7 Steps to Building the New Church Step 2 - Disassociation

2 Thessalonians 3:6:

Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourself from every brother that walks disorderly and not after the tradition which he received from us.

Humiliations and Difficulties

A long while back we found ourselves in a situation where financially we were in difficulty. As a young husband and father of three children I suddenly found myself without employment and unable to provide for my family. We were in a large church at that time, possibly the largest church in the city where we were living. Some of the leaders of the church were aware of our situation, but they were in the process of building a new church building. So, the important thing in the church at that time was offerings for the building fund. They wanted to get the church built and finished. They were tired of renting places to have the meetings in. So the whole emphasis in the church was, "Let's bring in the finance to build the church building."

We were living almost across the road from the church and we watched this church building go up, and we had no food to eat! Not a single person in that church made an effort to put a hand towards us of support, whether financially, or just to come and say, "Brother, we just want you to know that we're standing with you in prayer that God is going to provide a way; that He'll provide a job for you; that He'll provide your needs."

No. We never saw a single member or a single leader from that church. They ignored us completely. We were no longer any use because we were not able to contribute towards the building of the new church.

Eventually reaching a point of desperation, and being urged by others, I humbled myself to go and see the Welfare Department, to see whether they could help us. There was not terribly much they could do. There was a fund that I could apply for, but I would have to wait. In the meantime we had rent to pay, and we had needs, basic living expenses.

So they said, "We'll have to send you to Child Welfare, because they are the ones who usually help in cases like this."

So after that humiliation, we faced the further humiliation of going to see Child Welfare.

They took one look at this and said, "Oh, you are supporting three children and you do not have a job! You'd better get a job quickly or we're taking your children away from you."

That was a great help. They gave us food to feed the children, but now the pressure was on.

"You'd better shape up, otherwise you're an unfit parent."

They would not help us with our rent or anything else.

They said, "What you'll have to do is you will have to go to another special welfare department that is run by a local church."

It was the largest church denomination in the country at that time, a very large and very wealthy church organization. They said that they normally helped people in our situation. So the third humiliation followed. I had to go and have an interview with somebody else and tell them our story. I waited and waited for a response and the man eventually came out with a file in his hand.

He sat down in front of me and he said, "Um. I see that you are English speaking."

I said, "Yes."

"We do not help English speaking people. We only help people who speak ..." (the language of the people that that church was constructed around, which was the alternate language of the country at the time). He said, "I'm sorry, I can't help you."

I began to see that there was a system set up in the world that was not designed to help, but to destroy. And the ones that I went to that were supposed to be there to help me, were now trying to destroy my family. They were being used by Satan to destroy. And now, as I went to what appeared to be the church system of the day to see whether the church would help, I found the church to be no different to the world. They had the same attitude. They had the same lack of love and care for those who were in need.

Discontentment

That was among some of the first tastes that I had of how the church has come to be controlled by the world. And over time in the experiences that I have had in ministry, in the church, in serving the Lord and in the world, I have come to see that the Body of Christ has developed to a situation where the church very often does not look any different to the world. Sometimes it looks exactly the same. The world has crept into the church, and the church has become molded after the pattern of the world.

We are going to be looking at this in a lot more detail as we continue in this series, but in this message I want to look at how we must come to the place where we identify these things, and where we begin to disassociate ourselves from them.

I shared last time my discontentment with church and ministry; how I reached the point where I said, "I've had enough. I'm not prepared to be involved in any of this anymore."

So I left the church where I was. I had the call of God on my life. I knew I must go into the work. I must go and do the work of the ministry, which the Lord had called me to, but where, but how? I was not aware of an apostolic calling on my life at that time. The awareness of that came only much later. Little did I know that way back there already the Lord was preparing me for the apostolic calling.

But here I was churchless, sitting at home with nowhere to go, and a deep desire to enter into the work of the Lord. I was a young man wanting to go and give my all to the Lord with a sense of urgency that God was coming and we needed to reach out and preach the Word.

Ministry Change

So in time as I sat at home, eventually I found that I had to go and find a place to meet with other Christians. I could not survive without fellowship. So I went and found a church to go and fellowship in. And God led me to a church organization that I was familiar with, and they followed a far more Scriptural pattern than the church organizations that I had been in before.

As I came into that church to fellowship I discovered that they had a principle that was based soundly on the Word of God. They allowed a meeting once a week, which they called the 'Open Meeting', where they took the Scriptural pattern where Paul says, "When you come together every one of you has a psalm, has a doctrine, has a teaching, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edifying."

For the first time I was given an opportunity to stand up and share publicly. I did not have to get special permission. I was given the pulpit. It was an open meeting. Whoever came to the meeting could stand up and share whatever the Spirit of God laid on them. The pastor was not in charge of the meeting. Actually if you came in as a visitor you could not even tell who the pastor was. The meeting gathered in a circle around the Lord's table in the center.

And as they sat down, somebody would spontaneously say, "Let's sing Hymn so-and-so."

Somebody would begin to sing a chorus and everybody would join in. Somebody would do something else. The Spirit of God led that meeting, not a person. Sure there was leadership. There were people there that God used. There were people that God placed in positions. And I began to realize that there were certain people who tended to fulfil certain functions again and again. There was one person who generally did all the interpretations, and he was very sound in it. And very often, when there would come utterances in tongues, he would interpret it. He was very sound. He was an elder in that church.

I knew this man from way back. He was an old friend of my parents. I had not been in touch with him for many years, but he recognized me, and because he knew my parents he knew who I was.

As I began to stand up and share the little bit that God had given to me, he immediately called me aside and said, "Hey, I can see you have a teaching ministry. I want to get you involved." He said, "We have a meeting, a special meeting one Sunday a month where we have a Bible study type meeting, and I have been given the responsibility of who preaches at that meeting." He said, "I'd like you to preach at one of our meetings, please."

Preaching Opportunities

I had an opportunity to stand up and preach. I had never been given that opportunity in a main meeting before. I had been allowed to do it in youth meetings and other unimportant meetings, but never been given a chance to do it in a main meeting. And there I stood preaching and teaching the Word in the main meeting. The pastor of the church was sitting right there in the front row, listening and paying attention, and looking up at me and showing that he was appreciating what I was teaching. It was amazing. I could not believe it.

I was given more opportunities to preach. I started to get involved in some of the home meetings that they had and began to interact with people there. My ministry started to become known in the church. But still, what were my changes of going into ministry with these people? Eventually it seemed that I might as well give up this idea of the ministry, so I decided that it was time I do something with my life and pursue some kind of career. I had put my career on hold because I had the call of God. What did I want to go and study at college for and go and get a qualification and do a professional job? What for? God had called me to the ministry.

But after years of waiting I decided maybe it was a mistake. Maybe God did not want me to go full time into the ministry. So I committed myself to a training program which involved me moving from the city where we lived to another city. I put in the application and it was all arranged, and I was due to transfer. Everything was in place.

