What God’s People Must Do To Regain
Spiritual Power (Part 2)
Our heavenly Father draws people to Jesus
in a number of ways. We personally responded to His call to
follow Jesus as Lord of our lives through reading the Bible and
coming under the conviction of His Spirit to yearn for
forgiveness and relationship with Him. Overwhelmed with love
and gratefulness to our Lord, our hearts pressed into Kingdom
living. Out of obedient trust in the Lord we loved, we relied
on His Spirit powerfully at work in and through us. Testimonies
of His work overflowed to encourage others in His faithfulness!
Then we went off to seminary and became
“churched people”. His spiritual power diminished
to a flicker, and like the proverbial frog in the pot, we
weren’t even aware of what had happened. How could we not miss His power,
you ask? Like so many others in religious systems, we chose the
path of busyness, racing to keep programs and
“ministries” running efficiently. As we’d
been taught, we thought that our exhausting, family-neglecting
service was what God wanted from us!
As the Hebraic foundations became a way of
life for us after our return from Israel in 1994, we’ve
become Kingdom servants of our Lord once again. Maybe our Lord
allowed us to experience the seduction of the religious system
so we’d understand its hold on people. We don’t
know. But, what we do know is that only in the Kingdom of our
Lord are the life and freedom that Lord Jesus promises!
Recapping Key Parameters of Experiencing
Spiritual Power
As the prior three Lifebytes (66 thru 68)
on the subject of spiritual power have made clear, seeking the
power of our Lord at work in you calls for intentionally fleeing evil and pursuing righteousness so that you’ll be prepared to serve Him (2
Timothy 2:19-22, apperceiving Numbers 16:5,26).
How do we make sure that we’re not
committing the “spiritual adultery” of entertaining
unseen influences that compete with the Holy Spirit? We rid
ourselves of unconfessed sins and demonic
strongholds, and any deceiving thought processes (soulish dominion) that hinder His power from
flowing through us (2 Corinthians 10:2-5).
We need to humbly
cry out to our Lord for His
discernment and cleansing work in us so that we’ll be
available to serve Him. And, we need the help of others close
to us in the faith to confront us when we entertain old thought processes,
attitudes and actions that don’t align with God’s
Word (2 Timothy 4:2).
If we want the mind of Christ in our
lives, then we need HIS perspective in these key areas:
• Lord Jesus sees within those who
love and serve Him the Presence of His
Spirit in our spirit as His
spiritual Temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). As part of the temple of
the living God in our midst (2 Corinthians 6:16), He has
prepared each of us for particular service to Him, for the “good works which God prepared in advance
for us to do” (Ephesians 2:
10).
• He is a King Who focused directly
on preaching the good news of the
Kingdom and sent His disciples
to do the same (see for example Luke 9:11,62; 17:20,21). When
you are born again in spirit through His Spirit, you are
recruited and empowered as His servant to advance His Kingdom.
•
The Spirit of the King of the universe resides in each of His
followers to teach us all that we need to know to serve Him in
loving obedience (John 14:15,26). And what does the life look
like of someone who is wholeheartedly serving their beloved
King in Spirit and in truth? Like that of His chosen,
called-out ones in the Book of Acts! Through His Spirit we are empowered to live
uprightly, as vessels of His power, love and self-control (2
Timothy 1:7; 1 Thessalonians 1:5).
The choice is yours: to listen and obey
your King as Lord, or to serve yourself and spiritually wither.
If your heart and spirit are set on being His vessel to use for
His joy, then prayerfully review earnestly the truths we share
in these four Lifebytes on spiritual power. They point the way
to Spirit-empowered Kingdom living that glorifies our Father
and our Lord Jesus.
“Therefore every teacher of the Law who has
been instructed about the kingdom
of heaven is like the owner
of a house who brings out of his storeroom
new treasures as well as old”
(Matthew 13:52).
Lifebytes 66 thru 68 illustrate the issues you need to address in your own
life and in the lives of those in your fellowship family in
order to be prepared for our King’s use. If you all have
identified and removed the hindrances we discussed in those
Lifebytes, then you’re ready for the power of Jesus to
flow through you to carry out whatever He commands you through
His Spirit.
Keep in mind that the earliest followers
of Jesus were spiritually powerful and relationally
intimate — and that these
qualities didn’t spring up in a vacuum! If it’s
your heart’s desire to truly understand and walk in these
Spirit-empowered dynamics, you need to keep exploring and
discerning their foundations in the Older Testament as the
first disciples did.
