Lord, loose us into the flow of this Word. Make this one of the most important Words that we have ever heard.
Much of this Word is narrative, and it is very necessary for you to get the story. You may wonder where this story is going to lead. But please bear with it, because you understand that the way I minister is to lay the foundation, and then come back with the application which is such a revelation to your heart that it accomplishes a great purpose.
We are familiar with the story of how King David took Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. He wanted her for his own so he told Joab to place Uriah in the front line of the fierce battle and then withdraw from him. Uriah was killed; and after the time of mourning for her dead husband was over, David brought Bathsheba to his house and she became his wife (II Samuel 11).
Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said, “There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a great many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb which he bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom, and was like a daughter to him.” II Samuel 12:1–3.
Nathan went on to say that this rich man had a visitor; and even though he had many lambs of his own, he came and took the poor man’s lamb and killed it, and fed his friend with it. David said, “That man is worthy of death. He must pay back fourfold.”
Nathan told David, “You are the man! You had wives. You had everything you wanted from God, and if that was not enough, God would have given you more. But you have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and you have murdered him.”
“ ‘Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you front your own household (this is important: from your own household); I will even take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your companion, and he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.’ ”
Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blasphemed the child also that is born to you shall surely die.” II Samuel 12:10–14.
After the child was born, he became deathly ill with a sickness from which he did not recover. After seven days, he died. During this time, David was fasting and waiting on God. He heard the servants moving about whispering, and he asked them, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.”
David took Bathsheba again, and she gave birth to Solomon; and Solomon was loved of the Lord. That seems to be the end of the story, but it is not, because within his own household, David finds that he reaps everything that he has sown. One son rises up and rapes his half-sister. And if that wasn’t enough, the sister’s brother then murders the man, Amnon, who had raped his sister. In short order, the murder and the adultery rose up among David’s own children, as we see in the stories that follow (II Samuel 13).
It is true that God was merciful and forgave David (II Samuel 12:13); but sometimes things are turned loose, and even though God forgives, the consequences have gone beyond a certain stage and you must live with those consequences. However, I believe that God is able to obliterate all consequences, and all results of evil. But in this story we see how one thing rose up in the life of one of the sons. This is where the thrust of the message is going to be found.
Chapter 13 of II Samuel tells the story. Amnon, David’s son, loved Tamar, the sister of Absalom. He loved her so deeply that he grieved over it. He connived to have Tamar come and cook a meal for him and serve it to him, while he feigned illness. While no one else was in the room, and his sister was trying to minister to him in his feigned illness, he raped her. After he raped her, he hated her with a hatred that was greater than his love for her. He called his servant and had her thrown out of the house and had the servant lock the door. She went back to the house of Absalom, where she lived. Absalom said, “Don’t say anything about it.” He planned and plotted for two years; and at sheep shearing time, two years later, he connived for all of the king’s sons to be there, and instructed his servants what to do.
And Absalom commanded his servants, saying, “See now, when Amnons heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon,’ then put him to death. Do not fear; have not I myself commanded you? Be courageous and be valiant.” And the servants of Absalom did to Amnon just as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king’s sons arose and each mounted his mule and fled. II Samuel 13:28–29.
Now Absalom fled and went to Talmai the son of Ammihud, the king of Geshur. And David mourned for his son every day. So Absalom had fled and gone to Geshur, and was there three years. And the heart of King David longed to go out to Absalom. Verses 37–39a.
The heart and the very gist of the story is found in chapter 14. It begins with Joab’s plotting. Joab was a very astute general, and of all the men in the Bible, he was probably one of the most ruthless. Joab saw what was taking place, that the heart of David had been grieving for some three years for Absalom. He was not grieving for Amnon anymore. Amnon was dead and buried; and David’s grief for him had been healed in the normal course of mourning and grieving. But Absalom was still alive.