But the pastor of the church called me the one day and he said, "Les, we have identified the call of God on your life and we would like to put you into the work."

I had a choice to make once again. I had to move into this new job and resign about a month later. They were not at all happy with me. But I was put into the work, into the ministry. At last after all this time! At last I had been given the recognition and put into ministry, and been given the opportunity to work full time for the Lord. I was so excited I could not wait to get involved in this new ministry. I could not wait to move in and take my place now as a pastor.

Not as it Seemed

Shortly after I was finally ordained to the ministry there was a Pastor's Conference, a conference for all the ministers of this organization.

I thought, "Wow! Can you imagine what it is like to get together in a meeting where there's just ministers; the men of God; those that are on fire for the Lord and are working for God. Oh, it's going to be wonderful."

I could not wait to go to this meeting. It was going to be so exciting. And the first meeting I went to was a minister's meeting, not a church meeting. It was a Council Meeting, a meeting to discuss the work.

"Oh man, this is going to be good to get a bunch of people together to discuss the work of God. I wonder what we are going to discuss, like we are just going to take the country for the Lord. We're going to reach out and expand and do great things for God."

And first on the agenda was ministers' salaries. Some ministers were complaining that the salaries were too low. The ministers were a mixed racial group, and before long it became apparent that some racial groups had been neglected and were not getting as big a salary as some of the other racial groups. So there came a conflict. There came arguments, anger and strife, because these people were not being supported properly.

It led on from there and they were discussing everything that was wrong, who had stepped out of line, and who they were going to discipline. And who this, and who that. There was no talk about the work, just talk about an administrative task, a job that these people were doing.

I said, "Lord, what did I put myself into? Lord, this is what I've waited for all these years for? I don't want this. I don't want to be part of this. I think I made a big mistake. What is going on, Lord? Surely this is not the way that Your work is meant to be?"

The World in the Church

I began to see that even though I had found a church that was far closer to the Scriptural pattern than what I had seen before, the system of the world was still there. I want to look at some of these things that I began to see in the organized visible church. I want to look at them and examine them in terms of the Word of God. I want to show you the things that were wrong.

And I want to challenge you now to come to the place where you say, "I am not going to be associated with these things that are wrong. I want to come to the place where I won't have any part of this anymore, because this is not God's order."

Racial Issue

Well, the first thing that really stood out to me was the racial issue. People do not discuss the racial issue. They do not preach about it. It is too touchy, too sensitive. You do not speak about racial discrimination in the church. People are going to get upset. They are going to get hot under the collar. They are going to say things they should not say. So I take my life in my hands here, and I am going to speak about the racial issue!

The racial issue is nothing new. It was there in the early church. Did you know that? In Ephesians 2:11 Paul says:

Therefore remember that you, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh - who are called Uncircumcision by those who are called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands - at that time you were without Christ, being aliases from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in this world. But now in Christ Jesus you who sometime were far off are made near by the blood of Christ.

For He is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us.

Paul had a problem. He was a Jew, and God called him to minister to the Gentiles, the heathen nations. They were another racial group. They were another culture and another nationality. And if you were a good Jew in those days you did not mix with Gentiles. You did not have anything to do with them.

When Peter first went to Cornelius's house and preached the gospel and had the audacity to even baptize these Gentiles, the first thing that happened is they pulled him over the coals and said, "Hey, Peter, we heard you went to these Gentiles. How dare you? You are not supposed to mix with those low class people. What are you doing, Peter?"

Peter had to try and explain how the Lord had actually chosen them first; how He had put His Spirit on them.

He had to say, "Hey, if the Lord loves them, who are we to judge? If the Lord treated them the same way and gave them the same Spirit in the same way that He gave it to us, then what makes you think that we Jews are so special; that we are favored of God above the Gentiles? Don't you know that God has chosen and blessed the Gentiles in Christ as well as the Jews?"

Poor old Paul had to go there and commit himself full time to ministering to these Gentiles. They were always getting on his case. Eventually he finally arrived in Jerusalem and what is the first thing they say to him?

"Paul, hey Paul, we hear that you've been mixing with these Gentiles and you have turned away from the Jewish ways. Paul, you have forsaken your race. You have forsaken your people! You'd better prove to us that you're still the same; that you've still got the same attitude. You have to show us, Paul, that you do still believe that the Jew is superior to the Gentile. Prove this to us. You'd better go and take a vow and go into the Temple and give up an offering."

Paul was swayed by them and he paid a big price for it, because as a result of that he ended up in trouble. There was a riot in the Temple. Because of that, Paul eventually ended up in prison. Why? Because he permitted himself to be swayed by the opinions of man.

Now where is it at? Where is it at with races? God has made peoples different, and He has made them distinctly different. In the flesh they look different and they act different. And it is not just races, it is cultures. We are going to be speaking later about the archetypes of this world and how they mould the thinking of people.

You do not realize where you are right now. No matter what your racial group is, you have a way of thinking, you have a mindset that has been bred into you. It has been bred into you by your family heritage. It has been bred into you, and it has been programmed into you by the world round about you, by the politicians, and by the World System that squeezed you into its mould.

You perhaps have national pride to think that your country is greater than other countries.

"It is God's own country, this. We are special to the Lord. We send more missionaries out than anybody else."

It is a dangerous, very dangerous stand to take, because God sees all men as equal spiritually. Spiritually we all have the same Spirit. It is the external that is different. But you see what the problem is; the problem is once again the church and the world are mixed. I want to tell you something. In the world all men are not made equal. All men are not the same. All men do not think the same. All cultures are not the same. And you cannot mix them together because you cause conflict.

There will always be racial conflict because each race and each culture has a pride. They have a programming and a mindset that goes with that race and that culture. When you try and mix it with the others there comes confusion. And inevitably what happens is one race tries to impose their thoughts and their mindset on the other race. And when you see races fighting for equality eventually what it becomes is the race that has been suppressed tries to become superior and tries to impose their mindset on the other race.

That is the World System. That is the world's way of doing it. It is not God's way of doing it. That is not the order of the church. We are to have the mind of Christ, the Bible says. And the biggest mistake that we can make is to try and force an integration in the natural. As soon as you begin to legislate and begin to force an integration you get rebellion, you get conflict and you get disaster. You get anger and you get people rebelling and reacting against that.

The Scripture says that we are to, 'maintain the unity of the Spirit, until we all come to the unity of the faith.' In Romans 18:12 it says, "If it is possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men."

Do you know why very often it takes an outsider to come into a country to bring revival? Do you know why it takes a preacher from overseas sometimes to come and bring the power of God to bear in a country? Because the people in the country all have the same mindset? They are all thinking the same and they do not see where Satan has them in his grip. They do not see the system that has been programmed into them, that they thought was of God. It was not of God, it is a World System and it is organized by Satan. Sometimes God has to bring in somebody from the outside who can look at the thing with an unbiased look.

