We must Honor the Lord as the Head of the Body, Praying until We’re Clear about His Leading

In our cooperation with the Lord for His ultimate move we need to honor the Lord as the Head of the Body by spending much time with Him, waiting on Him, not taking any decisions without Him, and pray to Him as the Lord of the harvest to thrust out workers in His harvest.

The Lord is moving in an ultimate way to gain a corporate expression especially in Europe, and we are commissioned by Him to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth before the end comes (Matt. 24:14).

As we are being burdened by the Lord with what He wants to do, we need to not turn this into a movement but contact the Lord and seek to be filled in the Holy Spirit so that we may be in the living move of the living person of Jesus.

The Lord’s move is the move of the Holy Spirit in man and through man, so we need to contact the Lord, be filled in Spirit, be saturated with the Spirit, and allow the Spirit to take the lead in everything that we do.

Much has been lost throughout the ages, however, because those who took the lead in the church did not seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit and thus did not honor the Lord as the Head of the Body and the Lord of the harvest; rather, there was a lot of human discussion, decisions were made, and the leading of the Spirit was not present.

Christianity is full of division and “headquarters” of divisions, and all of them claim to have the word of God and the speaking of God, doing God’s work on earth. As we see in the Bible, however, the headquarters for God’s move in His New Testament economy is not a “head church” or “the apostles” but it is in the heavens – the heavens rule!

The One who rules over all the churches is not the Pope, the “head pastor”, or a reverend or bishop; Christ is the Head of the church, and we are all brothers (lower-case brothers) in Christ, members of His Body.

We must Honor the Lord as the Head of the Body and the Lord of the Harvest for His move

We need to learn from the book of Acts and from the experience of the apostles and elders in Acts 15 never to make decisions on our own but honor the Lord as the Head of the Body for His unique move on earth.

We need to shy away from making suggestions to others or giving them instructions, for none of us are qualified to do this.

We need to ask the Lord two important questions, as Paul did, Who are You, Lord? and, What shall I do, Lord? We first need to know who the Lord is, and our entire Christian life is a quest on enjoying, discovering, and experiencing who Christ is. Then, with respect to our work, we need to ask the Lord, What shall I do, Lord?

Paul said that he and the others preached Christ Jesus as Lord and themselves as the slaves of the saints (2 Cor. 4:5). Peter encourages the elders not to lord it over the saints (1 Pet. 5:3).

Only the Lord is our teacher, and we are all brothers; He is the elder Brother, and we are all brothers; only God is our Father, and only Jesus is our Instructor (see Matt. 23:11-12).

We are not the Lord or the Master, and we are not the Lord of the harvest; therefore, we need to honor the Lord as the Head of the Body and as the Lord of the harvest by not making decisions in ourselves (see Luke 10:2; John 4:35).

We may want to do something for the Lord or go somewhere for Him, but He may stop us; we need to honor the Lord by checking with Him, and stop when He tells us to stop. Whoever cannot stop for the sake of God, cannot work for the sake of God.

The Lord is the Master and the Head of the Body, and we must honor Him by not making decisions in ourselves.

However, many times we have made decisions for others, telling them our feeling / opinion where to go and what to do, and giving them instructions; instead of doing this, we must pray, fast, and wait on the Lord, and encourage others to do the same.

He is our Master, and we are His slaves. We should say to Him, “Lord, You are my Master. I am neither qualified nor do I have the position and the authority to make decisions or give orders to others. Lord, I am waiting on You. I want to know Your will and Your heart. Lord, I want to know what You want me to do and what You want my fellow workers to do. Lord, I ask You what You want the churches to do.” We all must have this attitude; otherwise, we shall insult the Lord, and eventually He will give us up. Witness Lee, The Spirit and the Body, ch. 1

The Headship is assigned solely to Christ; only He is the Head, He is the Lord of the harvest, and He is the only One authorized to tell His members where to go and what to do. We need to wait on the Lord, honor Him as the Head of the Body by checking with Him in everything, and not initiate anything or give others advice what to do and where to go.

If we have the attitude that we know where others should go, we insult the Lord, and eventually He may give us up – He may not use us for His move. Only the Lord has the Headship – He is the unique Leader (Eph. 1:10, 22; Col. 2:10; 1 Cor. 11:3; Matt. 23:8-12).

If we don’t have this attitude of honoring the Lord as the Head of the Body and the Lord of the harvest, we will become like degraded Christianity; they make decisions, hold conferences, and send out people to the places they want to go to, having nothing to do with the Lord as the Head of the Body.

Traditional Christianity has lost the Lord’s presence because many of those in Christianity have made themselves the Lord of the harvest and the masters of the work; we should not repeat this tragedy.

