This is a message to the leaders of all the churches. Repeatedly in the Scriptures the Lord brings forth this truth: “The first shall be last and the last shall be first” (Matthew 19:30; 20:16).
This is a difficult Scripture to understand because He is speaking about our progress and our relationships in the Kingdom of God. We realize that we have interpreted this Scripture on the basis that the leader will be the humblest; he will be the bond servant. In a sense, he will become one who serves everyone else; and the little one who has the need in the Body will have a priority. But we have never seen this principle evidenced so clearly as the way it is coming forth now.
The maturing of each ministry is furthered when that ministry must become a servant to those over whom he had authority before. We find this in the Epistle to Philemon.
Philemon apparently was a wealthy man with slaves and a big household, and the church met in his house. Yet Onesimus, his runaway slave who could have been put to death under Roman law, was sent back to become the bishop and overseer of that church (Philemon 1–17). What a reversal that Philemon became the servant of Onesimus, who was once his servant!
At the present time there is a great shattering and explosive disintegration of our former thinking that could be summed up in these words:
The leader begins first as a servant, and then leads others into the same bond-servant role that he has attained. About the time he becomes a good leader, the Lord orders that he become a servant again, but on a higher plane. Over and over again we face this. The Lordship of Jesus Christ demands that frequently, inevitably, we reach the point of decision where we become on another level a bond servant over again.
To become a leader in the Kingdom of God is a function attained only by the little ones, the bond servants. This has been the difficulty we have seen among apostles and pastors when Timothy ministries come forth. The Timothy ministry has come to serve the pastors, to serve Shiloh. Timothys clearly see their role as bond servants, and they are sent to help pastors. However, the pastors may feel threatened, as if they are being pushed aside, because the Timothy comes in and actually becomes a leader to prepare other bond servants to serve the Body of Christ. But don’t think that it stops there. About the time the pastor has become a bond servant, the Timothy who is leading him into that humble role will again become a bond servant on a new level.
There is no end to this cycle; it repeats itself with great frequency. This is greatly manifested in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He emptied Himself and became a servant to us (Philippians 2:7). He washed the disciples’ feet (John 13:5). He did everything He could to humble himself before the face of the Father and serve. And in His serving, “God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess that He is Lord” (Philippians 2:9–11). But I Corinthians 15:24–28 tells us that when everything is under His feet, He in turn will submit it all to the Father. There is no end to this cycle. Everything must wind up with all of us becoming servants of the Heavenly Father.
Even our role over each other is like a game of leapfrog. As you bow, the one behind you leaps into a place of ministry, only for you to leap over him into a place of ministry over him. This spiritual leapfrog game is very difficult for people to face. When they face it, they feel put down. Those who were once sent to Shiloh to lead it now come back to fit in under the ones whom they trained. They must become servants under the leaders who came up under their hand. This is a very difficult thing to face.
I have faced the same situation, inasmuch as I am taking the counsel and the leadership of the brethren who came up under my hand. But at the same time I find that I am reaching into a new level where I, too, am moving in to help these same brothers become servants of the Lord in a greater capacity than they have known.
How can we describe or define this? How can we explain it? Today you are a leader, tomorrow you will be a servant, but the next day you will be a leader again. “God has given more abundant honor to that part of the Body which lacked, that there should be no schism in the Body, but that we should all have the same care, one for another” (I Corinthians 12:24–25).
When God shakes you up, and you find yourself at the bottom of the pile again, this is the way of maturing; this is the way of growth. You can grow only so far, in the world’s thinking, and then you must play “king of the mountain.” The worldly viewpoint is, “You are up on the top? Shove everyone else down. You are ‘king of the mountain.’ ” I remember playing that on haystacks when I was a boy on the farm. One would get on top and push the other children down. Finally someone would topple him.
When you find yourself at the bottom of the pile because of the shaking of the Lord, you will find that you are not humiliated; you are not degraded. The only thing that has died is a little more of the self which you were anxious to see crucified anyway. “He must increase, but we must decrease” (John 3:30). This goes on and on, the endless cycle of the Lord bringing us up to a level where we can resubmit ourselves in a new phase of humility and submission that we have never known before.
To add one more thought to this: How many times have we been taught that there are no “big shots” in the Kingdom of God? How often have I said that the assumption of leadership does not keep pace with the growth of humility? If we could only learn to humble ourselves constantly before the Lord, He could bring forth the leadership within us without this process of humbling us; but we do not learn. There is an arrogance in the human spirit, even at its best, which requires that we go back and learn all over again that there are no “big shots” in the Kingdom of God—there are only bond servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. This will have to be learned by the pastors; it will have to be learned by the apostles and the prophets. They must learn to submit one to another (Ephesians 5:21), to have the ministries of confirmation with them when they minister, and to “not think of themselves more highly than they ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has imparted to each man a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3).
Paul spoke of himself and Cephas and Apollos, saying, “This is how you should regard us: we are but stewards of the mysteries of God. And it is required of the Lord that we be found faithful” (I Corinthians 4:1–2). When our deep-rooted self-nature takes over, we forget that we are servants of the Lord, and we begin to sit on the throne without listening to that next directive He would give concerning every one of His sheep, every one of His little children.
It is important that this Word be heard, for people who once were leaders in Shiloh or particular local churches will be returning to serve. And they will humbly submit to those whom they trained themselves, to those who were servants under them. This will be a constant recurrence.
At one time when I came to Shiloh, I walked in the door and God spoke to me, “Submit to what the leaders are doing.” I did not come back to change things or to preside over Shiloh. I came to be a bond servant to the leaders whom God was raising up there. The spirit that was being worked among the people had become progressively better and more humble; and the worship had become deeper. This was no reflection on the ones who led before and left and will come back. If there is a reflection on them it is only to their credit. They did their job well, and others have built upon the foundation that they laid. So, “Who is he that plants? Who is he that waters? Who is he that harvests? It is God that gives the increase” (I Corinthians 3:5–7). None of us are anything but servants who fill the role that God has ordained for us to fill at that moment. We must remember, “He must increase, but we must decrease” (John 3:30). This is the process that the Holy Spirit works in each one of us. We become less and less, so that He is more and more.