The Gospel of Luke gives additional insight into the events of the last supper. According to Luke, an eager contention arose between the disciples as to which of them was considered and reputed to be the greatest. Jesus said to them:
“The kings of the Gentiles are deified by them and exercise lordship, ruling as emperors and tyrants over them; and those in authority are elevated above the people and called Benefactors. But this is not to be so with you. On the contrary let him who is the greatest among you become as the youngest, and him who is the chief and leader as one who serves. For which is the greater, he who reclines at table [the master of the house], or he who serves? Is not he who reclines at the table the greatest? But I am in your midst as the one who serves.” Luke 22:25-28
With those words Jesus exposed one of the greatest principles of the Kingdom of God: true greatness is in not exalting ourselves as being above others in order to rule over them. TRUE GREATNESS IS TO HUMBLE OURSELVES before men’s eyes, yet still be enabled to serve Godliness to others as He shows the need. The King is established by the power of the resurrection and He rules by administration of God's Spirit. He does not rule like men grasping for hierarchical positions of authority in the church.
The Lord is not opposed to brethren meeting together with elders, pastors, teachers, prophets, apostles, evangelists, and the various gifts and ministries the Spirit would bring forth among churches. Not at all! We are not questioning whether brethren should come together as a local expression of the Lord’s body to encourage, strengthen, bless and edify one another.
Instead, it is altogether a matter of the SPIRITUAL ATTITUDE, AGENDA, and ROLE of those who administer the gathering. God looks at the hearts. The truth is that God's Spirit is not the ruling factor or the author of today's organized church meetings. They are, instead, structured worship by men who dominate in so many ways over the people with their religious traditions.
Jesus Christ is in the midst of His people in the church of the firstborn. He is not “knocking at the door” to be let in, as in the candlestick churches. We are to be assembled unto Him. We need to come out of the candlestick church experience to be led by His spirit alone. It is outside the Laodicean candlestick that we become experts at assembling unto HIM. We know how to be fed by His Spirit. We know how to be LED by His Spirit alone while being among His people who are members of His body assembled in the UP HITHER to join with the resurrected saints Zion realm of the Kingdom.
I do not question whether we should be gathering to worship, but HEADSHIP MATTERS if we are gathering unto the Lord. We need to know we are worshiping God in spirit and truth. I look for the SPIRIT OF SONSHIP to be leading the order of the place, so we as brethren in the spirit of the Lord’s Day will be free to be following HIM. The Spirit of God flows through the body of Christ in a fluid way, ministering as Jesus Christ ministered: touching lives, healing, delivering, teaching, instructing, encouraging, counseling, correcting, rebuking, and any other needed services.
All are a FLOW OF MINISTRY of quickening spiritual life given as a gift when gathering as unto the Lord. God Life does not flow from titled delegated authorities organized in meetings designed by hierarchical tradition that has worked to gain control over generations of Christian people. A spiritual Kingdom seems far too unstructured by the reasoning minds of religious church men, for it is a KINGDOM CONTROLLED OF SPIRIT. It’s operating like the wind: you hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell (reason) from whence it comes or whither it goes.
You can't bottle it up to possess it or to reproduce it. Yet, it is to the King's domain we are to gather. Our inner spirit should bear heaven’s witness that the King should rule over each man's religious activities. We should practice reaping people to it in our meetings together. His love for us will work to purify our relationship and we will be found happy and with a sound mind.
The Spirit of the Lord’s Day has come to dwell within our spirit and manifest through us a measure of spiritual grace, mercy, wisdom, glory and power. God’s Spirit is teaching us how to gather to our spiritual homeland, the New Jerusalem order. Everything in the whole church world that is fashioned in outward works by the hands of man is dead, with no inherent God life at all. We can no longer be fed by this mixture!
Automobiles have no life, furniture has no life, clothing and buildings have no organic life. They do have structure, but not life. Plants, animals and humans, however, have formed an order of created life that can reproduce their form of life. They are the life that is in their physical bodies as they live by continual nutrition of earthly substance. Men are also created with a spiritual body that lives on in the unseen after physical death, appearing as the creation God appoints to Kingdom life. It is a development and function of spirit life, a call for generations of His people.
The Spirit of God is like the wind, an unstructured domain that cannot be built, formed, or produced by the wisdom and ability of reasoning man. Nor can it be created or conjured up by any of man’s external exaltation exercises, handicraft, workmanship, management, control, or administrative governance.
