Called To Serve part 4

This is the final part of this subject as far as this little exercise is concerned but I hope it is not the end of you seeking greater revelation on this subject. What we are exploring is how we can avoid in the Church a similar leadership melt down that Israel experienced. It helps us to realize that everything in the Kingdom is volunteer. I am not forced to submit myself to the Spirit, I volunteer to do so. It is for my best interest but it is still a decision I get to make. This is applied to everything : it is my choice to accept or reject Father’s free gift of salvation ; I volunteer to walk in obedience ; I volunteer to worship ; I volunteer to serve ; I volunteer to love. It’s always a choice even if I am compelled by love.

To go forward we need to understand, accept and apply that all instruction that has been written in the past is for our benefit today:

“Whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction so that we could have hope through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures.” Romans 15:4

Trust me, the leadership we are considering comes at such a high cost that it is impossible without the hope that comes through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures. This model is uniquely a kingdom model that is impossible to duplicate without Jesus because without him we can do nothing.

“May the God of endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude toward each other, similar to Christ Jesus’ attitude. That way you can glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ together with one voice.” 15:5-6

Because that is the end goal, relationships that are matured into unity where we glorify our Father with one voice. This must be the foundational understanding of any form of leadership within the Body of Christ. It is from this perspective, that we renew daily, that we decide to remain focused on our King and his purpose for us:

“So welcome each other, in the same way that Christ also welcomed you, for God’s glory.” 15:7

Going on 40 years of following Jesus I have yet to see him reject me due to my imperfections, mistakes, blunders, sins. He keeps covering them, keeps lifting me up, keeps perfecting me in my imperfection. So how can I as a leader in the Body do anything other than serve the weak from my position of power. My life is spent for the purpose of seeing them mature in Jesus. I must be like and do like Jesus:

“I’m saying that Christ became a servant of those who are circumcised for the sake of God’s truth, in order to confirm the promises given to the ancestors, and so that the Gentiles could glorify God for his mercy.” 15:8-9

The servant-leaders in the Body can only avoid the collapse of Israel’s government by refusing to focus on themselves, understand Kingdom leadership and daily renew their submission to the King and their service to the Body. No other form of leadership will benefit the individuals of the Body and no other form of leadership will be rewarded. 

Called To Serve part 3

 I hope you have taken the time to read through part one and part two in order that you may get the most out of part three. We understand that Yahweh had set up a government of checks and balances in Israel which included the High Priest, High Judge, the Prophet and the king. But these offices had failed to retain the understanding that their purpose was the people. Their purpose was to serve the people to maintain a kingdom that was focused on Yahweh and each other. Instead, they put that focus on themselves and everything Yahweh had put in place for a prosperous society could not function due to the improper focus. Now let’s turn the page to where we are today, after the cross.

Jesus came with multiple purposes including the revealing of the depth of Father’s heart. Jesus taught and demonstrated what relationship looks like in the Kingdom, including the servant-leaders, and then he left to send us the Spirit to empower us to live it. In our present age we have the Body of Christ, which we are all part of and the only head is Jesus. He has given us trainers, the five-fold (apostles, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher), to train us in the works that will unite us and grow us into the maturity of Jesus. In this structure we are all part of the royal priesthood, each of us a leader in a broken world. Our focus is on those who Father loves, the lost of this world, not to lord it over them but to serve them so they would be open to Jesus.

The structure of the Body can be scary for those who are looking for a pyramid structure with a boss dictating to everyone else. Instead it is an inverted pyramid. Paul refers to the apostles as being the ones who take the most abuse as they lay it all on the line for the purpose of serving the Body. Paul gives us a wonderful picture of the Body in 1 Corinthians 12 and too often that’s as far as we go. But Paul said that there is a way that allows all the diversity to be united together, functioning together for the same purpose. He follows this with the wonder 1 Corinthians 13. You should pause and refresh yourself on these two chapters.

What Paul is giving us is the manner in which we prevent the failure we see in the government of Israel. The whole Bible is about relationship and Father wants us to understand what right relationship looks like with him and with each other. Understanding this, let’s consider Romans 15. 

