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00:19 Good evening, U.S. Covenant Church and all our viewers
00:22 around the world that watch us on Wednesday nights for our
00:27 Midweek Bible Studies.
00:30 We're now coming towards the end of 2023.
00:34 And in the last number of weeks/months, we've been
00:37 working on various judgments and so on.
00:41 We finished our last sessions with the
00:44 judgment seat of Christ.
00:46 And we ended dealing with in the way things should be done
00:52 to reach for the golden standard.
00:56 And so we won't go back and do any revision on that, because
00:59 that alone will be very time consuming.
01:02 But what I want to start with in this to close out the year
01:08 is apostolic judgment.
01:12 And in terms of apostolic judgment, we'll use Old
01:16 Testament examples and then apply New Testament actual
01:23 examples and biblical recommendations made by
01:28 respective apostles who wrote epistles in the New
01:32 Testament, and also what Dr. Luke wrote in the Book of Acts.
01:37 And so when you're dealing with the fivefold ministry,
01:42 we'll start with Ephesians chapter number
01:45 four and verse 11.
01:47 And this is what is called the ascension gifts.
01:51 And we'll get to that in a minute.
01:54 So the Bible says that there's one Lord, one faith, one
01:58 baptism, one Father of all, who is above all and in you all.
02:03 And he then goes on to say, because there's one Lord, one
02:07 faith, one baptism, one Father above all, in you all.
02:12 He is the one that empowered Christ to lead captivity
02:14 captive and gave gifts unto men.
02:18 And the gifts he gave to men, with reference to ministry, is
02:24 Ephesians 4.11.
02:26 He gave some apostles.
02:29 He gave some prophets.
02:30 He gave some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers.
02:37 And so there are five different ministries there.
02:40 Some would even say it's four, because he didn't say some
02:44 pastors and some teachers.
02:46 He said some pastors and teachers combining the two.
02:52 We'll work with a five-fold ministry, because that's
02:56 generally the preferred way to address ministry functions and
03:03 the rank of ministry functions.
03:06 The reason this five-fold ministry was given is chapter
03:09 number four, verse 12 of Ephesians.
03:11 "For the perfecting of the saints who will work the
03:16 ministry," says, "for the work of the ministry to edify the
03:21 body of Christ, till we all come into the
03:24 unity of the faith."
03:27 Not uniformity.
03:29 It's not likely and possibly not possible for all the body
03:37 of Christ around the world to come into
03:42 uniformity of faith.
03:44 There will always be different expressions.
03:47 But what he's asking for is the unity of the faith, where
03:53 we agree as believers, where we agree as church leaders,
03:59 that we are going to push for unity and allow different
04:04 expressions, which you will see in these presentations,
04:09 till we come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
04:14 of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the
04:20 stature of the fullness of Christ.
04:23 And that's a handful right there.
04:25 And so it is important that the ministry of the 21st
04:31 century, at least in the next seven years, begins to move
04:37 towards the unity of faith.
04:40 And so in the backdrop of some of the things we work with,
04:44 there is discussion that independent ministries, such
04:48 as ours, started by ourselves as founders, and fondly known
04:56 as fathers of a particular ministry.
04:59 And there's many of us on the continent.
05:03 We're now hosting discussions to where we're looking at the
05:07 possibility of joining our organizations together so that
05:12 we can utilize the power of our numbers, the power of the
05:19 kinds of gifts that each apostolic house attracts, and
05:24 what can be done with those.
05:27 But before we get to that, the ministry gifts are divided
05:35 into three sections.
05:37 And so Ephesians 4, verse 11, is what is called ascension
05:42 gifts, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors,
05:46 teachers.
05:47 He ascended and gave gifts unto men.
05:50 These are the ascension gifts.
05:54 These gifts are particularly given for ministering the
05:58 word, for ministering deliverance, for ministering
06:02 the death, burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
06:05 for ministering the born-again experience.