Our spirit knows God because it came from God, Who is the Father of spirits. My individual spirit has been awakened to His impartation of truth by His writing in my heart through His faithful servants. It is in our spirit that He plants His word like a seed in a garden. Oh yes, our spirit is being groomed by a heavenly gardener, so that His Life germinates, and grows to produce the fruit of His spirit. We are to develop into fruitful reproductions of HIS BELOVED SON. If the needed elements of the Kingdom have effectively quickened our spirit, it will grow and reach for the light.
Our Father is the husbandman. We can be good soil or be barren and filled with rocky ground unsuitable for Kingdom fruit now. The foundation and superstructure of His Kingdom is within people who mature in following Him. We are even letting Him plow up our inner fallow ground to plant His ideas within us. The ideas of the prophets and apostles are established in our hearts to grant us unity with all of God’s precious people of every generation.
The Kingdom of God is not, nor will it ever become, a political institution outwardly organized and dominated by men like our presidents, prime ministers, senators, parliament, mayor, council, police force, army, pastor, evangelists, bishops, or organizational headquarters. He has called us to a LIBERTY that is something altogether spiritual in nature. It is different than man's authority exercised in the church's institutionalism and hierarchy found representing Christ today.
The Kingdom of God must govern us by dwelling within our spirit until it overflows in oneness with the law of the Spirit of Life found in Christ Jesus. THE KINGDOM OF GOD CANNOT BE STRUCTURED BY MAN! It is the outflowing of His SPIRIT LIFE that structures a river and is like the wind that no man's soul can control. Yet our spirit can receive it, know it, be taught of it, led of it into Kingdom ministry.
This ministry as an expression of the anointed flow of His Life in wisdom and power. It reaches deep within the spirit of a man to serve him a Word from God that quickens his spirit and makes it be alive. This is the saving flow of divine spirit that reconciles our spirit, renews our soul, and quickens our body.
If the Messiah realized that he was going to leave the earth and return to a former heaven, how logical it would be for church minded men to seize this opportunity to pass on many counsels, directions, recommendations, directives, guidelines, and regulations for disciples to follow after His departure? Surely He could have dictated to them the creeds, doctrinal statements, liturgies, how to organize local churches, methods for ordaining elders and selecting deacons, with specifics about church finance, church programs, delegated authority and the chain of command in the assemblies.
The religious mind of a Christian man would think of the need to schedule a three week workshop with the disciples! Instead of a three week workshop, or any other aforementioned way, Jesus appears but briefly and delivers a brief message that He has all power and is with us unto the end:
“Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Luke 24:49; Matthew 28:18-20
That was the first teaching conference after the resurrection of Jesus, and the only promise given was God’s Spirit to endue us with power to observe all His commandments. None of His commandments related to any future church agenda. He wasn’t concerned about external hierarchies or outward building of structures. He was ONLY concerned that they be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.
There was no need for Him to tell them about so many things now, for He would give us His books of theology, then write the truth of its manual into our spirit. There was only the need for them to possess the Holy Spirit in order to be led by that Spirit in wisdom and power. The Holy Spirit would teach and guide us day by day as to where to go, what to do, and how to do it, what we say, what our attitudes are when we rehearse the lessons learned.
We will only need to keep Him as our FIRST LOVE, with no need to work at building another church organization for church gatherings. Jesus's only comment about church was:
"I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matthew 16:18
All God’s true ministers, throughout all generations, need the very same credentials and qualifications — THE POWER AND WISDOM OF BEING ONE WHO IS LED BY HIS SPIRIT:
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Romans 8:14
There are more than seven billion people walking the face of this globe today, and no two fingerprints match — no two people are identical. God has established it all by His creative word. When God speaks, the superlative comes into existence and the varieties are as infinite as His divine mind. The Lord has built His church together from overcoming saints of the last two thousand year church age. He has taken them to establish a Kingdom, not in a church way, but in a DIVINE way; not in a way organized by man, but in the spirit of His life-giving, transforming Spirit.
The pattern of modern day hierarchy in the church is not the order of the city of God, nor the order of the church of the firstborn. What He does in one place or at one time will be totally different from what He does in another place or at another time. God controls all things by His Spirit. The way He leads you may not be the same as the way He leads me. What He requires of me in specific acts of obedience may not be the same thing that He requires of you.
The way the Spirit moves today to direct His body in worship and in ministry will not be carbon copies of what He did in Jerusalem, Ephesus, Colossae, Corinth, Salt Lake City, Rome or in the next city, state, or nation. Jesus held no organized crusades. He did no advertising nor did he publish any meeting announcements. He rented no stadiums, auditoriums, and pitched no revival tents.
