2. How can a so-called apostle be substantiated?

Image via WikipediaBefore an answer is given to this question, a word of caution.

Since you've continued here from the 1st entry of this blog you must have found or you must have already had faith in the apostolic office gift as being valid for today or you're open to it or you're just plain curious. So, again let me suggest to you that if you have not yet done so, please go to The Lord in prayer and ask for Him to substantiate to you in a way that you can understand whether or not He wants me to minister to you here with these teachings about the apostolic gift.

The apostolic gift can be very difficult and controversial for a believing Christian to stand up for as being valid for today because of (as I thoroughly described in entry 1) so many Christian's unbelief in it. So, you may not yet be ready or able to endure Satan's moves that will invariably come thru unbelieving Christians against you, if you prematurely begin moving into this gift.

When I was still a young Christian some very mature Christian practices were presented to me but I felt led to shy back from them, deciding to wait until I was further along in the faith before moving into them. I'm glad that God led me to do so because it gave me enough time to become very well grounded in my basic salvation doctrine and faith and fully ready to move on into those things.

Therefore, please pray to the Lord about how far He wants you to now venture into these teachings and then discuss it with any other Christians to whom God might lead you for counsel.

Proverbs 11:14b - in abundance of counselors there is safety.

After doing all of this, wait until you and your counselors reach complete peace about this matter before continuing on into it.

Col 3:15 - And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] - The Amplified Bible


Substantiations of a true apostle from the Lord Jesus Christ.

I John 4:1 - Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God because many false (ministers) have gone out into the world.

1. Humility

To begin with, the first and foremost characteristic to look for in any apostle is that he is humble and self effacing, just as were all of the apostles described in the Bible.

James 4:6 - ...God gives grace to the humble but resists the proud.

That means that the very first test of any so-called apostle is to carefully observe his behavior for consistent, deep humility. He may be confident in his apostolic calling but he should not be in any way inflated about it. Rather he should be meek and humble and lowly among you. Any evidence that you detect of pride or self-exalting about being an apostle (or about anything else for that matter) is a warning from God to beware of that person's ministry.

Matthew 7:15 -16 - Beware of false prophets (and apostles), who come to you dressed as (outwardly humble) sheep, but inside they are devouring wolves. You will fully recognize them by their fruits (of pride and self inflation, etc.).

An apostle's great humility is required in order for him or her to appropriate God's grace (God's power and authority) by which to operate effectively within this spiritual office. If any professing apostle does not have great humility, he cannot possibly be a true apostle of the Lord because he, in his pride, will be resisted by the Lord and therefore he can have no grace to bring forth God's power in the exercise of his office. The apostle Paul, because of his great knowledge of God, was even given assistance by the Lord to stay humble!

II Corinthians 12:7b - ...to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness..."

And if a true apostle (who should always be humbly learning and growing in the Lord just as everyone should be) leaves humility at any time, he immediately falls from God's grace and loses all of his apostolic powers and authority from God because God will resist that apostle until he repents and returns to humility. Grace can only be appropriated and function to bring forth God's powers for the brethren when a person humbly reaches up to God for it.

Numbers 12:3 - 4a - Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth, and SUDDENLY THE LORD (MOVED!)...

The amazing powers and miracles brought forth by God thru Moses could only have been manifested thru him because of his extremely humble spirit. God, of course, knew His man and He picked Moses as His vessel thru whom to perform all of His miraculous works in Egypt because He knew that Moses could be led into making himself humble enough to appropriate the tremendous dose of grace needed to bring them forth.

Exodus 4:21b - ....see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power...

The same is true of the ministry of any true apostle from Jesus today. Apostleship is not a gift that can manifest if the so-called apostle has an attitude of pride or self-exaltation, because God will always always resist that pride.

So, always, always, always, first look for consistent humility in any so-called apostle, when putting him or her to the test.

2. Strong Faith

When any Christian's humility is firmly in place, that humility combined with their firm faith then works together to bring forth great power and miracles from God to accomplish His purposes. This principle holds true especially for His modern day apostles. Strong faith is just as important as humility, but without both working together, an apostle cannot be used by God to bring forth His powerful workings.

So the second test of the apostle is - does he have great faith in God (and in all of His Word), combined with great humility? At the end of the apostle Paul's ministry he wrote that he had kept the faith that Jesus had given to him by which to conduct his ministry and that he had fought the good fight of it and that when he died he would then deliver it back intact unto his battle captain, the Lord Jesus Christ (I Tim 4:7 - Amplified Bible). Any true apostle today needs to have the same humble and faithful attitude at all times.

Hebrews 11:6 - Without FAITH - IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to please God...

