Discerning the True Five Fold

If your church talks about the Word but your home is starving, that disconnect is not “normal life” or “just the price of ministry” it is a warning light. I walk through what healthy biblical ministry actually looks like when Scripture is allowed to define it, not tradition, popularity, or a strong personality. Using the lens of Malachi 4 and Revelation 10:7, I also point to the ministry of the Spirit as the real work of God: Christ writing His Word on hearts of flesh, producing transformation you can see over time.

We start with hard examples like Diotrephes in 3 John, where preeminence, malicious words, and exclusion create spiritual damage. From there, we contrast the old covenant “ministration of death” with the new covenant promise in 2 Corinthians 3 and Jeremiah 31. The real letter of commendation is not a platform, a title, or a following. It is believers who are growing into Christ, not being controlled by fear, shame, or a Nicolaitan system that shuts down the laity and props up one man.

Then we get painfully practical: 1 Timothy 3 makes the home the proving ground for church leadership, and Ephesians 5 calls every husband to lead with agape love that washes with the Word. Ephesians 4 reframes the fivefold ministry as equipping the saints and preparing the next generation, not clinging to power. I also clear up common misreadings that confuse pastoral leadership with headship, because Christ alone is the Head of the church.

Listen, share this with a friend who cares about church health, and if this helped you, subscribe and leave a review. What do you think is the clearest sign of a truly healthy ministry?

Transcript

Welcome And Aim Of Healthy Ministry

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Welcome to the Jason Damars podcast. I want to look at the subject of what healthy biblical ministry is that brings healing, strength, and ultimately spiritual transformation and growth. You can consider this a message about discerning the five-fold ministry, the true five-fold ministry, discerning a true pastoral ministry, and then beyond that, you can look at it as a call to fathers to lead their homes in this way, and as a call to pastors and all ministers to make this their aim and vision for ministry. Greetings, Bible believers and followers of the end time message. Welcome to another episode of the Jason Demars Podcast, the place where we explore the incredible mysteries hidden within the pages of the Bible. I'm your host, Jason Demars. It's time to get started on another journey into the heart of God's Word. If it's your desire to grow in Revelation and see the message in the light of the Bible, you're in the right place. Today, brothers and sisters, we delve into the scripture, guided by the extraordinary revelations that God chose to unveil through Brother William Marion Branham, a messenger with a unique calling to fulfill Malachi 4 and Revelation 10 7 and unlock the secrets of the end time message. Our purpose isn't to have another basic Bible study. We're going to dig deep and peel back the layers of prophecy, decoding the signs and perhaps discovering how the Bible resonates within the very fabric of our present day and time. In this podcast, my purpose is to help you grow in your faith through solid Bible teaching through the lens of the message of Malachi 4. So grab your Bible, a cup of coffee, and let's get started. And remember that your feedback, testimonies, questions, and prayer requests are always welcome. Please send them on social media or at jasendamars.com. With that said, let's get into today's podcast. Now, just want to take a minute and apologize for not being regular with the podcast lately. It's been difficult to keep up with it with the travel schedule I've been keeping. We just got back from Norway last Friday night and we're gone for over two weeks. Prior to that, I was in Zambia. I will do my best to post every week, but the reality is that it'll be likely twice a month moving forward. I'll be out in the Baltimore area the weekend of August 9th, and then up to the Pacific Northwest for several weeks to minister, and my family will be coming with me then. So as we look at this, we'll just jump right into the subject. The same problem that churches face are some of the same problems homes face. And so when we look at this subject, we want to see really the big picture of how this these things are affecting not only

Diotrephes And Motives That Harm

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churches, but also homes and families. So our first scripture that we'll open up with is 3rd John 1, verse 9. I wrote unto the church, but Diatrophes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth not. Verse 10. Wherefore if I come I will remember his deeds which he doeth, praying against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. So we could see that there's a real possibility and danger that there can be false ministry or selfish, self-centered ministry, that though it is word-based, but nevertheless the motives are wrong, and the motives bring bring damage to the believers. So that's just our opening scripture. We're going to look into it more detail towards the end of the podcast. But let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 1. Do we begin again to commend ourselves or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Verse 2, you are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistles of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. Verse three, for as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the mintle of Christ, written by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. And such trust we have, verse four, and such trust have we through Christ

