Sometimes we find that over the course of the last few years, people have come into this walk with God without really knowing the basic principles which had been taught before. It is good to review these basic foundations. It helps keep us within the divine order that the Lord revealed to us and directs us in. We need to be diligent to study and assimilate the teaching that has come, and to learn to apply it. With those basics in our minds, we have a good foundation on which to build.
I am concerned that we be prepared to move into the next level that God sets before us. He has been speaking to us about the worship, the oneness, the way we approach His Presence. The predictions of a coming experience have come and have been confirmed over and over again. And the challenge of these new levels causes me to be concerned that the people very carefully get into the spirit of repentance that is preparing them for this next step.
When a new experience comes, it often can be a thing that sifts a congregation. For instance, a pastor may come into a revelation of this walk with God; but if he has a church that does not know anything about it and then he tries to teach it to the people, it is such a big jump that he is fortunate if a few of them go along with him. The Charismatic movement in the denominations split the churches open because many of the people did not want any change. They could not open up to a new experience at all.
We are facing possibly the same thing. Because I know what God is doing, I very deliberately try to prepare the hearts of the people for it. And then there can be that resistances—a little minority who say, “Oh, I don’t want to go for this repentance bit.” But you watch it—they will be the ones who will lose out, because it is the spirit of repentance that is preparing our hearts for the next step (Matthew 3:2). Never has God brought a new step and a new experience but what the only ones who were enough of new wineskins to go into it were those who were repentant (Luke 5:37–39).
You cannot be critical with no sense of repentance and be ready to move into the next step. Before God, I am doing everything I know how, seeking His wisdom constantly, to get you ready for the next step. I believe it is going to break soon. It could happen anytime.
When the next step comes, it will be like a tidal wave. That does not mean, however, that everyone who is in this walk with God now is necessarily going to open his heart to it. I do not know how it will come, but I do know that it is going to come through worship in His Presence. And I know that there is no need in the earth as great as the need for our waiting upon the Lord and for the worship which was set before us from the very beginning.
We come and we worship in the services, in a limited measure, and we open up to the prophetic flow. But if I were to take a poll and ask how many hours are spent by the total congregation in individual waiting upon the Lord and worshiping before Him between services, I think many of you would be surprised. Perhaps you would evaluate your spirituality at a much lower level than you have.
I feel this very deeply. I know the enemy is battling that which is coming, but it is going to come just the same. And I want you to be prepared, and I want to be prepared, to move on in God when it comes.
If you have had a rough time as it is staying in the boat, what are you going to do when the rough water begins to come and you have to shoot the rapids? Then you will find out what it is really like to stay in the boat.
If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan? Jeremiah 12:5, KJV.
Are you realizing the truth of this? Are you realizing, “I have to do something about my walk with God”? We often think God is delaying and that He is slow (II Peter 3:9; James 5:7–8); but if He should break through on us right now, do you think that you would be ready for it? Would your heart be prepared for the next thing that God is going to do in the earth? I hope that it would be.
The first thing we have to understand is how much individuality has been retained in this walk with God. At this particular point, I am a little disturbed because I see something top-heavy in the churches. I believe that those in the pews are trying more to move into the true Body ministry than the leaders are. The leaders are not learning to walk together in Body ministry as well as the congregation is. It is a top-heavy situation because I don’t know how far the people can go if they have exceeded the dedication of the leadership toward Body ministry. I wish there were some way that we could call a time of humbling, and fasting, and prayer (Joel 1:14; 2:12–17) for all the prophets and prophetesses, for all the pastors, the deacons, the deaconesses, and the elders everywhere, that they would begin to move more into the purity of Body ministry.
The Lord has been laying this burden upon my heart and it is very much of the Lord that I should lay it out before you.
I am going to show you something which will be a criterion by which the ministries are going to stand or fall. The shaking will come; people will be tested one way or another (Hebrews 12:25–27).
To help us understand what God wants, we will read a familiar passage of Scripture: Ephesians 4:10–16. These verses are seven of the most important in the New Testament for laying out the whole purpose, the foundation, and the progress of what this walk with God is all about.
(He who descended—that is, Christ—is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:10–12.