Humble faith in God and His Word is necessary to appropriate His salvation power in one's life. It is also necessary within the apostle to successfully appropriate God's authority and great miracle power by which to work all sorts of wonders for the betterment of the believers to whom he is sent. The apostle's God-given strong faith working thru his or her great humility is what appropriates miracles and signs and wonders from God. Consequently, strong faith combined with great humility must be present in the apostle's teachings and confessions in order for him or her to begin to be judged by the brethren as maybe being a true apostle from the Lord today.

For instance, after an amazing apostolic healing miracle occurred, Peter said to the incredulous onlooking crowd...

Acts 3:12 - 16 - Why are you amazed at this (healing miracle), or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?...It is on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given this man his perfect health in the presence of you all.

Peter gave all of the glory for this amazing healing miracle (of a man lame from birth who was now walking and running and leaping for joy) to the faith which originated and came to him and the lame man from Jesus Christ and which manifested upon the lame man's legs thru Peter's bold, faith-filled use of Jesus name. Peter was totally self-effacing as he emphatically and humbly denied that his own piety had anything to do with this miracle. Here in these verses, faith and humility within an apostle are clearly displayed as Peter gives the Lord Jesus Christ all of the glory for this amazing miracle healing.

3. Biblical Love

The 3rd test of a so-called apostle is the test of Biblical love which is described fully in the passages below.

I Cor 12:31b - 13:8 - ...(these passages come right after a complete discussion of all of the supernaturally given spiritual gifts that we are to earnestly desire. Here, Paul proceeds to put these gifts into context)...

I show you A STILL MORE EXCELLENT WAY! If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have LOVE, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have LOVE, it profits me nothing.

LOVE is patient, LOVE is kind and is not jealous; LOVE does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. LOVE never fails!

But if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; etc..

The true apostle of the Lord will have this kind of enduring Biblical love for everyone to whom he ministers, even for those who reject him. He will always consider GOD'S LOVE to be the greatest gift that he can share with the brethren, considering it as being of even more importance than any of the powerful, miraculous gifts that come from God.

Apostle testers should look carefully for all of these love qualities in any so-called apostle before accepting his or her ministry as coming from God for them.

4. Truth

A true apostle from God will only teach that which is Biblically true and correct. He will teach it humbly, faithfully and lovingly so as to help each of the brethren to grow in their faith. Therefore, the 4th test of the so-called apostle is to insure that he only brings forth teachings that all of the testing brethren agree are Biblically correct and truthful.

Eph 4:15 - ...speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all aspects into...Christ.

The apostle's teaching of Biblical truth is discernible by the internal approval of the Holy Spirit of Christ within the minds and spirits of each of the testing brethren. When the apostle is truly from the Lord, the testing brethren will sense Jesus himself actually speaking truth thru him!

Luke 24:32 (the brethren) said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He (Jesus looking like another man) was speaking...explaining the Scriptures to us?"

If Jesus Christ has truly sent the apostle then He is with and in that apostle. So his teachings and interpretations of the Scriptures will be ignited within the hearts of his hearers by Jesus Christ Himself speaking thru him. When the so-called apostle lives and breathes the truths of God's Word the apostle testers will sense Christ's glory manifesting out from within him.

John 1:14 - And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.


5. Substantiating signs and wonders from God

Once brethren feel that the person being presented as an apostle has passed all of the above tests, then that person is probably a legitimate, God-sent apostle. But just to be certain, the testers can expect that signs and wonders will accompany him.

However, TESTING BRETHREN SHOULD NEVER LOOK FOR SIGNS OR WONDERS to come forth to substantiate that person! What is meant by these seemingly contradictory statements? Just spend a moment pondering the following...

Matthew 16:4 - An evil and adulterous generation SEEKS AFTER A SIGN; and a sign will not be given...

The SEEKING FOR SIGNS TO BE GIVEN BY GOD thru the apostle is not the way in which God will substantiate his or her apostolic ministry to testers.

Heb 11:6b ...(God) is a rewarder of those who SEEK HIM!

Instead, testers should SEEK THE LORD HIMSELF on the matter of somehow supernaturally substantiating that apostle's authenticity for them. Never, never, never seek for any substantiating sign or wonder itself to do it!

Mark 16:17 - ...signs will accompany those who have believed...

Accompanying signs will be given by God to substantiate a person's apostolic ministry to testers ONCE THEY BELIEVE THAT GOD WILL CONFIRM OR DENY HIM IN SOME WAY TO THEM and then after they WAIT UPON THE LORD to do so.

Testers can expect for God to move somehow to substantiate any of His true apostles but again, THEY SHOULD NEVER SEEK FOR SIGNS TO SUBSTANTIATE THAT APOSTLE! Instead, they should always seek the Lord Himself and wait upon Him to move in their life in some way that they will be able to understand to authenticate or denounce the so-called apostle.

