The vision of the Timothy ministry is very clear.
What is God requiring of His people and of the apostolic ministry, and what it all is leading to?
The teaching on the Timothy ministry has not yet been completed, but the vision of it has been very clear. We are aware that churches everywhere are going to be guided into the future fulfillment of their ministry as much by the Timothys as by any other factor.
Paul instructed Timothy, “The things which you have seen and heard in me, the same commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (II Timothy 2:2). This is descriptive of the Timothy ministry.
As the father ministry, however, I am at this point actually experiencing the reverse of that Scripture. As I give the Word to the Timothys and see what God has for them, that Word echoes back to me; and I realize that it must be perfected in me first.
This experience is very significant, because every one of us has reached the level where we are experiencing a change—not that our goals or the desires of our heart are changing, but that the basic focus of our life is sometimes turning in another direction from even the desires of our heart.
As we begin to mature, we remember Jesus’ words to Peter: “When you were young, you used to gird yourself and go where you wished; but when you become older, another will gird you and take you where you would not go” (John 21:18). This may sound as if Jesus was saying, “When you get older, you become more dependent upon others to take care of you,” but He did not mean that. He was speaking of the directional phase of maturing.
As you begin to mature, more and more you are drawn away from the lesser goals which you have set for yourself, and you focus on that which seems to be death to your own goals. If you formerly wanted an important place, you finally reach a point where you are aiming toward something other than what you had set your heart on. It is difficult for us to understand this. It is difficult for us to go through the work of the cross to the extent that we actually are devoted to do God’s will with a total submission; yet we still see the desires of our heart, which have now become somewhat nebulous and vague because we do not really know what we want. We do not know whether or not we want to run away from the pressures and the battle. Then our heart tells us that we do not want to draw away; but we are yearning to enter into His rest, to enter into the oneness of relationships in the whole Body of Christ that He has for us. We are anxious for the frictions within the whole Body of Christ to end as we flow together. We are tired of the uncertainties in our relating together. We yearn for the oneness with the Lord and the oneness with one another, and we do not know exactly how to move into it.
Various aspects of this search for the will of God have come in the apostolic Word at different times, and aggressively we have moved forward. We have reached into the wholehearted intensity, we have reached into the intercession, we have reached into the aggressive appropriation. However, one basic ingredient in the formula for aggressive appropriation is absolute, total submission. This is what makes it difficult. You want to see God do something in your life; you have a goal, you may have had personal revelation prophecies from the Lord. But in an amazing way, God may not give you prophecies and directives in your life that actually hit the key of His perfect will for you; He may point you toward something else.
Abraham is a good example of this. When God began speaking to Abraham, He said, “A father of many nations have I made you” (Genesis 17:5). He did not talk to Abraham about faith. He did not talk about the way Abraham would walk with God. He did not talk about all that he had to go through, or the things that would please God so much that he would be called “the friend of God” (James 2:23). All God was looking for was a friend, yet God did not mention that to Abraham. He just said, “You are going to have a son” (Genesis 15:4).
We might consider this promise to be the lesser goal; yet it was not lesser. God told Abraham, “In Isaac you are going to have a son, and you will be the father of many nations” (Genesis 17). Abraham believed that promise, and his focus on that promise was very essential to the perfect will of God, because the fulfillment of that promise was not only to be on the physical plane, but also on the spiritual plane: Abraham is the father of us all. By faith, we are all the seed of Abraham, Hebrews and Gentiles alike (Galatians 3:26–29). So it was Abraham’s faith and obedience to God that made him a friend of God, which was what God focused on, and thus the promise he received was not just incidental.
The point I am making is this: God gives us all promises; He has given me promises. However, as we walk on with Him, it appears as though the promises are being reversed. God deals with us, sometimes through delays, sometimes through various problems, until our focus is set on a total submission to the Lord. We do not realize that our faith is really handcuffed until a total submission to the will of God is worked within us. Then things start happening and our goals start coming to pass quickly.
This is a principle that people will face over and over again in Shiloh. Some are using Shiloh as a place to visit and be rejuvenated, which is good. We want to see them really revived and sent forth to minister. A few will want to stay there and “build three tabernacles” (Matthew 17:4). To them, Shiloh will become a crutch, and that would be more detrimental to them than they know. Shiloh is not to be a crutch. The pastors there periodically review the people who are in Shiloh to see if they are there in the will of God—if they are fulfilling an essential function in the will of the Lord—and how permanent their stay is to be. The question is, “When do we thrust out the Timothys?”
