The Faithfulness of a Co-Worker — Theodore Andoseh

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Joshua’s Faithfulness to God’s Command

I want us to look at the co-workers, the faithfulness of a co-worker. Joshua chapter 11 verse 15. Faithfulness of a co-worker. Joshua 11 verse 15. Let's have someone read.

Again Joshua did it. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses.

That's the faithfulness of a co-worker and Joshua was not the only co-worker. In the book of Leviticus, they are all so many times He says Aaron and his sons they did this as the Lord commanded Moses.

They will put up the tabernacle as the Lord commanded Moses. Bezalel's work under as the Lord commanded Moses. Many many years afterwards even the Levites and the arrangements for the temple service under Solomon It was still as the Lord had commanded his servant Moses or as David directed.

That's the faithfulness of a co-worker. If you are not the one who received the vision, do it as the one who received it says. Bezalel wasn't permitted to come in tell Moses, you know, Brahm Moses, you are not a craftsman.

We are craftsmen and the way you want this pattern to go, it normally doesn't go that way. The chisel will not be beautiful. You see, if you want to make it for God, let it really look great and Cherubim don't really sit very well with palm trees.

You see, have you ever seen a cherubim riding on a palm tree? So Moses, look, if you are going to paint cherubim, you should also paint a heavenly environment. Now, just give me some time. I am a born architect.

Very soon, I'll give you some conception of what heaven looks like and then we'll produce something that is an aesthetic representation of heaven. If Bezalel thought like that, there would be no tabernacle.

There would be no God's tabernacle. Then God would have given the idea of a tabernacle and man would have built a tabernacle by God's command. But it would be man's tabernacle. And so many ministries are like that.

Following God’s Pattern Rather Than Adding Human Ideas

So many people pick up some old vision. God told them to go do this thing and they fill in all the gaps. Go as a missionary, they go. And what they do as a missionary, as long as they have obeyed God to go as a missionary, the rest of what they do, they fill up the gap of what a missionary should look like.

And they do all that they want to do as missionaries. Their call was a sign board that says, welcome to Durham. If God gave you the instructions about what to do, you should trust God. And if God wants something done, he knows how he wants it done.

Get the how from him. Get the how from him. I'm not going to go into teaching how God reveals his patterns. Someday we shall do that. But Joshua was faithful. As the Lord commanded his servant Moses. So Moses commanded Joshua.

The Bible does not say Moses commanded Joshua, the servant of the Lord. It's not everybody who took on the title of servant. There was one servant of the Lord. He got instructions from God. He commanded Joshua.

Joshua did God's work by obeying what Moses told him. It was God's business that was being done. Whether God speaks through a vision or God speaks through a man, those who care about God do what God wants done.

If you know God's will from the Bible, get it done. If you know God's word through a teacher, get it done. And if you know God's word through a vision, get it done. A vision is not more what God wants than what a leader tells you.

Unless you can prove that the leader was raised by the devil. If God raises leaders, then get done what they did. And when God raises leaders and bears testimony to them over and over and over and over, then you do what Jehoshaphat said.

You trust the Lord and you shall stand. You believe his prophets and you shall succeed. But Joshua was faithful. Joshua was faithful. Aaron was faithful as a co-worker. Aaron was faithful. And at one time, Aaron felt that Moses did not have a monopoly of all the spiritual gifts, nor a monopoly of God, and felt that Moses needed to be a bit more democratic in discussing the affairs.

And moreover, his life was not even living up to the covenant promises. How come you marry a Kushite wife while you are the apostle of an exclusive covenant? The issue is that when God came down, God really looked at Aaron and said, Aaron, tell me, why were you not afraid?

That is, God was really taken aback. How come you were not afraid? Where did you stand before you started talking all these things? You are not all the same to me. When there are prophets amongst you, and God admitted that there are prophets, I speak to them in this way, I speak to them this way.

But Moses, my servant, is not like that. I talk to him face to face. How come you were not afraid? And when God left the question unanswered, Miriam got leprosy. Until you know what a man means to God, you don't know the man.

Until you know who a man is to God, you don't know the man. There will always be the tendency to bring in your own contributions and transform God's work into a melee of ideas. When God wanted to produce co-workers for Moses, Ajithro had proposed to Moses how to build co-workers, the leadership paradigm that Moses was operating.

Jethro’s Administrative Model and God’s Burden-Bearing Co-Workers

Decentralization of authority and control. And Ajithro comes along and tells Moses, man, this isn't going to work for a big organization. You need to decentralize authority and delegate authority so that you build a chain of command.

