A lot of people are claiming to be apostles today and I believe that the Lord is restoring the Apostolic ministry.
I believe God is restoring people and calling more people to become Apostles and also prophets but I think we need to be cautious
on those that are desiring the name of an Apostle without having the function.
I think this is going on today also. It
seems like everybody and his cousin is becoming an Apostle. My thought is if everyone is going to be a chief, whose going
to be the Indians? We cannot all be the chief. So let's look into the scripture on some characteristics of Apostles. Some
people think because they have one aspect of an Apostle, they are an Apostle, but the early church had scriptural tests in
the word for someone to be an Apostle.
For instance, the bible's sixty-six books had to pass the test of the canon. They
had to have canonicity and they had many tests that would bring into or illuminate from being part of the canon, and so it's
the same way with an Apostle.
Today people are saying because I am a spiritual Father, I am an Apostle. What they
mean by this is they have prayed someone into the kingdom. They travailed in prayer until Christ had been born in somebody.
Well, you know my mother prayed me into the Kingdom and if you had asked her if she was an Apostle, she would have said absolutely
not. So you have to have more than one aspect to be an Apostle.
Luke 6:12. And it came to pass in those
days he went out into a mountain to pray (and you have a comma there, then it says:) and continued all night in prayer to
God.I don't think Jesus planned to pray all
night but He went out into the mountain to pray and He continued, maybe pressed by the great need and responsibility of choosing
the ones that were to be His apostles.
Luke
6:13. when it was day (after that all night prayer) he called unto him his disciples.
Now the
disciples were a larger group and of them, He chose twelve whom also He named Apostles. So to be an Apostle, you must be called
and then you must be the choice of that calling. It says many are called, but few are chosen. There is a book today called
"Apostles and Merging Apostles". We would call it "Apostles and Apprenticeship Apostles," learning to
be an apostle. And you have to favorably respond to be the choice of an Apostle because it is a chosen group. Now in Romans
1:1, in the original language we have a clue here ...
Rom
1:1 Paul, a servant (doulos) of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel of God.
Now
they tell me the tense on the verb "separated" is "having been separated" unto the gospel of God. Paul
was separated unto the gospel and he was called to be an apostle. I believe therefore, he was called to be an apostle because
he had already (past tense) been separated ("having been separated") unto the Gospel. This is part of the calling
qualification of being an Apostle.
Now Paul
refers to himself as a slave. What bothers me today is the love of titles and the pushing of position.
1 Cor 12:28 And God hath
set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing's,
helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
They tell me in the original language there is no rank after the third one, "thirdly
teachers." "Firstly" means chiefly! The number one office of the Christian church is apostle, the second office
is prophet, the third office is teacher. All of these have to do with the ministry of the word. God has set them there. Are
there apostles today? Yes! Are there prophets today? Yes! Are there pastors/teachers today? Yes! God has set them there. They
are fixed.
Now,
an Apostle should not be someone who constantly wants to be seen or exalted to a position. Those that are in construction
know that if the foundation is done right, you never have to hear about it again, it's covered up. The only time you'll hear
about the foundation is if the building begins to crack. Then someone will say something is wrong with the foundation. But
if you do a good job and there are no cracks, you will never hear about the foundation again.
But there are people that want to blow their horn and say, "I am an apostle,
I'm somebody. Make sure you call me by the right name. Say it in front of the marketplace. Say it where people are all around."
But a foundation does not draw attention to itself. A foundation is just solid as a rock. It is there underneath, nobody sees
it, nobody says anything about it. But if the foundation is not right, then you'll see some cracks, then you'll hear some
people saying something about it.
Are all apostles? (the answer is no) Are all prophets? (no)
Are all workers of miracles? (no) Have all the gifts of healing?
(no) Do all speak with tongues? (no) Do all interpret? (no)
But covet earnestly the best gifts: (plural) and yet I shew unto you a more excellent way.
Follow the realm of need. Let love press you into the realm of need whether
it is considered the greatest gift or the least.
Rev 2:2 I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how can you not bear them which are evil: and thou
hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
And hast borne, and hast patience,
and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted.
Now the pattern of Jesus in writing to these seven churches and writing to the angel of the seven churches
(the messenger), was that He would commend them for everything He could and then afterward he would convict them for what
they did wrong. He would tell them what they did good and he would also tell them what they did bad. And so he said after
this, "You have lost your first love", I am no longer number one.
This word "tried"
(if you look it up) means to pierce through. It was not just what was outward but what was inward; to pierce completely through,
find out what was on the inside. And this church was commended of Christ for putting forth a test. So you see many people
said they were apostles that were not apostles.
In the bible you had the original twelve apostles and their names are on the foundation of the new Jerusalem. And
I believe Paul is a part of the twelve. Judas by transgression, fell and committed suicide. "His bishopric let another
take" and they tried to do that when they were supposed to be praying. They ran out of things to pray about so they had
an election and the lot fell on Matthias and you never heard of him again. He was an apostle of men and not of God. Christ
was going to come along and replace Judas but they got in his way and caused Paul much trouble where he had to defend his
apostleship in many places, but he was the twelfth apostle.
