The following message is the second part of a teaching that consists of four parts and we recommend to read the message chronologically.

 

The Difference Between The Officers Of The Five-fold Ministry

The first two ministers of Ephesians 4:11 differ from the pastor and teacher in that because their work usually begins outside and without great companionship. These two ministers bring the risen Christ into the world and are dedicated to positioning the converts within the church.

However, the work of the shepherd (note: pastor) begins quite differently. Accordingly, pastoral ministry does not begin until apostles and evangelists have been successful. As soon as souls have entered the church, the pastor's mantle is activated. The pastor's ministry is based on this succession of events. The pastor's main task is to take care for those who are brought into the kingdom of the Lord in local assemblies, also known as (note: local) churches.

If a pastor wants to lead the church back to the divine order of God, it is connected with facing some risks (note: e.g. challenges with those who do not accept or acknowledge that divine order).
Despite the fact that believers of a community can be upset by the pastor's openness to the order of God in the congregation, there can be many other concerns at the pastor's collaboration with apostles and prophets of the Lord.

Pastors are understandably concerned about their place and stability in a ministry where most of them have dedicated their lives to secure and equipping churches. In this context, pastors wonder whether this divine-biblical order means for them that they could lose their responsibility over the assigned believers and finally lose their livelihood. This is of course not the case! Pastors may have authority to decide according to their congregations, but this does not mean that they are therefore the highest authority in God's eyes. In most cases, pastors are entrusted with a fellowship of believers to lead them responsibly without having them brought into the kingdom themselves.

The teacher also relies on followers for his ministry, but this following is not called flock or sheep (note: believers), but rather a class of pupils. In order to be able to train his or her followers, for the teacher the students must come to him/her or have to be gathered in a kind of “classroom” like meetings or congregations (note: literally or virtually, e.g. via internet connection).

As with the pastor, the teacher's mantle is activated at the time when a student joins him or disciples appear as learners in a particular context and time frame.

 

Until then (note: activation of the ministry mantle in the respective field) teachers as well as pastors in their ministry have no direct responsibility or authorization for people. However, things are quite different for the apostles and prophets. Their ministry begins when the Lord has spoken to them.

The apostolic and prophetic anointing are activated by divine initiative and not by results such as mentioned with the teacher's or pastor's anointing. This means that apostles and prophets are not depending on initiation of earthly things, but rather on heavenly initiatives. In such a context, the heavenly assignment triggers the ministry and not just the calling.

Apostles, prophets and evangelists are the primary traveling ministers of the church. They receive their messages from God, proclaim them to the world in their respective contexts and collect or hand over the members of the body of Christ to local workers, pastors and teachers (note: teachers can be permanently active locally, such as a Bible school as well as in traveling ministry). Based on this, the revelation of Paul of the order of the five-fold ministry and the ministers in the body of Christ makes sense and is intended to make God's wisdom known by the equipping of saints.

 

 

=> An apostle is a specially called servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is sent by God to men with an assignment. Apostles are granted a general power of authorization by God extending over powers and spherical principalities over which they rule. Apostles serve as stratospheric (note: spiritual) fighters and governor-servants of Christ on earth. They carry a higher impartation of anointing and move in the highest order of the church according to 2 Corinthians 12:28 and Ephesians 4:11. <= (based on the definition of an “apostle” from the “Prophet's Dictionary” by Paula A. Price, Ph. D.; page 59)

 

=> Apostles have an immediate, recognizable relationship with Jesus Christ (see Acts 4:13) and act in the supernatural realm by performing signs and wonders (see Acts 2:43). Apostles have the ability to interpret things that God does (see Acts 2; Acts 15). They are also trustworthy in dealing with finances (see Acts 4:35; Acts 20:33-35; 1 Corinthians 16:1-4).

 

Apostles have authority to discipline and proclaim judgment (see Acts 5; 1 Timothy 1:19-20 ;1 Corinthians 5:4-5; 2 Corinthians 2:5-11; Galatians 1:8-9). They lay down their lives for the church (see 2 Corinthians 6:3-10; Galatians 6:17; Philippians 2:17-18) and are at the same time “fathers and mothers” in Christ (see 1 Corinthians 4:14-15; 1 Thessalonians 2:5-8; 1 Timothy 1:18; 2.Timothy 2:1 => Paul as the spiritual father of Timothy; Romans 16:3.7; Acts 18:18.26 => Priska-Priscilla/Junia, women as spiritual mothers in the apostolic office along with their husbands Aquila and Andronikus; see Genesis 1:27).

 

Apostles have revelation about the position of the people of Israel and of “the one new man” in Christ (see Romans 11 i.c.w. Ephesians 2:11-22ff.). Furthermore, through their intercession they stand in the gap for the body of Christ (see Colossians 1:3-4; 2 Corinthians 11:28-29; Galatians 4:19) and are anointed to bring the church into order. <= (based on a teaching concerning the office of an “apostle” from the book “The Apostolic Church Arising” by Chuck D. Pierce & Robert Heidler, page 84-92)

 

 

Forming the foundation of the church, apostolic leadership is the cornerstone of the viability of the New Testament (see Ephesians 2:20).

 

… 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

 

Revelation, mediation and education are the keys to apostolic development with the emphasis on spiritual development. Teaching units and the church's internal organization are foremost initiatives of apostolic leaders. Priority is given to protecting the organizational structure within churches by preparing and appointing the right people in their places (note: functions).

