Did you know that in addition to the supernatural gifts of the Spirit that we have been talking about in passages like Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 lately, we also read about people whom God himself has chosen and supernaturally equipped to be “gifts of the Spirit” in their person 24/7!
The most important passage in the Word that deals with these people and their task within the Ecclesia is Ephesians 4:11 to 16. Let me quote it for you here:
“And these are the “gifts” that He “gave”: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. His purpose in doing so was to equip the believers for their service and for the building up of the body of Christ. So, we will all finally come to the true unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God. Then we, His church, will be like a full-grown man, as perfect and mature as Christ. Then we will no longer be children; we will no longer be like waves tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of false teaching as false teachers want to lead us astray by their cunning and cunning. No, we will remain in the truth in love and so grow up in every way into Christ, who is the head, and from him the whole body grows. The different parts of the body fit together and form a unity. Each one of them fulfils its function, and so the body builds itself up in love.”
The term we use in the Body of Jesus to describe this group of people is usually the “fivefold ministry,” right? Before I start talking about this “fivefold ministry,” let’s just try to paint the bigger picture for each other.
Jesus Christ, the Baptizer with the Spirit’s heart and intention (according to Acts 2:37-39; Acts 8; Acts 19; Rom. 12; and 1 Cor. 12) is to supernaturally equip each of His believing followers with the gifts of the Spirit that they did not have before, so that He can use them to minister to others around them.
If you remember, this is also the reason why the “normal spiritual birth process” of every believer at their conversion, according to God’s Word, consists of four processes that should normally take place on Day 1 of that new convert’s life.
The four parts that are part of this spiritual birth are: First, that such a person must realize that he or she is sinful, lost, and on the way to hell. Second, therefore, this person takes hold of Jesus in faith as Savior and Lord and chooses to believe that He bore the full punishment for their sin and washed it away by His blood. Third, as at the birth of a newborn baby, the other believers around that person (according to Rom. 10:9) hear this new convert confess with his or her mouth that they believe. Therefore, these believers immediately take this new convert to the water of baptism on that same day, if possible, and baptize them in water (Rom. 6:1-11). Then, fourthly, there in the water, they lay hands on the new convert (look again at Acts 8 and 19) and pray that Jesus as the Baptizer with the Spirit, will baptize this person with His Spirit to supernaturally equip them with the gifts of the Spirit so that He can use them to minister to others with those gifts.
With this in mind, Eph. 4 then comes and says that Jesus as the Head of His Body or the Ecclesia, Himself selects certain of these already equipped believers and further supernaturally equips them to be able in their person, 24/7, full-time to serve the believers in the Ecclesia and equip them for their ministry in service to the King.
Some of this group of people (whom we then call “the fivefold ministry”) are supernaturally equipped to be “apostles” in the larger Ekklesia. We can also call them the pioneers, initiators, and visionaries in the Ekklesia. They are also usually the people who initiate and establish Kingdom work everywhere in new places.
Then others are called “prophets”. Just to clarify: Even though prophecy is the gift, according to 1 Cor. 14, in which the Lord wants to use every believer, this group of people is supernaturally equipped and anointed by Jesus himself to be used by the Lord full-time, 24/7, in the gift of prophecy.
Then there is also a third group called “shepherds”, who serve and care for the other believers full-time with their special pastoral heart.
Then there are “teachers” who have a supernatural gift to serve the other believers with the truth and teaching of the Word.
Finally, there is a group called “evangelists” who operate full-time in this gift. They are people who can be recognized by their heart and passion for lost people and the desire that no one will be lost. Therefore, Jesus, as the Head of the Ecclesia, uses them full-time to be busy with this outside the walls of the Ecclesia, but also to ensure that believers in the congregations will be equipped so that every person on earth will hear the Good News of the Gospel at least once.
I believe from what I see happening in the Early Christian congregations as described to us in Acts and the rest of the New Testament, that every congregation's doors and windows must be open so that this fivefold ministry can move freely in and out of and between all the congregations in the Body of Jesus to do their work that Jesus as the Head of the Body has given them.
That is why I describe them as the "circulatory system" of the Body! Where they are not allowed to come and go normally, those parts of the Body slowly but surely die, and God's people there do not grow as the Lord intended.
I will talk more about this next time.