Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the outcome of their way of life, imitate their faith.
Obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. Hebrews 13:7, 17.
We cannot interpret this passage in a cold-blooded way, as though it were all reduced down to a fine army-barracks situation, where you listen to the sergeant and do what he tells you. Instead, it seems to take on the aspect of a father and his family. It reminds you that those who are responsible for you must give an account, and if you don’t listen to them, it will result in a grieving.
We must give an account. If this burden fills our hearts, we will not be worrying about our own ministry, or even how effective it is. When the time of fruitfulness comes, the thing that marks the ministry is its sense of responsibility, the way it faces the accountability which it’s going to have. This is very serious.
A young woman may be very beautiful. Physically, she has reached a place of maturity. She is well groomed. She has poise, good manners, and a graciousness that charms everyone she meets. But if you look below the surface, you find that she has no sense of responsibility, no realization of accountability at all. When she gets married, she is only concerned about her life and about being happy. After a while she changes. She bears a child and then she begins to learn responsibility, for another life is helplessly dependent upon her. She learns accountability as she carefully balances the budget and practices thrift in the expenditure of money.
Now she is a truly beautiful woman, even though she doesn’t spend as much time on her grooming and makeup. She doesn’t have time. She becomes efficient in the budgeting of her time, for she realizes that she is working to care for several other people besides herself. She may not even have a minute to herself from morning till night. She sighs with relief at night when the household is asleep, and then she kneels and prays for them. This illustrates what the Word is talking about.
The time comes when a young prophet must forget himself. He is going out, not like some prancing young steed, but like a work horse, with his neck in the harness. Week in and week out, he is pulling a load. In spite of all the help he gets, he will find that so much of the time he is pulling that load alone. Often he rises while it is still dark, so tired that he stumbles; but he recognizes that the greatest need is to walk before the Lord, to remind Him of His children, to ask of Him a thousand things because he knows that he will have to give an account.
I don’t know whether or not the seriousness of this message grips your heart, but it does mine. I have felt God’s love flow through me long enough to become conditioned to His love, as all of you are or will be. You will die with problems of the flock, but the love does not turn aside from them, nor does it rise up to judge them. Christ died for them, and they are His. You contemplate what He did to bring those people forth to serve Him, and a feeling almost of horror comes over you when He asks your heart, “Do you love Me?” You say, “Yes, Lord, I love you.” “Here they are; they’re in your hand. I love them very deeply, so I’m putting them in your charge. Feed My sheep. Feed My lambs.”
You love Him, and the responsibility rests upon you as you realize, “These I must take care of; these I must love.” You do it, though not as a burden that is being laid upon you. You can’t just run through the actions and the motions, for you find that your heart is wrapped up in it. But with it is also the fear of the Lord, for you will give an account.
I remind you that God is not trying to lay a lot of elaborate doctrines before you, although something quite revolutionary has come in the word which points an arrow in the direction we shall go.
I speak unto you a word from the Lord this day: Ye watchmen that stand and watch for the flock of the Lord, this shall be the time that the Lord shall lay heavily upon thee thy responsibility. He shall bring the anointing that shall flow over thee that thou mayest deliver the sheep out of the hand of the wolves, for false prophets shall move through the land to make a prey of the people of the Lord. Spirits of deception shall war against them until confusion shall come and fill the minds of many of the little ones. But ye that are spiritual will restore the stumbling brother in a spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest ye also be tempted. Ye shall bear one another’s burdens.
This is the hour that ye shall watch over one another as a family and those that God hath appointed shall watch over them as they that must give an account. It shall be a day of release unto thine heart, for thou shalt find thyself delivered from the torment of selfishness and those objectives that were born within your own heart to pursue after them. Ye shall watch them wither and die, and there shall be none to cultivate the growing of these things in your life; for the days of selfishness shall disappear, and the service to the Body shall begin. Ye shall know what it is to be addicted to the ministry of the saints. This shall be the yearning of your heart when the sun rises upon you, and it shall be the burden of your heart when darkness settles over the land.
