Part Two
As members of the Body of Christ, we are not so much an organization or a functioning unit as we are a family. To please God, we must work together to be a family—brothers and sisters together, knowing that we are seated at the Father’s table. The family relationship should exceed everything else in our thinking. That is what will make the Body of Christ effective.
Having schools to train prophets and preachers is not enough. The term “preacher” is not even appropriate for what God is doing today. God does not want to bring forth a preaching movement; He wants to bring forth a people who will speak His word. We must be careful not to sink into the same pitfall experienced by the denominations. What is the difference between a New Testament approach to the ministry and Babylon’s approach to the ministry? Many brothers who pastor in denominations resent being called Babylonian; nevertheless, the difference is apparent. Babylon trains her preachers in seminaries and Bible colleges to be pulpit managers and business administrators. They go through a sterilizing process spiritually until no life remains. Babylon’s incubators “grow” preachers. They all come out conditioned to think in certain set ways, as if they had been on a production line. A church may send its most spiritual young men to Bible college, yet they and their families often become derelict and lost. Something happens to them, causing the natural spark of life to disappear.
Science claims that it is possible to put a human embryo into an environment conducive for growing children outside the womb. That illustrates what Babylon tries to do. In effect, they say, “We will put them in an incubator and hope they will hatch.” However, the number of fatalities is larger. Even when they do come forth, the family spirit is missing.
Imagine Elisha standing and crying, “Oh, my father, my father,” as he watched Elijah being taken up. He had walked as a son with Elijah. Imagine what it was like for Paul in a Roman dungeon. He knew that the time of his departure was at hand, and so he wrote to his spiritual son, Timothy. He called him “my true child in the faith” (I Timothy 1:2) and “my beloved son” (II Timothy 1:2).
In II Timothy 4, Paul urged Timothy three times, “Come to me as quickly as you can.” Their relationship was that of a father and a son. It was not a cold, sterile relationship such as exists between a seminary professor and a group of his students whom he does not care about at all. That professor is not training his students to be prophets or apostles. Theology is against that. He trains them to follow denominational doctrines, ideas, and rules: “This is the way we organize a Sunday School. This is the way we have church administration. This is the way to conduct the required number of committee meetings per week. This is the way to organize the finances. This is the way that committees get the people’s pledges and dun them every quarter when they are not paid up.” That is Babylon!
What is the difference between New Testament order and Babylon? It is obvious when you look to see if sons are coming forth. In every group of true believers there should always be a Paul with a Timothy and a Titus following along. They were Paul’s most constant companions during his sufferings. There must be a father and his sons moving together-this is the bond of the Spirit.
Nothing in the Scriptures gave a foretaste of seminaries, even though some believe that Samuel’s school of prophets was the forerunner of modern-day Bible schools and seminaries. However, the opposite is true. He was not conducting a seminary; he was establishing prophets. Bible schools will never produce prophets. They will produce preachers and church men, but they will never produce prophets.
A prophet is produced when someone becomes the recipient of impartation from a father ministry. He reaches out with a hungry heart that beats just like the heart of his spiritual father, and he appropriates whatever comes forth from the father. He listens to his father, like Timothy who heard these words: “The things which you have seen and heard in me, the same commit to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. My son, I charge you, before the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the quick and the dead at His appearing, ‘Preach the Word’ ” (II Timothy 2:2; 4:1, 2). With Paul and his spiritual sons there was always a deep love of the Word. They did not produce much else, and not much else happened, other than the coming forth of those who loved the Word of God. They loved the Word of God deeply, and they aspired to speak that Word-to be faithful recipients and to send it forth.
As believers, we have a great deal to learn. We have been so conditioned that our responses are set to conform to this present age. We have been victims of one of the most deadly systems of education perpetrated upon any civilization or culture. Because society has so many scientific facts, so many philosophical facts, and so many other facts catalogued, man feels that he cannot be successful or have a place or receive any recognition whatsoever unless he follows the system. The average man is required to go through the system. All of it is a barren activity, and after a while, through some process of memory, his mind is conditioned. He is fortunate if he is able to make an analysis of history-even if he is a history major. In fact, he is fortunate if he can think in terms of any subject. Even if he majored in it and absorbed it completely, it is barren; it is without the life that it should have.
