Kingdom Matters

The Children's Bread

2009-06-16T20:57:00.002-04:00

The Great Commission:
And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." (Mk. 16:15-18)

According to what Jesus said, if you are a believer, you should be casting out demons! That's what believers do: cast out demons. Notice also it was the very first thing He addressed in what has been called, "The Great Commission!" While it is indeed the Great Commission to all the church, regardless of denomination, affiliation, or creed, yet it is the most disobeyed command Jesus gave.

The number five in the Bible symbolizes grace or another connotation of the Greek word, charis, which is giftings. It is no accident or coincidence that The Great Commission consists of five tenets, all of which delineate supernatural acts that believers are called and commissioned to perform through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the auspices of the authority Jesus relegated to the Church prior to His ascension into Heaven. The fact that there are five tenets indicates that the believer has been empowered and commissioned by the Spirit to perform them by the grace and supernatural giftings of God.

Jesus gave The Great Commission to the Church to be obeyed, yet it is so ignored and disobeyed by churches that it has been called "The Great Omission." It was not given merely to the leaders of the Church, but to believers of the Church. Any believer who is not performing these tenets of The Great Commission is, at the very minimum, a disobedient believer. My personal interpretation is that anyone who is not performing these acts is not a believer at all, for Jesus said this is what believers do; operating in these giftings to perform these acts is what defines a believer. At the very least, believers who are not obeying The Great Commission are unbelieving believers, if there is such a thing. Faith without works is dead; these works of The Great Commission are the works of a believer. James said, no one is saved by their works, but believers demonstrate their faith by their works.

The so-called "eleventh commandment," or Jesus' commandment, is Love—to love one another, as He loved us. Jesus also said that if we love Him we will keep is commandments. Setting the captives free IS love! God so loved the world that He gave or sent His only begotten Son, who demonstrated the ultimate love by performing the ultimate sacrifice, laying down His life, in obedience to the only commandment God gave Him when He sent Him to earth to become our kinsmen redeemer. Had the Father not given Him that commandment that He could lay down His life, He could have never died for the sins of the world—the ultimate act of ultimate love.

But, during His earthly ministry, one of the first and certainly foremost acts Jesus performed that demonstrated not only His compassion (love), but also His authority, which is rooted in love. Someone has calculated that two-thirds of Jesus' fleshly ministry as recorded in the Gospels consisted of casting out demons.

John revealed that the primary purpose of the manifestation of the first-born Son of God on earth was "that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 Jn. 3:8). Indeed, every time Jesus cast out a devil or multiple devils, or healed someone, or raised the dead, He was destroying the works of the devil, for ultimately it is the devil's works that is behind all diseases, disorders, and conditions contrary to homeostasis—psychological and physiological.

Peter, speaking by the Spirit concerning "the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting in Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed" (repentance):

"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good, and HEALING all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him." (Ac. 10:38)

Notice that in every case where healing took place through the ministry of Jesus, it was the devil who was causing the oppression, which stands to reason in so many ways. In healing those who were oppressed by the devil, Jesus was "doing good" and "undoing" or destroying the works of the devil. In essence, He was doing what He was sent to do—"reverse the curse" that the injection of sin into the mainstream of mankind had produced! When we as believers go forth following the model of Jesus' ministry and doing the works that He did and even greater works, we too are "doing good" for God is also with us! If you want to do good as Jesus did, you also need to start casting out and doing spiritual warfare against demons and thereby reverse the curse sin has brought upon mankind. Through the Cross of Christ and His shed innocent blood, we now have that right, authority, and power over all the works of the devil!

Then, when He called and commissioned the original apostles, He sent them out two by two—BEFORE the cross (salvation) and BEFORE the outpouring of the Spirit in the form of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit (power)—and empowered them with a two-fold commandment: to CAST OUT DEMONS and to HEAL THE SICK. The fact that these disciples were empowered to both cast out demons and heal the sick BEFORE they were even saved and BEFORE they were baptized in the Holy Spirit is a fact that will really mess up your preconceived doctrines and dogmas! It also demonstrates the efficacy of Jesus' authority on earth, for it was solely on the basis of Jesus' authority that the disciples were able to indeed do what Jesus sent them forth to do—heal the sick and cast out demons. That being so, how much more authority do believers AFTER the Cross and Pentecost have authority over the same forces. Yet, the vast majority of believers on the planet have no idea that this authority is available to them and therefore are not operating in it to do their part in "destroying the works of the devil."

