This Word sets forth a vision, a revelation from the Scriptures, which will combine the relationship of worship and warfare with certain requirements God wants from each of us in Body ministry.
In Colossians 3:16–17 we find truths which are very necessary for our hearts in relationship to our walk with the Lord and our walk with one another. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. We start with this plane of worship. And whatever you do (note: whatever you do) in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Our worship must be mingled with everything we do and say. It is all to be done with the giving of thanks through the Lord Jesus to God the Father. Do you see how our first priority, worship, is combined with our work? Everything we do, the full expression of our life, is to come forth based upon a mutual, collective worship.
One of the Greek words for “worship,” latreuo, occurs only four times in the New Testament, including once in Philippians 3:3. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Why is the word for “worship” in this verse different from those more commonly found in the original Greek? Because latreuo means “to worship publicly,” with the boldness to proclaim. The circumcision that Christ wants is not just an isolated, individual experience of one who worships God, rejoices in Christ Jesus, and does not have any confidence in the flesh. You must see that this worship is to be an all-out public proclamation that is broadcast everywhere. Worship God in the Spirit publicly, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, but with no confidence in the flesh. This constitutes the true circumcision of God.
We let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly with all wisdom, and then we speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Are we singing to one another? Yes, in a sense. But we are actually singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. It is a collective Body ministry worship coming up to the Lord. We need to redefine the term “Body ministry.” We have emphasized the Body members’ ministry to one another; however, in true Body ministry, the Body ministers to the Lord. Out of that, they minister to one another.
An excellent example of this true Body ministry is found in Acts 13:1–4. While certain prophets and teachers at Antioch were ministering to the Lord with fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke, “Separate unto Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” So when those assembled had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, the Holy Spirit sent them forth. We call the last phase—the commissioning—“Body ministry,” but that was simply the obedience to what the Spirit commanded as the Body ministered unto the Lord.
Let us revise our thinking about Body ministry. It begins with ministering to the Lord. Because of our relationship with the Lord in worship, our standing in His presence, and His Word dwelling in us richly, ultimately then we speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Let us remember that all of it is making melody in our hearts to the Lord, and it comes up as a beautiful symphony. Sumphoneo is a Greek word meaning “to sound together.” A beautiful symphony of songs and praises coming up together is most effective, for Christ said in Matthew 18:19, … if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask (together, sumphoneo), it shall be done for them…
We see true Body ministry functioning when the Holy Spirit moves upon a many-membered Body, and they exclaim, in effect, “Tune up, dear musicians! We want to bring forth a symphony of prayer, a symphony of prophecy, a symphony of praise and adoration to the Lord. We want to sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord.” Then out of that, the Spirit moves to direct how we shall serve together. With each individual in his designated place of service, our worship will come forth as a beautiful work unto the Lord.
And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Colossians 3:17. It is most significant that immediately following this verse, Paul speaks about the relationships we have with one another. It is also significant that he talks about wives first. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be embittered against them. Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not exasperate your children, that they may not lose heart. Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Next Paul gives us the key: Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men; knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. Colossians 3:18–24.
What is Paul saying? “Wives, it is not your husbands that you serve. Husbands, it is not your wives that you serve. Children, it is not your parents that you serve. Fathers, those children are not your little slaves. Slaves, you are not serving earthly masters; you are serving the Lord. Whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord, for you serve the Lord Christ. He is the One whom you serve.”
Coming into divine order and bowing down to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your life is not to be separated from the many other things to be worked out in your life. You may still have some family problems and work problems. This we all know; so what is new? Instead of trying to work out those problems, you must recognize that the one thing God wants is for you to shift everything to His Lordship and submit to Him. After worshiping the Lord in a church service, you are not to go home and have a fight with your spouse, beat your children, or rebel and yell at your parents.
When you find all your relationships bogging down, it is because you have not yet brought yourself unto this important realization: It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. Colossians 3:24b.
It is possible for you to meet a total stranger, relate to him under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and be ready to give him “a reason of the hope that is within you” (I Peter 3:15). You relate to him under the Lordship of Jesus Christ over you! Do the same where your husband, your wife, or your children are concerned. Relate to them as unto “the Lord Christ whom you serve.”
In this present move of the Spirit, family relationships will deteriorate if they are not brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men. This is the way worshipers live. They do not stand and worship the Lord in church, and then fight with each other at home. They take their worship into the home too. Jesus Christ is the Lord over their home.
