Implementing the Five-Fold Ministry: Essential Life of Prayer

Everyone has been looking at the right strategy for church growth and development for centuries, but God will not just hand us a formula. With everything He designed, He built-in a necessary place for communication with Him. Prayer is absolutely essential to every part of life. God wants to have relationship with His people.

We can look at church structure, study the Scriptures, and come to the conclusion of how everything is supposed to work, but it will fall flat without the essential life of prayer. Every aspect of God’s design for life is for the development of relationship with God. He will even allow friction and strife into a situation to cause His people to turn to Him in prayer. God will allow suffering and hardship so that His people turn to Him as the only hope.

God will give us wisdom in leadership when we pray. He will also give us wisdom in direction. I heard Reinhardt Bonnke speak one time about how he seeks direction from God. He said, “I go into my room and I push all my thoughts aside. I don’t ask God should I do this or should I do that…I lay it all aside. Then, God will speak to me something that I never would have thought of before. It is usually something so far-fetched that I think it is impossible, but when I step out in faith, it turns out to be way better than I could possibly imagine…”

God’s wisdom is so contrary to our human wisdom, but He will lead us when we are in constant communication with Him. Not only that, but He will also change circumstances and situations through our prayers.

For the five-fold ministry to be truly implemented in a body of believers, prayer is absolutely vital. When we pray, our hearts are conformed to God’s will and desires rather than our own. This is the only way for a group of people to function together as a body that loves each other better than themselves. Prayer will break down walls in our hearts and in relationships with each other.

There is so much strife and division in the church, causing the body to fight with each other. In the human body, a response of the body fighting against itself is called an “auto-immune disease.” Unfortunately, there are rampant cases of auto-immune diseases with the body of Christ. Unless people become filled with the love of Christ and learn to care for one another, there will never be enough unity of direction to properly restore the five-fold ministry and see the church walk in the fullness of its destiny in Christ.

However, Jesus has promised that His Bride will be made ready. She will be pure and spotless before His return. She will walk in her inheritance as the child of God and she will move in the fullness of His power. God will bring it to pass, and we must partner with His plans. Prayer on both an individual and corporate level will bring us into unity with His purposes for His Bride.

Implementing the Five-Fold Ministry: Essential Life of Worship

There are so many valuable things learned from spending years serving at a House of Prayer. Watching a body of believers pursuing the Lord together as much as they can has made a lasting impact on my life. There are many reasons for a spirit of unity in the House of Prayer, and one of these elements is the centrality of worship.

When we see God for who He is, there are two responses that come. One, we realize our own lack in comparison to Him. Two, we express His worth and value back to Him. As we look at Him, we fall in love with who He is and we begin to take on portions of His attributes.

God has already told us what He is like through His Word. However, when we sing those truths back to Him, they become a part of our very identity. Facts that we knew in our head, now become realities in our hearts.

Thankfulness is absolutely essential to a life of worship, and it is difficult to be depressed when you sing. Remembering the goodness of God and allowing your heart to express gratitude will break off any yoke of oppression.

When a corporate body joins in unity to worship the beauty of Jesus, it is nearly impossible for their hearts to not become knit to one another. Praise from the upright is beautiful, and when we sing and worship God together, we cannot help but fall in love with one another.

True worship is not just song lyrics and melody lines, but it is an outward expression of an inward reality of adoration for the One who is glorious beyond words. Singing from our hearts to the Lord changes the atmosphere around us and changes our identity within us.

Worship will unite a group of believers to lay aside their differences and whole-heartedly pursue the Lord together. People will begin to care more about the glory of the Lord and about loving their brothers more than their own agenda. It is in this type of context that the five-fold ministry can find expression.

Being in a place for five years where the worship to Jesus never stops, I have been transformed by constantly singing truths of who God is. Also, I have seen the transformation of lives and the drawing together of hearts of believers. When a body of believers worships Jesus together continually, they cannot help but love God and love each other. For the five-fold ministry to truly function in a body, these elements are absolutely essential.

Five-Fold Ministry in a House of Prayer Context

Living and working at a 24/7 House of Prayer for over five years has made a huge impact on my life. It is remarkable how this place runs and how everyone flips around into different roles multiple times throughout the years.

One of the most remarkable things about the House of Prayer structure is that everyone is in leadership in some capacity at some point. You may be the leader of the entire missions base, but if the usher comes up to you in the prayer room and asks you to stop talking, you are under their authority and need to do what they say.

On worship teams, you may be the most talented worship leader in the nation, but there are times when you have to be silent and let others have their turn to sing. The entire Harp & Bowl model (which is a model for mixing prayer and worship together) is based on allowing every person to have their own expression.

At the House of Prayer, titles are equated with lots of work, and they really do not mean much except for the fact that the “buck stops here” in that specific situation. One person may be in leadership in one department, but then they serve in another department where someone who is under them in one role is over them in another.

In this context, it is absolutely essential that pastoring and discipleship remain confidential, because everyone’s circles overlap in different ways throughout the missions base. It becomes difficult when multiple people come to talk to you about the same issue, and you know all the different facets of it, but you have to remain silent about all of the other sides and pretend that you had no previous knowledge.  

Those who have been here a long time have to practice humility when the rookie comes in and tells them what to do; yet, the oldie could do it ten times better, but they have to honor authority. The rookies have to overcome their insecurities and fear of man to be able to tell the seasoned leader what to do, and they meet God in the process as well.

At the House of Prayer, there are people from every denomination, every nation, and every ethnicity gathered in one room attempting to go somewhere together in prayer. This takes so much humility, integrity, and love between every person to make it work.

