It is very important that we review all that God has said over each of us. God is very much concerned that we go forward on a positive note, and that first positive step would be to establish the commissions over each of the brothers.
There should be very definite commissions and charges given to them. If we do not have positions, we still may have various degrees of strength in persons, until a man may be pushed out of the effectiveness of his ministry because he does not have the atmosphere in which he can perform what God wants.
The reason we must deal with this is the same reason that we see in the stories of the Old Testament. In the Old Testament God raised up Moses, a man meek above every man on the face of the earth (Numbers 12:3)—and in a sense some of these men are like Moses, in the spirit; they are very meek. They are not really fighters; they are lovers. And so it is much the same with them as it was with Moses.
When you understand this, then you understand that when God says, “These men I have called,” He is prepared to back them up completely. We do not want God to have to come in the Kingdom for what He did several dispensations or ages ago and defend these men who are coming forth in meekness. They are coming forth in humility. These are men that God has chosen. They have a wonderful thing about them; and they look like such powder puffs that someone could push them over. It is easy for someone else to come in and take over this or that, and begin to push them around and begin to challenge their commission and their authority. But God is going to change that.
Let everyone take heed and listen carefully, because God is going to deal with everyone just as He did in the days of Moses. He is going to say, “This is My man” (Numbers 12:5–8). He will come and deal with Miriam if she is a little critical (Numbers 12:1–2, 9–15). He will deal with Aaron. But Moses was the man God chose, a man of slow speech, and meek above every man on the face of the earth (Exodus 4:10; Numbers 12:3). Likewise, when someone comes forth who is like Paul, people say, “His presence is nothing and his speech is contemptible” (II Corinthians 10:10); and they begin to push.
People don’t understand that they had better get a revelation of the man of God. What we are going to do is establish these men, by a word of commission and authority; and we are going to proclaim at the same time that there must be a revelation of how to support and create the atmosphere where these men can move, for they have an advantage: they can inherit the earth because they are just about meek enough (Matthew 5:5). You see, it is the humble that God is going to exalt (I Peter 5:6). We are moving right within the very thing that has to be done.
This is a Word from God; and we are going to bless these men, and they are going to move. They are going to move because this is the will of God for them. We do not have to work out relationships. We just have to tell the people, “This is God. He has anointed this man. He has commissioned this man.” Everybody has to recognize this.
God is determined to establish His commissioned ones—even if the leader is a child who has been pushed out in a little carriage to lead us, for the Scripture says, “A little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6, KJV). It may come forth in ways we don’t understand; but we are going to be open to the fact that the Lord is going to utter His voice before His camp, and His army is exceeding great (Joel 2:11). There are going to be no limitations. In fact, the very basic thing that is limiting us is that we still do not realize how God is going to be glorified. His strength will be made perfect in our weakness. We do not have to be defensive.
And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak then I am strong. II Corinthians 12:7–10.
There has come such a realization of this, that we know what God is really doing now in the way He is relating through humble vessels. He is not being manifested through the people who seem to be wise and prudent; He is manifesting Himself through the people who seem to be nothing.
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God. I Corinthians 1:26–29.
When Paul realized that he had no greater blessing than for God to tell him, “My strength is made perfect in weakness,” then he said “I’ll glory in my infirmities; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (II Corinthians 12:1–10). These things have to be understood. It is upon this basis that we give a commission. In a sense I suppose our thinking becomes defensive: “We have to protect this man. We have to defend this one.” No, we don’t.
We only have to create the atmosphere where these men are not overpowered or rejected so that they cannot perform the miracle of what God has chosen them to perform for the people.
When God puts His hand on a man and makes him a tremendous blessing, what do we do with him? We don’t put him out there where Is weakness is manifested; but we surround him with strong men who will not take away from his commission, but they will bless him and help him.
And yet the tendency to push and overpower the one in authority is very strong. It happens sometimes within a family. One of the greatest tragedies that you could ever know is to see a weak man that everybody else has to help, and they do not discern, “What does God say about him?” A wife can do that. A wife can have a husband who has great prophecies over him; so she sets about not to make a prophet out of him, but she does make a good puppet out of him. And there is quite a bit of difference between a prophet and a puppet.