Those meeting with Him had no announced time of beginning or ending. He hired no campaign manager and appointed no song or worship leader. Think of it — no stirring of the emotions, no form of preliminaries, no order of speakers for a meeting, no hype of any kind! Jesus used absolutely NONE of the trained activities functioning in the structure of modern-day evangelistic revivals, crusades, and traditional church meetings.
There was certainly nothing religious about Him, yet His preaching and teaching was AS ONE HAVING AUTHORITY. The spontaneous manifestation of the indwelling power of God was enough for Jesus. Within the Christian churches today, there is always a time schedule, an organized system, a previous arrangement for subject matter, but Jesus refused to operate like any of that. He operated in the understanding given of the indwelling Spirit of HIS FATHER, doing always what was revealed to Him. Likewise, Paul stated:
"According to the grace of God which is being granted to me, as a wise foreman (master builder) I lay a foundation, yet another is building on it. Yet let each one beware how he is building on it. For other foundation can not one lay beside that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone is building - on this foundation gold and silver, precious stones, wood, grass, straw, each one’s work will become apparent, for the day will make it evident, for it is being revealed by fire.
And the fire, it will be testing each one's work -what kind it is. If anyone's work will be remaining which he builds on it, he will get wages. If anyone's work shall be burned up, he will forfeit it (wages, reward, honor), yet he shall be saved, yet thus, as through fire." I Corinthians 3:11-15 concordant
Paul was a true master builder, yet advised us to be careful how we build:
"Now in a great house there are not only gold and silver utensils, but wooden and earthenware also, and some indeed for honor, yet some for dishonor. If, then, anyone should ever be purging himself from these, he will be a utensil for honor, hallowed, and useful to the Owner, made ready for every good act." II Timothy 2:20 concordant
The great apostle Paul prophesied to Timothy about how Christian fellowship would go, because an apostasy was taking over:
"For the era (time) will be when they will not tolerate sound teaching, but, their hearing being tickled, they will heap up for themselves teachers in accord with their own desires, and, indeed, they will be turning their hearing away from the truth, yet will be turned aside to myths." II Timothy 4:3-4 concordant
Jesus raised Lazarus at the cemetery and Tabitha in her home. Blind Bartimaeus was healed on the street and Zaccheus was saved in a tree. A cripple was healed in the synagogue and another at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding and fed the multitude in a desert place. The sea was calmed from a boat and the centurion’s servant was healed by a word. Jesus erected no platform, issued no “healing cards." There was no production, no show, no theatrics, but simply a real flow of compassion and God power that worked in Him wherever He was.
That same power is planted deep within people. That same spontaneous flow of Christ works in all places, at all times, and in every situation, in every circumstance — in the open air, on the street, on an airplane, under a home’s roof, in the business establishments, in the churches, and at the seashore. HE is always there within our spirit, unrehearsed, unprogrammed, unannounced — spontaneously appearing to operate out of a mindset of God's newness.
God's liberated people do not feel compelled to line up with past church age traditions, repeat former glorious meetings, or function in any of man's hierarchical ways. These ways do not fit, just as the armor of Saul would not fit David in his upcoming battle with Goliath.
So it is today with us, brethren. When Adam was first created, God was enthroned in his spirit. He received his leading and direction from God. He looked to God as his creator and his provider, his director and his inspirer within his quickened and connected spirit UNTIL there was action taken that severed that connection of spirit. Whilst God’s spirit was connected to his spirit, he would live forever connected to God's immortality.
The spirit is the seat of God-consciousness, and there only will He sit to dwell in us. At the time of the fall, Adam in effect replaced the rule of God’s spirit within his inner man with direction thereafter from his own soul. Hence Adam chose to depart from God's domain. He chose to be with Eve. The intensity of being connected to Divine Life left him, and he became a creature subject to darkness and death like all the other creatures. His spirit was darkened and he soon became completely subject to the darkness of death — to die. His soul became the ruling seat within himself, where SELF ever sits enthroned.
After king David’s lapse from right living, he cried out to God, saying:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10
David's own SELFISH-ENTHRONEMENT had ruled him to murder and commit terrible adultery, so He cried out for a stronger and right spirit. David saw God was making an operation to work for the reinstatement of His rightful position within man’s spirit. He saw that God has been saying to individuals, in effect, “You cannot live without me”. If you try to run your own life and satisfy your own desires, it will all end as shifting sands in quagmires of death, empty and void.