In contrast, young people who truly walk with God are able to study the required material and in it find something that is alive because they have already been prepared. Something has happened to them-God has given them eyes to see and ears to hear! Wisdom and understanding have broken forth upon their spirits because it is a day in which the Father is communicating with His people; and marvelous truths are coming forth, down through His family. Brothers and sisters are communicating with each other. Fathers and sons are communicating with each other, and it is all according to the will of the Lord. Keep praying! As you pray for Timothy ministries to come forth, you are praying for the key of effectiveness in this age.
We need schools for our children that are started by a revelation from God. Through lack of revelation, our schools would revert to the way schools have been conducted in our culture and civilization. That would be deadly. A way must be revealed in which the submissive spirit in a child can reach out and find reproduced in his own heart everything that is in the heart of the Heavenly Father. Believe for an unbroken line of impartation. Ask God to show you if you are one of the bottlenecks in the flow of God’s anointing. Everyone in the family of God should be a blessing. When they gather together, it is not a time to visit or to be religious; it is a time for prophets to prophesy and move in the Lord.
Once again, it is as it was in the days of Samuel. I Samuel 19 tells us about Saul who became so excited when he was near a group of prophets that he prophesied with them. We can create a new world by prophesying. We can create a new gravity. The Lord said that He is going to establish His house on the top of the mountains and that all the nations will flow into it (Isaiah 2:2). We can prophesy and create a gravitational field that is pulling upward all the time. Every day we will experience fewer problems from the downward pull of the flesh, the world, and the devil. As we experience the upward pull of the Lord, we can almost look down and see the shadow of ourselves as we were; and we can look up and see a vision of ourselves in Christ as we will be. We are in a transition of being changed.
If you do not have the full revelation of the change that God is bringing, cry out for it. There must be a revelation of it to your heart that takes over until it becomes a driving force within your spirit to become what God is speaking, and to enter into this change with all your heart.
The spiritual father bids his children, “Come, we are going to go higher. We are changing our abode.” Like Abraham, we are wandering along; but we are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. When Abraham gave Lot his choice of property, Lot chose the fertile valley of the Jordan where Sodom and Gomorrah and the other three cities of the plains were. Abraham, a wealthy man with large herds, but without enough grass to feed his flocks, wandered around in the hills while his nephew had all the good pasture. Lot was given first choice, but Abraham actually had the best part of the bargain. Why live down on the flats when there is a wonderful life to be lived where the altitude is so high that you can be light-headed all the time? There is something a little higher-be drawn up to that city whose builder and maker is God! Reach into something new!
It is a new day, and a new family of God is coming forth in a relationship like that of Paul and his spiritual son, Timothy. The tenderness of the Father’s family is coming forth. The courage of the army of the Lord cannot be revealed until first the tenderness of the Father and His family is a living reality. The minds of our little children are tuning in to revelation. God is putting His thoughts into their minds. Isaiah 54:13 tells us that all our children will be taught of the Lord. Claim that promise for your spiritual children and your own flesh and blood children. It is a wonderful promise that can be applied in many ways. The Lord is making real to our hearts what our lives will be like in the future, and it makes us zealous to find the secret of living longer than Methuselah did, because we know there are so many things to be experienced.
The best things are yet to come. The greatest freedom, the greatest joy, the greatest fulfillment, the greatest dedication, the greatest labors of love, the greatest sacrifices, the greatest experiences of fellowship and oneness together, and the greatest release from limitations that we have ever known-all of this is before us. We have only known a partial deliverance, and we have only known a partial fulfillment of promises; but He is faithful, and He will perform that which He has begun. He will complete it! He will perfect that which concerns us (Psalm 138:8).
II Timothy contains the historical background of Paul’s life during the persecutions of Nero that ravaged the Roman Empire. Nero burned Rome and blamed the Christians. Perhaps Paul was among those who were accused, because he was in Rome shortly before it happened. As a faithful man, Paul wrote to his son, Timothy, during the time of Nero’s fierce persecutions. I Peter and II Timothy were both written at this time. Many Christians were being martyred; yet in the midst of all the persecutions we see the tenderness between Paul, the spiritual father, and Timothy, the spiritual son.
