One of the important questions in this end-time walk with God is how shall we evaluate one another? It can be so easy to judge after the flesh. A person may make mistakes and fall but we must not be critical or judgmental and reject that individual.
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; II Corinthians 5:16–18.
We are to look at one another in the spirit, and not after the flesh. This is essential, for this walk with God cannot be promoted nor understood on a human level. We cannot perceive it without a divine revelation; God must quicken it to our hearts. People may study the Scriptures, read the truths, and still miss it because it only is seen by a divine revelation.
The new order that God is bringing to His Church cannot come except by revelation. The restoration of the Church is only a dream until God brings a flow of revelation about that which He is restoring. Many people hear the word and read the Bible, but nothing comes through to their hearts. Chapter after chapter they acknowledge as true, but they are just empty phrases until God brings the revelation. If the Bible were easy to comprehend on a human level, I would not believe it because it would be on a level that a man could have written. Because the Scriptures are divinely inspired, we only can tune into the meaning as the Spirit reveals it to us.
Jesus asked His disciples, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But who say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. Matthew 16:13b–20.
Christ did not want the revelation of His Messiaship to be conveyed on the human level, but rather on the divine. This is how Paul was won to Christ and became a great apostle. He received the gospel not from man, but by a revelation of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:12). Whenever Christ is manifested, it is not on the human level, but through the divine level. A man can preach eloquently on the human level, but that which is born of the flesh is still flesh. For this reason Paul said, “I was determined to know nothing among you, but Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, and in fear and trembling. My speech was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. For I desired that your faith should stand in the power of God and not in the wisdom of man” (I Corinthians 2:2–5).
Paul wanted their faith to be established by the revelation of God to their hearts, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, not through the reasoning and cunning of men. Jesus blessed Peter because his revelation of Jesus’ identity was not from flesh and blood, but from the Father who revealed it to him. Jesus said, “You are Peter (Petras, a pebble), but upon this rock I will build my church.” This play on words has been misconstrued until it has been taught that Peter was the rock on which the Church was built. No, he was a pebble: and the Church, against which nothing could prevail, was not built on him. The organizations that have emerged, with Peter assumed as the rock, have fallen. The gates of hell have prevailed against the church organizations, both Catholic and Protestant. Christ was saying the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church that is based upon that which His Father has revealed. The Church is built upon a divine flow of revelation, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Satan can prevail against that which is born and taught by flesh and blood, but he cannot prevail over the revelation of God.
Jesus proceeded to tell Peter, “I am giving you the keys because you have this revelation: you know who I am and have learned it from the Father. Therefore, you now have keys, and whatever you bind will be bound, and what you loose will be loosed.” Then He added, “Do not tell any man.” Christ did not want the revelation brought down to a human level.
Revelation is the foundation. The early Church accepted apostles because God revealed it to them that they were apostles. It is written of the Church at Ephesus that they had tried those who said they were apostles and were not, and had found them liars (Revelation 2:2). They looked for the divine tests.
In this day many spiritual groups have come forth claiming to believe in the restoration and miracles. But if you would ask them if they believe in authority or in the apostles, they would not know; they have no revelation of these things. God has set some in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, gifts of healings, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues (I Corinthians 12:28). The charismatic movement believes in miracles, but apostles and prophets are in contest. Without the basis of revelation of the restoration of apostles and prophets it cannot prevail.
Apostles and prophets do not need to be defended. They need those who have the revelation of them. God speaks of their authority to people’s hearts, which becomes an issue on which they stand or fall. They must seek God and get the revelation. The issue today is not miracles; there has been a return of miracles for the last seventy years in the restoration. But where is the return of the apostles, prophets, and the authority which they represent? In the past there have been many great men, but each one built his own program. They were dedicated to evangelism and to signs. The New Testament Church is not based upon a faith in miracles or signs and gifts; it is based upon the order that God is restoring to the Church and the Lordship of Christ; and this is where our dedication must be.
We read a Scripture about not seeing one another after the flesh, but if we look at one another’s faults on a human level, we are committing a great sin against the Body. See one another’s needs, but always hold in your mind the image God has created by prophecy and His word. Refuse to see them on a human level; look at them with the faith that God has brought them forth. You must see in the spirit, and see what God has made one another by the revelation God brings to your heart.
