I Corinthians 12:7 teaches us that God gives spiritual equipment to each believer. These gifts then are manifested and used for the profit of all others. God does not always work with a vertical strike. One of the believers may be having trouble in our church simply because another believer has not exercised his equipment to benefit his brother. Now the troubled man may be calling on God, hoping for some special visitation in his private praying, but the real problem is in the life of a brother who does not minister to others as he should.
Regarding the second diagram: A little study makes it clear that a channel can be blocked at either end where I have marked “X”. Many believers labor hard and long to get the input straightened out. They are much concerned about their life from God and wish to take in more from Him. However, we need to consider our output as well. By this, I do not mean the ordinary routine Christian service. Rather, I think it is essential that we make definite arrangement for a Spiritual output. The output must be of the same quality as well as quantity as the input. Otherwise, something is clogging the works.
This is why I believe so much in personal edification and deeper involvement with fellow-workers of the local body where we are. If we do not “dead-end” any truth but continually pour life and deeper truths into others, then we may expect God to be faithful in supplying a more meaningful input to us. We will gain new insights into His depths as we serve. This means, in the matter of structuring a church in a spiritual way, pastors must see to it that members have such a meaningful output. It is not enough to challenge them to get right with God and seek deeper spiritual experiences without offering them also deeper forms of expressing their new life. It seems ludicrous to me to challenge a man to seek a Charles Finney level input and then offer him for output nothing more than a life of being secretary in the intermediate department.
Surely, the Scriptures teach us not only how to obtain divine equipment and deeper spiritual power, authority, and experience, but the Word also gives us definite directions as to how we are to share this valuable intake.
In conclusion, I would say that not much new and different will come about unles we:
- Take time to gain full insight into what really are essential goals and head exactly in that direction, with God’s emphasis.
- Prevail in prayer as indicated in II Corinthians 10:3-5 and Luke 11:1-27. Once a strong man is bound, picking up the spoils doesn’t take so long. How much time we waste struggling to get hold of the spoils while the strong man is still on the loose!