Teacher and author of Going Beyond Ministries, Mrs. Priscilla Shirer reminds us that to follow after Jesus we must give up everything that will hinder that goal. We should minister with the confidence that where God calls, He also provides the necessary ability.
you’re listening to dallas theological
seminaries chapel podcast to the
expository teaching of the scripture
missus priscilla shirer desires to see
women know the uncompromising truths of
Scripture intellectually but experience
them practically by the power of the
Holy Spirit
priscilla speaking ministry began while
she was in college while interning at a
christian radio station in houston she
began to receive invitations to teach
Bible studies and small women’s events
in the area and later she started to
facilitate a Bible study at Zig Ziglar
x’ training systems here in dallas texas
she was then asked to become one of the
company’s motivational speakers and
corporate trainers and in this capacity
she’s provided training and inspiration
to hundreds of companies and their
employees across the country and abroad
but still her desire was central on
seeing women taught the Word of God / so
is the daughter of pastor speaker and
author dr. Tony Evans one of our board
members in the pastor of Oak Cliff Bible
fellowship Priscilla is married to her
best friend Jerry and they have two sons
and Jerry and Priscilla have launched a
ministry called going beyond ministries
and Priscilla is now full-time in that
ministry to women across the country as
well as around the world lady she’s a
graduate of Dallas Texas and we welcome
her to our campus would you join me in
welcoming Priscilla Schreyer to our
campus
good morning to all of you and thank you
for the invitation dr. Bailey to be a
part of Chapel this morning I am excited
to share the Word of God with you today
for just a few moments I want to tell
you that I do recognize that there are
our brothers in the audience today and I
want to tell you that according to the
Word of God and second Timothy in 1st
Timothy that I do recognize and respect
your presence here today and want you to
know that I’ll speak to you under the
covering of my husband who is here and
the leadership of this school let’s pray
together Lord Jesus thank you so much
for the great privilege that we have to
hear your word Lord not just to hear it
with our physical ears but that our
spiritual ears might be open so that the
Spirit of God your very spirit can
implant this word into our heart so I
pray now that every spiritual ear would
be open and that your precious Holy
Spirit would do what only he can that is
take this one message divide it 500
different ways so that each and every
one of us can hear exactly what it is
that you have come to say to us in Jesus
name Amen it must have been about five
months ago or so that I was in Nashville
Tennessee in a hotel room with my sister
she and I were preparing to go
downstairs as I was going to be speaking
to a group of women that day as we were
getting dressed we were flipping
channels and CNN news was on we were
captured immediately by this news
program because on that day the
interviewer was interviewing someone who
was obviously in another state because
it was a split screen interview so via
satellite they were interviewing what I
can only describe as the most
interesting looking character I had ever
seen in my whole life
he had braids that were hanging down all
over his head they were dyed jet-black
he had on some goth type makeup I mean
he just looked really interesting out
from underneath his t-shirt that he had
on there were tattoos that were peering
out all over the place and so crystal
and I stopped dead in our tracks to see
what this was all about turns out the
guys name that was being interviewed his
name was Brian Welsh his nickname is
head to H EA D that’s what people called
him he was the lead guitarist for a
heavy
metal music group called corn Kor in now
I don’t know if you can tell or not but
I’m not a heavy-metal music kind of girl
so I’ve never heard anything about this
group but obviously it is one of the
most successful heavy-metal music bands
known right now and he was the lead
guitarist and one of the founding
members he was on CNN that day being
interviewed because he told the story
about how his life was headed for a
complete disaster he says that he was so
addicted to drugs and alcohol that most
of the concerts he played he cannot even
recall them he doesn’t remember being on
the platform on the stage at all because
he was completely high every time he
took the stage he talked about the fact
that he knew that his life was spiraling
out of control and after a night of
binging and a crazy living he says the
next day he woke up in a fog he found
the first church that he could he said
that I stumbled into that church and I
looked just like I look today he said
tattoos hair and all he said I walked in
and these people in this church opened
their arms welcomed me in sat that
tapped me beside them and loved me right
