Acts 6
Acts 6:1-15 (NLT)
1 But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food.
2 So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program.
3 And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility.
4 Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.”
5 Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith).
6 These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.
7 So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.
8 Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people.
9 But one day some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia.
10 None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.
11 So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen, saying, “We heard him blaspheme Moses, and even God.”
12 This roused the people, the elders, and the teachers of religious law. So they arrested Stephen and brought him before the high council.
13 The lying witnesses said, “This man is always speaking against the holy Temple and against the law of Moses.
14 We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the Temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”
15 At this point everyone in the high council stared at Stephen, because his face became as bright as an angel’s.
Though it doesn’t refer to a leading of the Holy Spirit with regard to establishing the helps ministry (it simply says they all thought it sounded like a good idea), this did seem to be wisdom that would help them to function more efficiently and effectively in ministry. What is interesting is how the most influential minister from this arrangement, though, was one of those who was assigned to the helps department and not the prayer-and-teaching pulpit group. Stephen was serving in a role that might not have been considered spiritual leadership, yet his role did not define who he was and what he was called to. His qualifications to influence were not determined by the job description he filled. It wasn’t his personal drive and desire to “minister” that motivated him, either, as what came from him was not a desire to become something but rather to release what he was full of. This Spirit-filling very much emulated Jesus in the revelation and wisdom enabled through him, persuasions that the naysayers could not refute. Their only strategy was to stir up animosity towards Stephen with lies. Instead of being intimidated by this scheme, though, it ignited the fire of the Holy Spirit in him that took over his whole countenance and produced declarations through him that would touch the heart of the one through whom the revelation of our identity with Christ would come.
There is a wisdom and strategy from the Master that may seem like it’s just “what seems to be good.” When there is a culture of Holy Spirit fullness that pervades the whole body, though, it will be in every role that His glory will be revealed in life-transforming wisdom and revelation. As those in every role go beyond just the tasks of serving to the glow of Holy Spirit occupancy, there will be ministry occurring way beyond the platform’s constraints. In simple faithfulness to what we’re given in every opportunity there is enablement of a God-plan that is so much bigger than man’s.