Holiness
This is the absolute most important principle, defined by a life that seeks to know God with all our hearts through His Word, that our hearts are completely surrendered to Him and that we seek His holiness in our lives as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to Him (Romans 12:1). All that we are is to be derived only from our relationship with Him. We are to serve Him, not primarily, but alone. Through Him and in the light of His holiness and strength and in complete submission to Him and for His glory alone are we to perform any kind of service.
This is a direct command from God that we are to be holy for He is holy and that we are to be holy in all we do (1 Peter 1:15-16). It is the strong desire of this ministry that every aspect of this ministry is based unequivocally on the Word of God.
Excellence
True excellence is bringing God the glory. God calls those who have trusted in Him to devote our lives to doing what is excellent and profitable for everyone (Titus 3:8). Excellence is also explained as being a quality that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable (Phil 4:8). Our goal is to know our Lord, and understand His character and reflect that in our work so that His excellence is reflected through it and His name is glorified. And we must do it with love for that is the most excellent way (1 Corinthians 12:31).
Ethics (faithfulness)
In all that we do God desires our hearts, before He desires our service. Our desire is to have a heart that is determined to know and serve God by glorifying Him by reflecting His nature in the different circumstances that He puts us in.
Knowing that this is God's work demands us to have the highest standards of integrity and faithfulness to Him in our work. This is our desire and quest by His grace. As God provides us with the vision for the work He calls us to do, our integrity must be based on His uncompromising and absolute standards. 1 Chronicles 29: 16-18 and Psalm 25:21 tell us that integrity is pleasing to the Lord and that it will protect us as we put our hope in Him. They also tell us that we are to keep our hearts loyal to Him. 2 Peter 3:14: Be found spotless and blameless before Him.
Oswald Chambers writes, "What is my vision of God's purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish— His purpose is the process itself. It is the process, not the outcome that is glorifying to God." [I] He further writes, "The aim of the missionary is to do God's will, not to be useful, not to win the heathen; he IS useful and he DOES win the heathen, but that is not his aim. His aim is to do the will of his Lord."
Energy
It is our desire to serve God wholeheartedly, deriving our strength from Him, through His example and the power of the Holy Spirit that is in us and is able to accomplish more than we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). Colossians 3:23-24 tells us that we serve our Lord Jesus Christ and that we are to do all things with all our hearts and to do them for Him. All that we are and have are blessings from the Lord and are to be used wholeheartedly for the Lord with and energy, passion and commitment that only He can provide.
It is also critical that as we whole heartedly use the gifts that God has blessed us with, we also bring with us the limitations of "ourselves". We must strive to remove "ourselves" and our limitations daily from the picture and let God with His limitless strength flow from our lives into our work and the lives of others so He can accomplish things that are possible by His strength alone. The more we seek to do His will, by His strength, the more amazing things He will do through us.
Example
The Bible calls us repeatedly to use Christ as our example and to be examples to those we are serving so that they can follow our example as we follow Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1, Philippians 3:17, Titus 2:7, 1 Peter 5:3) . Christ is the ultimate example for the whole world (John 13:15, 1 Tim 1:16, 1 Peter 2:21) which includes us and the people God puts in our lives to serve. Living out God's word is of utmost importance so we can realize Christ in our lives daily, through His strength, and show people that this is an awesome blessing which not only can be done but in which we can thrive.
Humility
The Bible tells us that we are to, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than ourselves (Philippians 2:3). We cannot undermine the criticality of understanding that this is not our work which we are asking for God's help with, but God's work that we are blessed by Him to be a part of. Also that we ourselves have our strength from Him alone. In our personal dealings with others, we are to remember who we are - we are not some special beings created in heaven, but sinners saved by grace. [II] Jesus is our ultimate example in humility, and has asked us to emulate Him (John 13:14, 15). The Bible tells us that, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5). If God opposes me, it is possible to throw all of the effort of my life into serving Christ and yet to achieve nothing of lasting significance. [III] We are to never lose sight of what God's grace has done in our lives. Humility is an intentional choice that God calls us to make. We cultivate it by His grace and make it the intentional approach to the whole of life. [III] God commands us to walk humbly with Him (Micah 6:8).
References
- Oswald Chambers, "God's Purpose or Mine," My Utmost For His Highest (Discovery House Publishers).
- Oswald Chambers, "Held By The Grip Of God," My Utmost For His Highest (Discovery House Publishers).
- Colin Smith, 10 Keys to Unlock the Christian Life: New Humility, Chapter 9, Pg. 112-122, (Moody Publishers).