From the desk of Steve Shultz:
Every spiritual gift is necessary and even critical in the operation of the last days Church. Apostles and Prophets can function well – only to the extent that they include all the functioning gifts such as (but not limited to) the gift of Pastor, Teacher, Evangelist and other gifts as well.
In this prophetic article by Ben Peters, you will see how the Apostle and Prophet, compared to a football team, must work with the entire range of gifts in the Body.
The Church is transitioning into a higher functioning TEAM model so that the entire team, all of God's family, not only can but MUST "play" together.
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What Is God Saying for 2013?
by Chuck Pierce, Dutch Sheets, Garris Elkins, Bobby Haaby, and Denny Cline
Entire 2013 Elijah List Conference Set
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Ben R. Peters:
It's Time For the Team To Take the Field
Imagine your favorite football star going onto the field by himself or with just two or three teammates to face a full team of big nasty players who don't mind breaking a few arms and legs while they dominate the scoreboard. How much could you expect your star to accomplish?
In many ways, we've waged war on the enemy in a fashion similar to the above illustration. In the past, the Church has let a few anointed pastors, evangelists and teachers do most of the warfare against the enemy on our behalf. More recently, we've sent out some apostles and prophets to take it to the other team, while most of the Church has been watching from the bleachers.
There are times when God uses an apostle or prophet or some other five-fold leader in a powerful way to blaze the trail for others. Such was the apostle Paul. However, he always had one key partner and then developed a well-balanced team that traveled with him wherever he went.
Years ago, God gave me a series of four visions while traveling to Chicago from Spokane, Washington.
Heal One Another and Become a Powerful Team
1. In the first vision I saw a group of people who were staying as far apart from each other as possible, hiding the gifts they carried behind their backs. They were afraid to use their gifts because they feared they would draw unwanted attention to themselves and people would notice their defects and criticize them. But God's hand came down and pushed one man right into another so he would have to open up and let God use him and also heal him through the others in the group.
I felt God was saying that everyone had spiritual gifts, but they also all had problems, which they couldn't solve by themselves. But if they all humbled themselves, and confessed their weaknesses to one another, someone else in the group would have the gift needed to heal them and deliver them from their weakness or habit, etc. Thus they would all use their gifts to heal one another and together they could become a powerful team.
The Five-Fold Ministry and Football
2. In the second vision, I saw a football huddle. There was powerful unity in the huddle. Each man had an assignment and each one was committed to the team to make the play a success. I saw the five-fold ministry on the team. I believe it is a great picture of the way God wants His Church to operate.
The field was the world. What was behind us was the Kingdom of God. What was ahead of us was the kingdom of satan. We were trying to move the yardsticks forward and take territory from the enemy. We were trying to bring light into the darkness.
Apostles and Prophets: The center represents the prophet. He touches the ball first. The ball represents a word from God. The center hikes it to the quarterback – the apostle. The quarterback is responsible to administrate the play so that everyone knows his assignment and then he distributes the ball to the appropriate players.
Pastors and Teachers: The guards and tackles represent the pastors and teachers respectively. They guard and watch over those behind the line and tackle false doctrines and enemy attacks against the leaders, through teaching the truth of the Word of God.
Evangelists: The evangelists are the ball carriers and receivers. They want to go behind enemy lines with the Word of God. There are more of these than any of the other team members. If there is one center, one quarterback, two tackles and two guards, that leaves five players to carry the ball behind enemy lines.
These evangelists are fearless. They know that the whole enemy team will try to take them out when they see that they have the ball. They know they will have to sacrifice their body and experience some pain, but they still have that desire to be the one to carry the ball for the team.
There are many different types of evangelists, as there are of all five ministries. They may be prophetic evangelists, healing evangelists, worship or drama evangelists, etc. But they all have one purpose – to share the good news of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those who need His transforming grace and love.
I believe we have had a great imbalance in the Church in days gone by, with very little Church growth, because those with apostolic and prophetic gifts have focused more on their own ministries than on sending out and empowering the evangelists. Here are what I believe are some of the most important assignments of the apostles and prophets, working together as a team. The prophet gets the direction and the apostle administrates it.
A. First the apostles and prophets affirm and empower the evangelists to go out and bring in the lost into the fold.
B. Next, the apostles and prophets affirm and empower the pastors and teachers to minister healing and vital truths to the new converts.
C. Then the apostles and prophets take time to affirm and empower the new converts to use their own gifts and callings to edify (build up) the Church. This "building up" includes both the number and spiritual condition of the people of God – the Church. Thus we have each person growing in grace and we have a continuous influx of new converts who will also grow in God's grace.
In a football game, the receivers and ball carriers never get the ball until the center and the quarterback release it to them. Evangelists are a rare breed because they are not being empowered in the Church. One reason for this is our current church structure which still remains inadequate in many ways. A transformation is needed. In fact, it has begun.
In the last six months or so I have been seeing an amazing surge in the interest and the subject of five-fold ministries. Many books on the "five-fold ministry" and books on the power of team ministry are once again being read more and more.
The Church is ready for a structural makeover. God's Holy Spirit transformation team is ready to rebuild His Church to His own specifications. The results will be spectacular, to say the least. God's glory will fall and Church growth will skyrocket almost overnight.
Apostles and prophets, are we fulfilling our assignments? Are we spending all our time building our own ministries and then running into a brick wall of the enemy's defensive maneuvers? Or, are we empowering every member of the team to fulfill their destiny and make God's Kingdom grow exponentially?
An Angelic Huddle
3. The third vision was an angelic huddle in the Heavenly realm, right over the huddle on the field. When we get healed through humility and sharing our gifts with each other, and then come into unity with a commitment to the team, the angels prepare to work in tandem with us in the invisible, but very real, realm.
When we work in harmony with Heaven and Heaven works in harmony with us, we will definitely have an unfair advantage over the enemy. Isn't it time we took advantage of our unfair advantage which God gave us with the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit?
Protected By a Canopy of Glory
4. The fourth and final vision was a canopy of glory light over the field. Because of the canopy, the enemy could not summon reinforcements. We had a controlled environment. The enemy was blinded and totally defeated by the glory covering which surrounding us. We will see this come to pass in many ways and many places in the next few years as we press in with worship and seeking God's face.
God is going to give us wisdom and grace to transition from today's one or two person teams to using every available player to the max. Every player is just as important as the other. Each one has a significant assignment, and without every player fulfilling that assignment, the play would fail.
But apostles and prophets have the leadership responsibility to be like Paul, putting the team together and encouraging all the saints to stir up their gifts (see II Timothy 1:6-7). We've played long enough with just the superstars. It's time to field a full team and go out and show our enemy what an amazing Coach we have, Who has given each one of us awesome and wonderful supernatural abilities to transform the assorted trophies of His amazing grace into a powerful and victorious team.
GO TEAM!
Ben R. Peters
Kingdom Sending Center
Email: ohmint@gmail.com
Website: kingdomsendingcenter.org
Ben Peters is the co-founder of Open Heart Ministries and Kingdom Sending Center, along with his wife, Brenda. He has authored twenty books to date, including Folding Five Ministries Into One Powerful Team, Finding Your Place On Your Kingdom Mountain, Prophetic Ministry, Strategic Key To the Harvest, The Boaz Blessing, and The Ultimate Convergence, An End Times Prophecy. He has also taught Bible college courses, including sessions for Wagner Leadership Institute. He and Brenda have ministered in many nations, with a passion for equipping and sending abandoned lovers of Jesus into the harvest fields of the world, including the seven mountains of society. The Peters live in northern Illinois.