There are men who must be surrounded. We have one brother who is a classic example of this. He is a man with tremendous abilities. He understands authority. He has an anointing and a commission. God keeps blessing him. There are so many areas where he knows what is to be done, but he cannot do everything that is laid before him. That man is going to have to be surrounded by strong men who do not move in to criticize him, but they recognize the anointing and the authority that is upon him and they help him. They create an atmosphere where the leading of God can come forth in him.
This is a concept that we are ready for right now in the Kingdom, because the Kingdom of God is not going to come forth by anybody but the little flock. Jesus said, Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Luke 12:32, KJV. And we are not going to understand any of this until we go back and say, “What did God say over this man? I will create the environment in which he can function that way. I will help him; I will bless him.” I don’t know whether or not you know how much I have been trying to do this for some of you. I am opening the door for you and protecting you and saying, “Look at what this man is in God. Look at it. See it. Have a revelation of it.”
Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing. But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another. And we urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all men. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all men. I Thessalonians 5:11–15.
All that the churches in the Northwest and Canada need to do is go back and find out, “God, what did You say over the apostolic ministry You have set over us?” He is an apostle that God raised up for all of the Northwest and Canada and Europe and so forth. Of course, there are other apostles; we are not saying that that ministry is an exclusive thing. But when you look at him, or at any of the men whom God has chosen, you see that they are a little bit too meek to do it by their personality; and you think, “I can’t follow that man. He’s not aggressive enough.” But get someone strong to take hold of it, and you will find someone whom God rejects. Instead, you have to find someone who will be open to say, “I had a Word from God,” and he starts out to do it. Probably none of us can understand how we have to create that.
I have done this same thing for the one whom God made an apostle over the whole Living Word. I am continually trying to get strong men who will protect him but not influence him or overwhelm him, men who will let him function. Do you see what I am trying to do? I am trying to open the door.
It is by the grace of God that you see what He has said, what He has promised, the commissions and the charges; and before God you would lay your life down to see that a man make it and do it, and you submit to it. You submit sometimes to things that that man himself cannot submit to.
I think I have been a firstfruits of this. I had someone who for years saw one thing and said, “You are the Word of God come forth on the earth.” She said audacious things. And so, in spite of all the weaknesses and everything else that she saw, she set about to do one thing: “I will be the environment I will create the atmosphere in which he can function.” And I ask you one question: Do you think it is working? Do you think the Word is coming forth as it never has before? All right, then let’s do this for one another. Let’s do it for one another! Let’s create the atmosphere!
There are those who like to criticize and have “fried preacher” for dinner, and so they pick on a unique brother who has been established by God to move in a particular ministry. They say, “Oh, just let him be meek; God will take care of him.” But they would be wise not to do that. It would be the wisdom of God if they would recognize’ “This man was chosen by revelation and discernment to be one of those who are going to screen and know and discern to the depth the people who come forth in the Body. That man has a gift of discernment as pure as anybody on the face of the earth.
What do we do now? How can we reach these people and say, “Stop this thing of wrongly evaluating people. Position is over. It’s the day of commission.” Don’t say, “What does this man have on the ball?” Forget about what we have on the ball. What do we have by commission? Find that out, and begin to minister to each other; begin to loose one another. You see the days are past when men took dominion over us. They spoiled us. They made us a prey. They did not have our interests at heart. But look at this new breed that is coming forth in the Kingdom. They are not taking you.
There is an old saying among the lawyers: When you really want to see where the jeopardy is, ask, “Who got the money?” Ask that question now: Who is getting the money? And you begin to realize how many people are just surviving. They are walking in discipleship. They are ready to give their very lives for this, so don’t sell a man short just because he is not some macho ministry coming forth who dominates and intimidates and puts people on the defensive, and who brings the people to the place where they are afraid to stand up to him—all so that he can be the leader. Over and over again we have had too many people who come along and think, “I have to get this thing under control, so now I am going to put the thumbscrews on.” No, you don’t. One day we will begin to see that the Lord of lords and the King of kings is a foot washer. He said, “And if you know these things, happy are you if you do them” (John 13:3–17).
I am not saying in all of this that it is not difficult to go through a period when people are coming on one way or the other. They have to leave the milk and cut their teeth on something; and if it is mama’s breast which gets bitten first, that is a good sign that it is the time to wean them.
