5-fold Ministry in Ecclesia - Conclusion

Conclusion

It is fitting as we draw this analysis to a close, to return to the section on talent versus gift.  I believe every human ever born has talents that contribute much to our own life personally, to the lives of our families and to the wider community both nationally and internationally.  I also believe that every human ever born bears the imprint of God, however obvious or hidden it may be.  I also believe that every human ever born carries eternity in their heart – because God set it there.  Let’s consider this for a moment.

That beautiful poem A Time For Everything Under the Sun comes from the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3.  At the end of the poem, the writer says, “What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?  I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.  He has made everything appropriate in its time.  He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”

Eternity is set in the heart of man by God; but it is obscured to some extent so we don’t discover more than we should.  Apostle Paul described it as seeing in a mirror dimly and as knowing in part (1 Corinthians 13:12).  In that same passage, Paul adds the eternal dimension: then we shall see face to face; then we shall know fully just as we have been fully known.  The natural world has imposed limits, some of which protect us from seeing and knowing too much.  When we have access to the eternal dimension, we see and know ‘fully’.

Apostle Paul describes this seeing and knowing as “in the Spirit”.  I believe the Spirit of God not only transforms our lives, he gives us access to the eternal dimension, but it can only happen because, as of being born again by the Spirit, we receive the Spirit of God and the things of the Spirit of God are activated in our lives – fruit of the Spirit, gifts of the Spirit, knowing and seeing in the Spirit and so on.  We now have both a natural existence and a Spiritual existence – that is, the kingdom of God activated in our lives.  The kingdom of God is not simply a dimension of existence following physical death; Jesus made it clear that it actually begins in this life.  Think about this finger-joint illustration.

Since the coming of Jesus, we live in the zone where time is merging into eternity; where the kingdom of God is coming yet it is here in part; where we can have the mind of Christ; where God chooses to allow us to see and know in His realm – “in the Spirit”; where natural talent and Spiritual gift operate together.

Five-fold ministry in ecclesia is not a matter of changing style from a one-man-band type of operation to some form of multiple eldership; it is the heart and soul of ecclesia since it is a full-on expression of the heart and will of God that eternity – “in the Spirit”; the kingdom of God on earth – begins in this life and is completed and perfected at the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus.  Reigning with Christ for ever, judging angels and judging men (all part of our destiny according to scripture), I believe, require that we learn how ecclesia is intended by God to function in order that the kingdom of God be visible and touchable and approachable.  Since the scriptures reveal that five-fold ministry in ecclesia is how we arrive at the maturity and unity necessary for that, anything less defrauds our Father and delays the return of Jesus.

What this five-fold ministry in ecclesia does for us, I believe, is give us an open door to being and doing all that the Father’s heart desires – for Himself and His entire family and household:

“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” (John 4:23)

“And speaking the truth in love we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is Christ.  From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4:15-16)

NEW SERIES COMING SOON.

5-fold Ministry in Ecclesia (10) Pastor

Pastoral Ministry

When it comes to the ministry of the ‘pastor’, the New Testament knows one Greek word: poimeen.  It is the standard Greek word for a shepherd – one who tends herds or flocks.  I say ‘tends’ because the word means much more than one who feeds the animals.  The word ‘tend’ means to look after, to watch over and to care for.  In addition, the shepherd feeds the animals; specifically the shepherd either takes the feed and water to the animals or takes the animals to the feed and water.  And then the shepherd, obviously, ‘herds’ the animals, which means he musters them together to form a herd or flock, staying together, travelling together, feeding together, watering together.

According to the Psalmist, the shepherd locates good pasture and leads the flock there to rest and to graze.  The shepherd locates clean, still water and leads the flock alongside to drink in peace.  The shepherd oversees the restorative needs of the flock and their need to travel in safety and certainty.  The true shepherd does this because his name and reputation rest upon their continued protection.  The shepherd may need to take his flock through tight dark valleys, but he keeps his flock peacefully and safely through the journey by his rod of discipline and his staff of correction.  The shepherd lays out fine food for his flock even in the presence of hungry predators.  The shepherd grooms his flock and keeps them well and satisfied so they feel no need to stray.  The shepherd keeps the flock in these ways for and on behalf of the owner of the sheep.

Apostle Paul indicates that the resurrected and ascended Jesus has allocated some such shepherds (along with apostles, prophets, teachers and evangelists) for the full outfitting and equipping of the sons of God so they can effectively carry out their works of service that lead to the building up of the Body of Christ, the ecclesia.  The goal of this outfitting, equipping and building up is to take us all on to unity in the faith and unity in the knowledge of the Son of God; to become a ‘mature man’, no longer a child; to deliver us to a stature that measures up to the fullness of Christ.

Apostle Peter – as an elder himself – exhorts the elders amongst the Jewish believers he is writing to to “shepherd the flock”.  Peter is saying, ‘herd the herd’, ‘sheep-herd the sheep’.  The same root word is used twice, once as a verb and once as a noun.  He is picking up on the metaphor of the sheep and the shepherd as a model for the elders of ecclesia to care for God’s people on the road to the Christ-likeness Paul was talking about.

Peter’s exhortation continues: “Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion but voluntarily, according to God; and not for sordid gain but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples.  And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” (1 Peter 5:1-4)

One Ferrell Jenkins has a travel blog on wordpress.com.  My thanks to him for this wonderful little photograph of a shepherd in Nazareth village.

In times past, and in many less urbanized countries even today, sheep and cattle keeping constitute the daily life of many.  This work, away from city life, and far removed from the care and stresses of the large metropolis, is what in English is referred to as ‘pastoral’ work.  It is for this reason mainly that the Greek word poimeen has come to be translated into English using the word ‘pastor’.  However, also in times past, this role of pastor and this work of pastoring came to be almost the sum of the duty of care that church leaders have for the flock allotted to their charge.  The pastor became – and still is to this day – the central figure and the CEO of congregations of God’s people.

I believe this came about primarily because most congregations became acceptable and comfortable and the mandate of Jesus to “disciple the nations” was largely abandoned.  As a result, there is basically no need for apostles, prophets and evangelists; and pastors can easily become ‘pastors and teachers’ – or pastor/teachers.  Indeed, to this very day, most congregations have considerable trouble relating to or connecting with their local communities, whether rural, suburban or urban.

