In this elderâs conference talk, Paul DeCelles described the activities of men of God, especially those who are responsible for the well-being and growth of others in their communities. He covered thinking, studying, serving, doing battle and praying. He pointed out that Scripture should be the source that forms men of God.
Transcript
This document is a direct transcript of an audio recording, and may contain transcription errors and other minor edits for the sake of clarity.
PAUL: . . . Iâd like to say a few things about being men of God. And, the approach I want to take to the talk is thatâIâd like to give you a lot of ideas that can be helpful in the period of prayer, which is coming up, and as we go individually to face the Lord. But also, Iâd like it to be something of value to you in the longer run. So, what Iâve done is to, mainly, pick out a lot of points that, as I read the Scriptures, seeking what the Lord had to say about what it means to be a man of God, what came to me as I was reading the Bible.
Iâd like to begin with what I think is the best expression of what a man of God is, in Matthew 22:34:
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. âTeacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?â And he said to him, âYou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.â
I believe that, when weâre thinking of beingâwhat it means to be a man of God, it means to give over all of ourselves: our whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole mind. It means to become somebody elseâs man, not our own man. We are identified as âmen,â but weâre Godâs men, weâre not our men. Weâre being men of God, or Godâs men.
One of theâthere are lots of things, in those three things that are mentioned there by the Lord. Iâd just like to focus, just for a minute, on what it would meanâwhat kinds of things it can mean for us to give our whole mind to the Lord.
I think it means that we need to think, and to study, and to work at improving our minds in the Lord. We need to study what it is that God has revealed. As it says in the book of Proverbs, âWise men lay up knowledge, but the babbling of a fool brings ruin near.â I think that thatâs really important for us: to understand how important it is for us personally, and for the work which weâre engaged in, to become people who lay up knowledge, understand the word of God, understand what Godâs plans are, so that we wonât be babbling like a fool, and bringing ruin near our communities.
So, what should we think about? I think we should think about what God has revealed. We have to go to the Bible, and look at it really closely, and study it. Let it be the source, the main thing which forms our mind. We need to see what all of our forefathers, our pioneers in the faith who have gone before us, have to say, and how theyâve lived their life, and how the Spirit has moved in their life.
We need to understand the Lord, himself, as heâs revealed himself; what his plan is, and what his strategy is for this time; what his word is to us at this age, for the accomplishment of his purpose.
But, also, I think we need to know and understand the enemy: who it is who stands against us, and what his plan is, what his strategy is. Now, I think that in order to know thatâIâm not recommending that we recommend to all the people who are under us that we be engaged in this kind of thing. But for those who can do it, we need to look at what the newspapers, the magazines, what the communications, and television has to say. We need to have an understanding of what it is thatâs going on in the world, so that we can protect our people from it. We donât want to get immersed in it, we donât want to be fully preoccupied with it, but weâve got to know something of what the enemy is up to.
Of course, we can get a lot of what the enemy is up to just by asking the Lord, âWhatâs the enemy up to?â
In order to do this, we need to have time for study. Iâd suggest that we have, at least, a couple of hoursâtwo hours a week, or moreâin which weâwhich we set aside for the purpose of studying to improve our minds, to increase our fund of knowledge of God and the way he works. Iâm distinguishing this study from prayer, which Iâll talk about a little later on. And, I mean, Iâm talking about that hard study which will bring us closer to the understanding of God.
We also need to learn from one another, and strive for understanding, and for methodology, and for explanation: a way of presenting the truth to other people.
When I was thinking about being a man of God, I decided to read the Bible to see what the Lord had to say about it. And what I didâI foundâI just picked people that were, clearly, great men of God. And I looked to see how the Lord presented them. What was it about them that struck him? What is important about the way they are that makes them men of God? And something surprising came out of it; to me it was surprising. Iâd like to direct you to Genesis 12âGenesis 11:27 and some of the passages after that, in the first part of Genesis 12.
This is the first time that Abraham is spoken of in the Scriptures. And whatâs true of Abrahamâand whatâs true of the way the Lord presents Abraham hereâis also true of the way that he presents Adam, and Moses, and many other great men of God, in the word of God. What he doesâhe does this, also, with Jesus, who is the perfect man of God. What he does is, he begins by giving the genealogy of Abraham. In verse 27, and so on, he runs down the list of all the forefathers and the women who went before Abraham, and then he begins in 12:
Now the Lord said to Abram, âGo from your country and your kindred and your fatherâs house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.â
The thing thatâsâyou keep on reading about Abraham. The thing that emerges is thatâhow important it is that he takes his place as a man of God, in the family of man, which is the family of God. And, Abraham comes off placed in Godâs plan by being in the family.