Then, should that person not be legitimately from God, Jesus will bring forth something by which to clearly show the testers that he is actually a false apostle. But if that person is truly and legitimately one of Jesus Christ's modern day apostles, God is sure to bring forth substantiating signs and wonders to confirm his or her power as an apostle to them.

Acts 4: 33 - ...and with great power the apostles were giving testimony

The following is a testimony on this principle of never seeking for signs and wonders...

One day a dear brother in our home fellowship (who is a confirmed prophet and who had experienced many, many signs and wonders almost daily from the Lord for a long time) came to me and told me that he hadn't experienced any signs from God for weeks and he could not figure out why. He said that he really missed the comfort of being given them by the Lord.

So, after a heart prayer to the Lord for guidance, I felt led to ask him if he had been seeking for signs. He said that he had. So I routed him to Matthew 16:4 and Mark 16:17 (shown above) and explained this principle of signs accompanying believing in the Lord but that they are never given to those who seek for them.

He immediately realized the truth of this teaching and his own misguidedness. So he repented of his wrong approach in this area and then he again sought the Lord on his questions and began to wait upon Him for His answers to them. Rapidly, things happened to answer one of his most important questions! He then rejoiced in the clarity of the answer that came to him in those wonderful and very welcome signs from the Lord.

This testimony well illustrates why we always should be seeking the Lord and His guidance in any matter, but we should never seek for signs and wonders themselves.


Conclusion

The testing of any so-called apostle involves careful observation by the brethren of that person's attitudes and behavior. The testing brethren should be especially watchful for

(1) deep humility
(2) strong faith
(3) sincere Biblical love
(4) that person's espousal of Biblical truths which can be substantiated by an internal movement of the Holy Spirit which gives the testers peace that these are correct interpretations of the Scriptures.
(5) Signs and wonders showing the validity or falseness of that person's apostolic ministry.

Now, before going any further, the reader might want to put this so-called apostle's feet (mine) to this 5 point fire. How do you do this? Well, since you won't actually meet me, just as you have not ever met any of the Biblical apostles, you can only go by my writings, just as you have to go by theirs. But unlike Biblical apostles, I am not claiming to write new Scriptures, only to quote those that exist already as they (and their principles) apply to my teachings.

So, do my teachings appear true to the Scriptures to you? Has God confirmed them with a burning heart in you over the explanations of each of the verses quoted? Do you feel that they are humbly presented? Do they express great faith? Do they sound like they are being lovingly presented truths?

If theses teachings pass all of these tests with you then just pray and wait upon the Lord to further confirm my apostolic ministry to you by sending you some kind of substantiating signs and wonders. You might not want to go any further in this blog until this happens for you. You might want to wait upon the Lord's guidance before proceeding any further with my teachings.

This is how I believe that any modern day apostle's ministry is substantiated to all of us by God. So, if you too believe this, then please wait upon the Lord's good pleasure to substantiate (or denounce?) my ministry.

Thank you and may God richly bless you.

1. Are there any God-given apostles today?

To answer this question, let's first define an apostle as one who is supernaturally called, prepared, empowered armed and then sent by Jesus Christ's Holy Spirit upon a mission to certain places and certain people whom God has especially selected for him. This is a matter that initially is completely subjective to the man who senses that he has the Lord's call upon him to be an apostle and then when he goes forth it also becomes apparent to all of those who encounter him in his ministry leading them to believe that God has truly sent him to them.

The calling of individuals into apostleship by Jesus Christ Himself after His resurrection is testified to in the book of Acts and described and discussed within the letters of the New Testament. So, is the spiritual gift of apostleship that Jesus gave in those first early years of Christianity to those who started His churches also being given to chosen believers today or was it just a church office gift to establish the Christian church and then it was no longer necessary as the majority of today's Christians believe?

If you reach or have already reached the faith conviction that there truly are modern-day apostles (just as I have), then let's see just what the Scriptures say for you to do in order to ascertain that this is true!

Even if you do not believe in the existence of modern day apostles being truly sent by Jesus today, further reading here might still be edifying to you, if you are open to the possibility of them.

This teaching is about apostolic ascertainment - it teaches you how to prove the authenticity of anyone's ministry as an apostle. But before we begin this discussion it is good to remember that the real focus of everyone's faith should always be kept upon the original and greatest apostle of all, the Lord Jesus Christ, not upon any of His subordinate apostles or even the miraculous events that He manifests thru their faith.

I Corinthians 3:5 - What then is Apollos? and what is Paul? They are but (apostolic) servants who gave you the good news as God gave it to them.