It will save you and it will make your administration more efficient. And Moses was a humble man. He obeyed Ajithro. God's 72 people delegated the authority to them. And there was a system, there was a structural system for the administration of Israel.

But in Numbers chapter 11, it did not work. When the people started asking for bread, for flesh, the burden was so heavy on Moses. In fact, the people came to Moses that they wanted to stone him. They didn't want to stone those whom they had put over them, immediately over them.

They came back to Moses to stone him. And the poor Moses went back and cried to God and said, Lord, did I give birth to all these people? Did I born them? What is all this that you tell me to carry these people to the land that you promised their forefathers?

And that I should carry them like a mother carries her children. If that's how you are going to treat me, please God, let's settle it. Just let me die. And then God stepped in to give Moses co-workers that can share the burden.

Because the administrative paradigms and organizational restructuring that Jethro had proposed does not offload the leadership burden from the shoulder of Moses. And God has his own way of producing those who can share the burden with you.

God goes along and tells Moses, Oh, come on Moses, select men who are leaders, whom you know to be leaders. 72, exactly what Jethro said. Jethro did not go deep enough. And God tells him, let them come and stand with you around the tabernacle.

The tabernacle was built according to what Moses saw in heaven. And God was saying, let these people come and stand with you and see the vision that you have seen. Nobody can be your co-worker who has not seen the same vision that you saw.

Their ideas are not needed. They must stand with you and see through what you have done, what God showed you on the mountain when nobody was there. And then God says, I will come down to you there and talk with you.

God did not say, I will come down and talk to them. Why did God want to come and talk to Moses while these people are standing there? Because you cannot be a co-worker to a man without knowing what that man means to God.

That is not true. You cannot be the co-worker of a man unless you settle this one thing, that God talks to that man. So that what you are dealing with is not his ideas versus your ideas. So that you know that God talks to this man.

God said, I will come down and talk with you there. And he came down and talked with him. And then he told Moses, I will then take of the spirit that is on you and put it on them. And they will carry the burden with you.

You are the co-worker of the man whose vision you share, whose spirit you share, and whose burden you share. And God does it to those whom he helps to believe a man. When God enables you to see what a man means to him, he has given you the gift of followership.

He has included you in that man's ministry. If God does not show you what a man means to him, perhaps God doesn't trust you and you are unworthy, and he has excluded you from his purposes through a man.

Those who will be co-workers of a man, they believe a man, and they know that God spoke to this man. If you don't have that knowledge, the God of heaven did not think that you were worth being included in the ministry of that man.

And every co-worker raised in that manner, when they do it as the Lord commanded Moses, they are not idolaters, they are not idolatrous, they are doing God's will. The gift of following a man is from God.

They are doing God's will. They know it to be God's will. That's how God produces co-workers. And those co-workers that believe a man, and know what a man means to God, they can follow, they will follow, and they will be faithful.

They will be faithful. They will do it as the Lord commanded Moses. They will do it as the Lord commanded Moses. There are many other co-workers, and I could go in, if you want to take a concordance, and see the conformity of all Israel in government, the conformity of all Israel in its institutions, the conformity of all Israel in every other department of national life, as the Lord commanded Moses.

You will have over 1 ,000 references. The government, the institutions, like the tabernacle and everything, it had to be done as the Lord commanded Moses. God had a pattern, and God does not have many starting points.

Rebellion, Divine Election, and the Test of Fruitfulness

Later on, Koas and Abiram, they told Moses, you have become very sectarian. You are preferring your family. We are all God's people. What do you mean? Is there a special class in the church? We are all God's people.

We are God's servants. Why are you claiming prerogatives that are exclusive to yourself? Moses said, we shall tell whom God has chosen. And they gathered. God judged them. 250 people died. 14 ,000 people died.

And the people came back the next day and told Moses, you have killed God's people. Because the poison that had been spread had already created prejudice. So even though the people saw God killing all these other people, they came to the conclusion that it was Moses, maybe from his magic connections in Egypt, who has learned how to kill everybody.

You have killed God's people. Why, brethren? It's a very humbling thing. Divine judgment doesn't cure rebellion from the heart. Rebellion goes deep, deeper than judgment can do. Then God told Moses how to cure rebellion.

He said, take the rod of all the leaders. Get a rod from all the leaders. Put it inside the holy of holies. The rod of the man that burns will be the one I have chosen. It is fruitfulness that indicates the divine election, not judgments.