06:08 And then in chapter number 12, verse 1 to verse 13 of the
06:15 book of 1 Corinthians, Paul said, "I would not have you
06:20 ignorant brethren concerning spiritual gifts." He said,
06:24 "You guys were driven by dumb idols in the past, and you
06:28 worshiped them.
06:30 But now that you've come to Christ, and you've come to the
06:33 knowledge of Christ, he then gives gifts to empower the
06:37 body of Christ." And he said here, he names the nine gifts
06:44 of the Holy Spirit that are divided into three categories.
06:49 These are the gifts of wisdom, the word of knowledge,
06:53 discerning of spirits.
06:54 The category below that is going to be the demonstration
06:59 gifts, faith, gifts of healing, and the
07:05 working of miracles.
07:07 The level below that, prophecy, tongues and
07:11 interpretation, and diverse kinds of tongues.
07:14 So if I can bring you to the tabernacle of Moses, which is
07:18 the grandfather clause for doctrinal basis.
07:22 So the courtyard would be interpretation of tongues,
07:29 tongues and interpretation, prophecy.
07:33 The holy place, starting off with working of miracles,
07:40 diverse or various gifts of healing, and the gift of the
07:44 manifestation of faith, which is not have faith in God kind
07:49 of faith, it's the manifestation of a God moment
07:53 where faith will cause everything in a house or in a
07:56 place to be fixed.
07:58 And then beyond that, into the holiest of holies, what is
08:02 called the royal gifts, that will be discerning of spirits,
08:06 the word of knowledge, and the word of wisdom.
08:09 Those nine gifts in 1 Corinthians chapter number 12,
08:14 verse 1 to 13, are called the charis gifts.
08:20 Charis, spelled C-H-A-R-I-S.
08:24 It's the word we get charismatic.
08:26 These charis gifts are to empower an existing church.
08:31 Charis gifts do not exist outside of an existing church.
08:35 An existing church cannot be in existence without the five
08:38 four ministry ascension gifts.
08:41 And then we have in Romans chapter 8, 29, et cetera, in
08:47 those verses, you will have--
08:49 all apostles, all prophets, all teachers, all workers of
08:57 miracles, which means all ascension gifts, no.
09:00 All charis gifts, no.
09:01 It then goes into what are called natural gifts.
09:05 Natural gifts.
09:07 He says these natural gifts are gifts of government,
09:14 people given to hospitality, people giving to serving.
09:18 These are natural gifts from people who are probably
09:22 academic, or people that have skills with their
09:25 hand to build things.
09:26 And the apostle Paul was all of these three, because there
09:30 were times in his life when the ministry wasn't drawing
09:34 any finance, he was making tents.
09:37 He was a lawyer by profession, but there were times when
09:40 there were no clients.
09:41 So he would go and result in making tents.
09:45 The other apostles were fishermen.
09:47 And so they would use their natural gifts.
09:50 So the three levels of gifts in ministry are ascension
09:53 gifts, number one, Ephesians 4, 11, charis gifts, number
09:58 two, 1 Corinthians chapter number 12, verse 1 to 13, and
10:03 then natural gifts, Founding Romans 8, 29, Proverbs 18, 16,
10:10 1 Corinthians chapter number 14.
10:14 And so all of these areas of giftedness have to have an
10:18 accountability structure to whom they account to.
10:22 And on the top of that list in terms of
10:25 ministry are apostles.
10:28 So when Jesus came into the earth to establish his church
10:33 through his ministry with his message, which is the kingdom
10:39 of God, his message could only be brought into the
10:43 world by apostles.
10:46 And so when he says, "Upon the rock I will build my church,"
10:50 which is the word ecclesia, which is governmental system,
10:54 these apostles were going to be the pillars of the new
10:58 government that would dispense judgment and rule on issues.
11:05 And you'll find this in 1 Corinthians chapter
11:08 number 4, verse 1.
