It is good to have a vision of what is to come in the will of God. With that vision we have wasted no time in preparing ourselves in that which will be essential and important in the days ahead. Firstly, we are working for the Body to learn how to survive and care for itself in perfect love. The family of God is learning its responsibilities for one another. No matter what comes, the family of God must stick together. Secondly, and extremely important, is the need for us to become a prophetic community, wholly led by the Spirit of the Lord. The spirit of revelation and the knowledge of God’s will must rest very heavily upon each individual. This is more important than we realize. The days are coming in which all our children shall be taught of the Lord (Isaiah 54:13). The days are coming in which we will know exactly how to move, where to go, and what to do. Our emphasis on survival is not the same as that we read about in the books written by worldly men who sense the disasters that are coming. Disasters will take place, but we are not focusing on that. We want to move rapidly to become a people preserved by the power of God. We want to enter into the realm of divine preservation.
It never was God’s intention that His people should be partakers of the judgments upon the earth. That is the reason we meet for the Lord’s Supper, that we should judge ourselves in order that we will not be judged with the world (I Corinthians 11:27–31). If we do not judge ourselves, God will judge us and put us through a great deal of discipline. But if we walk carefully before the Lord, we can honestly say, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:1. There is no condemnation; there is no judgment. Our judgments ended at the cross of Jesus Christ, for He bore those judgments for us. To walk before the Lord blameless in that grace is to find that the Lord will provide for us an immunity from the judgments that are upon the earth.
God’s provision of immunity is illustrated in many examples in the Word. The three Hebrew children were preserved in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:26). Daniel was preserved in the lion’s den (Daniel 6:22). The Israelites came out of Egypt and were not a partaker of her plagues (Exodus 7—12). God says to those in Babylon, “Come out of her, My people; be not a partaker of her plagues or of her judgments” (Revelation 18:4). God intends that we should escape, and we should pray that we be able to escape.
Another goal we should emphasize and work for immediately is the facilities to care for and train several hundred disciplined, dedicated men and women in the school of prophets. God says, “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (Joel 2:28). He makes no distinction between men and women. Not only is it possible, but it is necessary that women also enter into real dedication. This will include not only those who are unmarried but also many who are married and have children.
Groups of prophets must be prepared so that they can be sent into any church and immediately the Spirit will prevail. If we concentrate on the spiritual quality of the ministry that is to come forth, we do not need to worry about anything else. It will all fall into place if we attain to this excellence of ministry; God will take care of the finances, the people, and everything else. We must be wholly led by the Spirit of the Lord. To this end I am dedicated to be as strict and as firm as necessary, because we want the ministries to be as accurate and as dedicated as they can possibly be. Under the discipline probably many will fail. Some may wander for a while because they will make it on God’s terms or not at all. In my opinion, being a part of this prophetic community is the greatest privilege on the face of the earth.
Some of the young men are thinking in terms of preparing to be pastors; however, I am not so certain that the role of the pastor will be important after a season. I am more persuaded that the excellence of the elders who are coming up will enable them to take over much of the shepherding. Our concern should be the prophetic company, the prophetic community which we are to become. If we think of restoration in those terms, we will not rejoice in the restoration of a few ministries; we will look for a vast company of people to come forth as a prophetic community, going forth through the land to see what God will do in the earth.
A time of miracles, a time of judgments will be in the earth again—judgment against that which comes as an impasse against the people of God. Certain circumstances and situations are blocking the people of God. These impasses will not disappear by pastoral counseling or by a little prayer now and then. God has allowed Satan to create them, and this move of God’s Spirit in the earth never will prevail until from within the Body comes forth an instrument of God’s authority. It will be done by schools of prophets coming forth in the name of the Lord. They will bring down witchcraft and loose the people from oppression. They will be a body of people whom the wicked one cannot touch (I John 5:18). They will walk with immunity against satanic assault and against many things that harass the people of the Lord at this time. This must be our goal; this we shall contend for in the name of the Lord! We must pray for the prophets who will come forth. Many of them will have to give themselves wholly to their ministry. They will be given to a great deal of labor, doing anything that God directs is to be done. Good hard work will be a portion of it—back-breaking, thankless jobs. In a walk with God there will be hours of study, hours of preparation, hours of learning how to move, hours of seeking God until all ambition is gone and the work of the cross is completed. They will be a people who move unselfishly to do the will of God anywhere on the face of the earth, wherever God places them. I am not speaking of the millennium; I am speaking of what will bring it!