Notice that the ministries were not given for evangelism as we have known it: their basic purpose is to equip the saints for service, “to the building up of the Body of Christ.” This is the whole idea: feed the lambs; feed the sheep (John 21:15–17). Shepherds do not beget sheep, but they can surely put some good fertility pills into the grain the sheep eat. They can stir them and motivate them so that they become fruitful and reproductive in the Word that God has given (Colossians 1:9–10).
Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ. Ephesians 4:13.
Maturity is the purpose for which I minister to you. The purpose for which every minister ministers should be to bring about that maturity in the flock. There should be a deep concern in the heart of everyone who is called to any of these offices: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher, and we add to this elder or deacon. There should be a fear lest they minister to people—even if the people demand it—in such a way that they create a dependency in those people upon them. That is the most deadly old-order thing that can happen.
To create a dependency upon yourself is to show that you are a false ministry. To try to produce people who will not be dependent upon you is the mark of the true ministry.
I have done everything I could, by His every Word and by all the wisdom that God gave me, to produce in you that which would cause you to stand on your feet and walk before God yourself (II Corinthians 1:24). To prolong the infancy of a bunch of babies is not the purpose for which these ministries were given.
As a result, we are, no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Ephesians 4:14–16.
Here is the whole function and purpose of Body ministry. And the ministries are the ones who have to see this. The people cannot be expected to do this; the babes invariably will run to wherever they can get a sugar tit. They are going to suck as long as they can find a wet nurse.
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able. I Corinthians 3:1–2.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for some one to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For every one who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Hebrews 5:12–14.
But we are no longer to be babes; we are to be weaned from that dependency as soon as possible. An example of this in the Scripture is found in the story of Hannah. Hannah prayed and God gave her a son. She called him Samuel, which means “asked of God.” And when Samuel was weaned, she brought him, along with the sacrifices that she and her husband were going to offer, to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. Imagine that—she brought the little boy and gave him over to Eli along with the sacrifices (I Samuel 1:20–28). She probably went home and cried a lot, but she was faithful to wean him. She did not keep on nursing that son, even though she had been a barren woman for a long time and it had plagued her and been like a curse to her (I Samuel 1:2, 4–8). After she gave Samuel to the Lord, she went on and had other children (I Samuel 2:20–21). If you remember, her rival Peninnah turned out children just like clockwork. You never hear about any of Peninnah’s children, but you hear about Hannah’s.
You will always hear about the children who are faithfully weaned. But watch the ones whose infancy is prolonged—those who are in trouble or going through something all the time, who never get their feet on the ground. They have come up to a certain place and then relinquished that essential prerogative of seeking God on their own behalf. They have turned it over to someone else and God won’t bless that. He frowns on it. God will not bless the prolonging of that infancy, the protracting of a dependency that is not of God.
The whole purpose of this Body ministry is to bring us into that place of maturity as soon as possible. That is why it grieves me that there is not more waiting upon the Lord.
By this time, as far along as we have come in this walk with God, the ministry and counseling should be largely a matter of confirmation, rather than of initiating a Word from God. The people should be far enough along that they are getting the Word of the Lord by waiting on the Lord and seeking the Lord. Then they come and submit it (Ephesians 5:21); and the apostles, the prophets, the teachers and so forth serve as guides to help them in case they are not getting the Word clearly or they are not interpreting it correctly, or to help them if they need a real deliverance or they need help.
But instead of this, some still come to the ministries and say, “What am I to do about this? What am I to think about that?” When you come and stand before the ministries, be sure that you have done everything you can to get the Word from the Lord first. Otherwise, the whole thing bogs down. This could become the most frustrating thing that we have ever seen if it does not produce a whole Body of people who all see eye to eye when the Lord brings again Zion (Isaiah 52:8, KJV). It must be something that is a common vision; every ear must be open to hear the Word of the Lord.
Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. And your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. Isaiah 30:20–21.
“He who has ears, let him hear.” And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” And He answered and said to them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.” Matthew 13:9–11.
We are missing it if we are always dependent upon the apostles, the prophets, the pastors and teachers, the evangelists, the elders, the deacons to find the leading of the Lord. There are not enough of them anyway that they could say, “We are the ones who direct you.” That cannot be. After a while, there would be too many people in this who don’t know the Word of God, who don’t hear the voice of God, who have no spiritual comprehension.
