Ephesians 4:4-11
4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling.
5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
8 Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
11 And he gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers.
Each gift is a measure of Jesus Christ that is given unto you and dispensed into your life. He said He gave some the gift of apostleship, meaning the measure of Christ (the grace of God) which was dispensed in the life of that person was the gift of apostleship. Whether the gift is that of the prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher, the measure that individual receives is the measure God has dispensed for that particular gift. These gifts are given to everyone of us according to the measure of Christ Jesus we allow to take place inside us, and it is this influence that completes and perfects us in Christ. This influence changes the disposition of our minds as said in Romans 7:25, that it is with the mind that we serve the Lord.
We are complete in Christ, so there is no area of our lives the devil can control; even though he can still try to neutralize us in our service by temptation. If Saints allow the temptations from Satan to influence our thinking, we will not be able to serve the Lord in the gifts of the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, administrator, helps, exhorters or intercession.
KNOWLEDGE VERSUS GODLY INFLUENCE
Many saints interpret their knowledge as Godly influence. This is a great deception, and very prevalent in the church world today. Many feel their knowledge of Greek and Hebrew is revelation and influence. There is a distinct difference in what we learn from studying and revelation. Get this in your spirit so you can identify it in your own life, and in the lives of others to whom you will minister.
There are many who can quote scripture, have knowledge and understanding and they are erroneously equating this with influence. Knowledge is not necessarily influence. The spiritual definition of knowledge means to experience. We must understand that from each of our experiences, experiential knowledge must be gained. This knowledge is not gained unless we are influenced righteously by the experience itself.
You may be going through negative experiences and have been going through such since you were born into God. You need to examine yourself and see if these experiences have, or are, influencing you unto Godliness: Can you only say, “I’ve been through a lot,” or “The enemy has been working against me.” If your testimony is “The Lord has brought me through,” then you did not gain the experiential knowledge needed to be a transmitter. All you can tell someone else is, “God will bring you through” or “just hold on.” You have not looked at those negative experiences and said: Let me discern where the enemy was, where God was and where I was. Let me discern how I got caught in the snare and how I helped the enemy when he presented himself. Let me discern how I responded to the enemy. Let me discern when God showed up and how I responded to Him? Did God warn me and did I respond to His warning?
In all these experiences, take spiritual note. When you do, it becomes wisdom. Your discerning of your trials, knowledge and experiences become wisdom. Wisdom is how to operate the knowledge gained in the experiences. Even before you knew God, He was a part of all your experiences. He upholds all things and is omniscient and omnipresent (present everywhere at all times and in all things). Your life being predestined by God, means He had a hand in everything you have been doing. God has always been there.
You now have the ability to:
1.Operate as a spiritual being. This eliminates time and distance and among other things, means you now have the ability to redeem the time in your own life. You can go back and look at those experiences you had before you met God and discern those situations.
2.You can then extract wisdom from those experiences which will then be valuable in your ministering to others. (This is what is meant by being a transmitter of life.)
3.With the character of God, and with Faith, (the Spirit of God), operating in you, you have the ability to discern the captivities you were in, how you got into them and how God brought you out. Every son of God must mature to a point where he or she can show others how to stand in our victory against enemy and grow in God. It is only at this point, that a person has been influenced by the Word of God. But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.
2 Corinthians 10:13
But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.
What is our aim? Our aim is to press to allow the full measure of Christ that He has ordained for us. However, we must realize our greatest hindrance is in the disposition of our minds. If we ever get our minds under Godly control, we can work for God. You may be physically and intellectually able to get the job done, you may have all the know-how, but if you do no allow the influence of God in every are of your life, the you will be hollow. Because of that lack of influence, you have given Satan access to you. The very door you have left open allows Satan to come in, gain access to all areas and neutralize your ministry, therefore making it of non-effect.
Ephesians 4:11-12
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, pastors; and some, evangelists; and some, teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ . . .
We have to work the ministry until the return of Christ Jesus. We must work in the area of ministry where the measure of Christ in us carries us. As we move inside the areas of ministry and serve faithfully, we become candidates to work in the Messianic ministry; the ultimate ministry. Sonship is being able to occupy, rule and reign in the royal priesthood during the Messianic Kingdom.
I remember when the Lord had the Determinate Council of Bible Teachers International meet for sixty-six days. At the end of the sixty-six days, the Lord spoke to me and said the rest of our training would be in service; working the ministry. As I took my place as the apostle, the prophets, the evangelists, pastors, teachers, helps, governors and administrators took their places and began to minister. My apostleship began to rebound from the people with whom I was working. What I was ministering began to rebound back to me and I was increased by it. I was increased by the rebounding of my own ministry.
In service I am being made complete; by my obedience to the ministry set before me. Every one of us is being perfected, but we still have to move into our calling. There has to be an influence in our lives and that measure (amount) of influence must be revealed in ministry.