In every service those who have been spiritually disciplined and prepared can gather to pray and to seek the Lord and to be the spiritual wedge that opens up the service to become something phenomenal. I want God to make every service into a mighty moving of His Spirit, but this will not automatically happen. It will happen because we believe, because there are spiritual ministries who become a wedge to make it happen, in the name of the Lord.
We still need the Joshua and Zerubbabel ministries who would be called pastors, because we use that term for those who oversee the house of the Lord. If we were more scripturally exact, we would call them bishops, which is the word the New Testament uses for overseers. However, the word “bishop” has been abused by the way organizations have used it, and it has another connotation. There is a spiritual authority and oversight that God has given concerning the church, but once the guidelines are laid down by revelation, the administration of it should be completely in the hands of other people. The leaders literally create the ministry that is needed and find the divinely appointed individual to fill it; then they back away and let him take over. The difference between old order and new order is evident at this point. In old order, they may delegate a job; but they never let loose of it. In this walk in the Spirit, God raises people up; and they are given the freedom to use their own initiative in doing that which God has anointed them to do.
When any new ministry or project is brought forth, there is a great deal of consultation and prayer over it, as well as a submitting to apostolic authority for confirmation. In many instances it may be unnecessary; but I am glad for the carefulness that exists, for in the multitude of counselors there is safety (Proverbs 11:14). The Lord is raising up, not one or two men, but an apostolic company; and we confer together in a way that is wholly of the Lord. There are no dictators, but there is one Lord over us all. To be a prophetic community means that we must be in touch with the voice of the Lord and none must run ahead.
When the New Testament order is not followed and the pastor assumes the role of a director, his elders feel they have become figureheads, or they are at odds with him. Every pastor must realize that the church must be a ministering body of people. A church will not fulfill its purpose in God until the relationship between the pastor and the elders is worked out and they see it as a prophetic community and begin to help one another. When someone comes to a pastor for a word, the pastor must carefully, diligently, and submissively follow the patterns of divine order; otherwise, he may find he is building his own kingdom; and the whole concept of a New Testament church bogs down because the elders are not consulted. Soon the elders are just given certain tasks, but the pattern is not followed. If the elders are not aggressive, many times it is their fault divine order is not followed. The door is open for them, and we refuse to create that which is an autocracy or a dictatorship or a one-man show.
Authority may begin with just one person; and it may be that no one else on earth agrees with him; but when God gives that authority, it is eventually dispersed among all the ministers who are raised up. As they are able to take that mantle and that anointing, they move into it. Some may be aggressive to move into it when they are not ready, and they are quickly put down by the Lord or by someone else. The Lord took the anointing which was upon Moses and gave it to the seventy elders; and they prophesied and did not cease, for the same anointing was upon them as was on Moses (Numbers 11:25). The Lord Jesus Christ took His anointing and began to disperse it on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), and on it spread until there were hundreds and thousands of elders. In every city where God brought the Word, elders were raised up who walked in a great deal of the same authority that the apostles themselves walked in. The authority was dispersed.
In the school of prophets, we want some who are so versatile under the anointing from the Lord that they can do anything: lead worship; play the organ, the piano, or some other instrument; lay hands on the sick and heal them; do anything that is necessary. Prophets will move through the churches and set them in order. Nothing will be left in the house of the Lord that God has not touched.
Perhaps the number of services in each church should be reduced by at least one a week so that there is time for all the home meetings and all the work and activities God is laying before us. In the services we do have, I would like to see incorporated some real direction and discipline for the people who want to live on a high spiritual level and to break through into the ministry God has for them. It is important that we feed the sheep, that we train and prepare them; but we must also get them to move in God.