This upside-down, turn-it-all-over, constant cycle at the House of Prayer is one of the things that keeps everyone from thinking of themselves more highly than they ought. I believe the five-fold ministry is functioning here to some extent (not the fullness), but that it is not titled, pointed out, or completely identified, because God is creating an atmosphere of submitting to one another and loving one another; He is creating an atmosphere of respecting and honoring authority, so that the value is not placed on role, function, or title, but the value is place on character and love for one another.

Throughout thirteen years of this House of Prayer running 24/7, God has been cultivating a foundation for the five-fold ministry to be built. The foundation of prayer and mutual submission toward one another has developed a greater emphasis on character rather than gifting or function.

Implementing the Five-Fold Ministry: Preferring One Another

“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them…”
(Romans 12:3-6)

There is no way the five-fold ministry can function in a church body without the foundational principle of preferring one another.

All of the passages in Scripture concerning the gifts of the Spirit and the five-fold ministry are written in the context of the body functioning together as a whole and each person doing their part. It is absolutely essential for any kind of unity and mutual love to exist in a body.

The primary reason church leadership structure collapses is because of everyone seeking their own. People think more highly of themselves than they should for three primary reasons:

1.)    They have not seen God rightly or experienced His presence, so they do not realize how small and insignificant they are compared to Him.

2.)    They do not see other people the way God sees them, so they do not realize His overwhelming love and the remarkable value of that other person.

3.)    They do not see themselves rightly, and base their value on the works of the flesh rather than on the value that God has given them. This not only leads to pride, but also to insecurity and self-condemnation. This causes the drive to seek the praise of man.

This must be combatted in several ways: One, each person must seek to love God with their whole heart and seek His glory only. Secondly, they must seek to love each other as they love themselves. Also, they must be healed and able to receive the love of God so they can actually love God, love themselves, and love others.

It is necessary for every person in a body to have the humility to lift someone else above their own needs. Because of human nature, all of this talk of the five-fold ministry sounds good until you try to put it into practice. However, there are some practical ways that people can grow together in love and service as a body.

 

One of the most practical ways is to stir up prayer among a group of people. If people pray together, it becomes difficult to hold a grudge, because God will not answer prayers in the context of bitterness, and He will make each person so miserable until they repent. Also, when you pray for people you begin to love them the way that God loves them and can look past their faults and failures. There is a reason why Jesus told us to bless our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

 

Another practical way to grow in preferring one another is to activate the gift of prophecy among believers. Prophecy is meant for edification, exhortation, and comfort. When you prophesy over someone, you feel God’s heart for them and learn to see them the way God sees them, rather than seeing them in the natural. God always calls forth the true identity of that person according to the spirit rather than how they are behaving in the flesh. If we begin to call people out according to the spirit instead of according to the flesh, then we will call them into the identity God has created for them, and they will become healed and secure in His love.

Satan’s main attacks against the body of Christ are division, isolation, and accusation. Prophecy is one of the best antidotes to thwart the enemies plans and bring love and unity among a group of believers. Both prayer and prophecy go hand-in-hand to change the heart and conform the mind to God’s purposes, so that we grow in preferring one another over ourselves.

Implementing the Five-Fold Ministry: Fathers Releasing Sons

Before looking at strategies and programs for implementing the five-fold ministry, it is necessary to implant foundational principles at the root of the process for the development to actually work. Another foundational principle that is necessary for the five-fold ministry to work is that of fathers releasing sons who become fathers.

One huge area lacking in our society is that of fathers who know how to call forth a younger generation and release them into what God has called them to do. Although God can come and transform the existing church structure, many people become set in their ways, making it difficult to make a new definition to old ways of doing things. However, the best way to transform a culture is for those fathers in the older generation who have seen the wrong ways of doing things, to impart their wisdom and anointing to the next generation and release them to go farther than they did.

The problem is two-fold. First, many older people where never fathered themselves, and do not know how to properly be fathers. Second, many young people are rebellious against authority and want to usurp the authority of the older generation rather than learn from them.

However, God’s design was for the older generation to pave the way for the younger generation and create a new, higher foundation for the young ones to walk on than what they had when they were young. Furthermore, His design is for the young ones to walk on that old foundation and build on it, rather than tear it down and move to another place to build.

In the previous teaching on Love & Service, we looked at the verse where Paul was speaking of Timothy as being the only one who was like-minded and served as a son serves a Father (Phil. 2:19-22). Even in Paul’s day, he was looking to raise up sons who would care for the Church as much as he did—and even in his day, it was lacking.

Not only did Paul raise up a son in Timothy who would serve and love the Church, but he raised up a son who also became a father in the church (I Cor. 4:14-17). God is not looking for sons who drain the life out of the older generation to take what they need for themselves. He is looking for sons who are so thankful for being called sons that they—in turn—call forth others as sons.

Also, God is looking for fathers who call their “children” into the identity and callings that are over their lives. A father who is secure in the love of His heavenly Father can see the God-given destiny on a person and call them forth into what God has called them to do.

Implementing the five-fold ministry cannot be a sterile process learned from a book or manual. It must be birthed. It must be birthed in prayer and birthed in lives. This takes labor and it takes trying and failing. It also takes learning from the mistakes of the older generations—and also learning from their successes. We must have the hearts of fathers turned to children and children to the fathers in order for the five-fold ministry to work in the Church.

Implementing the Five-Fold Ministry: Love & Service

As the Lord begins to stir a hunger in our hearts for the release of the five-fold ministry, we will begin asking the questions of how to practically apply this in our church and ministry contexts. As we learn to apply this practically, there are some foundational principles that are essential for this system to work.

The most essential element for the five-fold ministry to work is love. The second is the knowledge that the functional role is given for the sole purpose of serving the Bride.

