ow many times have you asked yourself the following
questions:
- How will I know when I am in a ministry office?
- If someone has prophesied over me that I am a prophet or apostle, does this
put me in office?
- What is the difference between being in ministry and office?
- How can I move from functioning in ministry to office?
It is very commonplace in this day and age to receive
prophetic direction concerning your calling. Perhaps the Lord revealed your
calling to you personally and you now want to know what to do with it all! So
where do you begin? Are you a prophet now? Are you an apostle now? Where do
you start?
Anointed
Well I am going to take my favorite bible character and
paint some pictures for you. Let us take a look at King David. He was the
greatest King who ever lived, but when we first meet him, he is not upon the
throne, but in the meadows looking after his father's sheep. He is called to
Samuel and there in front of his brothers, he is anointed king.
The seal is set upon him! The Lord has let it be known that David is His
chosen one to take the throne after Saul. So where did this leave David? Right
where he began actually. Yep, David went right on back tending his father’s
sheep. Now you might find that strange. Why was there no ceremony, no party,
no uprising to throw Saul off the throne? The answer is simple: David was not
ready yet. That very anointing that came upon him as Samuel anointed him began
a work in that Shepherd boy to shape him into the king he was to come.
Can you identify a time when the Lord anointed you for ministry? It could have
been through a prophetic word, it could have been through a personal
revelation directly from the Lord. Either way, you KNOW the Lord had called
you. But what now? Does this now mean that you must begin functioning in the
office the Lord has called you to? Not at all, what this means is that from
this day, the anointing that was poured upon you, will now begin forming you
into the image of Christ and will be preparing you to take the throne of
office!
Ministry Preparation
After that, it is easy to become full of pride and to say,
"I am a ‘prophet’ or an ‘apostle’ now because the Lord said so." Sure enough,
David was told he was king as well, but that did not make him king did it? He
was not called King David was he? No, the first lesson David learned after
being anointed was humility. After he was willing to go back to the sheep, the
Lord began training David for his ascension to the throne. Where did his
training begin? As a servant in the court of Saul!
Saul called upon him to come and sing to him when he was in fits of rage. So
David, who knew that he was appointed to be king, submitted himself as a
servant to serve in all humility the man he knew had been rejected of God. Now
in our logical minds, this just does not make sense! Was this not the perfect
opportunity for David to usurp Saul and to take the throne? But what you might
not know, was in that humility, David watched and learned. He learned what the
responsibility of a king was. He learned how to submit and what to do as a
king. He also learned what NOT to do as a king. In the background, the Lord
had begun training David to take upon him the office of king!
How about you? Has the Lord led you to sit under the leadership of another?
Have you looked upon those you are beneath and said to yourself, "I can do
this better. Why should I submit to someone who is so out of order?" Could it
be that the Lord has placed you there to learn? It is here that you will learn
the responsibilities of a leader, how to do things and yes, also how NOT to do
things.
Perhaps you are one of those who have said to yourself, "I will never submit
to man, I submit to God alone." Well, had David made that decision, he would
never have ascended the throne. If you are kicking against submitting to
another, when you know that the Lord has led you into such a relationship,
then know that you will not go forward and become a leader until you have
learned to be a servant first.
Training 101
So was David ready now to become king? He had learned
everything he needed to know about kingship. He had studied and got his
degrees. Was he ready now to become king? I have unfortunate news for you –
this one step is the smallest in your ministry training! This was just the
Lord giving you a picture of things to come, now comes the real training!
The first real chance David got to use some of what was within him was when he
faced Goliath. It was in the eyes of many that he got to stand up and use what
he had been receiving all this time. He had studied, he had prayed, he felt
ready! NOW was the time to show them all. And he did. The women sang his
praises, the men slapped him on the back.
"I have arrived! Surely now I am king?"
But it was not to be, there were a few more things David had to face. The Lord
is going to give you an opportunity to rise up and begin using everything He
has poured into you. All your reading and praying will pay off and the gifts
that have remained hidden until now will be given the opportunity to show
themselves in the sight of others. Perhaps you have already experienced this.
Perhaps the Lord has opened the way for you to flow in your gifting and to
minister them forth publicly. Does this put you in office? Does this make you
king? No, all that is happening is that the Lord is using this time to train
you for the ascension to come. There is much more to being king, than to take
down a few Goliath’s with your sling.
Leadership Training
From this time forward, David was whisked away into Saul’s
court and made a commander in the army! He had arrived! He was even offered
Saul’s daughter as a wife. Surely now he was king? Surely now the Lord would
hand him the throne? The people sang his praises and there was not a single
man under his leadership who did not admire and respect him. He was popular,
he was anointed…but was he appointed? No, his time had not yet come.
Yet during this time the Lord taught David what it really meant to be a
leader. First he was a servant, now he was going to be a leader, yet still
under the covering of another. Perhaps this is where you are right now. Have
you been put in a leadership position in the church? Have you been given the
opportunity to function in the gifts that the Lord has given you?
This is wonderful! The Lord is teaching you how to be a leader. He is giving
you the opportunity to grow and to become the kind of minister He has ordained
you to be. But does this put you into office? Does this make you king? No,
there is more to ascending the throne than being made a leader by man.
Training to be King
Then the impossible happened! David was thrown out of
Saul's court to live in the Cave of Adullam! All seemed lost. Who would he
lead now? How would he exercise his ministry now? How could the Lord possibly
use him in the desert? Yet the Lord had everything in hand and had a very
special plan for David. Here David learned how to overcome the system within
his own heart. For the first time he got to be a true leader and to stand up
for his convictions.
