Several times, I’ve had ministers give me business cards that stated, “Apostle (their name)”. I’ve also been asked to speak at churches where the senior leader is titled “Apostle (their name). The title someone carries should FOLLOW the fruit of their life and ministry/work. I’ve known too many friends who served in the military, especially in theaters of war, who have been on the field of battle with recently commissioned, but green and untested officers, given charge of their platoons or squads. Their horror stories of theirs, and everyone else lives put in grave jeopardy because of these untested, though titled officers were all too often a correlation to what we’ve seen emerge in the body of Christ over the last two decades.
There are some who claim to be
apostles, and I’m not saying that they aren’t latent apostles, or
“apostles in training”, but I know of none I’ve met in the U.S. I’ve met a lot of people. I do
know that there are apostles on the earth now and they are mostly in foreign
countries. The Lord is sending many of them here to bring reformation and
restoration. I’ve met and worked with some of them. They are marked by a depth
of selflessness that only the dealing of the Lord in their lives, and
cooperating with Him by embracing the way of the cross can produce. The
discipline of the inwrought cross is how He prepares spiritual mothers and fathers
– the true “apostolic”. This is how He prepares a people to emerge that they can
carry an apostolic anointing and an apostolic authority.
The church in the West,
especially the United States,
has not listened, and we continually turn away from Abba’s training method. We
have kept trying to confess things away that Abba has allowed into our lives
for training, instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to train us through these
testings. It’s only through passing these tests and this training that He can
bring us into a place that we can carry an apostolic authority and an apostolic
anointing. To be able to carry the fullness
of the King’s presence and the King’s authority, takes a surrendered,
disciplined people. Very few people in westernized Christianity have cooperated
and allowed this training to be implemented. The stark reason is that those who
are their leaders have never been “fathered”, so they, in turn, cannot father
(train) an apostolic people who can carry the Lord’s authority and see
successful spiritual warfare advance. The “church model” is not the model of
the body of Christ (which is His image and likeness). To
implement true, New Testament discipleship would mean the loss of money,
attendance, accolades, ad infinitum, that adds up to what the scripture calls
“selfish ambition”.
That’s coming in this new
season, the restoration of the true apostolic, is going to be traumatic because
it’s completely outside of the paradigm of the modern organized church. We have
entered the final season of restoration that will lead up to His return (Acts
3:19-21). We’re shifting into that “new land” – that new season, and, I
believe, it’s going to cause civil war. But we’ve got to move into it.
What
is “Apostolic Ministry”?
For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. (1 Thess. 1:5-7)
I want to see what real
apostolic ministry is, or better yet, what real ministry is, period. The
apostle states here that the Holy Spirit bore witness to the message, with
conviction and signs and wonders, but he makes one last addendum. He says, “You
know what we were like. There was nothing in our lives hidden from you - good,
bad, indifferent - you know what we were like.
We didn’t come to just bring a word to you, to bring signs and wonders
to you, but we came and put our life on display before you.” The
character of Christ in them was put on display.
This passage of scripture ties
me in knots especially in relation to that which I have had to “unlearn” from
the organized church system. Have you ever really read that statement? He
didn’t say, “And you became followers of the Lord.”
He
said you became followers of US AND of the Lord. What in the world does
he mean? I believe he means this - we have allowed the Holy Spirit to so deal
with us, that when you came in contact with us you were coming in contact with
Him. And so by becoming followers of us, you became followers of the Lord.
Where is that in the modern organized church? Today, it seems to be about the
word, or about the preaching, or about the gifts, or about worship, or it’s
(fill in the blank). Where is this apostolic ministry being modeled, mush less
being taught? Why? Because there are few or no true spiritual fathers.
A spiritual father is a one
that has embraced the way of the cross to so allow the cross to deal with them,
that they share not only the gospel and signs and wonders, etc. but their life
is put on display to the degree that Christ Jesus is experienced in and through
them. They have allowed the power of the cross (denial of self, living only for
the purpose of glorifying God) to so penetrate their life that when you come in
contact with them, like the apostle Paul - a spiritual father - spiritual sons
and daughters are made into the same image. That image is the image of Christ.
One has come into contact with the Lord Jesus Christ because they have come
into contact with them. You have a physical representation of who He is, living
it out in front of you.
The main teaching of the cross
today is “let’s go to the gospels and look at Christ in the gospels”. This is
good, but I’m tired of that. It’s ok but where is the physical, in
the flesh, expression of the gospels as we read it? Where
are the examples of Him? This is the difference between what we call
ministry in the organized church and what the New Testament calls true
ministry. The apostle Paul said in
Galatians 1, “When it pleased the Father to reveal His Son in me, He put me in
ministry” (Gal. 1:15-16). “Ministry” is not just coming to bring a word. That’s important but if coming to bring a
word is not backed up with at least in partial representation in the life of
the Son in the one that’s bringing it, no ministry happened - according to the
New Testament. Several weeks ago, Dr. Richard Mays, a member of our fellowship,
was sharing his teaching on healing. The teaching is the best I’ve ever heard
on the subject as is available from our website, lionheartministries.org. He
not only shared his teaching, but he opened up and shared his life experiences
as a part of it. It deeply touched all of us in a way that just sharing the
teaching would not. Something eternal happens to people when you share not only
good revelation or teaching, but when you share life – His life in you. This is my experience. When you begin to see
Christ manifest in the flesh, and what people have walked through, scars and
all, something is imparted to you that is eternal. The Spirit in them touches your
spirit. And if that does not take place, “ministry” has not happened! I
don’t care if there were signs and wonders and a hundred people got healed. True
New Testament ministry has not taken place, because the people who were
healed can get sick again. If they have
encountered Christ, they are eternally changed. Paul
says, “You became followers of us and of the Lord. By becoming followers of us,
you became followers of the Lord because you were seeing Him in us.” You saw
God Himself put on display in and through us and it transferred to you, to
where everybody can look at you in these provinces and see Him. This is apostolic,
New Testament ministry.
It’s not just preaching to or
at somebody. It’s Abba being experienced through you to them. Our
training happens only when we set ourselves to embrace this denial of self
lifestyle (the cross) when the enemy begins his harassment and testing. It
further only happens in the context of community – living it out in covenant
relationship with others of the body of Christ. When you deny self (embrace the
cross), you give the spirit of God opportunity to come to the forefront. This
lifestyle breeds and forms in us spiritual maturity. We go from children and
young men who can preach the gospel in signs and wonders to fathers who have
known Him who is from the beginning (1 John 2:12-14). When people come in
contact with these mature fathers and mothers, they experience the eternal
omnipotent God and not just a word or a sign. This is what we are shifting
into. I can’t tell you how I’ve longed to see this day.
(Continued in the next
newsletter...)
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