Verse one should stop us right in our tracks when we are considering the relationship between the mature and the beginners in the Body:

“We who are powerful need to be patient with the weakness of those who don’t have power, and not please ourselves.”

This works for relationships in the Body but also with those who have yet to come to Jesus. We can have a terrible attitude toward those who are still controlled by their sins, new believers and pre-believers. We make a mistake when we try to control their sin instead of demonstrating Father’s love, patience and kindness. We are not responsible for conviction, that is the Spirit’s job. We have enough on our hands to stay within our anointing, demonstrating the power of Father’s love to heal and forgive.

When we see this as our primary purpose, to demonstrate Father’s love, they will soon recognize Jesus’ love demonstrated on the cross and love will compel them to forsake sin in the same way it compels us to serve as servants. There is no fast track. Everything takes time to learn and respond to. We love and we make sure we are prepared to give the reason for our hope, to new believers and pre-believers. We are all learning. There will always be those more mature and less mature than us. So we serve with humility. Consider :

“Each of us should please our neighbours for their good in order to build them up. Christ didn’t please himself, but, as it is written, The insults of those who insulted you fell on me.” (Romans 15:2-3)

That’s a pretty powerful picture, absorbing what is intended to destroy your neighbour. How do we do that? The enemy is out to destroy your neighbour but instead we cover those moments by grace. Sounds poetic but when you have been raised in an environment of calling out every sin, every offense, every mistake, it can be hard to shift gears into proper kingdom leadership.

I am going to give you some time to seek Father’s heart on this. If you have questions, take them to him and wait on the answers. I pray that he will show you his heart on the matter. We will come back to finish this off with part 4.

Called To Serve part 2

 I am not going to re-cap part 1. It is available to you to look over quickly. We are going to jump right into this by me asking you to put this aside until you read Jeremiah 23. Don’t pretend you read it. It’s going to take you three minutes and you will get much more out of this by laying the foundation of Scripture.

Okay, I am going to assume you have read it, and I hope you did. It’s pretty heavy in the category of correction. The government that Yahweh had set up for Israel had completely bottomed out and to understand this we need to lean heavily on the first part. Remember what Jesus said about leadership in the Kingdom: not to rule but to serve.

In this chapter, the shepherds that are being referred to are all those who have any role in the four offices of government including those who assisted these offices. These are the officials, the assistants, the clerks who are all in place to help the four offices serve the people so that the people can succeed in life. Remember, the goal is a right relationship with Yahweh and each other because this is the foundation to success in Yahweh. It is from right relationship that all the blessings of Yahweh flow. Now of these officials Yahweh states:

“You are the ones who have scattered my flock and driven them away. You haven’t attended to their needs, so I will take revenge on you for the terrible things you have done to them, declares the LORD.”

He says that he will replace them with shepherds who will fulfill their duties:

“I will place over them shepherds who care for them. Then they will no longer be afraid or dread harm, nor will any be missing, declares the LORD.”

Look how important those leaders are to the welfare of the people : no fear, no dread, no harm, and no one missing. The LORD is placing the current poor condition of the people squarely on the shepherds.

The king has been another failure in this government. The solution is simple : replace him with a righteous king. “The LORD Is Our Righteousness” cannot describe any human representative. No human could be considered righteous outside of Yahweh making it so. It had to be Jesus. Simple enough.

It is the prophet that was the greatest disappointment because the prophet was the most intimate part of the government. The prophet had to have an intimate relationship with Yahweh in order to hear him and repeat the message. He was often in the secret place, having set aside his life to live as Yahweh’s voice to the nations. It was dangerous, difficult and required a complete surrender of will and thought.

“Because the country teems

with adulterers,

because of them,

yes, because their might is not right

and their way is evil,

the land dries up,

and the grazing areas in the wilderness wither.”

The shepherds’ neglect impacted the people but the prophet’s corruption impacted the people and the land. There was no voice of correction. No one was calling the officials to repentance. No one was delivering the truth needed. They were all about sunny days and sunny ways. They spoke from their own desires and not from the intimate position of the prophet. In this mess we hear Yahweh state something very important:

“Let the prophet who has a dream declare it, but let the one who has my word proclaim it faithfully.”