Do not think of Timothy as just some young man whom Paul was deeply concerned about. Do not discredit Timothy, for we discover in I Thessalonians 1:1, II Thessalonians 1:1, and II Corinthians 1:1 that Timothy, as an apostolic ministry with Paul, coauthored those three Epistles. You may think that Paul only listed his name to give him a little credit; however, certain verses in those Epistles have the mind of Timothy coming through. It is apparent that God was speaking through the revelation that had come to Timothy.
Are you going to be a coauthor of the living word of the Lord? Do not project that goal far into the future. Walk in it now! The living word of the Lord is already coming from several brothers. It is not flowing only through the father ministry; it is coming through many members. Believe for the word of the Lord to flow forth from every member of the great family of God! The revelation of this word is burning in many hearts, and it will not be long until a thousand sons will be ministering a pure flow from the Lord.
Set your heart to be in every service. The church doors should not be open unless a full staff of spiritual ministries is caring for the needs of the people. Do you attend every service, or do you attend only when your favorite ministry is bringing the word? Make it a point to be there when he is not bringing the word, and it will be evident that he has ministered to you in a worthwhile way. Walk in a faithfulness to minister to others. If you are only faithful to attend for what one ministry can give you, you have not matured beyond the childhood stage. Be faithful to receive what the father ministry has given you, and see that there is a flow of that anointing to everyone who walks through the church doors.
What you have seen and heard in the apostolic word, be ready to commit to anyone who will be faithful to hear that word and receive it. The ministries must stand in readiness, even if six or seven services pass and they do not have a chance to speak. If there is a need for confirmation, be there with the same force of anointing, the same continuation of the word, and the same faith to complete everything that God says in every service. Be there to help.
Do not allow your church to be spiritually deficient. Believe for a more mature vision. If you have been set in as an elder or a pastor, or set aside to be an elder, a deacon, or a deaconess, there should be a deep sense of responsibility for the ministry of the church, for the way that it ministers to everyone. If your pastor has not had experience or training in the intricacies of the Word, that is all the more reason why you should back him up. Do not neglect to pray for him. He will only move ahead by the faith of those whom he shepherds.
Dedicate yourself to be faithful to the ministry of the church. Minister to everyone who comes into the church. If you are an elder or a deacon, be a responsible, faithful ministry. Be in the services to minister, to teach, to prophesy, or to do anything that is laid upon you. If you are dedicated to do that, and if the aggressiveness is there, you will see your church transformed.
The Lord will bless you as you press in to become His servant, a good steward of the grace of God, and perhaps a shepherd of His flock. Fulfill your ministry with all faithfulness. Bring the presence of the Lord into every service until the people feel the Father’s love-that wonderful flow of compassion from the Lord Jesus Christ that flows from the Father and His family, the spiritual fathers and their children who come forth in the name of the Lord.
II Timothy 1:1–5: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy. For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you…
You can almost hear the words echo in that old Roman prison, practically in the shadow of the Colosseum. You can almost hear the screams of the saints who, at Nero’s command, had been tied into animal skins and put in an arena for the wild beasts to devour. Others were tied to pillars, covered with pitch, and set afire. On his drunken debaucheries, while naked, he drove his chariot through the gardens, delighted by the screams of saints as they were burning to death. They were human torches to light up his garden.
When Rome burned, he blamed the Christians; however, historians say that evidence proves that Nero was absolutely guilty. In that ignoble hour of persecution, he killed apostles and prophets and Christians. That was the climate in which Paul wrote the Epistle of II Timothy. Notice especially three verses in chapter 4. Make every effort to come to me soon. Verse 9. (Those are not cold words on a page, are they?) When you come bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially the parchments. Verse 13. We can read more into this verse than appears on the surface: “This prison is cold; I need an overcoat.” Make every effort to come before winter.… Verse 21. “It will not be possible for the ships to sail when winter comes. Try to come to me, Timothy.”
There is a time when a son needs his father to protect and shelter him. Then when their relationship changes, the father lifts his hand, exposing his son more and more to responsibilities so that he will have to mature and become a man. There is something progressive in the father’s ministry. He finds himself needing sons more than he needed them in the days of his youth. He finds himself yearning over those whom God has brought forth. He thinks about them, is concerned about them; and he prays for them in much the same way that Paul felt toward Timothy. As time passes, a father’s need of spiritual sons grows; and the sons have a growing awareness of their need of a spiritual father.