This trend is further complicated by the comfort and protection offered to churches that are registered organizations, recognised by governments, whose primary emphasis is maintenance rather than mission and status-quo rather than game-changer.  This itself reduces the need for four of the five ministry functions of Ephesians 4 and turns the role of pastor into a combination of officiating at births, marriages and deaths and “keeping the rabble in line”.  Many pastors seriously struggle if and when they attempt to reclaim pastoring as what it is supposed to be, and to reintroduce and reintegrate apostles, prophets, teachers and evangelists into local congregations.  I know because I was one such person, trying to be a pastor.

In effect, the pastor has become the king, and his kingdom is as small or as large as he chooses or as he is capable of.  The Peter Principle, in simple terms, is commonly phrased: “employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence.”  When pastors are put in charge and remain in charge, those congregations will expand to the limit of the pastors’ ability to effectively be in charge.  And given that, generally speaking, power corrupts, those congregations with those pastors ‘in charge’ will generally have an expiry date.  Of course there are exceptions, but they are few and far between.

The HOW NOT TO of Pastoral Ministry

I believe the principal reason for this state of affairs is outlined for us by Old Testament prophet Ezekiel in his prophecy chapter 34, so I would like us to learn how not to do pastoral ministry from this man of God.

This is a prophecy “against the shepherds of Israel”.  I do not propose pasting here the full text of Ezekiel 34 – I must leave you to read it for yourself.  What I propose here is to draw together a kind of list of DON’Ts for aspiring shepherds by pointing to the things they did that God was not at all happy with – and which the prophet, similarly, took issue with.

They have been feeding themselves instead of feeding the flock.  They slaughter the fat sheep, eat the fat, clothe themselves with the wool but fail to feed the flock.

They have not strengthened the sickly ones, nor healed the sick ones.  Neither have they splinted the flock’s broken joints, nor sought and found the lost and brought them back.  Instead, with force and severity, they dominated them.

The flock was scattered for lack of shepherding and became food for wild animals with no-one to search for them.

Therefore God declares, “Behold, I am against the shepherds and I shall demand my sheep from them and make them cease from feeding sheep.  So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore, but I shall deliver my flock from their mouth that they may not be food for them.”

If I could, I would have Ezekiel 34:11-16 printed with opals on a scroll of pure gold and hung in every cathedral in the world.  Pastors and priests the world over keep berating ‘sheep’ for turning their backs on them, but they fail to realise they are the very shepherds Ezekiel was talking about.  Listen to what God says He is going to do:

“I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out.  As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for my sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.  And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land.  I will feed them in good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel.  There they will lie down in good grazing ground and they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.  I will feed my flock and I will lead them to rest.  I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy.”

Pastors, if the flock is scattering and drifting off to God knows where, your efforts should be focused on what you are doing wrong, not on what the sheep might be doing that you disagree with.  And you need not worry about them, because God has them in his sight and in his care.  Equally, you are in His sights.  The one you should be worried about is yourself: God has promised – promised! – that He is against you and that He will demand His sheep from you and you will be stripped of your job as a shepherd.  As a result, you will no longer be able to feed yourself; your food, the sheep, will be taken from you.

But His judgment is not done yet.

They feed themselves in the good pasture, but in the process, they tread down the rest of the pasture with their feet leaving the sheep to eat the trodden down pasture.

Likewise with the water: they drink the cool, clear water, but in the process, foul the rest of the water with their feet leaving the sheep to drink foul water.

They push and shove with side and shoulder and butt the weak sheep with their horns until they leave, tired, thirsty, hungry and bedraggled, to go off to God knows where.

So God declares:

“I will deliver my flock and they will no longer be a prey…  And I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will feed them.  He will feed them himself and be their shepherd.  And I the Lord will be their God and my servant David will be prince among them.” [I believe David here is a type of Christ who is The Good Shepherd]

“I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate harmful beasts from the land, so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.  And I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing…”

“Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and have delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them.  And they will no longer be a prey to the nations and the beasts of the earth will not devour them but they will live securely and no one will make them afraid.  And I will establish for them a renowned planting place and they will not again be victims of famine in the land and they will not endure the insults of the nations any more.  Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they are my people.”

“And as for you, my sheep – the sheep of my pasture – you are men, and I am your God, declares the Lord.”

Pastors, you may be inclined to judge some sheep for wandering off into the wilderness, but note that this is probably God drawing them away from you, since He has prepared things so they can live securely in the wilderness and sleep soundly outside in the woods.  You are not there to have the best for yourself and starve the sheep; you are not there to sacrifice the sheep and devour them; you are not there to push and shove and butt the sheep to your way of thinking, caring nothing when they leave tired, hungry and thirsty.  If this is you, you are what Jesus called a ‘hireling’, a faux-shepherd, a wolf in sheep’s clothing who will run away and abandon the sheep if threatened.

I am sure much more could be said.  But probably the most important thing that can be said at this point is that, in the new covenant, there is always grace to repent.  More than anything else, what pastors need to learn is that they are not in charge.  If you are “in charge” you are most likely a hireling.

First, Jesus is in charge.  He is the Chief Shepherd and the flock belongs to his Father and ours.  He is the Head of the body, we are the body; it is not the other way around as many outsiders might surmise when they look at us.  He is the Groom, we are the bride.  He is the sun, we are the moon.

Second, when Jesus is in charge, pastors are no more than one in five of the elders in the congregations of God, and pastors are meant to take their cues from apostles and prophets.  As it is, pastors expect all apostles, prophets, teachers and evangelists to take their cues from them.  But hang on!  Aren’t we talking about two different things here?  There are those who are named ‘pastor’ and who hold a position of power, many of whom are not pastor by Spirit-gift or Spirit-call.  Then there are those who are called and gifted as pastoral elders, many of whom are left to rust in the machine shed.

Real pastoral ministry in ecclesia (as against church pastors) is as we see in the writings of Peter and Paul above.  It is also as we see from Ezekiel – DO NOT BE AS THE SHEPHERDS OF ISRAEL, but rather shepherd God’s people as God shepherds His own.  After all, all ecclesia pastors are under-shepherds to Jesus the Chief Shepherd and together they shepherd the flock of God, according to God.  What did Peter say?

“Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion but voluntarily, according to God; and not for sordid gain but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples.  And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.”

5-fold Ministry in Ecclesia (9) Evangelist

Evangelism Ministry

One of the peculiar difficulties encountered when you intensely study the scriptures and seek to get at the core and intent of the original writings we have in our bibles is that – in the New Testament at least – Ancient Greek and Modern English are not particularly tidy bed-fellows.  My wife, though hearing, is very proficient in Auslan, the sign language of the Australian Deaf community.  Like sign languages the world over, it is a language in its own right, with its own structure and grammar and nuances.  Working as I do with New Testament Greek and having my wife nearby working in Auslan, I have found that it is often easier and more effective to translate New Testament Greek into Auslan because the basic language rules are more similar than between the Greek and today’s English.

One of the areas where this is evident is those places in New Testament Greek where a noun is simply put into a verb form.  In English, we do it with some words, but not all.  And in some cases, if we do, the result is clumsy and confusing.  Let me illustrate this using the five ecclesia leadership functions we are talking about here.  Apostle is a noun, but try using it as a verb.  Is ‘to apostle’ a legitimate verb?  Is apostling a legitimate participle?  Prophet is a noun; prophecy is a noun; but prophesy is a verb.  Teacher is a noun; teach is a verb; teaching is a participle.

Pastor is a noun; in relatively recent times, pastor has become a verb too; and pastoring is now a legitimate participle.  In earlier times, the verb would have been shepherd and the participle shepherding.  In Uganda where sheep are rare and cattle are a measure of wealth, the word for pastor is not shepherd (herder of sheep) but cowherd (herder of cattle).

But what about the evangelist?  It gets quite murky here.  And one of the reasons it does gets murky  is that this word is not a translation from Greek but a trans-literation: English has simply Anglicised the Greek word and given it an English meaning.  For this reason, I am going to spend a little time boring down into this word and some of its associated words.

Let me begin by saying that ‘evangelist’ is the Anglicised form of the Greek word euangelistas, which is itself a composite word having a central root plus a suffix and a prefix.  The root word is angelos meaning messenger – one who is sent to announce, like the ‘angel’ who came to Mary the mother of Jesus.  The Greek angelia is the message the messenger delivers; so the suffix is changed to form the different parts of speech.  On the other hand, the prefix eu is Greek for ‘good’ or ‘glad’; so a euangelia is a good message, good news, glad tidings.  Then when you take the emphasis off the message and put it back on the messenger, what do you get?  A ‘good-news-er’.  There’s no such English word, so we simply transliterate it to ‘evangelist’.

In English, the words we have to communicate the idea of the one who shares the good news as well as the act of sharing it are transliterations to which we have given our choice of meaning and that choice tends to be dictated by our particular choice of religious and theological heritage.

For instance, one of the ways the Roman Catholic Church in Australia uses the term ‘evangelist’ is to describe the writers of what we call the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  They are the Evangelists.  Whereas to some in the Protestant traditions, an evangelist is an itinerant preacher with a message of heaven and hell – as he or she defines them.  To still others, an evangelist is a teacher of the theology of salvation for those predestined for it.  And there are other definitions besides.

And this is further complicated by the introduction of yet another word into our English bibles: gospel.  Many people simply translate the Greek euangelia with the English ‘gospel’, not realising that ‘gospel’ is a seventeenth century Anglo-Saxon word inserted into our English bibles specifically to imply a pre-determined meaning: what the church traditionally understands as its ‘message’.  Unfortunately, it became the word of choice to describe and name the four accounts of the life of Jesus in our English New Testaments: the Gospel of John for instance.  The original form of this word ‘gospel’ was godspell, which literally means “the story of God”.

We now have two separate things: the good news of Jesus, and the church’s story of God.  And they have proven to be very different indeed.  The church gets to define gospel, since that word has no connection with or root to the New Testament documents.  On the other hand, Jesus insists that the real good news is “the good news of the kingdom of God” and apostle Paul is adamant that ‘the good news’ is fixed and established as: 1) the revelation of Jesus as the saviour of the world and sole mediator between God and man; 2) that revelation uniquely given to him by God: “For I would have you know brothers that the good news which was preached by me is not according to man, for I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

This revelation given to Paul is the same thing Jesus talked about as recorded in Matthew 24:14 – “And this good news of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in the whole habitable world as a witness to all the nations, then shall come the end.”  And again in Matthew in Matthew 28:19-20 – “Make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”

This revelation is the one true ‘evangel’ – the one true good news or glad tidings.  All others, according to Paul, are ‘different gospels’, distortions of the real thing, having their source in the institutions and philosophies and religions of man.  And I have spent much time on this subject in my work This Good News.

Having established what the good news is and that it is not necessarily the same thing as the church’s gospel, can we now say that the person who spreads abroad this good news is a “good-news-er”?  And can we say that this “sower” is “good-news-ing”?  We draw on an image from Jesus and suggest the ‘evangelist’ is “a farmer who goes out to sow seed”, paying attention to sowing the seed in good soil that will produce a harvest. This, of course, takes us to…

The How of Evangelism Ministry

The New Testament uses three main ideas to talk about how the good news of the kingdom of God is spread around: proclaim; witness or testify; and sow.  Each has its own unique Greek word.

Let me start with the last word – sow.  In the previous few paragraphs, I have shown that this is the main idea behind the verb form of the word for ‘good news’.  When I was a teenager, a phrase commonly used around our local assembly was ‘gossip the gospel’.  We were taught that this means to be so saturated with the good news that, as you go about your daily life, you will take every opportunity to share the good news with those you touch and influence.  We were further taught that there is wisdom in paying attention to Jesus’s story of the sower and the places where the seed lands: hard ground, rocks, thorny bushes, good soil.  And we were taught also to take note of Jesus’ idea of not throwing your ‘pearls’ carelessly before ‘pigs’.

Those who ‘good-news’ in this way know and understand and experience what the good news is because it has taken root in their own lives.  They can then judiciously sow it into the ‘good soil’ of those around them God is preparing to receive the seed and grow His kingdom in.  The Greek word for this is euangelizo: to sow the seed; to gossip the gospel; to evangelise.