11:10 He says, "Let a man so account of us as ministers of Christ,
11:14 stewards of the mysteries of God." And we as stewards, we
11:18 are required to be faithful, talking about
11:21 the apostolic group.
11:23 And so whenever there is an issue in the church, if it can
11:27 be resolved on a lower rung of leadership, that is fine.
11:32 That's why we have deacons.
11:35 And then we have elders.
11:37 And within deacons and elders, there are four levels of
11:40 elders, which we'll get to somewhere.
11:43 And once elders cannot resolve that, then the difficult cases
11:46 come to apostles and/or prophets.
11:52 And so let's look at these ministry gifts now and start
11:56 with an individual.
11:59 Each person has been given a gift or gifts.
12:05 Those gifts have to be laid by the altar.
12:09 When we join a church or become a member of a church, or
12:14 once we are converted and we become part of the body of
12:16 Christ, a person's gift has to be laid at the altar.
12:22 If there's any person that has ought against another person,
12:26 their gift cannot function until they are
12:30 reconciled at the altar.
12:33 And so the reason you have a gift and the altar is because
12:37 the altar is to serve the church.
12:40 And the reason you have a church is the church is
12:43 established by apostles.
12:45 And the reason you have apostles is because there is
12:49 Jesus Christ who sits on the throne.
12:52 And the reason you have Jesus Christ sitting on the throne
12:54 is because he's accountable to God's agenda, the almighty
12:59 God, whose agenda is mankind as a whole.
13:03 So right on the top of the list is almighty God, then
13:07 Jesus Christ, the throne of Christ, which we talked about.
13:10 Below that are the apostles.
13:12 Below that come the elders.
13:17 Below that come the deacons.
13:19 Below that comes the individuals.
13:22 And we talked about that in previous teachings.
13:26 And so when we come into ministry functions, for
13:30 example, New Life Covenant Church has many expressions of
13:34 ministry, from sound to ushering to people assisting
13:40 with parking.
13:42 Those are ministry expressions.
13:44 They do not need an ascension gift anointing.
13:48 There's no such thing as an apostle for parking.
13:52 There's no such thing as an apostle for
13:55 singing in the choir.
13:57 And so a person may start there and rise to an
14:01 ascension gift.
14:03 But there's no such thing.
14:04 As the years have gone by, I've seen very interesting
14:08 terminologies emerge, such as apostles in the marketplace,
14:12 which is, for me, an interesting terminology where
14:15 you have people who are business individuals that are
14:20 used by the Lord to finance kingdom ministry or finance
14:25 the body of Christ, or finance, in our case, like a
14:27 chimokopa program, which is a school initiative to empower
14:33 children.
14:34 And so because individuals in churches have found it
14:38 difficult to place a person that's generating kingdom
14:42 finance, we've stuck the word apostle in the marketplace.
14:48 And just to be very honest and transparent, it's not my
14:51 preference.
14:52 I work with it.
14:54 But we don't put too much emphasis or
14:57 relevance on the title.
14:59 You just do it.
15:00 You've got money.
15:01 Pay for it.
15:02 You don't have to be an apostle in the marketplace to
15:04 pay for a school program.
15:06 So when we're dealing with ministry entities, it's
15:08 strictly ascension gifts.
15:11 So you look at guys like Nicodemus or even
15:14 Joseph of Arimathea.
15:16 He was never put down as an apostle.
15:18 He was the one that came and got the body of Jesus from
15:21 Pontius Pilate and buried Jesus in a tomb that he made
15:26 that was never used.
15:28 And so they are individuals.
15:30 And I'm not saying they're wrong.
15:32 It's all within reason of being placed.
15:34 They say that Joseph of Arimathea is an apostle in the
15:38 marketplace.
15:39 But if you use the scripture strictly, the book of Acts
15:41 does not say he was that.
15:43 And so we try to squeeze titles out to give people
15:47 legitimacy.
15:48 So this is designed to show a pathway of accountability, a
15:54 pathway of accountability.