One of the greatest breakthroughs that can come to a family is the establishment of divine order in the home. But how sad it is when this becomes a contest, with the husband insisting, “I am the boss! I am going to be the head!” While his wife goes through all the problems that accompany this transition, he lines up the children and demands loudly, “Now listen, you are going to obey the head of this home!” We must not revert to some kind of legalism that is foreign to the Kingdom. If we open our hearts to a revelation from the Lord, it will be a lot different. A father will not have to contend to be the head of the home if he is truly a submissive worshiper of the Lord. The solution is in our submission to the Lord, and that includes husbands, wives, children—everyone.
Let the Word of the Lord dwell in you richly, and be given to His worship, given to His praise. Then whatever you do in word or deed, you will do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. If you remove your relationships from that basis, then you tend to retaliate against each other act for act, thought for thought, emotion for emotion. When someone gets angry at you, you become angry in return. Responses which remain on a human level apart from the Lordship of Jesus Christ become a problem. Perhaps you are thinking, “But you do not know how my children behave!” However, God knows how they behave, and you are under Him. You are under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:18–20 is another passage which shows that we start with worship.… be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. All relationships should begin with worship unto the Lord. If you think, “I will get my family relationships straightened out, and then I will worship the Lord,” you will never get it done. It is only as you stand as a worshiper—and that worship involves a total submission to the Lord—that you will be able to handle your other relationships. They will continue to be troublesome until you approach them from the right level.
There are many books available now which teach divine order for the home, and some are putting families under more legalism than the Mosaic Law ever did. Just quoting a few Scriptures does not constitute a book on divine order if those Scriptures are taken out of context and with no revelation. Because of a distorted presentation of divine order, a woman may feel that she almost has to break her back trying to be submissive to a devil-possessed husband who is constantly harassing her with his ungodly requirements of her.
Divine order for the home or for any other situation must start with the one divine order in which Jesus is the Lord. This is not accomplished by setting forth circumscribed roles: “This is what the man has to do. This is what the woman has to do. This is what the children have to do. This is the relationship that must exist between the pastor and the people, between the elders and the people.” If we start laying down guidelines in legalism, we will run into many more difficulties than we thought possible, because we will not be building the Kingdom of God. Rather, we will be trying to create a synthetic model that looks like it.
The Kingdom of God begins with a man saying, “Lord, I will follow You.” What about saying good-bye to the family? The New Testament tells of a number of men who left their families and their whole former life-style to follow Christ (Mark 1:16–20). Mark 10:17–22 tells of a young man who went away sorrowfully because the Lord gave him the Word, “Sell everything you have and give to the poor. Then come and follow Me.” Discipleship involved a total commitment for which the world at that time had never been prepared. They had never even heard of discipleship. No place in the Old Testament was a discipleship demanded of men like the discipleship that Christ set before His believers: “This is what it will mean for Me to be your Lord. Your dedication will have to be total and absolute.”
What about our relationships with others? These must come out of our service to the Lord and our love for Him. Other relationships can no longer be a rival to the Lord. No other loyalties can come near Him. He must be our one and only Lord. And when we stand as worshipers, we are worshiping one God, one Lord; no other lords—nothing else—will have dominion over us (Isaiah 26:13). Does this mean that family relationships must be put down? Yes, to the extent that they must be subordinated to your relationship with the Lord. I am not saying that you could not love your family even more than you do now, for it is not the amount of love for them that matters, but the priority of your love for God and for His service. The emphasis is not upon how much you love others, but how much you love God and how you stand to worship Him.
Can we fulfill anything less than the commands of the Old Testament to love Him with all of our heart and soul, with all of our mind and strength? (Deuteronomy 6:5.) We are not true worshipers who worship in Spirit and in truth until we express total worship and commitment to the Lord.
Out of that, all our relationships will have greater meaning.
When a church is filled with dissension, the pastor may try preaching to them divine order: “Now, this is the way you are to get along with one another.” That can produce a strained, artificial obedience created by human diligence. But if he brings every member to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ, to stand and worship Him, then all will flow together and there will be no more dissension and no more problems. Our relationship to Christ is the key to our relationships with one another. First our worship to Him, and then the perfection of our relationships. First our worship, and then our work. Everything we do must come out of our pure worship.
