Guidelines to divine order

There is nothing more precious than the divine order God is restoring. Sooner or later every movement reaches some kind of a dead end because in approaching the problem of order, they settle on a Baptist style of democracy, where the voice of the majority is the voice of God, or on a hierarchy, or on some distorted sense of apostolic succession (which laid the groundwork for the antipopes and the antichrists in one period of Catholic history). All of these things became a problem, for sooner or later in the shaking that God brings to every movement, someone puts his hand to the ark, someone tries to stay the thing and create an order, but it only succeeds in creating chaos.

One definition of Babylon is: Babylon is that which God has been doing up to the present time but which now rejects what He is bringing forth. They may have accepted what He did yesterday, but it can become the source of confusion today. In each case it reaches out to create some kind of order and makes itself into a movement or an institution when God wanted it to be a flexible thing that could continue to grow and move in revelation.

None of us in this Walk can avoid the fact that it will be shaken and sifted every once in awhile. We will be shaken, and this is in the divine order of things. The purity of this Walk will depend upon God constantly putting the fire to us and holding us to the divine order He gives us. If we do not follow this pattern, whenever we fear that the brethren are ready to scatter, we will immediately do what King Saul did in the Old Testament. He said, “The people were all leaving me, so I forced myself” (I Samuel 13:12), and took over the priest’s office when God had made him the king. Then God took away even the kingship from him; he was nothing from that time on.

We must accept the divine order, the calling of God, and even the siftings in this day. God is insisting that this be a remnant move, rather than like most movements which grow rapidly. The very fact that we are going to be a remnant move may be our protection. It may be that numbers will never dilute the purity of the vision that God gives. God’s testing may constantly hold it to a remnant with a pure vision and a pure understanding of the divine order that is to come forth. This is the meditation that the Spirit has brought upon my heart.

Have you found lately that God, more than ever before, has been speaking to your heart about what true submission really is? Why is that? Because He is about to release the greatest manifestation of authority we have ever seen in the Body of Christ at any time, apostolic times or present. The authority that has to be released in the apostolic company at this time must be prepared for, because it is to be a twofold ministry. It is not only the ministry which reaches out in the grace of God, but it is the ministry which unleashes worldwide judgments that will come and be the characteristic of this conjunction of ages. We know this because the prophecies have indicated it.

None of these things will come without divine instrumentality. The hand of God always chooses instruments through which He brings something forth. This remnant is not only the instrument for grace and restoration, but the instrument for judgment as well. Therefore, it must be deeply perceptive. That is the reason the school of prophets is so essential. We must not move into authority before we have moved into greater revelation. God keeps bringing this thing of submission and revelation to our heart for only one reason. The loosing of authority will be so tremendous that it must be in the order God has revealed. Otherwise, we could be self-destructive. If the Walk moves out of order, that is what should happen. If the time ever comes when we are clearly out of divine order, you can walk away from me—provided you can catch me!

God is speaking to all of us about this submission. It is not easy to arrive at, but God is bringing it to pass. Let us look in the Scriptures at the whole procedure of revelation, authority, submission, and confirmation.

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He began asking His disciples, saying, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjonas, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:13–19.

Notice the tense: shall have been loosed, shall have been bound. Why? The authority is exercised in the direction of the revelation of what God is already intending to do, or has provided. The authority does not go out on its own initiative; it is a directed authority.

Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ. Matthew 16:20. This is such a beautiful chapter because it shows that revelation must precede authority. The ministry in the Walk has had within it from the very beginning that which could easily make it just another little movement piddling along and never doing the perfect will of the Lord.

You say, “I thought you were for the Walk.” I am, but I also see its defects. One of the things which has been a defect is that people have come for ministry rather than seeking the Lord directly for revelation. See if this doesn’t apply, not only to yourself, but to everyone whom you have known in the church.

When a couple comes to me and says, “We want to know whether we should get married,” first, I check to see if the Lord has spoken to them about getting married. I want to know: “Is it their own idea, is it the product of some matchmaker in the church, or are they really supposed to get married?” People with problems come to me for an answer. They ask, “Is this the answer?” I am very careful to check it out because if they have not had a word from God, afterwards they could say, “He directed me wrong.”