The story continues in II Samuel 14. Joab perceived that the king’s heart was inclined toward Absalom. And he sent to Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there. She came to David with a feigned story. Very wisely she phrased it, saying that David was as wise as the angel of God (verse 17). She said that one of her sons had arisen and killed another son. According to the law of revenge, the avenging of blood was within a family. The guilty son should be killed by a kinsman. “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” (Leviticus 24:17, 20; Exodus 21:24–25; Numbers 19:1–6, 10–13; Numbers 35:6–34). Therefore this woman’s family had risen up against her; they wanted her to hand over her son. They wanted to kill the son who was a murderer. This was her story. And then she pleaded, “Please, please help me.” David gave the promise: “Not a hair of his head will perish” (verse 11).
II Samuel 14:12–13: Then the woman said, “Please let your maidservant speak a word to my lord the king.” And he said, “Speak.” And the woman said, “Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God?” (All Israel was supposed to be mourning for Absalom to be restored.) “For in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring back his banished one.” That was Absalom. Notice how she was twisting the truth. David had not really banished his son; his son had fled. She was saying, “You’re not allowing him to come back; you’re not restoring him. Therefore you are the one who is guilty.”
Verse 14: “For we shall surely die and are like water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away life, but plans ways (devices) so that the banished one may not be cast out from him.”
She appealed to something within David: “Don’t you know that God plans to restore a banished one? God is always ready to take someone who has sinned, no matter how terrible it is, and bring him back home again. David, why don’t you do this? Do this, O king.” The king sensed something behind her appeal. He said, “Now tell me the truth; Joab put you up to this, didn’t he?” And she said, “Yes, he did” (verse 19).
Joab came before the king, and received word to go and bring Absalom back again. And this he did. Joab had been the one plotting to see this restoration. Then the king said to Joab, “Behold now, I will surely do this thing; go therefore, and bring back the young man Absalom.” Verse 21. Absalom came back to Jerusalem; but the king said, “Don’t let him see my face anymore” (verse 24).
Now in all Israel was no one as handsome as Absalom, so highly praised; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no defect in him. Verse 25. Now Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem, and did not see the king’s face. Verse 28.
Absalom wanted to be fully restored, and so he sent for Joab. But Joab ignored the call. He didn’t want any more to do with it. He called for him again, but Joab would not listen to him. The third time Absalom sent his servants out and told them to light a fire in the barley field of Joab which adjoined his field. That got Joab’s attention, and he came immediately. When Joab asked, “Why did your servants set fire to my field?” Absalom said, “I didn’t have any other way to see you.” He then plotted to get full restoration back to the king’s favor. After Joab talked to the king, Absalom came to David and David received him back.
Now it came about after this that Absalom provided for himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men as runners before him. II Samuel 15:1. The chapter continues, telling how Absalom would rise early to be out by the gate. As he was out by the gate of Jerusalem, and someone came to see the king, Absalom would say, “What city are you from?” And the man would answer, “From such and such a tribe.”
“Well, what is your problem?” And the man would say what his problem was. Then Absalom would say to him, “Oh, I wish that I were appointed judge. I would see that you received justice.” When a man came and bowed down to do obeisance to Absalom, he would lift the man up and embrace him and kiss him. Because he had such an outgoing nature that was so deceitful, Absalom, the son of treachery, literally stole the hearts of Israel away from David.
After a period of time, Absalom asked David if he could return to Hebron and pay a vow to the Lord. From there Absalom continued the conspiracy by drawing away hundreds of David’s men (II Samuel 15:7–9).
But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron.’ ” II Samuel 15:10. David gathered together what he could in a hurry and he fled. Verse 14: And David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise and let us flee, for otherwise none of us shall escape from Absalom. Go in haste, lest he overtake us quickly and bring down calamity an us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.” Do you understand what he was saying? David knew Absalom and he knew that the minute the trumpet was sounded, his son would not hesitate to kill him.
We are thinking about the days in the future—days of rebellion and betrayal—of which the Word says that even within their own household men will betray one another; and brother will rise up to betray brother (Matthew 10:34–36; Mark 13:12). Because of that, the house of God will be greatly tested on rebellion and anarchy and this deceitful sedition which is mentioned here. I’m wondering if we do not need to hear right now the Word that could correct this and remedy it so that it will not happen.