15:56 And so they are now emerging in different parts of the
15:59 world, apostles in the political space.
16:02 Really?
16:04 And so the next thing is going to be apostles in the
16:07 entertainment space.
16:08 And then there's going to be apostles in the sports arena.
16:16 So you're going to have an apostle of football, Mo Salah,
16:19 Apostle Mo Salah.
16:21 And so the thing is, once we start filtering down or mixing
16:30 a lot of stuff, it loses its potency.
16:35 Because now when you have to deal with issues of judgment
16:38 and decisions to be made, if you've got all these apostles
16:43 in these various expressions, one says I'm of Apollos, one
16:48 says I'm of Paul, one says I'm of Peter, it then creates many,
16:52 many challenges.
16:53 And so to bring a sensibility of the institutions of
17:01 ascension gets, will start with how the individual
17:06 eventually becomes accountable into the apostolic world.
17:10 So every person within an organization will rise to
17:15 their level of competence and then will have
17:19 room to be promoted.
17:21 So let's look at Acts chapter number six and chapter number
17:26 seven.
17:27 In Acts chapter number six and Acts chapter number seven,
17:31 deacons emerged because of a Grecian widow need.
17:39 The Greek widows had said we are not being taken care of.
17:43 And so they appointed seven deacons to take care of the
17:47 needs of those widows.
17:50 Their qualifications were very high.
17:53 They had to be mighty in faith, mighty in the
17:55 scriptures, and they had to have a brain.
17:58 They were intellectual gurus.
18:01 And in this case, they were all Greeks to minister to that
18:05 group of individuals.
18:06 And the apostles agreed, Acts 6, 4, will be given to the
18:10 word and to prayer.
18:13 And so a genuine ascension gift apostle must be given to
18:17 the word and to prayer.
18:20 Thirdly, given to times when apostolic judgment is needful
18:25 and necessary, where they can pass judgment on an issue.
18:30 So if you go to Acts chapter number five, you will see
18:35 apostolic judgment at its very best.
18:39 Bible says at the end of chapter four of Acts, the son
18:43 of Constellation, whose name was Barnabas, sold his
18:47 property and laid his offering at the feet of the apostles.
18:53 And so Barnabas is the first group of named individuals who
19:02 convert land and property into finance to drive the gospel.
19:08 And so other individuals began to follow in like manner.
19:13 The most famous of those is a man by the name of Ananias and
19:18 his wife, Sapphira.
19:20 They agreed they're going to sell their farm or their
19:23 property for x amount of money.
19:26 And they agreed they'll bring to the apostles their offering.
19:32 Now it was their money, they could have kept it for
19:35 themselves, it was theirs to do.
19:37 They could have given 1% and kept 99% or given 99% and--
19:42 or vice versa.
19:44 And so they agreed they're going to give money.
19:47 But what they did was they were dishonest as to what they
19:52 were giving.
19:54 And so when they brought that offering, the devil used
19:59 Ananias and Sapphira to try to plant a seed of doubt,
20:03 corruption, and deception in the body of Christ to cause
20:10 satanic infiltration to slow the church down.
20:14 And so Peter said to Ananias, you know, thank you for your
20:17 offering, but are you sure this is what you sold your
20:20 land for?
20:21 And are you sure this is the money you want to give?
20:24 And he was being given a chance to say, we sold it for
20:27 $100 and we only decided to give you guys $1.
20:32 But he didn't tell the truth.
20:35 And because he didn't tell the truth, the apostles passed a
20:40 judgment there.
20:41 And Ananias died right in the church.
20:44 Boom.
20:46 And so they went to bury him.
20:49 Because in Jewish culture, as is the case with the Muslims,
20:52 you have to bury before the sun goes down.
20:55 And if somebody dies in the evening, the next day they
20:58 have to be buried within 24 hours.
21:00 So he was taken to be buried.
21:03 Sapphira comes in, the wife.
