Five-Fold Today - An Apostolic Vision - Brace Yourself, the Hand of the Lord is Coming Down on the Church - The Revelation of Jesus Christ
An Apostolic Vision
"For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face."
About 18 months ago I was driving a friend and prophet to the airport when
I had a brief open vision of a tremendous move of God. It was distant on
the horizon, like a squall line.
"This will be the real office of the Evangelist," the Lord told me.
"What have we seen so far?" I asked.
"You have seen in a mirror dimly," He said.
For months it burned in my spirit that our contemporary understanding of
the dispensations of the Five-Fold ministry offices was not complete.
Most of us can trace the outline:
Just recently the Lord began reminding me of a photograph I took years ago
for a college photography class. It showed the reflection of the sky and a
set of corrals.
"In a mirror dimly," I heard again. I then realized that in the photograph
reality is actually the reverse of the image.
And the Lord showed me this:
The apostles and the prophets are truly to be the foundation of His
end-time move. That which is reflected last in the mirror -- the apostles
and prophets -- will actually be first in His coming move and we are
presently in a time of transition between the dim image and
a glorious reality.
Soon apostles will take their rightful place and they will establish
proper order and government. Situated beneath the head of Christ, they
will provide fatherly direction and sacrifice.
The Apostle will cover and release the Prophet into his true ministry and
he will speak without restriction. His words will be creative and creating.
The declared word of the Prophet will release the Teacher who will
search out and confirm all that is spoken in the written Word. He will be
a father first, which is better than having ten thousand teachers.
This established confirmation will provide release for the new office of
Pastor. This new pastor will be a shepherd who has been purged of all
hireling spirits and is dedicated to the provision of the sheep.
The nurture and mentoring provided by the true Pastor will ignite the
Evangelist. This new evangelist will be one with Good News, not one with a
mixture of good and bad. Even what seems "bad" from his mouth will be good
because of its purity. It will be truth and love.
Because this progression will be like the oil dripping down Aaron's head,
all will be blessed by the anointings that preceded it. Consequently, the
Prophet will be apostolic; the Teacher will be apostolic and prophetic;
the Pastor will be apostolic, prophetic, and an insightful teacher.
And the endtime company of evangelists will walk in all of the anointings.
They will declare that which is unseen and it will become seen. The Word
of God will be fire on their lips and their love for the lost will have
them seeking out the uttermost parts of the earth.
We are now standing in the period of transition. To our one side is the
mirror that reflects the natural. The movements of the previous decades
were God-ordained, but they were birthed from the bondwoman. Like the Law,
the mirror only reflects a small portion of a Greater Glory.
If we are looking to the past then the mirror is before us and the doorway
to the future is behind us. We must turn and behold a new thing. For our
ears shall hear a word behind us saying, "This is the Way, walk in it."
BRACE YOURSELF! THE HAND OF THE LORD IS COMING DOWN UPON THE
CHURCH!
In a startling prophetic experience, the Lord said, " I have a
message for the Church!"The message is - "Brace yourself! The
hand of the Lord is coming down upon the Church." I said
"Lord!" that sounds threatening, He replied "It is!"
THE HAND OF THE LORD
The hand of the Lord deals with His Divine Government. His hand
will come down and commence to shake down everything He has
not built. The hand of the Lord also speaks of the functioning
fivefold ministry flowing together. The Word of God declares in
Psalm 127:1 "Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in
vain who build it; unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman
stays awake in vain." The writer of the book of Hebrews warns us
concerning this upcoming shaking, in Hebrews 12:25-29 declaring
See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not
escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we
not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,
whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised,
saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also
heaven." Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of
those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made,
that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore,
since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us
have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with
reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.
God Is Going To Deal With Our Foundation
God will Demolish Man s Self-glorifying Efforts.
God is beginning to reveal and shake down every work that is not
of HIM. The example of how He dealt with the tower of Babel is a
warning for all who attempt to build a name for themselves. In
Genesis 11:1-9 Now the whole earth had one language and one
speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that
they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.
Then they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and
bake them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they had
slime for mortar. And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a
city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name
for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the
whole earth." But the LORD came down to see the city and the
tower which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said,
"Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and
this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do
will be withheld from them. "Come, let Us go down and there
confuse their language, that they may not understand one
another's speech." So the LORD scattered them abroad from
there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the
city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD
confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD
scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
God is again destorying every effort of mankind to build a name
for themselves and attempting to get to heaven without God. This
coming judgnment of God will deal with fruit as well as foundation.
The Refiner s fire will only serve to purify and make more
precious the true faith. (See Malachi 3:1-3)
The Tower of Babel was an ancient tower symbolizing man's pride
and rebellion that was built during the period after the flood. The
teachings are many for us in this display of God s disapproval of
our efforts to seek a name and a place for ourselves apart from
the Spirit of God. We must remember salvation is from the Lord,
man can not work his way into the kingdom of God. (See Eph.