So we open the door in our hearts and say, “Lord, You have anointed this one.” This is one way of saying that Christ Jesus is the Lord: We bow to His commissions; we bow to the charges that He makes. We bow totally to the ministry and the authority of those He has set over us.
You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. I Peter 5:5.
This has to be in our heart, or there will always be a little bit of rivalry, a little bit of competition, a little bit of jealousy that is going to totally blot out the effectiveness of the Kingdom. We are going to love each other as we have never loved each other before. It is something way beyond loyalty, way beyond the leadership that inspires. It becomes a total dedication, a dedication to do the will of God in the earth.
In the Kingdom of God we become the strength and support of one another. At no time do we look at another person and evaluate him on a human level. We see him after the Spirit, what he is in God, what he has been chosen to be.
Therefore from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. II Corinthians 5:16.
Someone else could come along and move right in and take over, but God does not want that. Perhaps the one thing that a person who is capable of taking over needs is to become little in his own sight and In have to submit to someone of whom he could say, “Anything he can do, I can do better. And I have the personality and the drive to do it better than he does it.” That is totally not what we are looking for. We are looking for the creative miracle that God will bring forth through these men whom He has commissioned.
We submit to this with all of our heart. We open our hearts to the Lord and say, “This I am going to walk in. I will do anything. I will be down on my hands and knees scrubbing the floors or anything—anything God wants me to be,” because we are going to be humble by choice. We choose to be humble. We choose to be the meek—not because we have an ambition to inherit the earth, but we just choose to be because we love the Lord. Jesus said, “Come unto Me, all you that are weak and heavy-laden” (Matthew 11:28–29). To tell you the truth, He doesn’t want anything else.
A lot of people have confused oneness with loyalty, or with compatibility, or something else. But really it is a oneness with the Christ. It is being like Moses who, instead of standing up and fighting, just bowed before the Lord. Whenever he was challenged, that was always his move instead of defending himself.
Every time something came he would bow down and worship God. No matter what came against him, he just bowed down and worshiped. The Word says he fell on his face before God (Numbers 14:2–5; 16:1–4; 20:2–6). When this is our response, then God is ready to move on anything. But He has to see that we are that totally submissive to His Lordship.
Along with this Word we should prophesy that the fear of the Lord come upon us over the thing that you are saying. I don’t think there are words strong enough to drive home the way God feels about this issue. just the fact that He would swallow up Korah alive, with all of his family and friends, when Korah lifted his voice against Moses (Numbers 16:1–3, 23–33), or the fact that He would smite Moses’ own sister with leprosy (Numbers 12, shows us how strongly God feels about this.
Psalm 105:14–15: He permitted no man to oppress them, and He reproved kings for their sakes: “Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm.”
I think God grieves every time someone who has a commission is hindered from moving in that commission. You have made statements that in the past there were situations where the girls who were anointed and commissioned to preserve the Word had to just about walk on eggshells for fear of crossing some macho trip, or something like that. That is sick to God. That makes Him sick.
That is true. That thing was so sick, Yet the Word we have today was preserved by those girls. You say, “What advantage was there in being one of those girls?” Nothing, except that we have the Word.
This doesn’t take away any of the faith that we should have individually concerning who we are. But it should put such a carefulness in our spirits that when we realize that we are in the area and the sphere of a commissioning of the Lord, then we very decidedly walk humbly in that area, because that person has been commissioned of the Lord. He is We expression the Lord has for that purpose. And I can’t think of anything more sickening than that which would challenge that commission all the time, and even accuse it of being a wrong position.
That person on “the inside” may have less contact or exposure to me than you do. He may be right in there gathering up the leaves, washing, working away at any task. You ask, “What contact do you have with that one? How much have you spoken to him?” I have probably spoken to many of you more than I speak to those who are doing the menial tasks who seem to be on “the inside.” But they are there you see. They are there. They are ready to serve. They are bondservants. This is true of one couple who serve Marilyn and me in many areas of preserving and putting out the Living Word. Some of you have fellowshipped with us and we have had you over to our home. We don’t even have them over for anything. They just serve; they serve until they are exhausted and them they go home and try to recuperate and come back the next day.