In the incident involving the Syrophoenician or Canaanite woman who came to Jesus imploring Him to cast the demon out of her daughter (Mat. 15:22-28), Jesus said deliverance is "the children's bread," meaning the children of the Kingdom. Jesus is the ultimate deliverer. Thus, to deny, refuse, or reject the matter of deliverance as well as deliverance itself is to deny, refuse, and reject Jesus Himself as well as the provision He has provided to do warfare against the forces and effects of the devil on earth. That may sound radical, but it is nonetheless the irrefutable facts.

In Biblical parlance, "bread" is a symbol of required sustenance. The term "bread" is a metonymn symbolizing more than cooked dough, but it symbolizes the larger issue of "food." Food is not optional for human sustenance, but a requirement. God has designed the human body to require the intake of food in order to survive and thrive. For this reason, we can know with certainty that eating disorders are at bottom, demonic, the goal of which is one of the tri-fold purposes of Satan, to kill. Modern fixations with a myriad of new-fangled diets is a form of eating disorder.

But, much worse, the Body of Christ as a whole has a spiritual eating disorder—"spiritual anorexia"—because it refuses to eat and is repulsed by the spiritual bread—deliverance—Jesus has provided, not only for our own needs but also the needs of multitudes around us! Deliverance is the Children's Bread!

Now this matter gets very interesting, for which reason I cannot resist the temptation to follow briefly an obscure but pertinent tangent here. The Apostle Paul by inspiration of the Spirit, incredibly, predicted that one of the prevalent issues that would be extant during the last days apostasy would be an advocating of "abstaining from foods, which GOD HAS CREATED to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the Truth," and that these vain philosophies would be promulgated by apostate people who are influenced by "deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron." In other words, this seemingly endless range of diets and health-food crazes that has become a cottage industry are not inspired by God at all, but rather are demonically inspired, and according to this passage are by definition a form of eating disorder, in that they contravene God's design regarding gratefully partaking of the vast array of "foods" God placed on this planet for man's provision and sustenance.

This matter alone is an area in which a multitude of people, professing believers and non, are in great need of deliverance. In my 34 years of deliverance ministry there have been hundreds who have been set free from their chains of bondage to eating disorders and the "doctrines of demons" related to an obsession with "abstaining from foods," or diets that are actually demonic in origin. Diet demons, many will find incredible, are actually of the category of religious spirits. That's the reason that so many false religions or subcultures of false religions have special diets associated with them. The root of religious spirits is self-righteousness, which explains why invariably those who are obsessed with "health diets" display such an overt pride about their diet and attempt to evangelize everyone they come into contact with to get on the diet they're on and to read the books they've read extolling the excellency of the fad diet they are on. I don't know when believers are going to understand that it really is the Truth that the human body, as the Bible says, is "fearfully and wonderfully made!" It's made to work! And it will work, if we don't abuse it and do things that counteract the way it was designed to work.

In the model prayer He gave the disciples in response to their request for Him to teach them how to pray (commonly known as "The Lord's Prayer"), Jesus taught all disciples in all times to pray daily requesting the Father provide "our daily bread," which means far more than just the physical sustenance we need for each day, but also the spiritual bread, or food or provision, we need to sustain us that day.

Jesus also told us we cannot live on physical bread alone, but that we also need the sustenance of spiritual bread, which is every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, in order to be able to live the life of the Kingdom.

In all of this, God is speaking to believers concerning the requisite for deliverance. That's right—requisite! Deliverance is not an option, but a requisite—for ALL believers! There are two kinds of people in this world: those who need deliverance, and those who are lying and too proud to admit their need!

Jesus declared He was the true "manna from heaven," or "the bread of life," which the Father gave out of Heaven to give life to the world (Jn. 6:24-35). Jesus referred to Himself as the spiritual bread or sustenance during "the last supper" when He passed around unleavened bread which He had broken and told the disciples, "Take, eat, this is My body which is given for you" (comp., Mat. 26:26-29; Lk. 22:19), meaning that that this loaf of bread respresented His body which would be broken and crushed (symbolized by chewing with teeth) for you, which, of course, by extension, meant all disciples of all times.

