19.1 Functions of Ministry
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Christ—out from Whom the whole body, being joined together and being held together through every joint of its supply or provision, according to the energeia inside the sharing from every part, causes growth of the body into the construction of itself in love (Ephesians 4:16 – JSV).
According to the energeia inside the sharing from every part.
The word, “sharing” is koinonia, but in this case, the fellowship aspect of koinonia – that which is outward among life together. This “energeia,” then, is the emanating frequency of the Spirit arising out from each individual person in the community. That energeia is known in the community through each act or moment of contribution coming from each person.
Rivers Flow. When I am chopping onions in the kitchen, when I am laughing at your jokes around the table, when I am speaking in the sharing service, when I am hammering nails, when I am giving an assignment to a class of students, when I am taking out the trash, when I am prophesying Christ arising in you, I am emanating the energeo of the Holy Spirit that is the life force of this living Body that is Father’s Home.
And you, through your every action in life together are doing the same.
Rivers of living water flow out from us in every moment, through every action, BECAUSE we believe in Jesus, that is, because we know that our every interaction together IS the Lord Jesus through us together as His Body.
Healthy and Alive. The entire purpose of ministry – the ministries of the Spirit – in the Church is to ensure that the life force energeoing out from the faith in Jesus of each individual person is healthy and alive and filled with the knowledge of Christ among us and as us. The energeia of the Holy Spirit does not emanate life in the community except through the fulfillment and joy of each individual person.
If I am an elder in a local community of Christ, then my one task of that function is to ensure that the fulfillment of your joy – in the knowledge of Christ in, as, and through you in all things – is living and complete. With that understanding fully in mind, let’s set the ministries of Christ into the Church.
Gifts of Ministry. Having then differing gifts [let us use them] according to the grace given to us. If prophecy, [let us prophecy] according to the measure of our faith; or service, [grace] in the service; or teaching, [grace] in the teaching; or exhorting, [grace] in the exhortation; giving in generosity, leading with zeal, showing mercy with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:6-8 – JSV).
And indeed, God has placed [set forth] in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then demonstrations of power, gifts of healing, helping and administering, and various kinds of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:28 – JSV).
And He Himself gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some shepherds and teachers, towards the preparation of the saints for the work of ministry, into the building up, the construction of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-12 – JSV).
Defining Ministry. Let me further clarify our “definition” of ministry.
The working of the body, each member giving of itself one to the other, Christ speaking Christ into Christ, this is the ongoing life of the Church in which all participate. Nonetheless, there is a further function of giftings needed for the Body to be fully alive unto God. The critical life force of the Body is not just the energeoing of God in us together, but also the knowledge of that immediate and living presence of God continuing strongly inside each one. Each one of us needs our faith to be connected directly with the demonstration of the Spirit on a regular basis. And thus God gives giftings of ministry scattered through many.
Knowing What Is Already True. The purpose of ministry in your life is to connect you with the demonstration of God in power so that your faith in God will continue to increase. The purpose of ministry is NOT to ensure that God is “in charge of” you. Believing that “God needs a little help from His friends” is not ministry, but gross unbelief. God is already energeoing all things inside of us; what you and I need is to KNOW that such a thing is true. This is the function of ministry.
An evangelist does not rely on the power of words to convince minds to receive “the message,” but rather, on the power of the Holy Spirit to win hearts to Christ. Paul tried “wise words” in Athens and was disturbed by the lack of fruit.
Elders and Apostles. The ministry gifting of primary importance in every local church is that of shepherd or pastor or elder, however one wants to call it. This ministry CANNOT ever be “one-man,” but must always be several moving together. Yet Paul said that the Church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2). What on earth does that mean?
And so I want to talk about apostolic and prophetic giftings first and then about the function of elders in the local assembly. But throughout I want to give a sense of the giftings of God.
God Himself to Me. In my experience as a Christian, from age 19 until now, I have witnessed and been ministered to by God through the gifts or giftings of the Spirit through others many thousands of times. I am speaking of giftings in miracles, in mighty prayers of faith, in the demonstrations of power, in prophecies, in tongues and interpretation of tongues, in the leading of worship and anointed praise, in the power of a third feast word, in the opening of the heavens, in visions and dreams, in every demonstration of God through His people you can suppose.
