The Church and how Leaders are Selected According to God’s Word 7-1-25

Attention: Before anyone starts judging what the Lord has told me to write, please don’t challenge me unless you can prove that I am judging unless you can prove it by the Word of God, rightly divided. The religious leaders (pharisees) challenged Jesus, but He came back at them with the Word (He is the Word)!

Although the leaders are the most responsible and accountable, the messages are for the others to be  aware when something is not going according to the Word of God. The main reason the church is out of order is because it has not kept the guidelines that the Lord laid out for the church. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts (Proverbs 21:12) They are not trusting God, they are leaning to their own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6).

How can a babe in Christ make choices? Jesus gave the five ministry offices to the church to grow them in their faith, to mature them (Ephesians 4:11-16). From those scriptures alone you can plainly see that certain people have been given the grace to make those kind of decisions which also takes much prayer.

Mature believers can also operate in the flesh by leaning to their own understanding.

Example: The church has made the same mistake or bad choices the way Peter and the other apostles did at the beginning of the church age. ‘Let another take his office.’ “Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.

And they proposed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles (Acts 1:20b-26).

Please read! God had already chosen Paul. But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.  For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake (Acts 9:15-16). But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles,……. (Galatians 1:15-17).

Notice that Peter and the apostles picked two men and then asked God to show them which one of the two it was. They never asked the Lord prior to picking people of their choice; that was a big mistake. Plus, casting lots was an Old Testament way of doing it, since the people did not have the Holy Spirit like we do today. Peter being a Jew, knew what they practiced in the Old Testament and he had the same mindset at that moment.

AI- In the Old Testament, casting lots was a practice used to discern God's will in various situations, from dividing land to identifying individuals for specific roles. It was believed that God guided the outcome of the lot, making it a way to entrust important decisions to divine direction. 

How it worked: Random Selection:

Casting lots involved a process of random selection, similar to modern methods like flipping a coin or drawing straws, but with the belief that God was directing the outcome. 

Brothers and sisters, there will never be God’s kind of success in the church until the people of God start functioning according to God’s divine instructions.

His handmaiden, Betty A. Burnett ~ burnettministries.org