The second idea in the New Testament is contained within the word we use when a person is called before a court to give evidence or testimony in a matter before the court.  The Greek word is martureo: to testify or to depose.  From this word, we get the English word martyr.  Not all martyrs died.  The fact that many did greatly influenced the English language to the extent that martyr came to mean someone who died for their faith.  Its original meaning in relation to our study here is someone who gives good and faithful testimony (or deposition) to the good news of the kingdom of God – for which many have died horrible deaths.

Apostle Peter wrote this:

“Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good?  But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, ever ready to make a defence to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.” (1 Peter 3:13-16)

When the good news of the kingdom of God has taken root in you, it changes you to the core of your being.  Among other things, your hope in life is radically altered and may often seem strange, and you appear deluded because, as apostle Paul noted, you are now dancing to a different drum; living according to a different vision, one that is unseen to many around you.

Whatever else you do, the New Testament teaches us, be ever-ready to give a good and sound defence for the hope that drives and motivates you.  Look at the examples of Jesus and Paul and the other apostles, how they didn’t lapse into fear and anguish when confronted with hostility but steadily sought the face and the wisdom of the Father and bore good witness.

Jesus teaches his disciples, “But when they deliver you up, do not become anxious about how or what you will speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what you are to speak.” (Matthew 10:19)  And consider Jesus’ own experience:  “He who rejects me, and does not receive my sayings, has one who judges him at the last day.  For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent me has given me commandment, what to say and what to speak.” (John 12:48-49)  I believe the Father does the same for all His sons, not just His once-born, first-born Son.

The third idea in the New Testament is the Greek word kerygma or kerusso, meaning herald and proclamation or to herald or to proclaim.  There are two parts to the central idea within this word.  First, it contains the idea of the ancient town-crier.  Before we had the printing machine and radio and television waves, men would take a bell and toll it to get the people’s attention, then loudly proclaim the news according to the script they were given.  Second, it contains the idea of the runner.  A marathon is called a marathon because the original one was a man who ran from Marathon in Greece to Athens, in 490 BC, to deliver the message that the battle at Marathon had been won.

The ‘angel’ heralded Jesus’ birth and John heralded the public ministry of Jesus and the beginning of the good news of the kingdom of God; Jesus is the first and the preeminent runner – he not only carries the message, he is the message.  The true ‘evangelist’ today may do either or both, but the message remains the same: the good news of the kingdom of God in Jesus – here and now.

The message – the ‘evangel’, the good news of the kingdom of God – is fixed and established and doesn’t change.  How it is delivered may very well change to suit the situation or the people involved, but its substance and content remains the same.  That is why Paul was so incensed that the Galatians were to hear Paul say, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different ‘gospel’ which is really not good news at all.”

The ‘evangelist’, I believe, is both gifted and skilled in all three forms: sowing the seed; bearing witness to Jesus and the truth that sets men free; and heralding the good news of the kingdom of God.  Paul’s solemn charge to Timothy applies well: “Proclaim the logos; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, warn, encourage; with all long-suffering and teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:2)

One final word from Paul: “Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat of that temple; those who attend regularly to the altar have their share with the altar?  So also the Lord ordained that those sowing the good news get their living from the good news.” (1 Corinthians 9:14)

Next: the Pastoral ministry

5-fold Ministry in Ecclesia (8) Teacher

Teaching Ministry

The New Testament knows three different words each of which can legitimately be translated teach / teacher / teaching.

The first is didasko.  This is the word that is used in Ephesians 4 when Paul says there are “some teachers” given to the Body of Christ to take her on to maturity.  The teacher here is the Master.  In a trade, it is the Tradesman; in a university, it is the Master or Doctor.  Consult a modern dictionary, and it will tell you that a ‘journeyman’ is someone who has completed an apprenticeship and is working at their trade for or on behalf of someone else, an employer for example.  In this sense, apostle Paul as a ‘teacher’ (didaskalos) was a journeyman.  As far as God was concerned, Paul was qualified and ‘approved to be entrusted with the good news’ and he was engaged in that ‘trade’ for and on behalf of Jesus.  Remember Paul’s words, “I plead with you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”  The relationship here would be, in simple terms, one of experienced adult to inexperienced adult.

The second is paideuo.  This is the word used when you want to talk about instructing a child:  “Train up a child in the way that he should go…”  The idea being conveyed here has to do with the responsibility of a parent to train and instruct their child in all the matters of life as it is lived in their place and time.  The basic relationship here is one of parent and offspring.  This word has the same root as the main Greek word for child.  Hence a paediatrician is a doctor who specialises in children.

The third is kateecheo.  This is the word used when you want to talk about giving a child a formal education.  It is the Greek word we get our word Catechism from.  Its inference is that formal instruction, even using rote learning models, is in play.  It is generally age-specific in that as the child grows in years, the teaching grows with them.  It is also often in the form of question and answer, as are the Catechisms of various lines of church life.  An example of this is a snippet from the Anglican Shorter Chatechism: “What is the chief and highest end of man?”  Reply: “The chief and highest end of man is to worship God and fully to enjoy Him forever.”

Ecclesia’s Teachers

The teachers of Ephesians 4 are of the first kind.  They are didaskalous.  They have served their time, done their apprenticeship (discipleship) and are qualified and approved to pass their learning and skill on to others.  They are in the service of God, working on behalf of Jesus, to add their part to the recipe for maturity for the Body of Christ that matches that of Jesus Himself.  The ones they are passing their learning on to are called ‘acolytes’.  So you have Master and Apprentice; didaskalon and acolyte.

This is the word Jesus used when he instructed his twelve apprentices before he left them: “disciple all the nations…teaching them to diligently observe the entirety of what I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:20).

What kind of teaching is it?  It is adult to adult; it is about teaching things not known by the learner; it is not parent to child; it is not school teacher to pupil; it is not about teaching a child life-skills; it is not about learning a religious catechism.  It is about the kingdom of God; about ecclesia; about the fellowship of the saints; about the good news of the kingdom of God; about faith, hope and love; about pulling back the curtain on the revelation of the mystery of Jesus and his Bride; about seeing the unseen; about hearing the faintest whisper of the Father; about discerning which way the wind of the Spirit is blowing – in short, about what Paul calls “living according to the Spirit”.