And, as I think back now, I realize this startling fact. In every single one of those many thousands of occurrences, at no point was the person so gifted of consequence, but every ONE was God Himself coming to me in the knowledge of His power.
Even Babies Speak Christ. We are all ministers of Christ; we are all receivers of the ministry of Christ. We are all in the Bridegroom; we are all in the Bride. When an infant chortles in happiness, that little one is ministering Christ to all who hear it. That little one is Christ speaking to you; hear ye Him! – Out of the mouth of babes and of sucklings, Thou hast perfected praise. – and a little child shall lead them.
As I have taught you to speak Christ regarding yourself, so we together speak the same encouragement into one another. But the gifting of power is God coming to you through another who, in that moment, has the faith for you to KNOW God in power yourself.
Two Purposes of Ministry. We could say it this way. In the first seasons of your life as a Christian, the giftings of ministry are there to lead you through the knowledge of redemption until you are able yourself to live by faith inside the Holiest, inside all of God.
But then, inside the Holiest, the purpose of ministry changes. Now, the giftings of ministry serve to show first, all the many wondrous and holy things inside of God, and then to enable you to seize hold of and to live in every one of those things. That is what is meant by the writer of Hebrews in using the word “approach” or “let us draw near.” Then, in the latter part of chapter 12, the Calvinists change the word to “have come to,” but it is the same. The writer is simply referencing some of the many things we seize to live in as we explore the Holiest.
Turning the Way. I finally understand, just now, why the “apostle” is the foundation of the Church. The equation is this – Isaiah 40 – TURN the highway for God into the right direction. If God’s people are not entering boldly into living inside of ALL of God, they are not going in the right direction.
Anyone who teaches that the goal of the believer is to go to heaven after we die CANNOT be an apostle. Anyone who teaches that the goal of the believer is the performance of righteousness in perfect obedience CANNOT be an apostle. It is only by the gifting of the apostolic that every part of redemption serves its seasonal purpose on the path into the Holiest.
Living Short of the Holiest. Consider the church as it has been since the passing of John without the function of the apostolic taking God’s people into the Holiest. The problem with every Christian sect, denomination, group, persuasion, whatever, is simple. Because living in the Holiest is not in their view, having been replaced by DEATH, then each one settles down into whatever place in the Tabernacle short of the Veil they find to be the most comfortable.
Without the apostolic, God’s people will not live in the Holiest, in all of God now. And so, as I have said before, the purpose of the apostolic gifting is to show you realms of God you had no idea even existed, rooms of God you may freely and boldly enter.
Gifts as Blessing Only. As we also said, ministries in the church are gifts, not offices. One has the gifting of the apostolic; another one has the gifting of making everyone laugh; another one has the gifting of playing the piano; another has the gifting of words of wisdom – all the same difference. When the gift is called for, it is a blessing. Otherwise each one is just a brother or a sister, as silly and as weak as the next. The apostolic is the same.
If I have any gift of ministry, as God defines ministry, that means something ONLY when and how that gift is in use. Otherwise, I’m just another human, same as everyone else, weak, vacillating, and emotional.
Apostolic Giftings. Okay, let’s accept that we know what God means by a gifting of ministry and focus on the practice of ministry. I want to talk about the apostolic gifting in reference to myself and others.
I see three different types of apostolic gifting. The first is a gifting in the clarity of word that takes us all the way into God. The second is a gifting in the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. And the third is a gifting in wise counsel for the assemblies and the Church as a whole. These three giftings can be in one person, yet when that is so, I do not think it is the best. It is always better that we need one another. At the same time, I have seen one of these giftings in a person, yet not the others. Each one, however, is apostolic.
The Word through Me. I want to talk about the gifting of Christ upon me in the clarity of word that takes us all the way into the Holiest.
From the start, I have always NEEDED what God says in the Bible – all that God says as He means it. I must live and not die. I cannot invent my own “God.” The word coming to you through me, then, comes out of the fabric and essence of my construction. Nonetheless, that is not enough.
