This was first posted February 13, 2013
CONTINUED PROLOGUE for CHURCH OF EPHESUS APOSTOLIC CROSS BODY LEADER DOCTRINE
(C) 2013 Taveau D’Arcy All copyrights reserved
ORGANIC 12 APOSTLES REPRISE
“The Lord does nothing without first revealing it to His servants the prophets.” Amos 3:17
“Submit yourselves to one another in the fear of the Lord.” Ephesians 5:21
“My people perish due to lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6
THE ORGANIC 12 NT APOSTLES: REPRISE* *
**But Paul the Apostle will be discussed in next blog
1. REVIEW AND ADDITION RE THE ORIGINAL ORGANIC 12
In PART ONE of the PROLOGUE, we examined how the First Organic Chief Early Pioneering Apostles’ deep personal integrity,bravery, unity, and pure ministry fruit was born out of their First Love ,ongoing real communion with the Lord and much time spent in prayer and fasting.
The organic first leaders of the Christian church walked daily with the Lord in the midst of a deeply diverse pluralistic, very multicultural pre Christian society. The Bible as we know it had not yet been written. And they had not seminaries, Bible colleges, Bible teaching CDs, DVDS, TV or media.
Yet, because each of the first Apostles experienced much personal time with the Savior and then later, after His death and resurrection, had direct encounters with God’s wholly Holy Spirit dunamis(spiritual dynamite) supernatural power, surely each one of the 5 fold office pioneering chief apostles lived ever conscious of the awesome holy fear of the Lord.
The first Apostles kept a realistic Eternal Perspective of what really mattered: Life after Death. Their recent encounter with the Jesus Christ, His miracles, suffering but then resurrection, in addition to the power released to them in the Book of Acts, kept accepting them supremely Focused on whatever would bring lost people to the foot of the cross.
They healed, preached, traveled and held many open meetings and often put their lives on the line. The chief apostles made winning the lost to the Lord the main focus of their ministry. Of course, many times that had to train and resolve family, other problems, but for the most part, the Organic Apostles never focused primarily on “building their own ministry.”
Rather, they prayed, were directed by the Spirit and went out and about, into the proverbial highways and hedges. And in the Bible says, God sent them out without taking money or provision,
”And (Jesus) commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse:” Mark 6:7
And as the First Chief Apostles, followed by the 70, and then by many more, followed the direction of the Spirit of God they set forth into the nonChristian demon filled, resistant local society,repeatedly encountering suspicion, at times government hostility and growing persecution.
And not only did resistance come from the many occult, false religions, but very much came directly toward them related to the cruel enslaving secular Roman government, and the ever spying, attempting to undermine, Jewish Phariseeical Legalism big system.
Yet the Organic Original many apostles, first true Church 5 fold offices had a fire deep inside of their yielded hearts that refused to be dimmed, or bow down, to the secular money making System, the many seductive false religions or the need to place man above the call of God by catering to any religious ministry legalistic leader System.
Thus by laying aside their own flesh, their many human self pleasing/even ministry temptations, and while trying to plant an Organic Group of Believers, many of whom had just recently come out from being pagan, even deep into the occult, the fire in the hearts of the Organic Pioneering Leaders kept the vision of the Risen Lord, “With fire in His eyes” inside each of their hearts, so they choose the Eternal lasting ministry things over the present finite world.
And, these Organic Apostles, whom the Bible describes as, “the world was not worthy of them” modeled as a basic apostolic ministry group, the awesome holy fear of the Lord, much deep personal and ministry integrity, and a keen , accurate wise perceptivity, in the gifts of the Spirit, which kept them mature and spiritually accurate in discernment and ferreting out fleshly, spiritual, worldly or spiritual doctrine”mixture.”
Perhaps it’s because the Organic 11 (minus the betrayer, Judas) spent so very much time apart from “table waiting” to repeatedly inquire of the Lord, coupled with many set apart times of fasting with deep prayer, that they cultivated a deeper more discerning reverential spirit, which later helped to preserve the original Message: the Gospel, “The Good News” as it continued to spread and was also passed around in oral but later in written traditions.
