Do you realize that the Lord has been bringing Words on our communication, relationships, and oneness for many years? We have all been into those Words, but the problem has been that until now the more we tried to make it work, the less it seemed to work.
One of the clearest pictures we have ever had on this oneness came in a gleanings titled, “Oneness Is Our Potential.”
The revelation came that compatibility is not oneness. Think about that for a minute: Compatibility is not oneness.
Everything that God is doing is with the intention of fulfilling John 17 and Romans 8—in that order, because the oneness of John 17 is the key to the liberation of sons in Romans 8.
In John 17:21, Jesus prayed, “That they may all be one … that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.”
How does this oneness come about? Christ prayed that we would all be one. And that oneness has to be understood in the light of all the teaching that God has ever given about Himself. Father, Son and Holy Spirit—are there three? “The Lord our God is one God.”
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.” Deuteronomy 6:4.
Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord.’ ” Mark 12:29.
Or should we say, “God are one”? For we read at the very beginning of the Bible that God said, “Let Us make man in Our own image” (Genesis 1:26). God spoke of Himself in the plural; that is the correct translation of this verse.
When we speak about oneness, keep in mind that we are talking about something that is capable of a great deal of diversity and distinction—but very little conformity. And it is often wrought by very little compatibility.
When God wants a whole nation to be met, what does He do? He raises up someone who is against the whole nation.
Then the Lord stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
“Now, gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all which I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, lest I dismay you before them. Now behold, I have made you today as a fortified city, and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the whole land, to the kings of Judah, to its princes, to its priests and to the people of the land. And they will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 1:9–10, 17–19.
There really may not be that much compatibility in the marriages in the Kingdom. Compatibility is the ultimate thing that Babylon and this age looks for; and it is not always going to be there. Yet everyone in the world is working to be compatible. Oneness is not a matter of suppressing someone, or dominating someone, or ignoring areas of conflict and declaring peace over an issue. Oneness is not dependent upon that at all. Oneness is not compatibility. This should be a great encouragement to married couples: to know that you do not have to be compatible, but you can still have a beautiful and blessed oneness in the Lord.
Compatibility is the establishment of some agreeable soulish basis of relationships—give and take. But when we reach the Kingdom level there are some things on which we do not give and take. I have to be given to the Word. The Lord must be first in my life. I cannot let anything interfere with that.
A man should say, “My wife will not interfere with my dedication to the Lord and I will not interfere with hers. We were married because God had worked something in each one of us whereby our own relationship to the Lord and our own dedication to what He called each of us to be was established. Neither is to the other a satellite in any way, but a mutual strength.”
A Kingdom marriage has to see the chauvinistic idea eliminated: the wife has to know that she is going to be a handmaiden of the Lord; she is going to walk with God. And she will stand right by her husband’s side, and the husband will stand right by his wife’s side; and then there will be no great problem about incompatibility, because oneness will lift them above the whole arena of conflict and differences and bring them into the area of doing the will of God together. This is the goal we seek after. That is why God is not working to merely solve people’s problems or to make them more compatible. God is not interested in only helping people get along; He wants to bring them into His perfect will. He wants you to love Him, to serve Him. This was the basis of our saying that compatibility is really not oneness.
Counseling could interfere, at times, with what God is trying to do to bring forth the oneness. We could counsel to resolve, or to bring a peaceful solution to the situation; but the Lord said that He did not come to bring peace but a sword (Luke 12:51; Matthew 10:34). He came to bring definitive action, to make something happen; and out of that conflict can come forth a real oneness as the people involved seek the Lord, individually, rather than trying only to bridge the rift between them. Sometimes, by our counseling, we are only interfering with what God is doing—interfering with the work of the cross, with the deep dealings of God, and actually obstructing what God is doing.
“Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two, and two against three. They will be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against mother; mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” Luke 12:51–53.
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it.” Matthew 10:34–39.
Many ministers think that they are doing a “great work,” when they are only tearing people off the cross where God put them. In reality, they are interfering with what God is doing in people’s lives. They do not have the discernment or the perception to realize that when we come to the end of bonds, we also come to the end of compatibility. We come to the end of everything-everything—that we are trying to use to keep relationships going when they cannot truly go on that way. They are supposed to grow out of a oneness in the Lord.
We will see beautiful Kingdom marriages come forth out of this oneness. Watch how, if you are having any problems at all, you will come to the place where the answer is no longer a matter of counseling; it is a matter of oneness with the Lord—in both parties. Then you will watch how you are lifted into a realm that transcends the arena of conflict and disagreement.
Where a determined dedication leads two people to walk with one another in fulfilling the will of God, oneness begins to be the reality. They are walking together, serving God together, working with one another, and this does not take away from either one coming forth in the full destiny that God has over his or her life. The wife has a destiny in the Lord over her life to fulfill, and the husband is not to change that destiny or try to make it compatible with the ministry he has. Rather, there is an open door for her to fulfill the ministry to which God has commissioned her. And she is not to interfere with the commission that is over her husband’s life.
