There has to be a new emphasis upon the Word of the Lord. The emphasis cannot be upon a leader; it must be upon the Living Word that is spoken and upon the impartation that is coming to us in this new level. The churches are always healthier as a result of this focus, because there is not as much dependence upon a person or an administrator; instead, there is a greater mutual dependence upon the Lord.
I notice this response in the people: They are more concerned that I be loosed to speak the Word; and as they relate to me, they are free from the inevitable intimidation that comes from relating to someone who has a position. When they sense that I do not have a hierarchical position, then they are freer to reach out and draw, and to impart to me. Consequently, I feel their prayers and their faith more strongly now. This simply means that the relationship is being perfected in the Lord.
The Scriptures are alive to us on new levels. One of the truths we especially notice now is this: In times of persecution—times when there are those who rise up with vicious criticism and destructive intentions toward the ministry and toward the Word—it becomes very important that we not become vindictive and take one person’s cause against another person.
We must remember that we do not war against flesh and blood—that is not the evidence of our spiritual war (Ephesians 6:12). But we do know that the war is over the Word of the Lord; and therefore, where persons are involved, some people are dedicated to speak the Word and others are just as dedicated to stop the Word. So the war is over that Word.
How does this affect us now? Consider this example carefully, because it is more important than you realize: When the children of Israel murmured against Moses, the battle was not really his. The people did murmur against him, but the Word tells us that they murmured against the Lord and against Moses (Exodus 16:8). They began their exodus by following a Word, following a pillar of fire, following a directive from the Lord—but then they began to murmur. It is interesting that each time they murmured, Moses would fall on his face before the Lord.
So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.” Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel.
When Moses heard this, he fell on his face. Numbers 14:4–5; 16:4, NASB.
The Scriptures take note of Moses’ mistakes; but as long as he was meek and not vindictive, he could cry out to the Lord and speak the Word, and the judgments flowed freely.
(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.) Numbers 12:3.
Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward, He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so, with My servant Moses, he is faithful in all My household; with him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?” Verses 5–8, NASB.
Perhaps no judgments in the history of the world were more spectacular and final than the ground opening up and swallowing Korah in Numbers chapter 16, and then the next day plagues hitting those who were sympathetic with the Korah company that had been killed. About 15,000 people were killed in all (Numbers 16:25–50). Moses said, “This is the way it’s going to happen.” It was so simply stated, but it was not vindictive, because it was coming from the meekness and humility of his heart before God.
“But if the Lord brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the Lord.” Then it came about as he (Moses) finished speaking all these words, that the ground that was under them split open; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah, with their possessions. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. Numbers 16:30–33, NASB.
When we face persecution, do we react, “These people have turned against us, so we’re against them.” You will never come out at all victorious with that attitude. But if you have the vision and perception to realize that God gave a Word, and that Word lighted upon you and became a living part of your being, then you are going to speak the Word.
For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God. I Peter 1:23, NASB.
Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. I Peter 4:11, NASB.
You, like Nehemiah, will not come down from the wall to bicker about personalities or little issues that are not the issue (Nehemiah 6:3). The issue is the war over the Word; and when Christ Jesus comes with the armies of heaven, it is the sharp, two-edged sword going out of His mouth that slays the enemy.
And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” Revelation 19:15–16, NASB.
It is our magnifying the Lord and His Word that is important—not our taking sides on lesser issues. We are not to take issues, for there is only one war—Satan trying to war against the Word of God—and we know that the Word of God will prevail. The most important thing we see is that we let it prevail within us and we walk humbly with it.
There is a great change of attitude. There is a great release in our minds and our spirits from this business of having a position. We have come to use the word “pastor” with reluctance. It isn’t that we have not had a good thing; it’s that God has something better.
Anything of position will tend to lock us into the level where it seems that there is a contest between pastor and people or between people and people; position always leads to the conflict being misinterpreted.
Often a person with a position feels threatened or feels intimidated or feels that the people are being rebellious, not submissive, and so forth. All of those things may be true; and yet when you look into the heart of the matter, you may find that the problem really is not that at all. The problem is that the people are wanting to relate to the Word! And they want to know how the leaders also relate to the Word over them.