Shiloh is not to be a place that only draws people in. There are some who want to leave everything and move in permanently, and for them, Shiloh could be an answer; but it could also be a spiritual graveyard. The ministries must come to Shiloh, receive an anointing, and then go back to the churches.
Shiloh will have to be properly defined in your thinking. An individual who comes to Shiloh with the right vision says in his heart, “I want to be a Timothy.” But Timothy had this special quality: Paul could send him anywhere, and he would go. Timothy had put to the cross any attitude of “having to be with Paul all the time.” The closeness and oneness Timothy had with Paul was not dependent upon his being with him constantly. It was Timothy of whom Paul wrote to the Philippian church, saying, “I have no other man like him; for everyone else is looking out for his own interests, but Timothy is only looking out for the things that belong to the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 2:20–21).
Although the Timothys seem to be completely dedicated to “the Pauls,” the apostolic ministries, yet we must remember that Timothy himself became one of the outstanding apostles, as well as the coauthor of many of the books in the New Testament. This is usually not mentioned; the emphasis is placed upon Paul, and perhaps it should be. Yet Timothy was reaching into something. He could go anywhere he was sent, he would do anything he was told to do; and behind it all was a sincere, unadulterated desire to see the Lord’s interests met. At no time was he reaching in for his own interests.
As they follow this pattern, the present-day Timothys must be understood. This will be the difficulty: Any leader who tries to take a Timothy and use him for his own purposes will find frustration, because the Timothys are not geared for that. They will be right there to help if it is for the Lord’s glory, and if it is based upon the pure motivation of serving the Lord. But if someone is using them or maneuvering them, these Timothys will be worthless to him. They will seem to be antagonistic. They may be smiling, but they are blocking the action in the Spirit. They have been trained well.
All of Shiloh, including the Timothys, is geared around the school of prophets, and that is how the school of prophets operates. Whether in Old Testament times or under the New Testament order, we see that the young prophets and prophetesses of the Lord have two main qualities about them. One: Their relationship together is based upon a very deep spiritual dedication to the Lord. That dedication involves the Word, worship, and waiting on the Lord. Two: That dedication is also expressed through very humble service.
The Lord has given us revelation concerning the way we are to function in Shiloh. Suppose someone comes in and works in maintenance, or in construction, or in the garden. Whatever he does, he must be dedicated to it. Yet he cannot bog down there. No matter how hard he works or how tired he becomes, the other aspect of his dedication must be expressed too, in giving to the Lord the worship of his heart. Shiloh is basically a ministry unto God; therefore, we do not allow ourselves to become a distracted people.
Your view of Shiloh may be prejudiced unless you see that the Timothy spirit is the strongest, most effective product of Shiloh so far. That Timothy spirit is going to reach back and bring release to the local churches. I wish all of the pastors could get this vision. If they would send their people and let them be trained, while they put themselves through the same discipline and dedication, they would see God do amazing things for them through the ministries that would come forth.
A Timothy can reach a certain level in the local church, but Shiloh seems to take the barriers away so that the Timothy spirit can reach up to a higher level and greater capabilities. I see men today that I did not see a year ago. These men can be sent anywhere on the face of God’s earth, and they will stay there if that is the Word from the Lord. I rejoice in these men! If the apostles, the prophets, and the pastors can get the vision of what is happening, they will see that Shiloh can supply a new dimension and a new level to the ministries who support them and work with them. Out of this will come more and more fulfillment of the will of the Lord.
When a father ministry sees what God is projecting into the Timothys, it is amazing how his own countenance is warmed and refreshed by it. The vision is again fresh and new in his own heart, and he sees what God wants of him more clearly than ever before. There is no question about it. These Timothys will be delegated and commissioned to be sent out into the ministry. Shiloh is only a facility of the Kingdom, where people come, are met by God, and then they go out to minister. That has been the pattern from the very beginning. From now on the main question will be twofold: who comes, and when do they leave?
You do not see this vision until you become caught up in it. This can be illustrated by the experience of one of the brothers. He became very sick and went through many difficulties, but the doctors were not able to determine what was wrong with him. Actually, God was putting him through a testing, and the word came that his ministry would not develop until he was sent away from Shiloh for a season. When he was told this, he thought, “I have worked all through these cold winters, I went through the hard places, and now they are getting rid of me!” But that is not true. He knows that eventually he will come back to Shiloh, but first he is being sent out to minister for a time because that is how his ministry will come forth. Now that he has caught the vision, he comes to me and says, with wisdom, “We have to send the people out! This is what Shiloh is all about. If they do not want to leave Shiloh, it may mean that it is time for them to leave.” Perhaps the Timothys will be harder on each other than I am. However, we must face the fact that Shiloh is not going to be a crutch. It will not be a sanctuary or a refuge from responsibility. It may be a survival area in certain ways, but it is not a refuge area. It has an important function to fulfill in the will of God—to get the ministries functioning—and we want that to come forth.
