Why I do it - It's like a Fire, Shut Up in my BONES

I just spent a wonderful afternoon with a newly renewed friend and Pastor.  Terry and I went to school together in Ellendale ND a million years ago.  We have come to know each other again pretty well in the last couple years.  It has been rewarding.

 

Terry is a true pastor with the ministry gift of pastor.   He has a church in Michigan he leads as pastor.  His gift is greater than he knows.  I believe God has some things in store for him.  The light he brings won't be kept under a bushel by God. 

 

His gift is Pastor.  I appreciate that about him since I need to have a pastor in my life.  We talked about all kinds of things.  Mostly about what has been going on with the ministry areas I am over involved in.  He did what a pastor does best, asked questions, listened, prayed, asked questions and let me sort thru issues I have.  Last time we got together he unraveled some areas that I needed to see more clearly.  This isn't counseling as such.  This is more laying my stuff out and picking over the carcasses to see if we can learn what there is to learn from all the evidence.  I am transparent with him because I know he's safe and neither of us has anything to gain or lose if we offend or irritate.  Safety means infinite transparency.

 

He's gifted in his area of ministry.  I have not heard him preach but I'll bet he's pretty good. 

 

That visit made me reflect on the ministry gifts of Ephesians Four and how the Body of Christ accepts them.

 

If a person is gifted as an evangelist no one questions his motivation.  Just that he has a burden for lost souls and would do all he could do to save them.  A noble cause.  He is celebrated.  Even respected by the ones who are the subjects of his efforts should they fail.

 

If a person is gifted as a teacher, as long as he has a class he will teach. In fact, most teachers I know spend time learning the Word of God as recreation for some future teaching time.  Study is joy.  I find myself in this role often.  Sometimes the pure joy of digging out a truth or a mystery is rewarding enough.  People who enjoy the Bible nuggets a teacher delivers respect him.  Kind of like the drive thru at McDonalds.  Fun.

 

If a person is gifted as a Pastor, he works to help people who have limited resource or someone who just needs encouragement.  He takes people under his wing and teaches them to fly.  He is needed.  And, he deserves the respect he gets because of the patience and love a Pastors gift carries with him.

 

All of those 3 Ministry Gifts are applauded and supported by the Body of Christ.   HOWEVER, there are 2 other ministry gifts identified in Ephesians 4.  The Church denied them for a long time.  They were just too inconvenient.  They caused too much trouble.  So the church has for the last several hundred years bumbled along with Pastors, Teachers and Evangelists while silencing the Apostolic and Prophetic.  I am a member of a group who claims to be a proponent of all the gifts of the Ephesians Four model.  In fact, it only really recognizes the first 3.  When I have asked I am told, that even though the name is Ephesians Four, the focus and support of the organization is from Churches.  Churches for the most part fear the two suppressed Ministry Gifts and seldom embrace them.

 

If a person is gifted as an apostle he is accused of being controlling, domineering and un-yielding.  If a person has an apostolic call on his life, he will be difficult to understand by the other ministry gifts.  People will rebel against his direction and leadership.  They will all think they could do it better.  Moses is the prototypical Apostolic Leader.  Even Aaron his own brother murmured against him. 

 

Apostles bear marks in their body, the same marks Jesus carried.  Maybe not always physically, but in abuse, in rejection, they bear the marks of an apostle.  They are not loved universally.  They are often persecuted.  People forsake them.  It's lonely and can be unrewarding as a calling.  The ones I know personally have had serious rebellion in the ministries they lead.  I know several and the ones who have made it work suffer much for the faith.   They are victorious men of God and rise above it but there has been pain and woundedness.  They have suffered stripes at the hands of men. 

 

If a person is a prophet he is accused of being arrogant for saying what God says.  He takes slings and arrows of people who are offended by the idea that a prophet hears God differently from them.  Or from the world, the prophet gets ridicule for even hearing from God.  The world, flesh and the devil will always strive to silence the prophetic.  Sometimes a person with an immature prophetic gift has a fear of man.  If so he or she will be silenced.  The prime temperament any prophet must have is to be bold and strong in the face of all opposition.  Even if that opposition is 600 prophets of Baal and a Queen that wants to kill you.  A true prophet must at all times regard God above man.  Even if an Angel should appear he must be able to test the spirits and listen for the confirming voice of God or ignore what might have been an angel of light (The Devil). 

 

In the days of the Old Testament prophets there was constant criticism of men and women who prophesied.  They spoke in riddles, in mysteries, without specificity, in types and shadows.  That the only way to really comprehend the prophesies of the Old Testament and even of the book of Revelations is after it happens.  Jesus birth was prophesied for centuries but not until he appeared did the Prophesies become evident in fulfillment.  That's why Jesus on the Road to Emmaus had to explain to the two disciples by the fulfilled prophetic who HE was. 

 

As a prophet I know the sound of those accusations.  Prophecy is always multidimensional in it's vision.  There is a personal application, a church application, and a global application.  AND there is a immediate application, someday application and ultimate application.  It's much like looking at a panoramic picture of the Rocky Mountains and trying to describe them from that picture.  You see the ones in the foreground, the ones, further away and the ones way off in the distant.  Yet they all appear immediate in the picture.    So the (description) of what is seen is distant and nearby all at once.  Only as one travels thru the mountains can one understand what has been described. 

 

Prophets are accused, silenced (attempted at least), killed, and put out of churches.  They nearly always have people sniping at them who hate who they are.    Being a prophet is never profitable.  In fact it costs everything to carry the mantle.  The only sure thing is to operate as a prophet one must know to do the will of the Father without fear.  The Lord is the only reward a prophet needs.  He requires no human to offer affirmation.  I can report that as a prophet, the prophecies are shut up in my bones like a fire and the only way you will stop me or any true prophet from prophesying the truth of God is to kill him.  All prophets I know are careful, orderly, respectful and do not prophesy except as it is allowed and embraced.  But they will prophesy to those who have ears to hear.  Those with those ears to hear are blessed and encouraged by the prophecy.  The ones with stopped up ears live far below the potential God provided for them.

 

The church was destined by God to be built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.  If there's too much dependence on one gift or the other the church will founder by tipping into legalism and formalism or into chaos and indirection.  The apostle needs the revelation of the prophet and the prophet needs the steady hand of the apostle.  If that is missing the church will be unbalanced.   Satan loves an unbalanced church.  He will do all he can to create this unbalance and allow the church to fall of it's own weight.

 

None of the other ministry gifts can operate with much fruit without the firm hand of the apostle and the visionary encouragement of the prophet.  This is the way God set it up in the first place and only in denominational America do churches refuse to see or receive the gifts God urgently wants to give.  That's why so many churches in America are dying. 

 

There are a few fellowships that receive and embrace the apostolic and prophetic.   They have great destinies in God.  For the rest, I am not very optimistic.  This is a day when the prophetic and the apostolic must work hand in hand to accomplish what God wants to do.

 

The fields are ripe for harvest and the combine needed to harvest them is broken.  I'm thankful for every legitimate ministry gift I know. 

 

I'm thankful for the Gift of Pastor that is Terry.  I know he is thankful for the Gift of Prophet that is Gene.  Shouldn't it be always that way?  Shouldn't the Gifts work in concert with one another and accomplish the work of the ministry? 

 

I hope and pray that day will come soon.  We need to get the team back on the playing field.  Time to push back the Devils. 

 

Go Team.