The new Testament uses only this word didaskalon when it speaks of teachers in the Body of Christ.  Acts 13:1 says there were prophets and teachers in the ecclesia at Antioch: Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen and Saul (who later became Paul).  It doesn’t say if these men were both prophets and teachers or if some were one and some the other.  Looking at other parts of the New Testament, I think it is likely Saul’s primary gifting was teacher and Barnabas’ was prophet.

What it does indicate is that these men were ministering to the Lord and fasting.  As they did, the Holy Spirit said to them, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.  Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.”  They were prophets and teachers; and then they became ‘apostles’ by this act of sending them out – that is the meaning of the word.  An apostle is one sent out with a commission.

This fits with the whole idea of the kind of teaching I am talking about.  They had done their time, served their apprenticeship and were qualified and approved by God for the work they were now being sent out to do.  Notice the Holy Spirit instructed them to set apart Barnabas and Saul “for Me”.  They will be working for and on behalf of Jesus under the direction the Holy Spirit.  Note verse 4 says, “Being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.”

Then verse 5 notes that when they reached Salamis [on the eastern end of Cyprus] they began “good-newsing” (sowing) the logos, the story of Jesus, in the Jewish synagogue there.  Given that Jews from Cyprus were likely to have been in Jerusalem at Pentecost a few years earlier (the Acts 2 account), it is also fairly likely that the ministry now built on the foundation of Peter’s proclamation on that day.  And we note it is not just Barnabas and Saul: they had John Mark (see Acts 12:25) with them.

The record shows they carried on teaching the logos throughout the whole island and eventually came to Paphos on the western end of the island where the Roman Proconsul Sergius Paulus wanted to hear their message.  They were opposed by Elymas who is described as both a magician and a Jewish false prophet going by the name Bar-Jesus (which means son of Jesus) trying to turn the Proconsul away from the faith.  Saul (now mostly called Paul) receives intuitive knowledge from the Holy Spirit and spoke out boldly to the magician and made him blind there and then.

Acts 13:12 makes this important statement: “Then the Proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching (didasko) of the Lord.”

As Westerners, we love to fit this story into our church structures and suddenly make Paul an evangelist as we think of evangelists.  He wasn’t; he was a teacher; he taught; he ‘evangelised’ with the logos (the story of Jesus) and his hearer was amazed at this teaching of the Lord.  Consider Paul’s own words to his son-in-faith Timothy: “And for this I was appointed a herald and an apostle – a teacher of nations in faith and truth.” (1 Timothy 2:7)   What we note of Paul here is that he is a teacher who, by virtue of being set apart for God and sent out with a commission, has become an apostle, who functions in a prophetic teaching ministry.  Is it any wonder Paul later indicates that the foundational ministries in ecclesia are first apostle, second, prophet, third teacher?

The How of Teaching Ministry

Paul, throughout his life, is the living embodiment of teacher and teaching ministry – and his story indicates one of the ways teaching ministry functions.  The other main illustration of teaching ministry comes in the form of Timothy and Titus, two of Paul’s disciples whom he apprenticed and eventually sent as overseers of ecclesia, one to Ephesus, one to Crete.

One teaching ministry is to spread abroad the logos of God, the story of Jesus, to bring men and women to faith in the Lord; the other is to build up the believers within the ecclesia of God, making them solid and well-grounded in the knowledge of God and in the hope of the good news.  This then enables them to always be ready to give a good account of and reason for the hope that is in them.  This latter work seems to be the emphasis in Timothy’s ministry at Ephesus and Titus’ on Crete.

Both Timothy and Titus were appointed and sent by Paul as ‘overseers’ (Greek: episkopos, literally meaning overseer) and according to Paul, one important trait of an overseer is that he be qualified and ever-ready to teach (1 Timothy 3:2).  What he wrote to Titus gives the more detail (Titus 1:9-16): “The overseer must … hold fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict.”

Take careful note of these verses.  I believe Paul’s instruction to Titus opens a window on how the ministry of teaching was established in the ecclesias Paul brought his influence to.

“Cling steadfastly to the word of faith which is in accordance with the teaching [you received from me and my co-workers], so that you are able to exhort with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it, for there are many rebellious men – empty talkers and deceivers; especially those of the circumcision sect – who must be silenced because they are subverting and corrupting whole households, teaching things they ought not, for the sake of sordid gain.  One of them – a ‘prophet’ of their very own – said: “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons”.  This is true testimony! 

“For this reason, reprove them severely that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who have perverted the truth.  To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure for both their mind and their conscience are defiled.  They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient, and incapable of any good deeds.  But as for you, speak the things that befit sound teaching” (Titus 1:9 to 2:1)

These are stern words indeed.  I am of the opinion that, as the ‘Pharisee sect’ of Acts 15 and the ‘Jewish circumcision sect’ of Titus 1 are alive and well today, so also should be the powerful teaching ministry described here.  Unfortunately, by and large, it is not – and hasn’t been for many many years.  It is difficult in the extreme today to find – alive and well – the good news of Jesus devoid of what I call antique legalism: the legalism of today’s Pharisee and circumcision sects.  Whole households, indeed whole congregations of people, have been subverted and corrupted by an array of pseudo-gospels that come with all kinds of strings attached.

And like then, so now: many times it is done for the sake of sordid gain, either financial or personal.  And like then, many of these make claims of being apostles and prophets who go around saying things that are contrary to the good news of the kingdom of God, contrary to the logos of Jesus and contrary to the scriptures.  Many of the things they teach are straight out of the Law of Moses: “Jewish myths and commandments of men who have perverted the truth” (see above).  It is as if the law of Moses is part of the good news we are to preach and part of the administration of the ecclesia (keeping the ten commandments for instance).  Apostle Paul’s words, as delivered to us by Luke in the book of Acts and by Paul himself in his epistles, loudly proclaim to all who have ears, “IT IS NOT SO!”  Concerning these teachers Paul wrote strongly: “I WISH THOSE WHO ARE DOING THIS WOULD CASTRATE THEMSELVES; I WISH THESE TROUBLE-MAKERS WOULD EMASCULATE THEMSELVES.” (See Galatians 5:12)

But the problem now is that everything has been turned on its head.  The faithful teachers of the faithful word as Paul was and as Paul referred to are now considered the trouble-makers.  The Pharisee sect rules!  They get to say what is taught – and who teaches it – and most often it has nothing to do with obvious Spiritual gift or Divine calling.  Even perhaps more than in Paul’s day, today it is absolutely imperative that teachers teach; that teachers “exhort with sound teaching and refute those who contradict it”; that the “rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers … must be silenced because they are subverting and corrupting whole households, teaching things they ought not.”

