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The Role of Fivefold Ministry (Part 3)
Now as pointed out before (in the book, Charismatic Captivation), the Church is the quintessential Theocracy. Its government is not a political government wherein the governed themselves constitute, devise, and effect their own government, such as that of this nation, the United States, which is a form of democracy (republic), supposedly “of the people, for the people, and by the people.” Rather, the Church is literally governed by a singular Supreme Potentate—the Lord Jesus Christ—who God has appointed as its Sole and Sovereign Head. The absolute necessity of understanding this one concept is emphasized and re‑emphasized repeatedly in this volume, and indeed is the ultimate and salient point of this book.
But, once it is understood that Christ Jesus Himself is the ultimate Head and Cornerstone of the Church, it is just as vital to understand that the government that Jesus presides over is an intermediated or proxy government in its physical application. In other words, He does not govern alone, nor directly, nor even in person. Rather, His government is a “representative” or “delegate” form of government, if you will. This is to say that as God set apart and specially consecrated the Levites to represent Himself unto the people, so also Jesus appoints, anoints, and sends special envoys, ambassadors, to represent Him and His government unto the Church. These envoys are His personal proxies, His delegates, His stand‑ins, whom He sends to convey and effect His purposes, plans, pleasures, and passions.
The Manifestation (Charismata) Gift of Prophecy
God desires for all believers to be INFORMED, NOT IGNORANT concerning the manifestation gifts of the Spirit, just as He desires for us to be informed about every other matter of the Spirit realm. Yet, there is perhaps more ignorance regarding this one matter than any other.
One of the remnants ostensibly of the Dark Ages in the Church which is still prevalent in many churches today is the ridiculous hypothesis that ignorance about spiritual matters perceived by some to be potentially erroneous should be totally avoided and that one should emulate the ostriches and bury his head in the sand so as to not even look upon anything which may be unorthodox or different than the traditional beliefs. Many denominational churches still teach that kind of childish and medieval-like behavior even for their adult church members pertaining to the matter of the baptism in the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, and related spiritual matters. Non-Pentecostal/Charismatic preachers and church leaders admonish their parishioners against becoming involved with Charismatic groups with such foolish statements as “you better stay away from those tongue-talkers and those ‘holy-rollers’ and those ‘snake-handlers’ lest some of that what they’ve got might get on you.” The premise of their thinking is that ignorance and avoidance of anything different than the traditional doctrines of that denomination is the way to prevent deception.
Nothing could be further from the Truth! Even the pagan Bereans had more spiritual sense than that, for when they heard the preaching by Paul of “another Way” than what they had known, they “received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). The only way to know whether a teaching is true or false is to examine it in the light of Scripture. The deception preventative prescribed by God’s Word is to “Test and prove all things [until you can recognize] what is good; to that hold fast” (1 Thes. 5:21, A.B); and the only way we can test and prove any spiritual matter is by comparing it to Holy Scripture. If God’s Word says it, then it is so.
Gifts Vs. Offices (Part 2)
This is second part of two-part series aimed at demonstrating that there are distinct and vital differences between the nine Manifestation Gifts, aka, the Charismata or Gifts of the Spirit, enumerated in Scripture and the five Ministry Gifts also delineated in Scripture. I urge you to read Part 1 of this series to understand the foundation and framework we are working from in this part. The overall point is that there are indeed major differences between the gifts of the Spirit and the offices Jesus established as the Head of the Church through which to continue His own ministry on the Earth in the Church He is building in His absence and on His behalf until He returns to claim the Church as His Eternal Bride, thereby culminating both the Church itself as well as the Church Age.
Guidelines for Receiving Personal Prophecy
Though the matter of personal prophecy is by far the element of the prophetic realm of greatest interest to the vast majority of Spirit-Baptized believers, it is not the most important. Nevertheless, personal prophecy is part and parcel of the present Prophetic Movement that has been nascent since the mid-1980s, and therefore requires some understanding and knowledge. In this article is presented a fairly simplistic overview of the matter of personal prophecy that is not intended to be an in-depth theological treatise on the subject. Herein, the term “personal prophecy” is simply a term used to refer to prophecy expressed to and pertaining to an individual person.
A NOW Prophetic Word to Local Church Leaders
The greatest church-growth program ever devised in the history of mankind and the church Jesus is building is the Fivefold Ministry Model outlined in Ephesians 4:4-16. Every senior church leader in America and some other nations around the world has at their ready disposal some of the most battle-tested, God-anointed, God-appointed, life-experienced Fivefold Ministers on the planet living right in their “backyard,” so to speak, in the form of highly-experienced preachers/teachers/ministers who reside in their geographical sphere of operation — in their immediate locality, their region, or state. God has distributed these mighty warriors of God all around you like salt on a plate of food.
Moreover, the fact of the matter is: the Ephesian Four text indicates you cannot possibly accomplish what God wants for you to accomplish in the establishment and edifying of a local church WITHOUT utilizing these Fivefold Ministry officers and functionates in your local church. It’s impossible to properly build the local church according to the Biblical model without them! No matter who you are, how anointed you think you are, how brilliant you think you are, and how successful you see yourself as being, you CANNOT do it all yourself, by yourself, and for yourself! To think otherwise is total deception and foolishness!
A Prophetic Word for 2020
In 2020, one of the emphases of the Spirit will be eschatological events, because God wants His betrothed, the genuine Church He is building, to understand that Jesus’ return is imminent–HE IS COMING BACK SOON! Eschatology is the knowledge and study of endtimes.
The Book of Revelation coupled with the Book of Daniel hold the keys to unlocking the mysteries of the endtimes. The Spirit-inspired words with which the Book of Revelation begins explicitly reveals the reason God revealed it to His Son, who revealed it via an angel to the Apostle John, who was commanded to convey it to the Church: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him to show to His bondservants the things which must shortly take place….” Eschatology consists of “the things which must shortly (soon) take place….” Revelation means the unveiling or uncovering of that which has been heretofore concealed, or a “mystery.” God instructed John to memorialize these things in a book in order that the events of the endtimes be revealed in an understandable fashion to the Body of Christ, particularly believers “upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11); i.e., believers actually living in the endtimes.
The Role of Fivefold Ministry
"Fivefold Ministry is the ongoing surrogate ministry of Christ Himself to the Church—His Betrothed. All legitimate ministry emanates from Jesus Himself and is an extension of His ministry. Unless it emulates His ministry, it’s not legitimate ministry."
"The essence and role of the Fivefold Ministry can only be understood in the context of the Church and Christ’s relationship with it. Above all else, the Church is 'the Lamb’s Wife' (Rev. 21:9)."
"The Lamb’s Wife is the recipient and beneficiary of all genuine ministry, for She is the object of Christ’s passion. The Bridegroom is wholly and eternally committed to His Betrothed. His statement, 'I will build My CHURCH,' is a vivid expression of His passion. Building His Church is the only building program to which He has ever been personally committed."
—Dr. Steven Lambert, ThD, DMin
from The Role of Fivefold Ministry
“Give and it shall be given to you!” (Lk. 6:38)
Plant Your Seed in Good Ground!
We are asking for your help with our worldwide outreach and labor toward the accomplishment of our mission and goals. There is a natural aspect to all that God does on the earth. He is not a counterfeiter, and thus does not rain down money from Heaven, but rather gives His people opportunity to receive an abundant material harvest according to the measure of the material seed they sow into God-appointed/anointed fields (ministries).
This ministry is good ground in which to plant your seed. Those who do always receive an abundant harvest!
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