We are a prophetic people and Father communicates with us prophetically. But the measuring rod for this is the word of God. The Spirit will never speak to us outside of this foundation. He will give us revelation but that is simply a deepening of our understanding of what has already been given to us in the word. He will help us understand Kingdom systems but they are all found in the word. Every prophetic word is only viable if it is measured by the word of God. This is for our safety.

Everything Jesus taught us can be found in scriptures except that he brought us to Father’s heart with it. He took the word and he brought us to the place where it was intended to live, in great richness, power and intimacy. He showed us the true depth of relationship, “love your neighbour as you love yourself” went to the deeper place of “love your enemy”.

However, the focus here is on leadership in the Kingdom. In part 3 we are going to consider how this service to others is supposed to look on this side of the cross so that failure of shepherds can be avoided.

Called To Serve part 1

 Leadership is considered a key matter in the Church today. We have hundreds of conferences, online classes and hundreds of books published every year focusing on this subject. It is for this reason that we must insist that leadership in the Church remain biblically based. I am in no way qualified to teach on leadership but I have recently received some revelation for myself that I would like to share with you. We will start in the Hebrew texts and move into the Christian texts.

I enjoy every part of the Bible and appreciate each writer for their distinct purpose and revelation. Some of these writers I feel more partial to than others. Jeremiah is one of these writers. Born in the royal line of David, he comes across as an everyday man, called out from a regular life, into the role of prophet during a very troubling time. The Lord told him that he knew him before he was born and had set him aside at that time to be his prophet.

Let’s remind ourselves of the government that the Lord had set up in Israel. People can be mistaken in thinking that the government is the king and his officials. That is only one part of the government. No, what the Lord had set up can be compared to the government of the United States, with its three parts balancing each other and acting as accountability partners so no one person could become too powerful.

In Israel there was the High Priest who had lots of responsibilities but the big one was maintaining the law and sacrifices, everything that had been set down on paper from Yahweh through Moses. He gave oversight to the priesthood and the Levitical workers.

There was also the High Judge who normally came from the priesthood. We can see that there were periods of Israel’s history when the king would take on this office but it was supposed to be a separate person who would act as the high court, especially in doctrinal matters. He was responsible for oversight of the entire judicial system and was responsible for applying Yahweh’s justice, which was often about responsibility in relationship.

There was also the prophet or prophets. These were a unique group of people who enjoyed a relationship with Yahweh like no other. The High Priest was required to enter into the presence of Yahweh once a year but the prophet experienced him many times over. Prophets were set aside according to Yahweh’s will and came from every walk of life, regardless of position, rank or condition. But once called, everything from the past was canceled and complete obedience was required. These people, male and female, were called upon to do weird and dangerous things. Many were killed. But the prophet was Yahweh’s voice today, for this current situation, giving direction or bringing correction.

The king was the last position to be put in place. He represented Yahweh in terms of power. This power was for protection and provision. It was his responsibility to maintain an army to protect the borders. He was responsible for trade so that God’s people would be equipped to be prosperous. He had his own specific set of rules to prevent him from becoming too powerful and overpowering the other positions of government.

All of these people, including their officials and staff who assisted them were there for the purpose of the people, to build them up, to see them succeed in life. They were not there for their own agenda, to become wealthy off the people, to stack the deck in their favour. They were servants to the people, representing different aspects of Yahweh in their lives. It was a beautiful system, until it wasn’t.

David’s time was probably the best period to look at if you want to see this system at work. David protected the function of the other positions. There was justice in the land because the High Judge was permitted to carry out his role. The sacrifices were maintained and there was constant worship going up because the High Priest carried out his responsibilities. The majority of the land was experiencing peace as the king drove back their enemies and demonstrated the power of Yahweh to protect his own. And when the king thought he could do whatever he wanted, the prophet showed up to tell David that what he did was seen and to bring correction. 

In order for this system to work everything had to be focused on Yahweh. The benefit of the Law needed to be understood. The importance of each position for the prosperity and success of the nation, the people, needed to be held on to. It was not a successful nation when the rich became richer and the poor became poorer. Everyone needed to function within a fear of the Lord, out of utter respect for the instruction and a desire to be faithful to the Lord and his people. But not every king was like David and the system would fail.