I recently read a teaching book on teaching ministry in the church today.  It contains so many things from the Pharisee sect that I refuse to mention it by name or by author or publisher.  And yet it comes from the very heart of one of the large international movements of “Third Wave” church life of the late 20^th century.

Teachers today, on the one hand, need to teach – oh, we desperately need them to teach; and to heed the teacher.  And the teachers need so desperately to learn and to teach the fundamentals as taught by Jesus and Paul and to soundly defeat the lies and the plunderings of the Pharisee sect and be heard to rebuke them sternly as Paul wrote to Titus.

On the other hand, the teachers often feel so heavily constrained by apostle James’ teaching: “Let not many become teachers, my brothers, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgement.  For we all stumble in many things.  If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.” (James 3:1-2)  James goes on for several verses about how dangerous is the tongue and the importance of taming it – as one tames a wild beast.

Here’s what I suggest – to myself and to anyone else who is gifted as a teacher in the Body and who carries the burden of teaching as did Paul, Titus and Timothy.  Take what Paul wrote to Titus seriously; remember, as James said, that our tongue can run away with the rest our being and don’t let it; remember the stricter judgement that James wrote about; but also remember Paul’s teaching that a) it is those who are led by the Spirit of God who are sons of God and b) the sons of God have the mind of Christ.  Then teach your heart out in the power of the Holy Spirit and under His direction.  God needs teachers who will today do what Paul was teaching Titus to do, not teachers who hold back for fear of their tongue running away with them.

Yes, the tongue is a small member and it indeed can start a forest fire; but personally, I believe that is precisely what God wants to do in this hour – under the direction of the Holy Spirit and by His power.  “‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit’, says the Lord.”  The safeguards necessary are given clearly in Paul’s instructions, especially the qualities he taught Timothy and Titus to insist upon for overseers.  These qualities clearly apply to Timothy and Titus themselves, not just to the ones they would eventually appoint as elders.  They apply equally to teachers in the Body today.  But you will never find Paul advocating holding back out of fear of starting a fire.  I think perhaps Paul understood Jesus’s words, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth and how I wish it were already kindled!”

Old vs New

Now there is one other important issue here: what is the ‘source’ of the ministry of teaching we have within and among the people of God today?  Throughout his writings, and those of Luke who wrote Acts, Paul is at pains to make it perfectly clear that his ‘gospel’ – his evangel – is not a post-Jesus extension of Jewish law and traditions; it is not a revised Law of Moses.  Indeed, the writer to the Jews (the Hebrews) strongly puts the case that not only is Jesus superior in every way to Moses, the covenant he inaugurated is superior in every way to the Mosaic covenant.  And Jesus was abundantly clear on this issue.  The new evangel is not a matter of adding Jesus to the old evangel; it is an entirely new, separate, distinct and vastly superior message.

And one of the facets of its superiority is its source.  The old message traces its source back to the Jewish covenants of Abraham and Moses and it is essentially a message of law and order, blessing and cursing, obedience and disobedience, all based on the written code.  The covenant of Abraham and the Law of Moses are the primary source of the old message.  And these covenants were administered through a human priesthood and a series of rites performed according to a calendar.  And God dwelt among His people as represented by the box known as the ‘ark of the covenant’, not in them either individually or corporately.

This bears no comparison with the new message.  The new message is entirely ‘other’.  God no longer relates to man (Jew and non-Jew alike) according to the terms and conditions of the old covenant.  He instituted, and inaugurated in Jesus, a new covenant whose basis is grace, not law.  God no longer dwells in temples made with hands, but within the lives of His family members and in their gatherings of at least two or three.  The written code of commandments and rules and blessing and cursing has given way to God’s trustworthy word being written on the hearts of people: His logos (which is firstly His Son and secondly the story of His son), His rhema (which is whatever He speaks in the moment to His children), and scripture (now interpreted through the covenant of Jesus).  It is a message of faith, hope and love; of deep, satisfying intercourse with God and, as a result of that, with our fellow-man and with our selves.

And what type of knowledge does the teacher primarily deal with?  It is the knowledge that comes from a sound mind studying and working hard like an athlete to exercise and challenge the intellect – both his and his hearers; it is the knowledge that comes from the discipline of sitting at the feet of Jesus and of other Spirit-anointed teachers who have been given to the ecclesia for her maturity; it is the knowledge of “correctly handling the word of God” (logos, rhema and scripture), not peddling it like second-hand merchandise.

All of these are the source of the teaching ministry within the ecclesia of God in the new covenant.  And all that has its source in the old covenant – in the “Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth” and in the Pharisee sect and the circumcision sect – is to be refuted and silenced, according to Paul.  Paul’s summary instruction for teachers is Titus 2:1 – “But as for you, speak the things that befit sound teaching.”  Amen!  And by doing that, you teach without trying: you teach how to be a teacher and how to teach.

And can I encourage teachers to note this: Jesus’ ministry was about disciples and discipleship and making disciples (Greek – matheetees).  When he commissioned the twelve, the central instruction to them was to ‘disciple the nations, teaching them…’  And Paul’s instruction to Timothy – and quite probably Titus as well – was, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”  This is discipleship in action.  And it is intended by Jesus and Paul to be the basic and central thrust of how the new life in Christ is to be lived in the world.  When we do this according to Jesus and Paul, drawing on the sources I have indicated here, things are far less likely to go astray and off track.  I encourage you to revisit what I presented earlier in the section on apostolic ministry from Floyd McClung and his work: You See Bones, I See an Army.  Things tend to go off track when they get polluted or diluted by religion, legalism, institution and the grubby hands of man; when they depart from the rich simplicity of Jesus.

Next: Evangelist

5-fold Ministry in Ecclesia (7) Prophet

Prophetic Ministry

What is prophetic ministry?