This will be true of the marriages which are a part of the Kingdom expression that is coming now. Marriage will not be the competitive thing; there will be oneness. There will be the freedom to fulfill the destiny and the ministry over your life. You will have nothing to hide behind—the raising of children or anything else—to excuse you from fulfilling that ministry and that destiny.
Actually, almost every one of the brothers who are in this flow are not really compatible with me or with one another, nor me with them. We ought to have a series of teaching that we would call “The End of Compatibility,” because we will not get very far until we see this; we will have arguments or divergent viewpoints, or disruptive things. You say, “Well, I can’t work with this person; I can’t work with that person.” Yes you can.
A casual relationship between a husband and wife can seem to be working quite well and flowing along; yet something is obviously wrong, because they are working at just keeping the peace in certain areas that may not have been refined yet. That can be a crippling thing. They should really find their own individuality and the leading of the Lord for themselves personally.
In effect, there will not be any oneness between two people until the Lord divides them from a wrong relationship, and each of them comes into a personal walk with God. Then they both will flow together in oneness.
The oneness with the Lord has to precede oneness with one another, or that oneness with one another will never be right (I John 1:7). This opens the door to the fact that in all marriages, every husband, every wife, everyone must first seek the Lord.
The enemies of oneness are very subtle and difficult to identify. Let us define some of these enemies of oneness:
1. Thinking that compatibility is oneness. Do you think, “Because we have worked it out so that we are more compatible, we are one”? Compatibility is not oneness. There may be more oneness between people who are completely incompatible, if they are one with the Lord. They can overcome their incompatibility because they are one with the Lord together.
2. Thinking that unity by means of suppression or domination is oneness. Just because your wife does not harass you does not mean that you have oneness. Just because a husband does not speak up, because he is suppressed, does not mean that there is oneness. Unity by means of suppression or domination is not oneness. Does this transform your whole thinking about oneness?
3. The illusion that oneness is destroyed by confrontation. Just because you have a good confrontation before breakfast may not mean that all your oneness is destroyed. In fact, that may be the only basis for the oneness enduring. When do you feel most one with the Lord? Is it when His Word confronts you?
This should modify or change your whole attitude about your relationships to one another. A good, honest, spiritual confrontation can be the greatest seal of unity there is. Actually, to confront may be the only basis of communication, in some cases. Suppose that, once in a while, you begin to feel antagonistic over things. What should you do? Pray. Seek the Lord. Confront one another on an honest basis, a spiritual basis, and watch the oneness begin to come.
If we do not have that kind of diversity expressed among the brothers, then we sense the incompatibility. God does that because He wants diversity; He wants unity through diversity (Romans 12:4–6). And if we do not have that diversity, then we have the problem of conformity—everyone doing the same things, acting alike, talking alike. A certain image or set of actions becomes the “in thing”; a few establish the norm: “This is okay; that is okay.” It becomes a very distorted picture of what oneness is—people feel that they have to conform to certain outward actions to be one. That is a total lie! That, right there, is Babylon. It is very important that we cultivate the oneness by each one of us walking in the calling or commissioning he has.
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, and individually members one of another. 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 his faith. Romans 12:4–6.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. I Corinthians 12:4–7, 11–12.
4. Here is the next point. The delusion that oneness is attained by conformity. Of course, oneness is not attained by independence and rebellion, either; everyone knows that. However, we could still have this thinking: “I am not going to be rebellious. I am just going to go along with whatever anyone says.” That is not the right idea either. Conformity will not bring oneness. Who knows what could be still smoldering under the surface of that kind of conformity?
5. The delusion that oneness is a submersion of the individual’s commission and calling. Oneness does not take away from the aggressiveness of a commission. I can be one with you, and still be aggressive in the intercession, in the work, or in anything that God has called me to do. We do not have to conform until we are all nonentities. Instead, we become the individuals that God wants us to be. Oneness does not mean a submersion of the individual’s commission and calling.
God has given you a commission, a calling. Do you abandon that and say, “Now I put that aside; I do not follow that anymore because now I strive for oneness, and everything else is to be submerged”? No; that is not true. You are not going to please God until you become an individual who is one with the Lord, one with His commission and His calling over you. Then oneness with one another comes out of that. But you should never lose aggressiveness in your commission and calling before God.
You are going to be free to follow your individual respective calling and commission. We have all had a Word over us, and now we are going to pursue it. But while we are following it, aggressively seeking with great faith before God, we are going to be aware of the oneness that God is working. This was the first truth that God brought over thirty years ago when this walk began. The Word was there: “Prophesy over the people; tell them the gifts, tell them the ministries they are to have; teach them by the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. Bring them into it, because the Body is coming together—the Body that will not break ranks or thrust one another through.” That oneness was prophesied, but the individual ministry and commission was also prophesied.
