I have some very powerful connections in the secular business world. But the Lord won’t let me use them.
In ministry, I have some pretty powerful connections, too. I could play the subculture dynamics, work my way up the ranks, and use those relationships to advance myself.
But the Lord won’t let me do that.
In the movie industry, I know people whose names you would recognize. I could reach out to them and use those relationships as a source of power.
But again, the Lord won’t let me use them that way.
That doesn’t mean God will never lead you to work with powerful people.
There are relationships where God will tell you to submit, serve, learn, and grow under someone else’s leadership.
There are people you may need to serve for ten or twenty years.
But there is a line that must never be crossed:
There is only one High Priest (the ultimate mediator between God and humanity) in the Body of Christ.
His name is Jesus.
The writer of Hebrews says:
“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.”
— 1 Timothy 2:5 NKJV
And Hebrews says:
“Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
— Hebrews 7:25 NKJV
You can honor your pastor.
You can honor a spiritual father or mother.
You can submit to godly leadership.
You can serve under an apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher, or evangelist.
But nobody gets to take the place of Jesus between you and God.
You may serve someone faithfully for many years.
Then one day God may say, in essence:
“Separate unto Me for the work I have for you.”
That does not necessarily mean you are rebelling against the person you served.
It may mean your season of preparation has produced maturity, and now God is sending you into your own assignment.
The Body of Christ is supposed to reproduce.
It is supposed to make disciples who make disciples.
Jesus said:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…”
— Matthew 28:19 NKJV
The goal of spiritual leadership is not to keep everybody permanently dependent on one ministry.
The goal is to prepare people to fulfill what God has called them to do.
I have heard older ministers talk about the early church and how the believers sometimes stayed where they were instead of going into the highways and byways.
Then persecution came.
And persecution caused them to scatter.
Acts tells us:
“Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.”
— Acts 8:4 NKJV
Think about that.
They were scattered, but they did not stop preaching.
They carried the gospel with them.
Some of those believers eventually helped establish churches in other cities and regions.
That is how the Kingdom grows.
The gospel moves from person to person, city to city, generation to generation.
When God puts something genuine in your spirit, you need to learn how to recognize it.
But there is a difference between being spiritually young and being spiritually mature.
I sometimes describe the first ten years of Christianity as a person’s formative years.
That is a general rule, not an absolute law.
Someone could be five years into their walk with Christ and genuinely be called by God to a major assignment.
God can accelerate a person.
But generally speaking, those first years are a time when you are learning who God is, learning His Word, and learning how to recognize His voice.
Your biological age doesn’t matter.
You could become a Christian at twenty years old, fifty years old, or eighty years old.
When you are born again (made spiritually new through faith in Christ), you are still a spiritual baby.
Peter says:
“As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.”
— 1 Peter 2:2 NKJV
You have to grow.
Growing spiritually can be strange.
It’s a little like puberty.
You go through stages.
You are convinced something is absolutely true, and then you get more Scripture, more revelation (spiritual understanding given by God), more wisdom, and more experience.
Suddenly you say:
“Wait a second. That is producing bad fruit.”
And you realize you need to stay away from certain people or certain teachings.
There were people I once thought were extremely spiritual.
Now I look back and realize that some of them were simply creating head trips and confusion.
That’s part of growing up.
You learn to distinguish between genuine spiritual authority and spiritual performance.
One of the things you learn as you mature is that you don’t have to receive every spiritual word someone gives you.
Someone may walk up to you and say, “God told me this about you.”
That doesn’t automatically make it true.
I’ve seen people who were so gullible that they would receive a prophecy from almost anybody.
I’m talking about someone walking up while you’re standing at a urinal and suddenly trying to prophesy over you!
I’m not talking about someone being perverted. I’m talking about someone who sincerely thinks they’re a prophet but has absolutely no sense of boundaries.
At some point, spiritual maturity teaches you:
No.
You don’t have to receive everything somebody puts on you.
Paul tells us:
“Test all things; hold fast what is good.”
— 1 Thessalonians 5:21 NKJV
The Bible doesn’t tell us to blindly accept every spiritual claim.
