SONG: I JUST WANT TO PRAISE YOU

Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
"For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
[Isaiah 55:7-11 NKJV]

Our understanding of one another is imperfect. We see only through the lens of our own understanding, our own partial experience. Only The Lord has the untainted truth of the matter; seeing us as we are.

SONG: ONLY BY GRACE CAN WE ENTER

SONG: 10000 REASONS
SONG: HOLY HOLY HOLY ARE YOU LORD
SONG: I WILL ENTER HIS GATES WITH THANKSGIVING IN MY HEART
SONG: THIS IS THE DAY THAT THE LORD HAS MADE

This was an unusual turn in our deliberations, but just the right word — things need to get worse before they will get better. The scripture says that there is more to come — the depths of the Amorite spirit has yet to reach its fullness.

Amorite means to be boastful of self, to act pridefully and suggests that The Lord will not do part of a work and finish it at later. No, He will wait until we are ‘at the end of ourselves’ before He does His healing and restoring work. There has to be a full uncompromising commitment from us to put aside our selfishness and arrogance and throw ourselves at His feet. We must always remember that The Lord always works ‘in His time’, not in ours.


There has to be our complete trust in Him for this to work. When that trust is there, the bond of love is complete and we can wholeheartedly sing “He has made me glad”!

SONG: WE ARE BLESSED
SONG: WALK IT OUT (THAT’S WHAT EVERYTHING’S ABOUT)

In regard to prayer, we are apt to be apologetic and apathetic, complex and confused; yet what a splendid audacity a child has, and that is what our Lord taught us to have
[from ‘Christian Discipline Volume 2’]

A prophet is someone who prophesies, who foretells what is to come, and this is a difficult area. How can you tell if a prophet is genuine or if they are merely making it up? The test and proof is if the prophetic word comes from God. It is for this reason that we must ‘test the spirits’.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
[1 John 4:1-3]

The prophetic is the ministry to which some people seem to aspire, perhaps because it has a certain glamour, a caché, that is a misrepresentation of its purpose and actuality. However, it is a calling and the only true prophets are chosen by God, by His Spirit. Those who are genuinely prophetic often consider it a burden, knowing that if they mishear the Lord’s message, or if they mis-speak it, there can be eternal consequences. However, our God can steer the faithful prophet to fulfill His purposes.

The word of The Lord through a prophet can be a blessing or a warning, but always a profoundly affecting experience. Look at the major influence on our understanding by Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel (whose names mean ‘his name is El (great, almighty, god)’; ‘Jehovah has saved’; ‘whom Jehovah has appointed’; ‘God strengthens’ and ‘God is my judge.’)

Also, consider this: while a prophet will have prophetic visions from God, someone who has visions from God is not necessarily a prophet. I believe that visions are a way that the Holy Spirit uses to communicate with us.

Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.
[1 Corinthians 12:27-31 NKJV]

We can see that Paul always puts prophets as second in line after apostles. This is what seems to be a hierarchical principle seen throughout the Bible, indicating a ‘God’s-eye view’ of things purposed by and emanating from Him.

Third is mention of teachers in 1 Corinthians. In Ephesians, evangelists are next, which we shall consider next time in this series.

By what right do we become ‘a royal priesthood’? By the right of the Atonement. Are we prepared to leave ourselves resolutely alone and to launch out into the priestly work of prayer? The continual grubbing on the inside to see whether we are what we ought to be generates a self-centred, morbid type of Christianity, not the robust, simple life of the child of God.
[from ‘My Utmost For His Highest’]

”Prophetic praise and Worship music” (you can let the spirit decide whether or not it is anointed) “He who dwells in the secret place of the most High” — Ray Watson

The presence of the Holy Spirit in our gathering this week was keenly felt, and I believe that everyone sensed the idea of ‘standing’, as in ‘holding your ground’, a determination to prevail.
SONG: WE HAVE COME INTO HIS HOUSE
SONG: WE ARE STANDING ON HOLY GROUND
SONG: I STAND BEFORE THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD GOD OF HOSTS
SONG: ANCIENT OF DAYS (THOUGH THE NATIONS RAGE KINGDOMS RISE AND FALL)
There was a plethora of scripture read and pondered upon, and we shall just show these without further comment and allow the Holy Spirit to lead you through this time of gathering…

SONG: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS, GLORY, HALLELUJAH!
SONG: GREAT I AM (?)

Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 John 3:15-16 and 1 John 4:1 NKJV

SONG: FAITHFUL GOD

SONG: ABBA FATHER LET ME BE
SONG: FATHER GOD I WONDER (I WILL SING YOUR PRAISES)
SONG: I AM MY BELOVED’S AND HE IS MINE

SONG: BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD

There is never any risk in love that is ‘talked.’ If love is reticent it becomes a secret treasure that enervates. Keep it in the open, have nothing hidden to brood over.
[from ‘Run Today’s Race’]

“I Stand In Awe” — Melody Joy Cloud

Many in the church believe that apostles were for back then, two thousand years ago, but not for today. Other Christian groups, particularly in the last hundred years or thereabouts, actively associate themselves with that leading, naming themselves apostolic, or following Jesus as part of an apostolic company. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians said that Jesus had appointed some to be apostles as part of a ministry for the equipping of the saints. Does this mean that no one can be called to an apostolic ministry now? So, what do we mean by ‘apostle’?

