The Day of New Beginnings

Divine Order

 

Divine order is a living thing. It’s a living organism. We have viewed divine order as the fivefold ministry mentioned in Eph.4:11. “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers.” We have viewed it as a lifeless structure; a hierarchy, so to speak. Our submission to it has been pretty much a passive acknowledgement: “I submit to you brother, I submit to your ministry and authority.” This is not the submission of the kingdom. This is not what God is looking for or creating. 
  
  The divine order of the kingdom is an aggressive functioning. It most emphatically is not just a passive yielding to someone who has authority or an established ministry. A person is not moving in divine order until he or she themselves becomes a functioning member of Christ’s body. When we rise up and aggressively function in who we are in God, then we’re moving in divine order. This is the tricky part. There’s a whole church world out there clamoring to be heard, men and women who believe they have a “calling” from God. There are many men and women who want to exercise “their” ministry. This too is a false thing, and not the true divine order of the kingdom. 
 
  Paul lays it out beautifully in 1st Cor. 12:
 
12  For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. (Christ is a functioning organism in the earth.) 
13 For by one spirit you were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
  14 For the body is not one member, but many.
  15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any less a part of the body.
  16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
  17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
  18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 
  19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
  20 But now there are many members, but one body.
  21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 
  22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary;
23 and those members of the body, which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow the more abundant honor, and our unseemly members come to have more abundant seemliness,
  24 whereas our seemly members have no need of it. But God as so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked,
  25 that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
  26 And if one suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it
  27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
  28 And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, the gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.
  29 All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? 
  30 All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?
  31 But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. 
 
After the above verses, Paul then launches into the great chapter on love. 1st Cor. 13 is the key to the true functioning in divine order. Because without actually using the phrase, this chapter is speaking about moving into the divine nature. 
 
In 1st Cor. 12:12-31, which we just read, Paul likens the church to a physical body, with each part naturally moving in sync with the rest of the body. The only way, however, Christ’s body can move naturally as the physical body does, is to function in Christ’s nature. 
 
The false way is for men and woman to assume a place within the body and try to function in it on a soulish level. The soulish realm always gravitates toward self. The soul realm draws attention to self. This is in contrast to what Jesus taught by Word and example. 
 
Luke 9:23-24. 
23 And He was saying to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
  24 “For whoever wishes to save his (soul) life shall lose it, but whoever loses his (soul) life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.” 
 
  To have Christ’s nature functioning in us is to see the crucifixion of self. It must be laid aside. This is illustrated by Jesus’ actions in John 13. This is the chapter in which He washes the disciples’ feet. In verses 3-5 we read:
 
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God,
4 rose from supper, and laid aside His garments and taking a towel, He girded Himself about.
5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
 
  The laying aside of Jesus’ garments represents the shedding of that which is human. He was laying aside His humanity, so to speak, and moving totally as the only begotten Son of God. It’s noteworthy that as He washed the disciples’ feet, it was the lowly towel girding Him that represented the divine nature, for it’s what replaced His garments. In Mat. 20:25-28 Jesus states: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His (soul) life a ransom for many.”
 
  It’s this lying down of the self-life that ignites the reality of divine order. When each member of the body is given over to the serving nature of Christ, without any regard to one’s own place, position, or recognition of ministry, then the body ministry Paul described will operate naturally. With self laid aside, the various aspects of Christ’s nature, the divine nature, will operate and function. When this definition of divine order is fully operating, then we will we see the full manifestation of Jesus Christ in our midst. This moving in divine order is the key to the greater works (John 14:12), for it will be the Lord Jesus Christ being manifested perfectly in the earth once again.      
 
  What’s so great about this definition of divine order is that no man will be exalted or recognized above the other. The true functioning of the body is such that there is mutual dependence one upon the other. The sum total of true divine order is that Jesus Christ alone is glorified.