There is a passage in Philippians that breaks my heart. Paul says in Philippians 2:19-22, “But I trust the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your state. For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel. Therefore, I hope to send him at once…”

It is remarkable to me that out of all the people serving with Paul, he had no one who was like-minded except Timothy. There was only one person he could send who cared more about the state of the church and the glory of Christ Jesus than his own success and well-being. This breaks my heart.

Even in the early church, there was so much disorder and confusion about the functioning of the body. Paul wrote numerous times to correct their conduct—and many times, the problem was the lack of mutual love and service (humility) toward each other.

In I Corinthians 12-15, Paul wrote the church and he spent a lot of time telling them how the gifts should function in the body and how one person should sit down and let the other speak. The list of the gifts of the Spirit and one of the five-fold ministry passages were actually given in the context of a rebuke to the church for not working together in love and preferring one another.

Right in the middle of this rebuke and instruction concerning the gifts, Paul places the famous chapter on love. He said even if you prophesied or gave all you had to the poor, if you were lacking in love, then you were nothing.

Even if we are all filling our positions and doing our jobs correctly, if we are lacking in love, then we are nothing. If we are following all the procedures and manuals to the utmost degree, but we are seeking our own, then we are nothing. Love does not seek its own.

God is looking for bondservants who will lay down their lives for His Bride. He is looking for team ministry in His body, where each person lays down their life to love and serve the other. Without this foundational principle, you could implement every system, program, and structure in the world, and it will not work.

So much of the damage done in the body of Christ by leadership structures has been because of the lack of humility, service, and love. This has caused the need for so much structure and systems being put in place, that may not have been necessary if people were actually caring for others more than themselves.

 

Even though we are working with real people in a real world, believers in the body of Christ no longer have to live according to the standards of the world. It is possible for us to do what Jesus told His disciples, “They will know you are my disciples because of your love for one another.” If each of us live as individuals who learn to love and obey God, then love and serve each other, we will become the growing body God desires for us to be.

 

Five-Fold Ministry: Role of Prophet

All parts of the body function under the Head, who is Christ. They function in relation to one another for the benefit of the body as a whole. Although each part is designed to work alongside the other, they rarely do. However, as the Lord prepares His bride for His return, He will restore the five-fold ministry, and the Bride will begin to prefer one another in love and humility.

One of the most controversial and misunderstood roles in the body of Christ today is the role of the prophet. In the five-fold ministry, the office of a prophet has been vastly misused, misunderstood, and even neglected in many cases.

There are different types of prophetic ministry and prophetic roles. Every believer who has the Holy Spirit living in them is called to prophesy according to the description in I Corinthians 14:3, where it says that prophecy is for the edification, exhortation, and comfort of the body. Every person is called to prophesy through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives inside them. In addition to this, there are also believers who have a gift of prophecy (I Cor. 12). However, within God’s plan for the structure of the church, there is also a specific place designed for those called to the office of prophet.

 

Someone must be called of God to be a prophet. There is literally a time when God calls them as a prophet or even a history of times when God spoke concerning this. Even after the call though, it may take years and decades for that person to grow, be trained, and develop the maturity to step into that role. After many years of going through this process, the person must then be acknowledged by the church as  a prophet. This is not something the prophetic person requests or seeks. It is something God ordains, brings to pass, and everyone around acknowledges it.

 

A prophet receives revelation from the Lord and is meant to give vision or restore vision to the people. Many times, a prophet is used to call someone into apostolic ministry and implant or confirm a vision in that person for the beginning of a new task or direction. However, the primary role of a prophetic voice is to call the people to return back to the original vision, and turn back to what God intended for them (repentance).

 

A prophetic voice restores holiness and the fear of the Lord element back into the church, calling them to turn when they are heading the wrong way, and encouraging them forward when they are headed the right way. Like Haggai and Zechariah in the days of Joshua and Zerubabbel, they are to encourage believers for the building of the Lord’s house (Ezra 5).

 

The prophet gives vision by helping the apostles and teachers understand the times and seasons. They also encourage and strengthen them behind the scenes. A prophet also works hand-in-hand with the teacher, who establishes sound doctrine. These two roles bring balance to each other even though they are typically the most opposite personalities.

 

Most people whose primary gifting is the prophetic are good at receiving revelation and seeing what is happening, but are not always as good at interpreting and applying the revelation. This is how team ministry comes into play where the apostles and teachers help interpret and apply the revelation. Teachers are also typically better communicators than prophets and can more clearly break-down the message for the average person to understand.

 

It is necessary that the prophet must not only grow in accuracy with what they prophesy, but they must also have the heart of the Lord behind the correct knowledge. An extremely accurate prophetic person who is cocky and arrogant is one of the most dangerous entities alive. On the contrary, an extremely accurate prophetic person who is a friend of God, knows His heart, and weeps when He weeps is one of the most valuable blessings to the body of Christ.

 

It is important that the prophetic person stays under submission to authority. This tends to be a weakness in prophetic people, because they can typically see things that other people cannot see. However, a prophetic person who properly submits words to leadership and goes to the Lord in prayer over those words is absolutely precious in the sight of the Lord.

 

We need to value the role of prophet in the body of Christ and learn how to properly cultivate the heart of a prophetic person. They must not be exalted above any other person in the body, but they must also not be neglected and shoved aside because no one knows what to do with them.

 

As leaders in the body of Christ, we must seek God’s heart on the restoration of the role of the prophet back into the church today. We need to ask him what this looks like in our current culture and learn to appreciate the way God has set-up systems of checks and balances within the structure of the five-fold ministry.

Five-Fold Ministry: The Teaching Role

We have already looked some at the five-fold ministry role of a teacher and their ability to equip the saints with discernment. However, we will now look at a broad overview of a teaching role.