21:07 And she doesn't know what's happened.
21:09 And she is asked the question by St. Peter, is this the
21:13 story that you and your husband did?
21:15 And she said, it is.
21:17 And so Peter said, those that have buried your husband, I
21:22 can hear their footsteps.
21:23 They are coming to bury you.
21:25 Because what you have done is you have corrupted yourselves
21:28 to corrupt the church.
21:30 And Peter passed an apostolic judgment there.
21:33 And the wife died.
21:34 And the Bible says that fear, respect, in other words, went
21:39 throughout the body of Christ, the church world, went
21:42 throughout the Jewish community, to know that these
21:46 men and who they represent are very serious
21:50 about their movement.
21:52 And so it's never God's will that any perish.
21:57 Romans tells us that.
21:59 But there are times, and there are certainly occasions, where
22:02 the highest standards, which is a person losing their life,
22:08 can pass if they impede and inhibit and try to hold back
22:13 God's agenda within the church.
22:17 And so apostolic judgment, then, is very key.
22:19 And it's being restored into the body of Christ, even as we
22:24 speak now, in terms of apostolic
22:27 judgment, judging a thing.
22:29 This is false.
22:30 This is true.
22:31 That message is wrong.
22:33 That message is right.
22:34 That theology is demonic.
22:36 That's heresy.
22:37 That person's of the devil, and so on.
22:40 That is being restored in the body of Christ globally.
22:44 And there are a couple of instances and stories that we
22:47 can talk about in another presentation.
22:50 But I know of one particular case with the late, great
22:54 Archbishop Benson Ideosa from Benin City in Nigeria,
23:02 probably one of the most charismatic, anointed apostles
23:06 Africa has ever had.
23:08 And so one of his members who was working in the finance
23:14 team had been stealing money for a long time.
23:17 And so the archbishop called him in and said to him, you've
23:20 been stealing money for a long time.
23:22 He denied it.
23:23 He said, so if you've not been stealing money--
23:26 and I'm just paraphrasing the whole story--
23:29 if you've not been stealing money, you'll be fine.
23:31 But if you are, leprosy come on you right now.
23:34 And in front of everybody, the man became a leper.
23:38 And just before the archbishop died, seven days before he
23:43 died, he called for the individual and said to the
23:47 individual, I release you from your leprosy and be
23:50 restored to health.
23:51 And he was restored to health.
23:53 One of the most stunning apostolic judgments and
23:57 apostolic calls I've heard of-- and there are several such as
24:01 that that I've heard of and seen and documented from
24:04 Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, et
24:07 cetera, Malawi, where apostles have had to rule in certain
24:12 places like that.
24:13 And in that same meeting, I was told that there was an
24:16 ordinary woman in the church, just an ordinary woman.
24:19 And he said to her, by the end of this month, you'll have one
24:22 of the biggest churches Nigeria has ever seen.
24:25 I release you into ministry.
24:27 And the very day she was released, God empowered her
24:30 with such grace, she began to work great miracles, raise the
24:34 dead, and so on.
24:36 And within a matter of weeks, thousands of people began to
24:40 flock around her gift.
24:42 And I actually met that lady.
24:44 She's part of Archbishop Margaret Ideosa's ministry,
24:49 part of the roundtable, a phenomenal,
24:51 outstanding woman of God.
24:54 But again, we see here apostolic judgment being
24:57 pronounced and released.
25:00 This must be understood, and it must be respected.
25:05 And so the evidence of this is seen when Paul says, in the
25:12 last days, certain things are going to take place, doctrines
25:16 of devils, heresies, seducing spirits.
25:20 But he says, at the same time, leaders will emerge with great
25:24 power and anointing.
25:26 Speaking of apostolic leadership that will rise
25:29 within the body of Christ and pass judgment on very
25:33 important and essential issues.
25:36 And so let me close this session in the last few
25:39 minutes we have and deal with Acts 15 case,
25:45 Acts chapter number 15.