into the body of Christ he says that day
I came to know Jesus Christ as Lord and
he said that day I’m here to tell you
supernaturally the Lord took the taste
for the drugs and the taste for the
alcohol right out of my mouth and he
says I’ve been living as a free man ever
since well as you can imagine the look
on the interviewers face was quite
perplexing as he took all of this in I
don’t know if he quite expected that
kind of response and and so the
interviewer asked him who are you saying
did this for you Brian Welsh responded
it was Jesus Christ and he said so are
you saying you don’t anymore feel the
lure for the drugs and alcohol at all
Brian kind of looked at him a little
quizzically through the satellite feed
and he said well know that part of me
has been crucified with cross with
Christ on the cross of Calvary and now
I’ve been made alive together with him I
was
stunned that day my sister and I did the
Holi dance all right there on the bed
because here we were on watching CNN and
he was basically giving the gospel of
Jesus Christ and I was so excited about
his story and have shared it as much as
I possibly could since September it was
October the 13th this past year that the
James Robison show that tapes right here
in Fort Worth called to see if I might
be on one of their programs they taped
four shows a night they asked if I would
be their guest for two programs I did
not know who the other guests would be
until I went to the studios in Fort
Worth sat down at the dinner table with
James and Betty Robison and the other
guests for the evening Brian head Welsh
i sat there looking directly at him with
the braids hanging down all over the
place the same makeup the tattoos
shattered all over his body and for the
entire dinner I was mesmerised as he
shared with us the testimony of all that
God has done in his life when he taped
his two programs i sat like a little
schoolgirl with my head in my in my
hands my chin in my hands I never
thought I would be so excited to meet
somebody any heavy heavy metal band in
my whole life I had my camera I had my
pen I wanted his autograph I was so
excited and I listened to him share his
testimony and he said that right after
he got saved his band signed a recording
deal for their fifth record a twenty
million dollar deal he started to feel a
little bit of a tug and a pool inside
about participating in this type of
lifestyle so he said he went home to
pray about it before putting his
signature on the contract and he opened
up his Bible to have a little quiet time
and he read in the scriptures where it
says they left everything to follow
Jesus and so he said he called his
buddies up his childhood buddies up who
him now who had now become successful
together and he said I’m sorry guys but
I’m leaving everything to follow Jesus
and that day that I watched him on the
television screen
the day that I sat across the table from
him and hours later when I would watch
him on this program I was mesmerised not
because this man had been educated in
theology not because this man had been
trained at oratorical II to deliver a
message or to even sit and be able to
speak with clarity on television that’s
not why I was amazed I was amazed
because his life’s message was so
powerful that anybody who saw that
television program anybody who listened
to his word across the TV screen on that
James Robinson show anybody who heard
him knew that this was a man in whom the
Holy Spirit of God dwelt and as I
watched him I thought to myself Lord
might I have a ministry that is not
known because of any capability of my
own but only because what marks Brian’s
ministry will also mark mine that when
people hear what it is that you have
given me to share that they will sense
not the greatness of me but that they’ll
sense the greatness of you and so I have
been challenged and convicted because of
the leader the lead guitarist of a heavy
metal band about ministry there are a
few principles that the Lord Jesus has
been challenging me with regarding my
ministry and I want to share those
principles with you just a few of them
actually in the time that we have in
mark chapter 1 if you have your Bible if
you’ll turn there with me because in the
first chapter of Mark there is a very
familiar story of a day in the life of
Jesus Christ a couple days actually in
the life of Jesus Christ you all are
probably very familiar with this passage
of Scripture but just a couple morning’s
ago I was reading through this passage
and over and over and over again through
this picture of Jesus’s day I was
reminded about what it means to have a
true effective ministry and I have
become convicted about some of these
things that we’ll see in Jesus’s life
the greatest minister ever known to man
and I hope these will challenge you as
well we find Jesus in verse 21 with
three of the disciples that he is just
called to follow him
and it says they went into Capernaum and
immediately on the Sabbath he entered
the synagogue and began to teach let me
read that again it says they and went
into Capernaum and immediately on the