You have to face this fact: The time has come when there is no position; there is no inner circle. Forget it. There is none. All there is is the flock of God that are inheriting the Kingdom—the little flock, because relatively, considering the whole world, it is rather little; it is a little flock and a few shepherds (Luke 12:32). And they are loving each other. When you look to see, “Who are their shepherds? Where are their badges? Where are their credentials?” you don’t see any shepherds you just see sheep—sheep that care for each other.
So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because lie said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You. Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.” John 21:15–17.
That is all you see. You look around in the Kingdom and say, “Where is this thing that we are talking about-shepherds and sheep?” You are thinking about position. You are thinking about hirelings (John 10:12–13). You are thinking about people who are going to get thirty pieces of silver out of your hide when they sell you short (Matthew 26:14–15). They don’t exist anymore. They are gone. Sheep that are ready to lay down their lives for each other—that is what we have.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” John 13:34–35. “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13.
God loose us! Loose us that we will see what we are. We will see where we have come. We will see what this is all about. God is unfolding the Kingdom before us. God loose us to see this!
Marilyn: It has been spoken that I would teach others to know John’s ways and what it is like to work with him. It is awesome to me the way this teaching is coming, because it is an apostolic directive and it is teaching those who want to wash the hands and learn like Elisha (II Kings 3:11–12). Two things we have learned in the charges. We have shepherds over everyone, and everyone has sheep under them. And you see yourself in those two ways. First you have those who are over you; and we are learning how to relate to the one over us. Here is the principle: You have to have this in your heart, that you will support and give a Word or give information and feed an atmosphere without ruling it, but you leave the final answer to the one whom you are working with. You determine to do this. Anyone can give an opinion, and anyone can go in and rule a situation and make decisions and take it in his own hands and go for it. But the harder thing is to sit there thinking that you know the answer and not move on it until the one who is commissioned gets the Word from the Lord and tells you what to do.
But you can start in praying for him, because you know he is the one who is going to get the directives. You start praying and you enter into an intercession for him.
Marilyn: You live in prayer for him. You serve.
How many times have we come to a crossroads or an impasse, and you prayed for me and immediately the Word began to flow, and you received it. But God didn’t give it to you until it was commissioned to you to get it. Then you get it. Oh, we must see the horrible, awesome, awful responsibility of having a commission to answer to the Lord for. God honors that commission more than any of the rest of us do.
Marilyn: There is another side to it, though. You have sheep under you. You have to work with someone over you, and you naturally have others who will begin to help you in what you are commissioned to do. You will look for and gravitate to those who will bring forth that commission. You know when the Lord is moving in your life. And if there are areas where you are unsure, it means that you cannot have an influence in your life constantly giving input that is crossing what you are unsure of in your own decisions in the Lord. And therefore, you will gravitate to some sheep under you who will honor your commission. So what you are really doing is showing the line of divine order and function both above you and behind you. And everyone throughout the Body will function correctly this way.
Let me inject one thing with this because it is so related. The brothers in the apostolic company look around and find a brother and they start ministering with him. They say, “We’ve got to pull him in because he has Brother Stevens’ spirit.” They sense that something has come forth in him. It is not a building up of position; but again, it is the apostolic Word. A man is walking humbly before God and he says to his son, “The thing that you have seen and heard to be in me, you find faithful men and give it to them. Impart to them” (II Timothy 2:2). God is so concerned that the line of impartation and commission and charges should not come to the point where we say, “Look around and find some man who is a natural leader.” No; find somebody who has the same spirit. That is what we want.
But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. But you know of his proven worth that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. Philippians 2:19–22.
Marilyn: As you said, it is awesome to have that responsibility. And if you are functioning correctly, you can serve under any commissioned person. If you have that worked in your spirit where you will function over someone perfectly and under someone perfectly, then you can be moved into anyplace as long as your spirit is responsible and responsive.
Who did we get when we wanted someone who would back up and serve the apostolic authority over the Living Word Building? We got a young man who was willing to serve and do any task. It was important for that overseeing ministry to train someone to take over a lot of his responsibilities; and God said, “This man is the one.” Responsibilities come to the servant. This thing has a principle to it that we don’t see yet. People still say, I want to be up there. I want to be ‘the one.’ ” And we don’t know the process by which it comes to pass. God is going to have a good group of apostles, but don’t try to take a poll through the Body to find out who they will be. You will be looking way up there for those who seem to be excelling, but you will find them down here—the one who has been washing your feet.
