Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every thing that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:24–25, NASB.
Everything produces after its own kind. In a Baptist meeting, the converts are Baptists. Roman Catholic converts become Roman Catholics. Presbyterians produce Presbyterians. They all bring forth after their own kind, and that is the way they hear. The born-again experience will have to expand to the Kingdom level.
Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” … “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3:3, 5–6, NASB.
Even though we have been in the Church, we cannot hear. We cannot see the Kingdom or hear it, until something happens. Bringing more teaching will not do it if the people cannot hear, if there is no awareness.
The Lord has shown that this awareness must be imparted. We must lay hands on the people and create an ear to hear on a new level that they have never heard before. This has to be the breakthrough. They have interceded and travailed and now they may not even be happy with what has happened. They may not even understand it for a while. That doesn’t matter. Once their ears are open, they will understand that there is only one way; and then they will understand that the devastation was to bring us to the end of the positions people have had in the Church Age.
We heard about bond servants and Timothys, but sometimes a Timothy was the equivalent of a three-star general in the army. It actually became a position. Now we are becoming nothing, because to the extent that a position of authority is assumed by anyone, to that extent the authority of Christ is diminished. So the trick of the devil throughout the years has been, “Let’s create a pope. Let’s create a general superintendent or an archbishop.”
And the minute anyone assumed the authority of position, he lost the authority of ministering in the name of Christ.
Christ said, “All authority has been given to Me … Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” Matthew 28:18b–19a, NASB.
When we take a commission instead of a position, the authority of Christ will be pure and the greater works will come forth. That is why everyone has been dethroned. That is why we were devastated.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.” John 14:12, NASB.
And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. Mark 16:20, NASB.
God Himself is destroying the various levels of position that we have been on. Seeking for a position brings devastation and futility and frustration. If this is prolonged, travail could be terminal and people could perish. Therefore we must lay hands on them and bring them up to the next level. At this point I am not as interested in teaching much; instead, I want to lay hands on people and minister to them. I want to bring them into the new level, where they will not be the same. I’ve imparted more during the past few months than I have in thirty years. Impartation by a Word or by the laying on of hands has been the key of it. This is why everyone must start preparing their heart. Even if they do not understand this, they must determine, “I’m going to receive something. I don’t even understand what it is, but I’m going to receive it. I’m going to have ears to hear on a level I didn’t have before. I will see things I never saw before.”
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:6. And that which is born of a restored New Testament church is a restored New Testament church member, but that which is born of the Kingdom is a Kingdom member. How do we get there? Come down to the altar a second time to get saved over again? That is like Nicodemus’ understanding of being born again (John 3).
The travail has not been for naught. Sons are come to birth and the formula is very, very simple: Submissive aggression, plus exposure to the creative Kingdom impartation, equals a miracle—creation on a new level, new ears to hear, new eyes to see. The more we get into this level of receiving by impartation, the more purely we will be sons who are led by the Spirit of the Lord (Romans 8:14).
When Jesus sent out the seventy (Luke 10), none of them had a title. Their names are not even recorded. He told them, “Just go. Heal the sick, cast out devils, tell the people that the Kingdom is coming. Don’t take any extra money, any extra shoes or clothes. A servant is worthy of his hire. Just go. Don’t stop or say, ‘Good, I’ll think it over.’ ” If you think it over, you will never do it. It is like taking one step across the Grand Canyon. You will either have faith and do it, or you will not.
When you are put in a spot where you have no position, but you have only a commission, then you have to look to God to lead you every bit of the way. When a man is commissioned to pastor a church, no one needs to feel threatened, because he is not seeking a position. The people will know that he is a man sent from God. That is what the Word says about John the Baptist (John 1:6). He moved everybody; yet all of the priests, the Levites, the Sadducees, the chief priests, and everyone else who had a position could do nothing. He went down in the wilderness with nothing going for him except that he was a voice crying in the wilderness (John 1:23), and everyone came out to hear him.
When are we going to learn? The entire Scriptures tell us that the men who moved the world were men like Amos. He wasn’t a prophet, neither the son of a prophet (Amos 7:14), because by that time a prophet was a position. It was an honor, as though they carried their credentials, “Prophet first class.” He was no prophet. He worked in the orchard gathering sycamore fruit (Amos 7:14). In other words, he was a sharecropper. But he brought a Word from the Lord that upset Samaria no end.
When you get a Word, go and do it. Don’t hesitate, thinking, “Well, we have to get things organized and promoted and set in order.” That attitude is what has hurt some of the churches. Now we are discarding the lofty title of “pastor,” and calling them “overseeing elders.” We are going back to the teaching in the Living Word manual, The New Testament Church. It put down pastor, yet we wouldn’t listen to the pure teaching of the manuals that came at the beginning of this walk; we had to exalt pastors. We didn’t exalt apostles and prophets and evangelists that way. But the pastor became a feudal lord, and that is why God has been removing some of them. When we enter the Kingdom, we will enter it because we are the sons of the Kingdom and we are led by the Spirit of the Lord (Romans 8:14). God is putting all of us in a place of absolute, total dependency upon Him, and this means that we have to see His commission, and appropriate the grace of God to walk in it—every one of us.
The Lordship of Christ is going to become real because we are not looking to a man to lead us. In a service, we are more focused on the Lord because the Lord is leading every service. When a leader becomes focused on the people and how to lead them, he forgets that his greatest focus should be on the Lord, who will lead him and show him how to lead. He should be receiving all of his cues from the Lord. There is something God wants to do for the people in every service. And to be tuned into that is far greater than knowing which songs will bring forth the best response. Get the people to meet God, and to look to God for something greater.
Impartation by laying on hands can create the spiritual senses to function on new levels.
The assumption of position can wipe out the authority in a ministry.
Men of religion defended their positions by crucifying Christ; today it is much the same.