Eph.4:11-15: “And He
gave some apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some,
pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity
of the faith, and of the knowledge of the son of God, unto a perfect man, unto
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we henceforth be not
more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, and the cunning craftiness, whereby they lie
in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all
things, which is the head, even Christ:”
Psalm 138:8: “The Lord
will perfect that which concerneth me…”
Recently, one of our Church members was telling me a
ridiculous story of a “Church” she used to attend where they were told that the
way to subdue the devil was to take up physical canes and weep him. Also, when
you look around today, you find so many believers praying that the demons
afflicting them should fall down and die! These are just a few of the
unscriptural practices you find in the body of Christ that gives me a lot of
concern. In the first place, you cannot subdue the devil with physical canes
because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Secondly, spirits do not
die! They are eternal beings. All these truths are in the bible which these
baby believers carry around without reading or if they read, do not understand.
Unfortunately, many who pedal and believe these lies are not even believers but
humans seeking solution to their personal problems from places where they
cannot find it.
The reason for this state of affairs if that many are not
recognizing and taking advantage of God’s gift of the fivefold ministry offices
of the apostle, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. God set these
ministry gifts in the Church to help us grow up to be able to do the work of
the ministry. Contrary to what many in the body of Christ believe, ministry is
not restricted to these fivefold ministry gifts or full time Levitical work; it
is an all-encompassing lifestyle of the believer intended to prepare the world
for the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have always believed that it is not good enough to complain
about a situation without doing anything about it. The word of the Lord to us
this month has therefore provided us with the opportunity to make our
contribution to solve this problem. To this end, this month, we shall be
looking at the fivefold ministry in the body of Christ and the role each of
them is expected to play to help perfect or cause us to mature in Christ to
enable us arise and fulfill the ministry or our destinies as assigned to us by
God. The office of the Apostle for instance is not in the title but in the work
of planting Churches or setting up similar institutions as appointed by God. Their
ministry is usually accompanied with genuine signs and wonders and mighty works
and the vessels remain humble before God.
Also, from our second text scripture for the month, it is
clear that the perfecting or maturing of the saint could only be made possible
with cooperating with God and this is why Apostle Paul said in Philippians 2:13
that it is God who works in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure. This
is why we cannot attain to spiritual maturity without God’s Spirit guiding us. However,
to get His guidance, we need to renew our minds with His word because without
that we would never agree with God as the Bible says in 1Cor.2:14 that the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness
unto him. Thus this month, we shall also learn how to renew our minds to follow
the dictates of our spirits which are controlled by the Holy Spirit to the end
that each of us would be able to discern the voice of God and hear directly
from Him.
It is my heart felt prayer that this month, you will grow up
spiritually to the point of being led by the spirit of God so you do not fall
prey to spiritual charlatans in Jesus’ name!
For God to lead you however you must belong to His family and
if you are interested in hearing from God directly so He can lead you, the
first step is that you must be born again into the family of God. If you want
to do so, you can do it right away by saying the prayer below out loud:
Heavenly Father,
Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died
for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore
declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the
fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you
for this father in Jesus’ name!
Amen.
Congratulations! For more information and resources that
would help you grow in this new life, please visit our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and www.kingdomheirsministries.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at
alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl . Remain on top of your challenges
in Jesus’ name!
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