We could rewrite the story of David and Absalom today. We could rewrite it right here within our own walls. We could say, “This is what could have happened. It could have happened differently.” That woman who came to David was supposed to be the wise woman of Tekoa. Notice what she said: “God does not take away life, but plans ways (or devices) so that the banished one may not be cast out from him.” II Samuel 14:14b. Here was the danger: Absalom had been restored, but there was no repentance that removed the deceitfulness of his heart. And in this business of our being gracious, we have a tendency, I think, sometimes to play God without the authority of being God in what we do. We have a tendency to say, “Oh yes, this brother sinned, but he has come back. Let’s receive him. Let’s forgive him.” But maybe God has not really forgiven his sin—not in the depth of forgiveness that would remove the seed of it.
Maybe we are being too presumptuous in seeing a brother or a sister restored when they have a deep, basic problem, and we are actually not being kind to them if we do not go further and remove from them, by the grace of God and the ministry, the seed of the thing that is still there that could rise up later to be a real problem.
I cannot believe that anything is befalling any of us at this time which is just an end in itself. I’m trying to say, God is not letting anything of our need rise up but what He s trying to teach us something and warn us of something. And if we do not deal with it now and deal with it in depth, we are going to find that thing becoming a real problem a little later on.
We talk about how we want to really walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:4). But in walking after the Spirit, it is necessary for us to be very, very alert to see what is happening. Let me give you an illustration because I want you to get this completely. Somebody may come up to me and say, “Brother Stevens, I’ve been talking about you.” I could say, “Oh, that’s all right.” But I don’t have the right to say, “That’s all right.” That is only God’s privilege to say, “That’s all right.” Suppose someone comes and says, “This and this and this is in my heart. This is what what I’ve been saying.” I know what I’m going to do in the future. I’m going to say, “Let’s not let it lie another minute. Kneel with me.” I have a responsibility before God to pray with that man until it is finished.
And if he has had the grace to come to me and say, “I’m sorry about it,” then I have the obligation as a brother to stay with him, and not say, “Oh, forget it.” No, don’t forget it! Say, “Let’s deal with it! Let’s pray about it right now.”
If somebody comes and says, “I have ought in my heart against So-and-So,” don’t listen to it like a piece of gossip. Get him right down there by a chair and say, “Let’s pray this thing through,” because nine times out of ten the repentance is just too shallow. When people talk about another person, usually it is not because they are really burdened to help him; it’s because they are just gossiping about his problem. Basically they are gossiping about it.
Whenever any problem arises in our midst there ought to be a carefulness. I do not think we should go around measuring our brother with suspicion or bring a hardship upon him in any way. But I do think that it is time that we have a purity that gets rid of the problems. We have to get rid of the problems, before they ever come to pass.
I really believe with all of my heart that in the days to come this will be the key of success or failure to the School of Prophets—that it be a group of people who are concerned above everything else to help one another really walk in integrity, in an honest experience and relationship to God and to one another. No longer should there be walls between us. No longer those feelings or rebellion or criticism. No longer the thing of lightly passing over problems, just sweeping them under the carpet and covering them over with a little dirt and forgetting that they are there. They will come up and begin to grow next year. And then it will not be as simple a thing as it was before. The next time it will be something that is very critical to the whole divine order and structure of the Body of Christ. Now is the time that we can eliminate the future problems.
We could rewrite the story of Absalom. Absalom could have been a tremendous blessing if only someone had taken him to the priest and there could have been sacrifices made and a calling upon God to forgive the sin and cleanse him. There could have been a diligence not to stand and judge against a brother, but to be faithful to a brother who had been overtaken in a fault. This is what Galatians 6:1 tells us: When a brother is overtaken in a trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.