Apostles should always be viewed as merely being servants of the Lord Jesus Christ and no more! They should never be exalted by those who believe in their ministry nor should they ever exalt themselves over anyone! All glory for any of the good works done in this world by God thru their faith should always go only to Him because they will eventually get their own acclaim and a very big payoff in the next world!

All so-called apostles should be tested for authenticity to be certain that they truly are sent by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Rev 2:2 - ...put to the test those who call themselves apostles...

Legitimate apostles may be self-proclaimed but they are never self-appointed nor to be self-promoted. They are chosen and sent by Jesus and and they will eventually be testified to as being His true apostles thru signs and wonders that come through them and by the God inspired testimony of other believing brethren who accept their authority in their lives.

II Cor 12:12 - The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.

Any true apostle of the Lord will come humbly to the brethren to whom God sends him, bringing with him substantiating signs and wonders and miracles from God and the peace of the Holy Spirit.

Collosians 3:15a - And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds] (such as an apostle's authenticity - my addendum)...

Apostle testing should always be done by at least 2 and preferably more Christians to see if eventually they can all reach the conclusion that he is truly a God-sent apostle.

II Cor 13:1b - ...every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
If Satan sends a false apostle with signs and wonders to the brethren, he will not be able to confirm him thru with 2 or more Christian witnesses because the Lord will not give 2 or more of them any peace about the phony.

Today, the only people that will be able to discern and then believe in a true apostle's ministry to them are...

(1) those who are open to that possibility.

(2) those who already have the belief that Jesus still sends apostles today.

Stubborn Christian unbelievers and those who are not really stubborn but just will not allow themselves to believe in the apostolic gift as being viable for today, will not be able to receive any person as being a true apostle sent to them by God even if he does come with miraculous substantiating signs and wonders. Their fixations preclude this and will force them to reject an apostle. They will invariably claim and it's true that Satan can send false apostles but they will not acknowledge that God can do so also and that He will be faithful to expose any phonies to the brethren during the testing process.

II Corinthians 11:13 -15 - For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness...

A true apostle today is ordained into his apostolic ministry by Jesus and then sent by Him with adequate supernatural substantiations and His peace to authenticate him to those to whom he is sent.

I Cor 9:2 - If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

All of today's apostles' supernaturally invested miracle powers are brought forth by God thru their faith in order to help the rest of God's people to improve and strengthen their own faith in God, not to give them faith in the apostle. However, supernatural substantiations are many times necessary to authenticate the apostle's authoritative ministry from God to them.

John 4:48 - Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders...you will never believe.

The signs and wonders authenticate God's usage of a particular apostle and glorify God, but they are not sent to exalt the apostle in any way. Any so-called apostle who rides the glory of his accompanying signs and wonders into self-exaltation and / or overbearing dominance are not true apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ at all.


UNBELIEF IS THE ONE AND ONLY REASON that Christians don't have true apostles in their fellowships today.

Unfortunately, because of wide spread unbelief about there being even the possibility of a current day ministry of apostles (or prophets for that matter) which is so prevalent amongst today's evangelical and even many charismatic Christians, none are being sent to them by God. Why should He? He knows that the spiritual powers that He would love to send to those Christians thru His apostles (and prophets) will just be disbelieved because of their lack of faith in the modern day manifestation of these high church offices. So He doesn't bother to send them.

Heb 11:6 - ...without faith its impossible to please God...

I believe that this particular unbelief originates in evangelical and main stream Christians' pervasive fear of any kind of supernatural things today as having true authenticity from God. Most of today's Christians are just plain afraid that the devil is going to deceive them in anything that involves the supernatural, so they won't let themselves believe in such things at all!

One of the brethren whom I know had a dream wherein He saw angels stacking beautifully wrapped packages on shelves in a huge, sparkling new warehouse in heaven. In the dream he asked one of the angels why they were doing this and what was in the packages. The angel replied that the beautifully wrapped gifts were those that Christians would not accept from God and that they were being stored away for the Judgment so that their loss could plainly be seen by them then!

By trying to avoid Satan's deceptions themselves instead of listening to the Holy Spirit and following Him on this issue, Christians end up being deceived anyways! Satan first beats them by enticing them into a fear of being deceived by him thru anything supernatural. Then he uses this embedded fear to rob them of the faith which they must have in order to receive any of God's supernaturally given gifts and powers. This is why the Lord warns us in Scripture to fear only Him!

Deuteronomy 6:13 - " You shall fear ONLY the Lord your God....

When we fear anything else, other than the Lord, we leave grace and give the devil opportunity to deceive us because he can use each of our fears to rob us of many elements of our Biblical faith in God. Our fears then lead us to suffer the loss of the benefits from God that can only come to us thru our faith in those particular Biblical elements (but for which we have no faith because of our fears)!