Rather, as Paul says in 2 Cor. 2:12-17, even if a door is open to us in the Lord for the gospel, we should contact the Lord and care for the rest in our spirit. We need to let the Lord defeat us, conquer us, and make us His captives; we are defeated by the Lord by taking care of the rest in our spirit.

The Lord doesn’t need many spiritual giants but many little captives. We need to tell the Lord,

Lord Jesus, conquer us, defeat us, make us Your captives, and never let us win! We want to take care of the rest in our spirit and honor the Lord as the Head of the Body! Amen, Lord, You are the Head – only You are the unique Leader and Master, and we want to wait on You. We want to know Your will and Your heart, and we want to know from You what You want us to do. Lord Jesus, we are not qualified to take any decision regarding where to go and what to do; we ask You, thrust out workers in Your harvest!

Contacting the Lord and Praying until we are Clear about the Lord’s Leading what to do

We all have been very much touched by the Lord concerning His need to gain a testimony in Europe – He wants to gain shining golden lampstands in Germany and in all the countries in Western Europe!

Although the Lord has burdened us to go and preach the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth (Matt. 24:14), we must not turn this into a movement but rather contact the Lord, pray, wait on Him, and stay before Him until we are clear concerning His leading what to do and where to go.

The Lord has entrusted us with the present truth, the central revelation of God, and the complete gospel, which is God becoming flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified to build up the church, produce the overcomers, and consummate the New Jerusalem.

Therefore, we need to do a work in three stages: in the stage of incarnation to produce sons of God by preaching the gospel, in the stage of inclusion to establish churches, and in the stage of intensification to produce overcomers and build up the Body of Christ.

However, even though we are commissioned and equipped to go, we should still not initiate anything but contact the Lord, wait on Him, and honor the Lord as the Head of the Body.

Any decisions that we make by ourselves for others are an insult to the Spirit; if we have done this, we need to repent before the Lord and, if necessary, even ask others to forgive us because we gave them instructions about what they should do.

None of us should ever tell others where they should go – this is an insult to the Lord! What we should do is go to the Lord, pray, wait on Him, and honor the Lord as the Head of the Body, and we should also encourage others to contact the Lord in a personal way.

If we advise others to go somewhere and they move there without consulting the Lord, we have usurped the position of the Lord and we made ourselves as Lord; this is the greatest insult to the Lord. We need to personally seek the Lord, contact Him, and help others to contact Him, pray, and seek His leading concerning what to do and where to go.

A person can join a movement and not have any personal contact with the Lord.

But the Lord Jesus always took the way of spending time with the Father. When the whole village was gathered at the door and waiting for Him, He rose up early in the morning and went away to pray alone with the Father (Mark 1:35); when others sought for Him and told Him to come because everyone is waiting for Him, He had different instructions from the Father.

In Matt. 14, after feeding the five thousand, the Lord compelled the disciples to get into a boat and go on the other side, while He sent the crowds away and went to spend time alone with the Father.

We may be burdened and led of the Lord to move somewhere or to work on the campuses, but we need to bring this matter to the Lord, pray, offer ourselves to Him again, and ask Him for His leading where to go.

We need to pray until we are clear about the Lord’s leading; we all need to be brought into the Lord’s presence to contact Him.

The Lord may be moving to Europe and to the campuses, and He may lead many to go, but perhaps in His sovereignty He may not allow us to go; this will be a proof that what is taking place among us is not a movement but absolutely a matter of the Lord’s leading.

Lord Jesus, we want to go on with You. Lord, where do You want us to go, and what do You want us to do? We want to remain before You in prayer and fellowship to honor You as the Head of the Body and seek Your leading. Keep us in Your presence, contacting You, and spending much time with You so that we may be filled with You and have Your present leading. Save us from making decisions for others or telling them where to go, and save us from making decisions without contacting You. Save us from being in a movement, doing something for You yet without contacting You!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, The Spirit and the Body, ch. 1, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Special Fellowship concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Move, msg. 5 (week 5), Doing Everything according to the Leading, Working, and Speaking of the Spirit, Honoring the Lord as the Head of the Body for His Unique Move, and Being Balanced by the Body to Be Kept in Its Unique Oneness.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # To the Head fast holding ever, / That we may together grow, / From the Head supplies incoming / Thru us to the Body flow. / Lord, anew we give our bodies; / May we be transformed to prove / All Thy will, to know Thy Body, / And therein to serve and move. (Hymns #913)
  # Lord, You are the General / Leading us triumphantly; / We Your little captives, Lord, / Showing forth Your victory. / Take me captive, Lord, / Never let me win; / Defeat me all the time / And conquer me within. (Song on being the Lord’s captive)
  # The harvest’s ripe! We are preaching the full gospel now! / The fields are white! We are preaching the full gospel now! / For this men search— / Christ and the church! / Let us reap the harvest, preaching the full gospel now! (Hymns #1294)