2. PIONEERING LEADER LASTING FRUIT
From the advantage of hindsight, we may now observe the lasting ministry fruit of Jesus First Called Leadership: the vast numbers of lost humans who were by them to the Lord ,the many amazing miracles,many mighty resurrections and healings, deliverance from demon bondage, even death; Later, the many missionary travels, appearances before titled governmental office heads.
Each of their true devotion, enormous heart courage, and hard work now serve to given inspiration to each of us in modern ministry. But as we choose to put them up on our pedestal of Being Well Known and Bible Famous Chief Apostles, while in truth, that might be truthfully done, yet it was NOT their being mentioned in God’s Holy Bible that deserves each of our attention: it was that each of them, except for the Betrayer, Judas, made the personal direct decision to KEEP their relationship with Jesus Christ, the Lamp Stand First Real Love.
In determining how God’s Holy Spirit directed each organic senior apostle, is apparent that the 11 apostles, whom Christ first commissioned, could discern both His inward witness (“the still small voice”).
And due to the book of Acts recent experiences, in addition to God’s free supernatural wisdom, ministry anointing, God’s revelatory spiritual gifts, and all of the Isaiah 11:2 Seven Spirits of God, which include the spirits of counsel and might.
But perhaps the best comparison of this tiny handful of spiritual pioneers may be found in the book of Daniels 11:32:
“they knew their God and were mighty and did exploits.”
3. CHIEF APOSTOLIC STRENGTH MADE PERFECT IN MORTAL WEAKNESS
If we are diligent to Bible study the root character of each one of the Organic Hand Picked 12, we can find traits that remove them from the historical pedestal’s upon which many have placed them, to dig deeply to see what Jesus Christ had to contend with as He mentored, imparted and trained apostolically equipped and led them.
And while we have applauded and demonstrated our deep respect and humble gratitude for the Lamp Stand as well as Life Style of the First Organic 11 Chief Apostles, in view of relating 5 Fold Modern Day Apostolic (TD Leadership Ministries use of doing the work of the apostle: Hopefully Uncompromising God Sent Messengering,Work Birthing, aka Spiritual Trail Blazing, Spiritual Work Pioneering,),
first point to God’s great grace and favor given freely to each one of them and the supernatural, equally free, transforming, preserving, even unmerited apostolic staying power of the Chief 11, even in a “realistic every apostle is only a human” direct, being honest, writer’s approach.
(LATER: We plan to compare the apostle who arrived later on the pioneering ministry leadership scene (Apostle Paul) with the personalities of the Organic 12..so please keep checking the blog daily.)
In the first part of the PROLOGUE, the writer examined some of the various personality traits described in the Bible, as exhibited by at least a few of The Organic 12. There we observed that some of them exhibited weakness, which is generally not how we modern Church 5 fold offices like to think of them.
Yet, by taking ownership of their being real humans, much like we ourselves, yet, being placed at that particular Time and Space in history, for The Messiah, Jesus, to find them, to hand pick them and to personally call them into pioneering senior leadership, is a totally amazing concept.
Thus by understanding that it was due to God’s sheer GRACE GIVEN that each one was able to rise up to the High Standard, that we can take comfort in each of our own selves being regarded as Equally Human, but also Equally High Called.
And as we take note of their bravery, human and spiritual ,emotional strength, we can at certain times get a little peek of human weakness, fear, envy, insecurity, or spiritual denseness, even naive immaturity and Boanerge Me Centered Self Seeking. And of such is the common lot of nearly all After the Fall Humanity, WITHOUT God’s guidance, grace, help and strength.
WE in modern day pioneering 5 fold office Lamp Stand Leadership most likely regard each and every one in terms of Historical Legendary Achievement by Standards of Biblical Proportions, surely most were, but at the same time, they were Biblically described as ”ignorant untrained pioneering men” who had simply become hugely embolded after a one on one direct encounter with the mysterious, supernatural saving and transforming power of God.
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13
However, the other important legacy which the main 11, and later the apostle Paul, each passed down, was not only the God’s Great Grace and never ending supply of Holy Ghost amazing power,but ALSO their respect and honor for the awesome Holy fear of the Lord, their own choice to make Jesus the Lord above all other types of gods, and to make Him their First Love (the very top priority of their ministry and personal leader lives.)
(C) 2013 TAVEAU D’ARCY ALL COPYRIGHTS RESERVED
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