They measured all that they were
instructed in what we now call the Newer Testament by making
sure it aligned with the only scripture they knew, the Hebrew
Bible. They allowed that foundation of the Law, which the
apostle Paul called “holy,
righteous and good” (Romans
7:12), to be their yardstick, interpreting everything by the
sacred text — just as we who follow Jesus are to do with
both Testaments!
All of the spiritual understanding and
faith practices we see in the Newer Testament were already part
of the Hebraic Stream of Judaism before the coming of Jesus —
those who loved God and delighted to obey Him because they
trusted Him as did their Father Abraham.
Even before the coming of Jesus there were
apostles (people sent forth on a mission), prophets,
evangelists, and elders who taught those in their care the way
of the Lord (Genesis 18:19). These functions didn’t just
pop up from nowhere any more than John's immersion for
repentance, or Jesus telling Nicodemus that a person must be
"born again."
Immersion baptism emanates from the practice of the Jewish mikveh. The
individual had set his heart to turn
away from the defilement of sin and live uprightly,
symbolizing this washing away of the old by immersing himself
fully and rising up cleansed in spirit. Thus we have John's baptism for repentance (Luke 3:3) — turning away from sin and
rising up into forgiveness and newness of life.
Paul builds on this immersion of
repentance by identifying our “water burial” with
the death of Christ — in Him we are no longer enslaved to sin.
Our rising up out of the water spiritually parallels His
resurrection as we present ourselves to God alive from the dead
with our bodies as instruments of
righteousness for His use (Romans 6:
4-13).
The need to be “born again” began to be taught over 200 years before the coming of Jesus by
what we call the “Hebraic stream” of rabbis. A
person needed to experience a spiritual
rebirth, a response to God’s
call on his life that mirrored the trust-filled relationship of
obedience that Abraham had with God. Being born again was a
shift from following the letter of the Law to living in
love-based, obedient relationship with God.
When you were “born from
above”, you underwent a major change in your spiritual
life: from religious practice (or no practice!) to full trust
and reliance in the Lord. That’s why Jesus was so
surprised when Nicodemus professed ignorance of this new birth,
which had been known for at least two centuries: “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you
do not understand this?” (John
3:10).
Because being born again was such a
dynamic shift in the way someone related to God, Jesus declared
to His listeners that they had to be “new wineskins” in order to embrace the New Covenant (Matthew 9:17). This is His same command to us if we’ve
been seduced by the “Christian” religious system. The intimacy of love-grounded, obedient trust
evidenced by the indwelling Spirit is indeed a “new
wineskin” of living water!
Our Father had been prophetically
revealing His truths to the Hebraic Stream of Judaism in order
to prepare those who would become His followers to carry out
their part in His Kingdom. All they needed was empowerment from
His indwelling Spirit:
You shall receive
power when the Holy Spirit has come
on you; and you will be witnesses
to Me in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8; also John 15:26).
Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and
to all who are far off — as many as the Lord our God will
call (Acts 2:38,39).
The key to understanding the manner in
which our Lord’s spiritual power flows through His
followers is to live in complete awareness of where that
Spirit lives: within in each of us who belongs to Him.
God’s Word so testifies:
And the one keeping His commandments
remains in Him, and He in them. And by this we
know that He remains in us: by the Spirit whom He gave to us (1
John 3:24, literal translation)
But if the Spirit
of Him who raised Jesus from the
dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also
give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you (Romans 8:11).
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves
Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him (John 14:23).
Becoming “a
servant of this Good News by God’s gracious gift,
which
He gives us through the operation of His power”
(paraphrase of Ephesians 3:7)
We noted earlier that the roles of
apostle, prophet, evangelist and shepherd/teacher were already
functioning among the Jewish people when Jesus walked on the
earth. It’s only as we
thoroughly realize God’s perspective and purpose for
these anointings that we have the basis to restoring spiritual
power in our fellowship families.
Take your time as you prayerfully read the passage below.
Consider the purposes of our Lord in establishing these
anointings, and why He intends that they cooperate together:
And He Himself gave some to be apostles,
some prophets, some evangelists, and some shepherds and
teachers, to equip the saints [God’s people] for the work of service, for the building up of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith
[a unified Body in Jesus] and of the knowledge of the Son of
God and become a complete man to the whole measure of the
fullness of Christ [being set apart in the character of Jesus],
in order that we no more be infants, being
blown and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the
cunning cleverness of men in the craftiness of error, but speaking truth in love, we may grow into Him in all respects Who is the Head, that is,
Christ, of Whom all the body being fitted
together and held together by every
supporting ligament according to the working in measure of each part, making for the growth of
the body for building itself in
love" (Ephesians 4:11-16,
literal translation).