At this particular point, there is no teaching that could potentially become more detrimental to what God wants than the beautiful doctrine of submission. Under the guise of submission, you may be suppressing spiritual faculties that God intends for you to use.
You say, “Well, I come and I submit. Tell me who I am, where I am, where I am going, and what I am going to do.” No sir! No sir! I do not think that is a wise course. I fully intend to know the voice and the will of God clearer than I have ever known it. I intend to move into the wisdom of God; I know that is essential. But I also intend very soon, as soon as possible, to ruthlessly cut down every bit of the ministry that is laid at my feet by people who say, “Come and tell me what to do.”
You are going to start hearing the voice of the Lord, submitting His Word to the channels of ministry for confirmation, and having that Word confirmed rather than having it initiated by your leaders.
The whole Body must develop their capacity to hear the Word of the Lord themselves and to walk with God.
I have not led you thus far to be unkind to you, but there are going to be some babies crying when they get weaned. I think it is time to wean the babies; and I am going to call for this, that every ministry who has been called upon to constantly be a wet nurse to the people begin instead to demand that those who want ministry spend a week praying about the need themselves before they come for counsel or ministry.
The ministries have had to cope with too many things that people should be finding out for themselves. There are many channels of confirmation who could confirm the Word afterwards. We are going to be led by the Spirit of the Lord (Romans 8:14). Isaiah prophesied, And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. Isaiah 54:13, KJV.
For us to make the next step into this experience that God wants in worship, it will be something in our heart of twenty-four hours a day waiting on the Lord, worshiping, learning the voice of the Lord, standing as a people ready to be led into the things of the Lord. We will stand as one man, waiting on God; we will stand still and see the salvation of the Lord (II Chronicles 20:17, KJV).
The waiting on the Lord is going to open the door to precious things for every one of us.
Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. Isaiah 40:31.
Otherwise all of the leaders will be crying as Moses did, “Just show me mercy, Lord, and kill me, because I am not able to bear all this people alone” (Numbers 11:10–15). This does not mean that the people are unbearable.
It just means that God does not intend to give any man the grace to be something to the people that He never intended any man to be to them (I Peter 4:10). I do not intend to be something to you that God never intended any man to be to you. The one thing in the world that I am not going to do is play God. But I am going to be a shepherd to you. I am going to lead you, but you are going to move. You are going to listen; you are going to know His voice.
This truth is a warning to the leaders, because a great deal of the responsibility rests upon them. If you are a leader, the people will push you. They have so many needs and they want to take a shortcut.
People have said to me, “I believe in your faith; I believe in your wisdom.” So do I; that is not the issue. I was not raised up for you to believe in my faith; I was raised up to see that you have faith.
Not that we lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are standing firm. II Corinthians 1:24.
For I long to see you in order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. Romans 1:11–12.
A leader can be pushed into playing God to people, in spite of everything he wants to do. The people will push him into it unless he says, “No! I serve you on God’s terms, not on your terms.” If I serve you on your terms, you will remain a babe. If I serve you on God’s terms, I will lead you into sonship.
We are in a walk with God. We cannot say, “Let’s all join hands now because we are all blind, but we hope the fellow up there in the front can see.”
And He also spoke a parable to them: “A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?” Luke 6:39.
We must all develop the spiritual perception, the alertness, the eyes to see, the ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).
When the Lord took me into the future, it was the most amazing experience. Looking back, I could see two things that counted. The first was that the people were taught to move as one family, sticking together; the second was that spiritual perception had developed through the whole Body so that they knew the voice of God and they could follow it. Those were the two things that I set before you. I told you often that these things must be developed in the Body.
From that time, I have not ceased to speak to you about the wisdom and the revelation, about coming into an understanding of spiritual things (Ephesians 1:17–18), about the need for repentance (Matthew 3:1–2; 4:17). I have not stopped trying to bring you into that. As a result, I think we have ten times more people today than we did then who know the voice of God in an accurate manner. But we are going to go further. We are looking for God to bring forth a thousand prophets. That is what the School of Prophets is all about. That is why we study the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the discerning of spirits. That is why we strive in every way to come into this. We are dealing with these deep spiritual responsibilities of maturity, so that we will be no more children, tossed to and fro.