There has to be a dedication in our heart to do it. Otherwise, you know what is going to happen. In fact, you know what has happened? When a brother slips and falls into a bit of sin and comes back and says, “I’m sorry; pray for me,” the ministries pray for him, but they do not go after the thing in depth. After two or three weeks, the same thing happens again. You do not love that brother if you let that pattern continue. If you don’t have the courage to see it through and be a real brother and sister, you are not worthy of the Body of Christ. There is a burden and there is a need that you must have to see a man through on a thing. Sometimes it takes a long time for God to bring him around. But when God does bring him around, seize the opportunity to see that his deliverance is thorough and complete.
This is why the School of Prophets’ lessons begin with repentance, to deal with these deep, hidden responses and reactions because of things that have not really been dealt with. “Well,” you say, “this is just my nature.” Then God can change the nature. We can be partakers of the divine nature. We don’t have to continue on in this sort of thing. Each one of us must face the things that are in our own lives. Especially when we come into this walk in the Spirit, the deep roots pop up again and again. We must see our disposition and nature completely changed by the Lord. This is to be a real miracle of change. This must be in your thinking. This must be in your own heart. You cannot just look for some relief, because the enemy will come back relentlessly. You must see a total, total deliverance in the name of the Lord. To the extent that you have repented, to that depth you have been delivered.
Too often people have only a shallow repentance. Sometimes it is no repentance at all because of their own desire to justify themselves, to build themselves up. Because of their own pride they will not get down in real repentance and say, “I’ve sinned before God. I’ve sinned against the Body. I’ve sinned so deeply and I must have help.” They will not do what has to be done—humble themselves before God. If they do not do it, they will find that they will never have resistance against the satanic assault. The Word says, “Submit yourself unto God; resist the devil and he will flee from you. Humble yourself before the Lord” (James 4:7, 10). God somehow resists the proud, and they never get anyplace (James 4:6).
This humbling of ourselves in deep repentance becomes an absolute necessity. It is the only way of real joy. There is no other way of joy. There isn’t any other way to be content in this walk with the Lord. There is no way that you will make it into the ministry that you want, if every once in a while the enemy knows how to push the right button. He says, “That man is getting too close to pay dirt. I’ll push the button and drop him down in the hole again. Let him take six weeks, six months, six years to crawl back out. Then just about the time he is ready to be used of God, I’ll push the button again.” Does Satan know where your button is? Does he know exactly what to push? Does he know where your weak point is? You’d better begin to seek God with deep repentance until that thing is dealt with and God has removed root and branch, until He has laid an axe to the root of the tree (Luke 3:8–9), and there isn’t anything left.
We want to move forward aggressively in the Lord. But unless God gets this Word across to our hearts now, six months from now we are going to watch church after church almost fall apart. Church after church will be devastated. The only way we’re going to make it is that we not only close ranks, but we have that faithful spirit toward one another. It is not a matter of judging one another; it is a matter of restoring a brother who has been overtaken in a trespass, in complete restoration.
God has ways or devices of bringing back a banished one. But David was unwise because he did not bring his son into any state of repentance, and Absalom turned around and took the kingdom from him. “Well,” you say, “that’s what happens when a father doesn’t love his son.” When David’s army finally defeated the armies of Absalom, twenty thousand people were killed in that battle (II Samuel 18:7). Absalom was a beautiful man; there was not a defect in him (II Samuel 14:25–26). He had very thick, beautiful hair, and as he was fleeing on his mule, his hair caught in the branch of a tree and literally suspended him there. And he couldn’t get out of it. It was reported to Joab, and he came with three spears and put them through Absalom’s heart. Ten armor bearers came and smote Absalom and made sure he was dead; then they threw him in a hole and buried him (II Samuel 18:10, 14–17).
When David heard about Absalom’s death, he cried, “Oh Absalom, my son, my son. Would that it had been I who died” (II Samuel 18:33). Thus what should have been the greatest victory for David’s soldiers was turned into mourning. They slunk out like defeated people. Joab came and told David, “If we had been killed and Absalom left alive, you would be happy now. Yet these are the men who have risen up to give you deliverance. They would have given their lives to see you delivered.” David continued to mourn, for so great was still his love for Absalom. Yes, he loved him. Or did he?
