What does all this mean? How are we going to get Jesus' ministry flowing freely in and through us? Let's go over the steps in an abbreviated fashion so we can see the big picture.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus: Our attention and dependency is focused on Jesus, Who is going to do His ministry in and through us.

The author and perfecter of our faith: With the “God factor” in our faith, we start seeing what we can do by means of God's power rather than our limitations.

Who for the joy set before Him: Our joy and motivating power comes through knowing that we are going to be personally involved in the supernatural ministry of Jesus. We will allow God to show us how awesome that experience is going to be. And as we yield to it we start praising and worshiping Him for using us in such a mighty way.

Endured the cross: While looking at the joy of having Jesus doing His ministry in and through us, we will spend the time, intellectual training, money, and effort for spiritual growth, endure the sufferings that come through that ministry, and expend every moment of our life for His purposes.

Scorning its shame: We will allow Jesus to do His ministry in and through us even though we can see that there are people who think our sharing Christ with people is the wrong thing and resist being trained in spiritual growth themselves.

And sat down at the right hand of the throne of God: We will see that God has prepared us for this ministry by seating us in the heavenly realm in Christ Jesus. We will believe in God-sized things being done in and through us.

Now back to loving our neighbor as our self. We are all set up for spending eternity with God because of salvation. Jesus is glad we are going to make it into eternity with Him. However, He is concerned about those who aren't ready. Due to the fact that He is going to be working through us, His concern is going to have to be our concern. As a matter of fact all His concerns are going to have to be approved by us before He will manifest His ministry through us. The reason why God tells us to love our neighbor as our self is because of our will. He tells us to do it and we decide whether or not we will let that happen. God's power and God's permission for us to be used in Christ's ministry are already resident in our life. What they are waiting on is our permission. Here's how it looks.

Luke 10:30-34 (NIV) In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.

A man laying on the side of the road half dead isn't someone who is trying to play a trick on us. He isn't just doing this so as to cheat us out of our money. He isn't pretending to have a need so he won't have to work. A man who is half dead is a man with a real need. It was obvious to all who passed by that this naked man, who was laying there beaten within an inch of his life, needed them to stop and help. What Jesus was doing was removing all excuses. Anyone who didn't stop and help this man had a heart problem.

We all know that Jesus is the answer to the needs of mankind. We know because He has done multitudes of wonderful things in our life. But, like the priest and the Levite, we move from appreciation to duty.

• The priest had a lot of Bible knowledge.
• He originally knew what God was asking him to do. However, as time went by, he started accepting other things to do.
• He was a busy man. He was busy doing things that weren't going to last for eternity.
• He was doing things that he thought were pleasing to God.
• He was busy following a program that a lot of other religious leaders were following.
• They all saw themselves as people who were serving God.

Jesus was saying that all their busyness was missing God's plan for their life. When the real ministry presented itself, the priest failed to do the ministry. Ultimately the priest and the Levite missed an opportunity to be used of God even though they thought they were doing the work of God. Why did that happen? Because they were running their lives and ministry rather than letting God run it. They were working FOR God rather that WITH God. They were deciding what God wanted them to do. God wants us to let Him decide and then do it through us.