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Articles 2014-2017
After recently studying Luke Chapter 20, I began to realize how our war against the religious spirit permeates our whole kingdom experience. I noticed that at the end of Luke Chapter 19, Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who were merchandising. They had turned what was to be a house of prayer into a den of thieves. And as He then began to teach the word of the Lord, kingdom instruction began replacing marketing in God’s house. Here was the point at which the priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people wanted to kill Him while the people themselves wanted to listen to His words.
Now it happened on one of those days, as He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted Him and spoke to Him, saying, “Tell us, by what authority are You doing these things? Or who is he who gave You this authority?”
Here was one of the most important questions asked in that generation and in every generation since. The reason it is significant is because many people claim to speak for God. But do they have the right to say that? Has God sent them?
Basically, there are two kinds of authority – secular and spiritual. Secular authority is essentially positional. Because someone holds a particular office or position, they have authority. For example, in the business world a CEO has authority and his employees submit because of the office he holds. It is the same in the military. The Private submits to the Sergeant who submits to those holding positions of authority over him.
In politics, the U.S. President had no authority until the day he was sworn in and then immediately he received the right to lead our military as the Commander in Chief. But the day he steps out of office, he goes from all authority to none because that authority is found in the office of the President.
In the Kingdom of God there are no offices; it takes spiritual discernment to recognize spiritual authority.[11] Without proper discernment one can walk right by what Heaven is doing and miss it. The Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ day are a perfect example of this.
As believers, we all need to seek His face, to hear Him, and to walk in His presence. And then when we come together to worship, we expect something supernatural to happen in our corporate experience. In fact, the potential that is resident when the God of heaven and earth meets with His people is huge. But its potential is far greater than what we have experienced so far. We have but tasted of the powers of the age to come. And while it is good that we have come to our present experience in God, where we are is not where we are going. But it is on the way.
As believers gather regularly, God will begin to reveal His spiritual authority. You will see it emerge in those who carry His heart for the lost. And in others who speak with His heart concerning His power and presence found in spiritual intercession, or in the need to reach out to the poor, etc. As such body ministry develops, the Lord will also make known those who carry His grace to oversee the whole process and bring adjustment when what is shared goes astray. Whenever His people gather to worship, God will anoint various ones to speak. And whatever He is saying to His people will reveal His authority. But it will take spiritual discernment to recognize what is occurring.
Over time certain men will emerge with a consistent grace to instruct and to feed the flock. Indeed, God will call and establish elders in His house. And when extra-local ministry comes in, it is not that they would make someone an elder, but that they would confirm what the Holy Spirit has been establishing among the people.
To be clear, apostles do not delegate authority to elders. Rather, they come to verify the authority that Christ is making manifest in His house.[12]
Many today recognize God’s design of a plurality of elders giving spiritual oversight to the local church. But many also maintain that of those elders one should be recognized as holding the position of senior leader. The problem is that once that step is taken, we have introduced positional or official authority among those men. And we have brought secular authority into God’s house.
But Christ’s Church is not an organization; it is a living body. And He has honored us with His presence and His grace. But it takes spiritual discernment to see what He is doing and to hear what He is saying among us. And the process requires spiritual men of godly character to oversee it. Of course, some elders will have walked faithfully with the Lord longer than others. Also, some will have a larger sphere of ministry. But when we make official what God has designed to function simply by grace and the anointing of His Spirit, we dictate to God who He must speak through on certain occasions. And we simply do not have that right.
One evening in the 1970’s I visited a Catholic Charismatic meeting where the Lord’s presence was powerfully manifest. God was arising in ways that few Protestants had foreseen. As I both worshipped and observed, I heard what I thought was a degree of theological mixture. I (probably unwisely) made a comment to someone after the meeting and his response was to ask me who had given me the authority to say what I did. Frankly, I was so new to the realm of the Spirit, that I simply had no grid for the question. I mumbled something about sensing that the Lord wanted me to. And of course, hearing God is our basis for speaking. But whether I had done so accurately is a whole different question.
Looking back, I realized that he was really asking which priest I was submitted to. The priest would have been submitted to a bishop who would then have been submitted to an archbishop. Clearly, there was a recognized system of authority in the minds of those believers. Some weeks later I read the above verse (Luke 20:2) and I realized that religious leaders had asked Jesus the same question.
But rather than answer what they asked, He asked them something.
But He answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, and answer Me: the baptism of John–was it from heaven or from men?”
Here was a significant subject. John the baptizer had not simply showed up on the scene of his own accord; God had sent him.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
(John 1:6)
He was not the light sent to illuminate the world, but he had come to bear witness of that light so that all might believe through him (John 1:7 - 8). Everyone who believes is indebted to John because he paved the way for Christ, the Light of the World who had come to free humanity from spiritual darkness/blindness. Those who received John were quick to gain insight concerning Jesus; those who rejected John walked with unseeing eyes right by the very Messiah they had been waiting for.
Jesus basically asked the Jewish leaders if they had recognized that God had spoken to them through John. And here is what religious people do when put on such a spot.
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, “From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, “From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”
What was their response?
So they answered that they did not know where it (the baptism of John) was from.