I do not want to initiate revelation at the time of ministry. I want to confirm revelation at the time of ministry. If I am going to minister over someone, I want the Lord to have spoken to his heart as he has waited before Him. When he has the word or the answer and comes to me, then I can say, “Yes, God said this and this.” Then he says, “No one knows that but the Lord and me.” That makes it confirmation to his heart. If we do not do this we protract the infancy of people, and we will be a trivial little movement from now on. Why? If people seek words from only a few ministries, soon we reach a saturation point, a limit to our growth. How many people can I minister to? How many people can the elders minister to? We have perpetuated the people’s infancy; they do not have to seek God for any revelation. All they need is some immature type of submission.

There are different levels of submission. God is bringing a submission to everyone, but it could hold back your growth if you say, “I’ll submit to whatever you say on this problem.”

Have you received the word from the Lord yet?

You reply, “I have been weeping before the Lord.”

Well, keep on weeping before the Lord. I weep before the Lord too. Who do you think you are? Is one man to do all the weeping? You weep too. You find the answers; you cry out to God.

Before you go to minister to people, find out if they have spent any time seeking the face of God before you give them a word. Revelation should precede the ministry over people. More and more it will become a principle that we will minister only to people who have had prior revelation in their own seeking of God. That is the only way they will grow. If people are dependent upon ministries for every word, then the ministries will be spoon feeding them from now on. They will be lucky if they can finally toddle them into the Kingdom.

It will not work that way. The apostle and the prophet are given that we be no more children, tossed to and fro (Ephesians 4:14). These ministries are not given to protract your infancy or make you dependent upon them; they are given to help and minister to you so that you grow up into Him in all things, and so that your own ministry develops, and your own ability to discern the voice and the will of God develops.

I lay this down because it is a safe guideline. If you as a ministry do not do that, if the taste of authority and the thrill of revelation ministry through you begins to intoxicate you, and you build a little kingdom around yourself, it will soon become evident that you have created your own misery; you have created your own little hell within the Kingdom. Everyone will begin to bother you. You will not have enough to nurse all the people who will come to you; you cannot possibly take care of the demands. You must bring people into maturity as rapidly as you can. Bring them up so that they walk with God. Does this bear witness? This is sound teaching to receive.

In no case have I ever asked for the kind of submission which makes people dependent. I am asking for the kind of submission that makes possible the leading and the Lordship of Jesus Christ to be very real and valid for the whole Walk. I’m asking that we have a voice from the Lord. This is the whole idea of submission. We do not have a pope; we do not have a hierarchy. We have a Lord. He is Lord of lords, and He is King of kings. We learn to be kings and lords completely under His Lordship, and we submit to the divine order by which He is bringing it forth. Our submission is unto the Lord, and we very carefully keep open the channels of divine order by which every man, woman, and child in the Body of Christ can personally know the will of God. They can know what the Lord and King says. That is all we are seeking. We are not trying to do my will or our own will; we are seeking to do the will of the Lord. There must be a divine order by which it comes.

This is a healing word for us, one that will weld us together. We are going to walk in this order. We will move a little slower, but we will not make many grievous mistakes which will hold us back if we follow the order God lays out for us.

… Blessed are you, Simon Barjonas, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. Matthew 16:17. Jesus had asked, “Whom do men say that I am? Who do you say that I am?” and Peter answered by revelation. We must be slow to minister to people who are not in the Walk things that they should receive by revelation. We must be sure that we do not fall guilty of giving them a catechism. If we could establish one pattern of ministry it would be: when someone comes in, we should lay hands upon them and pray for God to give them revelation. As the teaching begins to come the Lord has already opened their spirits, and they receive it in revelation. They do not receive it because they have been taught it. If people can be talked into this Walk, they can be talked out of it. If they come into it because it was a revelation from the Father, the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). That was a promise: “Flesh and blood did not reveal it, but My Father. You’re Peter, Cephas, a stone. Upon this rock I will build my Church.” How that was misinterpreted. It is not the rock of Peter. Peter proved that time and time again. He was a stone, a stone that could be picked up and tossed. It was a rock, the rock of the Father’s revelation to his heart, upon which the Church is built, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

This Walk must be built upon revelation. Everyone who comes in it must have revelation. Be more concerned that you minister to people not the basic technical things of this Walk, but you minister that the Spirit of God begin to reveal to them. I would rather see people make a few mistakes, even spook a little bit, but begin to break into revelation, than to have them come in and say, “My neighbor tells me that this is divine order, so I come and submit myself.” That is a very superficial submission, and it is dangerous because if they persist in it, they limit their growth. They will never grow until they start growing in revelation.… Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. II Peter 3:18.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, Ephesians 1:18a, what marvelous things He has. The apostle’s prayer in the book of Ephesians has to do with opening the people’s understanding, opening up their revelation. This is the basic thing a prophet should be concerned about. We should not be concerned about tedious ministry services, when someone comes and says, “I have an ache.” So they have an ache. We can bog down trying to help people along when it would be a good thing to ask them, “Why don’t you ask the Lord about it? Find out what it is yourself.”