I Cor 3:15 - If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as thru fire.

Satan may not be able to beat Christians out of their salvation faith, but he's quite willing to settle for crippling them in their ministry to people in this world, which then robs them of some of their eternal rewards. In this manner he gets them coming and going!

So, Satan tempts Christians into fear of the inauthenticity from God of things supernatural and when they buy into that, he can then use that fear to generate their unbelief in 5 of the very important, but obviously supernatural gifts which are described in the following major verse on the subject....

I Cor 12:28 - And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.

Fear of inauthenticity from God for today of the 5 obviously supernatural gifts (apostles, prophets, miracles, healings and tongues) mentioned in this verse, precludes evangelical and main stream Christians today from having faith in them as being valid and therefore present in modern times. So for these fearful and unbelieving Christians, these gifts are not present today and until they begin to believe in them, they never will manifest for them. Actually, their unbelief in these gifts could be termed as devilish faith since it is belief in a wrong doctrine.


Why do charismatic Christian fellowships have only 3 of the 5 obviously supernatural gifts manifesting (those of miracles, healings and tongues but not apostles and prophets)?

The answer to this question is that because they accept and believe in the 3 supernatural gifts of miracles, healings and tongues for today, they get them. Charismatic Christians have faith in a few more of the words of I Cor 12:28 than do evangelicals and other main stream Christians so they get the blessings of those particular words.

Luke 1:37 - For no word of God lacks power!

So God blesses these believing charismatics with these 3 gifts and all of their benefits in their lives and in their church fellowships. But they fail to get all of the blessings of I Cor 12:28 because they too do not believe in all of the words that are there. They don't believe those words that say that God appoints apostles and prophets to His church as being relevant for today. So they don't have any apostles and prophets in their fellowships.


Where can one find fellowship with Christians that do believe in all 5 obviously supernatural gifts?

Only some non-aligned, home fellowshipping Christians (of which I have been led to be one) and Apostolic Christian fellowships believe in all of the words of this verse as being for all churches for all time. So these believing Christians do get all 5 of them from God! But sad to say, these believing Christians are very few in number compared to the vast majority of deceived Christians who have so much unbelief in so many of the words of I Cor 12:28.
And on top of that, some of them are notorious for having self-exalting and member-dominating apostles and prophets that in my opinion, falsely occuppy those offices!
So, in order to find fellowship with other like minded believers on this issue, just pray and wait upon the Lord and in His time He will direct you into a church where these things are properly practiced. He did this for me when I sincerely sought for fellowship with others of like mind with me on this issue and I've been blessed ever since.


What explains all of the unbelief in these gifts of so many of today's Christians?

II Thessalonians 2:10 - 11 - ...because they did not receive the love of the truth...for this reason - God will send upon them a deluding influence, so that they will believe what is false...

In my experience I have perceived that Evangelicals, charismatics and main stream Christians don't love the truth that all of the words of I Cor 12:28 are for the ongoing church even though when Paul was led by God to write this book, he said that it was for all Christians in every place (I Cor 1:2). So, using the principle of the II Thessalonians 2:10 - 11 quoted above, God sends upon them this delusion! He has allowed them to be fooled into attributing the supernaturally given gifts from God of apostles and prophets to only having been necessary to the establishment of the early church and into believeing that they are no longer necessary today because they gave us the whole canon of Scripture.
However, God in His great love and His immense mercy, is faithful to also send them the offsetting testimony of people who have seen or experienced these supernaturally given gifts and powers just to show them that they are caught up in that falsehood. Unfortunately, most of these erroneous Christians, because they really do not love all of the truth, are not open to correction in this regard. So they disregard these testimonies and attribute their designations of these manifested gifts as being merely the deceitful works of the devil!

Ironically, in all Christian churches worldwide today, the supernaturally given gift of Bible teachers is universally accepted and believed in as an ongoing ministry for the church. So are the supernaturally given gifts of helps and administrations. Evangelical and main stream Christians today don't view and shy away from these 3 (not obviously supernatural) gifts, only the other 5 (obviously supernatural) gifts.
This explains why their churches universally have only teacher-pastors, administrators and helps ministries and why they lack the presence and powers of the 5 other extremely powerful, obviously supernaturally given gifts. If they didn't believe in and thus have these 3 lower level gifts, they wouldn't even be churches at all! But with faith in these 3 gifts, at least they manifest the power of God for salvation as being present in their fellowships and occassionally people walk forward at their meetings to repent of their sins and to recieve Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Romans 1:16 - For .... the gospel .... is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes

So in effect, other than the power of their salvation ministry, they are crippled and innefective in the rest of their potential ministry because of wrong doctrine and unbelief, in just the way that Satan delights in having them crippled!
Therefore, they operate within only these 3 lower level offices to engage in full spiritual warfare with Satan for the salvation of souls and for their own growth in the Lord. They try to do battle without their God ordained, spiritually powerful, apostolic and prophetic leaders and without the ministries of miracles, healings and tongues!
This means that they fight their spiritual battles at a huge disadvantage and they are therefore virtually powerless against the devil's tactics and strategies to keep them from achieving maturity (which is God's ultimate goal for each of them). Eventually, this crippling of their powers will even lead, one way or another, to the death of their entire assembly because so many of their congregation's needs will be unresolved.