Now, I think that has an immediate consequence for us. In each case that these great men are spoken of, in the beginning, the genealogy is given, and their progeny is given. And I think being a man of God means being rightly related with all who are around you. Being in the right place, having the right context in which to live out your life. But, most important, I think, is: it means having progeny, having disciples, training them; spending time with your men. It means deploying your men, and it means deploying them to strategic situations. The sense that I got from this is that the whole question of the relationships in which the men of God are formed and placed is very important to being a man of God.
The next characteristic Iâd like to talk about is that of being a servant of God. When I was thinking about being a man of God, the image that came to my mind was that of a chauffeur. And, itâs always struck me. Iâin our culture, one of the few really clear servants that you can see aroundâyou know, that you see sometimes, anywayâis a chauffeur. The way the man will stand by a very expensive car, which doesnât belong to himâitâs really clear it doesnât belong to himâheâs in uniformâheâs even marked, you know, with the ext- âtrappings that indicate that this isnât his. And, he stands there at the door, waiting a long time, you know, almost at attention, until his man comes out, so that he can put him in the car in the right way, and go around to the other side, and drive off with it.
Thereâs really something about that image which I think is important for us, as men of God: that we have to be servants of the Lord, we have to wait on the Lord, be available in that kind of attitude. Not proud, not as though this is our car that weâre driving, but that weâre really waiting on the Lord, to help him get into the car, to do whatever service, however greatâor however smallâhe may ask us to do.
Now the Lord. I think, addresses thisâwhat attitude we should haveâin Luke 17:7â10:
Will any one of you, who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep, say to him when he has come in from the field, âCome at once and sit down at table?â Will he not rather say to him, âYou, prepare supper for me, and gird yourself and serve me, till I eat and drink; and afterward you shall eat and drinkâ? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, âWe are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.â
This is the attitude, I believe, that we need to have as we approach the service of the Lord, being his men.
I want to bring up another passage that sort of comesâgoes hand-in-handâwith this one I just read, because this is the attitude that we should have toward ourselves. I just want to say something about the attitude that the Lord has toward us.
If you look in Luke 12:35â40, part of the passage reads like this: âBlessed are thoseââthis is the teaching from the LordââBlessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.â Now, heâs going to talk about what the masterâs attitude is towards the servants. âTruly, I say to you,ââthe master, he!ââhe will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them.â The Lord wants us to serve him, but he wants to serve us, also. And our attitude of mind should be that we are servants of the Lord, from our perspective.
Now, Iâd like to say a few things about a man of God being a man of prayer. The sense I got, when I was praying about it, was that the Lord wanted me to speak about it in terms of prayer as a type of standing with God, and standing for your men, and standing through your men for God. And a few types came out, as I was reading the Scriptures. One is the whole thing about how Adam is described as walking in the Garden of Eden with God, talking with him, having such a close relationship with him, being at oneâone spiritâwith the Lord.
Looking at Abraham, and the way in which he pleaded with the Lord God, to spare Sodom. How he asked the Lord, he stood to the Lord for the sake of the nation there, asking the Lord if he would spare them. Not necessarily even sparing the wicked, but at least sparing those few righteous men who were in Sodom. Abraham kept pleading with him, âWould you destroy the city if, in the destruction of it, you would destroy some righteous men?â So, Abraham stood âto the Lordâ for his men.
In Moses, we see, in the book of Exodus [chapter] 17, a type that I think is really important for us. When they had just crossed over the Red Seaâshortly after thatâthe Israelites were attacked by the Amalekites, and a great battle came up, and Moses commissioned Joshua to fight the battle. This is the passage that describes howâand I know everybody here is familiar with it. I just want to comment a little bit on it.
Then came Amâ˛alek and fought with Israel at Rephâ˛idim. And Moses said to Joshua, âChoose for us men, and go out, fight with Amâ˛alek; tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.â So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amâ˛alek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed.
Whenever Moses was in that attitude of prayer, Israel was successful. And whenever he lowered his hand, and stopped praying, or just stopped praying that way, Amâ˛alek prevailed.
But Mosesâ hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat upon it, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua mowed down Amâ˛alek and his people with the edge of the sword.
Praise God. Alleluia!
The thing Iâd like to show about that is that that kind of prayer, that brought that kind of victory, was long, and hard, arduous, difficult prayer that Moses committed himself to. Also, he had help. I think thatâs really interesting. He had help in the prayerâactually, in accomplishing that prayer. It was effective prayerâhe could see it working even as he was doing itâand the victory depended on it. And thatâs true for us. The victory in our communities and in our environments depends on our prayer.