Day unto day, hour unto hour, the Lord shall bless thee and thou shalt carry the burden of His people upon thy heart. For the Lord would bring forth a holy people. Upon thee shall rest the burden to nourish and cherish the people of God, to love them with an intense love. Thou art not hirelings, but thou art true shepherds. Ye shall give your life for the flock. Amen.
Isaiah 62:6–7: On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. This is our promise. This is what God is saying to us.
We are getting a new word, and the Lord is saying to us, “A new commandment, a new commission I give unto thee, and it’s the commission which you’ve heard from the beginning.” It reminds us of a passage written long ago in the epistle of John (1 John 2:7). Stir yourself. Listen to it. Remind Him of His promises. Stay with the intercession. Don’t flit about with a fickleness that says, “We’re looking for another word. What new word do we hear now?”
There are more new words coming all the time, but I’m troubled about what God has already spoken. I’m troubled about the unfulfilled prophecies that rest upon men. I’m troubled over the sheep that are caught in a fence somewhere, about the ones who are backing off, while the wolves are coming at them. I’m not concerned about starting new churches, but about establishing firmly every church which is already in existence. We do not just bring them forth and let them wither and die like forgotten orphans, but we are concerned to see every ministry established. Everyone who is called to this apostolic company should be burdened for one thing: we labor to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus (Colossians 1:28, 29). With a mighty upheaval with in us, we remind the Lord from day to day of His prophecies.
Some of the elders have been reviewing the unfulfilled prophecies over certain individuals, ministering to them, praying with them, reminding God of the words He has spoken over their lives. We are to give Him no rest, until He brings forth His full intention and purpose.
It isn’t the reluctance of God that you must overcome. There is no passivity on God’s part; it’s just that this is the appointed way by which He moves. Call upon Him, He will hear you. In the day that you seek Him with your whole heart, that’s the day you encounter Him face to face. The day you become burdened until your heart bleeds as one of those who must give an account, that day you will receive an answer.
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet, until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, and her salvation like a torch that is burning. And the nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; and you will be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will designate. You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. Isaiah 62:1–3.
We recognize the submission and the obedience there must be toward those who are over us in the Lord, as well as their accountability and responsibility for us. And we say with Paul, “Who is sufficient for these things? Who’s adequate to do it?” Did God call you to be an apostle? Did He call you to be a prophet? Has He called you to be a pastor? a teacher? an evangelist? Give diligence to it. Prophecies do not come just to predict, nor to tantalize, nor to channel. They bring a responsibility.
When God gives me a word, I often notice a heaviness upon my spirit, because I am aware that the word brought a responsibility to me. Now I am accountable. As ministries, we’re channels of God’s love. We’re executors of His will. We are those designated to take His authority and bring it to pass, and we don’t even know how to do it—not fully. Not only did He give us a commission, but He said, “I’ll take an accounting of you after a while.”
It’s like the man who went to a far country to receive a kingdom and upon returning, called his servants to give an account of that which He had laid in their hands. “What did you do, and what are you doing with that gift?” You who can prophesy the Word of the Lord—what are you doing with it? You whom God has quickened with some perception—a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, or a discerning of spirits—are you only holding it or are you using it? He has received His Kingdom, and He will soon return, and there will be an accounting. Are you doing business for the King?
Are you concerned about the flock? Does your heart yearn and care for the sheep? Are you concerned about their feeding? about the Word upon which they shall feed? Are you concerned about their development and growth?
Do you understand Paul’s praying for Timothy? He said, “I have not ceased to make mention of you in my prayers day and night” (2 Timothy 1:3). O God, the horror of accountability! We have not faced anything that is as terrifying. I think I’d almost rather stand as a sinner before God at the great final resurrection and the white-throne judgment, than to stand before the Lord knowing I had failed Him, when He has visited such grace upon us and laid such a treasure in our hands and given us the capacity, by faith and by the grace of God, to meet His people and to bring them into what He has for them. Am I one who frustrates the eternal plan and purposes of God, or do I aid in the fulfillment of prophecies and revelation over His people by reaching in and being concerned about them day by day?