If you are a Child of God, Jesus said, Deliverance is for YOU! He said deliverance is the "Children's Bread!"

I strongly urge you to listen to this short message, Deliverance—The Children's Bread:

For more information about deliverance, I recommend you download the simple and easy-to-read ebook, Deliverance From Demonic Powers at: DeliveranceNow.Com

If you or someone you know needs deliverance, check out DeliveranceNow.Com.

The Purview of Apostolic Authority

2009-04-27T19:17:00.006-04:00

Not long ago, I received an email from a subscriber who was asking me for answers to some questions he had concerning some troubling issues related to the nascent apostolic renewal. It was not until I was finishing the last paragraph of my response that I heard the Spirit tell me to post my answer to the SLM website, because it would also help others who have had similar thoughts and questions. Just bear in mind as you read my response, that this is not intended to be a theological treatise or comprehensive exposition on the matter of the apostolic or even this aspect of it, but rather I offer it to you as just one tiny little patch of the quilt the Spirit is weaving on the matter at this time in the Church..."line upon line, precept upon precept, a little here, a little there."

Question:

I hear a lot concerning "apostolic authority." What does apostolic authority mean? I have known apostles who march into churches and tell the pastor he has to submit to them because of apostolic authority or they will ask the pastor, who is your apostle? Does the apostle have authority over the pastor in the local church? Help!!

Reply:

I will try to give you a relatively succinct answer to a rather complex matter, without fleshing it out much. I will answer the first question in what follows. The last question, which is the essence of what you are asking, I will answer directly first: No, an apostle does not have authority over the leadership of local churches of which he is not a part and is not esteemed as the "set man" of that assembly merely by virtue of some perceived "authority" inherent in the title of "Apostle." Indeed, a true God-anointed, God-appointed, Spirit-trained apostle would never even THINK of such a thing.

Unfortunately, the kind of attitudes you describe represent what "Apostolic Authority" means to many misinformed and misguided people. A major problem in dealing with the matter of local church government, on the backdrop of the renewed awareness concerning Fivefold Ministry and the restoration of the Apostolic and Prophetic offices, in particular, is that while they are related, they are not the same, and the terminology we have been using regarding ministry offices or positions in the church has been contrary to Scripture.

Namely, in the last hundred years or so, predominantly, the Church has been using the term "Pastor" to refer to the chief or top leader in the local church, despite the fact that government, i.e., "ruling," is not included in the office of the pastor, per se, as delineated in Scripture. The Bible is clear that "elders...rule" (1 Tim. 5:17, et al.). The local church is to be governed by a presbytery of elders (plural). However, here again most local churches have had that wrong as well, as to who elders are, especially denominational churches. According to the preponderance of Scripture, the eldership of a local church should be comprised of those who God has appointed to Fivefold Ministry Offices (Eph. 4:11), which appointment is attested by the anointing (spiritual gifting) inherent in those offices. And, among the Fivefold Ministry Office, those functioning in the apostolic, prophetic, and teaching should be regarded as preeminent in the government of the church (1 Cor. 12:28).

This picture becomes clear when the entire mosaic of Scripture is put together rightly ("rightly dividing the Word of Truth" [2 Tim. 2:15]), which is too complex and expansive of a matter for us to deal with here, but I will offer the following. Jesus chose Twelve of His disciples, and appointed (named) them "Apostles" (Mat. 10:1-5). These Apostles of the Lamb were His chief delegates, surrogates, or representatives in the Early Church following Jesus' ascension. This set the precedent of Apostolic Appointment.

Additionally, 1 Cor. 12:28 clearly states the order of preeminence of ministerial authority and government in the local church: "And God as set in the CHURCH, FIRST Apostles, SECOND Prophets, THIRD teachers...." Notice that the pastoral office is not mentioned in this verse, per se. In fact the word "pastor" (poimen) only occurs once in the entire N.T., which is in Ephesians 4:11. So, using Scripture as the sole precedent and paradigm (and this order is clearly further corroborated throughout the N.T.), the office of apostle is unequivocally the preeminent ministry office, functionally speaking, with prophets and teachers respectively following next in succession. The Greek word in this verse translated "first" is the word "proton," which connotes, first in time, first in order, first in rank, first in function, first in priority. (Now, while I fully realize that such teaching is controversial to those unfamiliar with it, exegetical development of these concepts is simply beyond the parameters of this article. Though, they are developed in several of my books and will be addressed further in forthcoming books.)