I have yet to make much of a guideline about the signs, even though they are such a basic part of the Walk. Once in awhile I speak in generalities about the guiding and leading signs that come to us, the specific signs and how to use them, but I think it is up to you to find out from the Lord what they mean. God is giving you the signs; you ask Him about them. You try to find out. Now and then when someone needs a confirmation, I say, “You have such and such a sign, and this is what it means.” But let them look for the meaning; let them seek God in these things.

We cannot take away the initiative of people seeking the will of God directly from the Lord first. If they seek it from man first, the focus becomes too much on the man. If they seek it from the Lord first, He becomes the channel by which their prayers are answered. We must keep this before the people. If the people begin to get their eyes upon me, I pray God it will not be my fault, but it could be the ministries’ fault. The people must be taught how to receive a word and a ministry. The ministries must learn how to receive it themselves, and teach the people how to receive it.

In Acts 13 the prophets and teachers were gathered in Antioch.… Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. Acts 13:2. Barnabas and Saul had carried this in their heart. Was it by a vision or was it by a word; had they conferred together? The ministries were praying and ministering to the Lord (that’s the important thing: they were ministering to the Lord), and then the Lord made these prophets and teachers the channels by which the confirmation and the commissioning took place. That is divine order, divine pattern. This will certainly eliminate the focus being upon men. No one at Antioch was saying, “Isn’t that amazing how all these different men had a marvelous word from the Lord?” It doesn’t say that! It says, “When they had fasted, they laid hands on them and the Holy Spirit sent them forth” (Acts 13:3). God was glorified. It was the Spirit of God who sent them. All the rest were a channel.

Do you think Barnabas and Saul were submissive? Yes. They were submissive. The issue of submission is a very great one right now. But this issue of divine order is the real issue. It is the issue by which God is moving now. There is a divine order for things. God is saying, “Here, look at everything again. Put the plumbline to it: Is God in it?”

“Well, God was in it; there were prophecies concerning it.”

“Yes, but is it measuring up to the divine order; is it what God wants? Is it measuring up to the real standards of the Kingdom?” As the Lord puts His finger on various areas, we are eliminating them. I am eliminating things out of my own life. Anything that does not belong to the Kingdom, let it be taken out!

What should be the result of this? The result should be more prophets, more people of real revelation. They should not be directing the enterprises that come up, but they certainly should be there for brothers to come and submit to, saying, “Here is what God has laid upon our hearts. Is this right?” There should be prophets who are designated by the Holy Spirit to look the situations over. If they say, “No, this is wrong,” then we won’t do it that way. If they say it is right, we will do it. Anything that is to measure up to the Kingdom will have to measure up to His righteousness and His ways of doing things. This is the very least we can submit to. There must be revelation, confirmation, submission, and authority. The whole order must be there. If it is, we walk together in it. Are we willing to submit every enterprise, everything we do?

I have to know my relationship to the three Los Angeles churches, to all the churches, and to the school of prophets. I searched my heart. I said, “Lord, it is going to take some real prayer because I want just the right thing to come.” This is what I have been seeking earnestly for. I have to seek it and get a word. Now the brothers are getting confirmations about a certain direction. They had a witness about what I should be doing. “This is the real issue,” they said. “This is what we are burdened about. This is what you ought to be.”