What we have been talking about is a perfect reason why Christ so responded to that centurion (Matthew 8:5–13; Luke 7:1–10). Because he had been under authority, he knew what it was to be an authority and to be under authority. So for him to make the transition into the Kingdom was an easy thing. Somehow, because he functioned so right, even in the Roman army, when he saw the authority on Christ, he knew exactly what to do, how to respond to Christ, how to respond to those who were under him. And he could apply the whole thing to the Kingdom.
But if you will remember, the bottom line was this: “I have never seen such faith, nowhere, not in all Israel” (Matthew 8:10; Luke 7:9). And all the centurion had said was, “Just speak the Word only” (Matthew 8:8; Luke 7:7).
What have we been hearing for three or four years? “Speak the Word and it will be done. Speak the Word.” That is the thing. We can speak that Word, and that does it. We just speak the Word of God into a situation. The facts will be what our faith believes.
We have thought of divine order as something apart almost from faith; but once you see what God said, then that becomes the fact. And then you know how to relate to the Lord and to those He has commissioned, because your faith creates that relationship. But without that you never are able to see it.
That is true. We are going to have to read the book of Titus again. Titus was sent into the situation in Crete because, as Paul said, “There are rebellious men, empty talkers, whose mouths have to be shut (Titus 1:5, 10–11, 13). But their mouths were not going to be shut by a discussion or a dialogue. Someone had to go in there with enough faith to stop them. So Paul got humble Titus and sent him in to speak the Word of the Lord. Titus actually was reputed to be the real gutfighter of all of the apostolic company under Paul; but he was just a humble little guy who went in there under commission. Read the book of Titus again. You get the same thing that we are talking about right now.
I feel that if we criticize or touch or do anything to these commissioned ones, we are doing that to you as well as to the Lord. We are criticizing you because you are the one who gave that commission. It is really the Lord. It has to be something in our hearts, that we see this divine order that we have been talking about.
“He who receives you receives Me, an(] he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.” Matthew 10:40–41.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” John 13:20.
It comes right down to faith again, because unless you have faith you are not going to recognize that God is moving in the earth again, that He is moving through people again, and that this person that God has set before you and commissioned is the person that you are to relate to in order to come into the Kingdom of God. It takes a tremendous amount of faith to see that God has come right to your doorstep and is making demands on your life through this humble vessel. It takes a tremendous amount of faith to realize that. And if you don’t have that faith, you just ignore his word, or you try to persecute it or whatever.
I wonder how many people who really loved God missed it, because who was going to believe that a humble little fourteen- to sixteen-year-old girl was going to give birth to the Son of God—and give birth as a virgin, at that? (Luke 1:26–38) Who is going to believe in what God is doing right now? But you see, we must not be caught unaware. We must not revert to the world’s evaluation. The meek, the humble, the ones who are nowhere and nobody—these are the ones He is going to do it for.
And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name. And His mercy is upon generation after generation towards those who fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed. He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever.” Luke 1:46–55.
Oh, the tremendous faith that is generated because you have nothing to prove, but everything to believe. Did you get that? You have nothing to prove, but everything to believe. Remember that. We don’t have anything to prove, do we? But we have everything to believe. Can you see what God is doing? Every single day we come together, every single day we reach each other—every single day something is breaking through. This is probably the most momentous time in the history of the world, because the Kingdom of God is coming. This is the Kingdom. This is the Kingdom. And we still have churches that made it without too much difficulty that are still going to find it more difficult practicing these principles of the Kingdom. We said there would be a First Principles, but that someday the Lord would bring forth a book called The Kingdom Principles. This is one of them. If we didn’t have anything else but this one, it would work. This one would make it work!
That is so true. Remember that when Jesus confronted the Pharisees, He said, “Your fathers killed the prophets and you have built sepulchres to them” (Luke 11:47–48). Then He said, “This is My program. This is what I am going to do. I am going to start sending you wise men. I am going to send these different men—prophets and apostles, I am going to start sending them to you and see what happens.”
“Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. Consequently, you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, in order that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’ ” Luke 11:47–51.
And that is what we are into right now. Christ is sending His men to the earth. He is commissioning them and sending them into situations in order to bring judgment—either to bring the Kingdom of God, or to bring judgment in everything that they are sent into. And every time we commission someone, that is the judgment of God. However a person relates to the commissioned ones, that’s it; God is set in His relationship to that person.
