Someone ask me recently how to deal with simpleminded people in prophetic ministry. I considered the question a very good one since we all have to deal with simplemindedness in spiritual things.
On the one hand, we understand that “becoming like a little child” was one example Jesus used to describe how to experience His kingdom rule. Certainly no one would entertain this one teaching as His claim that everyone should be ignorant, on purpose, in order to function better in the kingdom, or that the kingdom never involves itself in complex human puzzles or deep spiritual issues.
Taking the idea too far would be rather disastrous. Failing to learn what He was teaching, just as disastrous.
Nonetheless, people who are simpleminded will always be a welcome part of the Body of Christ. These people will also experience the grace of God, and will receive spiritual capacities or “gifts” from Holy Spirit. The flow of grace through these gifts may be both amazing and annoying when or if we have no leadership strategy to locate their operation within the Body. Ignoring the simplicity of mind will produce distraction and dysfunction; ignoring the people because their minds are simple would be spiritually rude and inconsistent with the heart of God!
Protocols work. Protocols work for everyone. Protocols also assume that God’s spiritual capacities work within the protocols for everyone. In this way, the vast majority of issues with simpleminded people are resolved by their attention and respect for the protocols. They can operate in gifts, just as everyone else, to the extent they can follow protocols. That is, being simpleminded is never an excuse for not following protocols, and as in every person’s case, a person who has a gift from Holy Spirit can operate in that gift to the extent they can learn to submit the gift and its operation to the Body. No submission. No operation.
Since the gift is subject to the person who receives the capacity that grace flow provides, the person must operate in enough personal leadership that the gift operation fits into the greater work of Holy Spirit in the Body. Protocols help us avoid confusion, rebellion, distractions, and out of control behaviors. Since simpleminded people tend to function simply, their spiritual gift operations should be simple. Simple as that. Not avoided or ignored but properly blended into the greater work Holy Spirit is doing in the Temple called “ekklesia.” If they have not or cannot learn to follow direction, like anyone else, they cannot operate in the gifts. No one can operate in spiritual gifts rebelliously, certainly not children or simpleminded people merely because they are simpleminded or immature.
