The people who walk with God today reach into great changes. How do we change? What is our goal? Are we to change until we all assume the mannerisms of our favorite leaders?
It is very easy to place people in certain classifications in your mind: Citizen A, B, C, D. Then you measure the change in a ministry by how quickly he can achieve a certain standard in speaking the Word, or how often he participates in the services with comments that are “right on.” If he excels in these areas, you tend to classify him as “Citizen A.” But if the anointing leads him to express himself in another way, and he does not measure up to that particular manner of expression, then he may be classified as “Class B” or “Class C.” Even though we rarely voice these ideas, we know that “change” to us often means that we will all be like a certain person in the way he expresses his ministry. That thinking must be discarded.
There are many people who believe in the Word that I speak and often quote it, but they do not imitate me. Somehow I have so ministered to each one that all can develop into the ministry that God wants them to be. They may speak the same Word and “see eye to eye as the Lord brings again Zion” (Isaiah 52:8); but no one imitates me.
In days past, famous evangelists and religious leaders frequently had a following of people who would try to imitate them. Often, the mark of a movement was the number of people who came forth as imitators of the leader. It was sad to see how they tended to copy little characteristics of the leader, but lost the heart of what God was trying to say through him.
This is not true of the New Testament churches that God is raising up today. The people are not imitating me in order to have a certain style of ministry; instead, they are trying to walk in the Living Word that I speak. No one has to imitate the leaders, nor does he have to conform to a certain style of ministry in order to be accepted. The basic changes that we want are not geared to produce a certain type of ministry, because there will be many different types of ministry.
A man who stands as a worshiper of the Lord, reaching into a flow from God that enables him to go out and create an invention, is just as important in the sight of God as someone who preaches a sermon. You must realize that the creativity of God will be expressed through you in the unique way that Christ wants to manifest His attributes and abilities. It does not matter whether or not that expression is seen by others.
People should not be criticized just because they do not conform to certain accepted ways of intercession, or certain accepted ways of singing or worship. There cannot be any stereotyped form in any of this, or we will slip into a denominational, sectarian rut.
Then in what way are we trying to change? We want Christ to come forth in us according to His own will. Basic to this is what we see happening now—the elimination of impasses and characteristics within our nature that would prevent Christ from coming forth. The real changes we want are those that will remove the negative things from our life. We need to be free from the demonic oppressions and circumstances that would prevent us from doing the will of God, or perhaps even cause us to lose out completely in our walk with Him. It is very important that we grasp this.
In the Kingdom schools, for example, the goal is not to make the students all look alike and act alike. Instead, we are trying to eliminate those basic attitudes and traits within them that will keep them from learning and changing, that may even prove hostile to them later on. If there are seeds of defeat in their nature, they must be hoed out. We must uproot the very basic things that need to be changed in order to prevent future defeat.
Our goal is not to establish a pattern of conformity to any existing ministry—except, of course, that of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The goal is to see a great many things eliminated from our nature. That is why the old nature has to die. It must die so that these negative things can end. To the extent that the old nature dies through the work of the cross, to that extent those negative things cease to exist. We all know that if a dead man were kicked in the face, he would not react at all. We may say, like Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20); but if someone happens to “stick a pin in us,” we scream, “Ouch!” We are still reacting; the old nature is not dead yet.
The Body of Christ is not one member, but many. More and more we want to see the versatility of expression in every local church. Each individual will be set on the course that is the vision of his heart, without feeling that he must conform to any specific behavior pattern, except to live a seemly, comely life that glorifies Christ.
We will also be dedicated to see that the negative things are eliminated. We do not even want to encourage peculiarities among ourselves that would give anyone a distinctive personality. We are not looking for that. We want to eliminate the things that are offensive to God and that hold us back. In doing this, we will eliminate also the things that are offensive to one another. Successful communal living does not depend solely upon each member making an effort to get along with the other members. Rather, its success depends upon each member going before God, seeking to eliminate those things that are an offense to the Lord and could be a stumbling block to his own heart later, perhaps even an occasion of his ultimately failing the Lord.
The further you progress in your walk with the Lord, the more you find that things which seemed insignificant yesterday matter very much today. The sins in your life, that you once regarded with a tolerant attitude, you now desire to reject completely. Repentance is ever with us because there is a progressive awareness of our need. We become more perceptive as we go along, and we understand more fully the extent of our need. Finally, we experience what Paul felt. He was one of the great apostles, laboring with all effectiveness, with more abundant labors than all the rest put together, and yet he called himself “the chiefest of sinners” (I Timothy 1:15). He could give an accurate evaluation of his old nature and say, “It has to go!”
This is what our walk with God is all about. This is what change means. If we are going to change, it will be from glory to glory, and into His very image (II Corinthians 3:18); and this means eliminating the things that would defeat us. We throw them off! As we come to know the objectives that God has for us, we cease to drift aimlessly. We say, “Yes, Lord. Be it done unto me according to Thy Word.”