Instead, we will come up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, to the mature man in God that He wants us to be (Ephesians 4:14–16).
The whole purpose of the ministries is that you be mature, that you reach that place of maturity. This may sound like the same thing that we have heard for years, but it seems expedient to repeat it. Some of us need to hear it over again (Philippians 3:1).
You must be careful of ministries who minister without the apparent need of confirmation, no matter who it is. Within the people there must be an awareness and a carefulness. If someone comes to you and says, “I have a Word for you,” fine. Listen to that Word. But it does not become a valid Word of God upon which you must act until it is confirmed by two or three witnesses. You say, “But he is an apostle.” I don’t care. “He is a prophet.” I don’t care. “He is my pastor.” I don’t care. The individual leadership is being blended into something which is a Body of Christ function.
The Lord has shown me that we are going to be known as a movement without leaders. Listen to the tape “This Is The Walk, A Symposium.”* It is both a description and an example of the way this is to work.
In a real sense, I am not a leader. I preach, and I teach, but I do not get up and say, “Go this way.” Instead, we submit and the Lord confirms. The leaders should be nothing more nor less than oracles of God (I Peter 4:11, KJV; I Thessalonians 2:13). A Word comes from the Lord and it is confirmed. And none of us should take it upon ourselves to say, “This is the Word that directs the church,” without submitting that Word and having it confirmed and established as a Word from God. We do not have any other way of doing it. We do not throw it all on the people and expect them to come up with a Word from God. But neither do we throw it all on the individual leader and say, “Well, whatever he speaks, that is the Word of God.”
We do not need another Pope, nor do we need to be some society which has annual elections saying, “The voice of the people is the voice of God.” What we really need is a dedication to seek the voice of God, with both the leaders and the people being submissive to the roles that God has called them to, so that there can be confirmed Words by which we go (I Corinthians 12:18–30).
Over and over the Lord has been speaking to me that it is time to emphasize again the basic guideline: we do not minister alone. We do not arbitrarily say, “This is what God wants”; instead, the thing is submitted. At the present time, this is the direction in which we are moving. This is why we have the apostolic company come together. They meet, and the Word begins to come and it is confirmed; and when the brethren leave, they are all speaking the same thing (Acts 13:1–3; 15:25–29). Some things may need to be ironed out yet in the procedures, but at least we have made a start. At the last convocation, brethren came from all over the country, and God really gave us a Living Word through them.
We are moving from “a leader” to an apostolic company. We are moving away from individuals saying, “Well, the Lord told me.”
Did you submit that to anyone? Did you have that confirmed?
“Well, no, I just got a Word from the Lord.”
Don’t be so independent. The day of individuality is giving way to the collective ministry of the Body of Christ where we will all see eye to eye. We will not break ranks; we will not thrust one another through (Joel 2:7–8, KJV). But we will move in that harmony and that unity of the Spirit (I Corinthians 12:12–13).
You say, “This seems contradictory. You just told us that we should not come and submit everything to the leaders, but that we should get the Word for ourselves. And now you are telling us that we should not move independently.” Exactly! These two things are not in conflict.
You are to wait upon the Lord for a Word, and at the same time to so repent of independent action that you are without the spiritual pride which says, “God spoke to me. Nobody is going to tell me anything.” No, if God spoke to you, you submit it to the brothers; they will have confirmation.
It is the pride and arrogance and the independence, whether it is in the leader or whether it is among the sheep, that causes the danger. But it is that passivity in any of us in not seeking the voice of the Lord or waiting upon the Lord that leads us into trouble too.
What will happen if we do all these things? We will be all right; we will make it fine; we will move right on from glory to glory.
It boils down to a basic humility which has to be there. I don’t think there is a week that I let go by without searching my heart to be sure that I am not thinking like a professional leader, but a man of God. I abhor that thing of professional ministry. I ask myself, “Am I beginning to think like an old pro? Because I have the experience and the wisdom, do I assume that without seeking God’s face, I know what to do?” I continually pray, “Lord, I will wait before You. I will do whatever You say. If You want me to serve in a menial job, I will do it. I will do anything You tell me to do.”