I am going to be torn with the same thing you are. When we submit to the apostolic company there is not any who will escape; none of us are a law unto ourselves. None of us can go by our own individual leading because we must trust what God is bringing forth in the Body, even above our own revelation. You say, “I don’t believe that.” You must believe it. Paul did. The second chapter of Galatians tells how he came to the brethren with the revelation; he says, “I did not receive it from man, neither was I taught it, but I came after fourteen years and laid everything before those who were apostles before, lest by any means I run in vain” (Galatians 1:12; 2:1, 2). Paul laid it on the line: “This is the gospel I preach.” In that second chapter it is presented so clearly. He says, “We received the right hand of fellowship, and we knew the will of the Lord. I was to be the apostle to the uncircumcision, and Peter and John were the apostles to the circumcision. They are to go their way and do their job, and I will do my job; we recognize the commission on one another. I have submitted myself and the word God has given me to them, and we go from there” (Galatians 2:7, 8). Even though you may have strong revelation, you must submit it. Even though Paul’s ministry was so effective that he labored more abundantly than they all, “Yet not I but the grace of God is with me,” (I Corinthians 15:10), he was submissive to the other ministries of authority also.

May the Lord help us understand the nature of the things He is teaching us. These are not just warnings, but this is a divine guideline given so that this Walk will accomplish His will if we carefully adhere to it. We seek after it with all of our heart.

I would suggest that you pray over what you have read so far. Get a tape. This is a wise procedure because this word comes in condensed form. Look up the Scriptures that are alluded to and start praying until the Lord makes it a revelation to your own heart. When it is a real revelation to your heart you won’t say, “We’ve had some important instruction; it’s good, and now we know how this is going to be run.” No, do more than that. Pray, believe God until it is a revelation to you, until you get the spirit of it. You will be surprised at the difference between the understanding which comes in the head and the revelation which comes to the heart. You can understand it with your mind, and still there will be just enough difference in the way you apply it to miss the perfect will of the Lord. It is when you take a truth that is quickened to your heart and pray over it until it becomes a revelation that you follow it honestly and correctly. Many times you can hear the teaching, try to do it, and find it doesn’t work. But when you pray and seek the Lord, it becomes a revelation and you can walk in it. Jesus taught that the keys to the Kingdom will come because people have this basic revelation from the Father, a revelation of the Lord Jesus.

I would like to point to another real danger in the ministry.

I have already stressed the danger of people bringing their problems without having any personal revelation. Consequently, their state of infancy is maintained and they do not grow. Let us go further: Even when people have sought the Lord, the ministries of authority could thwart and hamper the growth of people. Let us say all the preparation has been followed carefully: a young person has prayed and sought the Lord, he has his witness and submits it, and there is confirmation and direction. Even so, he could miss the will of God. He could still miss the will of God unless the ministries of authority begin to minister toward what is really to happen to him—he is to have a revelation of the Lord over his life. He is to move into the flow of God revealing His will and ordering his steps. The primary thing is that he needs to be walking with the Lord; he needs a revelation of the Lord. The mechanics are secondary. It is the Lord who is to be revealed, not the details of his life. Unless it is a real revelation of the Lord the thing bogs down.

We could pray over everyone who has a call to a foreign country, and have a good witness and send them. That does not mean they would succeed there. They will succeed there only when the Lord is real to them, so we had better help them to break through now. They are going to be following the Lord. We are not just trying to build up fortifications so that people can go and not fall apart, or so that they will know what to do. They may be organized and there may be a good degree of unity, but it goes beyond that. It must become a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. People will be sent only when the Lord is enough for them, when they can walk with Him. People are ready to go when everything in their heart is focused and centered upon the Lord. Then the mechanics of where they are sent is secondary. We can still miss the will of the Lord when it comes to ministering to people, if we do not insist upon relating them to the Lord.

The same thing can happen in counseling. You could minister to a married couple about their problems, listing their grievances to see who has the most. Then you could say to one, “It looks like you’re the scoundrel, you did worse.” But that is not the way to counsel people. You say, “Neither one of you are serving the Lord. Neither of you are walking with God. Come on, let’s get right with God first.” Counseling always has to have its focus on the Lord. Otherwise, you will be dealing with little problems here and there, putting out brush fires, and ministering to little oppressions. You can be delivering them from every little toe ache, and no one walks in the will of God.

No matter how great your ministry is, it can be bogged down in second-rate things that don’t really matter, in the final analysis. A hundred years into the Kingdom and they could look back and say, “That was the Piddle Movement. They were piddling around.” But oh, if we could embrace that we are to be under the Lord, to be His voice speaking in a world that is ready for judgment. Who is burdened for those things? This is what we are raised up to do. Let us not forget it.

