August 23, 1988
Truly it seems that the “stones’ are
beginning to come in from the quarry as the Lord joins the
temple of His People together in the simplicity of relationship.
Old structures are passing away as new diverse gatherings of
hungry believers are beginning to pop up in different places.
And even within some of the old structures the Lord is stirring
up a new “moving out of Egypt.”
Sure—there is still a lot of crusty
thinking around as old conceptions of the Church remain with
many of us who are moving into that new flow. But I’m not
concerned about it because I believe it is loose enough to fall
off as people keep moving with the new flow. “Except the Lord
build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”
Yes. This is precisely what we are
beginning to see. We are starting to see the Lord build
for a change. Just exactly what is it like when the Lord builds?
What are we seeing that we haven’t seen before that shows us the
Lord is building and not man? That is my first topic for you
today….
Building
From the Inside Out
Take a look with me at the obscure story
of Bezaleel and Aholiab in Ex. 31:2-6 and 36:1-2. These are the
men God appointed to build the tabernacle. Here is what it
says:
2 See, I have called
by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of
Judah: 3 And I have
filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in
understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of
workmanship, 4 To devise
cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,
5 And in
cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to
work in all manner of workmanship. 6 And I,
behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of
the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted
I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded
thee…
1 Then wrought
Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the
LORD put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner
of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that
the LORD had commanded. 2 And Moses
called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in
whose heart the LORD had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up
to come unto the work to do it:
Do you see from this story
how the Lord builds His Tabernacle? When God was ready to build,
He filled the
leadership with His Spirit and He stirred up by His Spirit
the hearts of the people. This is building from the inside-out.
Without the stirring and
filling of God’s Spirit, Bezaleel and the people could not have
built the tabernacle. Or they could have tried to, but it would
have been a far cry from fulfilling what the pattern called for.
Without that stirring of Spirit, they could do nothing (compare
to Jn. 15;5).
Now
the tabernacle is a type of the church. Today we are God’s
Tabernacle. What was true about how God built the Tabernacle is
true now about how God builds the church. God builds from the inside
out. He stirs in the hearts of people to commitment to
the work of God. He stirs in them to give, to sacrifice, to
labour of heart and hand.
When
God builds His People, no artificial methods or
motivations to commitment are needed. People come and
give of themselves willingly—to the degree they are
stirred—no less, no more. No artificial expectations
are laid on them. This is a work of liberty.
You
see, to lay expectations of any kind on people to give
themselves to the body is profitless. Unless the Spirit is
working in them to fulfil such expectations, they can’t fulfill
them. They only end up making vows of commitments they can’t
keep. On the other hand, if the Spirit is working in them,
expectations on them are unnecessary! They do from the
heart what God lays on them—no more, no
less.
And that is how God
builds the Church. Please notice that in Exodus, God’s Spirit
was given for “all manner of workmanship.” Again then, we
see that the Spirit today is the Equipper and Motivator for
every function in the body (--not just the obvious
ones.)
So this is what we are
starting to see here in the Maritimes. There is a new stirring
in hearts unto the building of the Body. This is God’s
doing—and it is marvelous in our eyes. The artificial
methods of stirring people that range from “church
membership” to human “covenants”—these are passing
away.
And the artificial
expectations (law) that are being laid on people from
interpretations of church functions in scripture to the personal
visions of pastors for their bodies of people—these too are
passing away. As God continues to build from the inside out
all artificial expectations and motivations to fulfil those
expectations by authority figures shall prove their irrelevance.
The work of God through
the hearts of people is something so great that nobody can
control it by their position or second-guess it by their own
personal vision of what is to happen. We must all keep to this
humility if we want to remain in the flow of God’s
building.
What Is A “New Testament
Church?”
A minute ago, I said that
there is a typical relationship between the way God built a
tabernacle and the way He builds the Church. But at the same
time, there is a monumental difference. The tabernacle, you see,
was given to be built according to a specific pattern given to
Moses. The men were stirred and filled of God. But there was a
pattern to follow.
Not so however for the
church. The apostles were given
no pattern—no law—to follow. Instead, the life came first,
and then took definition as it was expressed. Problems were
dealt with as they arose. (ex—see Acts 6 and
Acts 15, also the whole letter of I Corinthians).
In other words, structure followed
life, not vice versa as with the tabernacle. As God’s
Life expressed itself through humanity and clashes with certain
aspects of sinful humanity ensued, the leadership was given
immediate on-site revelation for the structural guidance of that
life for that situation.
But we have not followed
this example. What we have done is to take the structures that
arose from those initial expressions of life and sought to
establish and Old Testament-style pattern based on them and then
call it a “New Testament Church.”
Perhaps you have been to
such churches where it is said, “In the New Testament they
did this... and we do this… therefore we are a New Testament
Church.” (Actually, every church believes its particular
pattern is the pattern of the
New Testament Church.)
But actually, if we look
through to the reality of it, any church based on a
previously established pattern is not a New testament Church,
but an Old Testament church—even if the pattern is derived from
New Testament practice! (wow!)
Then what is a New
Testament Church? A New Testament Church is not one that copies
a pattern of practice from the first century, but that copies
the example of the first century church in allowing
God’s life to define itself
for the present hour. We must allow life to flow first
and then allow the Spirit-filled leadership to give it
regulatory guidance for that generation.
Now that a new wave of
God’s life is beginning to
flow, we have a new opportunity in our generation to learn this
reality. Each generation fails at the point it seeks to harness
a new manifestation of God’s Life because that manifestation
violates their understanding of some first century practice
(even through the truth is that nobody follows all the first
century practices! [like foot washings and holy
kisses!])
So someone says to me
“that’s dangerous teaching brother. What does that leave us
to go by?”
Well friends, all I can
say is, if it wasn’t dangerous for the first century church who
also had no pattern, it isn’t dangerous for us. To assume that
if we don’t go by a certain pattern we have nothing to go by
just shows how little we really know the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said He gave us the
Spirit to guide us into all truth—that was all. Obviously He
expected us to be able to recognize the Spirit or He couldn’t
have said what He said. He would have to have said He gave us
the Spirit plus some pattern,
or the Spirit plus the
apostles…etc, etc.
Folks, let’s not be afraid
of the Spirit and spiritual reality. Let’s not let our
ignorance of the Spirit be our excuse for functioning in Old
Testament ways, but rather let it be our challenge to
know the Spirit wherever we don’t so we can function
with the Spirit as our ultimate reference point for Truth and
reality—as they did in the
NewTtestament!
Why do I say this? Why
talk about this at all? The answer is simple. We have in our
generation the opportunity to not repeat religious
history.
You see, as God brings in
his next wave of Life to our generation, it will build on what
has gone before—but it will also advance into new ground
never taken before for which there is no previous established
pattern either in history or Scripture. When that happens,
if you try to judge the Life of God according to your knowledge
of an earlier pattern rather than by our knowledge of the Word
of God, you will have trouble flowing with it. You may even
REJECT it and repeat religious history.
I love you and I don’t
want that to happen to you. That is why I’m
sharing this with you. Learn now how to let God be God. Start
improving your sensitivity to the Spirit of Truth and your
acquaintance with the Presence of God. Most of you have fed your
mind very well through your Bible School training or your
Scripture study and reading of books. That’s very good.
But if you are to
appreciate any of that from the true mind of the Spirit, you’re
going to have to start feeding your spirit on the Spirit of
Truth through long uninterrupted times of meditation, praise and
worship in the Presence of God. If you don’t do this, you will
be caught short and the glory starts rolling in and crashes your
understanding of scripture just as it has in every
generation.