It is a difficult thing for leaders to really understand how that unconsciously, the people are rejecting position, but they do not intend to reject the vessels that God would use. So for a time things become a little strained; but afterwards, there begins to come forth sweet worship, faith, a focus of faith on the Word.
It is in that climate that the message “With” works. We do not go out to work for the Lord; nor do we work for someone who is in a position. Instead, our functioning seems to spring forth almost spontaneously. Of course, there are directives that the Spirit gives; and when the Lord moves on us that something is to be done, it is amazing what can be accomplished in a short time. We move in faith on a Word, and the Lord honors it.
There has been something within all of us that when accusations hit us, we have tended to back off and become fearful. But now we are on a new level of faith in the Word. Everything that comes against me does not seem to move me to any degree because I am concerned only about ministering the Word. That Word is going to come! Never has it had more authority, and nothing is going to stop it. Here is the key: We should not take personally anything that anyone does or says.
In the world, people have enough sense to realize this. For example, in a political campaign, the candidates say all kinds of bad things about each other, but no one takes personally the things that are said. They just realize that this is to be expected.
In the Kingdom, the Word says, “When they persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely, rejoice, be exceedingly glad”—you move out of a personal area—“for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you” (Matthew 5:11–12). Any man who speaks a Word from God should also have a thick enough skin that he will not take personally, with offense, anything that is said against him. What he should do is rejoice that he is able to speak the Word, like the prophets who went before. That is the real issue!
To be a channel of the Word, to speak the Word, is more important than anything else in the world. That is what the war is over. It began in the Garden of Eden when the serpent asked, “Hath God said?” and it ends in the book of Revelation with Him coming to rule and reign who has the name written, “The Word of God” (Genesis 3:1; Revelation 19:11–13).
From beginning to end, that is the whole conflict throughout the Bible. When Satan came to Jesus in the wilderness, the challenge had to be over the Word. Satan began, “Well now, it is written …,” and Jesus responded, “Yes, but this is the way it was written” (Matthew 4:3–10). You do not twist the Word; you speak it truly.
The devil quoted Scripture, but Jesus was the Scripture. Satan quoted the Word, but Jesus was the Word (John 1:1–18).
And our whole goal is to become those living epistles, filled with the Word until it is a part of our very being, and we are speaking that Word.
You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. II Corinthians 3:2–3, NASB.
What happened in the New Testament church was an astonishing thing. Realize that the disciples had miserably failed, and their ambitions seemed to explode and wither and become nothing. There was no more contest over which one would be the greatest (Mark 9:34–35). No more was the Lord rebuking them because they were off in a corner arguing over who was going to be the preeminent disciple (Mark 10:37–45). There were no more outraged disciples because a mother wanted her sons James and John to sit at the Lord’s right and left hand (Matthew 20:20–24). There was no more of that. Why? Because they all failed so badly that they were just asking themselves, “Is there a lower rung of the ladder that I can stand on?” In that atmosphere they had waited before the Lord, humbly and broken. Then the Lord met them, and they became so filled with the Spirit of the Lord that “they went everywhere speaking the Word, and the Lord worked with them, with signs following” (Acts 2:4; Mark 16:14–20). They had come to the place where they were not looking for position. That ambitious thinking was totally removed from their hearts.
I don’t want any more battle that focuses on me that I respond to in any way. I want to respond to the Word! I want that Word to be everything to me! That is what it’s really all about.
If we take the Word as the issue and walk with that, then we will not be moved by anything else.
Separate the precious from the vile; then your mouth will be as His mouth, and you will become His oracle (Jeremiah 15:19, KJV). That is what it’s all about. We are coming to the level of Spirit where you are receiving impartation.
Maybe the real authority is going to come when we lay aside the garment and gird ourselves with a towel and wash one another’s feet (John 13:3–8). Maybe we have to realize that authority is not going to be related in any way to some ecclesiastical position. That is a part of the corruption of the Church Age that must go. In the Kingdom He is the only Lord. We are beginning to sense the reality of this in our heart. You are becoming less and He is becoming more (John 3:30). When He started circumcising us, He did a good job of it.