And if all of us who claim that we are following Barzakh and following God have no fruitfulness to show, we should repent. Then all of us just have words. And if you want to be fruitful, there's only one way.

Get into God's presence alone. And you will bird. And you will flower. And you will blossom. And you will bring forth. And that will silence rebellion. That's how God does it. God doesn't do it by argument.

I'm the one that was written in the will. You are the one. And then the other one says, we are the constitutional board. Those kind of arguments can go on forever, forever, forever. Forever, forever, forever.

Christ’s Resurrection as God’s Vindication

If we want, if you believe that God called you, go into God's presence about the Lord Jesus and his resurrection. In 1 Timothy chapter 3, the Bible says he was vindicated by the spirit through the resurrection from the dead against all the accusations of the Jews.

The resurrection was God wiping off the mud of the Jews against the person of Jesus Christ. If you want to wipe your own face, God will let you do. But if you love the Lord, perhaps you should give him a chance to wipe the mud from your face.

And if you want to let him do it, you have to go through the grief and go through the darkness. There is no shortcut. If you want to go through it, swallow the cup, drink it to the dregs. So God gives none of us permissions to go around claiming our rights to governance and to leadership.

All leadership will be opposed. And every leader who is opposed and who goes out establishing his right to leadership is a tyrant. That's another King Saul. Jean Edward says, every leader that God has rejected will claim the rights to leadership.

And every leader that God approves will have to run away from claiming the rights of leadership. For if God does not save you and if God does not give you a CV, if Jesus of Nazareth had to wait for 30 years for the God of heaven to testify by the Jordan, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

The arguments for leadership are just human ambition. They are human ambition. Arguments do not establish leadership. Fruit does. But co-workers that have received that impartation, they follow what the Lord commanded Moses as doing God's will.

They know. They know. They know that this is what God wants. They are not confused. It is not a democratic pool where the idea comes and then we synthesize the best options and then apply it. It doesn't work that way.

God reveals his will. There is a heavenly father. He reveals his will. And he doesn't drop it like little stars into the church. He selects some people and he reveals his will. And he tests the hearts of men by their attitudes towards those people.

This is the faithfulness of a co-worker. Whose co-worker are you? Whom have you ever believed in this world and in this life? You cannot be the co-worker of anybody whose vision you do not share and whom you do not believe.

And believing a man means accepting a man in terms of what that man means to God. Not sentimentally in terms of the personal love relationship that you have with that man. To believe a man means you accept the man in terms of what that man means to God.

Paul’s Apostolic Authority and Spiritual Knowledge

That's why the apostle Paul keeps saying even to Timothy, Paul, an apostle, not from men or by men. Why should he introduce himself thus to somebody in such deep intimacy with him? Why? Because it is spiritual knowledge that governs the instructions that he will give.

It is not a natural relationship. You must know a man as God in terms of what he means to God. And Paul writes to Timothy and he says, he says, and of this gospel I was appointed a herald, an apostle and a teacher of the nations and God is my witness.

I am not lying. I've been troubled by those words for many years. Why should God, why should Paul be telling somebody who loves him so deeply that he is not lying? I came to the realization that spiritual knowledge cannot be assumed on the basis of any natural relationship.

Cannot be assumed. To know a man as God knows that man is not automatic. That is the faithfulness of a co-worker. So whose co-worker are you? Whom have you believed? Moses selected the 72. He got them to stand with him.

I would have I would have preached a long sermon about this standing with a man around his vision. Because if you don't attend the prayer meetings of a man, you can receive little impartation of that man's spirit.

Transactions and impartations take place when men stand together in the presence of God and looking in the same direction. There is an environment in which there is a transfer of spirit and that environment is in God's presence.

That's why some who attended the prayer meetings caught something and some who never came to the prayer meetings got nothing. It all looks so strange when all are the same. There is a context in which impartations take place.

Whose co-worker are you? And are you faithful as a co-worker? Are you faithful? Will you do it as the Lord told another? You see, in the New Testament many times when I taught on this somebody said, ah, he always go to Old Testament for references.

Instructions for Christian Service in the Pastoral Epistles

In fact, the references we have the book of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, most of all those books instructions for God's service not from God to a man but from a senior apostle to a junior apostle. Is that not bigger than all those as the Lord commanded Moses in the Old Testament?