An apostle primarily preaches the apostolic gospel of the death, burial, resurrection, and return of Christ. An evangelist preaches the salvation message, and a pastor focuses more on matters of an individual's heart and personal life. A teacher, however, systematically teaches the whole of Scripture to ensure that sound doctrine is established to balance all of the messages. The message of the teacher typically works hand-in-hand to balance the prophetic ministry which we have mentioned before and will look at more in the next session.

The attributes of God are like a multi-faceted diamond. There are so many different aspects of His nature that we cannot see all of the facets at once. Each time we look at Him, the light will reflect in a different way where we will notice something we have never seen before. As human beings, we cannot typically focus on more than one attribute of God at a time. This is why we need the body of Christ, because each person will see a different viewpoint of God at a different time. Each person has a message of how God has revealed Himself to them personally—this is called a testimony.

Because every person has a specific focus on who God is, a leader or even a small group of leaders cannot fully cover every attribute of Him. This is actually a gift from God to us, but sometimes it becomes dangerous when a group of people are hearing one message only and not seeing the full picture. This is where the role of the teacher becomes critical.

A teacher will systematically teach the whole of Scripture to walk through every part of the bible—rather than just picking topical themes. They will actually systematically walk through an entire book of the Bible and teach it in such a way that the whole picture of God is presented from that book. Then, they will incorporate other passages that help to balance and qualify the message.

Teachers are detail-oriented and can really fill in the gaps on many things that an apostle, prophet, or evangelist may leave out due to their gift-mix. Many times, a pastor will have a gift of teaching, but their teaching will be more based on addressing life-issues rather than systematically teaching scripture. In western culture, a teacher will usually teach deductively by stating the points first, then explaining them afterward. However, someone gifted in exhortation, preaching, prophetic, or evangelistic messages may preach more inductively (telling stories that eventually get to the point at the end or that reveal the point over and over throughout).

There are two things that teachers need to be aware of when in a regular teaching role over a body of believers. One, they need to make sure they spend an equal or greater amount of time systematically teaching through books and chapters of the Bible rather than only topical themes. This is so that all the facets of God’s nature are revealed rather than only one.

Second, they need to make sure that the body is getting a healthy dose of the big picture often—rather than only staring at the details. This is one reason that it is so important for the apostolic to partner with the teaching role; the apostolic person will constantly give the broad picture, and the teacher will break the picture down into little parts and details. Both roles are necessary.

Not only are there those called to the teaching role, but there are also many in the body of Christ who are gifted in teaching. It is important to call them into that gifting and allow them to use it, because many different perspectives and voices allow for a more thorough view of God. There are so many different aspects of the nature of God & each of us has a tiny picture, but the more voices released means a greater view of the whole nature of God. A teacher would fill the role of teaching, but they would also equip and release the saints in the body to teach as well.

Five-Fold Ministry: Role of Evangelist

Another five-fold ministry role in Ephesians 4 is that of an evangelist. An evangelist is a person with a God-given gift for winning people to Jesus Christ. Evangelists tend to be able to engage in conversations with total strangers easily and find natural in-roads to preaching the gospel.

Evangelists typically move around all the time. They usually travel, meet people, and lead them to the Lord everywhere. This is a blessing and also presents a problem at the same time. These people are very gifted at leading people to the Lord, but are not as gifted at discipleship and follow-up.

Many people tell the evangelist that they should disciple the people they lead to the Lord, but actually an evangelist should partner with someone who is pastoral and have them oversee the discipleship aspect. We should not put an unnecessary weight on the evangelist to thoroughly disciple people, but we should teach them how to properly incorporate new believers into the body.

If someone with a gift of evangelism leads people to the Lord in the midst of their work or school, then they should disciple them out of relationship. However, if that person is an evangelist and leads people to the Lord everywhere, they need to plug them in with people who are gifted at discipleship and follow-up. This is where the evangelistic person teams up with those who are pastoral.

An apostolic person sees the evangelistic gifting on a person and sees the need for a church to be established because of new converts. Then, the apostolic person also identifies those who have a pastoral calling and plugs the new believers into discipleship groups led by the pastoral-type people. The evangelist should keep evangelizing and utilize team ministry for the discipleship process.

Evangelists—along with apostolic people—have a tendency to get busy doing too many different things at once, and constantly have a need to focus and not become overly committed in too many areas. They are constantly seeing new horizons and new people to lead to the Lord—this is both a wonderful gift in one respect, and an area that needs to constantly be called back to focus on the other hand. Many evangelists will have many ideas of how to mobilize mass works of evangelism.

Although an evangelist's primary role is to evangelize, they should also call the body of Christ as a whole into the task of evangelism. An evangelist must exhort, train, and teach others in the body to evangelize—even those who are not gifted in that area. Also, they should equip and encourage the body to receive the new believers and disciple them.

Furthermore, an evangelist who lives a life of prayer and weeping for the lost will not only equip others in evangelism, but can also impart a burden of intercession for lost souls and bringing in the harvest. It is necessary for an evangelist to have a life of prayer, not only to impart burdens for souls, but also to release an open atmosphere over those who are being evangelized.

 

Also, once the seed is planted, the evangelist should pray for that seed to not be robbed, but to grow and bear fruit. An evangelist who has a life of prayer will be able to stayed focused on God’s heart and do only what he sees the Father doing rather than being scattered in many different directions.

Five-Fold Ministry: Leadership & Man's Freewill to Choose

God created human beings with a freewill to make their own decisions in life. He went to painstaking lengths to ensure that humans had the ability to choose to love him or choose to serve him.

Why else would He put two trees in the garden? He did not only put the tree of life in the Garden, but He also put the tree of the knowledge of good & evil. He then told Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but that he could eat from any other tree in the garden—including the tree of life.