Well hopefully they can look with an unbiased look. The biggest mistake that is often made is the missionary comes in and now tries to impose his culture on the mission field. It has been so common in time past for European culture to come in and try and impose on the Africans, the European culture. They go to India and try and impose on the Indian people a Western culture, which does not suit them. They are distinct cultures, and in the natural those cultures will remain.

While we live in the world and in this World System, those cultures will remain. But in Christ and in Christ alone will they be done away with. Because only in Christ do we become one. Only in Christ do we begin to see a person by their spirit, and when we look upon them we do not even notice their body. We do not look at their physical characteristics, but we look at their spirit, and their spirit and our spirit cries out in the same Spirit and says, "My brother." We are one.

You become so one with a person that after a while if somebody says to you, "Tell me, what racial group is that person?" you stop and you think, "You know, I've never thought about that. You know I never noticed. He has a different color skin to me. It slipped my mind completely. I forgot to notice it!"

Do you know, in this ministry we have people from many different races and cultures who have come in as members and as students in our schools. And do you know sometimes we have to think, "Now what racial group is that person again?" It is not obvious because we do not think in those terms. It makes it much easier on the Internet when we do not see the person all the time.

Let me tell you, the Internet is a blessing. You can fellowship with people of different ages and different cultures and races, and you begin to unite with them in one spirit. And you do not even know what the color of their skin is. Sometimes you do not even know the racial group or what country they even come from. But you begin to fellowship with them and your spirit begins to unite and pour out to them.

And you say, "Wow, what a brother, what a sister."

Who wants to get involved in the racial thing? Folks, if we get back to the way the church is today, and it is bound in the World System, that is when racial problems occur. And it is not up to us as a church to now try and promote racial harmony. We do not have to promote racial harmony. We have to promote unity in the Spirit. When you promote unity in the Spirit, racial harmony is automatic. You do not have to preach about race.

When I see a preacher standing up and preaching against racism I see somebody who is a racist. He has a problem. He has a problem relating to another race. He has something against that race and he has a prejudice himself. That is why he is preaching it.

Let it go, brother, let it go, sister. It does not have place in the Body of Christ. Let it go. Listen, if folks of one racial group feel more comfortable fellowshipping with each other, let them do it.

Do not tell them, "Hey, you're just separating yourselves. You don't want to mix with us."

Give them time. Not everybody is moving in the Spirit yet. There are a lot of people, all of us, still walking in the flesh a lot. We are still in this world. There still are distinctions. There still are these archetypes that are built into us. But God is going to destroy it, and when the new church rises up and that sleeping giant rises up, the unity and the harmony in the Spirit will come, that we will not even notice it. Nobody will ever have to say a word about racism.

"Racism? What's that? Racial integration? What's that?"

We are one, we are automatically one. And if one group of people happen to be more of one race, so what? If they feel comfortable being that way let them be that way. Hey, sometimes guys like to get together with guys and women like to get together with women. Sometimes young people like to meet with young people and older people with older people. They feel more comfortable with people that think the same way as them.

Let's start where people are at. Let's be like Paul who said, "I became all things to all men that I may by all means win some." Let's start where people are at. Let's not try and push them.

You know the final word of warning, and something that really makes my ears prick up is when the world starts promoting something.

I stop right there and I say, "Hold it. Hold it. If the world is promoting something, should we as the church be doing the same thing?"

Should we? No, we should be doing something better than what the world is doing. And if the world is trying to promote racial harmony; if the world is trying to bring integration, then my immediate reaction is, "Hold it. The world is not inspired by the Spirit of God. And if that is what the world is trying to impose, that cannot be what God is trying to do. God does not try to impose these things. It comes naturally by the Spirit of God."

I have said a lot more on this than I planned to, but it is a big issue in the church today. And people seem to think that their particular circumstances justify them in being bitter against another racial group. I come from a country that is known for its racial stand in times past. I grew up with the programming against another race that was considered inferior. In the natural I should be a racist. In the natural I would be a racist, but in the Spirit is has no place. It falls away automatically and does not even enter into my thinking. I do not need to address it. It goes automatically. Pastors and those in ministry and the church system allow the same things to divide us that divide the world.

Salary Issues

Let's look at the salary issues. Paul taught that a preacher has a right; that the leader in the church and the one who ministers spiritual things, has a right to be blessed financially. People seem to have this idea that if a man works hard and puts in long hours; if he studies hard and pursues a career, builds up a business and becomes financially successful, whether he be charging high prices or not, people look at him and say, "He is a successful man." They take off their hats to him and say, "Wow. This man really has something to have been able to build himself up from nothing and become a successful businessman."

There is not an outcry because he is charging for his services. There is not an outcry because he is charging for the products that he is giving out. But let him call himself pastor and the whole thing changes. Let him call himself a minister of God and suddenly the whole dimension changes. Suddenly all his efforts in studying, all his efforts in increasing his knowledge, all his efforts in giving forth in long hours every day, are meant to be without reward. He is supposed to do it for free. After all, he is working for the Lord, so the Lord is going to pay him.

People seem to have the attitude that to give to a servant of the Lord is like giving to charity, where we throw a pittance out when we feel like it; when our conscience tugs at us a little bit. No, let's make no bones about it. The Word of God is very clear that if you are ministered to in spiritual things, you have an obligation to minister back in financial things. You see the ministry is a calling, it is not a career. It is a calling, and those who commit themselves to it do not think in terms of money. The apostle Paul refused to even exercise his right to be financially supported. Too often the mindset in the church is this.

There is a little saying that my late dad used to say years ago. He said, "You know in most churches, the people pray like this for their pastor. 'Lord, you keep our pastor humble, and we'll keep him poor.' "

It might sound funny, but it is true. The pastor is meant to just barely get by. He is meant to just have enough to live on, no luxuries. If the pastor has a good car then he is stepping out of line.

"What does a man of God want a good car for? What does he want to live in a good house for? What does he want to wear fancy clothes for?"

Let me tell you, he has put a lot more effort and worked a lot harder than that rich millionaire out there, who has arrived at the top by trampling on everybody else. People will gladly pay the price for his products without batting an eyelid. But let them be asked to give something towards this man of God who has poured out his heart and soul for them, and they want to winge about it.

We have a responsibility to support the work of God. This is the first time I am touching on this subject, because I do not like to preach on it. I like to have Paul's attitude. My boast is in the Lord, and if I have to work with my hands in order to earn, I will do that. But God's work needs to be supported.

Instead, what is going to happen now is a church organization is going to set things up and they are going to become like the world. They are going to structure it in such a way that the pastor has to be given a salary, an income specifically. The whole thing is determined in a worldly way, and the whole thing is run in a worldly way. People have to pay their tithes and they are given receipts for their tithes, as though they are paying their monthly subscriptions.

The church has become like the world. Why? Why has the church come to the place where the pressure is put on people to force them to pay tithes, which is contrary to the New Testament pattern? We will talk about that another time. But people are forced to pay tithes in terms of an Old Testament covenant. Why? People are coerced, people are threatened, people are filled with fear if they do not pay. Why?

