Resurrection of good thinking

S. Sekou Abodunrin

1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deut 13: 1 - 3

When it says “dreamer of dreams” in that passage he is referring to a bona fide means by which the prophet’s office manifested in the Old Testament. This was one way that those ministries engaged the realm of visions. More properly a prophet is called a seer, he is one who sees. This seeing often came through prophetic dreams, which is referred to here as dreamer of dreams.

It seems that given the multiplied amounts of “prophetic and apostolic” conferences that have been hosted around the world we still largely know so little about what is really prophetic and apostolic.

The Lord used Moses, a genuine prophet, to bring beautiful instruction as recorded above.

The germ of the instruction above flies in the face of our current understanding, pursuit and practice of the supernatural especially where that which is called prophetic is concerned. What do I mean by that? You see, some people think that if there is a genuine manifestation attesting to the presence of God in a gathering, it must mean that the Lord endorses all that is happening.

Did you notice that the passage above is not even discussing a prediction that did not come to pass? It is assumed that the prediction came to pass. All you need in order to get to us charismatics is to just cite examples of the minister’s accuracy in the expression of the gifts of the Spirit, but is “accuracy” everything?

Do you realize that he is describing an area of trauma that is peculiarly true for those of us that accept the validity of the prophet’s ministry in our day? Think about it, if I do not believe in the ministry of a prophet, it doesn’t matter how many ways you exercise that ministry in my presence such expressions are not a door through which you would get to me. The real danger here is for us that rightly believe in the validity of the prophet’s for today.

The passage above shows that a prophet or a prophetic ministry could give accurate predictions that do come to pass and yet still fail the ultimate test. The ultimate test of any called ministry is not just the power, rapidity and accuracy of their predictions but the message that is tied to such operations.

The truth is that being humans there is a tendency to promote a message on the back of an accurate expression of the Spirit. If the manifestation is correct, but the message is wrong, then the message is to be rejected and the minister prayed for. The hearer is required to test the prophecy AND the message.

There is a key that we see in that passage. The key is this: an erroneous message does not thrive only because of the minister who is propagating it. It requires people who have a wrong slant in their hearts in order for it to succeed.

There are certain type of misuses of the anointing that will keep re-emerging in cycles until we learn to submit our heart and emotions to the Lord through his word. Some people assume that if miracles are prevalent then the message must be correct! That is not necessarily the case.

Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God 1 Corinthians 4:1

According to the word really, a minister is the servant or minister of Christ. In reality a minister will give account to his master. How we are hungry to have Christ ministered. There is a wealth in that term – minister of Christ! When Christ is not ministered, when he doesn’t gain influence, when his largeness is not communicated and received it leaves us in the waters of babyhood and robs us of functioning in the mind of Christ.

It is our responsibility as hearers, as people that give ministries audience, to check our hearts as to why we allow certain things to gain prominence by the attention that we give to them.

You see, I do not think that believers often use the level of authority that God has given to us in these matters. We cannot directly correct ministers, and that is simply because they are Christ’s servants and not primarily our servants. That is important. Be careful how you treat a minister of Christ.

While we do not have the scriptural right to directly correct a minister, there are equally effective ways to cause a minister to seek repentance. You see, a minister needs you to listen to him.

The Lord said through that wise man, Moses, that we are not to hearken to the words of such prophets!

I know of very few believers that will be disciplined enough in the spirit of love and in reverence for the word to know not to hearken to such. Some other people respond that God should stop the minister and that if God doesn’t stop the minister it must mean that he is in support. Hmm – how unscriptural can we get in our reasoning?

Think about it, if God calls you up to heaven every time you missed it, you know how many times you would have had to be resurrected? We must remain tender in our heart and not expect that the Lord will not extend mercy towards men.

You see, God has given us his word and his spirit within our new nature to build our resistance to these cheap substitute messages that we so readily fall for in the name of “spirituality”.

If a message has no followers then the “leader” is only influencing himself. That is key. It is likely that a fellow who wouldn’t be true to the word and will propagate unscriptural things because of miracles will also likely be a man who is moved by how people respond to his message.