This passage is a "prime
directive" from our Lord for His body, His representatives
in the flesh as His witnesses to the world. It is His intent
that His called-out ones be collectively trained by apostles,
prophets, evangelists, and shepherd/ teachers. In that way, His
own in unity would each do their part in His Kingdom —
with ONLY Him as their Head.
The lifeblood of this passage is spiritual empowerment in each of His own, beginning with apostle, prophet,
evangelist and shepherd/teacher, on through gifts of healing,
exhortation, service, discerning spirits, mercy, and others
listed by Paul in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. The Kingdom
of God and our service to our Lord are empowered by the Holy
Spirit to meet both spiritual as well as physical needs. None
of these services originates in our own strength or personality
if our Father is to receive praise from them!
Language Differences Affect
Our Biblical Understanding
• English
emphasizes the noun or subject
• Hebrew emphasizes the verb, the
action
Nouns and subjects draw your attention to who or what your
sentence is all about. Hebrew, on the other hand, focuses on the action of
what’s being done, and then secondarily to the person or
thing doing it. This difference in emphasis makes it hard for
people who are used to concentrating on who or what to grasp the
underlying sense of response to what’s said — the action that’s
either already taken place or is being commanded. This is
important for you to understand in regard to God’s
purpose for the anointings of apostle, prophet, evangelist,
shepherd/teacher in particular.
Because of the emphasis of Hebraic thought
on action, it’s not the title of these anointings
that’s important, but rather, “How do they function?”
“What do they do?” One noted writer states that the entire
Hebrew language began as verbs, conveying the importance of
active response. To the early followers of Jesus, the terms
apostle, prophet, evangelist, and shepherd/teacher would convey
the activity implied by the name.
As the result of Greek, Latin and English
language influence, most Chris-tians think of these anointings
as ecclesiastical titles of
position rather than as their
function within the body. If you’re among those with that
misconception, please let go of it. Our Father has always
intended that the power of His
Spirit at work in the anointings be
an active response of obedience by His people. God receives glory when His Kingdom children operate in His
Spirit’s anointing! (1 Peter 4:11)
The roles of apostle, prophet, evangelist
and shepherd/teacher are written down in order of priority in
Ephesians 4:11, similar to the listing in 1 Corinthi-ans 12:
28,29 which deletes evangelist but adds workers of powers. This
priority is not based on ecclesiastical importance but rather
on the sequence of how they
function together. The spear in Diagram 1 illustrates
this idea.
From our book, Pastoring By Elders, we
want to review these anointings to help you better understand
why our Father wants them restored, and how critical they are
to His faith communities today.
• An apostle was a person sent forth to an appointed
place with a given mission to complete. Picture this function
as the tip of a spear, launched to penetrate.
• A prophet was one to whom and through whom God spoke for
the benefit of His people, particularly to warn them to repent
when they went astray. Prophets generally functioned beyond the
confines of the Hebrew synagogues. Picture this function as one
that guides the spear, keeping it on course.
• An evangelist was a synagogue planter and repairer. In
the Newer Testament this person not only shares the Gospel, but
gathers together a faith community which he will leave in the
responsible care of elder shepherd/teachers. Picture this
function as the spear finding its mark in people’s
hearts.
• A shepherd/teacher was an older, gray-haired man of
leadership who imparted wisdom and counsel to a specific group
of people. He rightly divided the Word to bring clarity to
others and to exhort them to apply it to their lives.
Throughout the Older Testament God relied
on the zakens, elders, to shepherd His people and discern His will
at the city gate as well as within clans and families. This
same reliance on older men of wisdom to guide believers was
reinforced by Paul’s instructions to Timothy and Titus in
the Newer Testament. Picture this function as the spear firmly
situated among the people, carrying on after the apostle,
prophet, and evangelist have completed their groundwork.
The first three anointings spoken of by
Paul to the Ephesian church were apostle, prophet, and
evangelist. These functions generally operated beyond the
individual faith community, both individually and collectively spearheading the
advancement of the Kingdom of God according to His will.
As unbelievers are reached with the Good
News and enter the Kingdom, the shepherd/teacher serves within
newly established faith communities, beginning in their homes.
As the older man who functions as Father’s representative
in nurturing His children (Titus 1:8,9), he models coming
alongside those younger in the walk of obedient trust and helps
them discover and serve the rest of the faith family in their
Holy Spirit anointings.