Sabbath Jesus Christ enters the
synagogue and he begins to teach I want
you to just get the picture that is
painted there jesus walks into Capernaum
the first thing that he does when he
gets there is enter into a synagogue
where there would have not only been
laypeople there to hear the message that
Jesus would teach but there would also
have been the most learned scholars of
the day and age seated around him
listening to and critiquing every word
that would come out of jesus’s mouth in
those next few moments but jesus stands
in their midst and it says that he
teaches them I don’t know if you have
ever before in your life been placed
into a situation where it seems like you
are in over your head the Lord seems to
have a pattern with me he does that with
me often not the least of which would be
this situation right now but the Lord
has this thing with me where he always
seems to desire to put me into a place
where I know where he knows I will sense
that unless I have his supernatural
ability to handle the task at hand that
I will indeed be equipped to do what it
what it is that he is asking me to do I
want you to see in this text that Jesus
Christ was given supernatural ability to
handle the the immediate need that arose
on this particular occasion do you know
that in the ministry that the Lord has
called you to
when while you’re here in school and
after you leave school that there are
going to be very many occasions where
you’re going to be placed into immediate
circumstances that maybe you did not
know we’re coming where you will be
around people who it seems to you are
certainly brighter certainly more well
equipped certainly more well able to do
what it is that you sense God has laid
on your heart but what you and I not
look to whether or not we are capable
but be reminded that when God calls
someone he will supernaturally enable
them to handle the task at hand in fact
I have learned that most often for me
anyway that if there’s something that I
have been asked to do that I feel the
calling of
to do but I sense a little fear because
I do feel ill-equipped to do it
that’s one of my cues that God wants me
to go ahead and do it because when I
feel weak when I sense that I am NOT
able to handle the task at hand that is
exactly when his strength is made
perfect in in through me do you feel ill
equipped to lead the women’s ministry do
you feel ill equipped to start the
church do you feel ill equipped to
counsel that person that has asked for
your advice do you feel ill equipped to
handle being a mother of small children
do you feel ill-equipped to handle the
task that God has given you
let me just challenge you that when God
calls you he will enable you and in
Jesus Christ’s example we see that when
he walks into the synagogue he is
immediately able to provide them with a
message that will stir not only their
ears but their heart and that is because
he has been supernaturally equipped with
abilities straight from his father
we then see in verse 22 that it says
Jesus teaches in such a way that they
were amazed at his teaching and this is
the reason why for he was teaching them
as one having Authority and not as the
scribes had taught them they had heard
good teaching before they had heard
messages before they had heard sermons
that would have been the most
knowledgeable ones that they could have
ever been given because the scribes that
were schooled in all of the ways of
Jewish law would have been able to teach
them with clarity and with knowledge
that would have been beyond what they
knew personally and so they had heard
good messages before but it says on this
occasion Jesus entered the synagogue and
when he began to speak they were
awestruck they were amazed this this
word carries with it a lot of weight it
means that they were struck out of their
senses they were completely overwhelmed
they were blown away because although
they had heard a lot of messages before
they had never heard someone teach like
this the Lord Jesus was not only given
supernatural ability but
he was given supernatural authority so
that the message that he delivered to
the people on that occasion not only
penetrated their minds but it went past
their minds and gripped them in their
hearts you know what it seems like or
what it feels like to be in church and
your pastor is preaching and there comes
those occasions in those messages when
there is a verse that said or a
principle that is illustrated or covered
and when the pastor gets to that point
in the message on that Sunday morning
that principle seems to resonate with
you so deeply because the Holy Spirit
takes that general principle and a pry
applies it to the specifics of your life
that is because the Holy Spirit has
given that pastor that minister in that
moment authority to deliver the Word of
God so that that message will do more
than just penetrate your mind but it
will penetrate the depths of your soul
lord might we have ministries like Jesus
did so that when we speak it will be
with authority I was talking to dr.