Something happens to the brothers at Shiloh, and we see a gentleness, a humility coming forth from them. They are not antagonistic. Some of the local churches have the impression that the ministries from Shiloh are ready to come down hard on the churches, because of the vigorous word that comes out of Shiloh. However, we have found that when one of these Timothys is set into a church, he becomes a real blessing to the other brothers there, because he comes on slow and easy, with no point to prove, but with a spirit that reaches out to the people.
What we have to do now is to pull together the men and women who have done a fantastic job of molding and adapting themselves to Shiloh, the ones who have really received something, and send them out with it. They can go into a church and believe for a real release there; and if they are totally submissive to the will of God, then their aggressive appropriation will not be offensive. They may really push to see a breakthrough, but if they proceed in total submission to the Lord and in humility, they cannot fail. God will make their humility and submission a blessing. That is what people are in Shiloh to receive; that is what Shiloh will be geared to minister.
Two things will happen to you at Shiloh. First, you will be pushed to a spiritual appropriation. Actually, no one will have to push you into that. The minute you walk through the door at Shiloh, God starts dealing with you to bring you to a higher level because that is what He said He would do there. Not only that, but you will start dying. That in itself would not be so bad, if only we could die quietly without the offensive qualities of death! But everything comes by death, burial, and resurrection. We have been taught that principle time and time again, and yet many still fight it. They fight it like a goat that smells blood—they are determined that they are not going to die! But God wants to put in us a spirit like that of the Lord Jesus, so that we are like lambs led to the slaughter; we open not our mouths (Isaiah 53:7). Die gracefully. Move right into the cross experience, and out of that process will come new levels of ministry.
Observe the brothers who now preach the word to you so much of the time; listen to the way they speak. Their manner of speaking may not be forceful; nevertheless, when they lay the word before you, it hits like a sledgehammer. You are aware that the word is pure, and you cannot fight it because of the submissive spirit in the brother who speaks it. That is the true Timothy spirit, coming forth in a total submission.
This teaching on the Timothy spirit can also be applied to the relationship between husband and wife. In fact, this teaching is the key to what will happen in marriage relationships. During a wedding ceremony, the pastor probably should say, “Young prophet, do you take this little sister Timothy to be your wife?” This is because every woman who loves the Lord and wants to get married has a nesting instinct. She says in her heart, “It’s time to settle down. Now, how much of this man do I possess? He will be a man of God, he will love the brothers and work with them, but he is going to be my man, and he is never going to forget it! He will meet my need” (whatever “my need” means). Now, you must realize that God appreciates your need, and He appreciates what you want. But what has He said about these desires of your heart? “Delight in the Lord” (Psalm 37:4). If our couples would only set their hearts to delight in the Lord together, and put the Lord absolutely first, they would receive the desires of their heart. Must the will of God always seem to stand like a nagging conflict to what we want? It seems like a challenge, like a threat to us, but it is not a threat. The perfect will of God is the key!
Years ago, during a time when oppressions were coming against me very heavily, I said, “Lord, when will these things end? When will the promises and the prophecies that You have given me come to pass?” The Lord answered, “When you are walking in My perfect will.” Over the years I have realized that I must strive to do His perfect will. I cannot back off from that one bit. And not only must I do it, I must delight in it. Then the desires of my heart will come to pass.
God is not working against His own Kingdom. Therefore He said, “I will give you all these other things, but seek first My Kingdom and My righteousness. If you do that first, the other things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). If we only understood that, we would seek after His Kingdom one hundred percent. In the midst of the struggle, we must remember that off to the side somewhere are the promises that we want to see fulfilled. We are in a situation similar to that of Abraham. He, too, was looking for the promise to come to pass. It was very easy for Abraham and Sarah to understand that promise, but it was very difficult for them to see it fulfilled because of the path the Lord put them through. However, when Abraham moved with so much faith that he was called the father of the faithful, then the promise came to pass also.
