Jesus wants to activate the apostolic in you because it releases dynamics and benefits that will enrich your life. He's given you a team of teachers to accomplish His goal. We call those teachers five-fold ascension gifts.

 

We know that Jesus imparted five distinct gifts to equip His Church: some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, pastors and teachers.  Even though some are still debating the existence and inclusion of modern-day apostles, scripture is clear that He gave five gifts for "the perfecting of the saints for the work of ministry" (Ephesians 4).

APOSTOLIC-MINISTRY DYNAMICS

Jesus thought five graces, including apostles, were important to the success of His Church. Let's look at how the apostolic grace releases apostolic dynamics and discover how apostolic alignment benefits the believer.

Apostolic grace releases apostolic dynamics. If we can recognize what apostolic grace does then we can position ourselves to benefit from it. Just as a pastor imparts pastoral grace and a prophet prophetic grace it stands to reason that an apostle would impart apostolic grace. Consider what happens when you throw a rock in a pond…the impact of the stone hitting the water creates a series of waves. This is what we call the ripple effect. Just like the ripple effect apostolic grace sets apostolic dynamics in motion throughout the Body of Christ.

IDENTIFY THE DOMINATE FIVE-FOLD MINISTRY GIFT

If you take the time to step back and look at the Church you can see a pattern of ministry. Our services have a structure. We open in prayer, sing some songs, make announcements, receive an offering, preach or teach the Word, have an altar call, and, finally, close with more prayer. The dominant grace of the main leader of that local church is set in motion during those services.

Every church has a dominant gift that leads and influences the direction of that church. If we are a pastoral church we focus on caring, counseling, and nurturing our members. And, of course, there is nothing wrong with that. If we have a five-fold teacher as the main leader then we would be well versed in the Word of God. If we have a five-fold prophet as our set-man we would be more open to prophetic words, deliverance ministry, stronger prayer, and spiritual warfare. But what if we have an apostle as our main leader? What would the dynamics in the church be then? What would the ripple effect of that grace release? Could it be possible that an apostolic five-fold gift would release something a bit different?

FIVE-FOLD MINISTRY GIFTS

These questions mark the importance of studying the various five-fold ascension gifts. How can you draw out what you don't know exists? It's extremely important to point out that the apostle's gift, listed as first (1 Corinthians 12:28), is still only one of five specific ascension gifts. All five gifts are extremely important, and for the church to function fully it needs all five for the perfecting of the saints. Let's take a look at some of the things that the apostolic might release.

Copyrights (c) Jonas Clark Ministries