As the Lord commanded Moses does it constitute the whole book in the New Testament? It constitutes 1 Timothy. All of 1 Timothy instructions from a man. 2 Timothy, how to serve God by instructions from a man.

Titus, how to serve God by instructions from a man. An entire body of directions for service not by any direct revelation but revelation from God through a man. So the New Testament body of evidence whose co-worker are you?

And your ministry is it like Timothy's ministry? Your ministry, are you carrying out by instruction from anybody? Has anybody ever given you such detailed instructions as Paul gave to Timothy? Whose co-worker are you?

The Young Prophet Who Anointed Jehu

In the Old Testament there was a young man that Elisha sent to go and anoint Jehu. You have read the story, haven't you? Who has read the story? There was a young prophet. The Bible does not give us his name.

And the prophet Elisha told him to take a vial of oil and go amongst the commanders of Israel call Jehu out and pour the vial on him and say to him, Thor says to the Lord, I anoint you king over Israel.

Then close the door and run for his life. Who has read that? Let me ask you, Brethren. The prophecy that that young man was proclaiming, did he hear it from God? Eh, Brethren? He went out to carry out a prophecy to say Thor says to the Lord by what he heard from the mouth of another prophet.

Did he hear any word from God? Why didn't he tell Elisha? Say, but how can I go and say Thor says to the Lord when I did not hear any Thor says to the Lord? I should go and say that the Lord says that the Lord said that.

There is an infidel, an unbeliever, American philosopher. What was his name again? I forgot his name. Maybe God doesn't want me to remember his name. But he reasons some perverse reasoning. And he says when they tell me that God appeared to Moses on the burning bush this is what he told Moses.

And they tell me that the Bible is inspired. The Bible is not inspired for me. It was inspiration for Moses because he got it directly from the source from which he came. For all of us who subsequently hear it, it is not inspiration, it is information.

And in a sense it is true. That's why the Bible says taste and see that the Lord is good. You can know God only by personal experience. Transmitted knowledge is information not inspiration. But, that's not all the truth.

God, Elisha told that young man go and say, Thor says the Lord, I anoint you king. Why did that guy not say, but Elisha, where is God? You are the one telling me now that I should go and tell him. Thor says the Lord, you are cooking up a coup d 'etat.

I am going to report you to the king. We are supposed to submit to our rulers. How can you be cooking up a coup d 'etat? I will report you. If that young man left from there and went to the king instead of to Jehu, the story of Israel would never have been the same.

But he was a co-worker and he was a prophet. A prophet whose prophecy was the pronouncement of a prophecy for a year, directly. It takes extreme faith in a man. Extreme faith. Extreme faith. Whose co-worker are you?

Whom do you believe? Whom have you followed? I am going to discuss one more thing, the faithfulness of a son. But I want to ease myself. I want a few people to stand up and pray that God will give us co-workers produced by God, not manipulated by Jethro.

God’s Organic Work Versus Organizational Structure

They are those co-workers produced by the Jethro approach, organigramic construction of a community, paradigms of leadership models. They work for worldly organizations. They cannot work for organic units.

And the church is an organic unit. It's not just an organization. It works. In the management manuals of Stephen Covey, he says, principles of structural organization do not work where organic issues are concerned.

He says, you can sit around a table and plan how to raise the scales of sales, but you can't hurry up how long the corn will grow. You plan your farm by observing the rules of life. Organization cannot replace the rules of life.

The corn will take the time it takes to grow. Say amen. And the church will grow because it is an issue of life. It is not Coca-Cola company. Some things cannot be applied to the church because it is life.

Jethro did not know that. So he introduced the organizations, but he did not relieve what he was trying to avert, the crisis of Moses being crushed. He did not relieve it. Are you a co-worker? Have you ever believed anybody?

Can you follow anyone? Do you know what's Has God shown you what somebody means to him so that you can have the joy of following? Following does not require a particular mind frame of psychophantasm. It requires revelation.

What God means to a man and what a man means to God. If God blesses you with that revelation, you can follow. If not, you cannot follow.

Prayers for Revelation, Faithfulness, and Followership

Father, we thank you for this word that we've heard. Lord, I pray that you grant me the revelation of who the leaders that you've placed over me, of what they mean to you, O Lord, so I can rightly follow them.

Lord, I pray that you open my eyes and open my heart to receive from you what it is that they mean to you. Lord, I pray that you'd open my eyes to see the ways that you've backed them in the past, that you've backed what they've said, you've backed what they've done.

