In the Word many pronouns appear, not in the singular, but in the plural. Hidden away in the Bible is a greater emphasis on the collective experiences that we will take part in together than on the individual experiences. We must be alert to the fact that there is a gospel of personal salvation and a gospel of family salvation. The Old Testament constantly deals with the tribes of Israel and with the families of men such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, more than with the individual. The Exodus was not the deliverance of just a few individuals; it included the wives, the little ones, and the animals. In fact, not one hoof was to be left behind (Exodus 10:26); God delivered them all.
In Acts 16:31, we read about God’s promise to the Philippian jailer: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy household.” Deliverance came for an individual, but it came also for his family. Today, a deliverance is coming for whole bodies of people.
We are concerned about the collective experiences. The book of Acts opens up with the account of the disciples all being together with one accord in one place. The sound of a rushing, mighty wind filled the house where they were sitting, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. It was a collective experience. A similar occurrence is recorded in the tenth chapter of Acts. Peter was preaching at the house of Cornelius and the Holy Spirit fell on all who were there, and they all began to speak with other tongues. Acts 19 tells about the apostles laying hands on the brethren at Ephesus. All of them received the Holy Spirit and began speaking with tongues and prophesying. Collective experiences such as this occurred very frequently. After the disciples had been threatened and released by the Jewish council, they lifted up their voices and began to pray in one accord. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and the place where they were assembled was shaken under the power of God (Acts 4:21–30). That was a collective experience. As we stand together, we too must receive experiences simultaneously.
If the Lord restrains some of those who would be eager to run ahead, it is so that we can move in together, as one body of believers. This is a principle that God uses continually. A woman often is able to move in discernment, revelation, and prophecy before her husband does. Then the Lord must place a restraint on her and hold her back; meanwhile, He blesses her husband to move out in God.
This is a principle of Body ministry. God wants to bring us into experiences together. He does not want some to rush on ahead and some to linger behind. Joshua and Caleb walked an entire forty years with rebellious Israel. Even though they were filled with faith, God did not bring them into their inheritance until everyone was ready to move into it. Likewise, today God has actually committed many things to the spiritual leaders, but they will never come into them until the Body is ready to walk into them too. Although God has many things for us, such as spiritual immunity, probably no one person will receive them until God enables the great Body of Christ ministry to share them together.
Many sons are coming to glory. They will come in successive waves, but it still will be through collective experiences. Those who are eager to get into all the Lord has as fast as they can could become a little discouraged when they realize that the Lord is holding them back for the sake of a brother who is not as eager. But if they realize what God is doing, at the next service they will exhort their brother even more to get with it, because he could be holding up the entire Kingdom. When Jacob returned from wrestling with the angel at the brook Jabbok, he met Esau; and he was fearful that Esau would take revenge upon him. However, God gave him favor and afterwards Esau said, “Let us run ahead and get back to the camp.” But Jacob was a true shepherd, and he wanted to travel slowly because of the little children and the young cattle and lambs. He wanted them all to arrive safely (Genesis 35:12–14).
Each New Testament church that God raises up has a collective life and experience, a certain anointing and personality, and a certain destiny in God. Each one has a specific purpose and function that it is to fulfill in the will of God. To that end, the individual is swallowed up in the Body, so that the members can all flow together.
In Romans 12, these individual and yet very collective experiences are clearly revealed. I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Verse 1. Paul was not speaking here to individuals, but to a collective group. They were to present themselves to the Lord collectively, all at the same time. Notice that he uses the plural—“bodies”—indicating that it was to be a collective experience. This passage was not intended to work for the individual as much as for the entire body of believers.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Verse 2. The gifts that God gives and the prophecies He speaks probably have a collective focus that we have not tuned in to. When personal ministry comes over an individual—regardless of how unique the will of God is for that person’s life—almost anyone who is present should be able to tune in and, to a great measure, appropriate almost every word that comes and see it fulfilled in his life too. When the fulfillment comes, it will appear not only in the person to whom it was given; others in the congregation will have the fulfillment too. In other words, we could begin to eliminate the idea of individual personal directives and begin to believe for collective personal directives.
Rarely will you find the will of God for yourself individually without a revelation of the will of God for the entire church. As you progress in your walk with God, look for Him to meet you more than ever, but expect to receive less personal attention and ministry than before. Today, God is bringing His people into a new level where the revelation and the prophecies reveal the will of God for an entire church, rather than for each individual member. You cannot know what the will of God is as an individual anymore unless you know it through the whole church. It becomes a collective revelation.