Most of the Christians in the evangelical and main stream churches believe that the God appointed ministries of teaching and administrating are not supernaturally given at all and that they can be learned and performed naturally. That's why they rely upon schooling and not upon the anointing of the Holy Spirit for the accreditation of their teachers and administrators. They also view helps ministries as merely coming from each brother's or sister's inherent generosity.

Yet, if they would really analyze it, I Cor 12:28 implies that the 3 gifts of teachers, administrations and helps are actually just as supernaturally given by God as are the other 5 gifts! Pondering this matter a little deeper, they would also realize that people operating within these 3 gifts wouldn't be even able to do so without God's supernatural enabling power and without Christian's belief in the modern day validity of their ministries.

So these 3 gifts of teachers, administrations and helps go unheralded as being supernaturally ordained and empowered and, because of this kind of worldly thinking the other 5 obviously supernatural gifts from God of apostles, prophets, miracles, healings and tongues are totally shunned. If these deceived Christians believed that the 3 gifts that they do accept as being viable ministries for today were supernaturally given by God, then they'd have no excuse at all to not also accept the other 5 gifts as being viable for them today as well!

So, out of the pecking order of I Cor 12:28 they pluck the 3rd gift of teachers and the 6th and 7th gifts of helps and administrations as being all that are valid and acceptable in their churches today. And because they do believe in the validity these 3 gifts, they get them from God and they are blessed by them. And because they consider the rest of this verse's 5 listed gifts as being irrelevant for today, God doesn't send any of them and consequently, these Christians do without their accompanying powers, blessings and benefits.

I Cor 12:31 - ...earnestly desire the greater gifts (as listed in verse 28).

God offers and encourages Christians everywhere to desire these 5 (obviously supernatural) gifts as well as the other 3, and especially the first 2 gifts of apostles and prophets. But He will not send them without His Christians having the faith to reach out to receive them from Him as gifts that He will give them today.
James 4:2b - .... You do not have because you do not ask.


Belief in any of the gifts of I Cor 12:28 brings their manifestation.

Because charismatic Christians do believe in the validity for today of 3 more of the 8 supernaturally given gifts, those of miracles, tongues and healings, they get them and they are blessed by them. Furthermore, Apostolics and non-aligned Christians who believe for them get the same gifts of miracles, tongues and healings from God and also, because they believe in all of these gifts as being valid for today, they get the 2 gifts of prophets and apostles that the charismatics do not get.
The fact that both groups have the faith for, and then get and practice the obviously supernatural gifts in which they believe should prove to all Christians everywhere that all of the gifts in I Cor 12:28 are true and valid gifts from God for all of today's churches.

What do the Scriptures say about these gifts validity for today?

Should not all Christians believe that God put this list of gifts to the church into the particular pecking order that He did and then so stated it within I Corinthians 12:28, perhaps just to preclude the false arguments and consequent false doctrine that some harbor about their non-validity for today? I Corinthians 12:28 says that the gifts of miracles and healings come after the gift of teachers but before the gifts of helps and administrations. So how can evangelicals and main stream Christians who believe in teachers, be so presumptuous as to ignore this fact by leaving miracles and healings out of their mix?

And should not Christians believe what I Corinthians 1:2 says about the entire book of I Corinthians (obviously including I Corinthians 12:28) being written to ALL PEOPLE IN EVERY PLACE who call upon the name of the Lord? Does this verse just mean that I Corinthians is only for all people in every place -way back then - and not for all time? If it does, then why do those with charismatic or apostolic faith today experience the manifestation of these gifts today? Can they all be written off as being merely victims of devilish deception?
I Cor 12:31 - But earnestly desire the greater gifts.
If the correct interpretation of I Cor 1:2 is that this particular book is for all generations of Christians, then should not all Christians today earnestly desire to be given all of the gifts of I Corinthians 12:28 as they are exhorted to do in I Corinthians 12:31, especially the greater gifts of apostles and prophets?

Heb 13:8 - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
According to John 1:14, the Jesus Christ mentioned in the verse above is the Word of God made flesh. So the Word of God, which contains I Cor 1:2's pronouncement about that particular book being written to all Christians everywhere, is therefore the same yesterday, today and forever.