Ellen just a few moments ago in the
prayer room and I was telling him that
it was over a decade ago that I sat in
his class and there were so many things
in that class and in the class of many
others who were seen here on this
platform that were blessing to me but I
told dr. Allen that there is one line
that he said in that class that at least
once a month for the past decade and
more the Lord has brought it to my mind
to help me to make a decision in my life
to lead me in my walk with the Lord to
lead me in the direction that I am to go
something that he said over a decade ago
I will never forget it because when he
said it the Lord gave him such authority
that that message didn’t just stick in
my mind but it made such an impact in my
heart and in my life that it’s changed
the way I live and isn’t this what
ministry is supposed to be about that
when you and I share with the person who
were mentoring across the
or teach the children in the Sunday
School class or mother or father the
children in our own home shouldn’t it be
that when we share God’s truths with
them that it will not only affect them
mentally but that we will speak to them
as one having the authority of God so
that the Spirit will take that message
and apply it in a way to their lives
that will change their daily living from
that day forward that is why Paul said
in first Corinthians chapter 2 verses 3
through 5 Paul said listen I was with
you in weakness and in fear and in much
trembling he said my lesson my preaching
listen they weren’t in persuasive words
of wisdom but in the demonstration of
the spirit and of the power and of power
and he says this is why that your faith
won’t rest with the wisdom of men but
that your faith will rest with the power
of God Lord give us your authority so
that when we speak we will speak
messages that can be not only heard with
the physical ear but that will penetrate
the heart of all who hear Jesus Christ
had authority and then we find that
after Jesus spoke in an amazing way with
authority that verse 23 says just then
there wasn’t a synagogue a man with an
unclean spirit and he cried out he said
what do we have to do with you Jesus of
Nazareth have you come to destroy us I
know who you are you’re the Holy One of
God and look how Jesus responds verse 25
it says Jesus rebuked him not the man
but the demon in him saying be quiet and
come out of him a man interrupts what is
going on he makes some he cries out loud
and would have been a major interruption
to Jesus’s message and not only to the
people who were trying to hear Jesus’s
message so he interrupts the program of
what is happening there it has an
external response that disturbs the
peace so to speak
Jesus recognizes that it’s not the man
is having the problem but it is
something that is happening inside of
this man that is causing him to disrupt
what is going on going on there that day
and so Jesus doesn’t address the man he
addresses the deep-seated issue that is
taking place within this man Jesus
Christ demonstrates to us that an
effective ministry will not only be
endowed with supernatural ability and
supernatural Authority but it will also
carry supernatural vision that is the
ability for us as men and women in
ministry to listen to the problems that
the people are facing but then have an
ability to by the Spirit of God really
detect what the heart of the issue is I
cannot imagine what could make any
ministry more effective than men and
women whose spirits are sensitive enough
to hear what it is that the Spirit of
God wants to do in the lives of the
individuals to whom we are ministering
women’s minister can you imagine if
before you made all of your plans for
the semester for the for the year for
the women in your church or in that
organization or in that Bible study can
you imagine if in your prayer time the
Lord would just allow you to have a
little bit of insight into what the real
needs are of those women that you’re
going to be ministering to pastor of the
fledgling church what if the Lord would
give you spiritual vision so that you
don’t just plan a whole lot of programs
that suit your fancy but so that he will
give you spiritual insight to see what
the needs are of the community that your
church is going to be positioned in so
that you can direct the mission of your
church the the statement of your church
the goals of your church to be able to
affect the community in which you’re
situated Lord would you give us
spiritual vision so that we can see the
true needs that need to be addressed I
have a friend by the name of Linda Dillo
many of you may be familiar with that
name her husband Jodi do low graduated
from this institution and she herself is
an author in her own right
many acclaimed books one of them I think
