our body is someplace other than where He needs it, if our mouth is saying things other than what He wants us saying, if our schedule is already set with things other than those things God want in it, if we are putting our resources in things God isn't in favor of, Jesus isn't going to be able to do His ministry through us. There are four issues that have to be committed to God: our time, our location, our resources, and our effort. Let's look at these four issues to see how we will have to start listening to God's direction. We will look at them again in a more specific way later. Here is what the Bible is asking us to do.

Eph 5:16 (NIV) making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Now, let's see the same verse in the King James Version.

Eph 5:16 (KJV) Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Concerning energy, our body only has so much it can expend before it has to be rejuvenated. Jesus' ministry being done through our life takes care of all time, location, resource, and effort issues. As was obvious in the Gospels, He never wasted a minute. He was always where He was supposed to be, when He was supposed to be there. When He got there, He was always giving the right resources to the right people. The Holy Spirit is going to be teaching us how to do that. He will teach us how to receive Jesus' thoughts and how to respond to them instantly. The mind of Christ is available to us already. It is just a matter of us opening our mind to His mind.

1 Cor 2:16 (NIV) "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

At salvation Jesus made His mind available to our mind. That is what caused us to start WANTING to do the right things. As we started going through the various aspects of spiritual growth (sanctification), we began DOING right things. That would have never been possible without the mind of Christ. The only reason we understand all these spiritual principles is because of the power of Jesus' mind influencing our mind. As we start listening to those things we have been trained to listen to, we know the difference between Jesus' thoughts and wishes and the other sources that had been coming our way. Now we know and recognize His thoughts and are ready to respond to His will. This brings us to the place where we can start looking at Jesus doing His ministry through us. All that is needed now is for us to start yielding to the mind of Christ. If we don't yield to the mind of Christ, we will constantly be at the wrong place, at the wrong time, doing the wrong thing to the wrong person. We have already done an extensive study concerning the fact that Jesus only did what the Father told Him to do. In other words, Jesus gave His time, location, resources, and efforts over to the Father's control. The only way that was possible was for Jesus to be constantly aware of what the Father wanted. This was a natural way of life for Jesus. Up until now, this hasn't been a natural way of life for us. God has had to start us off gradually. He has found it necessary to introduce us into this process of hearing from Him in steps. As we learn to hear from Him, we will then be able to devote our ministry to what He wants. The first message we received from Him taught us what His voice sounded like. This was a message that gave us His assurance of salvation.