When relationships become strained and you feel cut off from a brother, it is your own fault. Nine times out of ten, you actually are not cut off from your brother. Primarily, you are cut off from the Lord. I John 1:7 exhorts us, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all unrighteousness.” You must understand that your walk with the Lord and your relationship to Him determines your relationship to one another. On that basis you have fellowship with one another. If you cannot get along with a certain brother, then search your own heart, for there is something wrong between you and God or between him and God. Not only is your worship to the Lord the key to victorious warfare over Satan, but it also looses from conflict your relationships with one another in a very positive way.
Have you been trying to solve your problems in the wrong way? They can never be solved until you solve your walk with God, your worship to Him, and your relationship with Him. If you are one who gives counseling to the saints, keep this in mind: You are not there to try to solve problems or “glue” people together. They cannot be glued together. But when they are bonded to Christ, they become bonded to one another in that same oneness with Christ. In the will of God it is not possible for you to deal with all of someone’s problems, one by one. His relationship with the Lord is the big issue, and everything else has its answer in that. Do not try to deal only with the effects; deal with the cause.
Let us read Ephesians 5:18–21 again, that we might better understand the instruction given in verses 22 through 28.… be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord (this is your worship); always giving thanks for all things (this is your thanksgiving) in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. You can never be subject to one another in the fear of Christ without doing the first thing: giving thanks to God.
Ephesians 5:22–28: Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. Now we understand what as to the Lord means. As a worshiper, a wife can relate to her husband. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her (you cannot truly love each other as husband and wife unless you are worshiping the Lord on this basis); that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.
Our relationships will change entirely as we turn away from the idea of getting along with people, and instead have faith for them before the presence of the Lord.
In his epistle to the Colossians, Paul expressed a deep concern he had for them. The Colossian church had a problem. To explain it briefly, they were becoming a very dangerous type of legalists. They were going back to decrees that referred to the old commandments, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch” (Colossians 2:20–21). We shall read a portion of the second chapter in which he says in effect, “You are legalists in the way that you are trying to keep the commandments of the Lord.” As a Christian, you sincerely want to keep the commands of the Lord, do you not? But if it becomes only an obedience to a series of doctrines and commandments, instead of a personal relationship as a worshiper and a bond servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you inevitably will become only a religious legalist. You can be as orthodox as is humanly possible, and do everything just exactly the way the Lord wants it, and then defend yourself, saying, “I am not a legalist; I am not hung up on all of these doctrines.” But any time you serve God on a basis of doctrines and commandments instead of on a personal worship basis, you are a legalist. That is the whole message of Colossians.
Oh, how the apostle Paul tried to straighten out the Colossians in their legalism! Let us read Colossians 2:6–10 to get his spirit in this. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. Verse 6. Again Paul clarifies the point: It is not a conformity to certain commandments or teachings that is expected of you. The heart is taken out of all these things if they do not produce a walk with the Lord, an identification with Him. The book of Colossians talks often about being crucified with Christ, baptized in Him, risen with Him (Colossians 2:12; 3:1–3, 9–10). Every experience in God is to be such an identification with the Lord that you cannot tell where you end and where He begins. You stand as a true devoted worshiper, with everything in you reaching out to Him.
The commandments and directions are secondary. You do those because you love Him. Do not say, “I keep His commandments, and therefore I love Him,” because it may not be true. But if you truly love Him, you will keep His commandments. Take care that you do not keep His commandments as a spiritually dead legalist, alienated from the life, the communion, and the fellowship that the Lord wants you to have with Him as His worshiper.
You are to walk in Christ, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. (Notice the emphasis on thanksgiving and worship.) See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him (it is always in Him) you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority. Colossians 2:7–10.
Your relationship to the Lord, your submission to Him and to His rule and authority, positions you under His protection and gives you immunity. I am convinced that this end-time move of the Spirit must correct and perfect its focus. We are being assaulted by Satan and battling him more than is scriptural. It is right for us to take dominion over the devil and see him brought down. It is right that he be bruised under our feet shortly (Romans 16:20), for he has too much access to us. It is true that this is the time of Satan’s raging, and he is battling every one of us. But don’t you think that he has more access to us than he should have? Let us get out of the open area where he can fire at us, and move into the protective pavilion of worshipers. We need to come closer under God’s wing (Psalm 63:7). We need to love Him and worship Him more, to stand and give thanks to Him more than ever before.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress.… under his wings shalt thou trust… Psalm 91:1–4. This is the place of refuge and strength that we are to have. Let us determine to abide in it.
