Understanding the Gifts and Callings of God.
We cannot understand the gifts of the Spirit or operate in the gifts unless we understand the proper offices of the Church. Father God has set different offices and ministers in the church that brings or operates in His power, but the church has annulled, or discontinued some of these offices such as: apostles, prophets, and, I believe, the office of evangelists is drying up. 1 Cor.12:28 Paul said, “And God has set some in the church, first, apostles, second, prophets, third, pastors and after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, government, different tongues.” The named gifts: miracles, healing, helps, Gov. and tongues should always follow these ministries.
Eph 4:10 He, Jesus, “Ascended up far above the heavens, that He might fill all things; and He gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” We need the above gifts to accomplish the Lord’s work.
Do you think we are already perfected? Do you think the work of the ministry is complete? Do you think we still need edifying? If God set these offices in the church and If Jesus gave these men as gifts to minister to us; who removed them, and why do we acknowledge only the pastor?
Friend, if we don’t use all of the ministries He gave us we will never be all that He wants us to be. Who will perfect and edify us, and how shall we do the complete work of the ministry if we don’t have all the ministries? Have you wondered why we can’t get people healed like Jesus told us to do? Have you wondered why people can drive by the church every day and put no significance in it? For the most part, we are not taughtthese things from the pulpits. Some say theseministries have been done away with. In other words, they are saying these three chapters in the New Testament don’t work anymore.
The next time someone says this, ask him what else in the Bible, the New Testament has ceased to be. My friend did you know that about forty years after Paul gave us these teachings in 1st Cor. Ch 12-14, on the gifts, that all the apostles had passed away? If the church is right, that would make these three chapters only good for about forty years. Can you imagine three chapters of Paul’s writings being obsolete after forty years?
Rom 12:6-8 “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.”
Now ask your pastor, where are these apostles and prophets, and gifts that God set in the church? He, of course, will give you a seminary answer. Then ask him for the chapter and verse. He won’t like you much anymore because you just took him out of his pay grade. These gifts are our true source of power, so don’t be fooled by the big lie. There is not one verse in the New Testament that gives us the authority to make one change to the Word of God, or to do away with one word of it. Mark 13:31 “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Word will not pass away.”
Psalm 119:89 “Forever O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven”.
If, my friend, the infallible Word of God, The inspired Word of God in the New Testament has a shelf life, and part of it is no longer needed, but was just for a certain time and a certain people, and could be brought in to question after the Lord Jesus said my Word is Spirit and it is Life; The word would not even hold up in a court of law! You could not prove it to be infallible, or inspired.
The Church seems to operate in what it can control. It still does great work; however, it does limit itself because of little faith, or not enough faith to believe the whole Bible. The Pope controls the big, big church and he doesn’t even exist in the Bible. We need to ask our self how much of the work is done man’s way.
The word, Pastor, is mentioned one time in the New Testament; yet he carries the weight and burden of the whole church. He can’t be everything. He is not the prophet, or the apostle, or the evangelist.
My friend do you hear from an apostle or a prophet in your church now and then? Does the evangelist still pass through, or do you have one of those pastors that is so good that you just don’t need any one else?
I will challenge any man to show me where, who, or what, God gave authority to, to change His word or alter anything that has gone out of His mouth on this subject of the offices of the Church. It is just not in the Bible. IT IS NOT THERE!
For the most part, we have taken the liberty to delete what Jesus said in Mark 16:17 ”And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues”.
If that is not us, then who? It has to be somebody that believes.
Heb. 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever”. So if we are believers, yet don’t believe that we are to cast out devils and to speak in new tongues, we would be challenging the Master Himself. If your Church has deleted these gifts and offices you better have a pastor that is everything to all men. He can bring you the Word of God, but he cannot bring you the presence of the Spirit of God, that he himself does not operate in. You will be getting only the best of him, the man.
If you control the Holy Spirit in any way, you will control Him in every way; He will only operate from the platform you give Him.
Many talk about the Holy Spirit, but few give him a seat at the table.
We would fight a buzz saw to defend John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.
I know we would fight to the end to defend what Paul said about the Roman road to salvation.
9 Rom 10-9-10 Paul said, ”That if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shall be saved”.
“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”.
Yet we have set aside, for the most part, the offices that Father God himself gave us, and the gifts that our Master, the Lord Jesus, gave us, and a large part of the work of Paul.
Listen,we either do Bible or we don’t do Bible.
1Cor 12:28 Paul said, “And God has set some in the church, first apostles, second prophets, thirdspastor after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, government, diversities of tongues”.
The Lord Jesus gave us these gifts to perfect us as He ascended up on high because He knew that we would need them. How could we possibly think they would become obsolete???
Rom 11:29 “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”
· We need to understand these gifts Jesus gave to the church
· We need the power of these gifts in the church
· We need to use these gifts to help God’s people, in the Church
But for the most part, the body of Christ is not operating in the fullness of their potential. One half believes they are for today. One half doesn’t. That can’t be right.
Most Christians have settled for the mundane and not the power of the Spirit of God.
Remember Paul said that Jesus ascended up, and He gave these gifts for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Eph 4:13 He said “Until we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”. Surely, when we look around it is easy to see that we are not there yet?
I also notice the churches that acknowledge the offices of apostles and prophets seem to operate in a higher level of spiritual power and gifts than those who don’t.
1Cor 14:26 Paul said, “how is it then, brethren when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.” Remember Paul said when you come together, and every one of you. Wops!
Well we need to talk about this, are we going to believe all of Paul’s teachings or not? Or will we take the easy faithless, fearful way out?
All of these offices are for today; not just a pastor. Show me a church without a prophet, and I will show you a spiritual, nonprofit organization. God can use anyone to operate in these gifts, but these gifts should always operate in the Apostles, Prophets, and Pastor-teacher evangelist as the Spirit of God moves upon them. But not necessarily the same gift in each person.