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The War for the Soul of the Church
False apostles had come among the Corinthian believers and undermined Paul’s ministry. In response, the apostle questioned the local church as to whether or not he needed to reintroduce himself to them or show letters of commendation about himself (2 Corinthians 3:1). Of course, he didn’t because they themselves were his letter, written in his heart. God had brought great change among them through what He had written into the heart of His apostolic servant.
All of us who believe have wonderful insights that we have heard from certain preachers, read in the Bible, or even heard directly from God by the power of the Holy Spirit. But it is those truths that He has taken from our heads and then written into the fiber of our inner selves that define us in our ministries. Tribulation produces perseverance (Romans 5:3). In other words, God must take us through difficulty in order to write into us the inner quality of spiritual endurance that we need to succeed with Him in the long term.
Indeed, the Lord is taking truth that we know in our minds and is writing it into the depths of our hearts. He is inscribing into us His word, His purpose, even His character. And He is not using a felt tip pen in order to make us feel comfortable in the process. Rather, in His decision to write a letter to the nations He has been etching His word deeply into us so that we will become an expression of what He is talking about.
Notice that God’s present letter writing project is to be read by all people, unbelievers as well as believers.
You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men.
A “manuscript” is taking shape among the nations of the Earth, and God is its author. To be clear, He has had three writings. First, He wrote on tablets of stone at Mount Sinai. Second, He wrote through men on parchment and paper, giving us our Bible. But the third text is being written in our day and we get to be the pages upon which it is composed.
To consider just one implication, if we want to learn His strategy for a city or a region, we should go there and read the letter that He is writing. Too often, local churches think that they should import some mighty apostle to inform them of what God wants to do in their geographical area, when all the time God is personally writing in the hearts of the believers there a word to that very locale.
What this means is that God wants those who teach, preach, and prophesy to confirm what the Holy Spirit has already been saying in the people’s hearts. In too many churches, the people tend to think it is the pastor’s job, or the visiting apostle’s job, etc. to put before them God’s purpose and strategy for their city or region. But if we would all turn to Christ with a whole heart and cry out to know Him and His ways, we would begin to discern what He has been saying to us and writing into us all along.
As a result, churches built largely around a big central meeting cannot be God’s best approach for extending His kingdom.[7] Many believers gathered together to read the Heaven-inscribed letter on one man’s heart, no matter how mightily anointed he might be, can never substitute for the thousands of other pages sitting unread in the meeting. Rather, they must be encouraged both to pay close attention to what God is writing into them and then to gather together in groups small enough where each one has the opportunity to share. If large churches would incorporate such smaller meetings as part of their over all strategy, I believe it would go a long way toward making them more successful in the long run.
To be clear, it is not Christian leadership that is writing Heaven’s letter; God is the only One who knows specifically what the world needs to read. While the first century apostles served and ministered to the believers, it was the Holy Spirit doing the actual writing.
Clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
Today, God continues His writing project; He calls it the New Covenant. Nowhere does the Bible teach us that the New Testament consists of the books of Matthew through Revelation. These texts should be referred to as the apostolic writings, the inerrant Scripture, the word of God, etc. But the New Covenant is not ink on paper; it is the present writing of the Holy Spirit on the hearts of His people (Hebrews 8:8 - 13). And He has called us to cooperate with Him in His writing mission.
In fact, the Lord calls us to be ministers (Greek, DIAKONOS) of the New Covenant (2 Corinthians 3:6). We literally serve Him and others in the process as the Holy Spirit writes His word into us, as well as those we serve. But our serving is not where we pass on only biblical facts and information (as important as such activity is). Rather, it is of the Spirit whereby we literally bear to others the presence of the heavenly Writer.
Just as it would have been ludicrous for the donkey bearing Christ the King into Jerusalem to think the applause was about him, so it is silly for us to think too highly of ourselves when He uses us to put life–changing truth into someone else’s heart. Clearly, we must not get our roles confused with the Lord’s. How do we share truth with each other and at the same time honor His role of writing His covenant in those to whom we speak? The only way this process can possibly work is if we learn to speak what, when, and how He is speaking. And we dare not add our own thoughts without clearly identifying them as such.
To put it mildly, we are simply not adequate in ourselves for the task to which God has called us. We often speak when God has not spoken; and we often fail to speak when He does. And yet because He is training us in these things, we are confidently hopeful. Our assurance is not due to the excellence of the students involved, but the perfection of the One training us.
In fact, Paul wrote that though the covenant that came through Moses was glorious, the ministry of the Spirit would be even more so. The Spirit’s ministry, in this context, would be to write Heaven’s letter. Notice the future tense of the apostle’s words. He was not referencing only the glory of the Holy Spirit’s first century ministry. Rather, in contrast to Old Covenant glory, he asked, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? (2 Corinthians 3:8). Paul was looking forward in time.
In other words, there is a massive demonstration of the glory of God coming into the Earth as a direct consequence of His New Covenant writing ministry into the hearts of His people.
I know a man who while he was preaching God’s word appeared to a listener to be surrounded by a glorious light. The others in the congregation did not see anything unusual; the preacher did not feel anything unusual. But for that one listener, it was an extraordinary event. However, as glorious as that incident might sound, it is more akin to Israel’s experience with Moses than will be the Church’s experience in the years ahead. We are not anticipating primarily transitory external demonstrations of glorious light (as awesome as that might be). Rather, our hope is for the permanent abiding nature of God to be so worked into people’s lives that the nations will bend their knees in repentance, humbled by His majesty revealed in simple believers whose hearts became the parchment for Heaven’s letter.
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