It is strange to find this happening. You don’t seek a position and you walk in such meekness; and then you look around and find that God is running interference. We see that it is not by might nor by power that the Word is going to be accomplished; but by somebody who probably had the devil standing beside him to accuse him and say, “What a filthy person this guy is.” But when God gets through He has put the mitre on his head, He has the robes on him, and He is saying to the whole world, “It’s by My Spirit. I put My Spirit in that man” (Zechariah 3:1–5; 4:6). Which means that some of us may still have too much of the human spirit that must diminish so that He can increase (John 3:30).
This is a purging of God that is bringing the righteousness of God to our hearts. It is the grace of God that judgment hasn’t come any more than it has, because if it had, there would not be anyone around to start with the new day.
That is so true. People say, “Oh, the devastation; oh, the devastation. How awful it was.” We really were fortunate.
Now there can be righteous discernment on this thing of commissioning, because as long as position prevailed, it just held off the judgment of God. But now that that is eliminated, people from now on will relate to the commissioning of the Lord or judgment will be automatic.
That is so important. How is He going to be the only Lord over us without the thing of position being totally destroyed? (Isaiah 2:11, 17; 26:13.) And the first thing in the Kingdom that we have to see is that He won’t get anyone who is worthy of position. A few years ago you might have said, “Well, I thought I was worthy.” But God has taken care of that problem by taking us through the devastation.
And the difficulty is that the person who gets the commission probably has the hardest problem of all to relate to the commission over him. He could take cheerfully the destruction of position; he could take that and say, “I don’t want a position.” But then to get the commission and to accept that is probably more difficult than for the people to have that person commissioned over them. When you get a commission, it is one thing for the people to accept your commission; but it is an even bigger thing for you to accept it. How do I know this? Because I had the same problem. To accept what God said over me took me years. Now the Lord is saying, “By the grace of God, you have got the next five minutes to accept what I have said over you.”
The thing that we can’t get through our heads is that God chooses to hide Himself in the humility of His servants. He likes to do things a certain way; and unless we know God’s ways, we Just pass right over what He is doing (Matthew 10:40–42; Mark 10:42–45; Luke 22:25–30.
The Scripture says: Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. I John 3:2a, KJV. God is so concerned about revealing Himself, yet He is coming into this world incognito, disguised in the meek and the lowly so that no flesh would glory in His presence (I Corinthians 1:26–29).
Remember what Jews said when the seventy returned. He rejoiced and said, “I praise Thee, Father, because You have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and have revealed them to babes; for so it seemed good in Your sight” (Luke 10:21). It seemed good to God to hide these things from the wise and to reveal them unto babes. Even Isaiah, when he prophesied about the Messiah, said, “Who is going to believe this?” (Isaiah 53:1.) I think he saw Christ in a vision in that prophecy; and because He was unimpressive in human appearance, Isaiah looked at Him and thought, “Who is going to believe this?”
Let’s read Isaiah 53 again: Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Verses 1–3.
Right to the end, this is so totally, completely opposite to everything that Babylon is. And even now in my own conditioning I am thinking, “Well, I accept this, but it’s sometime in the future.” The Scripture says that Christ is coming to be glorified in His saints (II Thessalonians 1:10). This doesn’t mean that the saints are going to be glorified; it means that He is going to be glorified, All the way to the end, it is a thing of humility. It is the last thing of the flesh—the religious interpretation—which cannot even hear the Scripture you just read, which says “Yes, that was the Lord; but now it’s going to be something different.” It is not going to be different.
It is the same thing; the only difference is that He is not coming forth in one man; He is coming forth in many (I Corinthians 12:12, 14, 27). Christ is coming forth again, and that is the path.
Prophecy: I prophesy over Vere Thomas the apostleship and the seal of it to come forth from Des Moines, and their hearts to be turned to the commission that God has given.
I prophesy and speak this Word concerning Glen Oswald, with that apostolic ministry which God has given him for Canada, for Europe, for the whole Northwest. Like all of these commissions. we proclaim it; and we charge the people that they shall accept your charge and open their hearts. And above all we charge you that you shall open your heart, Glen, to the fact that God is disturbing the nest because your horizons must be broadened. You must see things differently. It is going to be right before God. We loose you into it. We loose you into it in the name of the Lord. You speak His Word and the Word is done.