His son Solomon rose up at a later time and said, “He that spareth the rod hateth his son” (Proverbs 13:24). There is a weak, insipid love like David had that can weep and cry; but if he had really loved his son he would have seen to it that something was done to help him. You say that you love your brother and your sister. Is it the kind of love that will ignore the need they have and hope maybe it will go away someday? Or are you really concerned about them? Are you concerned enough about your own walk and your being a blessing to the Body that you come and say, “I want to be a blessing to you, but I can’t be a blessing to you until I get rid of something in my own life. Help me.”
All ministry begins with repentance, and the integrity of a ministry through the years is going to be manifested by the depth of his repentance.
In the School of Prophets, this is where we begin; and we will never leave the first lesson. You don’t go on from one lesson to another. Repentance has to be a way of life for all of us.
There must be this deep thing within our spirits that we cry out to God for ourselves and for our brother, that we relentlessly pursue after the righteousness of God—to be sanctified wholly, our spirit, soul, and body preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord (I Thessalonians 5:23). That is the cry of the remnant. And if it is not in us, all the teaching of restoration in the world will be an empty doctrine. It is going to be a scriptural theory, and it will never have its fulfillment. Furthermore, it will cause our enemies to blaspheme the name of the Lord.
Restoration without repentance only means that the evil will grow. It will lie there and later some mutant form of it will come out that is even more difficult to deal with. The future rebellions and betrayals, the false prophets, the false Christs will come (Matthew 24:9, 24). All of it will come about through failure on this point. We have not come thus far to produce fruit to the flesh.
Pastors, I am laying before you this admonition, because it is very important. In the days to come the School of Prophets is not to be regarded as just a little extra Bible study. If it takes you six months, stay with this one principle until you see it working in the Body. Don’t ever draw back from it. Don’t judge the thing that is wrong by harshly rejecting. This is not a way to banish people; this is a way to see that those people who are out of fellowship are brought back in. This teaching I am giving you should not lead you to exclude a brother; rather, this is the only way that you can include him without destroying yourself internally. A little leaven will leaven the whole lump (I Corinthians 5:6).
Then shouldn’t we just get rid of the offenders, just throw them out? That is an old-order legalistic procedure that says, “Reject your brother.” Then maybe we should just leave them all in and ignore them. That was the sin of the Corinthian church (I Corinthians 5:1–2).
What should we do then? Go into repentance. Repent for your brother. Help him into repentance. Stay with it until the job is done. You have no other alternative. You cannot thrust him out but what you become twice as guilty as he is in whatever he has committed, because you have judged him and excluded him from the Body. On the other hand, if you include him in the Body without his deep repentance and deliverance, you are merely taking the serpent to your own bosom, and to that of the whole Body.
There is no alternative. There is only one way to go, and that is the route of repentance—repentance that brings deliverance. I am not oversimplifying it, but when you do this, you will find that there are some people who do not know how to repent. Their repentance is shallow. They don’t know what to do. They do not know how to humble themselves. They have tried it again and again. Like Mark Twain said, “There is no problem stopping smoking. I’ve done it a thousand times.” Do you understand that the same thing can happen again and again? A man may say, “Well, I repented; I’m sorry.” And the Lord has forgiven him. But we are not dealing with the forgiving of an act, with coming and naming an act; we are repenting of a nature. We are repenting of deep roots and responses within us. We want to be God’s servants without rebuke (Philippians 2:15), sanctified, prepared wholly unto the coming of the Lord. Faithful is He that calls you who also will do it (I Thessalonians 5:23–24). We have to believe that.