Maturity brings an appreciation for the father. This is true in the natural realm too. Most teenagers think that the father knows nothing; and they do not want much to do with him. They can be disrespectful. Often they sass the mother and do everything to insult her. Yet when they grow a little older, they are surprised to see how much their parents have learned in only a few years. Attitudes seem to change as time goes on. There comes a deep respect for each other, with an awareness of one another’s limitations.
The longer a man of God lives, the more he is aware of what his spiritual sons really need; and they become aware of what he needs too. It cannot become a relationship based upon idolatry (anyone who even has a false picture of his own father or mother is open for disillusionment and maladjustment in life). There should be a growing tenderness, an awareness of one another’s need. In the family of God, we should supplement and build up one another in the faith.
Paul wrote, in II Timothy 2:1 and 3, You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. (He always talked to Timothy like a son, saying things that he knew Timothy really needed to hear.). Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. This picture was behind everything Paul said to Timothy.
Paul’s last solemn charge to Timothy, in II Timothy 4, was spoken like a true conqueror. It contains some of the grandest words in all the Bible. It describes a witness that a man could give concerning his own life. This must have been similar to what Jacob said while leaning on his staff and prophesying over his sons; or perhaps it was the way that Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. It is the way that fathers have blessed their sons from the dawn of time, wanting to impart something more to them, wanting to have faith to believe to give more than they themselves really had. It is like Elijah when he told Elisha, “I know it is a hard thing, but if you can just stay with me, you will have a double portion.”
In the father ministry there comes a desire to believe that those he has begotten in the earth (whether in the natural, which is the lesser, or in the spirit) will be greater than himself. He hopes that he can lead them in a short time through certain spiritual barriers, and into that which took him a lifetime to find.
Let there be faith in your heart, but behind it there must be a hunger. Children have that hunger in the natural, but as sons of God it is more important to have good spiritual appetites. There must be a hunger for the word of the Lord so great that there is not enough room to contain all the word that they want to hear and receive. Some of the finest meetings come forth when believers ask their pastor, “Just let us gather around. Just talk to us about the Lord.” The word of the Lord comes forth, not because their pastor wants an audience, but because the people are hungry for a living word. They yearn for it; and they want it above everything else.
You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them (Paul was saying, “Don’t forget that your daddy taught you all of this”); and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.
But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering (Paul was using a Jewish illustration, but he was making reference to the beheading of Christians), and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. II Timothy 3:14–4:8. This is a tender passage, and it will help you to open your heart to the way that we ought to care for one another.
The Body of Christ is the Father’s family. Those ministries who are to father and shepherd the flock should receive special teaching. According to the size of the church at Ephesus, we assume that close to a thousand elders from Ephesus gathered to meet with Paul. They were the pastors, but not of large churches, because they were restricted to churches in the homes. When one group became too large, some had to break off and meet in another home because the persecutions were severe. Out of that particular church in Ephesus it is estimated that there may have been a thousand churches meeting in homes over which there were pastors.
Today, as in Bible days, pastors are actually ordained elders; and the Church will be deficient in what is set before it if they are not trained until they are complete pastors in all of their ministerial capacity. A time should be set aside for teaching and training on what it is to be a shepherding elder of the flock of God. This should also include deacons who could move into this ministry. The churches will multiply as we have a family awareness and begin to pray for the fathering ministry to come forth in every elder to minister in that deep compassion and love. A father ministry feels a deep love for God’s people. He knows that some need to be prodded, and others need hands laid on them to receive a revelation of what God has for them.
In the Father’s family, you must love one another and flow together. When you prophesy, do not prophesy as though you are prophesying to uninterested, unconcerned, unrelated people. Prophesy with such faith, that the amens and the faith of your brothers and sisters will help you to be an oracle of God in the earth to speak the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord today is opening the door of the Kingdom. Let that word open the door to your mind and heart by revelation, so that you can know what God has chosen you to be, how He really loves you, and what He wants to be to you. Let the word live in you.
If you are bitter, or disillusioned, or critical in any way, repent of it! The family of God in this hour is coming forth in the purest way of ministry that God ever brought. You may always have reason to grumble, but do not be on the outside with the grumblers. Come in close-close to the Father’s heart. Everything there is good. It is real. It is genuine. It is the only reality in the world.