The truth remains that it is the slant of our hearts that empowers certain ministers to be able to propagate the messages that rides on the back of the miracles.

Remember that parable below:

Bark like a dog, roar like a lion and by the presence of gold dust, hundred and thousand fold returns shall the angel Emma appear to and lead many into the land of nod where they shall have many minds suspended from scriptural reasoning and many brains unexercised.
1 cor 4:40

I wanted you to laugh at that, but really it isn’t far-fetched just turn on the TV set and these things are already on Christian television. We will have a return to a deep love for Christ-centered living.

There is a genuine, scriptural and tangible expression of the Spirit of God as the Spirit of Glory and of a sound mind and it is coming back to the church in a stronger measure than what we have seen in the last four decades. There is coming a restoration of good thinking and deep reverence to the church.

The Foundation of Apostles & Prophets

S. SEKOU ABODUNRIN

I have met many Christians who insist that there are no more apostles and prophets, and that all that we have today are pastors and evangelists and nothing more. According to Ephesians 4 though, the intention of God is to have the 5 offices of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers for the perfection of the saints … till we all come unto the stature of the fullness of Christ. There is a lofty ideal expressed there and you have to realise that God is not in the habit of using five to do what two are able to do.

According to Jesus the full operation and working together of the five offices mentioned above is required to bring about the expressed purpose of perfecting the saints. Any casual observer can tell you that we have not attained to any of those ideals as yet, and it is obvious that if those five offices working together are required in the economy of God, then it cannot be a job that only two of the five can accomplish. Clearly then we still have all of those offices in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ today.

I expect that you are scripturally smart enough to realise that not all that go by the catchphrases apostolic, prophetic or apostolic-prophetic are of any genuine spiritual significance. Some of it is just unbiblical reasoning garbed in beautiful phraseology. It seems that there is a concerted effort to misuse and abuse the prophet’s and apostle’s ministry today and so there is a dire need to be scripturally sound in the things of the Spirit.

Let us receive of the ministry of true apostles and prophets. We have to be open to all that is available in God. That’s the key - “all that is available in God”. There are things we are seeing in our day that are definitely not from God. We’d cover that some other day.

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 cor 3.11

According to Paul if any man succeeds at laying any other foundation, he has not really succeeded but failed in the grand scheme of things. He narrows it down to just one foundation and rules out the possibility of any other where the church is concerned.

According to the testimony of the Apostle Paul, there are certain absolutes where the church is concerned. One such absolute is that there is only one foundation that can be laid. The foundation is Jesus Christ. It stands to reason then that any other foundation is purely delusional.

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. Eph 2.20

So, what does he mean when he says “the foundation of apostles and prophets” in the verse above?

In Eph 2.19 Paul borrows a metaphor to show that the saints are the household of God. Therefore he brings in the idea of a cornerstone and foundation.

When trouble broke out in Acts 6, Peter gives us a clue about what he gave the greatest priority to as an Apostle. He said - we would give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. Prayer was a reference to intimacy with God, while the ministry of the word was the revelation that they communicated as a result of that fellowship.

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Act 2.42

The idea is that the disciples continued in the Apostles' doctrine. This confirms that they continued in the Apostle’s ministry of the word. This is likely not a written document as this was the early stage, but nevertheless the Apostles' ministry of the word was the key.

The idea is that the Apostles supplied the doctrine that became written down as scripture of the New Testament. This then forms the basis for testing any other revelation that floats around. The Apostles were communicating the revelation of the resurrection of Christ. The Apostle Paul communicated the largest portion of this.

But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 1 cor 1:23

We can pinpoint what the Apostle Paul preached. He said, "we preach Christ and him crucified". This wasn’t only him for if that was the case he would have said " I preach Christ", rather he said 'we' – "we preach Christ". In other words they spoke about Christ from the basis of the redemption that he has provided.

We can see then, that the 'foundation of the apostles' is not a reference to the apostle as a person or as a ministry gift, but to the object of their testimony, which is Christ. The foundation that the apostle provides is a revelation of who Christ is.