What are we going to do about this message? You are believing that you are going to sow to the Spirit and not to the flesh. This message nails it down; and it isn’t as simple as you thought, is it? This is going to take some work. Don’t say, “Oh, we received this message and now everything is changed.” Everything is changed, but the course of action now will not be the same as it has ever been before. Oh, with what carefulness you will have to walk before the Lord. Oh, what desire you must have to be found in the Lord, blameless as a servant of the Lord. Oh, how carefully you will have to walk as an example to people. I yearn for the day that the critics will find nothing to put their finger upon. They do have now. They have now. Listen to them. I don’t know how they get it, but the critics know more about every church and every man who has stumbled than I know. And they use it as a reproach. It is true, they cover up their own problems. But there is not going to be a reproach on us. We have come so far. God is laying this burden upon us, and we’re going to walk in it.
Are you thinking, “I’ve been concerned that it’s about time somebody lowered the boom on this or that problem.” Perhaps it should be lowered on you—you ungrateful, unloving thing, to already sit in such a seat of criticism. The whole movement stands guilty before God when any individual sees anything within the Body, or anything within anyone in the Body, and he does not repent and seek God and pray until it is delivered. When someone is critical of a brother and sister when he sees their need, and he judges it and is harsh in his judgment, I have less patience with that person than I have with the one who has fallen into sin in the first place. And I have a good precedent for this, for the Lord was quicker to rebuke the Pharisee than He was the sinner (Luke 18:9–14). We are not breeding a self-righteousness. God condemn that completely! God help us that we never stumble into the ruts of pharisaism, that we never see a brother’s need without weeping. O God, help us that we never see a man’s need without crying over it. The dedication must be here for yourself and for the other man. Wherever we fall short, repentance is our way of life until the deliverance is total and complete. This is a Word from the Lord.
Father, we receive this as a Word from You, and we ask that You cause to descend upon us a spirit of repentance, a spirit of humbling ourselves before God. O God, restore to us a broken spirit, a contrite heart. Lord, deliver us from self-deception. Deliver us from that which covers over, and put within us a spirit of repentance, a spirit of humility and a love that shall reach out and repent for our brother. And Lord, let there be upon the apostolic company, upon the pastors and the ministries, a boldness to rebuke and to reprove with all love and long-suffering. Let there be a dedication in our hearts to purity. Let there be a dedication in our hearts to righteousness. Let there be a dedication in our hearts that we shall not fall under reproach nor cause reproach to Thy Word, nor cause that which Thou hast done over these last years to come under the critics. In the name of the Lord. Amen.
We have seen instances where the grace of God totally delivered a ministry who had been overtaken in sin. But we had to be faithful to help him and show him how he must humble himself and repent deeply. Sometimes this may include a public confession before the congregation. As he seeks the Lord with fasting and a deep humbling, God will deal with the roots of pride and the fleshly things in his nature. It may take months before he is completely delivered, and during that time he should refrain from prophesying or moving in the services. After God has worked the deep deliverance, he will be able to move again in his ministry with real authority. To help a brother in such a situation is not easy.
When a ministry is overtaken in a sin, we must be faithful to bless him and help him to repent and find total deliverance. This is not always easy to do. And you certainly cannot do it if you are harsh and unloving in your spirit. There has to be a great deal of love, a great deal of believing for the grace of God to come. It is not going to work otherwise. What disturbs me is that so many people get overtaken in something and they come back into the Body, and everybody says, “Let’s just ignore the whole thing.” I don’t think we can do that.
One of the main things to remember right now is that we are not striving for vast numbers of people to be added to our midst. I wish we had thousands more, but only they could be assimilated to the holiness and righteousness of Christ.
It is an old principle that there’s no point in trying to look for more water until you have plugged up the holes in the bucket. Be faithful to plug up the holes in the bucket—not only in the entire Body as a whole, but in your own life. Do you feel that you need another blessing? Until you plug up the holes, the blessings will leak out, and there will be the dry experience again. The quickest way into the fullness, to be continually filled with the Spirit, is to plug up the holes. Does this make sense to you?
The force of blessing and the Word that is coming often sees the services electrified. Instead of that, some of you are just maintaining a spiritual level. From service to service you are only keeping your head above water so that you do not drown. It ought not to be that way. You ought to be literally zooming up from one plane of glory to another. And you would be if you would deal with these things in your nature. I’ve laid it before you as honestly as I know how. This is where the School of Prophets has to begin. Lord, bless it.
