The Day of New Beginnings
The Kindred Spirit – Part One
The relationship between Paul and Timothy holds much revelation. It can be viewed from two perspectives. On one level the relationship can be interpreted at face value. Timothy came forth as a product of Paul’s apostolic ministry. Paul was Timothy’s spiritual father. Timothy served with Paul in the furtherance of the Gospel as a son serving his father (Phil. 2:19-22). These passages in Philippians state that Paul had no one else of kindred spirit. This is an important point. To be of a kindred spirit with someone means to function or go forth with the same essence of spirit that they have. It’s a participation in the same nature or image as the one who sends them.
This brings us to the second perspective. The relationship between Paul and Timothy can also be viewed mystically as the relationship between the Father and the Son. Paul is a type of the Father and Timothy a type of the Son. Just as Jesus was an expression of the Father, so Timothy was an expression of Paul’s ministry. But it doesn’t stop there. When Jesus told His disciples that He was going to the Father (John 14-16), He meant that He was opening a new relationship with them through the Holy Spirit. Jesus ascended into the Father and through Him comes the fathering that brings many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10). So spiritually, the Paul-Timothy relationship also represents our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as he brings us forth into mature sonship.
In this message we will jump back and forth, looking at both how the literal Paul and Timothy functioned together, and how their relationship relates to our relationship with the Lord today.
The most important thing to realize in this relationship with the Lord that brings us into maturity is that the Lord’s fathering always comes through human channels. That is the basic revelation of the Body of Christ. 1st Cor. 12:27-28 states:
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, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.
And in Eph. 4:11-13 we read:
11* And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
12* for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
13* until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Both these passages of Scripture indicate that it is Christ ministering through human channels. The inescapable conclusion is that we must recognize the Lord as He is manifested in His Body and become one with Him in that capacity.
Phil. 2:
19* But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition.
20* For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.
21* For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.
22* But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father.
The Greek word here for “kindred” is isopsuchos. It means “likeminded” or “equal in soul”. The fathering ministry of Christ through Paul created in Timothy the same spirit, the same anointing, that was in Paul. This is what we must have created in us as well. We want the same spirit, the same nature, the same Life emanations in us that are in the Lord. We want the Lord’s Life flowing in us and through us. Then we will be fit channels to be sent forth to minister as Timothy was. The ministry of the Lord comes through those we are bearing His image. His nature must be formed within them. It’s not having correct doctrine, or factual teaching that makes us ministries of Christ, but His Life flowing through us. It’s being of a “kindred spirit”.
1Ti 1:2:
To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
How do we become “kindred spirits” with the Lord? How do we become expressions of His Life? The same way Timothy did. We must have a revelation of the Lord as He is manifested in His body, and serve Christ in that capacity. This is not serving the flesh of man. The Enemy has muddied the waters very much in this area. Many false ministries have come forth demanding to be served. But a true ministry of Christ never makes demands of submission. Paul told the Corinthians, “If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.” Paul made no demands on the Corinthians, they had a revelation of who Christ was in him and they opened their hearts to it. Paul also told them in 1st Cor. 4:14-17:
14* ¶ I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
15* For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.
16* Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.
17* ¶ For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.
In Christ Jesus Paul became their father. He then exhorted them to become imitators of himself. In other words, he was telling them to have a kindred spirit. Paul then told the Corinthians he was sending Timothy, his “beloved and faithful child in the Lord”, who would minister that very thing to them. Through this we see that there is an interaction in the body of Christ with those that God raises up as father ministries, and that we cannot come into maturity without them.
In one sense, it seems we are talking about having a relationship with men that God raises up in a fathering capacity, but really, we are talking about coming into a relationship with the Lord through these ministries. It’s learning to walk with the Lord in a Father-son relationship because there has been the input of the Fathering ministry of Christ through His Body.