To understand the sequence and function of
these anointings in conjunction with other gifts of the Spirit,
look at the tree, Diagram 2. Jesus is the Life-giving Root of the tree. It is from the Spirit of Jesus that both guidance and the spiritual power to do His will flow up the trunk.
As we go up the tree, we find the
foundational anointings which our Lord uses to equip His people
for unity and service. Again, the apostle, prophet and
evangelist operate outside a single faith community, while the
shepherd/teacher and other gifts operate as they serve their
local extended spiritual family.
[For more explanation of these functions,
see Chapter 3. Undoing the Effects of
Rule #3 in Pastoring By Elders; also Chapter 4. Corporate Warfare Through Spiritual
Gift Coordination in God’s Instruments For War — Discovering and
Coordinating Spiritual Gifts as Weapons of Warfare. Both are a free download at our website.]
You may be asking, “What happened to
these anointings? Why don’t we see them operating the way
the earliest followers of Jesus understood and used
them?”
To answer these questions, you need to
realize that Satan was, and still is, threatened by
God’s purpose in Ephesians 4:11-16. He’s a
deceiver, accuser, and destroyer. When he couldn’t stop
the advance of the Kingdom by bringing about Roman persecution
of those who loved and followed Jesus, he seduced Christians
into joining his heathen Roman empire. Compromise with pagan
customs watered down God’s call for “set apart
holiness” among His people, targeting those who did stand
firm in His Word for even greater persecution.
Through satanic strategy, the government
system and organized religion joined forces to produce the Holy
Roman Empire. The Roman Catholic hierarchy relegated the
anointings of apostle, prophet and evangelist to the first
century, effectively quenching any challenge to their own
political and ecclesiastical power.
Centuries of Revisionist writings have
confined the anointing of “apostle” to only the
Twelve. Yet, the Greek text of the Newer Testament indicates
there were others. Multiple Bible translations convert the very
apparent “apostolos” (apostle) into “messenger” or
“emissary”, again wiping away the Holy Spirit
empowerment among the irrevocable giftings assigned by Him
(Romans 11:29). However, the verb from which
“apostle” is derived, apostello, clearly means a person sent forth on a specific mission. Even Jesus is scripturally designated an
“apostle” sent by His Father (John 3:34; Hebrews 3:
1)!
Those who received Paul’s epistles
had no doubt about the meaning of the word apostle nor its
functioning through the Spirit to accomplish a purpose.
Certainly Paul, Barnabas, Silas and Timothy merit that
distinction scripturally (Acts 14:14; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2:
6), as well as Andro-nicus and Junias, who were “notable among the apostles” (Romans 16:7).
There were also false apostles who had
gone forth masquerading as authentic (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
These were serving Satan by pretending to be righteous while intent
on drawing people away from the truth.
A classic reference to sending forth
someone on a Spirit-empowered mission is found in Romans 10:
14,15:
How then may they call on One in whom they
have not believed? And how may they believe in One of whom they
have not heard? And how may they hear without one proclaiming?
And how may they proclaim if they
are not sent? As it has been
written [in Isaiah 52:7]: “How beautiful are the feet of
the ones announcing good news of good things!” (literal translation)
Here we have people sent on a mission: to
proclaim the Gospel! That very concept of being sent forth was
clearly understood in the Hebrew Scriptures, as shown not only
by the prophetic apperception from Isaiah but also the
reference to the beautiful feet — someone was being sent forth
somewhere to an-nounce good news!
The anointings of prophet and apostle were so
vital to the Church that the “mystery of Christ”
that Gentiles and Israel are heirs together as members of His
body (Ephesians 3:4-6) was revealed by the Spirit to these callings in particular. Along with the anointings of evangelist and
shepherd/teacher, apostles and prophets were to continue to train
people for Kingdom service (Ephesians 4:11-16).
Tragically, the ecclesiastical system that
was so influenced by pagan Hellenist thought and Roman
organized government gave way to Satan’s schemes. Swayed
by the lure of power, the religious hierarchy determined to
eliminate people’s awareness of Holy Spirit anointings,
especially the biblical Hebraic pattern of older men as
shepherds. Their emulation of worldly power succeeded so well
that even today so many assert of the religious system,
“That’s the way it’s always been!”
But that’s another of Satan’s
lies. The biblical elders who followed in the footsteps of their
Hebraic ancestor Abraham shepherded the Father’s children
in Christ. The hierarchical religious system cast down this
pattern, introducing young, educated clergy modeled after
the Greco/Roman pagan religions. And the result among the
“churched” today? Widespread spectator-type
passivity that depends on professional clergy to spoonfeed them
religious instruction.