Has this been too heavy for you? Are you prepared to receive it entirely? Do you know that there are some tricky little devilish things in your life? You might be able to prophesy like an angel, but the anointing that comes through in prophecy depends upon the level of the anointing on your own life. Let’s get this thing out of the way that is draining away the spiritual energies in a personal, inner civil war. We should not have so much effort expended just to keep ourselves above water. God deal with this thing in depth. We don’t want people constantly listening to tapes, reading the Word, and crying out to God, just because they know that if they don’t, they will slip back into things that are in their nature. Let’s get rid of those things in the nature.
It can be done. It can be done! And don’t tell me it can’t be done. Don’t tell me that you have worked with it for years to no avail.
The day must come that you believe you are going to change, and you start seeking God. You hate what you have been with a perfect hatred, and you look to God, determined to be exactly that new man that God wants you to be. How important these words are! Lord, we cry unto Thee for the release and the deliverance now!
I am under such a heavy burden that it’s like it is weighing me down, bowing me right down until I could sink down to the floor. It is like the weight of glory that was prophesied. I can’t function. I know that I’ve spoken to you the Word of God. I know people are going to change. I know the ministries are going to change. We are not going to be defeated in any way. We’re not going to be defeated!
We have come to the place now where we must have the power to rise to the higher plane, to move into the authority, to move into the immunities, to move into the place where the wicked one will touch us not (I John 5:18). We have to lay aside the weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us (Hebrews 12:1), or we are not going to gain the thrust that we must have.
All of the messages and the power and the moving in the world will not get rid of it if we have so much ballast that we are being held down. We’ve got to get rid of it.
We have existed up to this point, but we are not going to make progress in our walk with God until we get rid of this. We were not meant to just be limping along. We are the army of the Lord. We have to knock this down and see a great change. We have to see the nations of the world invaded. We’ve got a thousand things before us. We just do not have the time or the spiritual energy at all to fool with this anymore where we find this thing within us. We have spent enough time on this level. We must get out of it and move into the next.
The churches should get into definite periods of fasting and seeking the face of God until they break through. Our services could become more dynamic, more forceful. We could start taking dominion over principalities and powers in city after city and state after state. The time for it is now. Lord, loose me. Help me, Lord. This has to start someplace with somebody.
It is not only the things we know about; it’s the things we don’t even know about. It’s the pride of the human heart that won’t even let us see. The blindness that comes from pride—O God, loose us from it. Help us to see the flesh, so that we can abhor it, for in our flesh dwelleth no good thing (Romans 7:18). O God, loose us into the full life of the cross, into the resurrection life.
Oh, we must get in motion with this. The main thing is that we do something about it. It must not lie dormant, a truth that we have heard and been moved by for a moment, but we have not moved in it. We must move in it from now on in the name of the Lord.
When a Word like this comes, there is a reluctance. In the first place, if you have a problem, you are reluctant to bring it out and say, “Help me.” You are reluctant to be humble and repent. On the other hand, if you see that a brother has a problem, you are reluctant to tackle that too. I am reluctant to go to a brother and say, “Brother, you are a sinner.” I’m really reluctant to do it. I have to pray to God for grace to come up and say, “Here, Brother, you need help.” Brother after brother has told me, “Tell me where I’m wrong. Rebuke me.” They want it. They want it, but I still find my heart very reluctant.
To walk in this Word will not be as easy as you think. There’s a reluctance in everybody to touch this thing of real Body ministry. Oh sure, we like the little frothy thing that fizzles all over as we prophesy to each other and sing to each other. But when we get right down to one another’s spirit and begin to believe, then our prophecies will be more in depth than you know. Then when we sing and we worship and we preach a Word, it’s going to be devastating, because we have overcome that reluctance to get involved that deeply. You may say, “Yes, I’ll get involved with my brother,” but as long as the reluctance is there, you will put up your walls when he comes to deal with you. You will say, “Mind your own business.” You have no “your own business.” It’s all the King’s business. “Well, it’s my affair.” It is not your affair. It’s God’s affair. This whole thing has to do with our mutual walk with God, and the reluctance has to be overcome.