I will tell you why. Because they are not paying. They are not rewarding the one who feeds them. Paul quotes from the Old Testament and says, "You will not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain." While the ox is treading out the grain, let him eat some of it. There needs to come a change in the church system. The church system has adopted the World System, and the church system has become like the world, which is squeezing finance out of people and controlling it just the way the world controls it. It is the wrong pattern. It is not God's order. The church was never meant to be that way.

Authority Issues

What about authority issues? One of the first things that I saw discussed at this first conference that I went to, was how they should discipline a leader who had stepped out of the fold. He had stepped out of the group. He was very successful, you see. He was a very good preacher and very good teacher. He was a dynamic, eloquent man.

He built himself a very large congregation, and he said, "I don't need to put up with this nonsense. I can go out and I can support myself, and the people in my congregation can support me themselves. I can then be free to do what God leads me to do, not as this denomination forces me to do."

So he stepped out and became highly successful. His church began to grow and became one of the largest churches in that group. He was still associated with them, but he was no longer under their banner or their control. He was what is classed as an independent assembly.

Here they were discussing how they could him back under their control; where they could tell him what to do; where he could be part of the system. He was a man being mightily used by God, but no, he was out of order because he was not part of the group.

Can you see the World System? You just see anybody who rises up, even in the world. If they get too high the pressure begins to come onto them.

"Hey, who do you think you are, stepping out above all the rest of us? How dare you? You come on back down here. You come on back and be part of the group. Come on back and be under our control. Become a loser like the rest of us."

It is the World System. It is the pattern of the world. You will see it in the church. You will see it in the denominational structures. You will see where the control begins to come, where each person begins to get squeezed and put into a system where he can be manipulated and controlled and not allowed to grow too big above the others.

I remember the very first church that I pastored. You know you are a young pastor, you have just been put into the ministry, you have just been ordained and have stars in your eyes. You are excited.

"I've got a church. I'm going to go and pastor a church."

So they said, "Let's give him the worst church we have. He'll take anything!"

They gave me a church nobody wanted. They gave me a church where some of the biggies failed. I was sent out there. It was my big mouth. You see, I told the Lord to give me a church that had problems, because I figured I could handle them. I was a good teacher and counselor. I could handle problems.

I said, "Lord give me a church with problems."

So they gave me a church with problems. And I stepped in there under the authority of somebody who had gone in and started that church going again. He wanted somebody to come and take over so he could move off. He was an apostolic brother. He was ready to move off somewhere else and I was going to go and take over.

It did not take long for him to realize that I was not what he was looking for. It did not take long for the pressure to begin to start and he began to put pressure on me to conform and to run things the way he wanted me to. I had a different vision to him and a different ministry to him. I wanted to impart to that church what God had given me. It was not what God had given to him, and he did not like it. He was not happy about it. He was very unhappy. The pressure began to come on me to conform.

I began to see the World System once again, the squeeze, the pressure and being forced to not obey the Spirit of God, but being forced to obey the system; to obey those who are in authority over you.

Covering

Then you have this wonderful term, 'coming under covering'. Have you heard that one?

"You have to be under a covering, brother. You cannot be out on your own. Who are you responsible to, and who are you submitted to? Whose covering are you under?"

What they are looking for is somebody big, somebody with a big name, or an organization that has a lot of representation. That now is the person or the group under whose covering you are to come.

Most of the covering concept is based on the chain of command. There are three main chains of command. There is the chain of command in the home where the order is God, then the husband, then the wife, and then the children. So there is a chain of command. The man is to submit to the Lord, the wife has to submit to the husband, the children to submit to both parents. While you are in the chain of command and obeying that chain of command you are under covering.

There is a Scripture where Paul speaks about a woman having covering on her head. Some people argue that it is her hair, and some people argue that it is a head covering, and there are all sorts of disputes about this, but we love this word covering. So we take that now out of the home, and begin to put it into the church. We begin to put it into government. Wherever there is authority you have to be under a covering. So when you come into the church the idea is that unless you are submitted to somebody who is above you, you are not under covering.

Well, I always ask the question, "Where does the buck end?"

If I am submitted to somebody else, who is he submitted to, and who is he submitted to, and who is he submitted to? Who is the guy at the top? And who gives the guy at the top the right to not have a covering? Well, you tell me, who gives the man, the husband, the right to not have a covering over his head? Why is it that only the wife has to have a covering to be submitted to her husband?

Now do not misunderstand me, there is truth there. We will speak about that another time. I am not advocating rebellion, not at all. I am just trying to get away from this term, 'covering'. Covering is a protection, and protection and authority are not necessarily the same thing. Yes, the husband is given to be a covering of protection to his wife. And yes, the leaders in the church are there to be a covering of protection to the flock, just as the shepherd is a protection to the flock. But where is our covering of protection? Our covering of protection is in fellowship with one another, and in submitting to one another.

Authority in the church has come to look just like it is in the world. So when a person earns the right to be the head honcho; when he has built his way up and has built this big business and is a wealthy man and is employing a lot of other people, he now has the right to say, "I am the Chief Executive Officer of this company, and everybody else in this company will submit to me."

Well, how does one get to that position in the church and build up to it? It comes the same way. If you make a big church; if you preach well; if you minister well; if you are popular and you draw in a lot of people and your church grows so that you are now the leader of a large congregation, that now gives you the right to be a big organization. And now that you are a big organization, other people can come and rest under your banner. They can come and roost under your branches and build on your foundation.

Do you see any difference between the church and the world? The system looks exactly the same.

Traditions

The other problem that we face is dealing with traditions, the traditions of man, traditional religion.

In the very first church that I pastored there was an old sister who had come out of a mainline traditional denomination. She had become saved and filled with the Spirit and had moved now into a more charismatic group. But she brought with her, her traditions. And I used to battle with her.

Every time I tried to share or minister she would say, "No, but in the church that I come from, they didn't do it that way."

There was no such thing as official membership in the church, and she was saying, "I don't want to join this church unless I can be an official member. I want to feel secure."

There was a pressure on me to conform, to try and make everybody happy, to try and do it the way people wanted it to be.

And you know there are people out there, when you ask them what church they belong to they say, "I'm a Baptist." Most of them will say, "I'm a Catholic."

People want to belong. Sometimes they have grown up or they have had parents who were in a particular mainline denomination like that, and it is bred into them.

"My father was a Baptist, and his father was a Baptist, and his father before him was a Baptist, therefore I will be a Baptist too. If I get filled with the Spirit, I call myself a Charismatic Baptist, but I'm still a Baptist."

We like to stick to our titles. We like to stick to those emblems that we hang onto. It is traditional religion. It is just the same in the world isn't it? People have a boast in their country, in their state, in the school they went to, in the college that they went to. There is always something we have to hang onto, something we can make our boast in. The Body of Christ cannot be the same as the world. This cannot be our boast.