Paul continues in Colossians 2:11: And in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. There are two kinds of circumcision which are made by man. The first is a literal obedience to the ritual of circumcision; as the Jews practiced it, in which the male foreskin is clipped. There is also another type of circumcision in which we think that we are being circumcised spiritually, but it is made by our own hands. By our own efforts, we seek to reach a certain level that we would call “circumcision.” The true spiritual circumcision is made without human hands—others or yours. It is a circumcision that God works in you.
Having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Colossians 2:12–14.
As worshipers of the Lord, we must be concerned about worshiping Him and pleasing Him, not about keeping the old decrees of the Law, because even they were nailed to the cross; Christ fulfilled them all. We are not concerned about conformity to someone’s code or to the traditions of men. We will not permit a straitjacket of restraint to be laid upon us. We are concerned for something far greater, and that is to truly inherit the righteousness of Christ and let it clothe our lives. We are not concerned about the suppression of the flesh, only about its crucifixion with Christ. We are not concerned with working out an end to our circumstances, but we are concerned about dying with Him, being resurrected with Him, and coming into all the newness of life (Romans 6:4). We are concerned about our relationship to Him as worshipers, that we worship Him in Spirit and in truth, and become one with Him.
When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him (literally, through it, through the cross). Colossians 2:15. Let us review the first truths set forth in this Word and tie them together with this verse. Our relationship to one another, our relationship to the Lord, even how we relate to our own self, are all based upon the way we stand with an open heart to worship the Lord. Our worship is more important than any of us now know. It is in the inferior worship that we have maximum exposure to the satanic warfare. Inferior worship opens the door to the satanic thrust. We are vulnerable to the extent that we have not appropriated our place in Christ as true worshipers. When we are not identified with Him, we become the distinct targets of Satan.
Many of our problems will disappear as we move into this new level of worship. Most of those problems for which we thought we needed ministry will disappear as we come close to the Lord and worship Him. Much of the ministry that we thought we needed—governing our relationships, our lives, our circumstances, and our problems—will not be necessary once we stand in His presence.
Let us read Psalm 91 in the light of this. It will give us a new appreciation of our place of immunity. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.. and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!” For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper, and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.
You will not be afraid of the terror by night (believe that promise), or of the arrow that flies by day; of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not approach you. You will only look on with your eyes, and see the recompense of the wicked. For you have made the Lord, my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent. For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and cobra, the young lion and the serpent you will trample down. First comes your worship, then the warfare.
Now the Lord speaks to us as His worshipers. “Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name. He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him, and honor him. With a long life I will satisfy him, and let him behold My salvation.” Psalm 91:1–16.
It all depends upon you. Will you dwell in the secret place of the Most High? Will you stand before Him as His worshiper? If you draw nigh to the Lord, He will draw nigh to you (James 4:8). This is a walk with God. And because you have a walk with God, think of the wonderful walk you will have with one another!
This Word gives you one simple answer to a thousand questions and problems. As you enter into this plane of worship, your needs will be met. Have you been looking for answers on the wrong plane? As you come up to the Lord, you will find the answers. An eagle does not have to worry about crossing a river or getting over the next hill. The eagle soars up to an altitude where none of those things are valid. We want to mount up with wings as eagles. We shall do as Isaiah 40:31 prophesies: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
What is to be our emphasis when we wait upon the Lord? We should not wait upon Him to receive an answer, but rather to give Him worship and adoration. We wait before the Lord to relate to Him. We do not wait before the Lord as we would sit in front of a teletype, waiting for an answer to come through. “Oh, here is the answer. I have a new Word from the Lord now.” We can magnify that so-called Word from the Lord and meeting with God to mean simply a shot in the arm that revives us somewhat to continue on.
Do we wait for an answer or a Word, or do we wait upon the Lord? Are we delighted with Him, or do we seek what He can give us? Do we seek a relationship with Him, or do we seek what He can do for us in a situation? All of this should give new meaning to our heart’s cry to walk with God, because this is what our walk with Him is all about. It is not a set of doctrines, a series of wise counsels or words of wisdom, that we might find a few answers. It is a relationship with the Lord. We are worshipers before His throne.