You may be wondering, “Are the
clergy of today the shepherd/teachers Paul was referring
to?” The answer is an emphatic “NO!” Paul
called for elders — wise older men modeled after those in
his Hebraic heritage. These men personified the character
qualities called for in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9.
Again, today’s clergy system is of
de-monic origin, patterned after Greek and Roman paganism. As
Revisionist writers painted these lies to be scriptural, the
“tree” of spiritual anointings and gifts (see page
6) was cut down. Severed from its root of Jesus’
Lordship, men looked to the religious system for direction
rather than to the Holy Spirit for power.
The revision of truth into a system of
man-centered deception produced what we see today: a religious
stump with clergy in control (Diagram
3).
Yet, our merciful Father is eagerly making
known through the Hebraic foundations His way of freeing His
own from this devilish system. But
it takes the courage of His called-out ones to hear and to follow through in
obedient trust.
During the course of our research we came
to realize that our God had allowed a curse to come upon the
burgeoning system of Christianity. Why? Because so many had
embraced the anti-Semitism of the Hellenist "Church
Fathers" in the second and third centuries.
But God’s timing to restore His
people to the continuity of His
purpose and ways in both testaments is
precise. He has restored control of Jerusalem to Israel as
Jesus prophesied (Luke 21:24). As a banner to the nations He
has brought back millions of Jews to the land He had given to
the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Isaiah 49:22).
And, now, through our Father's desire to
restore the Hebraic foundations of love-grounded, obedient
trust do we have the opportunity to live in the Lordship of
Jesus to serve His Kingdom purposes as Spirit-empowered
vessels.
At the core of the Hebraic Restoration is
the return of spiritual power to the followers of Jesus.
Through loving trust in Him, our Spirit-empowered prayers and responsive obedience can effectively battle the Prince of
Darkness and his demonic forces in the unseen heavenlies. The
souls of people otherwise bound for hell are at stake!
“Just as each of us has one body with many members,
and these members do not all have the same
function, so in Christ we who are many form one body,
and each member belongs to all the others.
We have different gifts, according to the grace given
us...” (Romans 12:4-6a).
We’ve touched upon the need today
for restoration of the Spirit anointings Paul cites in
Ephesians 4:11 to equip the saints to serve and to edify
the body of Christ. Let’s explore these more to see how
critical they are for His collective flock today.
Apostle
“He appointed twelve that they might be with Him and that He might send
them out to proclaim and to have
authority to expel the demons” (Mark 3:14,15).
Jesus handpicked twelve particular men
whom He intended through intense personal relationship to train
through role modeling, through instruction, and through His power working in them to do the supernatural.
This spiritual power validated their
message of His coming as He sent them out to proclaim the
Kingdom in power: “And having
called together the twelve, He gave
them power and authority over all
the demons and to heal diseases; and He sent them out to
proclaim the kingdom of God and to cure” (Luke 9:1,2).
Never intending that His apostles emulate
the pattern of pagan authorities through either ecclesiastical
titles or arrogant self-regard, Jesus instead commanded a heart motive to serve that was modeled by Him: “You
know that those who are regarded as rulers of the nations lord
it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over
them. But it is not so among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among
you shall be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you shall be slave of all” (Mark 10:
42-44).
Certainly the anointing of apostle
didn’t mean that you’d be held in high regard or
elevated to some exalted status! Look at what Paul himself had
to endure in following that anointing: “For I think that God has showed forth the apostles as last,
like men doomed to death. For we become a spectacle to the world,
both to angels as well as to men” (1 Corinthians 4:9, literal translation). As he
continues in 4:10-14, we see the suffering and degradation that
may accompany those sent forth to serve our Lord’s call.
Again, the apostle is God’s tip of
the spear (Diagram 1) for seeing that the Kingdom in its pure form
expands beyond the confines of local faith communities. While
apostles may have varied roles, all serve to extend the Kingdom
of God.
You’re probably aware that some
today call themselves “apostle”, using this term as an
ecclesiastical title of rule over some religious system.
Usually, it’s a clergy person (or someone designated
“apostle” by a clergy person) who feels he’s
graduated to some higher role. Yet only the Holy Spirit
authorizes gifting as He chooses, despite what man decides! (1
Corinthians 12:11)
On the other hand are some who believe
that the ONLY apostles there ever were are the original Twelve.
But examination of the scriptural text reveals that this
anointing exceeded not only the Twelve but is also among the
anointings needed and empowered by the Spirit of Christ today.
Prophet
• “Pursue love, but eagerly
desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. The one prophesying to
men speaks edification and encouragement and consolation” (1 Corinthians 14:1,3).