Confronting the System

Now how do you go about confronting the system? How do you tell them they are wrong? I made that mistake very early in my preaching career. People enjoyed my preaching. The other ministers appreciated my preaching. And we had another ministers conference, a spiritual one this time, and I was chosen to be the first speaker at this conference. There were two speakers. I was the first one. I was the chief speaker. Can you believe it? I was elected to be the chief speaker at this conference.

Ministers from all over the country had come and were gathered for this special meeting. We were going to have a lunch together afterwards. It was wonderful. I had the opportunity to stand up and share and to preach forth the Word of God. But I was stupid. I decided I would suggest something new. I thought I would preach against the system. Big mistake!

By the time I was finished preaching there was silence. People were trying to avoid looking at me. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with me. We came together for the meal afterwards and nobody wanted to sit next to me. Not one person came to me and said, "Good preach. That was a good message. That was a good teach. There were some interesting thoughts you brought up." No, not one.

The guy that came after me stood up and preached about Shepherding. At that time the Shepherding Movement was big. You know, the idea that the pastor is the be-all and the end-all, and he dominates and controls the flock? He tells them how to breathe and what to think, and what to have for breakfast. He tells them what their ministry is going to be. He orders and commands them to do the ministry. That was the teaching of the Shepherding Movement.

They ate it up, they gobbled it up, they patted him on the back and laughed at his jokes. They thought he was wonderful. But I wanted to crawl into a hole and die somewhere. I had made such a fool of myself I did not want to ever stand up and preach again. It took me years to get over it. And only in later years as I began to realize what God had actually called me to do, did I realize that back there already, without even knowing it, that draw of the apostolic call was in me already. I was already beginning to see the things that were wrong and that needed to be righted in the Body of Christ.

So what are we going to do? We are in the system, it is there. And there are varying degrees of it. There are some church organizations that are steeped in old fashioned traditionalism. Some of them do not even preach the gospel and it is all tradition. So you can see some of the traditional churches like the Catholics and the Anglicans and the Presbyterians. It sort of goes up as you look at the different stages of the Reformation.

You have the Reformed churches coming out, and you have the Anabaptist church coming out, and the Baptists. Then you have the mad Pentecostals. You have all these different groups and different levels of traditionalism in them. But they are all part of a system that is molded and controlled by the principles of this world.

Be a Leader

The church is built on a wrong foundation. You can fix it, and you can paint it, and wallpaper it, and you can try and make it look beautiful. But it cannot function the way God intended it to, because it was built on the wrong foundation. So what are you going to do? You are going to have to make a choice if you are an apostle of God. And if you are an apostle of God, the chances are you have already made that choice, and you have already started to take action. And you have already started to get opposition as a result of your attitude and your action.

Well, you are going to have to refuse to follow like sheep. Christians are just like sheep sometimes.

The leader says, "Okay, we're going to do this."

"Yes pastor!"

"We're going to do that."

"Yes pastor! How high do you want me to jump?" They follow like sheep. "It has to be right. The man of God said it. He must be in order. He is the anointed man of God. He doesn't make mistakes and walks close to the Lord. We must follow."

You are going to have to refuse to follow. You are going to have to refuse to follow the traditions of men.

Head Coverings

Let's look at some more of the traditions. In the denomination that I was in when I was in the ministry they were very strong in the tradition of a woman having to cover her head while praying or prophesying. So at every church meeting the ladies came with head coverings. If they wanted to wear hats that was okay, but most women felt that it was a bit conceited, so they wore these prayer shawls that they put over their heads.

You could see who were the spiritual sisters in the church. They had their head coverings and they wept and wailed and prayed very spiritual prayers. It was quite clear they were very close to the Lord. Never mind the way they treated their husbands at home. That did not matter, as long as they wore their head covering at church. Never mind about the fact that Paul was talking about the head covering as a symbol of the wife's submission to her husband; of having the covering of her husband over her. That is where it came from.

"I don't have to submit to my husband at home, but I can come to church and put a head covering on and act very humble."

They were very spiritual. I did not believe that that was the scriptural pattern at all. I never had. I do not believe that God intends women to have head coverings. My wife at that time used to like wearing hats when she felt like it. So sometimes she would wear a hat and things were great. Sometimes she did not feel like wearing a hat and she wore nothing.

I became assistant pastor to one of the largest churches in the country where they had very strong leaders, mature men of God, with very strong rules about how the church should be run. We came to church the one night and my wife did not have a head covering on. The pastor was a wonderful man of God. He was the one who had ordained me to the ministry. He spontaneously called my wife forward to come and sing because she had a singing voice and used to often give song items in church.

So spontaneously, without preparation, she stood up there to sing without a head covering. Horror of horrors! The elders' eyes nearly popped out of their heads.

"How dare she! How can a woman pray or prophesy or sing without a head covering."

I want to tell you that the power of the curse was so strong that although she was a confident singer she stood up to sing, and she had barely sung a couple of lines, and her voice cracked and broke, and she could not go on. It was a disaster. She could not understand it. She was devastated. What could have happened?

Tradition! We had violated the church's tradition. There are big problems when you violate the church's traditions. It led eventually to my reputation in ministry being taken away, because my wife was not wearing a head covering. It is so sad when the church has to resort to such things.

Water Baptism

There is another tradition, although it is not a tradition. It is an ordinance. The Bible teaches water baptism. And some people have added an extra ordinance, which they call foot washing. I am not going to knock foot washing. I personally do not believe it is an ordinance. I do not believe that we were commanded to wash one another's feet physically as an ordinance. But be that as it may, there are people who insist that if you do not do foot washing you are disobeying the Lord.

Then when it comes to water baptism there comes a conflict as to what formula you are going to use, and what words you are going to speak when you baptize somebody. Well, the denomination that I grew up in believed that since you needed to be baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, that meant that you had to be baptized three times. So they would push you under the water three times.

"In the Name of the Father, in the Name of the Son, in the Name of Spirit."

Of course, all they were doing is baptizing your head three times. By the time they were finished you were coughing and spluttering and losing your breath. You were not even thinking about the Lord. You were gasping for air!

Was that wrong? No, I was baptized that way. I was baptized and made my public declaration in water baptism, of my faith in the Lord, because that is what water baptism is. Then I came to see afterwards that there were other denominations, in fact most of the other ones who baptized a person once, in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as they went under.

Then, because God had led me to be in so many different denominations, I also spent a season in a church, which is known as Oneness.

"Oh, the heretics! The Jesus only people?"

Yes, them. They baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, once. Well, I tell you, I felt a far greater anointing in some of their baptisms than I felt in some of the others. But does that mean that their formula was right? I had to face a difficult situation being in different denominations, and when I finally went into ministry I went into ministry with the Assemblies of God, which is not a Oneness denomination. Fortunately they do not believe in baptizing three times. But what formula was I to use? My mind was confused. Who had the right formula?

Well I baptized all ways, and I tell you what, every time I baptized somebody the anointing power of the Holy Spirit has been there, because I baptized them in the Name of Jesus.

"You mean, you used the formula, 'In the Name of ..."