Firstly, the term ‘apostle’ only appears in the New Testament; there was no calling to be an apostle before Jesus’ ministry. What we see in the Old Testament were anointed kings, and the rôle in the spirit may well be the same, or similar at least.

When we look at the meaning of the original Greek, we find that it has the sense of ‘set apart to be sent out on a mission’, which could be said of a king also; but the OT kings required a priest or man of God to guide and advise; apostles hear directly from the Holy Spirit, as priest/kings in one person.

You could easily say, that an apostle is a missionary, and thus it comes down to the purpose, the mission, on and for which the individual is set apart. It is those last two words that hold the key to what it means to being an apostle — being set apart, but also being given a freedom, being set at liberty.

In Biblical terms, this being ‘set apart’ was an honour conferred by Jesus on His disciples, and we have thus come to associate ‘apostle’ with ‘the twelve disciples’. However, Paul is also called an apostle, but his appointment was on the road to Damascus, by a word from on high and after Jesus had already ascended.

But what we can say here is that while an apostle must be a disciple (and Paul became a disciple at the moment of his conversion), it is not the case that every disciple is an apostle. A Disciple is a follower, a pupil and perhaps we can say that an apostle is one who has been taught by the Holy Spirit. What have apostles been taught or ‘set apart’ to do?

And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.
Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.
[Matthew 10:1-4 NKJV]

This passage from Matthew’s gospel is the first mention of the word apostolos, and it appears to show the precise moment when the disciples became apostles — when Jesus gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. We can infer that an apostle was given a specific twofold power from Jesus — power over unclean spirits, and power to heal sickness and disease — in effect becoming witnesses on earth to the power of God through Jesus Christ. One other factor in the leading for an apostle is revealed in the story of the loaves and fishes — an apostle must “Feed My sheep”, as we read at the end of John’s Gospel. Here is Jesus teaching that message…

But He said to them [the apostles] "You give them something to eat."
And they said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people." For there were about five thousand men.
Then He said to His disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of fifty." And they did so, and made them all sit down.
Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.
[Luke 9:13-17 NKJV]

Jesus embodies all five of the ministries given to us, but it does not signify that because we know Him, we can do likewise. Apostles are likely to to have the characteristics of the other four ministries, but the order of ministry follows the Bible pattern of descending order — though all are equal in the eyes of The Lord — so that someone called to be an Evangelist may also to be a pastor and teacher, but will not be apostolic unless there is a calling to be an apostle first. There is no hard and fast rule … The Lord uses whomsoever He will as He wills.

Next time, we shall look at the prophetic ministry.

If we have really had wrought in our hearts and heads the amazing revelation which Jesus Christ gives that God is love and that we can never remember anything He will forget, then worry is impossible.
Notice how frequently Jesus Christ warns against worry. The ‘cares of this world’ will produce worry, and the ‘lusts of other things’ entering in will choke the word God has put in. Is the thing which claims my attention just now, the one thing which God has saved and sanctified me? If it is, life is all the time becoming simpler, and the crowding clamouring lusts have no hold.
[from ‘Biblical Psychology’]

“This I Believe (The Creed)” — Hillsong Worship

Known as the Five-fold Ministry, we are told here in Ephesians that it is gifted to us by the Holy Spirit for the equipping of the saints and for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. This was Jesus stating how His ministry, His presence with us, His Holy Spirit would raise His church to fullness — to grow up in all things into Him.

These verses are revelatory — and I say that as one who is regularly astounded at the amazing truth revealed in scripture — for this is confirming Christ as the embodiment of all five giftings and the channel of God’s grace. Some believers strive to attain proficiency in these areas of faith. It cannot be done, for that comes from ambition and pride in achievement. It comes from the ego, the self, and not from the other, the Christ in us. Ministry must come from the life source, from truth, from the Holy Spirit, and from a deep relationship, an abiding with and in our Lord, or it is no ministry at all.

As already stated, we must see that these five ‘areas of influence’ are, like all good things, a gift from God. A gift is a gift and thus cannot be demanded or expected as a right. I might covet the rôle of evangelist, for example, but I should know that it is not something conferred upon me automatically. It is never a matter of ‘name it and claim it.’

We see that only some are gifted in this way; some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. It may be that this five- fold ministry is also four-fold, as pastors and teachers seem somewhat lumped together — a numerological way of saying this is the grace of God [5] to us for some who have received the gift to creatively inspire [4] individuals to grow in the Faith.

We will consider these ministerial attributes in more detail over the coming days. In our next message, we shall look at apostles.

“Make Me Like You” — Chosen