Now, the problem is, since the church fell into apostasy in the third and fourth centuries, it has not been recognizing these offices, and erroneous cessation theories purporting that the apostolic and prophetic offices ceased with the death of the Apostles of the Lamb have been prevalent, especially in mainline denominational doctrine. And then, somewhere along the line, primarily, as I said, within the last hundred years or so, local churches began calling the chief minister "the pastor," even though that office, according to Scripture, does not entail government, per se.

But, the Scriptural pattern is that there is a "set man" (Num. 27:15-23) whom God recognizes and has appointed as the chief leader or elder in a local church. Functionally, this person is actually a "local apostle," according to the Scriptural pattern, and should possess and demonstrate the giftings or anointing of an apostle, which are the entire range of the Fivefold Ministry offices. This man is esteemed by the other elders as a "chief among equals," as was Peter among the Twelve, as was James in the Jerusalem Church and as the presiding elder at the Jerusalem Council (Ac. 15), as was John over the churches of Asia Minor in the latter part of his ministry, and as was Paul over the churches he founded, or to whom he became the spiritual father, for example.

However, "Apostolic Authority" is intrinsically parochial; that is to say, limited, to the particular local church(es) where God has established the apostle relationally—usually churches which they have had a part in founding, or existing churches that voluntarily have placed themselves under the leadership of an apostle who has become a "spiritual father" to those people and its leadership. Thus, "Apostolic Authority" is decidedly not some sort of automatic universal authority inuring to an apostle by virtue of the title of apostle. Morever, legitimate "Apostolic Authority" is never organizational, but rather is always relational. And it is vital to remember that all relationships among Fivefold Ministers are horizontal, not vertical. All Fivefold Ministers are peers with different functions, giftings, anointings, and callings. None is more important than another, or superior or inferior to another.

The church is the family extended and the family is the church in miniscule; thus, the principles of governance are the same for both (cf, Eph. 5:22-33). The family has ONE head — the husband/father (male). While a man is the husband/father of his OWN HOUSEHOLD, his authority is limited to that one household; his title/office of husband/father does not mean that he is the husband/father of any other household, and indeed he would be a trespasser and unlawful intruder if he tried to assert his husband/father authority over any other household. In fact, God's Word expressly addressed that scenario through the writings of the Apostle Paul, dealing with the unlawful actions of deceived deceivers who were attempting to do that very thing in the Early Church:

For among them are those who worm their way into homes {households, NAS} and captivate silly and weak-natured and spiritually-dwarfed women, loaded down with [the burden of their] sins, [and easily] swayed and led away by various evil desires and seductive impulses. (2 Tim. 3:6; AB)

So, in the circumstance today in the local churches, regardless of what term is used to refer to him, the local church has a "set man" who presides as the chief leader, rightly so, because he has been so anointed and "set in" to that place of authority by God. Government and leadership of the local church is not a matter of titles, ascendancy, and authority, but of function, servitude, and esteem.When multiple Fivefold ministers are laboring together to provide pilotage (leadership) to a local church, the proper Spirit-inspired attitude should be to regard one another as co-equals ministerially and functionally, though there is one among them who is esteemed as being the "leader of the leaders," a la James in Jerusalem. Their goal as leaders should be to ascertain the "consensus of the Spirit"; in other words, to reach unanimity based on what the Spirit is speaking to them individually yet collectively. "It seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit...." "WE have the mind of Christ." Christ reveals His full "mind," counsel, to a plurality of elders, not a solitary leader. The notion that God speaks the entire vision and direction for a church to a single "vision-holder" is nonsense, unbiblical, and the height of hubris. I wouldn't follow someone across the street who said he had no need for the counsel and consensus of other leaders. Apostleship is anything but autocracy.

Governmental AUTHORITY is limited to the role of leadership of the local church, and is not personal authority (i.e., authority over people), but authority to provide spiritual impartation as well as "pilotage" to the church and its affairs. Beyond the local church, there is no "authority" among ministers — Jesus told the apostles they were "all on the same level as brothers" (Mat. 23:8, LB), meaning they were co-equals. Thus, there is no ascending authority structure, or rank system, or "chain-of-command" among Fivefold Ministers, that is to say, no one of the ministry offices has authority or ascendancy over another, as purported by the erroneous concept of "positional authority.") In other words, the premise is not that apostles are over prophets, prophets over evangelists, and so on, as if there were "rank" inherent in the the Fivefold Ministry Offices. That's just not the way it works.