God says; “The only way in which you can enjoy life is to give Me back the reins of your governing. My government is not oppressive, but gentle and firmly persuasive, because I made you, and I alone know what is best for you.” Jesus also taught we must be born again, our spirit must be awakened, quickened and strengthened by the light of truth, born to reign as a ruler of our house.
All of us are born first of all with Adam’s legacy to self-rule in the soul. Man's guidance has remained in the human soul ever since Adam's fall, and God's Spirit does not dwell there. He visits, he teaches, and begets us with His word — but He does not DWELL there. Each and every person who is born again is enlightened to the fact that His Word AND Spirit entered into a mature place inside that relates with God. A clean, new, quickened, right spirit is granted us Christians as God leads us on to reconnect to Who it is that dwells within our spirit once again.
It is important to see why accepting Christ into one’s life is just a BEGINNING. There is a distinct possibility of God being subsequently dethroned again and again by the spirit working in organized religion. The church of Ephesus left their first love, so their candlestick was consequently lowered from the spiritual place the early church held. And the rest of the candlestick churches attained nothing higher. Many people “accept Christ” and are baptized in water, only to build up their own soul's ways firmly by the letter of the Word to become proficient church goers for the rest of their lives.
God is looking for an initial commitment to Him with a conversion experience, but He is calling us for FAR MORE than the feast of Passover! He wants us to steadily grow into His spiritual Headship, His governing by spirit within us to bring a oneness of spirit with the King’s spirit. He wants our spirit to grow to full stature, no more babes in Christ, no longer stuck on Pentecostal gifts. At the blowing of latter rain trumpets, our “at-one-ment” comes for conversion, connected in the spirit of the Feast of Tabernacles. This is God dwelling within, with all the fruits of the spirit. We see the needed salvation and receive the up hither state of NEW MANAGEMENT in our spirit.
Our soul is very deceptive, and many are those whose spiritual senses are dull. Soulish Christians generally have not been exercised to let the spirit lead them. In fact, most of us have no idea just how much we are still in control until the Lord gradually, over time, engineers our circumstances to show us WHO and what should be in control. Herein is a gradual and rapid replacement of our soulish self-will government in exchange for God-reliance within our very spirit.
The members of Christian fellowship need exercise in this BEING LED OF THE SPIRIT so our meetings would reflect more government of His spirit. Jesus said that, of Himself, that He was able to do nothing. His total reliance was on His Father's divine direction that He actively received within His being. Jesus chose to go this way EVERY time. He allowed Our Father complete control of His life, not as a puppet, but as one who was utterly convinced this was the very best and the right way.
Many are those who have, through many trials and testing, allowed God to take His rightful place within their spiritual life. They begin receiving the spiritual quickening with but a small reliance on God, but given time and space, grow to allow Him something approaching total control. I do not want to gather where the Antichrist has the last say in the worship of God, showing rather that he is God. There are too many Christian brothers stuck in soulish, natural minded thinking in carnal religious minded systems of worship. Their ministers recite dead letter phrases with no deep spiritual quickening, just an outward show of church ways.
This gives little deliverance from the struggles of daily life because they are not taught to let the Spirit teach them. These have been retained under soulish religious control, having its mark, its way of thinking about God. They are found in great numbers in the beastly systems of Babylon. Many Christians have lived all their life under false religious ideas. Unknown to them, the anti-Christ was enthroned, controlling the mind of candlestick church believers with outward religious show and zeal.
OUTWARD APPEARANCE has led Christianity captive, but it won’t lead us around the wilderness for 40 more years. Those in the Lord's house are led by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Christ is coming to dwell in their flesh as they are delivered from church traditions, for it is in the church Anti-Christ rules instead of Christ. It rules where is should not be. In the churches, the anti-christ spirit is ruling over church meetings. I do not want to gather to that any more. I’d advise the same for you:
“Now there are many anti-Christs." I John 2:18
John stated that as a fact two thousand years ago. NOW was at John’s time and already there were many Antichrists inside Christian gatherings. They were already forming a deceptive system to control believers of Christ as lords over the Lord's people, becoming the systematized hierarchy of Mystery Babylon.
Once one overcomes the candlestick church realm where the Antichrist reigns, God raises us up hither to form spiritual connection to the New Jerusalem order. Careful observations are critical for gaining the freedom that wisdom gives on what should we be gathering to in order to worship God in SPIRIT and in TRUTH!