We come to you, Jim Mickelson, and we proclaim that at this hour of flooding the publication field with a real Living Word, it is going to be more than This Weeks and more than tapes; and we loose you to have an authority over it because the Lord has seen you humble enough, unassuming enough, that it should be done in your heart. But also He has seen your heart, that you are faithful enough that it shall be. And we charge everyone who works with you, for they shall create the atmosphere for your faith to function and your authority and your commission to go forth in the name of the Lord. We loose that.
We loose Charles Beach anew, because of the humbleness of his heart, and the faithfulness. We proclaim again the authority and the commission and the grace of God that will be upon him. He will speak, and it will be a Word from God for those who serve with him in the name of the Lord. And again we charge everyone that they shall submit to him, to create him. They shall say, “This is the one God has chosen.” And they submit and they strengthen that commission.
This will go on and on, and there are many who will feel the strength of the Lord which says, “These are the commissions of God.” Another one who is so great an example is Bill Maybee, commissioned for Shiloh. It is easy for there to be strong people about him who may seek to influence him. All men are followers in a sense; but when God picks a follower and says, “You are going to be the leader,” then the others begin to move in to influence him. I loose you for your authority over the Southwest and the churches there; I loose you for the ministry that you have over Shiloh. I give you the charge and commission afresh, and with it a charge to those who work with you: Do not overpower this man. Do not create that which would distract or distort from the least of the thing that God tells him to do. And we loose him to flow into it. We loose his wife Phyllis to flow in that same thing, to be the strength that shall constantly hold him up before the throne of God, that he be the man of God with a Word from God that fulfills the commission that God gave him. We loose that in the name of the Lord.
The time has come that thou shalt not look upon those that are strong and say, “These are our leaders.” But thou shalt see that we look upon these upon whom the strength of the Lord hath rested. For where shall the strength of the Lord be manifested but in those who are weak, those who have been humbled, those who have been devastated before the Lord, those who are nothing. Behold, thou shalt not say any longer, “I am of the oppressed.” But thou shalt say, “Behold, the Lord hath taken the man that is humble and exalted him, and He hath brought down the proud and the arrogant. He has sent the rich away empty (Luke 1:51–53), and He hath taken the poor of this world and made them rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which He hath promised” (James 2:5). He hath turned the tide, that no longer shall ye say, “This is great, and this is small.” But thou shalt see how the Lord hath taken that which is small and multiplied it, and thou shalt see even how He hath taken faith as a grain of mustard seed and hath destroyed mountains (Matthew 17:20).
Who shall move upon My holy mountain, and who shall bring forth My will in the earth, but him that hath humbled himself before the Lord (Isaiah 57:13b–15). For out of the dust and out of the ashes shall the Lord bring forth the creation of His Kingdom (Isaiah 52:1–2; 61:3), and they that sit in darkness will be loosed (Isaiah 42:7–8). It shall not be by anything that thou shalt see in the worthiness of man; but it shall be what thou shalt see of God manifesting Himself in the humble vessel.
We loose it. Together we loose it. Does this burn in your heart as it does in mine? Even in the Valley of Achor, where in another day God judged Achan and destroyed him (Joshua 7:24–26), God has made a door of hope (Hosea 2:15; Isaiah 65:10); that though we have failed, though we are nothing, the door of hope is open for every one of us.
Our respect for a commission from the Lord will be greater than our submission to a religious position.
Babylon functions by positions, but the Kingdom of God functions by the commissions from the Lord Himself.
We create the atmosphere in which a commissioned ministry can function without us either being indifferent to him, or dominating him.
If you cannot submit to another ministry, then submit to the word and commission over him—it’s the same thing.
To honor a commission in the Kingdom is to honor the Lord and King of the Kingdom.
Is the man sent by God? Then do not hinder or harass him—but help him.
God’s commission and impartation may not come to the one that you think is the most qualified.
The responsibility to rule over ten cities was given to the faithful humble servant.
When you accept the Word of the Lord, you relate well to the Lord as well as to those He commissions.
Which is the most difficult? For a little person to relate to his commission, or for you to relate to a little person with a commission?