To this, Jesus replied…
”Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
True spiritual authority does not point to itself. The messenger is not the point; the One he represents is. When we stand and bear God’s presence in some way through counsel, or prophecy, or teaching, or a song, we do not then make sure that everyone is aware of our credentials. For example, we do not read of Jesus ever informing people that He had been born in Bethlehem in fulfillment of prophecy. He had not come to make manifest who He was, or to point to His own authority, or to glorify Himself. He came to make known the One who had sent Him.
So while still in the presence of the religious leadership, He turned and began to tell the people a parable exposing to them the sinful condition of those very leaders.[13]
Then He began to tell the people this parable: “A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time.
The vinedressers/tenant farmers were in charge of nurturing fruit in God’s vineyard. In other words, the Scribes, the Levites, the Priests, and the elders were called to cultivate spiritual fruit in Israel. In the Old Testament God had repeatedly sent prophets looking for His fruit. Was there kindness to be found in the land? Was there justice? Was there mercy? Servant-hood? Humility? God has always been a fruit farmer. And religious people would always get angry when the prophets asked to inspect God’s fruit trees where nothing was growing.
Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent another servant; and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent a third; and they wounded him also and cast him out. “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him.’ But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’
In this one little story, Jesus exposed the religious spirit. Basically, people influenced by this spirit want the things of God without Him. “We have authority here. We are in charge. Everything is working pretty smoothly right now. Don’t interrupt what we have planned and laid out in our five-year plan for our group/stream/movement.”
But how crazy is it to want the things of God without His involvement? Of what value are they? Isn’t He the whole point?
Recently, after violent extremists beheaded some Christians in the Middle East, President Obama made the comment that Christianity had acted similarly in the past. And many people reacted with anger. Some wanted to know if he was equating present Christianity with those extremists. But the truth is, he was correct. During the time of the Inquisition, religious leaders violently persecuted both Jews as well as believers in Christ while claiming to be doing God’s will. And it happened on the Protestant side as well as the Catholic. Here was an extreme expression of the religious spirit at work.
Along this line, some people in recent years have used the Scriptures to support their sinful attitude of anti-Semitism. They read how Pilate wanted to release Jesus while the Jews wanted to crucify Him. “We have no king but Caesar. Release Barabbas.” But these verses do not support anti-Semitism. While it is true that many Jews did reject Him, many others turned in repentance and received Him as their Messiah. In fact, the Church in its early years was primarily Jewish. Clearly, we should be grateful to the Jews for it was through them that God gave us the prophets, the Scriptures, and the Messiah. So while the Bible is no basis for anti-Semitism, it is a basis for standing against the religious spirit that was then operating in the Jewish religion. That same spirit then infected Christianity and persecuted believers in the same way that it had opposed Christ.
Our enemy is not people but rather a spirit operating behind the scenes that hates the Kingdom of God. Here is the spirit of anti-Christ. If believers are not careful we might find ourselves coming into harmony with its agenda and then treating one another accordingly. Instead of being foot-washers, we would promote self and grab for positions of influence. The end result would then be actions and attitudes that exclude Christ from His own vineyard.
So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others.” And when they heard it they said, “Certainly not!”
“No, may it never be. God cannot give the vineyard to others. The fruit of His work among men being made manifest separate from us?” But it was already happening right in front of them. The authority to nurture fruit in God’s vineyard was already passing to ex-fishermen, ex-tax collectors, and ex-zealots. These were people who had no training in the system. They had not sat at the feet of any of the recognized Rabbis. They had no accreditation.
But Heaven was raising them up and they were becoming a voice to cultivate fruit in God’s vineyard. A shift was taking place. Such transitions have occurred repeatedly in human history. And at such times God will use those who walk humbly with Him and seek Him above all else to prophetically call forth fruitfulness in His vineyard.
Then He looked at them and said, “What then is this that is written: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone’?
The religious leaders were at work building within the system. But when Christ stepped into view, they quickly recognized that He did not fit their agenda. So they rejected Him. And totally apart from their approval, He became the foundation of God’s Heaven-authored emerging eternal dwelling on earth.
And He became the cornerstone. A properly constructed building will be in proper alignment with its cornerstone. For God’s house to express Heaven’s divine order, everything in it must be in alignment with Him. We are not lining up simply with a particular method of “church building” or a specific theological system of thinking. We are learning to live in harmony with this One alive in our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit. And no one can do that for us. A spouse cannot take our place. Neither can a church leader. Each of us must come into harmony with Him.
Cry out to learn His ways. Receive the grace necessary to walk in what He reveals. Repent when sin is exposed. Embrace humility and seek oneness with His heart.
The eternal judgments of God hinge upon this one issue – how have we responded to His Son?
”Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”
When I first came back to the Lord in 1971, priorities and goals had to change in my life immediately. I had to fall upon the Rock Christ Jesus and be broken. Actions and attitudes that once took precedence had to be broken off my life as He became central and His priorities began to become clear in my life.
And lest we misunderstand, the choice to fall on Heaven’s Stone is not a one-time experience; it is a lifestyle. If we will consistently choose Him and His ways, then He will take us forward in the destiny to which He has called us. Let us encourage one another to choose properly.
Donald Rumble – September 2015
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