Do not the verses I Cor 1:2 and Heb 13:8 shown above apply to every Christian everywhere, not just to those involved in the past early church formation? Do these verses not include those Christians from then on thru now and into the future, a truth which would utterly decimate the false doctrine that these gifts were only for the early church? If these verses were only for the early church, what about the rest of the verses in I Corinthians? Were they only for the early church too? And what about the rest of the New Testament? Is it only for the early church too?
When a Christian starts down the path of unbelief in any part of God's Word as being valid in some way for them today, where do they draw the line and how are they to justfy that line? Especially how will they do it at the judgement? Will they not be those who suffer loss but who are referred to as being saved but as through fire?



The physical proof of these spirtual gifts being present in today's Christian world.

Go to visit any of the many, many, many Apostolic and charismatic fellowships and see for yourself what the incorporation of belief in these supernatural gifts brings forth. You'll see each of these supernaturally given gifts that each of these fellowships believe in, manifested in their meetings and amongst their leaders. They do not always follow all of I Corinthians 11 thru 14 in their meetings and they lose blessings and powers for those failures, but God still manifests these gifts of His among them.

Tune into any of the charismatic religious TV shows and watch the healings occurring on their programs and listen to the testimonies given there of all of the modern day miracles that occur for their viewers. All of these Bible believing, God praising charismatic fellowships and TV shows can't just be agents of the devil out to deceive you and lead you astray as so many evangelical and main stream Christians have been led to believe by their leaders.
These misguided leaders condemn sincere, true, apostolic and charismatic Christians as being those who are deceived by Satan, when in truth they are the ones who are being deceived as they continue to justify their own false doctrine of unbelief in so many of the words of I Cor 12:28! These evangelicals and mainstream Christians have been rooted in this unbelief for hundreds of years so it is now entrenched in traditionalism, which makes it even worse than a simple lack of faith.

Matthew 15:6b - ...you make the word of God of no effect because of your traditions.

Are there eternal consequences for embracing the false doctrine of unbelief in these gifts being valid for today!

I Corinthians 3:13b - 14 - The fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work (this includes a person's doctrines) which he has built upon (his belief in the Lord Jesus Christ) remains, he will receive a reward. (But) if any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss (my own parenthetical comments).

It takes a belief in all that the Word of God actually says about these supernatural gifts from God to reach a correct doctrine about them. Embracing and upholding any wrong doctrines about them will ultimately result in a Christian's shame before God and his or her loss of rewards. Do you want those consequences for yourself? I sure don't!

II Tim 2:15 - Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the Word of truth.

How do people appropriate these gifts for themselves?

Judges 6:13 - ...where are all of God's miracles which our fathers told us about?

For any of today's Christians to once again receive these blessed gifts which He has always been offering to them, it takes firm faith in the correct interpretation of the Word of God before they will be given to them.

Rom 10:17 - So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.

To get any supernatural gifts or powers from God, a person's faith must be strong in the correct interpretation of the Scriptures on the subject. Especially when considering the pressure against these things coming from the vast majority of misguided Christians who do not believe in them as being valid for today. Once Christians have firm faith for these gifts to manifest today, then God will empower them and their fellowships with them for full blown spiritual warfare. But this will only happen when Christians believe the truth of all of the words of I Cor 12:28.


My testimony about my own apostleship from the Lord.

Romans 15:18 - For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished thru me...

I know first hand about modern day apostleship because when I first felt called upon by Jesus into believing that I was being appointed as an apostle for today, I struggled to believe it. And since finding the truth about this gift's validity for today, I have been forced to battle long and hard against the evil pressures that Satan sends against this belief of mine. Satan delights in bringing forth this pressure thru the incorrect opinions of so many well-meaning but very satanically misguided Christian brethren and their leaders.

The Lord began to substantiate my apostolic call to me by sending me a huge sign (described in march 2008's entry 3). Right after that, every day for a week, He sent a couple of His beautiful sheep to join with me in a new home fellowship. Because of my Baptist background, I still struggled with the idea about being a modern day apostle because I was not sure if I was not being tempted into self-exaltation. But immediately we began to experience many signs and wonders in our meetings and in our personal lives that confirmed to all the validity of my apostolic appointment.

Acts 5:12 - At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people...

Here's one of the ways that God worked to confirm my apostolic ministry to others...