The size of your church isn’t the important thing: it is whether it is doing the will of God or whether you are all bogged down in something else. It is not how many gifts you have, but the way you are seeking God and what you are doing with these keys of the Kingdom, with this capacity of revelation to really do the will of the Lord. This is what we are here for.

Satan hates this word. He would love nothing better than to have every ministry have a breakdown because he is ministering to five hundred people a week, ministering until he drops dead. Would the Lord be pleased with that? No, He wouldn’t be pleased, but the devil would have a heyday. He would be overjoyed because all the efforts would not really matter; not one of those people learned the voice of God. Not one of them really moved in the will of the Lord. The ministry made their lives a little more comfortable; he helped them in a few problems, and they had a measure of deliverance. But was the will of God really done?

God purify our vision, make it correct. We are in this to walk in the divine order, and the divine order is directly under His leadership. So we come back to the revelation from the Lord in our submission to it. Paul wrote to the Church “not to think of men more highly than you ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has imparted to every man a measure of faith (Romans 12:3). It is something that comes in our heart. This submission will be total; we cannot minimize its importance. But it will only work in the divine order. Even our submission could fall short. If a ministry does not have the voice of God and have it confirmed, he could go to a brother and say, “I think you’re supposed to get a certain kind of a job or do a certain thing.” The brother replies, “I’m on my way!” He is really submissive, but he is doing a second-rate thing. The ministry can tell him exactly what God wants him to do, but that word can have significance to really help him only if he already has that word burning in his heart. Then the word comes as a strength; the authority in the revelation confirms to his heart, and sets him solidly in that expression of the perfect will of the Lord. This is not evasive, this is directive; this is laying it right before us.

The Holy Spirit has promised us the keys of the Kingdom; what we bind and what we loose is going to work. The Holy Spirit has been given to lead us into all the truth. Isn’t the Holy Spirit with us to give revelation where we do not have it, to hinder us even as He did Paul in the missionary journeys? We have all of this; we have it built in. Let us be careful in finding the leading of the Lord in the Walk.

When I was in old order I would do anything to find the leading of the Lord. I went through a phase of using a precious promise box and would try to select a word that felt right. Be careful about using Scriptures like that. Some people flip open their Bible looking for a word. One fellow, walking in total confusion, flipped his Bible open and found a verse: “Judas went and hanged himself.” He flipped it open again and put his finger on “Go thou and do likewise!” How many ways have you tried to find the leading of the Lord? The favorite of some people is putting out a fleece, like Gideon did. This isn’t always safe. “Lord, I wonder if that girl is for me. I’ll put out a fleece: next time I see her I’ll wink at her, and if she winks back I’ll know it’s of the Lord.” That doesn’t work. Most of the time the fleece business is dishonest. People wring the water out of it, put it in the dryer, and say, “See, Lord, it’s dry.” People don’t really go by the fleeces they put out.

The disciples did much the same thing in the New Testament. They said, “We’ll cast lots.” They drew lots and said, “Matthias is the one; we pick him” (Acts 1:26). He was of the Lord; it had to be a twelvefold witness on the day of Pentecost, but we must get to the place where we do a little bit more than draw lots.

In the guidance and leading in this Walk, the ministries are not using the precious promise box, but maybe the people are using the ministries as if they were a precious promise box: “I’ll go and have this checked out.” If they do not receive the answer they want: “I’ll put that back. I’ll go to another elder.” Or they say, “I didn’t get the right answer. Those elders are all against me. I’m going to go to another church.” Some people shop around for ministry, trying to find a superior word. That is worse than in old order.

There must be an opening of our spirits to revelation. We must seek it. In the vision the Lord gave me of the days to come, I saw that the prophetic community, led by the Spirit of the Lord, was the key to people surviving. We must go into the school of prophets as quickly as the Lord opens the door. The second phase of the vision was the great love the Body had for one another and their willingness to take care of each other.

I know I must lead you and minister to you. Your everyday problems do not matter. I am concerned that you face these days with a growing awareness of the Lord, a growing awareness of His leading and His guiding. There will be many times when you will not be able to go to a ministry or revelation service, and in those days you must know the voice of the Lord; you must know the divine order. You will not be so many little independent units. You will be a great Body, doing the will of God together, prophesying the word of the Lord because you all speak the same thing. You will be completely submissive to the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is in our submission to the Lord that we really find our submission to the ministries of authority over us. That does not magnify the man; it magnifies the Lord as it ought to be.