 

Origins and history are continually bound to the temporal teachings of the apostles. Apostles are the people of calling high and who constantly challenge the people (note: saints in their regions) to grow, to mature, to expand qualitatively as to rise above the earthly to serve God. They are driven forward to build, to be creative and ingenious. The apostle promotes divine order in God's people, worship of God and priestly service towards their king. They are eternity-oriented and want to practice as well as continue Christ's eternity duty every day in the now. As great leaders, they take leadership beyond the routine organization of the church and bring it forth to the government of the kingdom. Apostolic leaders are intelligent, structured and informative in their approach.

 

Learning and teaching are essential for them to see the people in Christ transformed, from the place of the cross where they find salvation to what God had created them to be forever (see Hebrews 6:1-3).

 

1 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

3 And God permitting, we will do so.

 

Their intimate relationship with Christ makes them convinced leaders, fiery workers and devoted deliverers of God's truth, who effectively demonstrate the forces of the ages (note: the present and coming ones).

 

 

The prophet is a person who has a direct experience of God. He has received the revelation of God's will for holiness, so that he can judge in the light of God what it looks like in the present and in the future. Furthermore, he is a divine messenger who is secure to speak in the name of God and to remind people of His demands as well as to guide them on the way of obedience and love for God.

 

A true prophet is sent by God to proclaim the will of God and to also be a “sign” with all of his person. Not only the words of the prophet, but also his acting and life becomes prophecy.

 

Prophets are completely convinced that they are serving instruments in God's commission and set to bring the divine message in connection with their personal vocabulary to the people addressed.

 

A prophet can receive the message of God e.g. through a vision, a dream, an audition or an inner intuition, which can be spontaneously carried out by an everyday experience, or rather a daily experience can be triggered, as it was for example with Jeremiah, as he saw the almond branch (see Jeremiah 1:11), the two fig baskets (see Jeremiah 24) or the potter at work (see Jeremiah 18:1-4).

 

In addition, prophets can transmit God's message visually to people in the form of signs (see 1 Kings 11:29ff.; Isaiah 20:2-4; Jeremiah 13:1ff.; Jeremiah 19:1ff.; Jeremiah 27:2ff.; Ezekiel 4:1- Ezekiel 5:4; Ezekiel 12:1-7.18; Ezekiel 21:23ff.; Ezekiel 37:15ff.; Acts 21:10-11). In connection with this form of transmission, or also independently of it, it can happen that prophets move in a strange pattern of behavior, passing through abnormal psychic and physical states, which can be among other things also part of the “burden of God” or part of what God carries on His heart (see Genesis 32:25-26.32; Ezekiel 3:15; Daniel 8:27; Daniel 10:8).

 

Every true prophet is deeply convinced that he is an instrument of God and that his prophecy is at the same time made up of words coming from his mouth but have their origin in the mouth of God.

 

The prophetic message has a double meaning in that because it can be either pointing to judgments or the promises of God. Prophetic actions that are carried out with physical objects in accordance to the order and instruction by God, become messages that were given. The reason for it is that since the revelation of the Torah on Mount Sinai, physical objects which were designed or made for God's order have also represented an image of God's presence. This means that every prophetic action taking place in Christ and in His order reflects a kind of God's holiness which connects the spiritual dimension with the physical dimension (see Genesis 2:25.8-9.40 i.c.w. Exodus 35:30-35; Exodus 36:1-3; Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5).

 

 

The Evangelist sees the world as a great missionary field wherein people must be saved from doom and destruction. Evangelists are driven to save or see as many souls saved from death and eternal condemnation as possible.

 

Their ministry mantle concentrates on wooing and winning souls for God in this world. Evangelists are preachers of good news based on God's love, grace and forgiveness. In this context, a balanced and appropriate approach to the Word of God is of great importance.

 

Statements related to judgment that could scare or even drive people away would only appear in the message of the evangelist if souls rejected God or reacted ignorantly towards repentance and God's righteousness. This kind of adjustment is necessary because evangelists tend to measure the results of their ministry by assessing the number of converts. Evangelists usually do also not tend to remain in the life of a freshly converted believer for long and therefore would not lead him to full maturity.

 

In order to see souls being led to Jesus Christ, evangelists often use the so-called “traditional altar call”, which equates to joining Jesus' cross on Golgotha. The people who say the prayer of salvation and acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord and Redeemer in their lives are taken by the word and declared to be redeemed. As soon as this primary goal of evangelists are achieved, they turn to their next listeners to repeat the cycle of salvation (note: unless an evangelist is responsible for a church). Rarely does the evangelist spend enough time to guide new converts or integrate them into the body of Christ. This task usually belongs to those of shepherds (note: pastors) or teachers.

 

The nature of the evangelistic office implies that the evangelist's ministry is primarily focused on winning souls for Christ. For guiding new converts to enter maturity in Jesus Christ, it is therefore advisable to bring them under competent apostolic leadership. Such an apostolic leadership can decide on the distribution of giving support and managing of discipleship as well as to appoint experienced/proven servants in the kingdom of God. Even prophets can take parts of this function if their anointing mantle enables them to serve in revelatory teaching. The mission of the evangelist to go to the places where the Lord sends him to does not make it possible for him to care for the new converts more intensively in time.

 

At regular intervals, evangelists, while pursuing other activities at the same time, must return to their mission of evangelism to continue filling the body of Christ with new believers. This is made clear in the Word of God by the commission of the evangelist Philip, who traveled from region to region to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ (see Acts 8:4-13.26-40 i.c.w. Acts 21:8a). (note: This message is based on a teaching by Paula A. Price, Ph. D. from the book “Divine Order for Spiritual Dominance”; pages 5-12)