In part two we are going to consider Yahweh’s heart when his servant’s failed to serve his people.

Independence Is An Illusion

The great dream of a lot of people is to be their own boss. Starting from childhood we strive to be independent, capable of looking after ourselves. As teens we dreamed of the day we would be out on our own, making our own rules. As adults we looked for some way of creating our own business so we would not have a boss to whom to answer. But it is all just a great illusion.

There is no real independence because there is always some kind of authority over us. We have the laws of society. We have the government and all their regulations. If we own a house we are subject to the municipal by-laws. If we are renting we are subject to the landlord. If we buy a car and finance it we are subject to the bank. The same with a house. If we are married we are governed by our responsibilities of relationship with our spouse. If we are parents we are governed by our responsibilities to our children. Even as pet owners we subject ourselves to the governance of responsibility. Independence is an illusion.

Christians should clearly understand that if this is true for a physical world it is even more so for the spiritual. No one is free and independent. Everyone is subject to their sinful nature. Those who have been freed from this bondage have become subject to Jesus' righteousness. Paul, the apostle, told us we have a basic choice: We can be slaves to our sinful nature or we can be slaves to Yahweh's righteousness. Whatever our choice, we are slaves to whatever we serve.

When Satan tried to tempt Jesus by offering him a short-cut to ruling over the earth, avoiding the cross, Jesus quickly put him in his place by reminding him of the order of things:

“Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” (Luke 4:8)

Jesus had not illusion of independence. Here is the Word of God incarnate, the Son of God, who set aside the divine to come as one of us, to die in our place, all at the will of Father. Jesus could not do this unless he kept his place and attitude as a servant. No short cuts. No easy fixes. No subjecting everything to the approval of his own will. He came to serve. In fact. we find these same words when Peter tried to dissuade Jesus from the cross. If you remember, Peter had just confessed Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. When Jesus started explaining how things were going to play out, Peter got after Jesus and told him that this was not the way. He wanted Jesus to avoid the cross. Jesus turned to Peter and said:

“Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:23)

Seeking individuality, independence, our own glory, is a sign of spiritual immaturity and a lack of understanding concerning our relationship with Father. We are his children but we are children who serve the Father. Our concern should not be for ourselves but for the will of the One we serve. We should not be trying to achieve greater independence but instead we should be striving to learn greater dependency on the Spirit, learning to do the will of the Father. We need to begin to say to many things and people in our lives "Get behind me, Satan" as we worship the Lord our God, and him only serve.

Who Will You Serve?

I realize that I seem to be repeating myself for the last couple of weeks but I am sharing with you a clear message that came out of my period of Fasting to the LORD. The message is simple: Yahweh has set his standards and has called us to a relationship of obedience, so make a decision. I think the reason this message is so important is because many leaders and teachers have been muddying the waters with human reasoning. There is much apostasy that is spewing from the mouths of those who promised to love and obey Jesus Christ.

Let's make this as simple as possible by looking at one piece of Scripture to understand our Father's heart on his expectations of those who accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. It is at it's essence the same expectations he had for Israel:

Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! (Joshua 24:14)

The other way this was put was to love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength. It means we get to know him, what delights him and what offends him. We must know his heart and then desire to walk in obedience to him. It doesn't mean doing whatever you think is best to serve him. That's what Israel tried to do during the times of the judges and it got them in a lot of trouble, as it is getting people in trouble today.

No, we don't get to do what we want. Jesus repeated these same kind of words but a little more directly:

If you love Me, keep My commandments. (John 14:15)

Not what you think is best but what Jesus commanded. We live according to the righteousness of our holy LORD not according to the supposed righteousness of man. We have been given standards, statutes to live and they are higher than the cesspool of sin that we are witnessing transpire from the hearts of man in our societies today.

Joshua made it clear that there is something we need to do:

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)

No one on the face of this planet is forced to serve Jesus Christ. Men of demented thinking tried to use the Church in the past to hold power over people but it failed. Yahweh does not even force his desire upon us but he freely offers it. He freely offers his mercy and grace, his love and forgiveness, his compassion. He freely offers us adoption into his family and rescue from the destructive course that we have chosen. But we have to make that decision.