No, I baptized them in the Name of Jesus. What does it mean to do it in the Name of Jesus? It means I stand in His place, and I stand as Jesus, and I baptize them.

"In the Name of Jesus I'm baptizing you, in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit."

There is no difference. You see, I am doing it in His Name, and by His authority and by His power. The Spirit of God came down as people came out of the water. And they were prayed for afterwards and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Lord set His seal on it. It had nothing to do with tradition; with the words; with the methods; with all these things that people argue and fight over. Let's get rid of the tradition. Let's refuse to follow like sheep.

Elders in Leadership

There is something else that is a problem that I have seen in the church. Today people are looking at the leaders and pastors as being dominating authorities. I am going to deal with that shortly, but not every church is like that. Some of the evangelical, more traditional churches, are sometimes run by deacons, and the deacons tell the pastor what to do. Sometimes they are not even saved.

Well, at the church that I was in, they had elders. These elders were big men. Well, it does not take much to be bigger than me, but they were big men, men of repute. They were Managing Directors of companies and that sort of thing. They were guys who were quite confident in their leadership. They were very strong and capable men. And let me tell you, the pastor could not step out of line. If the elders said, "No," it was no and his hands were tied. Very often he was not able to do what the Spirit of God was leading him to do, because the elders would put a block on it, and they would put a stop on it.

What is the difference between the pastor and the elders? In terms of the Scriptural pattern, which we will look at later, there should not be any difference, because an elder really is the pastor in a church. But they had this distinction in that denomination. They had the minister in charge, who was ordained to the ministry, and had the elders who were local people in the congregation that had been appointed to that office.

I was acting as an assistant pastor in this large church where these elders were, and my boss, the pastor, went on leave.

He said, "Les, I'm going away on vacation for a couple of weeks. You're it. You are going to have to fill in my place while I'm gone."

Oh dear! I was not a leader in those days, not by any means. I could be confident in the Lord and in the ministry that He had given me, but I was not of strong enough character to stand up to these mighty men. It was heavy. During that time I was approached by a group of people who ran a conference ground that the churches would often hire for conferences. They had heard my ministry and they had enjoyed it.

They said, "We've never had our very own conference on these grounds. We're always hiring it out to other churches. But we have a little church fellowship there; a little group of us that gather, and we want to have our own conference. And you know what? We would like you to come and be our special guest speaker at the conference."

Wow, what an opportunity! I had to jump at that one. This was of the Lord. I poured all my time and effort into getting a whole seminar together to teach for that conference.

I came to the elders and said, "Brethren, I've been invited to be the guest speaker at this conference."

I thought they would rejoice with me but they said, "Is this going to interfere with your duties?"

I said, "Listen, I'm going to be there over the weekend and I need to end on Sunday morning. I don't normally preach at the Sunday morning service anyway, and you brethren are quite capable of running it. So, if you don't mind, can you excuse me from the Sunday morning service, and I will be there for the evening service."

Well, they muttered and they moaned and groaned and complained, but I had already organized it. I sure was not asking them, I was telling them. I had already organized it. So they grudgingly let me go to this meeting. And I remember the Sunday night when I finally came back after having a glorious weekend in the presence of the Lord, one of the elders was already standing there ready to get into the pulpit to preach, because they did not believe I was going to arrive.

He was totally arrogant and said, "Well, I didn't trust that you were going to arrive in the meeting in time, so I prepared a message for tonight in case."

It was not nice working with elders in a church, who were trying to dictate how the work should be run. Do you know what it is like when you have to face a Board of Directors and they do not want to stand with you? They do not want to agree with you on what you feel you need to do. Well, that is exactly what it was, because the church was being run as a business; because it was being run according to a World System. It came to the same thing. It now became a case of the strong leaders at the top controlling and quenching.

So often you see this in the world where the Board will kick out the guy in charge. He will be forced to resign and leave because he is not towing the line with them. A lot of churches are run according to that exact same system.

I had conflict with elders in another church as well, that did not have a pastor. They called a pastor and he came in, and they did not like him, so they kicked him out. I made the mistake of going to visit shortly after that, and I tried to stand up in the meeting to say something. I was told to sit down and shut up. Elders can destroy a church.

Dominating Pastors

But here is one that you all know - dominating pastors. Hands up if you have heard of that one? Dominating, controlling pastors. I want to share a Scripture in 1 Peter 5:1:

The elders among you I exhort, I who am also an elder (it is Peter speaking) and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight of it, not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre but from a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock; so when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that does not fade away.

Likewise you younger ones, submit yourselves to the older ones. Yes, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

Peter is writing to the elders. Well, who are the elders? You will notice that whenever Paul went and started a new church, before he left he ordained elders (plural) in every church. And you will notice that the leadership in a church was always recognized as being the elders.

The title or term pastor is used nowhere in the New Testament, and you will not find it mentioned in the apostolic church. It was mentioned many years later as the church began to drift away from God's pattern, where one of the early writers (I forget which one it was, but his writing is still available) is quoted as saying, "You must revere the pastor and the elders." He distinguished between the pastor and the elders, and he set one over the others.

It was not the original order. In the early church there was a plurality of elders. We will look at that a lot more as we look at the pattern of God's order for the church later. But today the church has come to a place where it has one elder as it were, who has to be in control. In the early church the pattern was that a multiplicity of elders would come together in harmony. It was a team ministry. Every church was run, not by one person, but by a team.

Now it is very possible that amongst that team there could have been one person who was recognized by the others as having greater authority, I do not know. But it was never an official title.

And Peter says, "You younger guys amongst the elders, you need to show some respect for the older brethren."

There were elders of different age groups leading the church.

In the end he says, "Listen, you must all submit to one another. There is no head honcho here."

Peter writes as an apostle and he says, "I'm also an elder, just like you."

How was Peter an elder? He was in a local church, and he was involved in the leadership of that local church; not as an apostle, but as an elder. His apostolic ministry was a different function altogether. The apostolic office embraced the entire body universal, as we will look at later. But in the local church context he was amongst other brethren as elders.

So he was not saying, "I'm imposing this on you. As the apostle, the main guy here, I'm telling you lower down guys down there you'd better listen..."

No, he says, "Listen guys, I'm one of you. You elders, I'm an elder just like you. I'm the same as you. Now listen, stop trying to be lords over God's heritage. Stop trying to be a big shot here. Just be in humility. God resists the proud. Submit to one another. You are leading under Christ, who is the head of the church."

Heresy

But what has happened in the World System is we have the pastor who has risen up, and because of the strong leadership there comes an inflexibility - in doctrine and in structure. So very often fellowship in the church is based on doctrine. And you will see every new church that starts up, you know what they start under? A new doctrine. Or maybe not a new doctrine, but a doctrine that, "...we want to make our little hobbyhorse. We want to take one little teaching from the Word and blow it out of proportion, and make it our special revelation. So we want to build a church based on our special revelation."

"What makes your church different from the others?"

"Well, we believe in this, brother."

"So do the other churches."