• “Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophecies. Prove all things. Hold fast the good” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21).
• “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others discern. But if something is revealed to another
[prophet] who is sitting, let the first be silent. For you can
all prophesy singly, in order that all may learn and all be encouraged. And the spirits of
prophets are subject to the
prophets” (1 Corinthians 14:
29-32).
• “For the witness of Jesus is
the Spirit of prophecy” (Revelation
19:10). [All the above are literal translations.]
We’ve included several Newer
Testa-ment passages here because so much of contemporary
Christendom has discarded the gift of prophecy. Many clergy and
other religious leaders in particular are threatened by this
anointing of the Spirit. But as our Lord indicated in Matthew
23:34-37, their alarm repeats the historical pattern of
persecuting the prophets who spoke forth God’s truth to
unwilling ears.
From our Father’s perspective,
prophets epitomize His merciful heart toward His people! It is
out of His mercy that He sends prophets to warn about
tolerating unconfessed sin and to encourage His own to keep His
commands. In essence, the
prophetically gifted person helps keep people out of trouble with God.
Those who prophesy according to the power
of the Spirit in them are used as instruments by God to quicken
people to pursue righteousness. Out of loving obedience to
their Lord, the prophets proclaim a message of holiness: they
urge His children to live in obedience to what our Lord
commands.
This is the gift Mike received when he
first became a follower of Christ. The Spirit began to speak to
his spirit, giving him words to share with God’s
called-out ones. For eleven years the Holy Spirit used him
among religious leaders in New England. They nicknamed him
“the enema” because the Spirit would send him into
a faith community when tolerated sin was clogging righteousness
and the purposes of Jesus. His Spirit-prompted message would
both address the sin and speak forth God’s solution.
Within faith communities today the gift of
prophecy encourages and strengthens those who yearn to be true
to Jesus in fulfilling their Kingdom purpose (Ezra 6:14). And
while Paul encouraged prophecy, he also insisted that what was
shared be tested and confirmed (see 1 Corinthians 14:29 and 1
Thessalonians 5:19-21, cited above).
The confirmation
of two or three is God’s rule
for validating truth. As Jesus affirmed, “For where two or
three are having assembled in My
name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). And Paul reaffirms this pattern of
confirmation from both the Older and Newer Testaments: “Every matter must be established by the
testimony of two or three witnesses” (2
Corinthians 13:1, apperceived from Deuteronomy 19:15; also
Matthew 18:16).
Evangelist
“But you, be sober in all things,
suffer hardship, do the work of an
evangelist, fulfill your service
labor” (2 Timothy 4:5,
literal translation).
Christianity has long entitled the
“prison letters” of Paul sent to Timothy and Titus
as “pastoral” epistles. However, this designation
is misleading. These letters were in fact
“evangelist” epistles written to his
“spearhead” proteges Timothy and Titus who were
carrying out their Spirit-empowered service as planters and repairers of faith communities. Like Paul, they spearheaded the spread of the
Gospel and established new faith communities among those who
responded.
Biblical evangelists not only shared the
Gospel message, they stayed around until a faith community was gathered, nurtured
and placed under the guidance of shepherd/teachers —
elders. These elders were older men known and recognized among
the faith community to be more mature and diligent in living
uprightly according to the parameters Paul directed both
Timothy and Titus. We get a glimpse of this process of elder
anointing in Paul’s instructions to Titus: “For this reason I left you in Crete, that
you should set in order the things lacking and appoint in each city elders [biblical
shepherds serving the flock], as I charged you” (Titus 1:5).
We know that evangelists don’t have to be older, for Paul
encouraged younger Timothy, “Let no one despise your youth, but become a
pattern for the believers in
speech, in behavior, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). God needed someone who
would serve His purpose of sharing His truth and establishing
the Kingdom way of life in each new faith community.
You may be wondering, “If an
evangelist stayed in an area until a faith community was
formed, how did we end up with the Evangelism
Crusades that are so popular
today?” Sadly, today’s “drive-by Gospel
drop” never comes close to our Father’s intent for
this gifting. Instead, this technique produces little lasting
fruit. As has been admitted by numerous Crusade officials (and
even the name “crusade” has such negative
connotation!), only 4-10% of those who “go forward” later
stay true to Christ.
And the sad conclusion of those who hear
but later fall away? “I’ve been there and done
that!” In fact, the real
fruit of crusades is that they inoculate people against any further pursuit of Jesus,
the One they never really knew.