God allowed Adam to choose to obey and He allowed him to sin. He even had a plan for man’s sin from the foundation of the world—otherwise, Jesus would not be called “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). Jesus was not an afterthought. He was a predestined plan for the allowance of man to have the freedom to choose God or to choose sin.

Since God went to such painstaking lengths to ensure man’s ability to make their own choices, those in any kind of leadership or place of authority should also allow for those under them the freedom to make their own choices.

Whether we are parents or in church leadership or working at an office, we should not use control, manipulation, or intimidation to warrant a certain outcome from those under our authority.

This does not mean, however, that we do not lay down definite rules and guidelines that we expect to be followed. We must have rules and systems in place for order and structure in life together as communities. However, we must realize that those under us have the freedom to obey or disobey. There are always consequences for disobedience, and there are greater levels of severity to consequences given the maturity or age of the person (a child or an adult), or given the frequency and severity of the offense.

However, one of the reasons that there has been so much conflict over the restoration of the five-fold ministry is because of the frequent abuse of those in leadership throughout the history of the church. Not only in the church, but in the world and in the family as well. So many people have suffered abuse where someone has taken away their ability to say no and has violated their will and freedom to make choices.

Because of the rampant abuse in our society, many people have extensive wounds regarding authority figures in their lives. As pastors and leaders in the church, we must learn how to shepherd their hearts and allow their shut-down voice to be released while still being firm in our leadership and direction.

It is important to have those in authority so that there is a unified sense of direction. Because of fallen humanity, anarchism is not an option. Systems and government are a necessary evil. However, in the church, God is restoring back the value of true leadership that loves and prefers those under them. We must learn to hold people with a loose hand, and not be possessive with those under us.

Even when giving guidance or counsel, we must be careful to allow those receiving it to weigh it and make decisions for themselves. When giving a prophetic word, we must allow for the person receiving it to test it and discern the true parts and throw away the extra. It must not be delivered in such a way that the person thinks they must believe it and do it or else they are denying God’s will. Also, giving directional words should be done with great care that the person’s freewill to choose is not infringed upon. Likewise, when anything is brought in the way of correction, it should be submitted with love and great prayer, and even anguish from those in leadership.

When James and John asked Jesus if they could sit with him in a place of authority, Jesus first addressed the issue of fellowshipping in His sufferings (Mt. 20, Mk 10). Then as the others were angry over James and John trying to get ahead, Jesus told them all, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:41-45).

Jesus’ example of leadership was one of servant hood and laying down His life. Even though He did such an awesome act of love, He still allows people the freedom to choose Him or to deny the power of the Cross. He came with such acts of service and humility that we should learn to follow His model in the way of loving those that we are appointed to serve.

Call of God: The People God Picks

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty… (I Corinthians 1:26-27)

Think about the people God picked in the Bible. Moses who could not talk very well. David who killed a man and had an affair with his wife. Elijah who ran and hid in a cave. Gideon who hid in a winepress. Paul who persecuted believers. James and John who were a bit on the cocky side, and of course, we all know about the many flaws of Peter. Jesus even picked Judas to follow Him! How wild is that?

It is so amazing that God seems to pick people with so many flaws. And yet, the truth is that every single human being is flawed (besides Jesus), so He really does not have that many to choose from.

In some strange way, this should bring comfort to us. One of Satan’s main attacks against believers is lying to them about how they are so disqualified. He makes accusations day and night to get us to back away from the call of God on our lives.

However, the most amazing reason that God chooses the weak things and not many noble is so that no flesh should glory in His presence (I Cor. 1:29). God chooses the weak ones (which is all of us) so that He is the one who receives the glory for all that we do.

There are two things we can learn from this fact. Number one, give God the glory. Do not take God’s glory for yourself. Number two, God is the one who gives you the ability to do it in the first place. Anything we achieve that matters in eternity happened because of His hand on our lives in the first place.

If God has called you and given you an assignment, then He is the one who is going to bring it to pass. He is the one who will accomplish it in your life anyway.

Of course, we must partner with the Lord and be obedient to His Word and plan. However, Satan’s lies of accusation should have no effect on us, because the blood of Jesus qualifies us. We could never qualify ourselves. When Satan says that we are failures, he is right. In our own strength, we fail. But when we are hidden in Christ and identified as His child—we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus!

Not only that, but the opinions of man should not sway us either. Most of the people throughout history who did anything great, did it in spite of opposition from everyone around them. Anytime something great is accomplished through a person, there will always be other people telling them it cannot be done.

Again, God does not need the most talented or the most intelligent; He just needs the most willing.

Call of God: Tension of Waiting & Going

When there is a true call of God on someone’s life, there is a tension at times between the promises and the fulfillment. Throughout all the great stories of the Bible and even more contemporary ones, a great call may be given at one point, but the full fruition of that call may take decades upon decades to be seen.

In all the great stories of history, there is usually a great vision at the onset and then many years of trial, perseverance, hardship, and seeming failure before even a glimpse of the vision begins to happen.

Many people lose hope after years turn into decades and some lay down the promises altogether. Sometimes, that is even a necessary part of the process—the seed falling to the ground and dying so that it can bring forth fruit. Many times, God uses the seeming death of a promise to ground us in our identity in Him—apart from the call or assignment.

Some people say that we need to launch out and make things happen. Others say that we should wait, pray, and watch. For someone who is truly seeking the will of God, they may get tossed around a bit trying to decide whether they need to sit back and receive more training or go out and start working.

Different voices all say different things making it hard to decipher the right path. However, the truth is that life happens in seasons, and we must be faithful to the season we are in at the time we are in it. God is not looking for the most intelligent people or the most talented—He is looking for the most obedient.

If we learn to hear God’s voice for our own lives, and obey it no matter the cost, then we will find that everything will turn out right in the end. If God says to sit in a prayer room and pray, then do it. If He says to get out on the streets and go, then do it. We have to realize that there are different seasons in life for everything.