Though, clearly, as mentioned earlier, there is a preeminence among the Fivefold Ministry Gifts in terms of FUNCTION and ROLE — its governmental role, in particular. Governmentally and functionally speaking, the apostolic function is first, or preeminent, followed by the prophetic, and then the teaching function (1 Cor. 12:28). Among those functioning in the Fivefold Ministry offices, there is to be no envy, competition, or jockeying for position, but a faithful and willing subjection to the Scripturally-revealed Kingdom order. The commanders of God’s Army understand authority, march in line, do not deviate from their assigned lanes of function, and do not break ranks (Joel 2:7,8).

Nevertheless, there is, however, a deference, among Fivefold Ministers that is based entirely on earned ESTEEM, not any perceived or ostensible "authority." Such esteem and deference toward proven and attested senior ministers, wherein believers, including ministers, esteem highly certain other ministers for the spiritual giftings, wisdom, leadership acumen, they demonstrate, is proper, appropriate, and Scriptural:

"But we request of you brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction (lit., admonition, warning, correction) and that you ESTEEM THEM HIGHLY IN LOVE because of their work."

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The Vision of Obadiah

2009-03-26T09:04:00.000-04:00

Obadiah 1-21
1 The vision of Obadiah.
Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom—
We have heard a report from the Lord,
And an envoy has been sent among the nations saying,
“Arise and let us go against her for battle”—
2 “Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
You are greatly despised.
3 “The arrogance of your heart has deceived you,
You who live in the clefts of the rock,
In the loftiness of your dwelling place,
Who say in your heart,
‘Who will bring me down to earth?’
4 “Though you build high like the eagle,
Though you set your nest among the stars,
From there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord.
5 “If thieves came to you,
If robbers by night—
O how you will be ruined!—
Would they not steal only until they had enough?
If grape gatherers came to you,
Would they not leave some gleanings?
6 “O how Esau will be ransacked,
And his hidden treasures searched out!
7 “All the men allied with you
Will send you forth to the border,
And the men at peace with you
Will deceive you and overpower you.
They who eat your bread
Will set an ambush for you.
(There is no understanding in him.)
8 “Will I not on that day,” declares the Lord,
“Destroy wise men from Edom
And understanding from the mountain of Esau?
9 “Then your mighty men will be dismayed, O Teman,
So that everyone may be cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter.
10 “Because of violence to your brother Jacob,
You will be covered with shame,
And you will be cut off forever.
11 “On the day that you stood aloof,
On the day that strangers carried off his wealth,
And foreigners entered his gate
And cast lots for Jerusalem—
You too were as one of them.
12 “Do not gloat over your brother’s day,
The day of his misfortune.
And do not rejoice over the sons of Judah
In the day of their destruction;
Yes, do not boast
In the day of their distress.
13 “Do not enter the gate of My people
In the day of their disaster.
Yes, you, do not gloat over their calamity
In the day of their disaster.
And do not loot their wealth
In the day of their disaster.
14 “Do not stand at the fork of the road
To cut down their fugitives;
And do not imprison their survivors
In the day of their distress.
15 “For the day of the Lord draws near on all the nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you.
Your dealings will return on your own head.
16 “Because just as you drank on My holy mountain,
All the nations will drink continually.
They will drink and swallow
And become as if they had never existed.
17 “But on Mount Zion there will be those who escape,
And it will be holy.
And the house of Jacob will possess their possessions.
18 “Then the house of Jacob will be a fire
And the house of Joseph a flame;
But the house of Esau will be as stubble.
And they will set them on fire and consume them,
So that there will be no survivor of the house of Esau,”
For the Lord has spoken.
19 Then those of the Negev will possess the mountain of Esau,
And those of the Shephelah the Philistine plain;
Also, possess the territory of Ephraim and the territory of Samaria,
And Benjamin will possess Gilead.
20 And the exiles of this host of the sons of Israel,
Who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath,
And the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
Will possess the cities of the Negev.
21 The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion
To judge the mountain of Esau,
And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.

The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, (La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation) 1996.