The word you receive from me CANNOT originate with me. It arises up from my own heart, and from the Bible planted there over many years, yes, but it cannot come from me. It is Godly ONLY when Jesus Himself, alive in you, shows Himself to you through the little bit that I share.
The Flow of the Anointing. Here is the picture of all ministry in the Church. There is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps. Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left. – These two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the two gold pipes from which the golden oil drains… (Zechariah 4:2-3 & 12 – condensed).
As I recounted in remembering the thousands of times I have received from God through the giftings of the Spirit possessed by others – it is God coming through, God alone. The ministry is just the vessel, the pipe, the Body, through whom God moves to touch and to heal by His Spirit. Yet, incredibly, God does all things together with us.
The Place of Apostolic Word. The words you receive from me, words that Jesus uses to take you into all of God, come out from one place only in my daily experience. They come out from my time in the early morning hours when I am typing into Power Point, which I use in order to discipline the flow of words, that I don’t wander off into irrelevant things. I also know that those same words would come through me as I stand before an assembly of believers who are drawing from me that same apostolic word.
Otherwise, I am no different than anyone else. The blessing of Christ can pass from me to you in conversation, but no apostolic word, no word that will take you faithfully into true realms of God you have not known. Paul said that it is the logos that is preached into you.
A Ministry of Confirmation. Then, the prophetic gifting serves two primary purposes in the Church as a whole as well as in each local assembly.
The prophetic ministry teaches God’s people to move in the power of God released through each one. That is, the prophetic ministry demonstrates the calling forth of Christ into the human experience. Then, the second purpose of the prophetic is to confirm the word spoken, first to confirm the apostolic word and second to confirm the word of Christ shared in the worship service. This function includes the seeing of visions and dreams and the speaking of prophecy, things that are normal functions in every service.
Word Leads – Spirit Follows. Paul is very specific, however, when he says, “first, apostles, second, prophets.” Here is what he means. Word always leads, and Spirit always follows. Spirit comes before only to prepare the way for Word. At no time does the demonstration of the Spirit take precedence over receiving that word from God that sets God on His path of revelation through His Body, the Church.
When push comes to shove, there is only one ministry gifting to trust, and that is that ministry that puts Father’s heart and the expression of Father’s Heart above all, at whatever cost there might be to him or herself or even to anyone else. That ministry that takes Father by the hand into open visibility through His Church into all creation – God seen and known.
An Utterly Laid-Down Life. But how are such ministries the foundation of the Church? Here is the only foundation of the Church. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:16). If any so-called “ministry” is not clinging fiercely to the Lord Jesus, that He might be His laid-down life through them, they are no ministry of Christ.
There is nothing in all the human experience more dangerous than attempting to be a ministry in the church separate from the fear of God.
Let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of [living boldly inside of all of God] (Hebrews 4:1b). – One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple (Psalm 27:4). – On this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word (Isaiah 66:2).
Post Script. In that note, let me comment about me personally. Regardless of any so-called gifting of apostolic word, I am just me, the same Daniel Yordy everyone has known. Apart from the place of that function, my “ideas” are no different than anyone else’s. I want you to know me face to face as I am, just a brother in the Lord just like you. Please do not impose on me any sort of “superiority,” for that is a curse, and I will run far away from you.
At the same time, some, in getting to know me, may decide that, since I am just a weak and foolish human, then my “gift” must be no different than theirs. And thus that fear and regard of the holy dissipates away, and the brother or sister gets the idea that they can be part of “the discussion of what is an apostolic word.” Again, I will never come off the wall of Jerusalem to “debate truth” with you in the temple.
Oh Jerusalem. Yet, the truth is, this is not how we view the “apostolic,” but one another, for each one of us is a real human and each one of us is filled with the Holiest of God. In the end, there is only one sure sign of that which is “apostolic,” and that is that I see you and treat with you as the Lord Jesus Himself, in awe and joy, yet never being swayed by you to turn from my own pursuit of all the Jerusalem of God.
If I forget thee, Oh Jerusalem, then let my right hand forget her cunning, and let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer thee not above my chief joy.