Each church is to function as a whole. God is still concerned about individual problems and directives, but it is a lack of Body dedication that causes most of the individual problems in the first place. Usually, those who have the most problems in the church are the ones who are the least dedicated to the Body. They seem to spend most of their time ministering to the people who are on the outside fringes and not in the midst of the spiritual action. Conversely, someone who is given over to the ministry and the unity of seeing God’s will done in the church does not seem to have as many personal problems.
In his prayer and attitude, the individual can hide himself in a place of immunity. Many become concerned because they do not receive as much individual personal ministry as they think they need. Several years ago, as the New Testament church principles and ways of ministering were being restored, much time was spent praying and ministering over individuals; everyone received his own set of prophecies. Now the basic flow of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is directed to the church as a whole; but because the individuals are included, they still move into their individual ministries. We must open our hearts and accept the fact that we will move ahead faster by being a part of the whole. By mutually presenting ourselves to the Lord, we are going to gain our greatest strength.
Do not be conformed to this world. This is to be the attitude of the church. We are not conformed to the world, but we are transformed when we come into the perfect will of the Lord. In effect, we approach a large altar, and there we present our bodies as a living sacrifice before the face of the Lord. This is our spiritual service of worship.
For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think (do not be wrapped up in yourself and preoccupied with your problems as an individual); but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Romans 12:3. Realize that you are a part of the faith operation that God has raised up. Do not be too absorbed in yourself and in your own problems. Be totally absorbed with the need and the ministry of the whole Body. If you are, God will take care of you.
Smith Wigglesworth, the well-known evangelist, walked in such a way of faith before the Lord that the needs of multitudes were met. He traveled all over the world and single-handedly was the source of supply for many missionaries. Thousands of dollars went through his hands, but he gave it all away. He was a fantastic man of faith. He simply prayed and believed the Lord to send him what he needed. He made a bargain with the Lord: “I am going to look after Your interests, and You look after mine.” And God took him seriously. That is the way it should be.
If you stop and worry about yourself, you always seem to have problems. There is an old adage about saving for a rainy day, but when a believer does that, it seems to guarantee that he will be rained on. Give and it will be given to you (Luke 6:38). When you fail to follow that principle, you stop the flow and strangle the hose of blessing that is pouring to you. God is telling you to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these other things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33).
What is the Kingdom? Does it seem illusive to you? Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Luke 12:32. The Kingdom is right in your midst. If you want to seek first the Kingdom, you will seek for your brother to be blessed; you will seek for the welfare of the house of God and be concerned about it. Then all these other things will be added to you. People who are distracted by their own needs always have plenty of needs to be distracted by. But to those who are givers, the Lord keeps pouring in to them—heaped up, shaken down, and running over. This is a principle of being absorbed with the welfare of the Body.
For just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, individually members one of another. Romans 12:4–5. This truth must fill your spirit and your mind as you pray for the Body. Pray for the peace of the spiritual Israel of God, and God will take care of you as an individual. God may seem to be a little shorthanded sometimes because He is looking for people who are genuinely interested in His Kingdom and in His people. Paul wrote in Philippians 2:19–21 that he was going to send Timothy to them because he had no other man who was like-minded, for all were seeking their own things, and not the things of Christ. There was not a concern for the welfare of the people.
It is difficult to find ministries who do not slip back into a self-seeking position, where they are concerned about their ministry, their place, and their calling. Be encouraged to seek only for the welfare of the Kingdom. Leave everything of a personal nature in His hands and let Him take care of it all. Body ministry will not work just because all the members come together and say that they are one; there must be a dedication to become one. Determine to be one with your brother. It is a determination and a consecration of your spirit. Do not be dedicated to it when everything pleases you; walk in it all the time. Even if your brother insults you or tries to exclude you, do not be moved from that dedication to be one with him. A dedication to oneness hurtles you over the sensitivities which you refuse to have. Refuse to be sensitive, realizing that it is a part of the individual self-life and that you are dedicated only to the Body.
When you are dedicated to the Body of Christ in that manner, you become aware that the individual immunities are really collective. God surrounds the Body—spiritual Zion—not individuals. The glory of the Lord is there to crown every habitation in Zion and all her assemblies. There is a wall of fire round about her (Zechariah 2:5). The protection is for us collectively, and we automatically position ourselves out of the collective blessing of the Lord when we follow the individual cult. You do not have to struggle or work for your own place. It is going to be yours. All you have to do is believe for the Body.
And since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. Romans 12:6–8.
Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12 are two outstanding chapters which talk about the Body of Jesus Christ and identify it as having many members, yet being one Body. Romans 12:9–21 contains a set of commandments which affect us as members of the Body. These directives show us how we, as individuals, are to respond to the Body. If we would be absolutely obedient to these directives, we would eliminate every individual problem we have.