the most famous of them is intimate
issues it’s a book specifically for
women dealing with intimacy in marriage
and so
when she speaks most of the time Linda
Dillo will speak to women on that very
issue intimacy in marriage and as you
can imagine imagine delivering a message
like that will stir a lot of inner needs
and questions and turmoil sometimes in
the lives of folks as they kind of weed
through all that is entailed in that
topic I met with her met her for the
first time actually this past January we
were ministering together at a women’s
conference and she and I had some time
to talk and she said to me Priscilla
whenever I had the opportunity to speak
at a Women’s Conference and I speak on
intimate issues she said that I will
probably spend after that message the
remainder of the weekend most of it I
will not spend addressing the people
most of it I will spend in my hotel room
that becomes a Counseling Center and
every two hours without a doubt there
will be someone scheduled who needs to
sit down with me and talk about the
concerns and the issues that they’re
having in their life right now and they
will voice to me their concerns and
their heartache and their problems and
she said before they come into this room
to meet with me she said Priscilla me
and the Lord have a session before each
one comes in and I talked to the Lord
and I say Lord would you grant me for
this next meeting would you grant me
spiritual vision so that I can read in
between the lines of whatever it is that
this woman is about to say to me because
more than likely whatever she thinks the
problem is it’s probably not the problem
there’s probably something underneath
that that problem that is causing that
to be an issue in her life God would you
give me spiritual vision she prays to
see what really needs to be seen and
lord I pray would you heighten our
spiritual sensitivities so that our
spiritual radar is up to see that which
cannot be seen with the naked eye Lord
to hear that which cannot be heard by
just the natural ear Lord to sense and
be sensitive to only that what your
spirit can make us sensitive to and so
Jesus sees into the heart of the span
and immediately verse 28 says the news
about him goes out everywhere into the
surrounding district of Galan
and verse 29 immediately after they had
come out of the synagogue and into the
house of Simon and Andrew with James and
John verse 30 says Simon’s mother-in-law
was lying sick with a fever and
immediately they spoke to him about her
my husband and I are in full-time
ministry really together he does all the
real work so that I can study and speak
and have time to be a mom and a wife and
he and I have the privilege of traveling
all over the country and being in and
speaking mostly to two women’s groups
and can I just tell you that one of the
most tiring things to do after speaking
all day is to go to somebody’s house
it’s tough because rightfully so they
want to entertain you and you want to
oblige they’re entertaining but if you
have ever given a workshop or taught a
Sunday School lesson or spoke for any
period of time you know that it can be
taxing it can wear you out some I got a
witness right over there yes it can wear
you out and one of the hardest things
can be after that to be taken into
someone’s home where you still need to
kind of be on you still need to talk and
engage in conversation here Jesus is
after a full day of ministry and he has
taken into a home not only a home where
folks want to entertain him but a home
where there still needs that need to be
addressed because Simon’s mother-in-law
is sick and they immediately come and
say Jesus your day is not over I know
you’ve been busy all day but we still
need you Lord there’s someone who needs
a healing and I watched or read this
passage I thought to myself that the
only way the Lord Jesus would be able to
do this effectively is not only if he
had supernatural ability and
supernatural Authority not only if he
had supernatural vision but to carry all
this out he had to have supernatural
energy sisters and brothers to handle
the ministry that the Lord will entrust
to you and the surprise opportunities
that no doubt are going to come your way
that you never expected that you didn’t
plan that weren’t necessarily part of
our strategy for the year to be able to
handle the opportunities to minister
that God will send to you that won’t
necessarily look like what you thought
they would that will require your your
your full capabilities your full
engagement your full for an invention
you and I need more than our natural
energy we need a supernatural endowment
of God’s spirits energy raging and
running through us and on this occasion
we see that Jesus Christ had
supernatural energy and finally 32 says
