Launch Your Ministry Chapter 10 of 27
<-Chapter 9 Chapter 11-> Return to FulltextThe Ministry Offices
Condensed Version (Completed)
The head of the dove is a picture of the highest level or ultimate leadership where ministry is concerned. And the two eyes of the dove speak of two highest leadership levels in the realm of ministry.
Now the word 'ministry' changes to 'office', which is a permanent appointment to a position of authority.
You can progress through various different levels of ministry until you come to a place where you know you have reached your calling.
But when God places someone in a ministry office, it means that the Father Himself has set a specific leadership authority in place in the Church.
Bear in mind that the Fivefold Ministry was given by Jesus. These are not ministry offices, but leadership positions in ministry. And though they are appointed, they are not put into place quite the same way as the ultimate ministry offices.
There are only three of these ministry offices, and the first two are represented by the two eyes of the dove. These two give the Church, the ministry and the entire Body of Christ, the direction that God wants it to go in.
The third ministry office is represented by the feet of the dove. This is the part on which the dove is grounded and stands, and which is needed to launch the dove into the air.
Three Special Fivefold Members
Only three members of the Fivefold Ministry are ultimately seen in Scripture to be treated as a higher level office. The first one is the Apostolic Office, the second is the Prophetic Office and the third is the Teaching Office.
The Apostolic Office is the highest office of all. It is the main leadership office in the Body of Christ. But the New Testament also often mentions the Prophet alongside the Apostle.
The Church is said to be built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, because they are the leadership offices. Another term is also included and you often see the Apostles and Elders mentioned in the New Testament.
Those who were known as elders were often either Prophets or Teachers.
The role of the prophet is to set the Church in order. The prophet puts everyone in their place and makes sure that everything is functioning correctly.
The prophet also prepares the way ahead by using prophetic decree. He or she speaks God's Word into the earth and creates things that did not exist before.
If you use the allegory of the building of a new road, the prophet would be the one who takes the bulldozers, cuts down all the growth in the way, and takes out all the stones to lay the groundwork.
They are the ones who go ahead to prepare the way for the Body of Christ. This is a higher level office and requires a special training as we will see when we look at the subject of training.
The Teaching Office then lays a foundation and puts everything in place. This office is the one that trains up the Fivefold Ministry.
It involves far more than just teaching and imparting knowledge. The Teacher is one who produces disciples, much like the Master / Disciple pattern that is often seen in eastern cultures.
The Apostle stands at the top, as the one who produces the blueprints and oversees the work to completion, as a Master Builder.
Higher Level Leadership
We will see later on that the Apostolic Office also branches into many different divisions and is the ultimate leadership in the church.
We will not be considering that in this series on Ministry Made Easy, but we will be looking at each of the Fivefold Ministry, which includes the Prophet and the Apostle but not at an office level.
We will look at them at a ministry level, and you will be able to find the place that God is leading you to and hopefully identify your calling.
Functions of Apostles in Office
The apostles in office lay out the pattern for the churches and appoint leadership in the Body of Christ. They also train the Fivefold Ministry.
Not everyone will get up to an office level, because they are unique positions that God has predetermined.
So here then are all the possibilities that are available to you in ministry. You can start from simple basic ministry, operating in the Gifts of the Spirit, and learning to use the internal anointing of the Fruit of the Spirit.
Then you can move up into the Fivefold Ministries. These are the ultimate leadership positions, except for the very highest level which God has reserved for Himself. There is where the Father Himself gets involved.
A Relationship with the Father
Nobody can move into those offices without coming into a personal relationship with God the Father Himself. You can move up as high as the Fivefold Leadership Ministries, working mainly with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Many people have been in the Fivefold Ministry all their lives. But they have never yet come into the Throne Room and had a personal face-to-face confrontation with the Father Himself. That is something God has uniquely reserved for those that He has called to higher office.
So where has God called you to be? You probably won't know until you get there. But how do you start? You start by being trained for the work of the ministry.
You cannot say that the day you were born again and accepted Jesus as your Savior, the Holy Spirit came in and you got all the gifts and the fruit.
A lot of people seem to think that all they need to do is pray for hours a day and read the Bible. They think that they can then go off and God will raise them up to become one of the leaders in the Body of Christ.
No, you may be able to develop your own spiritual life that way. But when it comes to working with other people, you will have to learn a lot more than your own personal experience.
Teachers and Trainers
That is why at the highest office level, God raises up trainers who can train the lower level ministries. They are absolutely necessary.
After Jesus had called His disciples, He spent three years teaching and training them. Only after that time did He breathe into them and say,
"Receive the Holy Spirit."
Then it was only on the Day of Pentecost that they received the External Anointing and the Gifts of the Spirit before going out. But they had a three year ministry training before they went off.
The Fallacies of Education
Today we love to have everything instant. Some think that because they have the highest level of education, they can now go and take their place as a big leader.
They go to university and get their professional degrees. Then they come back highly qualified, only to find out that while they were studying, other people were doing the work.
Sometimes such a person has to go through a practical training and learn from the lower level employees how the work is actually done.
Which is the easiest way to do this? Is it to go to university and get a degree, then return and humble yourself to learn the job starting from the lower levels and working up?
Who do you suppose becomes a more effective leader? Is it the one who followed this route, or the person who started out at the lowest level, perhaps just sweeping the floors?
That person works their way up through the ranks and learns how to do the job before adding knowledge to practical experience. They build up to a position of leadership, and then they can identify with each employee in the company at all levels.
The Opposite Extreme
We also get those on the other side of the road. They think that they simply need to get saved, filled with the Spirit and get out there and do the work.
They say that the Lord will lead them and teach them. As they go out, He will show them how to do the work of the ministry. If anyone gets hurt along the way it cannot be avoided. It is part of the learning process.
The church is a mess because of people like that who have not taken the time to get properly grounded in what they need.
I would like to introduce what I believe should be the pattern of training for the End Times Church.
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