Do you find yourself wondering, “What is all of this going to lead to? What is going to happen?” I heard that question many years ago when a group of men met to ask me what God had done for me. They were quite disturbed. One old fellow, a good man, started to question me: “But you will be labeled if you follow this course.” I replied, “God has spoken to my heart and I am following His word to me.” Again he said, “But you will be numbered with men who have gotten off the track.” I said, “My Lord was numbered with the transgressors.” Finally he asked, “What is all of this going to lead to?” And I also asked, “Yes, what is it going to lead to?” There was a difference in the way we asked that question. He felt as though it could lead to disaster. And I was imagining how wonderful it could be.
This is how it will be. A lot of things are going to happen and they are already in motion; yet I notice the enemy trying to get a wedge in. Many things will be happening; changes are coming rapidly, and this could be frightening because it means we have to adjust to a very changing picture all the time. This is when the enemy tries to put a wedge in. The demonic assault can become intense enough to try to put a wedge in your relationships to one another: to try to convince you that someone in the body doesn’t love you or accept you, that you are being put off in a corner, or that you are being neglected. And the reason for this is because it is a time for commissioning; it is a time to set people in. So the minute one brother is set into his job, the enemy is right there working at a number of other brothers or sisters, saying, “See, you’re going to be outside. You will not be included.”
The truth is that this end-time restoration is so fast that we don’t have enough ministries yet. We have yet to see the faces of many who will be coming in. Instead of allowing the enemy to put a wedge between us in any way, we must rebuke him soundly. It makes no difference which place we have. It makes no difference whether you’re chief cook or bottle washer. That is not the issue. The issue is this: are you where God wants you to be? In the book of Acts the men who made the greatest strides forward were not the apostles in the early Church. They were men like Stephen and Philip, glorified deacons who were moving in the Spirit of the Lord and being transported to various places performing signs and wonders. You never heard of Peter being caught up in the Spirit to another location, did you? Whole cities turned to Christ because of men like Stephen and Philip. God could take a dishwasher and use him to open doors to many avenues in the Church. So don’t say, “Well, I want this place,” or “Someone has that place, so what am I going to have?”
If you ever feel like asking if I am angry with you, I am not. When you feel this in your spirit, it is just the enemy trying to break a unity that is almost unparalleled. I have never known a unity to exist like that which exists in these churches. I have never known men to be so close to me that, day after day, week after week, I have felt, “These men would lay their lives down for me.” This is what is true!
Don’t let the enemy come in and make you feel as if you have two left feet. Don’t worry about anything; all you have to do is walk with the Lord. If you have known me for awhile, you begin to realize I don’t change in my attitude towards people. It is very difficult for anyone to break fellowship with me because I will not break fellowship with them. I will not accept anything but that which God has said over their lives. They can do anything they want to do, but I will hang onto the words God has spoken over them. Who knows, I could be the intermediary who brings that one back to the Lord. Sometimes, with fear and trembling, I wonder, “Lord, how would I ever relate myself to this individual?” God knows. He just has to work it out.
Don’t let the enemy get a wedge in. Don’t let anything happen to disturb you in the least. We should reach the place where we are so stable in God, by the grace of what He has wrought in our lives, that we trust what God has done in one another. When you trust what God has done in your brother it is not confidence in man, but confidence in the stability and permanence of what God has really wrought in him. The change is not as transitory or as shallow as you might think; it is a very stable thing. And it is very necessary for you to rebuke the enemy the minute he would bring any cloud or doubt.
In shifting situations, sometimes we will have an older brother complex and say, “That prodigal was off playing while I was minding the store. And now, how come he moves in so fast?” It is not ours to decide. If I allowed myself to think this way, I would soon become rebellious to the Lord. The Lord is leading and directing for people to be put in posts that they are accepting. It is not for us to say. One of the finest things that could happen would be to have the elders so mature when God was giving a young man an opportunity to be put in to a responsible post that they would hold him up and help him learn while he reached his maturity.
Our places are assured. We have been set in the Body as it has pleased Him. Who knows what you will be today or tomorrow or the next day. It is a shifting scene, this is true, but the stability of your membership in the Body and its unique function has already been determined by God. It was not determined by the brethren—by any elder or apostle. It was determined by the Lord who set you in the Body as it pleased Him. The way you respond to this, the way you accept responsibility and walk in it, and the way ministry comes may cause you to be shifted from one post to another from time to time. But the truth is this: God has made you an extension of Himself; you are a member of His Body, and this is all anyone could ask for.