Many times, there is a tension between waiting for God to move and God waiting for us to move. There is also a reality of us moving without God. Either extreme is dangerous. Launching out on our own strength making the promises happen is how Abraham got Ishmael. We must learn to allow God to lead our lives so that we get the Isaacs and not the Ishmaels.

However, there is also a reality that we have God living on the inside of us and He is waiting to break out at any moment. He is not waiting for us to become the perfect vessel for Him to use us—because that is never going to happen.

God can use the tension between waiting and going in our lives to create a friction that sparks into the fires of refinement. He will have vessels for His glory that are completely surrendered to Him. We must learn to listen to His voice and give our all to Him in every season—in the time of waiting or the time of sending.

Mark of True Call of God: Perseverance

Many people say that they want great experiences from God—encounters in the throne room, angelic visitations, burning bush experiences—but they do not realize the responsibility that comes along with these types of encounters.

Yes, God wants us to be captivated with Him and truly experience Him not just with head knowledge, but with actual revelation. However, many of the dramatic encounters we see in the Word of God were a commissioning to do a great work of God. These commissionings were given to strengthen the person to do great exploits in the face of grave danger and hardship over long periods of time where it seemed the promise would never come to pass.

Any believer can go preach the gospel—the Lord calls us all to do this, but there are certain assignments set aside that are so difficult that the Lord will grant specific experiences to sustain that person over the long-haul.

Most people so covet the experience, but they do not realize that God gives those encounters, because He knows that person is going to have so many difficulties that they will want to quit over and over again.

The world, Satan, and even our own human nature are constantly pushing us to give up and quit. However, God will come strengthen us with His grace so that we can persevere.

I have heard Mike Bickle say, “Perseverance is the mark of a true minister of God.” Everything in us and around us says, “Quit, give up, you’re a failure anyway.” However, God’s Word says that we have already won. We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus, and the God of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet.

Encounters into the realm of heaven give us a glimpse into eternity, and pull us out of our present circumstances into the vast expanse of God’s redeeming plan. When life gets mundane, difficult, or we are in danger of losing our very lives, we can remember those times when God met us in such a way that we will never forget it. Those times strengthen our hearts to persevere.

I can imagine that when things got hard for Moses, he remembered the bush that burned with fire, but was not consumed. He remembered the voice that came from the bush and sent him to deliver Israel from the land of Egypt. An encounter like that is difficult to forget no matter the circumstances. I am sure that encounter sustained him in the journey.

Even Paul had a dramatic encounter on the road to Damascus. He met Jesus and was blinded by His glory. Meeting the risen Christ sustained Paul through beatings, shipwrecks, stonings, scourges, hunger, thirst, and miles and miles of endless road. He had been captivated and could never turn away.

God comes to strengthen the weak hands and the feeble knees. He comes to tell us, “Do not grow weary in doing good, for in due season, you will reap a harvest, if you do not lose heart!”

Five-Fold Ministry: Teaching Role & the Gift of Discernment

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting… (Ephesians 4:11-14)

Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man can come to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6). One of the names of Jesus is “the Truth.” Many times, the Holy Spirit is called “the spirit of Truth” (Jn. 14:26).

In our post-modern society, the idea of relativism has so permeated every area of our culture that it has replaced the idea of absolute truth. It has even crept into the church. The idea that there is more than one way to God has become a dominating premise in the whole of society.

The truth of the Gospel is absolutely opposed to any other way to God except through Jesus Christ. However, even in the early church, men were being persuaded to the right or left because of false doctrines that were infiltrating the church (Gal. 1, II Cor. 11:4).

Paul said in Ephesians 4:11-16 that the role of pastors, prophets, apostles, teachers, and evangelists was for equipping the saints into the work of ministry AND for bringing them into the fullness of the knowledge of Christ. The reason was so that they would not be tossed around by every whim of false doctrine.

There is a huge lack in the body of Christ of having discernment. Many people cannot discern truth from lies, and they cannot distinguish between soul and spirit. This is because they do not know the Word of God.

Although the Lord has raised up all those in the five-fold ministry to bring the Church into the fullness of Christ. I believe one of the main roles of the teacher is to teach the true, accurate Word of God to believers and to equip them with discernment.

Many times, the apostles exhorted the church to test all things and to hold fast to true doctrine (I Thess. 5: 21, I John 4: 1-6). The role of the teacher in the body of Christ is to systematically teach true doctrine to the church and to equip the body to search out the knowledge of God for themselves.

I believe that one of the spiritual gifts of a teacher is discerning of spirits, because they need to be able to see the lies infiltrating the body of Christ and correctly teach the Truth.

One of the names of Jesus is “The Truth” and when we look at Him, we will be able to discern all things that are false. God is restoring the Five-Fold Ministry back to the Church to train the saints in the truth of His Word, bringing them into the fullness of the knowledge of Christ, so that they will not be tossed about by every whim of false doctrine.

Life & Message of the Apostolic: Laying Down Your Life

On the night that Jesus died, he was in the garden of Gethsemane praying in anguish that the grueling assignment of his death would be taken away from Him. He knew His assignment on earth was to die on the Cross. Yet, He knew it would be the hardest thing any human being has ever done (Lk. 22:39-46; Mt. 26:36-46).

However, Jesus stayed in the place of prayer and surrendered His will over to the will of His Father. He said, “Not my will, but Yours be done” (Lk. 22:42). In the place of prayer, He laid down His life before He was even arrested or went to the Cross.

Jesus knew what was coming for His disciples and He told them to pray so that they would not enter into temptation (Mt. 26:41; Lk. 22:40). He knew that they would have the opportunity to lay down their lives that night, and He told them to pray to strengthen their spirits so that they were not tempted to betray Him.