Spirit Writing The Word On Hearts

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to Godward. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. But if the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away. Verse eight, how shall we how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? So we can look at this, and and uh on the one hand we would title it the discerning the true fivefold ministry. On the other hand, we would want to title it as the ministry of the spirit. So we find in these verses that the believers that come to Christ through our ministry and that are feeding on the word under our ministry are called the epistles of Christ ministered by us. They're not the epistles of William Branham or the epistles of Jason de Mars. So it is under the inspiration of Christ that we are writing these letters, and they're not written with ink or on tables of stone, but that they are written by the Spirit of the living God on and in our hearts. So Paul says it takes faith to believe that God is doing this work through our ministry. It is not our own sufficiency, our own wisdom, our own strength that is bringing forth these spirit-born results. It's not by our own power or holiness, as Peter and John said. We are only sufficient for this work because of God and the fact that he is working. So then we go on as we read to find out that it is God that made us able ministers of the new covenant, where he is writing the word on the hearts of flesh, not on stones, and it is a word ministry of the Spirit writing on hearts. The letter on written on stones is the ministration of death. It's not preaching of the word or reading of the word that brings death, but rather rather it is writing the written word on stones, which was the ministration of death, the old covenant. That was the purpose of the old covenant was to show us our sin, and in turn, because of our sinful own sinful hearts, would condemn us to death. But the new covenant is the Spirit writing the word on our hearts, and that is life. So Jeremiah 31, verse 33. This is where the this this understanding about a new covenant comes from. It says, But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. So there is the prophecy. He's gonna write the word in our hearts and in our minds. It's not gonna be written on engraven on stones, but it's gonna be written and engraven on hearts. And Paul is saying, that is our ministry and a letter of commendation. You believers are our letters of commendation. Your spiritual growth and progression and transformation, that is our letter of recommendation, because it's not a letter written with ink, but it's a letter written by the Spirit of the Living God upon the hearts. So this is then done through the fivefold ministry into the hearts of God's elect, God's elected bride. The ministry of the Spirit done through God called men is more glorious than the ministry of Moses. One is a ministry that leads to death because man is sinful by nature and cannot keep the law. The other is a ministry of life because it changes the heart of the man so that he can live the word. If we can boil it down to what our ministries and pastorships and apostleships should be like, is that it is a ministry that brings the grace of God into the heart of man and points people to the change of heart that comes by the Spirit and not to a legalism of rules and laws and forcing the people to change by fear and coercion. Instead, it is by inward instruction. It is the preaching of the word, and that word getting into the heart and bringing a change and transformation which produces a real and genuine maturity. First Timothy chapter three, verse one,