"Yeah, but we believe it is very important. We believe this is of prime importance, and we are basing our whole fellowship on this."

Now the moment you do that, you get branded as a heretic. You know what heresy is? Heresy very often is not even bringing a false doctrine in. Heresy very often is taking a valid doctrine and making more out of it than what God intended. I have seen this happen. I have seen a church take one hobbyhorse doctrine on which to base their foundation, and they immediately become ostracized from the rest of the churches. They get treated as an outsider. But as a heretic they develop a bad reputation. They become infamous.

And do you know who goes to that church after that? Everybody else who was kicked out. If you were kicked out of this church, if you want to be accepted in a church, you just go to the church over here that has pulled aside and tell them that you believe in their hobbyhorse doctrine. That is all you need to tell them and they will welcome you with open arms.

"Yes, my brother, God led you here to us. You have the revelation."

And they bring all the other garbage that they believe in with them, nevermind what other rubbish they believe.

"As long as you believe in our doctrine you're accepted, brother."

So in they come, and what a motley crew they become. You will get every false doctrine in the history of the church beginning to appear in a church like that. Why? Because the church was built on a foundation of one doctrine, and everybody that comes in has unity on one doctrine. It is not a unity of the Spirit. It is not a total unity in the Word. Inflexibility in doctrine is a very dangerous thing.

Accepting False Doctrines

I listened to a radio program that was broadcast in a very sound otherwise church organization, where the leader of this organization, the apostle, decided that he would take a different slant, and emphasize a new aspect of doctrine that was different. And although his teaching was not heresy, it tended to drift off. And it drifted off so badly, they were having people call in on this program to give their opinions and various things. So this one person called in and began to rave about all the books that he had read by this great man of God.

And they asked him and said, "So what church do you come from?" and he said, "I'm new age."

They said, "Oh, very nice. Oh yes, new age is pretty close."

My flesh cringed. I thought, "Oh Lord, for the sake of acceptance they are prepared to take one who is standing for the very thing that is diametrically opposed to all that the church stands for!"

But because he is prepared to agree with their doctrine, they are prepared to say, "Well, we don't fully agree with you, but hey, you're a good guy. Come on in and be part of us."

Separate yourself from that! Do not follow like sheep. I do not care if he is a great man of God. I do not care if he is anointed and signs and wonders follow his ministry. His doctrine is out of order, his pattern is out of order. It is contrary to the way the church should be. Do not fall for it.

Titles in Leadership

Then there is selfish motivation in leadership, and people wanting to be in the limelight. That is so dangerous in the work of the Lord. John writes about a man who was like that. In 3 John 1:9 he says:

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will remember the things that he does, criticizing us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself will not receive the brethren either, and forbids those that want to, and casts them out of the church.

Wanting to be in the limelight, wanting to be the big shot, that is the way of the world. The World System is to take your boss's place; to rise up in the company; to be above everybody else; to take a place of reputation. So going along with it, is the use of a beautiful title. It is wonderful to have a title, isn't it? Instead of being ordinary Les Crause I have to have a title. People will work so hard for a title. They will work and study like mad so that they can put a title in front of their name.

"Dr Les Crause - now that sounds impressive!"

But you know the most deadly thing is when people begin to take the call of God and use and abuse that as an excuse to exalt themselves by putting a title. And what is the big title?

"You don't call me Les. How dare you? You don't even call me brother Les. I'm not a brother. I'm the pastor of this church. You will call me Pastor Les. In fact, even that is a little bit too familiar. You can call me Pastor Crause, please, and show some respect for a man of my authority."

So people will walk up and say, "Excuse me, pastor, may I talk to you? No, pastor, yes pastor, thank you, pastor."

It sounds so spiritual doesn't it? It sounds so humble. But it is contrary to the Word of God. You will not find the title 'Pastor' anywhere in the New Testament. And Jesus specifically forbade it. Here is what He said in Matthew 23:1:

Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to keep, that keep and do, but do not follow their actions; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, that are difficult to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move one of their fingers. But all their works they do in order to be seen by men. They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the uppermost rooms at feasts, the chief seats in the Synagogue, greetings in the market, and to be called by men, 'Rabbi, Rabbi.' But you, do not be called 'Rabbi', for One is your Master, namely Christ, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father upon the earth; for One is your Father, who is in Heaven. Neither be called masters, for one is your Master, namely Christ.

Maybe that really should say, "Neither be called pastors, for one is your pastor, namely Christ." I prefer that translation. I think we are going to make that in the GMRN translation, don't you?

"But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant," Jesus said.

It is all there, guys. If you want to be called, rabbi, if you want to be called pastor, or if you want to be called anything, reverend? If you want to be called by titles, Jesus said, "No. Don't you do that."

Who was He talking to? He was talking to His disciples. He was talking to the guys who were going to become the top dogs in the church. He was talking to the twelve who were going to be the apostles.

He said, "Don't you dare use titles and have people call you by titles. You humble yourself, and you be a servant of all."

It is the way of the world isn't it?

You say, "But surely Paul called himself an apostle? Is it wrong for a person to call himself apostle?"

"Well, when you talk to me you do not say, 'Brother Les.' You don't say, 'Pastor Les,' because I am higher than a pastor. You will call me, 'Apostle Crause' please."

So when you address me you say, "Excuse me, apostle."

Oh for goodness sakes, it is putrid! It is stupid! But people are doing it. They are tripping over their feet in false humility to try and impress the man of God. Paul did not address himself as 'The apostle Paul' and neither did anybody call him, 'Apostle.' They called him 'Paul' because that was what his name was. But Paul did not have a problem telling them what his calling was. Paul did not have a problem acknowledging the ministry office that had been placed on him.

So, he could comfortably say, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ." Usually he said, "A servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle."

In one place he makes it very clear that to be called an apostle means to be called to demotion and to become the scum of the earth. So I would not brag about being called apostle. Do you want to use a title? You are out of order. It is contrary to what Jesus taught.

But by all means, if you know you are called; by all means, if that ministry gift that God has placed upon you is sure and is clear, there is nothing wrong with standing up and saying, "The Lord has called me to be an apostle, to be His servant, and to go forth in His Name."

I have nothing wrong with that. I do not have a problem with somebody saying, "God has given me the office of prophet, and I stand as a prophet today to speak to you in the Name of the Lord."

There is nothing wrong, because your boast is not in yourself. Your boast is in the Lord. But when you insist that somebody refers to you as 'Prophet So-and-so' and they drop the word prophet, prophet, prophet with everything they say to you, it is exactly the same as pastor, pastor, pastor. It is the same as rabbi. At one stage Jesus even took the word teacher and said, "Don't be called teachers. Don't take titles."

Hey, if you have studied to be a doctor and you want people to call you Doctor, go for it. You know, I have found something amazing amongst doctors - I am speaking about medical doctors - but an ordinary medical doctor, a general practitioner who is just a trained doctor, is a guy that everybody calls, 'Doctor.' But he studies a few more years and gets a post graduate and becomes a specialist, and it is too humiliating for him to use the term 'Doctor'. He becomes known as 'Mr So-and-so.'

