Anyone who wants to serve the Lord today should be helped to be directed into the will of God, so that they understand their destiny, what God wants of them, and then what will be taking place in their lives. Then they can relate themselves to it.
The five fold ministry is supposed to be coaching or training the saints for the work of the ministry. Not building their own little kingdoms where all the people are dependent upon them to get a word from the Lord, and not come into a walk with God themselves.
God is going to start shaking all these little kingdoms, and they are coming down, because they are being built on the wrong foundation and will not be able to stand the coming storms upon the earth.
God has to raise up Sheppard’s after his own heart, because these big churches and their leaders are going nowhere, they are the blind leading the blind and they are about to fall into the ditch.
God has saved many people, and they are looking for the will of God for their lives. And along comes some blind leader of the blind who says, “Go this way.” Someone else says, “Go that way.” Others say, “This is what is important,” or “that is important.” One says you need to go to this church, and another says no, you need to go to this church.
Because Christians are so intently groping to find the meaning of their whole life before the face of God, they are “biting” on a lot of things which they should not, settling for many lesser goals in their life while missing the most important things God has for them.
They are like the blind man whom the Lord touched. Jesus asked him, “What do you see?” The man replied, “I see men as trees, walking” (Mark 8:23–24). Everything was all distorted. People looked like trees walking around. That was a strange sight.
The Lord had to lead him out of that town (Bethsaida) and pray for him twice because the healing of his blindness was related to the atmosphere of that town he lived in. This is the only time the Lord had to pray for a person twice in the scriptures, to get their ability to see straightened out, and this is not talking about some flaky doctrine I have heard preached many times, that first he was able to see in the spirit men as trees walking. Oh woops wrong realm, and then prayed for again.
The Lord has to lead many of his people out of the churches they may be in, to get their thinking or seeing straightened out. Any church or movement that is not moving forward in the things of the Lord is what is called Babylon. And the Lord is saying come out!
This is what has taken place in every great man or woman of God as the Lord began leading them into the deeper things of the Spirit.
The Lord kept leading Smith Wigglesworth out, come out of that church, come out of that movement, come out of this and come out of that, until he walked in the glory of the Lord.
After the Lord led that man out of Bethsaida and went through the process of healing him, he saw every man clearly. This is a type of the spiritual discernment that is needed to be able to discern the men and women who are leaders in the church today.
This is a picture of what is happening to people all over the world. They have a touch from God, and they see something. They are not blind anymore, but the whole picture is very much distorted before them. They do not really know what God is doing or what they are doing. But they want to be busy; they want to do something, they want to work for the Lord.
The actions of many people today remind me of a story in the Old Testament. After the death of Absalom, Ahimaaz wanted to run and bring news of it to the king, but he did not know the full story.
The Cushite received the whole message, and Joab told him to run and tell David what he had seen. Ahimaaz said, “Let me run, too.”
Joab answered, “Wherefore wilt thou run seeing thou hast no tidings ready? You don’t have anything to say when you get there.”
Ahimaaz replied, “That’s all right. Just let me run.” So Joab let him run. He was a beautiful runner, and soon he passed the Cushite. He came running through the gates of the city and the watchman said, “You are the first one here. What’s the news concerning Absalom?”
Ahimaaz answered, “When I left I saw a great tumult, but I don’t know what happened.” They had to wait for the Cushite to tell them that Absalom was dead.
Wherefore wilt thou run, seeing thou hast no tidings ready (II Samuel 18:1–32)? There is no use exerting all that energy when you have nothing to say when you get there.
God is laying it right on the line: this is what you are to do—you are to give your life for the gospel of the Kingdom. The living word of God that is beginning to come forth in these last days is going to be taught and preached in an orderly sequence of revelation.
This panoramic view should be preached to the ends of the earth because it gives the best picture of the gospel of the Kingdom.
It is time for the messengers of the Kingdom to come forth, but they will not be those who run with no tidings ready. The Lord is instilling in you a love of the Word and a knowledge of the Word, with a real revelation of the times and seasons we are living in and what God is doing in the earth this day.
The next thing will be to thrust forth each ministry that has been adequately trained into the places of service.