Fellow Believers of Proven Integrity and Maturity

Yesterday we saw that God also confirms through fellow believers, and we looked at the example of Paul being sent out from the church of Antioch.

I believe this public confirmation in the church of Antioch, of Paul’s calling, served at least three purposes. First of all, it strengthened Paul’s own faith. I believe many of us know that there are times when we need confirmation from others. We’re walking a rather lonely road. We’re wondering if we really have heard God aright. Things seem so impossible, what God has spoken about seems so far away. And then, God in His grace gives us confirmation through our fellow believers. Secondly, this incident at Antioch validated Paul’s call to his fellow believers. It wasn’t enough that he knew he was called, they had to know he was called to send him out and to support him. Thirdly, this incident emphasized the interdependence of the members of Christ’s Body. And that’s something to which God attaches tremendous importance, that we don’t act unilaterally, just on our own, that we realize we’re members of a Body and we depend on the other members. None of us can just act on his own and say, “It doesn’t matter what the others do. I know I’m right.” That’s an attitude which is almost invariably wrong.

I want you to notice two points about this incident, they’re both important. First of all, the confirmation to Paul and Barnabas came through fellow believers of proven integrity and maturity. That’s important. It matters through whom God speaks to us. If it’s a believer whose faithfulness, whose maturity, whose integrity we know; that’s much more significant than somebody who may be very unstable, perhaps just a new believer, and perhaps not leading a very godly kind of life. Confirmation through that kind of person is worth relatively little. But when it comes through fellow believers of proven integrity and maturity, it means a lot. Secondly, truly spiritual men do not go ahead unilaterally, regardless of their fellow believers. I respect that in Paul’s character. He knew God had called him, but he didn’t just go ahead and say, “Well, I’m going. Good-bye.” He waited on God with his fellow believers until the call was validated and confirmed. Then he went with their support and their prayers.

Believe me, all of us need to do that. It’s important to see that our ability to hear God through others depends to a large extent on the nature of our relationship with them. In other words, the better our relationship is with others, the better we can either hear God's voice through them or receive confirmation through them. Right relationships are very, very important in being able to hear God’s voice.