One man may have a brogue, another man may stutter; one person may have one attitude, another man has another; but these are not the things at which to look. Paul said he withstood Peter to his face because he was wrong in his action about the Gentile and Jewish combinations in the Church (Galatians 2:11). They had the utmost respect for each other, and they saw one another in the spirit; they learned to have an exchange, not on the human level but on a spiritual level. It is necessary for the whole Body to learn this. There cannot be any restoration of the Church while the individuals still see each other on a human plane.
Paul writes to the Christians in Corinth, And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? I Corinthians 3:1–3. You are walking like men. You walk on the human level, you live on the human level, you think on the human level, and you will be defeated on that human level. But if you walk in the spirit, on a spirit level, everything will be different. You are yet in the baby stage if there is jealousy and strife or even cliques among you. If you gravitate into little groups or prefer one brother above another, you are carnal, walking as men. Individual preference is on a human level. You leave the baby stage when you look at a person in the light of what God has said about him, not by what you personally feel and observe.
There have been men who have stood against me to my face, and I continued to love them because of a revelation God had given me about them. Some have become elders who stand at my side and would lay down their life. I must respond to such men in divine compassion and understanding. It does not make me a weakling, it makes me many times stronger when I meet a man in God and see him and his need, and God shows me what He has for him. I never give up on a man.
A man may stumble and fall, but when the love of the Body meets him on a spiritual level, he is restored. You will grow up and cease to be babes when you refuse to pick out special friends in the Church, but in the spirit you reach out and meet those with a need and minister to them. Begin seeing one another in the spirit and in that unity and blessing you have what God is indeed restoring today. This is the holy Church; this is the thing God is bringing, and it will stand. The gates of hell will never prevail against it.
The devil cannot put a wedge of jealousy and strife where the people look on one another in the spirit. There will not be that which comes in the way of a personal ambition striving for one’s own ministry and place in the Body; that is the human level—walking as men. Instead, walk as sons of God. Do not walk in that human level, nor dare to think in that level. If you find yourself gravitating toward the human level, refuse it. Lift yourself in the spirit, and ask the Lord to show you the situation and the people in the spirit.
One of the hardest situations to look at people in the spirit is in the family. You say you are believing for the restoration of the family, but on what level are you looking for that release? Do you want your wife to be submissive just to build up your male ego? Do you want your husband to love you unselfishly, so you won’t feel pressured to measure up to your position in God? Do you use the Word of God as a weapon to make your children behave themselves? The family unit is to be a spiritual unit. Fathers, know your boy as a prophet who is to come forth. Love him, teach him, minister to him, minister to the prophet that is in the boy. Look upon your little girl as that prophetess or handmaiden of the Lord. Wives, minister in the spirit to that servant of the Most High God, who is your husband. In this restoration we will not know one another in the flesh. We are going to have beautiful families, but if you start to work out the human level, without approaching it from the spiritual, you will run into trouble. Bypass the human level and get into the spiritual, and from there it is easy to work back on all levels to bring them under God.
Submission is another area that must be on a spiritual, not on a human, level. The greatest victories come in your life and in the Body because in submission you resist the devil and he flees. You submit yourselves to the Lord; you humble yourselves under the hand of the Lord. Submission is a thing of spirit, not a hang-dog attitude of affected humility which is phony. When there is a true submission in your spirit to the Lord, then the Lord begins to give revelation, and you relate yourself to your apostle, to the elders, to your family, and to the members of the Body in a proper manner.
When you walk on the flesh level, you have the problems of the flesh with which to contend. If you walk after the flesh, you will fulfill the lust of the flesh, but if you walk after the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). You decide the level on which you will live. The lust of the flesh, also means the jealousies and strife and the problems that come in homes as well as in the church. These are problems of the babes. These are the problems which caused the Corinthians to be partial toward Paul or Apollos. These are the same things which cause you not to submit in the Lord. You must come to that plane of submission where you say, “I am going to walk in submission to the Lord. God has set me in the Body, and I will be submissive to the authority over me and believe God for it.” The elders may seem to fail to understand your problem, but they represent a divinely appointed authority. God did not say they would always be right in all of their decisions, but He did put His authority in them. Even in a situation in which you know absolutely the ministries are wrong, you should submit to them with a right spirit. God will watch out for you. You cannot go wrong if you are obedient and submissive.