However, they all fell asleep in the garden. None of them prayed during that time of temptation, and all of them were scattered. By the end of the night, every one of the disciples betrayed Jesus.

Jesus had promised that anyone who wanted to be His disciple needed to take up their cross and follow Him (Mk. 8). A mark of following Jesus is laying down your life.

Later on, after the resurrection of Jesus, the disciples were restored back into their ministry. I believe they were forever marked with what it means to lay down your life.

Time and time again, Paul preached how the mark of the apostleship was laying down their lives for the Church. And ultimately, nearly all of the apostles (if not all of them) were killed for their faith.

Laying down your life is a constant process of being identified with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ in your daily life (Gal. 2, Rom. 6). It is like being “a living martyr” who is fully surrendered to Jesus. However, the entire New Testament is marked with those who actually died for their faith.

Before the return of Jesus, the Lord will restore the true apostolic to the church again and many will die for their faith in Christ.

However, if we, like Christ, stay in that place of prayer so that we will not be delivered over into temptation, our lives will already be completely surrendered to Christ in life, a long time before we are given over to death.

“Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13).

Apostolic Demonstrations of Power: Signs & Wonders

Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. (II Corinthians 12:12)

When Paul is addressing the church of Corinth, he said that the “signs of an apostle” had been done among them and that was part of the proof and their apostleship.

Of all of the things we have talked about so far in the life and ministry of the apostolic, this trait of true apostles may be the one of most overlooked in much of the church (along with the sufferings of Christ aspect).

Part of the reason is that many people rationalize away the power of the Spirit because of their lack of experience. They have never seen it, and so they try to explain it away so that it is less painful for them.

However, there should be a sting in our hearts that there is such a lack in the true apostolic ministry in the body of Christ. We cannot take only parts of the gospel and throw the rest away. We should not take only the organizational aspect of the apostolic and throw away the life, message, and power of the apostolic ministry.

In Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, he said that, “…my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (I Cor. 2:4-5).

The reason that signs and wonders were done among them was so that God was the one who received the glory for the works done among them, because the power was not from men, but from God.

One time, Paul struck a man blind with his words so that a governor could be saved (Acts 13:4-12). Another time, he raised a guy from the dead who fell out of a window (Acts 20:7-12).

Another time, Peter spoke and two people fell dead because they had lied to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:1-11). The next passage says, “And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people….so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed" (Acts 5:12, 15-16).

Even the shadow of Peter was healing people! Talk about a sign and a wonder! It also says that many signs and wonders were done by the apostles—implying that all of them were involved.

Many times in the modern church, we look at someone with a lot of charisma and natural ability to lead and gather people, and we say that they are an apostle and esteem them highly. Of course, giving honor to leadership in an appropriate way is a good, godly practice, but many times, we attribute the glory of God to a man instead of to God whom it belongs. The flip-side to this coin is that many times if a man begins to move in mighty signs and wonders, they are also placed on a pedestal and the glory is attributed to them as well.

However contrary to both aspects, the reason a sign of an apostle is signs, wonders, and demonstrations of power is so that no man can receive the glory for what God has done. God alone deserves all the glory, honor, and praise for the magnificent miracles that He performs through His servants.

God, grant the signs and wonders of the apostolic back to your Church again!

Untapped Tool of the Apostolic: Supernatural Language Ability

Even though an apostolic person or a missionary can be sent anywhere, many times, they are sent to different nations, languages, tribes, and tongues. Often, an apostolic person will travel all over the world.

Something the Lord has been teaching me is that the language barrier between peoples is a result of sin. When the people in ancient days built the tower of Babel, they were in rebellion together in unity against God, so the Lord confused their languages and scattered them to keep them from uniting together against Him (Gen. 11:1-10).

From that time on, there has been racial division and language barriers that resulting from man’s unified rebellion against God.

However, when the Lord poured out His Spirit in Acts 2, He brought together the nationalities and languages of the earth with the gift of tongues. As the apostles spilled out of the upper room prophesying, there were many different nationalities gathered together and each heard them prophesy in their own language.

Some people say that those listening understood the disciples as if they were speaking in their own language, and others say the disciples were actually speaking the languages through the utterance of the Holy Spirit. I think it could have been both.

When the Bible mentions the gifts of the Spirit, it mentions both “diversities of tongues” and the “gift of interpretation.” There are many ways that these gifts can play out, but I think that one way is an actual gift of speaking a foreign language that you only know by the Holy Spirit (diversities of tongues), and another way is understanding what a tongue is saying as though someone is speaking your own language (gift of interpretation).

I believe that there is a gift of tongues that is available for every believer to edify their own spirit (I Cor. 14:4), but that there is also a gift of diversities of tongues and a gift of interpretation that can be operated in at various times like the other spiritual gifts listed in I Corinthians 12. These gifts of diversities of tongues and of interpretation may not always be actual foreign languages, but they may be a prophetic utterance in tongues that can be interpreted for the edification of the body.

Also, praying in tongues unifies the body of Christ in any language or people group to pray together in unity by the Spirit. Even today, if you go to any nation in the world, believers can pray in unity when they pray in tongues, because each one speaks the mysteries of God (I Cor. 14:2). God is the one leading the prayers of the people through one unified language that is not in rebellion against God, but is in absolute unity with His will and purpose.

I also believe that the Lord can give a gift of learning and understanding languages for the mere fact that we are no longer under the curse of sin from the Tower of Babel, but we are now under the blood of the New Covenant and under the grace of the unified language given at Pentecost.

It is also my opinion that speaking in tongues often aids language comprehension, interpretation, and communication. I have also heard of scientific studies proving that speaking in tongues uses a specific part of your brain that is not used for any other purpose.

