Leading People After God's Heart, Not Possessing Them

The following article was posted in the August 2010 edition of the GGWO Affiliation Newsletter. Pastor Jim Morrison found what he called a "cassette treasure" in an old shoebox - a message preached by Pastor Thomas Schaller, June 1981 - and gave it the title "Leading People After God's Heart, Not Possessing Them".

A pastor is a person who doesn't analyze the Christian faith, but who lives the Christian faith. He doesn't take the faith and study it like a science, but he experiences the mystery of godliness in his heart. He comes to the pulpit not to teach systematically about the faith, but he teaches so that hearts are burning, and heads are not getting too big. Many times if our head gets too big, our heart is too little. 

We could become people who approach the work of the Lord on the wrong basis. "This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me" (Mark 7:6). "Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. 4:23). Out of the heart comes the message, and we sense the presence of God. We see that the kingdom of God is real. We can't put our analytical "fingers" on it. When we try to put our fingers on it, we may be correct in certain things, but we miss the heart-influence that can only come through the Holy Spirit. Though we are correct in one sense, we are wrong. The Corinthians knew a lot, but they didn't know how to live as living epistles (1 Cor. 8:2). 

We are often very confident in our analytical way of looking at things. But "so is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knows not how" (Mark 4:26-27). The seed grows and changes its form, but we do not know how it works. We have a faith that speaks to us in the heart. Then the heart takes care of the mind. "I will give you pastors according to My heart" (Jer. 3:15). His heart is a heart that loves and walks "the extra mile" and does not possess people.

Jesus, after His resurrection, walked on the road to Emmaus with two disciples. Then, coming to their house, "He made as though he would have gone further" (Luke 24:28). He does not possess people. Later He disappeared, and those disciples said, "Did not our hearts burn within us?" The heart of the Lord possesses us without possessing us. The heart of the Lord teaches us so that we can have hearts that are after Him. We end up like Job: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in him" (Job 13:15). 

If we are analyzing the truths of the Gospel from the wrong point of view, we miss God's heart. We just let Him go by our house. That happened to Jacob. He said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not" (Gen. 28:16). There are times when the Holy Spirit is present to heal and teach (Luke 5:17), but we don't receive His ministry. It's because we're not going after the heart of the Lord. The Lord said, "I will give you pastors who know Me, and their hearts will be like My heart. They will feed you with knowledge and understanding." 

The Holy Spirit directs us not to say certain things. Good teaching is not explaining everything. It's avoiding certain issues while making other things a big issue. The ministry of a pastor is to get us to understand and know the things of God's heart. That might mean that the pastor puts some fields of knowledge "on the shelf," while he makes a big issue of the life of faith, the life of unconditional love, the life of living by the Word of God, and the life of meditating on the Word of God. That pastor has an ear to listen to people and their problems. He's understanding and compassionate. He doesn't possess people. You sense liberty in his presence. He'll teach you all about the Lord, and then make as if he'll just go by you. Then the people say, "Wait a minute! We want to go with you. What more do you have to say about the heart of God? What more do you have to say about the kingdom of God?" 

Human hands cannot get a grasp on a Spirit-filled ministry's power and effectiveness. It is something that is given mystically, and we know not how. All we know is that we are a part of it, and it's effective and fruitful. We have knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and faith. Out of the heart come the issues of life. We go forward and we know it works, but we don't know how. But it's all to the glory of God! We have been taught not to be possessive of people or ministries or works. We are interested in knowing the heart of the Lord, and following Him, and then seeing what may come behind us. "Surely goodness and mercy" will come after us, and people have a tendency to follow after those things.

It's a wonderful thing to have a heart after the Lord. If we fear God we will have wisdom. "Rejoice and tremble" (Ps. 2:11). Have a great time in the presence of God, but tremble because you are a responsible person. You know that God is a living God, and He holds us responsible to follow after Him in truth and righteousness. We walk and we "mount up with wings as eagles" and "we walk and do not faint." We run patiently. Mysteriously, we don't get weary. We keep running for six years, and twenty years, and thirty years. Our hearts are still after the Lord, and our minds are affected. We know Jesus well, and He is our theology. If we know Him, He'll be the Great Issue. As pastors let's make like we're "going by," and we'll see people follow after.