Test it.
Examine it.
Compare it with Scripture.
I’ve had situations where someone I didn’t know touched my wife’s shoulders.
I immediately and gently put my hand between his hand and my wife’s shoulder and moved his hand away.
It wasn’t about being angry.
It was about boundaries.
You don’t know my wife.
You don’t know me.
And you don’t automatically get physical access to somebody simply because you’re in church.
Spiritual maturity includes knowing when to say no.
During your early years in Christ, you’re going to wrestle with big theological questions (questions about God, Scripture, salvation, and Christian doctrine).
For example:
What does it mean to be baptized in the Holy Spirit?
Is speaking in tongues the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
What does the Bible teach about Israel?
Do Christians replace Israel?
That idea is commonly called replacement theology (the belief that the church has replaced Israel in God’s plan).
What does the Bible teach about divorce?
How should we respond when our children make choices we don’t understand?
What do we do when a youth leader commits a serious moral failure?
What does biblical authority actually mean?
These are not small questions.
You don’t have to have every question answered before you ever minister.
But you need a solid foundation.
You don’t want your foundation collapsing while you’re standing in the pulpit.
I have watched a church repeatedly recreate itself over the course of decades.
I’ve watched it change.
I’ve watched it try to return to what it once was.
I’ve watched it try new approaches.
I’ve watched all kinds of confusion take place.
And the tragedy is that people get hurt.
When a pastor backslides (turns away from faithful obedience to God’s Word), the damage can spread throughout the flock.
A shepherd’s spiritual condition affects the people he leads.
That’s why Paul warned Timothy:
“Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.”
— 1 Timothy 4:16 NKJV
The foundation matters.
If a person starts a church in their twenties, but they never become rooted and grounded in the Word of God, they can build an entire ministry on someone else’s ideas.
They may simply be doing what everybody around them told them to do.
That’s dangerous.
The Bible tells us:
“That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine…”
— Ephesians 4:14 NKJV
Before you run, get rooted.
Before you lead people, learn how to follow.
Before you teach people, become teachable.
Before you build a ministry, allow God to build you.
If you’re young in the Lord and you believe you are called to full-time ministry, don’t immediately run out and start something.
Find someone mature.
Submit yourself to a healthy ministry.
Serve.
Learn.
Watch.
Ask questions.
Be corrected.
Grow.
You need an “Obi-Wan Kenobi”—someone who has already traveled the road and can help train you.
Ideally, that person would be your pastor.
Unfortunately, not every church is operating according to biblical patterns.
Some churches function more like a teaching center built around one person than a healthy biblical church.
So you have to know the Scriptures for yourself.
People can argue with me all they want.
I’m going to keep going back to Scripture.
Scripture.
Scripture.
Scripture.
The question isn’t whether somebody has a clever argument.
The question is:
Sometimes people build entire doctrines by taking one verse out of context.
They ignore the historical setting.
They ignore the dispensation (a particular period in God’s unfolding plan of revelation).
They ignore the surrounding verses.
Sometimes they don’t even understand the basic meaning of the word they’re arguing about.
That’s why you need to learn how to rightly divide the Word.
Paul told Timothy:
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
— 2 Timothy 2:15 NKJV
One of the biggest questions you will eventually encounter is:
You’re going to meet people who believe you need to submit to them completely.
They may expect you to treat them as though they are your personal priest between you and God.
They may expect you to “kiss the ring,” so to speak.
That is dangerous.
Nobody gets to take the place of Jesus.
The New Testament does not establish a human being as the mediator between every believer and God.
Christ is our mediator.
Christ is our High Priest.
Christ is our Lord.
“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”
— Hebrews 4:14 NKJV
This is also why titles matter.
You cannot simply decide that you are an apostle because you want to be an apostle.
You cannot decide you’re a prophet because you like the title.
You cannot declare yourself a grandmaster in martial arts simply because you studied several disciplines.
There should be fruit.
Jesus said:
“Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”
— Matthew 7:20 NKJV
If you’re an evangelist, there should be evangelistic fruit.