When our bodies are sick and we go to God to get well again, He has His medicine and His health professionals to dispense that medicine.  The person might be a “worker of miracles” and His prescription a miracle.  He might also use a medical practitioner who will prescribe medicine to make us well.

Among the people of God historically, prophets have been God’s spiritual health professionals.  Their role is that of bearer of God’s diagnosis and prescription for the health of the Body.

As a general principle, we can say that during times of ‘health’ when the Body is not rebelling and is flowing in the Spirit, the ministry of the prophet concerns itself principally with guidance and direction.  An obedient people can enquire of the prophet “should we do so-and-so?”;  “should we go down this track or that one?”.  The prophets’ ministry is to an obedient people of God what a coach’s ministry is to a healthy, fit athlete.  The prophets’ ministry is to a disobedient people of God what the coach’s ministry is to an unfit, flabby, out of shape athlete.

For a moment, consider two scriptures:

“Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.”  (1 Corinthians 13:8-10)

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Ecclesia and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word (rhema), and to present her to himself as a radiant ecclesia, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”  (Ephesians 5:25-27)

It is fairly safe to suggest from these that when the Ecclesia is “without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish but holy and blameless”, prophecy will no longer be necessary because “perfection” [maturity, conpletion] has come.

This suggests to me several things:

ü As long as the Ecclesia has wrinkles, spots, stains or blemishes, God will have His prophets who will sit in His council, see and hear (Jeremiah 23:18) and then go and speak.

The suggestion that the Ecclesia will have these deficiencies until we get to glory is to make light of Jesus’ prayer of John 17 and to make nonsense out of scriptures like Ephesians 4:13-16 and 5:25-27.

ü Prophets have the unenviable task of being bearers of what sounds and looks like bad news.  Consequently, it remains true that the people of God always “kill” the prophets and persecute those God sends.  (Refer Luke 13:34).

Imagine someone you know who is sick going to the doctor and finding out what ails them.  The doctor gives them a  prescription and they go to the Chemist but instead of paying for the medicine and  taking it to get well, they bash the chemist and return to shoot the doctor.  Such people have some form of mental illness and would in all probability be regarded as criminals – at best, criminally insane.

This is what happens to the prophets among the people of God.  The fact that it happens itself proves the need of the very ministry God sent them to bring.

For the ill person, to go on blissfully ignorant of illness may seem ‘good’ but it will eventually catch up with them.  What seems good is in fact bad news.  For that same ill person, the ‘bad news’ of diagnosis and the bad taste of the prescription are actually ‘good news’ for his/her health.

So many times prophets are accused of being ‘negative’ and the bearers of bad news when the truth is their spiritual diagnosis and prescription (‘bad news’) is actually good news for the Body - if the Body will listen and act.

This demonstrates the first aspect of prophetic ministry in the Ecclesia: spiritual diagnosis.

Terry Virgo describes this aspect of prophetic ministry as the prophet’s voice coming “like an axe to the root of our problems... The prophet has the incisive clarity of vision that cuts through clutter and searches out motives and intentions like a probing laser beam.  He forces us to ask uncomfortable questions that lead to uncomfortable answers.  He causes the leaders to re-examine the church’s activities in the light of the principles which he shows them.” (Restoration in the Church, Kingsway, London, 1985.  p.109)

A second aspect is that of “speaking things into existence” or declaring things which are not as though they are and seeing them come about.

This aspect of prophetic ministry is revealed to us in Isaiah 44:24-26 where God declares, “I am the Lord ... who carries out the words of His servants and fulfils the predictions of His messengers.”  When holy men and women live in His presence, sit in His council and look and listen, God sends them out with His message.  It is contrary to His nature to then turn that message into a falsehood and deceive or mock his servant the prophet.  Jeremiah accused God of doing just that (Jer 20) and God proved otherwise.

This predictive aspect of prophetic ministry is also seen in the New Testament in the ministry of Agabus (Acts 21:10-14).  Terry Virgo says of this type of prophetic ministry: “it is not human manipulation that [leads] us along, but the Living God.”  (Ibid, p. 116)

A third key aspect of prophetic ministry is that of encouragement.  This is illustrated for us in the ministry of the prophet Nathan to David recorded in 2 Samuel 7.

First, Nathan ministers to David.  Then during the night God ministers to Nathan, correcting the guidance he had given David.  Next, Nathan ministers to David “all the words of this entire revelation.” And what was David’s response?  He “went in and sat before the Lord” and ministered to Him and prayed a “contrite heart” kind of prayer.

It is significant that Samuel records David’s victories immediately after he records this instance of prophetic ministry and his response to it.  In chapter 8 he records: “In the course of time, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them...”  And he defeated Moab, Hadadezer, the Arameans, and the list goes on and on.

Again quoting Terry Virgo: “Some prophetic ministry paints a large vision of what is going to happen, inspiring us to new acts of faith and delivering us from the commonplace.  We come to under-stand that the church has a glorious destiny. ‘The mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it’ (Isaiah 2:2).  We excitedly press on through the pressures as a prophetic people”  (Ibid. p. 116)

This type of prophetic ministry is further illustrated for us in the ministry of Haggai and Zechariah to leaders such as Joshua and Zerubbabel during the restoration program recorded for us in Nehemiah.

The How of Prophetic Ministry

Ephesians 4 tells us that the risen Jesus has given to the people of God prophets who, along with others, are given for the prepation of the people for works of ministry that God has for them.

“Some have tried”, as Terry Virgo says, “to dismiss the prophet by arguing that he is simply a preacher or teacher, but the lists of gifts in Ephesians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:28 and Romans 12:6-7 are consistent in differentiating between them.  Why does the Holy Spirit record them as different if they are simply the same gift? And what are we missing in the church without their ministry?” (Ibid. p. 114)

Of those who do accept the role and ministry of the prophet today, many still insist on a pyramid-type structure of local ecclesia leadership and the prophet comes further down the ladder than the local ‘Pastor’, Elders or Deacons.  As long as we maintain these structures and ideas, the prophetic ministry we ‘hear’ will be of limited benefit to us because often the word the prophet has for us concerns these very structures and ideas.

