John 15 Jesus says:
Ye have not chosen ME, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in MY name, HE may give it you.
Jesus, from heaven, chooses HIS ministers for HIS church today.
We hear from Jesus and HE has a way of making it clear to us when HE has chosen us. Jesus speaks to us from heaven to call us and to show us that ministry office to which we are called by HIM when HE calls us.
And Jesus teaches us how to do the work for that ministry to which we are called when HE calls us.
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After I was born again, in the night I was transported into heaven. I was with God and Christ and the Holy Spirit. (I saw no physical images. It was a spiritual experience.) At that time, I was merged into the body of Jesus, made one with the Word of God, God and the Holy Spirit witnessing.
A few nights after this, the exact same thing happened a second time.
I was on fire then for things of God!
I owned a small business at that time and I had 3 women who worked for me and they were totally capable of running the business without me. So most days, I stayed home and read the Bible. Some days I also went to a prayer group or a church meeting or a Bible class. But mostly, God taught me as I read the Bible.
God took me to all the passages in the Bible (Old and New Testaments) where prophets were doing the work of God.
At the prayer group, God started teaching me the use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which were assigned to me by God.
As the women were praying one day, I heard: "Look up."
I opened my eyes and looked up and on the wall I saw an outline of a body part. I said to God, "I know that is a part of the body but I don't know which one."
Immediately I heard, "Stomach."
"That's right!" I said. (I remembered the old Pepto Bismol ads of a stomach.)
After the women quit praying, I said, "Does any one have a stomach problem?"
One woman cried out: "I do! I do!"
(This was my first experience with receiving a "word of knowledge", and delivering that word to the church.)
After that, I frequently had a word for the Bible class at church. Our teacher would always say, "Does any one have a word from the Lord." And after he asked that, I would deliver what I had heard from the Holy Spirit.
Often when I attended a prayer group or Bible class, God would give me a word for the group. All I had to do is learn to yield myself to the Spirit and speak at an appropriate time during the meeting.
I Corinthians 14:32-33 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
40 Let all things be done decently and in order.
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Jesus from heaven gives ministers to the church today:
Ephesians 4:8; 11-12 Wherefore HE saith, When HE ascended up on high, HE led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. And HE gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
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As Paul was called by Jesus from heaven, so are we today called by Jesus and appointed to the work of various ministries for the church today.
Acts 9:1-6 And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
3 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou ME?
5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt THOU have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
God may communicate with us in a slightly different way than HE did with Paul or Moses, but HE does reach us to show us that we have a call of God on our lives.
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One day, I was driving down a road in my car and God spoke to me and said: "I have called you and set you in the body of Christ as an apostle."
I cried out, "Apostle? What's an apostle?"
(God had been strongly teaching me from the Bible about the work of a prophet and I believed that was likely my calling but I had no idea at all concerning the ministry work of an apostle.)
I never told anyone at that time about either of these callings.
So often God would give me one of the spiritual gifts when I attended a prayer group or Bible class and I always yielded to God and spoke as appropriate at the group. But I never revealed a ministry calling to anyone by telling them the ministry offices to which I believed I was being trained by God.
I was attending Word of Faith church at the time these things happened to me and one Sunday morning from the pulpit, our pastor, Robert Tilton, said, "Joan Boney is not called as a teacher. She is a prophetess."
I had never told anyone this anywhere.
When Bob said this, our Bible teacher said, "That's it! A prophet." I had been attending his class for about 4 years and often he wanted to tell his class that I was a teacher but he always had a "check" in his spirit when he started to say I was a teacher so he held back these words. Now he knew! I was a prophet!
But no one knew that I was also called as an apostle.
(Remember how I was taken into heaven twice and merged into the body of Jesus, made one with the Word of God?)
After I heard from God concerning apostle, I went to the teacher of the Bible class and asked him, "Who are the apostles at our church group?" He didn't know, though our church professed to believe there are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers in the NT churches today.
I asked our teacher, "What do the apostles do in the church." He didn't know.
I had no human example of the work of an apostle, but God took me to the Bible to teach me.
Acts 15 ... a problem concerning church doctrine arose in the church. The elders and apostles came to Jerusalem to discuss the matter and to present to the church the correct doctrine.
v. 6 And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.
The Pharisees brought an opinion. Barnabas and Paul made a statement. So did Peter.
Acts 15:13-20 And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for HIS name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom MY name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all HIS works from the beginning of the world.
19 Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
This pleased the group so they wrote to the Gentiles and told them these doctrinal decisions.
Today we have the NEW Testament Bible to show us doctrine and to establish the will of God, but many churches today have fallen away from specific Bible scriptures.
Apostles will try to reestablish the NT Bible doctrines in the hearts and minds of the elect of God.
I often speak concerning the following: divorce and remarriage; homosexuals and lesbians; and other sins in the church, presenting scriptures and reasoning through the various scriptures on the issue at hand.
Some churches today get swept away from Bible doctrines in their desire to approve and please people of the world and to try to get these worldly people to "come to church".
But people are not born again through approval of sin. People are born again when the Spirit of God shows them sin and they agree with the Holy Spirit of God, repenting and turning away from their sins, doing such sins no more!
The apostles and prophets today will never turn from the Holy Scriptures but will continually uphold scriptures before all.
These are perilous times as Paul said they would be in the end time church.
2 Timothy 3 Paul warns:
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;
15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
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