There are many other things about Moses as a man of prayerâjust mentioned [sic] a few in passing. One is that he saw God face to face, in Numbers 12:7â8. We see that God was always confirming the fact that Moses was in this relationship with him. When you look at Numbers 16:28, how God confirmed, with signs and wonders, the fact that Moses was in this relationship with him in prayer. We can also see it in the way in which Aaron was envious of Moses in his relationship with God, as Moses was so close to the Lord.
[The] next type I want to talk about is Samuel and Saul. Let me just read a little bit from the first book of Samuel, chapter 15, verse 17. âAnd Samuel said, âthough you are little,âââheâs talking to Saul, okay? This is after, you knowâthis is after the situation where Saul had gone out and won a great victory in the Lord, but he didnât do what the Lord had commanded him to do. Heâhis men took the first fruits; they brought something back that they werenât supposed to beâbring back. And Saul takes a position that he sort ofâyou get the feeling like heâs saying that he didnât even really know that his men were doing this.
âAlthoughââit says, âAnd Samuel said, âthough you are. . . .ââ Heâs speaking to Saul. Saul, you can imagine, Saul is just like us, or we are just like him in this regard: that we feel like weâre really insignificant, things donât really depend on us. You know, you canât hold us too accountable because weâre just human beings and frail. And we all have our difficultiesâand we do our best, right?
Well, this is what Samuel said to Saul when he was feeling that way:
Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, âGo, utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.â Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, âI have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice. . . .ââreally a good purpose, [but it] wasnât Godâs purpose; this is what they thought was a great purposeââ. . . to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.â And so on, it goes.
The thing I get from that is that SaulâSamuel was telling Saul that he was supposed to be standing for God with his people. He wasnât supposed to be representing the people to God at that point. He wasnât supposed to be arguing their case, but he was supposed to insist that his men do what God told him to tell them to do. And he didnât do that. And he wasnât effective, he didnât succeed. And the Lord held it against him, and for that reason he was, from that moment on, out of Godâs good graces.
You can see the same kind ofâsimilar things about prayer in the psalms of David, how all of life is involved. You can see Jesus in prayer: transfigured on the mountain, going away with his disciples to pray. You can see that, in fact, all the crucial thingsâthe turning pointsâin Jesusâ life were preceded by, or took place in, periods of prayer. Jesus in the Garden. Jesus on the cross, praying for himself, and praying for the others that they might be forgiven by God the Father.
So, Iâd like to draw some conclusions to this:
Itâs good to pray together, we all know that. The source of all of our life and power, and our commission, comes from God the Father. And we need to be plugged into that source of power, go to the source. In order to do this, we need to have time. Iâm talking, now, to you all who pray, I know. And Iâm repeating things that I know you that youâve spoken yourself, to your communities. But I want to say them to you to remind you to stir up your heart to even be more dedicated to your time of prayer. You need to set aside time of prayer. You need to set aside a lot of time for prayer. Iâd say that you should spendâif youâre in a secular job, itâd be a very reasonable thingâIâd recommend at least a half an hour a day in prayer, personal prayer before the Lord.
And if you have a community job, where youâre free in that regard from a secular occupation, I think itâs possible for you to pray at least an hour a day. To really draw close to the Lord and takeârecognize that having a community job is a great blessing from God. And one of the ways in which it should be a blessing is that it gets you free to spend this time with the Lord in prayer.
Also, place is important in prayer. Mount Tabor, all theâthe Garden of Gethsemane, battlefieldsâall these things come to mind when you think of where people prayed in the Scriptures. What we need to do is to pick a place to pray that works. We need to be free of interruptions.
Iâll just mention some things that I think that the Lord wants us to be prayingâhow he wants us to be praying, and what he wants us to be praying about.
One is, he wants us to praise and glorify him because, as it says in the book ofâthe letter to the Ephesians, that thatâs why we were made. We were made for the praise and glory of God. I think we need to pray in faith. We need to intercede for each man under our headship: personally, daily, by name, with his face in your mind. Every time I meet with Clem, who is my head, he comes to me having prayed for me, and he always brings something to me that he got from the Lord, something that isâwhether it is a passage only, or whether itâs a word that the Lord spoke to him, for me, on my behalf.
We need to be open to revelation. We need to pray for the whole community and all of its needs, material and spiritual, relational. We need to pray for ourselves, and we need to pray for conversions. We need to pray that the right people be converted. I think this is something which I reallyâI think itâs a special word for us at this time. There are certain people that we know the Lord wants to get. And we should be praying for them in a special way that they willâin fact that the Lord will just come upon them in a special way, that the Lord will come upon them with efficacious power, and bring them all the way home to himself now. We need to pray for practical matters, for miracles and conversions. We need to pray for victory, all the way through to victory.