This type of evangelism has become so
prominent over the past century because well-meaning people
failed to apperceive the Bible. Evangelism Cru-sades have most
recently become epitomized by Billy Graham and others. During
the late 1940s pastor Billy Graham was recruited to be an
evangelist by the late Dr. Harold Ockenga, the first President
of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Mike’s alma
mater). In a private conversation one day, Dr. Ockenga stressed
to Mike that the most important thing in Christendom was preaching.
Mike had just graduated from the Religious
Education department, where mutual
cooperation had been emphasized and
no individual’s role was more important than another.
What a contrast to the Divinity program through which Dr.
Ockenga considered it the seminary’s duty to
“develop great preachers.”
As well-meaning as was this man’s
intent, the crusade-style evangelism method so widely used
today has produced sorrowful results. What needs to be restored is the
biblical evangelist who shares the
Gospel and stays until a faith community can be gathered as
family in the Lordship of Jesus and entrusted to the care of
shepherd/teachers among their own relational arena.
Shepherd/Teacher
“To the elders
among you, I exhort as a co-elder
and witness of Christ’s sufferings and also the sharer of
the glory that is to be revealed: Shepherd
the flock of God among you, not by way of
compulsion, but willingly according
to God; not from eagerness for base
gain [greed], but eagerly; not exercising lordship over the
people, but becoming examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:
1-3, literal translation).
The Newer Testament words for “shepherd”, “overseer”, and “elder” are generally used interchangeably in the
epistles. They all refer to the anointing of older men of
wisdom who would be examples of the Father’s care for His
children. In other words, their compassionate heart as well as
their application of wisdom to the lives of others would be
evidence that their motives are right before God.
That they should be capable of bringing
clarity to scripture so that it could be applied to life is
affirmed by the apostle Paul to the evangelist Timothy: “There-fore it behooves the overseer to be
without reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate,
self-controlled, orderly, hospitable, able to teach” (1 Timothy 3:2) 2 Timothy 2:2 also refers to “faithful men competent
to teach others.”
Paul advised Timothy, “Let the elders who
lead well be deemed worthy of
double honor, especially those laboring at communicating the
Word and at teaching” (1
Timothy 5:17). The teaching that’s referred to here does not mean conveying
the Bible as an academic subject from behind a pulpit. This
method so commonly employed today produces Bible knowledge but no life
application. People end up
erroneously believing, “The more Bible I know, the better
off I am with God.” Not true!
In the Hebraic pattern of people seeking
wisdom from those who were sharing it, God’s Word was
explored and discussed in order to apply
it in obedience to Him, not examine
its content and forget about it! The role of the shepherd in
teaching was to discuss biblical truth with those under
his care to help them put it into
practice, as Jesus had counseled
(Matthew 25:46-48). That is, they guided them in establishing
personal and family halakhahs — biblical applications to life
situations. (If you’re not familiar with using
God’s Word to establish halakhahs for yourself and your family, please see our
book Christian Halakhahs <http:
//www.restorationministries.org/HtmlFiles/HTMLBooks/ChristianHalakhahsR.htm>,
a free download at our website.)
Much of what is considered preaching or
teaching today from behind pulpits and lecterns has its roots
in the rhetorical style introduced to Christianity by the Greek
convert, John Chrysostom. One-sided presentation with no
interactive response by listeners is Hellenist methodology, not
Hebraic. Since the intent of the speaker is to convey content,
he has no need of relationship with listeners. In fact, an
ominous facet of Hellenist influence was the separation of clergy from the people — a system of hierarchy in which levels below
had no contact with those above. As many clergy today admit,
the lonely place at the top may have power, but little in the
way of true friendship.
The Hebraic method of teaching in the
earliest Church was patterned after that of their ancestors and
the rabbis whose presence was common. Both teachers and
learners relied on personal
relationship and interpersonal discussion.
The shepherd interacted with the disciples, whom he knew
personally on a daily basis and lived among.
The essential first step in discussing a
situation was to apperceive the
Biblical foundations for everything
that was being taught. This practice was vital to the Bereans
who had access to the Hebrew texts: “...they received the message with great
eagerness and examined the
Scriptures every day to see if what
Paul said was true” (Acts
17:11).
Like prophecy, teaching needed to be tested and confirmed before
taking steps to apply it to daily life. Again, the main
emphasis of the shepherds and all teaching in the early Church
was that it led to righteous application and a way of life that
displayed the character of Jesus. Anything less than this
violated the commands and teaching of their Lord.