25:48 In Acts chapter number 15, there is a controversy that
25:54 emerges from the Galatian leadership.
25:58 The leaders of the Church of Galatia said that every male,
26:04 Gentile male, had to be circumcised as a
26:08 means for salvation.
26:11 And the Bible says that the controversy was so strong that
26:18 they had to have a summit, which was hosted in the city
26:22 of Jerusalem at the first apostolic summit in history.
26:27 And everybody that was anybody had to be at that summit.
26:31 All the apostles were there, the name apostles.
26:35 Those that were Gentiles, Paul came with Timothy and others
26:39 that were Gentiles, that were demonstrating the power of God
26:45 by their words and by their actions.
26:48 And after much discussion and much debate, everybody had a
26:53 chance to speak based on their views, their theology, their
26:56 understanding, and then Paul gave a record of his works and
27:00 what he had done and gave a demonstration of the kinds of
27:04 individuals that were converted and the
27:06 work that they did.
27:07 And then the apostle James, the Lord's brother, got up and
27:10 said, this is my judgment.
27:13 Trouble not the Gentiles with all of these washings,
27:16 garments, rudiments of the Old Testament.
27:19 Circumcision is not required for salvation.
27:23 Circumcision is something else which Romans 6 says it's
27:26 baptism.
27:28 When we are circumcised, it's like a baptism.
27:33 We are sealed.
27:34 It's a mark of the covenant where the flesh is not cut on
27:39 the person, but the flesh is cut on the heart.
27:43 Where the fleshly part, the works of the flesh are
27:45 removed, Galatians 5.19.
27:49 He says the works of the flesh are cut out of the person.
27:52 And Galatians 5.22, the fruit of the spirit, nine of them
27:56 foot in that place.
27:58 And so then James said, this is my judgment, apostolic
28:02 judgment, the Gentiles will not be troubled with this.
28:05 Number one, they must not eat blood.
28:08 Number two, they must not eat meat offered to idols.
28:13 Number three, they must flee sexual perversion.
28:18 And number four, they cannot be part of demonic
28:21 institutions and pollute the orders of God.
28:26 And the Bible says this was good to the Holy Spirit.
28:30 It was good to all that were there.
28:32 And so now letters were written and distributed
28:36 throughout the body of Christ in all the Gentilic nations
28:40 and in all the Jewish communities.
28:43 And that first apostolic judgment became the anchor
28:46 judgment for judgments that will be passed in the future.
28:51 And you'll see some of that in Acts 17 in Athens, Acts 18
28:56 in Corinth, Acts 19 when Paul started the church in Ephesus.
29:02 And he calls the elders in Acts 20 to pass
29:05 apostolic judgment.
29:06 That became the anchor judgment.
29:10 Apostles rule and present judgment.
29:14 They have the power to bless, the power and anointing
29:17 to curse.
29:19 They have the anointing to elevate.
29:21 They have the anointing to bring down.
29:23 True apostles are able to judge a case like Ananias and Sapphira
29:27 and either bring them to repentance
29:30 or pronounce judgment on them, which is death,
29:33 and take a Barnabas in the same meeting
29:35 and elevate him where Barnabas becomes a mighty apostle who
29:39 opens the ministry in a powerful way in the city of Antioch
29:44 where we first became known as Christians.
29:46 And so if there's any takeaway from this,
29:49 remember the ascension gifts essentially
29:52 are those of the fivefold ministry--
29:54 apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher.
29:59 You as an individual can aspire to that.
30:03 I would encourage every one of you
30:04 to submit your gift to the altar of the church you serve
30:08 and work your way as God leads you and promotes you.
30:11 Thank you for being with us for this evening session.
30:14 Father, we pray a blessing on all those that are here,
30:18 all those that are listening to this message.
30:20 Allow your work to work in them, and allow the ministry
30:24 to take its place.
30:25 In Jesus' name, amen.
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