2:8-10) also (Titus 3:5-7).
Brick In The Place Of Stone- Bricks Speaks of the work of man.
The tower was constructed of brick, brick is always the type of
man s labors and man s work. Man builds with brick because they
are all formed alike, uniformity is not a substitute for true unity,
however bricks are an inferior substitute for stone. ( see Is. 9:10).
No matter how big a tower we build it is nothing for God to shake
down. To men the tower is a architectural monument Deut. 1:28,
but to God it is so small that He must come down from heaven to
catch a glimpse of this tiny endeavor. The construction of the
tower and city is described as an act of self-glorification by the
builders. Mankind continuously plays the role of a fool when he
attempts to seek for his own protection, attempting to be his own
salvation. It is a mistake to seek salvation and help from any
source except God. See Proverbs 14:12, and Acts 4:12.
OUR FOUNDATION IS FUNDAMENTAL
Foundation is the strong, stable base on which a building is built.
Jesus spoke very powerful about foundations in the Sermon on
the Mount, teaching that believers should build their faith on the
strong, solid foundation of obeying His Word. The apostle Paul
also referred to Christ as a foundation for believers (See1 Cor.
3:11). The Prophet Isaiah reveals how precious and powerful
Christ Jesus is in Isa 28:16 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:
"Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a
precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not
act hastily.
In this vision I was told that we must examine the foundation to
make sure it was solid. It is crucial that we have the correct
foundation. Hear the warning of Jesus Christ spoken in Matthew
7:20-27 "Therefore by their fruits you will know them. "Not
everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom
of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
"Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and
done many wonders in Your name?' "And then I will declare to
them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness!' "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine,
and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house
on the rock: "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the
winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was
founded on the rock. "Now everyone who hears these sayings of
Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built
his house on the sand: "and the rain descended, the floods came,
and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great
was its fall."
Notice Jesus was inspecting the foundation not just the deeds
being done. This is a strong warning, against just trusting in what
one does as evidence that they are right with God.
EXAMINATION TIME
It is time for some very close investigation and examinations.
Hear these instructions found in 2 Cor 13:5 "Examine yourselves
as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not
know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?-- unless indeed you
are disqualified". It is time to ask the Spirit of God to turn on the
search light and expose everything false and fake in our life.
The only sure foundation is the Word of God. Paul writes in 1 Cor
3:11-15 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is
laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation
with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work
will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be
revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort
it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will
receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss;
but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. The fire of
God s judgment will only work the work of purifying if our foundation
is correct and will only prove what we have built.
THE SURE SOLID FOUNDATION
Jesus Christ is the only true Cornerstone and Foundation. Ps
118:22-23 The stone which the builders rejected has become the
chief cornerstone.
This was the LORD'S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. We are
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the
building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the
Lord: In whom ye also are builder together for an habitation of
God through the Spirit.
THE FIVE-FOLD MINISTRY
This coming Government of God s hand will be the functioning
five fold ministry spoken of in Paul s letter to the Church at
Ephesus in Eph 4:11-14 And He Himself gave some to be
apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and
teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect
man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that
we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried
about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the
cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.
We are experiencing the unfolding of the promised five fold
ministry. Thank God for how the Spirit of God is releasing
understanding about the roles and responsibilities of these
ministries. God is bringing about a team ministry that will prepare
the Saints for the work of service. The Christian life was never
intended to be something we observed someone else doing. It is
time to be actively serving Jesus.
THE PROPER POSTURE AND POSITION
In response to the warning of "brace yourself" I questioned
"Lord! How can we be ready for the hand of God?" He said only
in the place of true humility. It is time to get honest and humble
before the Lord. We have been brought to a place of real
repentance. It is a broken and contrite heart that touches the
heart of God. (See Psalms 51:17.
May God grant us the grace to fall upon the Rock in true humility.
Asking God to prune us and cut away from our lives anything that
would keep us from being fruitful for the Kingdom of God. We
welcome this coming shaking in order to deal with any deception.
Remember it is only on Christ the Solid Rock we can stand, all
else is sinking sand. (Amen)
Demonstration Of God s Power Ministry with Bobby Conner
Copyright (c) 2000 Bobby Conner Ministry. All rights reserved.
THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST
"This is the REVELATION of Jesus Christ..."(Rev.1:1) The word revelation in Greek
is
apokalupsis, meaning disclosure, appearing, coming, lighten, manifestation; it
is from the
word apokalupto which means to take off the cover, to disclose! I believe that
it is the
very heart of Christ to REVEAL Himself. Consider even His name, the Word of God
(Rev.19:13)... a word REVEALS the heart, the intents and purposes of an individual;
out
of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Yes, even His name demonstrates
His
heart to REVEAL Himself.