The only thing we are warned is that we can't have it all. We can't have the sin of this world and the righteousness of our LORD. Jesus asked the question, what is the point of gaining the whole world if we lose our soul? If we make the decision for Jesus then there are expectations we will live by the Spirit who places the Word of God in us. We cannot take part in the unholy things of this world and be possessed by the Spirit. It doesn't work that way.

Make a decision: is the music of this world more important than Jesus? Are those favorite sin-filled television shows more important than Jesus? Are those misleading movies more important than Jesus? Is the dangerous place of social networking more important than Jesus? If you lack the discipline to turn things off when they go terribly wrong, then get rid of that thing from your life; deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. The choice is clear and a decision is demanded of us: Who will you serve?

1 Timothy 1: Commanded By Jesus

It's time for me to get back to what I do best: instruct on the Word of God. I may throw in some extra blogs from time to time but I must get back to expounding on the Word in a systematic manner. Considering the craziness that is going on, I am led to once again go through Paul's letters to Timothy. There is a lot of excellent instruction for us in this current age included in these letters.

From Paul.

God our Savior and Christ Jesus commanded me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, who gives us hope. (1 Timothy 1:1)

Do you know who you are in Jesus and what you have been appointed to? Do you know your place in the Body of Christ? Your gifting from the Spirit? Without knowing these things how can you serve?

We don't get to do whatever we want to do or whatever we feel like doing. Our calling and place in the Body has nothing to do with talents, personality or our preference. It should never be a matter of filling out a volunteer form or us being asked what we would like to do. All of these things are divinely appointed by God. Don't think so?

The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others. (1 Corinthians 12:7)

But it is the Spirit who does all this and decides which gifts to give to each of us. (v. 11)

But God has put all parts of our body together in the way that he decided is best. (v. 18)

Not our decision. That is why apostle Paul says with great clarity and boldness, "Jesus commanded me to be an apostle". Not Paul's decision but God's. It is the only way that he was able to run the race to completion, knowing he was appointed by Jesus for the task. It is this knowledge that causes us to go the distance.

If at any point you think that what you are doing in the Body was your choice you will also eventually believe you have the choice to walk away. Service is not easy. Carrying your cross will take everything you have to give and beyond. With it being so hard, if you believe you have a choice, you will walk away. It is only when you are "compelled" that you are willing to die in your calling. Can you express the urgency of your calling in the same manner as Paul?

I don’t have any reason to brag about preaching the good news. Preaching is something God told me to do, and if I don’t do it, I am doomed. (1 Corinthians 9:16)

In seminary I remember filling out a missions survey which was filled with questions about by likes and interests. This was suppose to tell me where I was suited to serve. Wrong! Unless I am called by God I will not serve with the power or conviction of God and I will do only a tolerable job in my flesh, which might, at the end of the day, kill me. The Body is filled with people filling positions halfheartedly, without passion because passion comes from conviction and conviction comes from knowing you are appointed to your task by Jesus.

Until we can say in truth "Jesus commanded me" we will not serve with all our passion. We will not serve with conviction. We will not serve with authority and power. When Paul spoke he knew he spoke with the authority that came with his office. We need to accept the truth:

Not everyone is an apostle. Not everyone is a prophet. Not everyone is a teacher. Not everyone can work miracles. Not everyone can heal the sick. Not everyone can speak different kinds of languages. Not everyone can tell what these languages mean. (1 Corinthians 12:29-30)

But everyone is appointed to something. It means that some ARE apostles; some ARE prophets; some CAN work miracles; some CAN heal; some CAN speak different kinds of languages. The Word clearly says:

Together you are the body of Christ. Each one of you is part of his body. (v. 27)

Every part has a function and purpose as appointed by Jesus and you are one of those parts. But which one?

That is the question that you need answered. Ask the Lord to reveal your purpose, calling and then wait on his response. He will put it on your heart, confirm it through the Word and confirm it again by what people receive in the Spirit for you. You may not like what you have been appointed to but you will feel compelled and your joy will be found in your obedience.

Are you convinced you are commanded by Jesus today?