The Lord did not make it easy for him either! Firstly the Lord turned the
whole of Israel against David! Because of Saul’s rage, not a single man or
woman was to mention the name of David. The priests that helped David were
slaughtered! So there David is, no singing women, no hero-worshipping
warriors. Just David, alone in the wilderness, with a few family members. Then
the Lord made it more difficult for David and brought him all the scoundrels
and outcasts of the day.
Imagine how hard it must have been to lead these undisciplined men! Haven’t
you found that the Lord does this to you sometimes? He puts you in the worst
of circumstances so that as you overcome those, you can face any other that
come your way.
So in the most unlikely of conditions the Lord now began to train David in
earnest to become king over His people! In the cave and in the wilderness,
David learned how to lead, he learned how to love and he learned how to
sacrifice everything – even his own wife – for the sake of the calling on his
life. Did this make David king? Did this appoint David to office? No, this was
simply a single step towards that office!
Perhaps you have lived this part already. Not only did you leave the system –
but you were chased out! No one was allowed to fellowship with you. You were
left alone with yourself and your family by your side. Perhaps you were
worried for your children, perhaps you were lonely and felt rejected. But do
you now realize that it is here that the Lord will train you to become his
king?
Will You Become the Enemy?
During this time, David had the perfect opportunity to
become the enemy of Israel! The Philistine King Achish, gave David and his men
Ziklag as a place for them to stay. Here David was with the enemy on his side!
Now was the time when he could use these means to become king! But did he? No,
even in his banishment David fought for the people of God and went out
destroying neighboring Philistine cities – not leaving a single survivor! King
Achish would ask him of his conquests and David would reply that it was the
cities of Israel he had been destroying, when in fact he was killing the enemy
right in their midst!
Can you not see why the Lord has placed you in obscurity? Can you not see why
he has led you to remain within the enemy's land? Because it is here that you
will defeat the enemy from within! Even while you are being rejected by others
in the system, you will be fighting for the strengthening of the Kingdom of
God! Now you have a choice to make. You can either use this time to try and
puff up your own kingdom, by tearing down other men and women of God. Or you
could use this time to undermine the enemy and take back the land he has
stolen, so when the time comes for you to rise up as king – you can take the
spoils with you!
Appointed
Eventually after many years of trials and tribulations,
there came a time when Saul fell into the hands of the Philistines and the
tribe of Judah sought David out to be their King. Seven years later the entire
nation of Israel sought David to be their king! He had endured his season of
affliction. He knew how to be abased and to abound. In fact, David had been
through so much in those years that I think that he had given up the thought
of being king quite a few times! Yet when David had come to the end of himself
and was willing to just do what God had told him to do, the Lord arranged the
circumstance for David to ascend to the throne.
The commanders came and laid their swords at David’s feet, the elders of the
city came and put David upon the throne! And so all bowed before their new
king, a king who would be the most powerful king of their time! This was a
time in the life of David and a time in the era of Israel.
Looking at your own life can you without hesitating recall the time of your
coronation? When were you put into office? Have you faced the preparation and
the training? Perhaps you are still looking after the sheep, perhaps you have
just received a word that you are called. Perhaps the Lord has just quickened
to you the reality of the calling on your life. Perhaps your pastor has
recognized the call on your life. Perhaps others have submitted to your
leadership and recognize the calling on your life. Does that appoint you to
office?
No, it takes more than being recognized and flowing in the gifts to stand in
office.
This pattern remains the same right through to the New
Testament where we see Paul and Barnabas being set aside for the work by the
laying on of hands by direction of the Holy Spirit. Even Jesus was appointed
by a prophet the day he was baptized by John the Baptist and the Holy Spirit
descended upon him as a dove and remained. You see, it takes more than the
appointment of man to set you in office. It takes the appointment of the Holy
Spirit and being released by a prophet or an apostle of God who is already in
office.
Until you can recall a specific time and date where the Lord set you into
office and appointed you to the throne, as it were, then you are not
functioning in office and cannot wear the titles of that office. You have not
yet arrived and still have a path of training and preparation to walk. I thank
the Lord that there are steps and progressions to be made in your calling!
Further, Higher, Deeper!
What an exciting life we live, knowing that there is always
a higher level to attain to! The day you become complacent and do not desire
to move to the next level, is the day you stagnate and remain on that plateau
for the rest of your life. Know that right now there is another phase. A
higher mountain to climb, a higher office to attain! NEVER be satisfied with a
single portion. Never be satisfied for the Lord to just pour a single measure
into your life. Desire more, hunger after it and take a hold of it!
Know that much awaits you in this glorious future and that as you come to that
place of being put into office, you will truly rise up as an end times leader
in His Kingdom, that you will indeed usher forth a new move into this earth
and that the Church will be changed as a result.
This in a nutshell in the mandate that the Lord has given the GMRN Team, and
as we have made ourselves available to Him, we have been blessed to be used of
Him to put His leaders into office. He has used us to release his leaders into
their mandate and impart the anointing into their lives for their call. This
is the essence of what we have accomplished at the GMR Fivefold Ministry
School and GMR Fivefold Training Center. Yet the greatest excitement we have
is that this is simply the tip of the iceberg, that the expectation we feel in
our hearts is but a taste of things to come. No matter how high we go, how far
we reach and how many great men and women of God we raise up and appoint into
office through this ministry, we have yet to grasp the fullness of what the
Lord has for us.
Men and women of God, NEVER settle for anything less than the fullness! It is
available to you through the Lord. Do not stop at just being anointed and
think you have arrived. Press on through and step into the office the Lord has
for you. Then when you stand and say, "I am a prophet of God," or, "I am an
apostle of God," you can say it with the fullest assurance that you are
anointed, appointed and set in place for this end times move!
