Debrecen Messages #8 -Genesis 1–2 and the One New Man: God’s Purpose for a New Humanity

They need a lot of help. They need a lot of Jesus. My job is to keep them innocent so that they can grow up biologically natural under his headship. Tim, I’m going to risk again, you haven’t been there very long, but you were with me a month. Was I with you a month or six weeks? One of the biggest questions about me and probably every other worker outside the organized church is how mean is he?  How much control does Gene exercise with those people? Tim, give us some idea, if you, it’s okay, whatever you say, I’ll go with. Over the life of the church? Over the church. In my experience, you don’t take control of the life of the church; you give us Christ. You mean you have never seen me order the brothers and sisters around, dictate to them, and tell them what they’re supposed to do and not do? You’ve never seen me do that?

You give them practical help. Yeah, but you’ve never seen me be authoritarian? Oh my gosh. Have you ever seen me being authoritarian in this house? And I’m going to answer that. When it comes to bathrooms. Well, it comes to bathrooms, oh no, I was authoritarian yesterday, something very uncomfortable about it. I was, I hate to do that, oh I despised it, you don’t know how difficult that is for me to do, but I will force myself, no movies in the middle of the night, saints, not while we’re doing this. You go back home, you can watch them at 4 o’clock in the morning for all I care, you can sleep till noon, but not here.

Brother, I am capable of it. I walked into a group of brothers and sisters one night at a gathering, and I raised my hand like this, and I said, I take total control of this church. There are no other leaders, and I did, and by the mercy of God, there were a bunch of people in the room who couldn’t stand that, and they all got up and left, and as soon as they walked out the door, I did this. I never did it, you may call it a bluff, I don’t know if you know the word bluff, but call it a bluff if you want, but if they had hung around I would have been an absolute lord and dictator of that place for a few months because they were people determined to take over the church and control it. I am capable of it. And I fear for the Christian worker who is not capable of being strong.

This is very, very difficult. I’m off the subject, but this is very difficult, to be capable of being strong, but not being strong. Now for a man who is not strong, and he can’t be strong, you will be eaten alive. You will be devoured by someone who is strong and gonna be strong. And I also fear for a church for a man who can be strong and is strong. That’s a horrible, horrible, horrible thing. And I said to you last night, when you get in trouble, don’t argue. Don’t defend.

Just be silent. Go about your work. I’m going to tell the story. It’s got nothing to do with anything. No, I’m not either. I’m not going to put this on video. I’ll tell it after the video is over.

What’s my point? God wants a man on earth. God wants a man on earth, and he got him. He got him in Christ, and he also got him and her and them. Them. When he got the church on the day of Pentecost, she is the one who shows Christ visible. We are here for a them. And someday there will come a new Jerusalem who bears that image and who is the ruling and reigning. And we will all be together as one, not just the church in the 21st century, but the church of all centuries gathered together as one. All the believers built together.

But that’s in the future. Right now, our business is a girl, and a them, and a him, who shows forth Christ, and that is the church alone. And obviously, this has been lost. Totally, completely lost, and you get it back, most of all this comes back, when a church functions, when a body of believers function, and they eventually function under the headship of Christ.

We have a brother here from one of the cities in the United States. I would say somewhere between six months and a year ago, that group of brothers and sisters came under the headship of Christ. After three or four years of just really miserable suffering, they can move a little bit under the Lord’s direction. They certainly move without any human leadership. Now they may have elders someday, but those elders are not going to be over God’s people. The sisters will see to that. And the reason the sisters will see to that is I’m going to tell them to see to it. I fear elders. We’re going to talk about elders tonight. I really fear elders as the present-day mind perceives an elder.

I fear them, and I have often said, as long as I live, there will be nobody called an elder in the church, not in my day. That doesn’t mean they’re not there; they’re always there. Why ruin them by giving them a name? They are present when a church matures, and you can take a vote anytime of the day or night, everybody knows who they are, but just don’t give them any elders meetings. You give them elders meetings, and you’ll ruin a body of believers. Those elders will become a fallen Adam, a corporate them – a fallen Adam. That’s dangerous. Elders are not the problem, elders’ meetings are the problem, so we have sisters, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, we have sisters, thank God for sisters.

Listen, let the sisters show you what this new person is. They are instinctively that new humanity. Let the brothers learn.

For me and my life, I will live out my life on this earth to see that new corporate humanity come together and bear His image. Ultimately, as they grow together, He becomes visible again. Think about it. Christ, visible again on the earth. That’s what his Father has absolutely determined, this is what the Father’s in love with – His Son visible, and when she comes together and grows into maturity, He’s visible again, and that is the pleasure of God. And the dominion, you don’t have to worry about the dominion, don’t get tied up on the dominion. Don’t get power happy. There’ll be times when there are needs, on rare occasions, to stand against the enemy. That takes somewhat of a mature body of believers to handle.

Brothers, these are the clothes of Genesis 1. And never, never, never underestimate God’s centeredness on man. God is determined that things become visible. He has made himself visible. And he has called him man, and he has left his Holy Spirit here on this earth to bring forth a body of new creatures to make him visible again. Brothers, make him visible in the presence of a new mankind.