Let love be without hypocrisy. First of all, you must eliminate whatever is phony. In the Body there must be perfect love without any hypocrisy or deceit.
Abhor what is evil; cleave to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor… That ends the rat race. When you come to the house of the Lord, move in God if it blesses your brother; but if your brother needs to move, be right there to encourage him. Give preference to him rather than to yourself. The purest word is found in the hearts of those who show preference to others.
These directives speak of the individual in his relationship to the Lord: … not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer (the following directives speak of the collective aspect), contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Romans 12:9–13. Many people just do not want to become involved, but practicing hospitality is very important. Open your heart. Open the door to your brother’s need, and contribute to the needs of the saints. Look after one another. None should lack anything that another can supply, either spiritually or physically.
This does not mean that we can be lazy, because there is also a word against that (II Thessalonians 3:10). Even a pastor who has too much time on his hands should go to work. There should be no parasites in the Body. No minister should be supported by the congregation unless he is devoting fifty or sixty hours a week to them. Those who labor in the Word are accounted worthy of double honor (I Timothy 5:17); but if you do not labor in the Word, you should not be supported. A young brother who pastors just a handful of people should go out and get a job, whether he seems to need it or not. At least he should be put to work doing other things for the Kingdom. Let him become as busy as he possibly can. He may excuse his indolence by insisting that he needs time to wait on the Lord, but that is relative. The more time a person seems to have, the less praying he seems to do. People who live in monasteries go through the rituals of meditation without ever receiving a real word from the Lord. They have too much time on their hands; and without the real labor that they need, they can develop patterns of living and fall into certain habits. These are difficult to break if they come into a walk with God and want to get a job and believe God for a ministry.
Work is not a part of the curse. Adam took care of the entire Garden of Eden and named all the animals; everything was under his control. At the same time, he walked and talked with God. Be diligent to give yourself completely to the work that God wants you to do. In II Thessalonians 3:11, Paul called it “walking disorderly” when a brother would not do any work, but expected to be supported by going from house to house. This was something that Paul did not condone.
In the Body of Christ, we should be the busiest people on the face of the earth because we have the biggest job to do, and our efforts are the most meaningful. Our energies, anointed and directed by the Holy Spirit, could loose the authority that brings us into the Kingdom. They could accomplish the publishing of the gospel of the Kingdom and sending it to the ends of the earth. Seek first the Kingdom—ahead of yourself, ahead of your place in it. Some may give all of their lives to this, without having any wonderful articles written about them in newspapers or magazines. Even the people they work for will probably never thank them. That should make no difference. Just rejoice in being a part. Thank the Captain that He let you play on the team. How dreadful to be on the outside of what God is doing in the earth and to have no part in it! Remember the words that Peter, the apostle, spoke to a self-seeker: “Thou hast neither part not lot in this matter” (Acts 8:21). What a terrible thing to have anyone say to you.
Continuing with the directives in Romans 12, Paul said, Bless those who persecute you; bless and curse not. Verse 14. You cannot be objective as long as you are walking as an individual; you can be objective only when you walk as a member of the corporate Body of Christ. A man who brings a word from God cannot take offense at what people say in the way of criticism against him. They only say those things because they have heard a word from God and have rejected it. Criticisms must be taken impersonally, but you will not be able to do so if you are walking on a personal level. When you are walking on a collective level, with a dedication to the Lord, then you can look at things impersonally.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Verses 15–16. This removes the snob instinct—showing preference or feeling that you are superior to someone else—when you realize that God has put us all on the same level. There are no big shots in the Kingdom; no one is exalted. There is a righteousness and a fairness and a justice that God brings. In the New Testament churches that God is raising up, there is no hierarchy; everyone is on the same level. There cannot be individual leaders who rise up and cause people to gravitate to them. Many will come forth speaking a word from the Lord. The New Testament churches will be known as being without personality leaders, and yet they will have true leaders: men who have been set in the Body for that distinct purpose.
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. Whenever you have a cause, no matter how righteous it is, step aside and let it become God’s cause. Do not take your own revenge. For it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Verses 17–21.
This twelfth chapter of Romans teaches us something very real. When we are in the Body, we do not have to fight our individual battles. When we are in the Body, we can move to become instruments of the grace of God and vessels through whom the love of God can flow out, even to our enemies, because we can take criticism impersonally. And when we are persecuted, we can rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for so persecuted they the prophets who were before us (Matthew 5:11–12).
God has made this the day of His Body! He has come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe—not in one or two of them, but in all of them. He is not coming just to be glorified in each of us; He is coming to be glorified in all of us, and to be admired in all who believe.