Do you feel in your heart, “This is where we are! Where do we go from here?” I know with Whom we are going! We have reached the place where we are linked more strongly than ever before to speak His Word, and to see the Lord work with us, with signs following (Mark 16:20). It’s going to be with signs following. Notice that there are many more signs taking place. It is as though God had reserved a special thing for us.
I would like you to visualize this Scripture: For the word of God is quick (living), and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart … but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Hebrews 4:12, 13b.
The Word has been working. It has been working. Where are we right now with it? Just make a quick examination. Look close and see if you are starting to heal up while there still is an infection under the surface. You were laid open in order to get you out of the soul realm, in order for the thoughts and intentions of your heart to be discerned; you were laid open so that God could bring you to the place of healing. You say, “Well, I’ve been ripped open for a long time. When do I heal up?” You heal up when you get rid of the infection. We are not going to sew it up with the infection still there; we are getting rid of the infection.
“Well, how do I know if the infection is gone?” Look to see if this battle over commissions and positions is still bothering you. If you still have the infection in your heart, the Word is going to come again and again until it is cut out. But when that is done, you will experience the fastest healing you have ever seen in your life. You will see bones come to bones and flesh and tissue come upon them; the Word of the Lord will come, and there will be an exceeding great army that starts moving (Ezekiel 37:4–10).
The Scripture says, “A nation is going to be born in a day” (Isaiah 66:8). It’s going to come forth—the quick work in the earth.
“And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short.” Matthew 24:22, NASB.
“For the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, thoroughly and quickly.” Romans 9:28, NASB.
His remnant does not take that many, but it does take that quality. The remnant is not known for their numbers, but they are known for their oneness. They do not break ranks; they do not thrust one another through.
They do not crowd each other; they march every one in his path. When they burst through the defenses, they do not break ranks. Joel 2:8, NASB.
Where do we go from here? We just move right on, saying, “God, You did the work; and now we’re ready to go forth in obedience, with the Word living in us, boiling up in our spirit, a part of our very being.”
We know what will happen. The Lord will work with us. And we will work with one another. What can you do for me? You cannot do anything for me. You should ask instead, “What are we going to do with you?” What are you going to do for this brother or that brother? Nothing. You are going to work with him! He is going to work with you. This is where work becomes the worship that is the most acceptable to God on the face of the earth. There is nothing greater than for the Lord to see the oneness. There is nothing that speaks louder His praise than this: That they all may be one … that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:21, KJV.
That oneness is what makes John 17 live. Open your heart to it. This is the key to solving problems, because we see them fade into nothingness when we realize that they are distractions devised by the enemy to keep us from that oneness—the Lord working with us.
We do not realize that everything we are being taught is applying to every realm of our life. The destroying of position is breaking up the imbalance that has existed in homes; and it is bringing us to the place where we realize that even marriage is a commission from God, and it should be received as such. If it is so received, then those true yokefellows are going to know that there is a third One pulling in the yoke with them. That One is the Lord who says, “Take My yoke upon you” (Matthew 11:29a).
“I manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world; Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me, and they have kept Thy word.” John 17:6, NASB.
“For the words which Thou gavest Me I have given to them; and they received them, and truly understood that I came forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me.” Verse 8.
“I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Verse 14.
“I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.” Verses 20–21.
There is only one conflict of the ages: the war over His Word. Don’t fight another one against flesh and blood.
Satan has one objective: to battle the Word of God in its miracle working in your life.
Satan seeks to change “Thus saith the Lord” to “Hath God said?” This is the battle over the Living Word.
Satan quotes the Word, but Our Lord Jesus Christ is The Word, and we are His Living Epistles to be read and known by all men.
If we accept the Word as the issue, we will not be moved much by anything else.
If we speak His Living Word, He works WITH us: if we explain Scriptures, we think we are working FOR Him.