Whenever the children of God gather together, it is a time when God can speak. In the Old Testament God spoke from within the tent of meeting. Without a meeting of God’s children He would not speak. God’s oracle comes to the congregation of His people. This was true not only at the time of Moses and Aaron, but also when the children of God gathered together in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. When we gather together seeking Him, we are an audience for His speaking. And God Himself is in His speaking. The invisible, mysterious God is manifested in His word. As I speak, it is another opportunity for God to visit us in His speaking.
In the years since the recovery began, it has passed through many marvelous and also terrible things. But, whatever storms have come, the Lord’s recovery is still here. Once the Lord has built the church, it is unshakable and prevailing. Yet I believe that from today the Lord will give us a new beginning. I do not mean a new movement. It is still the old, even ancient, move of the Lord, but with a new beginning.
This new beginning came from one of the messages given during the Ephesians training. While I was speaking that day on Ephesians 4:11, the light came. “And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers.” I saw that all the real believers can and must be like the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers.
Some humble ones may wonder how they could ever be like the apostles. They may feel it cannot possibly be so. Bible teachers, hearing this, might think that such a statement goes too far. But it does not go too far.
The light that came to me is based on Ephesians 3:8, where Paul says that he was “less than the least of all saints.” We consider the Apostle Paul a giant and therefore qualified to be an apostle. In this verse, though, Paul says he is less than the least of all saints. If we feel we are the least of all the saints, Paul says he is less than we are. If we believe Paul’s word in chapter one that God the Father has chosen us before the foundation of the world (v. 4), we must also believe what he says in 3:8, that he is less than the least of all saints and therefore less than we.
If Paul, who was less than the least of all saints, could be an apostle, how much more can you be one! “To each one of us was given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (4:7). Are you included in this verse? Surely each one of us is included. Notice also that the verb tense is past, was given. Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
“And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers” (v. 11). Are you included in this verse? No, you are not! But don’t think you are through. You are in verse 12. “For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.” You are one of the saints to be perfected. Every believer is a saint.
Are those in verse 11-the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers-greater than the saints in verse 12? Here we can answer both yes and no! Yes: The saints must be greater than the apostles and the other gifted ones because Paul, who was an apostle, said he was less than the least of all saints. Even the smallest saint was greater than he. No: The apostles and other gifted ones are greater, because they perfect the saints. It must be the greater who perfect the lesser. From verses 11 and 12 we would think that the gifted ones are greater, but from verse 8 it appears that the saints are greater than the gifted Apostle Paul. From these seeming contradictions we may conclude that all of us, whether saints or gifted ones, are about the same. We are all members of the Body. Paul was a member and so are we.
Notice, then, that you are in verse 7, but not in verse 11; you are also in verse 12. Verse 16 reads, “Out from Whom all the Body, fitted and knit together through every joint of the supply, according to the operation in measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” Surely you are in this verse. “All the Body” includes you. You may not be one of the joints of the supply, but you are at least one of the many parts.
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