Apostolic testimony then is an amplification of the person of Christ with tangible proof. The core of apostolic testimony is not religious weirdness or some unscriptural idea formulated out of thin air, which is not rooted in the revelation of Christ. We have some insight into what is meant by "the foundation of the Apostles".

Sometimes you will hear the expression – 'the law and the prophets' used together and at other times just the law or the prophets.

King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. Acts 26:27

This is a reference to Paul’s mighty defence before the noble king Agrippa. There is that phrase “the prophets”. When he asked if the king believed the prophets he was in effect asking if Agrippa believed the records of the Old Testament.

Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Lk 24:25,27

I want you to watch that term “the prophets”. Here we see that from the way that Jesus used it, it was a reference to the document we know as the Old Testament. He was in effect saying that the guys have refused to believe the word of the Old Testament.

In effect they were sad, not because of the events surrounding the death of Jesus, but their refusal to believe what the word had already said about it.

You notice that this is the first incidence on record that Jesus taught his disciples from scripture about his death and resurrection. From the way that Jesus used the prophets then we see that they are the first records of the death and resurrection of Christ. The key thought in all that the prophets said is really Christ.

In referring to Moses and the Prophets we are told that he expounded from all the scriptures things concerning himself. Therefore “the prophets” refer to all the scriptures of the Old Testament starting from the writings of Moses who himself was a prophet.

According to Jesus the testimony of 'the prophets' was about himself. They bore testimony to the Lord Jesus. That in itself is another lesson. Some go to the Old Testaments hoping to find laws, statues and ordinances – and they will. The undergirding message though is not about any of those things but about Jesus the True Man.

We can safely say that the phrase “foundation of the apostles and prophets” is a concise way of speaking. It summarizes the testimony that the Old Testament prophets prophesied about Jesus from afar and the testimony that the Lord, by his Spirit, gave to his Apostles after his resurrection. This two-fold testimony presents to us Christ as the promise and as the fulfilment. In other words the completeness that Christ represents.

You realise that the foundation holds the structure above it. If the foundation is based on delusions so is the whole structure on top of it. It is very important then that we understand the testimony of Paul – Christ is the foundation and he is already laid. Phrased a little differently the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, the foundation that they provide, centres on the revelation of who Christ is.

The heart of the testimony is that the foundation is already laid by the revelation contained within God’s word.

There are a growing number of people, Christians, spirit-filled Christians, who subscribe to the thought that the apostles and prophets in our midst today form the foundation of the church!

According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. 1 cor 3:10

Apostles do lay foundations, even as we see to be true in the verse above. However the apostles or prophets are not the foundation or the base on which everything or anything rests in the church – Christ is. When true Apostles function, they lay a foundation – Christ is that foundation. You realise that according to scripture, Apostles and Prophets are not the foundation of any church – well, at least not the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We need to be apostolic and prophetic again. I hope you understand that that means a return to the ministry of the word as a revelation of Christ with power and great glory!

Elijah, the Widow and the Rest of us

S Sekou ABODUNRIN

I encourage you to read the piece in 1 kings 17: 9 – 16 many times over before proceeding

25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath Lk 4: 25 – 28

The story of Elijah and the widow is replete with instruction for our day. Some might think that this was an everyday occurrence in Elijah’s powerful ministry, but in reality Elijah clearly didn’t have an anointing that flowed in his life that “guaranteed” that every one who “sowed into his ministry” would have a supernatural financial turn around. If he had claimed such, he would have been fleecing the impressionable widow who was in a dire situation. We know this to be the case because the Lord Jesus said that Elijah was sent to one widow alone. For all we know then this event was not repeated. Elijah was not aware that millennia later there will arise precious folks who will claim that poor people should sow their last financial resource into their ministry and trust for financial breakthrough.

There is a whole army of new Elijahs it seems. Every one seems to have a supposed, “debt cancelling” anointing these days. I want you to realise that neither the Old Testament prophets nor any of the New Testament ministries practiced or preached this. It doesn’t make sense to pick and choose what portion of biblical records we will follow. If we stay true to the example set by Elijah, the first thing we need to establish is to recognise and discern what the Lord is saying to the minister and then to understand and discern what the Lord is saying to us.

Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. 1 kings 17:9

If we go into the details of this, the Lord spoke to both parties concerned. He did not leave it to the prophet to go convince or pressure the woman into “sowing”. The Lord commanded Elijah just as he had also commanded the widow. Elijah did not do the convincing or commanding. We see that the Lord had spoken to the widow about Elijah’s sustenance before he spoke to Elijah about the provision that will flow through the widow. That’s the first principle in these matters – you must discern the leading of the Lord for yourself. This leading will not be one-sided. I often hear of people who give because God told a certain minister that all those who give would get such and such!

The pattern seems to be that one should be careful to obtain money from people without finding out what the Lord has instructed them to do. Elijah walked in confidence knowing that the Lord has also spoken to the woman. Some seem to think that whatever a minister says, the Lord has spoken. Let me put it simply, the Lord has a voice, he will speak to you by himself or through his word. You are responsible for judging the things you hear. Do not offload this responsibility on someone else no matter how mighty or anointed they are. You do not go about looking for opportunities to disbelieve ministers; neither do you open your mouth like a day-old chick to swallow anything that is spoken to you.

There is another point I want you to see, God instructed Elijah to dwell there. In other words Elijah was required to move to the locality where the widow was. Elijah wasn’t to get up the next morning after eating his meal or receiving the “miracle offering”, climb upon his golden donkey and ride into town to declare himself as “good ground” for the next available widow. If he had done that he would have been wrong. The principle and practice that we see in Elijah is that a minister that makes such pulls for money or the resource of others should be accessible to them.

I have heard of ridiculous things like £7, £77 or some other juxtaposition of 7s! Elijah wasn’t going to require 77 shekels or 777 shekels simply because 7 was the number of perfection. He wasn’t only going to make blanket guarantees to the widow. He was going to stay around to see the widow walk in the turn-around that he had spoken of! The Lord gave Elijah specific instructions. Elijah was to dwell, not roam around.

Put more simply, God didn’t allow his holy prophet the luxury that some of us ministers allow ourselves today. It is common practice to hear a minister tell those that have “sown” in response to the promise of a guaranteed financial turn around, when those things don’t come to pass, that it is likely the “sower” didn’t exercise faith to pull in the harvest! Clearly Elijah didn’t practice such nor did the Lord expect him to.

The pattern we see however is that Elijah was to dwell with the widow such that he was going to be around to pull in the harvest. If faith were called into operation to call in this “harvest” it would be Elijah’s faith. The woman had acted in corresponding action by supplying the resources to sustain Elijah; now the ball was back in Elijah’s court that the word of the prophet must not be seen to have fallen to the ground. It therefore makes sense that God instruct Elijah to move into close proximity and dwell. He was to instruct the woman until the “harvest” came in.

According to the testimony of Jesus, Elijah was sent to only one widow. This instruction that God gave Elijah then wasn’t for everybody, nor was it some universal message. It was singular. If we are not careful we will do some religious arithmetic and end up with some formula like

Mighty prophet + poor widow + gift from widow = supernatural provision for widow

Elijah knew no such arithmetic. The equation I made up above lacks the most important part – what has the Lord spoken to each person personally? Elijah didn’t multiply his revenue stream by enlisting all widows claiming that the “system” works. We know that there were many widows in Israel at that time. If he had built his ministry around this he would have succeeded for people respond to this type of thing. His heart was with his Lord and he wasn’t going to take advantage of the widows for you can imagine what the other widows in town would have tried having seen that things that happened when the widow responded to Elijah.

Apparently Elijah trained Elisha properly. How do we know?

27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. Luke 4:27

Elisha didnt know the supposed bible fact that Naaman could "sow into the anointing"!

If you read the full story about Elisha, Naaman actually offered him money.

Have you noticed that people are more likely to give after a miracle has occurred? Should a wise minister receive such money? Thankfully Elisha didn’t receive such. In this case it wasn’t even Elisha that asked for it! Some that emphasise a money-anointing connection would gladly bring out the offering basket after such a profound miracle asking the fellow who has received the miracle to “sow unto good ground” or name the seed "my miracle turn around" :)

… to be continued