As one who operates in a prophetic gifting, I used to think that revelation was
that thing
that happens like a light bulb coming on, suddenly you see or know something
you didn't
know before. It is being REVEALED to me now however, that the 'light bulb'
experience is only the very beginning of revelation. You see, the true REVEALation
of
Jesus Christ is Christ REVEALing Himself IN us and THROUGH us. This book of the
Revelation is not just a series of hidden mysteries wrapped up in symbolism to
keep us
guessing what to expect... rather, it is the systematic REVEALING of Christ in
the
earth... the story of that rock of revelation upon which Jesus told Peter He
would build
His Church, growing into a great mountain that fills the earth with the knowledge
or
REVEALation of Christ (Dan.2:35). It is the REVELATION of Jesus Christ SIGNified
(conveyed in SIGNS and symbols, metaphors) to us concerning the appearing, the
coming, the manifestation of Christ in the earth. We are even shown in this very
first
chapter where to look for His appearing, for it seems that true to His name (the
Word of
God), He was speaking His purpose, "...I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the
Last..."
(Rev.1:11). John turned to see where the Voice came from (sometimes we have to
turn
from our present position to actually see where the Voice is!), "...and ON TURNING,
I
saw seven golden Lampstands..."(verse 12). Now we know from verse 20 that the
Lampstands are the Churches. I believe that the Voice came not only from, "...One
like a
Son of Man..." in the MIDST of the Lampstands, but rather as a collective voice
of the
Lampstand as the One like a Son of Man spoke through the Lampstands. Why do I
say
this?... because verse 15 says "...His voice was like the sound of many waters...",
and
waters/ seas are symbolic of people (Rev.17:15). WE are the voice of Christ in
the earth
as He speaks THROUGH us!
Also we must keep in mind that when John speaks of seven golden Lampstands (this
would have been obvious to the readers of his day), his symbolic reference was
to the
Golden Lampstand of Zech.4 and the Golden Lampstand of the Tabernacle. Exodus
25:31-37 tells us that this Lampstand was actually seven lamps in one Lampstand...
I
believe this is what John was seeing, not seven separate Lampstands. Ex.25:32
says
"...Six branches shall come out of the sides of it..."; keep in mind that six
is the symbolic
number of MAN and Jesus said "...you are the branches...". There was to be a
seventh
lamp on the shaft in the midst of the branches... keep in mind that seven is
the symbolic
number of completeness or perfection and the Son of Man, Christ was in the MIDST
of
the Lampstands. Eph.4:12-13 speaks of this, "His intention was the PERFECTING
and
full equipping of the saints.. unto the PERFECT MAN...". Of utmost importance
is the
fact that, "...its base and its shaft, its cups, its knobs, its flowers (the
branches) shall be
OF ONE PIECE..."(verse 31); the entire Lampstand was to be of ONE PIECE of gold
(gold is symbolic of divine nature). The Branches are of the same divine nature
(gold) as
the Shaft in the midst... they were ONE with the Shaft. Jesus prayed to the Father
in John
17:21-23, "...that they also may be ONE IN US... that they may be ONE even AS
WE
ARE ONE: I in them and You in Me in order that they may be ONE...". So the picture
we
have here is NOT a separate Christ in the middle of separate Lampstands, but
rather ONE
Golden Lampstand expressed in sevenfold completeness; six Branches representing
MAN, the seventh SHAFT representing Christ in the midst of the Lampstand, the
Branches and Shaft all of the same (gold) divine nature. "And you are IN Him...
you too
are filled with the Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and reach full spiritual
stature..."(Col.2:10). I believe this is a picture of the Perfect Man spoken
of in Eph.4:13
of which WE are the Body and Christ is the Head "...that in all things HE may
have the
preeminence...". "When Christ Who IS OUR LIFE appears, then YOU ALSO will
APPEAR with Him in the splendor of His glory..."(Col.3:4). Let us earnestly desire
His
appearing! Let His Voice, speaking words of Light and Life, go forth in the earth
through
His Lampstand proclaiming that He is indeed "...Alpha and Omega, the First and
the
Last..."! Didn't Jesus say "...YOU are the Light of the World... A city set on
a hill cannot
be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a LAMPSTAND,
and it
gives Light to all in the house. Let your Light so shine before men..."(Matt.
5:14-16).
THIS is the REVEALation of Jesus Christ!... Christ APPEARING in the MIDST OF
the
Lampstand, shining forth His glory, His Light, His Voice speaking words of Light
and
Life! Let the REVEALation of Christ fill the earth!
Wednesday, March 29, 2000
by John L. Moore
I Corinthians 13:12
1950s: The Evangelist
1960s: The Pastor
1970s: The Teacher
1980s: The Prophet
1990s: The Apostle
Bobby Conner
March 2000
Box 1028 Moravian Falls, NC. 28654
For forwarding do not change, or add to, or delete anything.
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http://www.BobbyConner.Org/
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