What the scriptures do suggest, I believe, is a mutually submitted and accountable circle of “elders” among whom are ones given to the Church by Jesus to be apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists and shepherds.  When this is so, prophetic ministry can become an integral part of the life of a local assembly.  However, if we insist on having a ‘head honcho’, almost invariably, it will be the one with prophetic ministry who is the first to be squeezed out — because he challenges our very leadership and organisational structures.

At the local congregation level then, we must give the prophet room to move — not just in bringing individual words (many times, these are not prophecies as such, but words or knowledge or words of wisdom), but the whole local ecclesia must itself be exposed to the prophetic ministry.

In the ‘Apostolic Ministry’ section, I outlined what I see as a linkage between three threes: three types of knowledge (experiential, intellectual and intuitive), three things called ‘the word’ (logos, scripture and rhema), and the leadership functions of apostle, prophet and teacher.  Each of these is a critical and essential element in the process of the kingdom of God being proclaimed and entered into, and the Body of Christ being transformed, degree by degree, into the image and maturity of Christ.  In this, the apostle is the pioneer, the vanguard movement.  His emphasis is logos and experiential knowledge.

However, the prophet comes, as always, with the perspective of eternity; with intuitive knowledge and the rhema of God; to reveal things in the Spirit; to expose; to exhort; to be like a hammer and like pruning shears and like a surgeon’s scalpel; to be like an x-ray machine both on our inner workings and the workings of the Spirit of God; to bring insight and resolution.

And listening to a prophet won’t be like listening to a teacher.  The prophet will often sound unbalanced — because he will sound like he has only one message.  He does not attempt to be balanced.  Rather, his burden will be that the present issue is being understood and resolved.

The Roving Prophet

In this day — when the prophets are only just beginning to be accepted as prophets; and when many local assemblies are not at the point I have described above — God uses what I call the roving prophet.  He is not simply a part of a local ecclesia leadership circle.  Instead, he moves from place to place.  You might say that the whole Body of Christ is his congregation.

Scripture also shows us this.  It affirms that in the broad, general arena, God has an order and He is calling us today, through the prophets, to restore that order.

“Now you are one body and each one of you is a part of it.  And in the ecclesia God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.” - 1 Corinthians 12:27-28

The absence of pastor and evangelist from this ‘order’ is interesting, to say the least.  But that aside, clearly the restoration of God’s “order” of things as revealed through Paul does not suggest  that these are levels of personal authority.  I suggest, rather, that they are levels of ministry importance to the Body of Christ as she moves forward together, in the Spirit, towards her glorious destiny as the perfect bride of the Son.

[I also susggest that “workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing” in fact describes the new, true evangelists and that “those having gifts of healing, those able to help others” describes the new, true pastors.]

Prophetic ministry is indispensible to the people of God and the only real question we need to ask is: will we accept the prophet  AS A PROPHET?  Will we accept the prophet without having to label him/her ‘Pastor so-and-so’?  Will we accept the prophet without caving in to our felt need to demonstrate to the congregation that we too have this gift — so we don’t really need to listen to him/her?!

When we accept the prophet AS A PROPHET, we receive a prophet’s reward (Matthew 10:41). 

What is a ‘Prophet’s Reward’

First, it is the prophet’s presence.  When we honour a prophet as a prophet and accept the ministry, he/she can be with us — and even come back! — without the pain of rejection.

Second, it is the blessing of God.  When we accept the prophet’s ministry and begin resolving the relevant issues, our obedience encourages the Spirit to stay among us.  Rejection of the prophet’s ministry encourages Him to gradually depart.  [Note ICHABOD of 1 Samuel 4:21-22 and the departing of the glory of God from the temple in Ezekiel 9 to 11]

Third, not only does our obedience encourage the Spirit to stay, it puts us in line to receive the promises of God relating to the prophecy, and to receive the actual fulfillment of the prophecy.

Conclusion

ü Prophetic ministry enlarges our expectation of the immediate presence of God.

ü It changes us so we begin to grasp God’s intention for the Ecclesia and so we can become a “prophetic people”.  Short-term problems no longer dominate our thinking and prevent necessary change.

ü It enlightens us to the purpose and destination of the spiritual renewal we find oursleves in.

ü It cuts through the layers of rubble to reveal motives and intentions.

ü It forces us to ask uncomfortable questions that lead to uncomfortable answers.

ü It causes us to re-consider our activities and programs in the light of the principles the prophet reveals.

ü It exposes weakness and need so that it can be changed.

ü It increases our resolve to be obedient to God’s revealed will regardless of the implications.

ü It lifts our eyes from the small, the local and the parochial to the large, the universal and the national.

ü It brings clarity to the business of “understanding seasons”.

ü It helps prevent us from being side-tracked with present worries and relative trivialities.

ü It impacts our lifestyles and forces us to re-assess our values (rather like the pearl merchant I mentioned earlier).

ü It can so affect ecclesia life that the assembly itself becomes a prophetic voice to the nation.

We are clearly in a time of the restoration of true prophetic ministry to the ecclesia.  We need to make room for it — and for the prophet himself.  After all, he is a man too and needs our fellowship and support and encouragement as any other does.

I venture to ask: how can we afford to go without prophetic ministry?

Terry Virgo makes the point well: “Without the prophet, the local church will lack the vision, motivation and faith to fulfil its God-given role.  When a purely pastoral foundation is laid in a local church, that company will fail to be truly charismatic even if many become Spirit-filled, speak in tongues and sing new choruses.

“The prophet must not be invited simply to excite the people occasionally, but to equip the saints to produce the fruit of his own ministry in their lives.  He will see where death has crept into a situation and where discouragement has resulted in the congregation simply going through the motions without any expectation.”  (Ibid. pp. 114-115)

But prophetic ministry, like any other ministry in the Ecclesia, cannot — AND MUST NOT — be controlled by men seeking to bring it under the umbrella of 'my church' and 'my vision' — or even 'our church' and 'our vision'. 

Both the Ecclesia and the vision belong to Jesus.  At best, we are under-shepherds of God’s flock.  We are also “unprofitable servants” who have only done our duty (Luke 17:10).  But we have had the enormous privilege of waiting on Him.  And, as the scripture says, thus “we will run and not be weary; we will walk and not faint”.

One final word from apostle Peter: “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men, moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God.”  (2 Peter 1:20-21)