Lord Jesus, help us with this. The reluctance must go. The Body is going to make increase of itself in love (Ephesians 4:16). It is going to come forth to maturity through that which every joint supplies—not just a little prophesying, but prophesying in depth; not just a little feeling of love in the Body, but love that goes so deep that you would lay down your life for your brother. No doubt you feel that you would gladly lay down your life for your brother. But will you lay down your pride and live for your brother and help him? Are you thinking, “That would be a little harder. I would just as soon go out and get it all over with, with one whack, and have my head chopped off. Yes, I’ll die for my brother.” But do you love him enough? Do you love him enough to really see him make it?
There’s one thing I want you to pray for. You know that you received this Word from me. You receive it from me because you know I love you. This may sound like a strange request, but I’m asking that whatever God has given me of love, He will give me a vastly larger amount, a double portion. I feel my need. I feel the need in the Body and in all of the ministries, but especially in my own heart first.
All of this is not going to work just because we laid it out. It will only work through love. The only thing that avails anything is faith which works by love (Galatians 5:6). We have faith in this, but we must have the right measure of love, or it is not going to work for us. It will explode on us. The very sin of our unconcern, our lack of compassion, will destroy everything we try to do with this Word unless we have more love.
Pray for me that God will give me more love—a vast amount, until it is overwhelming. Rebukes can be well re-ceived, if there is true compassion that flows. Oh, God grant that there will not be ministries who rebuke, or ministries who spark repentance, who will ever minister without tears and a broken spirit.
On different occasions three individuals have spoken to me that the Lord had spoken to them about how Samuel’s sons were not able to follow him in the rule of Israel, because they did not have the integrity (I Samuel 8:3–5). They were not the honest men that Samuel had been, because Samuel had not been forceful in disciplining them. He had been very faithful with the School of Prophets, but he was not faithful with his own sons. And so when Samuel grew old, the people rejected his sons. They did not reject Samuel. Throughout his life he was one of the most respected and accepted prophets to come on the scene, but his sons were not. This was different from Eli, whose sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not (I Samuel 3:13). His sons were not in the same category; yet his sons were rejected from a place of ministry because they had not received a faithful rebuke.
Now God grant to me that I will also be faithful to the prophets of the Lord, those sons who come forth, that I be a faithful man to lead and to love them carefully. I claim that in the name of the Lord.
The warning concerning Samuel and his sons was given to me three times, not because the Lord intends for me to be warned of disaster, but because He wants me to be prepared for victory. I claim that.
Are you also going to be faithful? Regardless of what is required, whenever you see somebody sinning in the Body, the first thing you will have to do is fall on your knees and start praying about it. Look to God to lead you, and be faithful to see that problem corrected.
We pursue after the perfection and the purity of the Body of Christ that is coming forth in the earth—a Body without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it be holy and without blemish before the Lord (Ephesians 5:27). This thing that we are going after is nothing more than the purity of the Bride which Christ prophesied and the apostles prophesied. It’s going to come forth. Let’s not draw back from it, nor be reluctant, because it is going to be. We are going to be a part of it. But first the need is presented to us, because nothing ever happens until you get a burden for it. And the burden and need is here and we respond to it. We’re going to see it happen.
Restoring the transgressor to fellowship without repentance is like sealing infection in a wound in the Body.
Do not forgive what God has not forgiven, but repent with the erring one that the Body may be pure.
It takes more love and faith to confront the wrongdoer than to gloss over and ignore the sin.
A broken spirit genders a broken spirit; a repentant spirit inspires a brokenness.
To win a race, first get rid of the weights.
God cleanse us of sins we are aware of; and let our spirit be repentant for the sins of which we are not aware.