A major factor which helped usher me into the church life years ago was the faithful speaking of the leading brothers in the Lord’s recovery, speaking which wasn’t tempered by current philosophies or by what was politically in vogue.
Reflecting on the recent speaking in the training on Numbers gives me a fresh appreciation of the unadulterated Word of God ministered to us year after year during the seven feasts.
Here I express my appreciation for such speaking and what I feel our response should be, along with supporting verses.
2 Corinthians 2:17 “We are not like the many, adulterating the word of God for profit; but as out of sincerity, but as out of God, before God we speak in Christ.”
In contrast to many politicians and world leaders, the brothers leading us aren’t attempting to accumulate a following or attain a successful religious “career.”
Galatians 1:10 “For am I now trying to win the assent of men or of God? Or am I seeking to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a slave of Christ.”
Rather, they seek to nourish the saints with the interpreted word for our growth in life and the building up of the Body of Christ.
1 Timothy 4:6 “If you lay these things before the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, being nourished with the words of the faith and of the good teaching which you have closely followed.”
They speak the Word of God on behalf of the speaking God, with no intention of itching our natural ears.
Luke 10:16 “He who hears you hears Me, and he who rejects you rejects Me…”
2 Timothy 4:3 “For the time will come when they will not tolerate the healthy teaching; but according to their own lusts they will heap up to themselves teachers, having itching ears.”
In so doing, it is inevitable that some who aren’t clear concerning God’s economy and whose world perspectives aren’t enlightened and shaped by it will oppose such speaking, considering it foolishness.
2 Timothy 4:15 “…guard against [Alexander the coppersmith], for he greatly opposed our words.”
1 Corinthians 1:23 “…we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness”
This can be the case even among those in the churches, where saints may lose sight of God’s economy and turn away from the ones who ministered to them.
2 Timothy 1:15 “This you know, that all who are in Asia turned away from me…”
Instead of being stumbled by the Lord and His word, which by nature is contrary to the fashion of the present age, we should be encouraged that the brothers speak God’s pure word to us and suffer for the gospel with them.
Matthew 11:6 “…blessed is he who is not stumbled because of Me.”
Romans 12:2 “And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind…”
2 Timothy 2:8 “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me His prisoner; but suffer evil with the gospel according to the power of God.”
May we be like Timothy, one who was liked-souled with the apostle and who sought the things of Christ Jesus, rather than his own things.
Philippians 2:19-21 “…I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly…For I have no one like-souled who will genuinely care for what concerns you; For all seek their own things, not the things of Christ Jesus.”
I continue to be encouraged and strengthened by the brothers’ enduring ministry and testimony to press on against the tide of this world for the building up of the Body of Christ. May the Lord grace us to stand with our senior brothers, responding to Paul’s request in Ephesians 6:19-20,
“…that utterance may be given to [them] in the opening of [their] mouth, to make known in boldness the mystery of the gospel that [they] would speak boldly, as [they] ought to speak.”
In Christ,
Travis Tatum