You should be leading people to Jesus.
If you’re a biblical teacher, you should be teaching the Bible.
If you’re a pastor, there should be evidence that you are actually shepherding God’s people.
The title should describe the ministry.
The ministry should not be created merely to justify the title.
A biblical teacher helps people get into the Word.
A pastor helps get the Word into the people.
A pastor oversees the flock.
A pastor watches.
A pastor cares.
A pastor learns what the people need and gives them the Word at the right time and in the right season.
Paul told the elders at Ephesus:
“Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God…”
— Acts 20:28 NKJV
That is a serious responsibility.
People often like teachers because teachers can make them excited about Scripture.
But parents are different.
Mom and Dad will get in your grill.
They will tell you when you’re wrong.
They will not simply tell you what you want to hear.
They are concerned about who you are becoming.
That’s one of the differences between merely teaching information and shepherding a person.
A pastor should care about the person’s spiritual development.
The goal is not simply knowledge.
The goal is godliness (living in a way that reflects God’s character).
Paul told Titus that his ministry was connected to:
“the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness”
— Titus 1:1 NKJV
The Word should produce godly living.
If a pulpit consistently teaches people to rationalize sin, that is a serious problem.
If leadership teaches people to live in fear, pride, bitterness, or hypocrisy, something is wrong.
These things contaminate faith.
Fear contaminates faith.
Pride contaminates faith.
Bitterness contaminates faith.
Hypocrisy contaminates faith.
We are called to become more like Christ.
Paul said:
“But speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.”
— Titus 2:1 NKJV
Sound doctrine (teaching that is biblically healthy and trustworthy) should produce sound living.
There absolutely is a season when you need to submit, serve, learn, and grow.
You need to grow in wisdom.
You need to grow in stature.
You need to grow in favor with God and people.
Luke describes Jesus this way:
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
— Luke 2:52 NKJV
There is nothing wrong with being under authority.
In fact, healthy submission is part of spiritual maturity.
But there can also come a time when God tells you to move.
You can honor your spiritual mother and father.
You can honor your pastor.
You can honor the people who trained you.
But don’t let anyone get between you and what God has genuinely called you to do.
If God really told you to do something, there should eventually be fruit.
There should be evidence.
There will be challenges, of course.
There will be people who don’t believe you.
There will be people who don’t endorse you.
There will be people who misunderstand you.
But over time, genuine calling produces genuine fruit.
Jesus said:
“By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
— John 15:8 NKJV
Your fruit becomes part of your testimony.
You don’t have to convince everybody.
You don’t have to argue with every critic.
You don’t have to force people to recognize you.
Keep obeying God.
Keep serving.
Keep building.
Keep producing biblical fruit.
There are going to be people who don’t endorse you simply because they are immature.
Sometimes even your own pastor may not understand what God is doing in your life.
And sometimes leaders can handle disagreement in an unhealthy way.
A leader may treat someone like they are persona non grata (a person who is no longer welcome or accepted).
That’s not Christlike emotional intelligence.
Biblical leaders should be Christlike.
Elders should lead by example.
Peter instructed elders:
“nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock”
— 1 Peter 5:3 NKJV
That’s the standard.
Not control.
Not manipulation.
Not insecurity.
Not making yourself the center.
So here is the balance:
Honor the people God has placed in your life.
Submit to godly leadership.
Serve.
Learn.
Grow.
Receive correction.
But never surrender the place that belongs only to Jesus.
There is one High Priest.
There is one Mediator.
There is one Lord.
And His name is Jesus Christ.
Your pastor is not Jesus.
Your spiritual father is not Jesus.
Your mentor is not Jesus.
Your apostle is not Jesus.
Your prophet is not Jesus.
Your favorite preacher is not Jesus.
And when the time comes for God to separate you unto the work He has prepared for you, don’t be afraid to obey Him.
Honor the people who helped prepare you.
Take what is biblical.
Leave behind what is not.
And go do what God has called you to do.
Peace and love, as you work out your own salvation in Jesus’ holy name.
Amen.