6. Another enemy of oneness is this: The delusion that oneness has excluded diversification. This is a false idea which really needs to be expounded.
Oneness certainly does not exclude diversification. We saw this thing of conformity in the Church Age: everyone had to have the same experience that we had; everyone had to pass through the same processes. We all tried to conform.
This was true of ministers too. Anyone who wanted to be a minister wanted to be supported full-time by the church, and so he was not going to go out and work with his hands. That way of thinking has been exploded. A man can go out and start ten businesses if he wants to, and still be an apostle. Paul made tents (Acts 18:3). We must get over the thinking that to be one with the Lord and one with one another means that we will all finally fit into the same little mold: “This is what all the ministries are going to be like.” That cannot be. The most dangerous thing that could happen would be for us to be “the” apostolic company where all the ministries have to look alike and act alike. We cannot have that conformity!
You can feel the diversification in what God is bringing forth in each geographic area. We are not building Kingdom facilities that are trying to conform to or be like the Living Word Building or Shiloh or anyplace else. God is bringing forth something in each area based on a commission.
The different enterprises and what each of us do will all flow together, for God is giving people back the initiative to do their thing.
It is as if God took away from you the doing of your thing independently. Now He is giving it back—He wants you to do your thing; but He wants you to do it on the right basis in oneness. He Wants you to have that initiative again.
It is true that God has taken away from people the doing of their thing, but then He gives it back. However, it has to be on the right level. It cannot be an independent, rebellious effort of an individual. It has to be totally one with the heart of God, and with the heart of the brothers. Whether they understand it or not, in the Spirit the oneness has to be there. Then they do their thing—that individual thing which God has in mind.
This means that we will have to have a whole new understanding of what commission means.
We see in the New Testament that the apostles were very much one. They all went to different countries and did different things, and I am sure that they did it with faith in the commission that projected them into it (Acts 13:1–3). But in the reading of the Word that these men were inspired to write. there is no question about their individuality—their writings differ too much. But it was not an independence in the wrong sense; it was not contradictory effort.
What is the conclusion to this? Oneness is the antithesis to conformity. It is the release and fulfillment of distinctive commissions without any contradiction or conflict.
Comprehend that and you will understand what this oneness is all about. The whole Kingdom is oneness.
The thing that brought you problems in the Church Age was that you would not conform. But this oneness that is coming is a contradiction to conformity. It stands against it; it violates it.
We are not going to conform! This does not mean that you are rebellious. It is one thing to be rebellious; it is another thing to say, “I simply will not conform. I will be one with God, but I am not going to conform to a man’s mold, or to what is conventionally expected. There is no ‘Shibboleth’ that I have to be able to pronounce, then, that releases the fulfillment of the distinctive commissions” (Judges 12:4–6). And there is no contradiction or conflict in it; you are just released into that fulfillment of what is the distinctive commission over each one of you. Whatever your commission is, that is what you will fulfill.
In the past, pastors have sometimes said, “We will hang on to this person; he will stay right here.” Why? “Because he makes good money and he pays tithes.” We have seen churches that were locked into a certain rigidity for a reason that was entirely financial. And yet, there were ministries who could have gone out from those churches and started other churches and ministered in other areas. But they could not do that. Why? “Because the local church needs the money.”
I have seen church after church almost decimated because I would send people out from them to minister. Should I have counted the cost? The tithes went down, but then God would bring others in. A church should be able to reproduce itself. It should never be that ministries come up to a certain level and then they are told, “You can’t go any further.”
This oneness is a contradiction to the conformity, to the restrictions, to the things that hold you down.
I expect the personnel of the churches to change more radically now than ever. As soon as people get their feet on the ground and they know what they are doing, then they should be commissioned and doing the work of the Lord, sending the Gospel of the Kingdom to the ends of the earth. Get with it! Don’t run off before you’re prepared, with “no tidings ready” (II Samuel 18:19–33). But nevertheless, you must not be held down and restricted, or brought into a certain conformity so that you are a manageable group who will do just what you are told. That will not be.
We are all beginning to understand our liberty, our function in Christ, and what this oneness is all about.
Oneness is more than togetherness. It is more than compatibility or conformity.
Some ministers think they are giving great counsel when they are only tearing people off the cross where God wants them.
Don’t think that compatibility is oneness. Oneness is based on spirit; compatibility can exist on the level of flesh.
Love your enemy; confront your brother in oneness.
Oneness is not attained by independence or rebellion; neither is it attained by suppression or conformity.
Oneness allows everyone to fulfill his own calling and commission.
You will never realize all that you can be until first you are one with the Lord and one with your brother.
Oneness makes possible the fulfillment of our distinctive commissions without conflict or competitiveness.