MANY Sons to Glory

1/1/2007

Out of the dust and ashes God can transform a baby into a man of God that blesses the nations. But that can’t happen in the factory system because people go unrecognized and are squished down because they “didn’t go to seminary” or they were in the “wrong family.”

In a Real Church—Real Ekklesia in the Family of God—a seven-year-old child or a twelve-year-old like Jesus in the temple is free to say, “Brothers, could I share something?” And after the child shares everyone says, “Whoa! That was God!” (Although it wouldn’t be expressed like that because it might make that person proud.)

The point is that everyone knows it when God shows up. In a Family, you see that God is free to raise up a 73 year-old man or a seven-year-old child. God can raise up and God can sit someone down as He pleases in an organism, but that will never happen in an organization. “When revelation comes to the second…whether 7 or 73, let the first one sit down.”

That doesn’t happen in an organization, because the boss prepares the sermon and controls the meeting and he doesn’t want any heresy. He controls all the doctrine, the speeches, and the Bible studies. He’ll control the cell groups too if there are any. He appoints all the leaders and then controls what they say. If there’s the slightest little problem, the person gets yanked and they won’t be leader anymore. A new person will be put in charge. Can you see how men’s fingers are all over everything? It’s because we’re so afraid! But in a Family there’s no reason for fear because you can work anything out.

Here is the important point: if we’re attendance-based then we better have an organization. Otherwise it’s way too dangerous. But if we’re involved in each other’s lives on a daily basis you won’t be afraid of your child getting out of control when you leave the room. If he does, you’ll work it out when you return because your life is intertwined with your child’s. You’ll be able to work out the problems because you’re part of their life every day and you can adjust and tweak as you need to. On one day you may put them over your knee and on another day you may offer them a reward for good behavior. You can work with it because they are a part of your everyday life.

If it’s an orphanage though, you better be sure to have a system and a plan. In an orphanage, your life doesn’t belong to the children and their lives don’t belong to you, so you’ll need a system, a plan, and a budget. You’ll need a boss and assistant bosses taking shifts, and when one shift is over, the next one starts. You better have all that in an orphanage.

But in a family the problems are met in amazing ways. It shows little signs of organization just like a human eye is very organized—but the cells keep changing. It’s not outward but an inward organization that changes day by day by day.

If we don’t give the Body of Christ the freedom to change day by day then we’re imposing man’s law over the top of God, and I would say that’s taking the Lord’s Name in vain. That’s something we should be very careful about. We all grew up with man’s way and are so afraid to do it any other way. We’re all scared to death, and the older we are, the more afraid we are because we’ve been at it for so many years. But I ask you this: Will you look at the fruit? You can spend 150 years being a machine in a factory organization, and you’ll see only a few good people come through. They would have come through anyway, with or without you, by the way…

(Sounds of agreement.)

Those few people are not your fruit! In an organization, you will never see the marginal things grow and flourish and take off. If you live to age 150 in a factory-based environment, you will have a 10% committed nucleus and 90% periphery, half of which aren’t even saved and you can’t do anything about it. It concerns you, and you pray and fast over it, but you can’t get at it because the system is attendance—and machine—and program-based. You can’t get at the problems that break your heart. But in a Family, you can.

If you’re going to be a factory and be attendance-based, then have all the programs, form and hierarchy that you want because that’s your best way to stay in control and keep all the heretics out. But if you really want to see the babies grow and flourish and prosper then you need to be an organism. Many sons can then come not only to salvation, but way past salvation to glory (Heb. 2:10).

“I write to you children, I write to you fathers, I write to you young men who’ve Overcome the evil one” (1John 2). If you want to see people grow to that magnitude, you need to be an organism (which will have little signs of organization) that is always changing. But when you put the external braces over it to hold it in place, then you’ll see those babies disappear, never having reached their potential.

•  MANY Sons to Glory