於2012-07-01發佈

從神來的崇高呼召
我們繼續來看為何我們必須與主有個別關係,而不是單單跟隨他人,我們在雅歌裡看見關於此的勸誡。這卷書特別寫到那些尋求成為王所配得的新婦,其中我們必須學習的關鍵經文在一章17節:

我心所愛的啊,求你告訴我,你在何處牧羊?晌午在何處使羊歇臥?我何必在你同伴的羊群旁邊好像蒙著臉的人呢?

倘若我們只是在祂同伴的羊群中,帕子仍蒙在臉上,我們只能傾斜地看見祂的榮耀並被改變。這即是何以我事奉的目標,絕不是使人成為我個人的門徒,而是盡可能協助人們成為基督的門徒。 

正如我們也可以從約翰福音十章留意到,是祂的羊(sheep)認得祂的聲音,而不是祂的小羊(lambs)。當我們在主裡還幼嫩時,我們必須跟隨他人,直到我們學會認得祂的聲音,但我的目標是先除去我個人的帕子,並所有我能協助之人的帕子。我們必須注視祂,變成祂的形狀,而不是變成祂朋友的樣式。

倘若有一個人的孩子全長得像他最好的朋友,那個人會怎麼想?當我們是領袖,試圖要別人效法我們而非效法主,我們需要想一想自己在做什麼。我們的生命可以也應該成為別人的榜樣,但正如使徒保羅所說的,他受生產之苦,直等到基督成形在祂的子民當中。這正是我們的目標。

25年前神賜給我收割的異象,祂向我顯示一件非常鼓舞人的事,就是將有一個世代,會成為有史以來最強大的使者,他們全是『為天國的緣故自閹的』。這指的是屬靈方面而不是自然領域;正如真正的太監甚至無法對新娘有任何渴求,只要看見王對她的喜愛就心滿意足了,所以這些自閹的都是為了主。他們一切的渴望將是看見萬王之王對新婦─教會的喜愛。他們的奉獻將是看見教會變成祂想要的樣式,而不是他們或其他人想要的樣式,這些人正是新郎真正的朋友。

你是否注意到在聖經中神並沒有孫子或孫女?每一個人對祂而言都是第一代,我們在服事上的終極目標應是:不管我們發生什麼事,就算死了或離開了,那些我們所教導的人,在追求主上一步也不滑跌。倘若他們不是建造在我們的教導根基上,而是建造在與主的關係上,祂永不失敗或令人失望,他們便不致動搖。

正如前面所說的,小羊或幼嫩的信徒必須跟隨著其他成羊,直到他們自己能認得主和祂的聲音,所以在我們成熟以前,跟隨他人並沒有錯。然而,成熟是親近祂,而不是親近祂子民的結果。

為此緣故,我嘗試以任何人都可以瞭解與領受的方式寫作和教導,但每個信息幾乎都在呼召人們,追求保羅所謂的『在基督耶穌裡崇高的呼召』(參考腓立比書3:14)。正如我們之前討論過,當保羅在寫腓立比書三章時,他不認為自己已經得著了,他乃是竭力追求,他所指的不是救恩或救贖,那在他相信基督贖罪犧牲時就已經得著了。他在寫這卷書時已接近生命的盡頭,那時他仍不認為自己得著很少基督徒瞭解的崇高呼召。那些知道的人會視此為今生所能得著的最大寶藏,這即是終極追求,是此生我們所能擁有的終極尋求。

 (摘自喬納 word for the week, Week 24, 2012)


The High Calling of God - The Path of Life, Part 17
Week 24, 2012 
Rick Joyner 

As we continue the theme of why we must have our own personal relationship with the Lord and not just follow others, we see an exhortation for this in The Song of Solomon. This Book was especially written for those whose life’s pursuit is to become the bride that our King so deserves. A key verse that all of these must learn is 1:7:

Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, where do you pasture your flock, where do you make it lie down at noon? For why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions? 

If we are just in the flock of His companions, the veils will remain and we will only obliquely be able to see His glory and be changed by it. This is why my goal in ministry has never been to make people my personal disciples but to help everyone I can to become a personal disciple of Christ Jesus Himself.

As we also can note from John 10, it is His sheep who know His voice, not His lambs. While we are young in the Lord, we will have to follow others until we learn to know His voice, but my hope is to have my own veils removed and those of all I can help along their way. We must see Him to be changed into His image, not just become the image of one of His friends.

What would any man think if his children all looked like his best friend? We need to consider what we’re doing when we’re leaders who are trying to get people to conform to us rather than to Him. Our lives can and should be good examples for others, but as the Apostle Paul stated, he was in labor until Christ was formed in His people. This is our goal.

One of the encouraging things I was shown when I was given The Vision of the Harvest twenty-five years ago was that there will be a generation of the most powerful messengers ever to walk the earth and all will be “eunuchs for the kingdom’s sake.” This was not in the natural but in the spiritual. Just as natural eunuchs cannot even have a desire for the bride, but receives all of their satisfaction out of seeing the king’s pleasure in her, so these will be for the Lord. Their whole desire will be to see the King’s pleasure in His bride, the church. Their devotion will be to see the church become what He wants, not what they or anyone else want. These are the true friends of the Bridegroom.

Have you noticed that there are no grandsons or granddaughters of God in Scripture? Everyone is first generation to Him. Our ultimate goal in ministry should be that regardless of what happens to us, if we were to die or fall away, those we have taught would not even miss a step in their pursuit of God. They will be unshaken if they were not built on a foundation of our teachings, but rather on a relationship to Him who can never fail or disappoint.

As stated, lambs, or young believers, have to follow other sheep until they get to know the Shepherd and His voice well enough themselves, so it is not wrong to follow others until we mature. However, maturity is the result of getting close to Him, not just His people.

For this reason, I try to write and teach in a way that anyone at any level of maturity can understand and receive, but sown in almost every message is a call to those who are in pursuit of what the Apostle Paul called “the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (see Philippians 3:4). As we discussed earlier, when Paul wrote in Philippians 3 that he did not think he had yet attained but pressed on, he was not talking about salvation or redemption, which he received the day he believed in the atonement sacrifice of Christ. He did not consider that he had yet attained, even when writing near the end of his life, a high calling that few Christians perceive. Those who know for sure is the greatest treasure that can be attained in this life. This is the ultimate pursuit, the ultimate quest we can have in this life.