We may find ourselves in humble circumstances, working at menial tasks. All of us must realize that we start out very humbly, like many of the old kings of Judah and of Israel, like Saul himself, the first king. When he was little in his own sight, God lifted him up and made him king over all Israel (I Samuel 9:21; 15:17). Later, however, he was motivated by such jealousy, he felt so insecure of his position that he became a tyrant. He had to have all the publicity; he could not afford to be anything less than the great hero to his people (I Samuel 18:6–11). That is not the attitude God wants us to have.
Some of you have walked with God for many years, but many of you are a younger generation that is coming on the scene. And I will, with God’s help, set before you an example of humility, of sacrifice, of seeking the Lord, of revelation, of wisdom, of a gift and ministry of the Spirit. And then I am going to watch you, because if I cannot produce a thousand people who can outminister me during my lifetime, I have failed. I have failed if there cannot be those thousand prophets who come forth. I am going to give you as high a mark in God as I can to reach for, with all humility and lowliness of mind (Philippians 3:12–17).
The Scriptures tell us, “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18, KJV). As a young boy I set my heart to seek God, hungering for so much, crying and praying for years beyond what I can relate.
I would have crawled on my hands and knees across this country to find a man who could tell me what I have been able to tell you. Now you have the Word that God has spoken through me for forty years. You can start there, and you can go further than I have gone. Some of us had to sweat a long time before we could learn the voice of God. We did a lot of seeking, a lot of fasting, and a lot of crying before God. You are picking up way down the road from where we had to start.
Let it be in your hearts to walk humbly before God (Micah 6:8). Let it not be an ambition on your part, but let it be a responsibility that you shall exceed what has gone before you (John 5:20; 14:12; Haggai 2:9). Some of us have given our lives to see that you get this chance. Take advantage of it! Walk in it, in the name of the Lord. Bring in the Kingdom! Be the remnant that will contend to fully possess it (Daniel 7:18–22; Obadiah 17). Don’t believe that there is any limitation imposed on your dedication or your discipleship before God. There are no limits before you. Pursue after it humbly.
Learn the voice of God. Learn to walk with humility (Philippians 2:3; Ephesians 4:1–2). Learn to submit yourselves one to another. Look for confirmation. Be the Body of Christ. This is a pure vision. Nothing any greater or purer has come out of God’s Word than what is being set before you now.
Thus says the Lord, “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. “But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.” Isaiah 66:1–2.
God is great; He fills the whole heavens (I Kings 8:27; Jeremiah 23:24). But when He wants to pick a place to live, that place is not off in some beautiful galaxy. He says, “I am going to look around and find a place to dwell. Where would you build a house for Me? This is where I would like to live: with him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My Word.” This is what it is all about—God living and dwelling and speaking to a humble, contrite heart.
For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” Isaiah 57:15.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18.
May the Lord bless this Word. We have heard it before; but, Lord, we needed to hear it again. Let the purity of this Word reach us. Let there be a dedication within us to walk in it. Let there be a renewed faith, a renewed submission one to another. Let there be a renewed dedication; a dedication to be the leaders as God dictates; a dedication to be the aggressive followers by faith as God ordains; a dedication to be the worshipers unto the Lord, to wait before Him and to learn His voice. Let us walk before Him in this generation the way He has declared we ought to walk before Him, to be humble and contrite in spirit, to learn well to be repenters and to walk softly before the Lord, to be easily entreated by His Word, to tremble at it, to rejoice in it, to search it out, and to follow it with all of our heart.
This is a key message to everyone who wants to walk on with God. It is a key message for the pastors. We need to be stimulated and this Word stirs us (Hebrews 10:24, NASB). We need our vision to be pure, and this sees to it that it is pure. The spiritual battle in the world is getting rougher; and unless you have a measure of perception, you cannot even understand the level of warfare that is coming. You just become a victim of it; you go through all kinds of problems and assaults, and you do not know what they are all about. You must follow this Word. It is not a luxury; it is very necessary. We reach into it, by the grace of God, and we dedicate ourselves to this one thing: Lord, we are going to seek Your face (Jeremiah 29:12–13). We are going to seek Your face with everything that is within us.
Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth who have carried out His ordinances; seek righteousness, seek humility. Perhaps you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger. Zephaniah 2:3.
When Thou didst say, “Seek My face,” my heart said to Thee, “Thy face, O Lord, I shall seek.”
O God, Thou art my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly; my soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Thus I have beheld Thee in the sanctuary, to see Thy power and Thy glory. Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise Thee. My soul clings to Thee; Thy right hand upholds me. Psalm 27:8; 63:1–3, 8.
Can we relinquish this right of trying to reason things out by ourselves? Can we become so dedicated to revelation rather than reason that even when we see a problem and it looks obvious to us what the solution is, or what the cause of the problem is, we would still go and submit it to the Lord, and wait before Him? (Romans 12:1–2.)
We are coming to a day in which we cannot judge by the sight of our eyes or the hearing of our ears; we must have revelation from the Lord. And we will never come to the mind of Christ as long as the natural mind sits upon the throne and the Holy Spirit is not leading us.
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. I Corinthians 2:14, 16.
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. Romans 8:6–7.
God is going to bring forth a people who shall say, “Thus saith the Lord.” And it is not going to happen unless you first relinquish what you are doing in the way of your own decision-making.
A few years back, I talked to a brother who had gone camping in the Sierras for about three weeks. Before that time, he was wearing glasses and constantly needing a more potent prescription. But before he had been out there too long, he found that he didn’t need his glasses; so he took them off. He said that by the time he came back, he was reading the fine print in the newspaper without glasses, something he had not done since he was a boy. Do you know what happened? He was out there and the pressures were off, and he opened up and new sight came. I am wondering if some of us don’t need to take off the old glasses of reason. We may stagger around for a little while, not seeing things very clearly, but after a while we will get the pure flow of revelation.
There has to be a way that God’s people become a people of revelation. There are two kinds of wisdom: human wisdom and divine wisdom (James 3:13–18). There must be a flow of God’s wisdom to us because without it, we will never know how to evaluate anything that is happening in this generation. We won’t recognize the signs that come. We won’t know whether to come or to go, or what to do. There will be no single channel who will have it, but let me tell you what is going to happen. If we hear what God is speaking in messages like this, and we follow it, one day we will come together and all of us will know a thing at the same time. Unbelievable things will be spoken and they will be confirmed by all (Acts 4:24, 29–31). Everyone will begin to rejoice because they heard it even before the Word was uttered, and they will say, “Yes, that’s it.”
It will be the mind of Christ beginning to prevail because people have relinquished that carnal thinking (Ephesians 4:22–24). They have dethroned reason and they have enthroned revelation. It will happen; it could come anytime. It could be the next step, that God would bring something to us, and suddenly everything would cease as we have known it. Our impartation services of personal ministry and everything we do would change overnight. Everything would take on a positive note. We would come to a service; and before we left, the guidelines would be given and we would actually know what to do. We would know things ahead of time; we would walk in the Spirit (I Corinthians 2:6–16; Galatians 5:25).
There are to be more prophets in this generation than occurred in all the generations of the Scriptures. There are to be more oracles of God (I Peter 4:11, KJV). Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; the Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh (Joel 2:28–29, 32). It is not to cease. It is not to be limited.
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. Joel 2:28–29, 32.
Lord, we open our hearts to this concept. It will be in our thought that You are going to do a new thing, that there is going to be a Body of people who will know Your will, and delight to do it. All Thy sons shall be instructed in the ways of the Lord; all of us shall hear (Isaiah 54:13–14; John 6:45). Lord, open our ears, every one of us.
In the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths, for the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Isaiah 2:2–3.
The goal of a true ministry from God is to mature the believer, not to prolong his infancy.
The goal of ministry is to teach the babes in Christ to walk With God, not to make them dependent upon a spiritual wet nurse.
Serve one another on God’s terms. Be everything to each other that God wants you to be—no less, but no more.
If you listen to me, you will learn to listen to God’s voice and hear for yourself.
God intended that every member in the Body of Christ would be functional.