I do not know if it is that way in your country, but it was in the country that I came from. A specialist does not use the term 'Doctor'. And for you to call him 'Doctor' is a humiliation for him. Why? He is above that. He is beyond that. He has got out of all the nonsense of trying to be the local GP. He is headed for the top and has a greater vision to specialize and to bring healing to a specific type of person. He has lost the vision.

He is no longer concerned about saying, "Well, I studied for so many years and I became a doctor, and there is the label on my desk and on my door to say, 'Doctor So-and-so'."

Hey, if you studied to be a doctor, you have the right to use the title. I do not have a problem with that. But what is your reason for wanting to use the title? To overcome your insecurity? To have people recognize you and admire for your achievements? There is no place for that in the work of the Lord. I do not care if you have a doctorate, if you want to go into ministry drop the doctorate. You are a servant. You should be as humble as Jesus, who girded Himself with a towel and washed His disciples' dirty, stinky feet.

"Are you prepared to do that, Doctor Reverend So-and-so?"

Let it go. Do not follow like sheep. Do not be like the world.

Dangers of Compromise

What are the dangers of compromise?

You say, "What's the big deal? God's blessing the church. Yes, I know some of these things are out of order, but hey, the Lord is still blessing it. The church is still functioning and souls are getting saved. People are getting healed and being set free. Things are happening in the Body of Christ. The Lord is even bringing revival in some of these churches and He's pouring out His Spirit and His anointing. What's the big deal? Does it matter if I compromise a little?"

Yes, if you are an apostle, I am afraid so. If you want to be an apostle you cannot get away with it anymore, because you are top of the pile. You are the one who is going to lay the foundation, and if you are going to use bad bricks in the foundation, you are going to build a bad building. The Lord wants to lay a new foundation. You are going to have to stop compromising.

The apostle Paul tried to compromise. When he came there to Jerusalem and they said, "Hey Paul, come on, do the Jewish thang."

By submitting to that Paul caused such disaster and problems. He spent a lot of time in prison as a result of that. And I do not care how much blessing came from it. I do not believe that was God's will that he ended up in all that disaster and had to have those beatings and shipwrecks and all the problems that he faced. I do not believe that that was ordained of the Lord. I believe it came because Paul compromised the stand that God had given him.

Yes, the great apostle Paul was not perfect, hey? He was pretty close, probably closer than you and I will ever be, but he was not perfect.

I made the same mistake in ministry. I remember when I decided to introduce membership in the church to suit one old lady who had come from a traditional church. There was disaster, there was upheaval, there was conflict. There was chaos. You just would not believe the conflict. I was sorry I ever tried it. I just had such opposition from everywhere. I was jumped on from a dizzy height. It just was not worth it. If I look back on it now, it was just plain dumb and totally contrary to God's order.

Politics in the Church

You know there are churches that are trying to compromise with the world. When I look back, in the country that I come from, the chief denomination was the Pentecostals; the original founding apostolic denomination that was founded by John G Lake. They were ostracized in their time past for their stand on the Spirit of God, and they became so big that they wanted to be accepted by the mainline traditional denomination of the country. You remember the one I told you about that did not want to help me because I spoke English? It was them.

Most of the government ministers belonged to that church. Talk about unity of church and state? They had it. It was disaster. The country was ruled by a religious system, mixed with politics. And this Pentecostal denomination wanted to be recognized by the church system. They wanted to move out of just being an ordinary church. They wanted to be a big church.

It is so dangerous when the church starts dabbling into politics and getting involved. They let go of some of their standards and began to get more and more into a traditional system, until eventually government would recognize them, because government was steeped in the other denomination. When they did that it was, 'Ichabod, the glory has departed.'

It was the kind of denomination where at a pastor's conference they would stand up and call each other, 'Pastor'. Have you ever seen pastors calling each other, 'Pastor?' Can you imagine us holding such a conversation?

"I'd like to ask Pastor Craig to open in prayer. And Pastor Daphne, could you just do this for us? And Pastor Wesley ..."

Oh for goodness sakes! Pastor, pastor, pastor, patting each other on the back all the time with titles. It is sad. And you see these churches sucking up to the political leaders. We saw that in our own country where men who had dabbled in politics from the World Council of Churches and had stuck their nose right in there, the so called critics. Because they were in government, the big churches of the country suddenly felt that they had to somehow pander to those clerics in order to have some kind of say in the country, because the church system was being controlled by the World System.

Will You Pay the Price?

It cannot happen when the church comes out of the world. You are going to have to disassociate yourself from it. And you are going to have to count the cost, because there is going to be a cost. There is going to be a price you are going to have to pay for that. Are you prepared to stand for the truth, even if it means you are going to be kicked out?

Are you prepared to take your stand and say, "I refuse to conform to this, which is contrary to God's Word," even if it means you are going to lose your credentials; even if it means that you are going to be banned from preaching, from holding meetings in your home, from doing anything that will be recognized by the church?

You could never be recognized again. You are going to have a bad reputation, and it will go around, that when you go and try to get involved in ministry, your reputation will go ahead of you.

People will say, "Oh, we heard about you. We were warned to keep away from you. You're a troublemaker. You're insubordinate. You refuse to submit to authority."

Sometimes, even your own family and friends will turn against you. Why? Because they are in the world, and they are in the system, and they are controlled. You see, it is that mindset again that I was speaking about. It is the same mindset that manipulates the world, which is manipulating the Body of Christ. There is a price to pay.

If you are going to disassociate yourself from the system that is in the church, that is of the world, then there is a price that you are going to pay. So you had better make up your mind now, apostle of God. You had better make up your mind if you are prepared to follow through on this thing. Because if you are going to be an apostle of God and you are going to lay a new foundation, you are going to be ostracized, you are going to be opposed, you are going to be kicked out and trampled underfoot. You are going to opposed wherever you turn.

Hey, you think it is bad enough to go out and start something new? Read the book of Nehemiah and find out what they had to face while they built the walls. That is what you are going to face, with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other. It is a wall, a battle. Are you prepared to pay that price? You had better think about it. You had better count the cost.

But there are rewards too! You will be following God's pattern, not man's. You know you are going to be making the heart of the Lord happy. You know that you are going to be doing what God intends, and you know that you are going to be building Him His dream house. And you know what? You can obey the Lord without restriction. You can do exactly what He tells you to do. You can be part of a new generation.

You must refuse to compromise. You must step out in faith. You must start obeying the Lord and step out in obedience without any fear. There is no other route.

We are only on the second step, and we have a few more to go yet. Is it getting tough yet? It is never easy to separate yourself from the status quo. You are fighting a system that is under the control of the god of this world. You could find yourself being treated like a diseased organ. The body wants to cut it off and throw it away. There is a price to pay for apostleship. There is a price to pay for taking your stand, for refusing to compromise, and for making a quality decision that you are going to disassociate yourself from the system that is contrary to God's order.