Iâd like to say that we should not always be praying in mixed groups, that is, men and women. Itâs very good to pray together with groups of men.
And the last thing in there is Iâd like to say, we should be careful not to be inhibited as we pray before the Lord, but be like David, who danced before the Lord God.
Let me say a few things now about going to the people from God, as a man of God. Iâd like to read a little bit from the book of Exodus 19. The Lord had been speaking to Moses at Sinai, and then the Lord goes on to say this to Moses: âGo to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready by the third dayââby the way, I think this might have something to do with the prophecy that Bruce gave last night about the three days, too. Although I donât understand that fully, but . . .
. . . and be ready by the third day. And on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set bounds for the people around about, saying, âTake heed that you do not go up into the mountain or touch the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.When the trumpet sounds a loud blast, they shall come up to the mountain.â So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people. And he said to the people, âBe ready by the third day.â
Hallelujah.
So, the point I want to make there is that, being men of God, the Lord wants us to go to the people and represent God. We stand for God. We go to him as Godâs messenger; we go to him in the place of God, in a sense. I donât mean this is the only way people, you know, hear from the Lord. They go directly to the Lord, too. But as men of God, weâre supposed to go and be able to speak for God, the way that Moses spoke to the people there, and prepared them, and purified them, so that they, too, would be prepared to see the Lord and his glory on Mount Sinai.
I want to just touch briefly on this, and then go on to something else. Men of God do battle for God, and Godâs battle is with Satan. So, men of God get into spiritual warfare. In order to do that, we need to identify the operating forceâlike Jim Croft was mentioning last nightâand the purpose and intention of the evil one, in order to overcome it, to throw down those fallen angels up on high. I think we need to pray in spiritual warfare for situations, for meetings, and for places, and for people that we are involved with. We need to rule over it in Godâs name, driving Satan, and all the evil spirits, far away.
[It] seems to me thatâI just want to call everybodyâs attention toâI think this is an important word for usâthat we need, at this time, in my estimation, this summer, especiallyâIâve never seen so much spiritual activity. Just tremendous spiritual thingsâmany spiritual things going on. Some of them are from God, and some of them are from Satan, and those that are from Satan look like theyâre probably from God. That is, he comes disguised as an angel of light. And that one of the key things that we are involved with, at this juncture in our relationships, is discerning whatâs of God and whatâs of Satan. So, we need to approach our spiritual activity with the intention to discern the spirit of God, realizing that some demons are driven out only by prayer and fasting.
Now Iâd like to give just someâa few practical remarks here.
Being Godâs man means: donât value your own insights, your own devices, and your own stratagems, and so on, but put a premium on his. Hold his as being the ones-âthe only ones that are really important to find out.
Second point is: donât improve on his truth. Weâre men of God, weâre not our own men. We are supposed to present his truth, and we canât improve on it, we canât do any better. Any improvement is a disfigurement. Some things need cultural expression in our age, but some things donât. For example, let me justâmodesty is something that men and women both should be comporting themselves according to, and thatâs something which, from age to age, requires a slightly different cultural expression. But itâs really important that we be modest in all ages, however we should be dressing, and however we should be appearing to the people weâre with.
Itâs not easy, today, to know what God is saying, or even what he has said in Scripture, because there is so much âfog,â generated by the âfog machine.â But when we do know it, we shouldnât change it and adapt it to our standards, but adapt ourselves to the standards of the Lord. We need to teach his gospel, as men of God, not our gospel.
[The] third point Iâd like to make is that we should expect to serve in menial tasks. We need to wait on him, like the chauffeur at the car, in serving, waiting on the Lord
Fourth point: Expect hard times and be ready, because the Lord has told us, âIf they have done this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?â And we are in the dry times now.
Fifth point: Imitate Jesus, the perfect man of God. Learn from every detail of hisâI wish I knew how Jesus parted his hair! [Laughter.] Like a disciple, observe the particulars of his life, and be like him. Observe the ordinary, daily conversations, and the way that he handled himself, his habits, and be like the Lord
Sixth point: Honor God. Give him the first fruits, the first place in your life. Never prefer any person, or any thing, or any relationship to God.
Lastly, Iâd just like to say: realize that heâs the one who has called us. We havenât called him. He chose us by his plan and his will. And we need to submit to the call of the Lord, and be men of God to all of our people.
Hallelujah. Praise God.
[Recording ends here.]
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