God is no fool. He knows what He is doing. He knows that if He gives you the desires of your heart before you delight in Him, you will be destroyed by the very blessing that you envision in your heart. Before God could fulfill His promise to Abraham, He had to take him through all those dealings. Then to make sure that He was first in Abraham’s life, God tested him again. He said, “Now take the boy up to the mountain and sacrifice him to Me” (Genesis 22:2). Abraham laid the wood on his son, took the fire and the knife, and started climbing up Mount Moriah. Abraham was ready to kill Isaac.
God is not fooling around. He is a jealous God. You are going to put Him first, and you are going to put His will first—absolutely, totally, irrevocably! Do it, and He will bless you so much that you will not be able to contain the blessing. He also will give you the desires of your heart. However, you will have even more, for the fulfillment of them will be on such a high plane that you cannot even imagine now what God will bring to pass. Claim it in the name of the Lord!
Behind this is the basic dedication of a Timothy. Timothy serves Paul, and the things that he sees and hears in Paul he commits to faithful men (II Timothy 2:2). He is always looking out for such men; and because he is a Timothy, he can spot a potential Timothy. It is as if he can smell a Timothy coming. When the right young man comes up, he says, “This man I must train!” There is no greater fulfillment in the life of a man of God than for God to raise up young men under him who also minister.
This walk in the Spirit is being shaken by the Word of the Lord that has come to it. But with that Word has come the answer: the Timothys who are responding to the Word! This Timothy spirit is coming forth in the heart of everyone in Shiloh. Shiloh is not an end in itself. It is not a sanctuary where you can get away from difficult situations. Rather, it is a place where you come to draw strength from the Lord so that you can go back and face situations that you could not cope with before. Then you reach out to be a blessing in the situation. You reach out to be a humble answer of submission.
The time has come that we should continually be waiting on the Lord and interceding. As the prophets and teachers wait upon the Lord, as they did at Antioch, the Spirit will tell us to separate certain ones for the work that He has called them to (Acts 13:2). They will be thrust out in the will of the Lord. They will come and go without any idea of building a kingdom. They will come and go without ambition, having only one desire: to be that great end-time company, that army of the Lord which does not back down from any fortress that is to be taken, from any objective that must be accomplished. Moreover, I promise you on the authority of God’s promises, that all of the other things will be added to you.
Our voluntary submission and humility, the lowly way of life which we have entered into, is a very good thing. One young brother had been extremely successful in life, and now the Lord has stripped him down until he has no security. But it is all right—he is one of a number of pastors that the Lord is establishing.
We have to face it: we have been brought forth to do the will of God. Those who have sold everything in order to come to Shiloh are in a good position because they are mobile, free to do the will of God, free to be a Timothy and to be sent out to minister. We must be quick to lay everything on the altar and walk away. We must be able to walk away from anything. People establish roots wherever they settle down. Consequently, when they are forced to leave a secure place in order to walk on with God, some have a difficult time because they miss the comforts and benefits that they left behind. But with others it is never a problem. They do not care about the personal blessings anyway; they are ready to walk with God no matter what happens to them. I think that all of us will come to that dedication.
If we start looking to the blessings, and enjoying them, more than we look to the Blesser, we could enter into a form of idolatry which would not be acceptable in the Kingdom. God is really challenging everyone on their deep, basic desire to have money and property, to have security. What will we do if we come to the point that we do not have any security at all? We will start businesses that will make millions of dollars. They will be superior to anything that Babylon has. But we must realize that as long as we have a covetous spirit or a fearfulness in our heart, as long as we take even the blessings of God and use them for a crutch, we will limp or crawl.
There cannot be unlimited blessing upon your life as long as your faith is limited and you cling to crutches. Discipleship begins with the Lord saying, “Leave all and follow Me.” This dedication existed at the beginning of the Church age, but what happened afterward was tragic. The people began to build their own kingdoms. Then the attitude was, “Okay, we will leave all to follow the Lord. We will go out and have a big revival, just like Philip did in Samaria. We will build a big center there, and make everyone dependent upon our ministry.” But Philip did not do that. In his day the disciples came and went according to the will of the Lord, wherever the Spirit directed them. They had no thought of building any kingdom but His.
What is God saying to us now? As we enter the days of the Kingdom, let us leave all, but leave it without any intention of ever picking it up again. When you leave your “fishing nets” behind, be sure that those nets do not remain in your heart; be sure that you are not thinking, as Peter, “I can get them back again if I need them” (John 21). When you leave them, take them out of your heart and mind also. You must have that irrevocable dedication, that submission and humility from which you will not back down. This dedication must be in your heart.