when evening had come the Sun had set
listen to this they begin bringing to
him all who were ill those who were
demon-possessed and listen the whole
city verse 33 gathered at his door have
you felt like everybody was at your door
that everybody was in need of you that
without you the world would not continue
to turn that’s what was happening on
this day listen to verse 34 here
supernatural energy jesus healed many
who were ill with various diseases and
cast out many demons and he was not
permitting the demons to speak because
they knew who he was
verse 35 this would be the last thing I
share with you this morning in the early
morning while it was still dark Jesus
arose he went out and departed to a
lonely place and he went to pray Jesus
had supernatural ability supernatural
Authority supernatural vision
supernatural energy and supernatural
priorities because after a day filled
with what would have made me the next
day just want to stay in bed as long as
possible Jesus Christ gets up
theologians say it would have been about
4 a.m. that he got up out of the bed and
it was important enough to him to spend
time with the father that he was willing
to even lose sleep to make sure that
that happened Jesus would have seen it
as an unbalanced life to have had enough
energy for the people on one
but then not enough energy for God on
the following day don’t we often get
that backwards where we have enough
energy for the for the people and we
think that the father will just
understand that he’ll just get it that
he’ll just know that we were so busy
serving him that he’ll excuse us from
actually spending time with him can I
just encourage you sisters and brothers
to have supernatural priorities to
remember that his desire more than all
else the father’s desire more than all
else is that you and I would spend
intimate time with him that we would
engage of 10 times of silence and
solitude so that we can be with him and
listen to his heart for us the only
reason why the Lord Jesus could have all
of these supernatural endowments that
would enable him to be effective in the
ministry that he had the day before was
that he knew that time was the father
was what would give him exactly what he
would need do we recognize that time
with the father is what’s going to give
us the endowment that we need to do what
it is that God has called us to do
there’s a little book that I’ve run
across called the tyranny of the urgent
by Charles II Hummel it was written in
1967 Charles says an experienced factory
manager once said to me Charles your
greatest danger is letting the urgent
things crowd out the important things he
didn’t realize how hard his advice hit
me Charles writes it’s often return
returned to haunt and rebuke me by
raising the critical problem of
priorities we live in a constant tension
between the urgent and the important the
problem is that many important tasks
don’t need to be done today or even this
week extra hours of prayer and Bible
study or visiting an elderly friend
reading an important book these
activities they can usually wait a
little while longer but often the urgent
though less important tasks call for
immediate response so endless demands
pressure every waking hour a person’s
home is no longer a castle a private
place away from urgent tasks the
telephone reaches its walls with
incessant demands the appeal of these
demands seems irresistible but they
our our energy a little bit by a little
bit but in the light of eternity there
momentary prominence often fades and
with a sense of loss we recall the
important tasks that have been pushed
aside and we realize we’ve become slaves
to the tyranny of the urgent this was
written in 1967 in the margin I have
written iPods mp3 players fax machine
email podcast satellite cable DSL cell
phones blackberries iPhones pagers the
list goes on and on done it and if you
and I are not careful before we know
what we’ll be slaves to the tyranny of
the urgent and we’ll forget to have
supernatural priorities Lord would you
give us supernatural ministries
ministries like Jesus that are not just
about what we’re able to pull off in our
natural capabilities I mean those might
impress people but they can’t change
people and so the cry of my heart I pray
will be the cry of yours as you endeavor
to do all the things that God has put on
your heart that you will ask God for
more than just an ability but that you
will ask him for a supernatural ability
to do what you cannot do what I cannot
do in our own strength let’s pray
together Lord Jesus thank you for the
example that Jesus Christ sets for us
and how our ministries might might be
most effective I pray that you would now
seal this word in all of our hearts not
for our glory but for yours in Jesus
name Amen