Apostle is Number One in Rank in God's Army Under Jesus

developing within the church.

The local church and universal Church is not a democracy. Neither

are the elder-meetings a democracy. Some apostolic churches are

teaching equality of the elders. Others rank the prophet with the

apostle on one level, and then the pastor, teacher, and evangelist on

another level. This is also wrong. The apostle is number one,

like it or lump it. Common sense, experience, conscience, and

the Scriptures say this to me.

Incidently, I'm an assistant to an apostle, not an apostle myself,

(to the best of my knowledge), so I'm not tooting my own apostolic

horn. I'm under an apostle, submitted to him, and occasionally argue

with him; I am even sometimes in "civil" disobedience to him, but

I know who the local boss is---he's my apostle. I don't put him on

a pedestal; I am familiar with his faults, and occasionally downright

dislike him for a time, but I plainly recognize the call on his life.

The church needs to be the army it claims to be. That means

"rank and file"---None of this modernistic equitable equality. We

all have certain generic unalienable rights, but there is an authority

structure in the church, which means that there are unique rights

applicable to and emanating from special callings and offices.

A multi-headed church is utter confusion. If we say Christ is the

Head as He is indeed, there still needs to be a single local arbitrator

who can sum up and vocalize that which the leadership has heard

from God. He must be a man who can implement that vision.

There will inevitably be disagreements among the leaders in a local

church. One God-ordained man has to be able to stand up and

declare, "The buck stops here!"

The prophets have prophesied that the Lord is raising up apostles

as the GENERALS in God's spiritual army, but yet a few of these

prophets attempt to place themselves at the same level as their

commanding officers, the apostles.

John the Baptist recognized that his job was to prepare the way

for the head Apostle, Jesus, NOT to strive to be equal with Jesus.

Modern prophets need to follow John the Baptist's example.

Notice also that John's job did not end when Jesus arrived; John

continued to prophesy and preach the baptism of repentance.

The apostle does not replace the prophet; he is the next incremental

link in the progressive unfolding of the mystery of the Church.

--But yes, there is a shift in the ratio of relative emphasis from the

prophet toward the apostle, not negating the prophet altogether.

The prophet is the friend, counselor, and confidant of the apostle,

just as the Old Testament prophets were to the kings. The prophet,

though indispensable, did not, usurp the king.

There have always been apostles, but they have not been recognized

as such. Unless the Church both recognizes AND submits to apostolic

authority, we are "playing church", and all our apostolic jargon will

be reduced to hollow theological rhetoric. So we must not merely

acknowledge the existence of modern-day apostles as the current fad,

but we must also submit to them, or the universal Church is nothing

but a club.

There has to be flexibility as we move into this. There are bona fide

heads who are not apostles. They are the mentors who are raising

up the new generation of apostles. Hence, we will see apostles

being ordained and commissioned by presbyteries composed

predominantly of other fivefold officers. Ultimately we'll see the

apostles as the *generals immediately under the Head Apostle,

Jesus.

*(For those who did not read our last post: God's army is a spiritual

army mandated to conquer wicked demonic principalities. We war not

after the flesh. But prayer is futile unless prayer is accompanied by

commensurate action i.e. saying and doing. The Bible says that

faith [prayer] without works is dead. Political activity is NOT SIN

as some would try to teach; however, political action alone [i.e. works

without faith] affects the symptoms, not the hearts of individuals.)

BACK ON TRACK:

The primary emphasis of this message is about authority WITHIN

the Church, not authority (whether real or imagined) outside the

Church. We can deal with the world's rebellion after we deal with

ourselves. -- We must humble ourselves by submitting to apostolic anointing.

"Submitting to the Spirit: Why We Need Tongues"

"Apostolic Abuse: the Reason It Cannot Happen"

"The Humble Apostle: We Need Him & He Needs Us"

"Kingdom Dominion Kingdom Now: What it is & isn't"

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