You may feel you are being dominated by someone else-there is a certain initiative you must begin to take as you grow up—but the ministries are not trying to dominate you; they are instruments to aid in bringing you into maturity. The ministries were given that you might be no more children tossed to and fro (Ephesians 4:14a). God has given me a wisdom to refuse to baby a person beyond the place where they should be babied or coddled. As a result, individual after individual is being brought into a place where God is demanding that they walk before the Lord and receive the revelation, leading, and guidance of the Lord. That still does not eliminate the necessity of submission and authority.
On the natural plane, a child is free from submission to his parents when he reaches twenty-one. In the spirit you are always bound to submission to authority. Miracles, faith, and the signs and wonders work as a result of your right relationship to authority. Read the story of the centurion who sent friends to ask Jesus to heal a servant who was dear to him. Yet, his message said, “Master I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; speak the word only and my servant will be well. For I am a man with authority, and if I say to this man ‘Go,’ he goes, or to this man ‘Come,’ he comes. Just speak the word.” Jesus answered, “I have not found such faith, no not in Israel” (Luke 7:1–9). Wasn’t there anyone in Israel who believed Jesus could heal by word? Yes, but there was no one who accepted Jesus’ authority. This centurion had a revelation of who Jesus was. He recognized the authority of Jesus over heaven and earth and was submissive to it, for he was a man of authority himself. No wonder Jesus commended him. He had not found such faith in Israel where He might expect to find it. But God would yet reach out and find people who had in their spirits a revelation of the divine authority and would submit to it.
Many people have believed in the restoration, in miracles, in gifts and in prophecy, but the greater signs will come to those who know how to submit to the Lord and to the authority He is raising up. God is restoring nothing less than a Kingdom. God is not restoring an anarchy of confusion where every man is doing his thing working for Jesus; God is bringing forth the Kingdom. He is King, and He will appoint to every man what he is to do. How earnestly we must desire to be completely submissive to the Lord in our spirits.
People have failed miserably, but God brought them through because they had a revelation of the authority placed over them. When they received that revelation, they had revelation of one after another of the brothers’ ministries until they had a revelation of their own ministry and place in the Kingdom. However, people who have walked accurately have failed because they have not had the revelation of the authority over them or submission to it in their heart. People struggle with this point until God gets through to them and puts something in their heart. From that time on they start growing. Blessed art thou, for flesh and blood did not reveal it, but the Father Who is in heaven. This is not a time of exalting man; this is the time of seeking first the Kingdom of God. God is shaking everything which can be shaken, so we shall receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:27, 28). We will worship God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
Revelation of the Apostolic ministry is the basis for the struggle in many a newcomer’s heart. Revelation is important. As you serve Jesus Christ with an awareness of His Lordship, you will come into that awareness of one another by revelation. Without this revelation you will continue to walk on the flesh level, and that is where the problems will arise.
There must be a new level of fellowship among the young people, especially with the single ones. It is not a girl’s sparkling eyes that count, it is that which is in her spirit. God has made provision for you to have a relationship based on the spirit level and not on the human. Don’t think you can make all your decisions without being submissive to the authority over you. Find out what you are to do in the Lord. You may think you are wise enough to live your own life, but God set up all these safeguards to protect you. He desires you to know one another after the spirit, so you can bypass many dangers.
God will set you in the Body and cause you to flow together, but avoid cliques and favoritism, which can only lead to trouble. When you are working with the Body, your hands must be consecrated, your lips sealed to gossip and your spirit right, or you will hinder the work. God is demanding a pure, right spirit. If you are dedicated to do what God wants you to do, the friction on the human level will be eliminated completely; you will flow in the spirit.
Generally, the people who have left this walk were those who had no real revelation of it. They gave lip service to it, but in their heart there never was a revelation. Revelation is what keeps a man so that not even the gates of hell can prevail against him. Paul stood after beatings and trials that would have deterred most men. If hell could have prevailed against a man, it would have destroyed him. The one key he gave was, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19b). A revelation had come from God, and Paul knew who Jesus Christ was. He knew by revelation; he did not receive it from man; he received it from God, and he prevailed.
In this hour Christ is being manifested in His Body which He has restored with a New Testament authority and ministries who are coming forth strong to be the heralds of the Kingdom. When these ministries are revealed to you, not as a theory or doctrine, you will become unshakable.
A person cannot be judged for something he does not see, yet he cannot move into the highest level of restoration until he has the revelation. He cannot be submissive by merely deciding to be; it must be revealed to his heart. The more God opens up the revelation, the more submissive you become, and the more revelation you receive. It is progressive. We ought to pray for people to receive the revelation.