Role of the Apostolic: Identifying Gift Packages in Body of Christ

Now that we have looked at the gift packages of the five-fold ministry, we can now look at the gift packages in the body of Christ. Not everyone is called into ministry and not everyone is called to the five-fold offices. However, every believer should be useful to God in bringing the kingdom of heaven into daily life in the world. Every believer can be equipped to edify and grow the body of Christ.

Part of the problem in the church today is that people show up looking for what they can get rather than what they can give. We need those who will call out the gifts and callings in believers to bring them into the fullness of the knowledge of God themselves, but also call them into the fullness of their inheritance in giving to the Body of Christ.

Many times in a church body, we may see someone who we think of as a revivalist. This type of person is typically anointed in deliverance. They move in the power of the Holy Spirit on a regular basis. We would typically see them as someone who baptizes in fire. Sometimes, I think this type of person may be an evangelist, but I think even more than that, this type of person would fall into the category of “worker of miracles” (I Cor. 12:10, 28). I think someone anointed in this area would have the gifts of miracles, discerning of spirits, and possibly varieties of tongues and/or interpretation of tongues.

Someone who is anointed in compassion ministry would possibly have: gifts of healings, mercy, and helps. This type of person would be a nurse or work in the healing ministry. They would also be the ones to have meal-ministries for those in hospitals or nursing homes.

Someone anointed in administration would typically have the gifts of administration and giving. They may also have the gifts of leading and exhorting, but not necessarily. They may also have a gift of prophecy that helps them administrate. Typically, a true administrator would have the gift of giving, because finances would be important to them, and they would be good with money. An administrator will be good at managing and carrying out the ideas of an apostolic visionary in a long-term way, but they will not always necessarily be good at taking a primary leadership role. Likewise, an apostolic visionary may have gifts of administration in order to begin a work, but they will not be good at carrying it out administratively in a long-term way.

There will also be people in the church body who have pastoral, teaching, evangelistic, prophetic, and apostolic leanings, but they will never carry-out the offices and are not called into full-time ministry. However, the leadership of the church can pull these people into functioning in the body and ministering to the lost even in the midst of their normal daily lives.