Let us go further into this topic of authority. Do we believe that an authority is coming which can actually loose creation from all this futility? Will it be an authority so great that we will see nations brought down overnight in judgment? Things in the establishment, great corporations, and political parties will be brought to confusion as the Lord brings them to an end. Such a thing could be disastrous unless it is really led by the Spirit of the Lord. We talk about the return of judgment, but there must be submission before we can enter into judgment. The submission must come first; as we are totally submissive to the Lord and follow this divine order, the Lord can trust us so that the judgment can flow through us. If this submission has not taken place, there would be vindictiveness, things we would do at our own initiative which would result in confusion. The judgment would not work; there would be spiritual forces turned loose which would cause an infinite amount of confusion. We do not want that.

Here are a number of steps which apply to everyone in the Walk. The first is the seeking and submission that must be in our hearts. We could use many illustrations. When members of the Body seek personal ministry on an individual level, they need an element of submission, but not just to the individual ministry. Since they are seeking for a word from the Lord, there must be a submission in them to do whatever the Lord says. They are not seeking for a word to confirm what they want to do, or the whole ministry is frustrated right at that point.

I fight my battle before I ever hear a word from the Lord. Then it does not matter which way the Lord says; I am totally submissive and willing to do whatever He says. This is a preparation for the ministry which comes. This is where the battle should take place in every individual. This should be the first thing we learn in the Walk. We come seeking the will of the Lord and seeking to be submissive to whatever He says.

The second step is that we receive the revelation on the individual level. We seek, and we begin to get a witness of a word to our hearts directly.

The third step would be the commission and the unique revelation which comes to the individual. Let me give a personal illustration. I was called to preach, but I came in seeking the will of the Lord and submitting first to be willing to preach. Then there came a revelation to my heart, then the commission: “I’ve set you to preach My Word.” It was a unique personal revelation. This is the best way to bring it.

The fourth thing is revelation which comes as a confirmation on the Body level. It just moves up slowly. When someone lays hands on you and says, “I confirm you to the ministry,” you can believe God that the fourth step is already in the process!

The fifth step is the commission which comes at the Body level. With the sixth step comes the dedication that God works in you to do it. There is more than a willingness; it becomes a dedication. I am trying to express the difference between submission and dedication. Dedication is a much higher order of submission. To be dedicated is to be submissive and entirely motivated to do the will of the Lord. Submission can be passive. “Brother, I’ve fought with it, and I’m finally submissive.” That is not good enough. This unity is not a matter of saying, “I’m submissive; I’m going to be in unity with my brother.” No. Go beyond submission to unity. Become dedicated to unity. “We are going to be one! It is a dedication in my heart! We love each other. I am dedicated to that love. I am more than submissive to it.” This is a higher order of submission which comes into your whole dedication.

This is the way a word must come. It starts as you are willing to receive it; you follow through the various steps of confirmation, then you come into that dedication to do the will of the Lord. When you have reached this particular point, except for major problems or changes that require the process almost all over again, you enter into an individual initiative to do it. I do not wait on the Lord every morning and go through this process: “Lord, I’m willing to be an apostle today, and I’ll submit to it. Lord grant someone will phone me and confirm that I should be. Then I will get some confirmation from the Body and pray over it. Lord, make me dedicated; help me to enter into the dedication to this today.” I would be wasting time every day going through the same thing. I have already come to the place of dedication; now I enter into the individual initiative that is backed by a complete dedication to do it. I have started and I do it; day after day I labor, I press into it because this is a confirmed word of the Lord.

If we take individual initiative, we will be just so many individuals, each doing his own thing, with the element of ambition always there. But if all this is confirmed, we will not only enter into it with an individual initiative and dedication, but we will have faith for our brothers who are in the same position. If we know a brother is in the will of the Lord, unless there are major changes in the guidelines the Lord has given or some major change he is to make in his life that again should have confirmation and a word, he goes ahead in his initiative. And he has the faith of everyone behind him because he has reached the place where it is so confirmed. If he gets out of order, we believe that God will bring someone to rebuke him.

Then we go through another process. God will cause us once in awhile to lay the plumbline against everything—ourselves and everything else go through it. But that individual initiative must be there.

