Apostolic Spiritual Fathering and Apostles

by Apostle Randall A. Muse | randallmuse@hotmail.com

Once a young Christian complained to me, "There have been a lot of gradual changes in my life, but I would relish a more dynamic encounter of some sort, whatever it might be."

I'm not quite sure why I am writing this to you, but this was my encounter with my spiritual father, the Apostle Emil Cedeno. The whole night another Apostle who was visiting our church had been discussing the Apostle's ministry, and perhaps more specifically how God calls you, lets you know the end or what the arrival point of your call is (what it is you are called to), then begins the preparation process. He used 1 Kings 19, and told how Elijah threw his mantle upon Elisha, and then Elisha responded by becoming Elijah's servant or the New Living Translation says, "Then he went with Elijah as his assistant."

IKing 19:19-21

19 So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. 20 And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, "Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." And he said to him, "Go back again, for what have I done to you?" 21 So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen's equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant. (NKJ)

After the message was preached, Apostle Emil was in the Spirit and called me up to the front to receive from God what He had for me. This was when I had just barely begun attending our present Church Home, and Apostle Emil knew very little about me. He then proceeded to take off his tie, and then I saw in the Spirit like Elijah putting his mantle on Elisha to be his assistant, servant, and spiritual son, and to inherit the double portion, as he placed the tie (mantle) around my neck (which also symbolizes being yoked together in covenant relationship).

It had been previously revealed to me that not only was I called to be an Apostle, but like my spiritual father, I was called to Pastor a Church also. That was the mantle (Apostolic & Pastoral) I felt come upon me at that moment and I knew that I had arrived at the place of my spiritual destiny, which was the place of the bosom of my spiritual father, Apostle Emil Cedeno.

Just today, Apostle Emil was talking about the different ministers being raised up in our congregation, and he said, "You must know the voice of your spiritual father, and respond to it."

What all this means in your current circumstance, God will reveal to you if you don't already know. You have a precious gift and I see you like Timothy to your spiritual father. I don't think you have realized the full potential (the full potency) of the Gift that is inside you. (?) [Let your spirit bear witness if I am speaking the truth or not.]

I know that to those people that I am called to father, I am their spiritual destiny, as their relationship with me is a reflection of their relationship with the Fatherhood of God. It is God the Father in me fathering them. Apostles have a greater portion of the Father's Spirit than any of the other Five-Fold Gifts. A seasoned Apostle is really a father to other spiritual fathers.

Some people in the Body of Christ do not understand or are not trained to discern or able to distinguish the difference between the threefold Spirit of God, Father, Son & Holy Spirit. When you are saved, you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord and you receive the Spirit of Jesus Christ as we become birthed into the Kingdom as babes, and then grow to become children and then ultimately matured Sons of God (nothing to do with gender). Then as we become more intimate with our sweet Savior, Jesus then baptizes us with the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking with other tongues, understanding and operating in the Gifts of the Spirit, as the Fruit of the Spirit is being developed in our lives (Fruit being the Character of the Lord Jesus Christ which emanates and flows from the Power of the Holy Spirit). But the third aspect of receiving the fullness of God is often overlooked and neglected in many believer's lives.

We love Jesus our Sweet Savior, we love the Power of the Holy Spirit and the manifestation and indwelling of His Presence, but there is a third dimension to receiving the fullness of God. We must not only have the Spirit of the Savior and be filled with the Holy Spirit, but we must also be filled with the Spirit of the Father.

I Jn 2:23 says that whoever denies the Son or denies sonship, does not have the Father either, and whoever acknowledges the Son (acknowledges sonship) has the Father also. You cannot accept the Son without going through the process of maturing as a son. How can the Spirit of the Son abide in you if you are not being dealt with by a spiritual father imparting his spirit and *legitimizing that sonship in you? It is through the process of being fathered that sonship is being formed in us and we are becoming like our Father as we are filled with His Spirit, enabling us to in turn *legitimize and father others, empowering them toward successfully fathering the next generation after the circumcision of their flesh is complete.

*Note: The author is not saying that all ministries without an overseeing apostle are illegitimate. The Church is in transition, and apostles are in the process of emerging. All ministries can be benefitted by coming under apostolic authority, but the Lord extends grace to those who have not yet been exposed to apostolic doctrine. A person is morally responsible for the level of knowledge that he has. The Spirit of the apostolic father desires that spiritual children may be adopted into the Church that they might receive the blessing of the Father; the apostles have not come to curse the orphans--condemning them for their illegitimacy, but rather, the apostles have come to extend their mantle over those who desire to receive their parental support.

This is the aspect of God that most people reject. They love our Sweet Savior, they love the POWER of the Holy Ghost and operating in the Gifts of the Spirit, but when it comes to being filled with the Spirit of the Father, most of them don't want to endure the process of becoming a son.

That means having their character dealt with, finding out who you really are and being real to others and God about it, but most of all be real to yourself. Don't let hypocrisy reside in you.

I have revealed the most horrible side of myself to my spiritual father and mother on Earth, but most people wouldn't dare. They feel it would hinder their progress and the way their mentors look at them, which might delay their being raised up and sent out in ministry. But a true spiritual father and mother who walk in love will see you through the eyes of the Blood and envision your potential more than your pitfall. We need to run to our spiritual fathers and welcome their knife. I hunger for them to examine me to see if any unclean thing needs to be circumcised from my life.

There are some sins that we confess and overcome, but there are certain characteristics about our sinful nature that must be dealt with by our spiritual father. Abraham circumcised himself, but the rest of the house had to be circumcised by him. They were not permitted to circumcise themselves, but had to submit to the knife of the father of the house. No one else was a father of the house that could legitimately circumcise Abraham. We must be like Isaac and willingly be bound to the altar and allow God to raise up and heal any part of our flesh that the knife cuts.

God will provide so that we will not be destroyed as sons, but will be tested so that we can have absolute trust and loyalty to our spiritual father.

God tests our hearts in Covenant Relationship to one spiritual father on Earth because He is testing our hearts in Covenant Relationship with One Heavenly Father. We are in covenant with one spouse in marriage, the same thing, we are in covenant with One Heavenly Groom. Your faithfulness toward your wife is actually a test of your faithfulness with the intimacy of your marriage with the Lord Jesus Christ, and your faithfulness toward your spiritual father is actually a test of your faithfulness with regards to how intimately you guard, hold and esteem your relationship with the Fatherhood of God, with God the Father.

Those who are most submitted as sons are those who have the greater authority, because they are more filled with the Spirit of the Father, Who is the Highest Authority of the Godhead. Saul's name was changed to Paul, because he became the "least" or the most submitted of all the Apostles.

You can have Apostles over you and have more authority in the spirit realm than they have, according to the degree of the level of your submission to the Fatherhood of God. True Anointing to destroy yokes of bondage is not measured by Rank only, but by the level of submission of each officer and assistant involved. This means that it is of course possible for someone who is not an Apostle to have a greater degree of the Apostolic Anointing if they walk in greater submission to God than the one who is higher in rank. This can be observed when studying the example of David and Saul.

Saul had a greater rank, but David walked in a greater level of submission to the Divine Authority of God.

Sincerely your in Christ,

Apostle Randy Muse | randallmuse@hotmail.com

See also: Power to Become Apostolic Fathers & Sons

and: Apostolic Sons and Daughters in the End Times

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