Frequently, I try to understand a language that I have never studied or spoken, and many times, I can understand the general topic of conversation just by dialoguing with the Holy Spirit. Once, I correctly interpreted Indonesian into English by the Spirit, and also dreamed in French and German even though I have never studied any of those languages. I also have some level of fluency in four other languages which I have studied, plus the ability to understand languages that are in similar language groups to those four original languages.

I am not saying this to boast; however, I am saying this, because I truly believe it is available for those who ask for it, but that not many people have ever thought about it. Some may say that I have a natural language ability and that may be true, but I also believe that there is a supernatural gift that is available for those who will lay hold of it. It is biblical. I believe also that many who are called to other nations get overwhelmed and feel disqualified with language learning, but I believe that we can move into the realm of faith like what happened in the book of Acts and the reversal of the curse through the New Covenant.

I have heard of many people who have spoken a foreign language by the power of the Holy Spirit in one instance or interpreted in another. Also, I have heard of those who have been downloaded with an entire language—I am still asking for this one!

I also believe that this is an untapped gift for the use of the apostolic that can be claimed for the mere fact that God has removed the curse of the sin of Babel by the power of the Blood of Jesus. We can now walk in the authority of the power of the Holy Spirit who knows every language on the earth. He can equip us with the ability to communicate cross-culturally and across the barriers of language if we will ask Him.

God’s will is for every nation, language, tribe, and tongue to come into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Granting a supernatural ability to overcome the language barrier is nothing for Him.

Apostolic Preaching & the Window of Mercy

“Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the holy Spirit…Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them…” (Acts 2:38, 41)

On the day the Lord poured out His Spirit on the disciples in the upper room, God anointed His Apostles to preach in such a way that the power of God fell on the hearts of those hearing the message. They were “cut to the heart” and their response was “What must we do to be saved?” Three-thousand people came to the Lord in one day. What a remarkable demonstration of apostolic preaching.

People walking around on the streets without knowing their Savior are dead in their sins. Their spirit is dead. Their eyes are blind, and they cannot hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. Everything in the natural world is in the exact opposite spirit of the message of Jesus Christ.

Satan, his demons, and the sinful nature of man are all in absolute opposition to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. People without God are walking around under a cloud of blindness.

However, it is in God’s mercy that He longs to convey us out of darkness and into the kingdom of the Son of His Love (Col. 1:12-14). Now, we walk in the light, and God has called us to be light to the world.

When the message of the gospel is preached with the anointing of God on the vessel, it opens a “window of mercy” over that person where suddenly, they can see the barrenness of their own life and they are faced with the decision of where they are going to spend eternity. When the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached in power, a decision must be made. It is life or death.

God is wanting to release apostolic vessels who know the authority of the Holy Spirit living on the inside of them and not only preach—but live—the message of the Gospel. He wants to release the apostolic preaching with power where men are “cut to the heart” and brought to repentance and the knowledge of God.

God’s Word is powerful, but He is lacking in vessels who can rightly wield the true power of His Word for the Glory of God and the salvation of the lost. God is looking for vessels, sold out to God and His righteousness who can rightly release that power to see millions and millions of souls brought into the kingdom of God.

Lord, release the power of apostolic preaching again to the church in the nations. Let millions of souls come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!

Apostolic Intercession & the Birthing of Souls

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:35-38)

In this passage, Jesus was healing the sick and preaching the gospel to the people, but he looked out and saw they were like sheep without shepherds. He was moved with compassion for the people. He then spoke to his disciples and said that there was so much harvest, but not enough laborers. The following conclusion that he made was remarkable.

Did Jesus say, “Therefore, everybody get busy and do something”? Or did He say, “Start more programs and building projects”? Or what if he had said, “Go and be laborers”? However, Jesus did not make any of those statements.

When you really think about it, what Jesus said was remarkable. He said, “Therefore, PRAY the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers.” Jesus gave us the key to the release of laborers for the harvest field—prayer.

I find it remarkable that a man named Rees Howells lived a life of intercession, crying out for revival and that “every creature would be saved.” Norman Grubb wrote about his life in the book called, Rees Howells Intercessor. Rees Howells was an intercessor who saw many victories through the power of power, but never saw the major breakthrough he was crying out for. He spent most of his life praying for revival in Africa and that Africa would be saved. Although Rees went to Africa for a brief period of time and saw moves of the Spirit break-out with repentance and salvation, he never saw the mass number of souls that he was crying out for.

However, Rees Howells founded a ministry-school in Swansea, Wales. Around 50 years ago, that ministry school was attended by a young man no one knew named Reinhard Bonnke. Much to the surprise of those around him, Reinhard Bonnke grew up to be one of the most powerful evangelists the world has ever seen. He has led nearly 100 million people to the Lord in his life time.

Guess where Reinhard Bonnke has spent the most time preaching and where he has seen millions and millions of converts? Africa. Reinhard Bonnke has spent his entire life preaching on that continent so that “From Capetown to Cairo, All Africa shall be saved!” You can read more about Reinhard Bonnke’s life and ministry in his autobiography titled, Living a Life of Fire.

The role of intercession cannot be separated from the birthing of souls and the release of the harvest. God can use intercessors to birth souls through others like He used Rees Howells to influence the life and ministry of Reinhard Bonnke.

However, I believe that God wants not only intercessors who birth souls through the life of someone else, but intercessors who pray and in turn, they become the answer to their own prayers. Those who pray for laborers to be released, then become the laborers they are crying out for. He wants intercessors who become the messengers they have been praying for during years of intercession, tears, fasting and prayer.

God is raising up apostolic messengers who are formed in the place of prayer and fasting to be the answer to their own prayers.

Lord of the harvest, send out laborers into your harvest field!