When a brother is commissioned to a ministry and he begins to move with that individual initiative, the whole Body must accept him and believe. There is not to be a constant suspicion; we must come to a place of real faith. We do not need to stop and analyze a brother every once in awhile to see what is right or wrong with him. We just pray for him and bless him because we have the confidence that until God says something different, he is moving in the will of the Lord. He is where God wants him. We keep praying for that to come forth in the Lord.

These steps must be seen. You can come right up to this last step of initiative and still frustrate yourself; your life is ineffective if you do not take the initiative to go ahead. Are you waiting for that step? Compare it with your own ministry, the place where God has put you. Some of the young pastors proceed just as it has been laid out by divine order. They seek for the commission and for the guidelines on major things, but when they receive a witness on something, they go ahead with that beautiful, quiet confidence that says, “I am in the will of the Lord.” You must have confidence. Either you will have self-confidence, or you will have confidence in the fact that God has put you where you are and commissioned you to do what you are doing. This is where individual initiative comes in.

If you have followed all these steps and opened up your heart to really get the word from the Lord, then go full steam ahead. When the Lord gives the guideline, don’t sit around worrying about things; move ahead. “I know I’m here in the will of God, I’m doing the best I can to do the will of the Lord. I’m seeking God. I’m believing God.” The initiative is yours. There is an initiative of faith when God gives a man a commission and he believes it. Look at Gideon. Gideon waited before the Lord; he crept out to the Midianites and saw the vision they were having. He tested with the fleeces to know the word of the Lord. He listened to anything God told him to do. God said, “Whittle your army down; there are too many.” Twenty-two thousand out of thirty-two thousand went home.

“Still too many. Sort them out again; get it down to three hundred.” But Gideon was not shaken because he had the initiative which came from knowing he was doing the will of God. It was confirmed to his heart. He believed, and he moved forward. It was all confirmed so he stepped out on it.

Sometimes the Lord pulls us up short. If we are doing His will, we will faithfully get the checks of the Lord. When God told Paul to go on that second missionary journey, Paul started wandering. He wanted to go up into the mountains of Bithynia, but the Spirit hindered him from going there. Paul wound up down by the seaport, praying, “Where do we go from here?” Then he got the vision, “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9).

If you are following the will of the Lord, and you take the initiative to take the step He tells you, go as far as you can and trust that He will lead you the rest of the way. You need not be afraid if He puts light upon only two or three rocks in the middle of the water; step on those. He will put the light on the next rock, and soon you will have made your way across the stream. This is how God leads us. You must have the faith and the initiative, the submission to His will that enters into the aggressive role. You do His will with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

In the meantime this does not mean we are a law unto ourselves. We still take counsel; we still confer with the brethren who are ordained to the same thing we are doing. There is a danger that a pastor could fail to keep his elders enlightened. If they are going to be ministering the strategy or the plan, everything should be very carefully sought for in the Lord and confirmed to them. In policies which regulate the church’s future and its ministry, the elders should be brought in to seek the will of the Lord together. That is part of the process. If you are ordained to be a pastor, don’t think you take everything in your own hands and do it all by yourself, anymore than I do anything all by myself.

We work together, we move as a Body. But we take that initiative to act without constantly reanalyzing and reassessing our position with doubt and unbelief, and we enter in with all faith. Submission progressively becomes the expression of active faith. As we are submissive and things are confirmed, we move on and on in it. After awhile we are moving in aggressive, active faith because we believe in what God has called us to do. We are entering into it with active faith. Submission progressively becomes the expression of active faith.

This step of confirming revelation sounds as if it would be a lot easier than initiating it.

No, it is a bit more difficult. Suppose that a brother has prayed about his problem and thinks he has the whole answer revealed to him. He says to the ministries, “I’ve come for confirmation. You tell me what the problem is and then tell me the word.” Nothing will make the elders grow more! Time after time they must go off and cry before God: “Lord, a man came for confirmation and I didn’t have it. You hadn’t shown me.” Like the old prophet, they are saying, “The Lord has hid this thing from me.” Confirming revelation is not an easy level; it is a much higher order. Imagine the elders asking someone seeking help, “What is your problem?”

“I’d rather not say. I am trusting that the Lord will show you what He has shown me!”

All the elders and ministries will catch up on their prayer life that way. This is a more mature attitude on the part of the people, and certainly it is the best way for the elders and ministers to grow into the men of God they are supposed to be.

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