Lord, I pray open my heart to understand what the leaders are over me and same if I mean to. In Jesus' name, amen.

Father, I bless you, O God, for opening my eyes to see, O God,.

That following is.

Not just a particular set of mind, but what the person, O Lord, but what, Lord, the vision, what giving somebody means to you, O God. Father, we pray that you visit us, O God, so that we know what it means by following, and that is what you are teaching us this afternoon, O God, to know what it means by following, being a co-worker, or it means, O Lord, a revelation.

It does not just mean a mindset, but a revelation, O God. Father, we pray that you open our eyes and reveal to us again anew so that we should know, O Lord, what it means by following to Brozac and what Brozado is continuing, O God.

Father, so that we learn to follow, O God, instead of being distracted, spiritual distraction and so on, O God. We pray that you deliver us from all such distraction and give us the spirit to follow. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, once again, I thank you for your word.

I thank you for this teaching because you are opening our eyes and you have opened my eyes widely.

And through this teaching,.

You have cemented certain things in me. I thank you, Father, that you have already revealed your servant to me. And I pray that you continue to help me to serve through him faithfully. It's in the name of Jesus that every day you add something more because I'm just a student and I'm still learning.

I pray that the commandment that you have given to Moses and Moses' co-worker who is Joshua went ahead and got it done and got everything done that that becomes my share of every single day. I thank you for obedience and faithfulness.

I confess that once again and I beg you to seal it in my heart in the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. I exalt your name. I praise your name, Lord, because you are a God of love. You are a God of truth. Lord, I thank you.

I thank you because you've blessed me through your servant who went to be with you. You've taught me, Lord, through him. But when I am confronted with the question, are you a co-worker? I answer, Lord.

I'm asking for your forgiveness, Lord. I'm not worthy, Lord. But help me, help me to become a co-worker, Lord. I need your grace, Lord. Lord, I need your mercy. I need your grace. Oh, Lord, that you will lift me up as a co-worker.

I'm willing, Lord. I'm willing. Help me. Help me what? Help me to understand what it means, Lord,.

To be a co-worker. Help me to understand what it means to be a co-worker. And raise all over the world more co-workers so that the work may be done. So that the work may be done. Oh, Lord, help us, Lord.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Father, I pray, oh God, that you grant me to be serious, Lord. To understand, oh God, that men are different. Oh, God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that you deliver me, oh God, from the light-heartedness of my heart, oh God.

Just to consider everybody the same. Lord, I pray that you grant me, oh God, to understand that what men, oh God, mean to us different. It's different, Lord. Father, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ that you grant me, oh God, to seek, oh God, what a man means to you, Lord.

In the name of Jesus. Father, everyone I seem to follow, everyone I seem to understand, everyone I see, oh God, to have a certain vision is not deep, oh God, because I don't spend time in your presence.

Oh God, and my work of being a co-worker, oh God, is just so light, oh God. I pray that now I'll be able, to seek to know what men, oh God, mean to you. I beg you in the name of Jesus Christ. Father, I can truly confess that right now my co-worker have no one, oh God, because I've not seen what they mean to you, oh God.

I'm just in the confusion, oh God, I allow myself to be confused by those who come and say, oh this what, don't you see that God is backing me in this area or that area, oh God. Lord, I pray that in the name of Jesus Christ I will dwell into your presence, oh God, in such a way that I will see, I will allow your revelation, I will allow you to give me your revelation to know, oh God, what a man means to you.

I pray for myself, I pray for God, I pray for my wife, I pray for, I pray for the church, grant us the revelation, oh God, of your leaders so that, oh God, you have really co-workers, oh God,.

In Jesus name, amen. Heavenly Father, Lord, I just thank you and I bless you for this day, Lord. I thank you, for the word that's come forth to us today, Lord. I thank you, Lord, for giving a vision to Brother Zach, Lord.

I thank you, Lord, that he found those principles to be good in his life, Lord. I thank you, Lord, that you gave him the knowledge to pass it on to us, Father God, so that we may for ourselves see that as good.

Lord, I thank you that I've tasted it, Lord, and I see that as a good thing, Lord, and I choose to follow it, Lord, Father God. I choose to be faithful to your will through the words and through the principles and through the practices and precepts that Brother Zach has passed to us, Lord.

I thank you, Lord, for providing us those principles, Lord, to apply into our lives that we may fulfill, Lord, your prophecy in our lives, Father God, and in future lives, Lord. Thank you so much, Father God.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.