After the group had been established for a while, in spite of all the exciting things that were constantly occurring amongst us, the devil used a popular radio minister to deceive one of our more studious brothers. That minister's radio sermon taught that there was no such thing as a true modern day apostle because apostles were only sent by God to start up the early churches and to establish the New Testament Scriptures. Therefore, he concluded that they were no longer needed after that.
After hearing this preacher's message, this dear brother came to me. He told me that as a result of that radio minister's worldwide evangelical acclaim and his powerful teaching against the current day presence of the apostolic gift since all Christians everywhere now have the original apostles' New Testament writings and don't need them anymore, that he could no longer have faith in my apostleship over him or over the other brethren.

His unexpected denouncement of my ministry led me to quickly make a heart prayer to God for guidance. It came to mind to suggest to him that he should probably remove himself from under my authority since he obviously now viewed me as being a false apostle. He agreed with that statement and sadly, we parted company. Then I prayed for God to bless him wherever he went because perhaps he was right and I was not really an apostle at all or if I truly was, he was meant to not be with me!

A few days later the brother called me on the telephone and said that as a result of some extremely difficult events that began occurring just as soon as we parted, including almost getting killed, he had come to realize that he went out of grace in departing from Jesus ministry to him thru me as his apostle and he wanted to come back under my authority. Of course I was relieved and eagerly welcomed him back and we resumed our mutually beneficial ministry where we had left off. And right away good things began to occur in his life again and signs and wonders continued to occur.

Acts 2:43b - ...many wonders and signs were taking place thru the apostles.

Then he and I and other members of our home fellowship attributed these events as being further substantiating signs and wonders from God of my true apostolic ministry to him and to them. We also saw these events as confirmation of the false teaching on this subject by that otherwise fine Christian radio minister.

Conclusion

As was stated at the beginning of this blog entry, true apostles are not self-appointed and they need to be tested. If they are truly from God, He will testify to their authenticity with His peace about it and He will cause substantiating wonders and signs to take place thru, near and around that apostle. If the so-called apostle is not from God, the testing process will find him out.

Rev 2:2 - I know...that you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false..

So please do not just accept my claim and my testimony here of being an apostle from Jesus. Instead, pray to the Lord to substantiate that fact to you in a way that you can understand. Then you can rely upon Him to testify to you as to whether I have been appointed by Him as a teaching apostle to you here for your betterment. If I am truly being sent by Him to you (using this blog), then He will do what it takes to convince you of that. If I'm not, He won't and in such a case you should write a comment to me here about it and then depart from my influence.

I believe that God has moved events in my life to take me away from most of my previous apostolic work and that He has been preparing me to now work electronically on this blog, and on another networking website to minister almost exclusively to those of you whom He sends to these 2 sites. I believe that He is sending me (in spirit) and my messages (with the power of the Holy Spirit) thru the Internet via these 2 websites to awaken Christians everywhere to the viability of modern day apostleship and prophecy, and to open willing minds to now enter into faith in their reality.

I Cor 12:31 - But earnestly desire the greater gifts.

My job here, as I see it from God, is to begin by bringing you into faith in the truths of the words of the Bible about these great supernatural gifts of apostleship and prophecy. Then, once you grasp and believe them, I believe that I'm to take you on into teachings on many of the other gifts from God and about God's supernatural powers which are available to all believers today.

To prove to you that Jesus wants me to minister apostleship to you, I believe that He will send you His peace about it and accompanying signs and wonders to substantiate each of my teachings as being legitimately from Him and worthwhile to improve your lives.
Again however, let me caution you to not accept my self-proclamation here (or anyone else's for that matter) as being true without first praying to God and asking for Him to validate or repudiate it in a way that you can understand and then patiently waiting for His movement in that regard.

Rom 14:22a - the faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God...

Then, reach your own conclusions and convictions of faith before God about all of this and walk in them. The failure of people to study Scriptures for themselves and then to seek God in prayer asking for Him to validate to them the truth or falsehood of what they think to be some truth that they've just learned, and then to patiently wait for that validation, is what leads people astray. Without doing all of these things people can be misguided by the ravenous wolves in sheep's clothing of false ministers and then they fall into their phony religious activities and cult traps.

II Cor 13:7 - Now I pray to God that you may do no wrong; not that I myself may appear approved, but that you may do what is right, even though I may appear unapproved.

I may not be approved by God for ministry to every single person who reads this blog, so please seek out the Lord diligently (as just described) to determine whether or not I am to be an apostolic minister to you. Remember, because of the fact that we will be communicating only thru comments on this blog or e-mails, I will not know who you really are and you will not know who I really am. Therefore, even though we will be in communication with one another, because we do not meet in person, we will still remain anonymous to one another.

Therefore, the truth of who each of us really is will not become actually known to us until the Judgment of God when eventually we will meet. So, what goes on here has eternal implications which I take very seriously, as I hope that you will also.

Luke 12:48c - Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities! (The Message Bible)

I Cor 3:15 - If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss...

Thank you and may God richly bless you!