Elders and ministers—every one of you—don’t you think we had better give diligence to go over our flocks again, to strengthen the hands of the brethren once more, to review again what each one of them should be walking in? Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. Reach in as much as you can. Somehow let it come through to them that you love them with a persistent love which creates for them a problem that will have no solution until they respond to it. Open your hearts. There is a new level of responsibility that will be resting upon the leadership.
God has troubled me, and I know that I will give an account to Him. Wherever I have failed you, I repent and ask your forgiveness in all sincerity. I do not count myself to have been unfaithful, nor do I presume that I am faithful. I say with Paul, “I don’t know anything against myself, I can say that I did the best I could, but I’m not thereby acquitted.” Moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy (faithful). I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted, but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God. 1 Corinthians 4:2, 4, 5.
I am not excusing myself. In every way that you feel I have failed you, I repent. I ask for your prayers. Please cease not every day to pray for me. I know I have a commission from the Lord for your perfection, and I want to give all diligence to see it accomplished.
If in some way this message has made you heavy, of that I do not repent. There must be in your heart an aching after God’s heritage. God grant that there be no release until you’re concerned with what He has laid within your heart about everyone whom He brings within the sphere of your ministry. In the name of Jesus Christ, I adjure you that you do not ride along in your services from week to week, giving no concern for the brethren, not even looking about to see the weak brother in the congregation.
With maturity comes responsibility. When I was ten, I was ironing the flat work for my mother when she took in washing. I was peddling magazines over the hills of Los Angeles. By the time I was twelve, I was helping my father deliver milk and ice on an ice route. I also took care of my baby sister in those days. Perhaps it was in those days that God began to teach me and to instill in me a sense of responsibility.
You’re responsible. You’re going to give an account. If you say, “I know I am responsible, but I feel unworthy and ill equipped,” then let us lay hands on you and believe God to bring forth that gift and that ministry so you can take care of the sheep. Only be concerned that you don’t use it just for an exhibition. It is a tool to get a job done, a way to get through to men’s hearts. It is a powerful weapon, so you can ram those walls behind which people are living and get to them, so you can break down prisons and let them out, so you can deliver them from the fears that come like a pack of wolves to torment them, so you can build and strengthen their faith. Wherever God has lit even a flickering wick, He’ll not quench it; and a bruised reed, He’ll not break. Wherever God smiles on any man, we’ll wrap him with blankets of love until his fears end and his faith rises up strong.
I’m not concerned about the world; I’m concerned about the specific commission of responsibility that rests over what He has laid under our hands. Grant that not one of us will fail to walk into a new understanding of this word.
To those of you who might be saying, “But I’m not the leader,” let me impress upon you that it works both ways. When you get a commission from the Lord, you obey that commission; and you become responsible for your leaders the same as they are responsible for you. In many ways, you can bring about their protection in areas where they are so vulnerable. You can help them, realizing that God has committed this treasure to earthen vessels which are very humble. They need help too, and you must open your heart to them. Pray for them and hold them up. Through your faithful prayers, some ministry could be liberated from chains that must go; some ministry could be able to lay aside a weight or a sin which does so easily beset him.
You don’t realize how important it is for you to believe for a brother. A man of God believes and believes. It’s his faith that brings the people up to the place of perfection. The purpose of the foundational ministries is to bring about the perfection of the saints. And it’s very necessary that the people believe for their leaders, in spite of any apparent inadequacies they may see. Believe for your pastor, for your elder, for your deacon. He will only rise to the level that you believe him to rise to. You determine where you’re going to walk and where your brother is going to walk and the ministry that he will walk in. Your ministry will probably be determined by someone else. Let’s believe for one another. Let’s paint an imaginary picture, a picture in the spirit, of what we’re believing a man to walk in, and strive to see that fulfilled.