Now you have some understanding of
God’s purpose for the cooperation of apostle, prophet,
evangelist, and shepherd/teacher. But understanding doesn’t
mean it’s being lived out! This is where you need to pray
and call upon the indwelling Spirit of Christ for guidance and
empowerment.
You may not have any of these four
anointings. Instead, the Spirit of Christ may have anointed you
with one or more of the other giftings noted in 1 Romans 12:4-8
and 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, 27-31. It’s your privilege in
Christ to identify and use that which He’s given you!
As you seek to be used and empowered by
the Holy Spirit, He’ll guide you in how to use your
gift(s). To be truly effective as a vessel of praise to God,
you need to discover and learn to appreciate the gifts of
others as well with whom He wants you to cooperate. This is
especially true for your marriage, family, and faith community.
• God speaks to release His message through
gifts such as prophecy and tongues.
• God reveals truths through gifts such as apostle, teaching, knowledge, wisdom,
evangelism, missions, exhortation, discerning spirits, and
interpretation of tongues.
• The
Holy Spirit bestows gifts that produce action to bless others.
These gifts include giving, healing, helping, mercy, and
miracles.
• The
gift of celibacy frees a person to be specially devoted to the
Lord’s purposes.
• The
gifts of administration and leadership can see the combination
of people and goals from God’s vantage point and can give recommendations and guidance to achieve His purposes.
• The calm certainty that
gives a believer a “reckless abandon” to the will
of God is the gift of faith.
• The
gift of shepherding is given to mature men in whom the Father
has bestowed special nurture and
compassion for each person in
His flock.
Understanding how the different gifts
operate according to the Spirit’s guidance and
empowerment is key to establishing
cooperation as they’re used.
Some believers are spoken to, others are spoken
through, some are prompted to act, and
still others are empowered to tend
the flock.
Each of the gifts plays a vital role, and
each, like our own body parts, functions differently to fulfill
its purpose. Some body parts function solely inside the body. The gifts
of shepherding and administration are like this. Other body
parts operate outside the body, such as arms and legs. These may
be the apostle, prophet, and evangelist.
Learn a Lesson from
the Parable of the Talents
(Matthew 25:14-30)
The material talents in this parable find
a parallel in the spiritual gifts that are entrusted to us by
the Holy Spirit. As with each man in the parable, each follower of Jesus is given a gift(s)
according to our ability (Matthew
25:15). We must one day render account concerning our
cooperation with the Spirit in advancing the Kingdom through
our love, our trust and our obedience.
As noted in the parable, the consequences
for negligent disobedience are severe: “And cast that useless
slave into the outer darkness,
where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30).
Heed this warning:
To disregard either the Person or purpose of God the Holy
Spirit is to blaspheme Him. This is why we must be very careful
about the spiritual gifts He apportions to us according to His
own will. Don’t ignore the voice of the Spirit of
Christ and live in such a way that brings down the Name of our
Lord. Our Father has called you out
of the world’s ways to
live as His child and to serve Him. That can only be done in
the power of His indwelling Spirit as you obey Him!
How can we be vessels through whom the
Spirit flows as He uses the gifting within each of us? We can
pay attention to the following:
• Our individual
and corporate willingness with others in
the body to have our gift(s) used signifies our love and
devotion to our Lord.
• Our readiness
to obey evidences that we are free
from all soulish dominion. The Spirit of Christ, the Head of
all His called-out ones, rules our mind, will and emotions.
Concluding Thoughts
The Spirit of Jesus in you, in your
spouse, your family and faith community, has specifically
endued each of you who loves and serves Jesus as their Lord
with spiritual giftings. Furthermore, He knows exactly how He
intends to use each of you for His purposes. This is why
it’s so important that you know each other’s gifts so
that you can more readily understand each other in the spirit
and cooperate with the guidance the Spirit of Christ will
provide.
Unnecessary tensions arise when people
fail to know and cooperate with the spiritual gifts of others.
This ignorance is one of the key tensions in Christian
marriages — lack of knowing
and cooperating with each other’s gifts.
Kingdom-style parenting role models for
your children this beautiful Spirit cooperation that advances
our Lord’s Kingdom. And, the true functioning of a home
fellowship can’t take place without relying on the
empowerment of the gifts within each member of the extended
spiritual family.
If you’re really serious about
serving the King you love, discuss together God’s Instruments for War — Discovering and Coordinating Spiritual Gifts as
Weapons of Warfare, a free download: <http:
//www.restorationministries.org/HtmlFiles/HTMLBooks/GIFREntireBookR.htm>
“We constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of His calling,
and that by His power He may fulfill every
good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith” (2 Thessalonians 1:11)