Bishop Qualifications And Family Leadership

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looking at the qualifications. This is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. Verse two, a bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. Verse three, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not coveted, not covetous. Verse four, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Verse six, not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. And verse seven, moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. So as we look at the subject of ministry qualification, I believe this goes directly into being able to discern what is a true minister. Paul is putting forward the character that needs to be into a bishop. And so, what is a bishop? Bishop is an overseer. This is not a man that is overseeing many churches. That's the deed of the Nicolaitans. An overseer is a man called to the ministry of the word in the local church. This is Paul setting in order the local church, and there is always a team, more than one bishop. The book of Acts makes this very clear. They were ordaining elders to be overseers or bishops in each of the churches. And he always speaks in a plural format. Making a man a bishop over many churches, many local churches, comes from Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches. It is a man-made doctrine. And we know this is the doc this is the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. It went from a deed to a doctrine and then to an unbending law. And in the message moving around the world, we have many deeds and doctrines of Nicolaitans. Why do we have this? I believe because we failed to stay faithful to the scriptures, to the message. Get back to the Bible, get back to the word. Stop making your own program and your own denominational system. This local overseer has to have some qualifications in his life. It's not that he's just a great speaker and he holds the people spellbound and uh they're entertained and uh full of emotion because of his preaching and all of his antics that he has at the pulpit on the platform. There must be a weightiness to his life as a man, apart from preaching. So let's look at the list of qualifications and begin to discuss them. Many times we read that list, and I don't know, it's in an older English, and so it's these some of the words have gone out of use, and so it's easier sometimes to look at those definitions. So he must be blameless, blameless, must be a married man with one wife, not divorced and remarried, or a polygamist. He must be vigilant, sober, he must have good behavior, he must open his home to fellowship with believers. He must be a man that teaches his wife and family well and is gifted at it. He's not a man that loves the pleasures of wine and strong drink. He cannot be a quarrelsome or violent man, he cannot be a man that is in the pursuit of wealth, he has to be patient and not desirous of verbal fights and battles. He has to lead his house well, he has to have his children obedient to him with respect, not obedient to him out of fear, but out of reverential love. And we find within that, I think the biggest statement that Paul makes there in the comparison, he puts forward a type. If you cannot rule your own house, rule means to preside over, to be a protector and guardian of it. How can you care for the church of God? So truly we could say that our local church leaders and the ministry must be made up of gifted husbands and fathers, men who follow what the word says and apply it in their home. Ephesians six four, and ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Colossus three nineteen husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. So a minister is a man that is he's leading his house well, he's ruling over his house well. It's not disorderly, he has a focus on it. We could say it that way. It isn't a secondary pursuit. His family isn't something that's over to the side. His family is very dear and important to him, not just that they look the part, but that he is literally leading them to Christ. He is, however, he does it, you know, some people do constant everyday Bible studies with their family and times of family worship. I think that's every Christian should do that. But it should be a daily, continually, constant time where dad is teaching and leading through every life circumstance, both his wife and his children, and that they enjoy and appreciate and are not rebellious against his leadership, and that he would treat his children, his wife and his children, just as he would treat the members of the local church. That he wouldn't look at them as his primary responsibility, but he would look first as his family as his primary responsibility, and that when there was a need there, that he would be just as he would for a believer, he would drop everything, and that he would go to pour himself into that need. God comes first, family comes second, the church comes third. Ephesians 5 25. So there's there's a there's husband as a as a man, we shouldn't be bitter against our wife. In other words, we shouldn't we shouldn't come to this place where we feel this bitterness or this resentment in our heart against her because of the way she behaves, but they we would be able to sit down and communicate with her and bring reconciliation and correction. And then with our children, that they would we would not provoke them to wrath. How do we provoke them to wrath? By dealing them with them harshly. Not dealing with them harshly, but loving them and raising them in the teaching and correction of the Lord. Ephesians 5 25. Husbands, love your wives, agape your wives. It's not a sexual love, but this is a love that is putting the the best, the highest spiritual growth as the center for your wife, even as Christ also agape the church and gave himself for it. 26. That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. 27, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Verse 28, so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies, he that loveth his wife loveth himself. For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. Verse 31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. Verse 32. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Verse 33. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. So again, this is the word agape love. It is not a sexual love, this is divine love to your wife, to lead her in such a way that your teaching and ministry to her would wash her with the word. This is every husband, not just a pastor, not just a missionary, every husband is that he is teaching and ministering to her and loving her in a way that washes her with the word, just as Christ does the church. You have to nourish and cherish your wife spiritually. You lead her and teach her and speak to her about spiritual things. That's not the pastor's job, that's not the apostle's job. That is the work of a husband. That is how he is to love his wife in this way, that he's living in such a way that he's laying down his life for his wife. He's not to put his own selfish needs and desires first, but to put Christ first and then his family. Amen. And so there's only one way that we can fill up those around us, is that we would be filled first. So in that sense, we have to pursue Christ first, be filled up by him, be filled with the word, be filled with his life, be filled with his joy, and then we can be that vessel that is pouring out into pouring out of Christ into others. So in that way, we put Christ first, and then because we put Christ first, then we can pour out into our family, not selfishly, but for the word. So this is the example of a man that leads his family well, and it means now he's qualified to be in the ministry. It's not a man that ruins his family through his selfish pursuits of personal glory in ministry or personal growth in ministry. If you ruin your family through the lifting up of your own ministry, you're no qualif no longer qualified to be in the ministry. You should sit down and let someone else who is qualified take the job. A gifted husband is the one who is qualified to care for the local church. So we'll come back to love and look at the big picture there, but before we do that, we want to turn to Ephesians 4 and start at verse 8. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Skipping ahead to 11, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Verse 12, for the work perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Verse 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And this is Christ's

Fivefold Ministry That Equips Homes

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ministry, as we saw before. Believers are epistles of Christ written by us, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God. The gifts he gives to the church come in the form. Of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And the man himself is not the gift, but the gift operating in his life is the gift to the people. And these are sent for the purpose to perfect the saints. This word perfecting is a different word than what we normally see as perfect in the New Testament. Telios is the normal word in the Greek New Testament, but this is not teleos. Telios means complete or mature. This word is katartismos, and it means complete qualification for a specific purpose or equipping. So what is that specific purpose? The scripture says the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So the fivefold ministry is sent to equip fathers to lead their families, and mothers to guide the home by the word, and the body as a whole to understand their ministry to one another in edification. And it is for the end and purpose that we would come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So the ministry is not merely for the healing of the body and for the saving of the souls. Yes, that's the job of the whole body. Mark 16 is for every believer. The gifts of the Spirit are for every believer, but the ministry is to equip fathers to lead their home well. A minister is a man gifted in leading his home. That's what qualifies him. And so therefore he can work to equip or teach men how to lead their homes. Unfortunately, we've made the gift, meaning he can speak well, he can preach well, and we haven't looked at his his home and his life. And then even so, his ministry has it grows to a place where it takes preeminence over his own home. And then you see, time and time again, all around the world, all around the messages, we have families of ministers falling apart. And why are they falling apart? Because the minister is putting the church above his own family. And this is a sin. This is an evil. This is a corruption. And the man, if he can't lead his family well, then he is disqualified for ministry, and the church should have a vote, vote him out of that position, and he should sit down. And another man who's leading his family well, uh, is gifted at leading his family, can take his place to be able to lead the church. So if we have a if we have churches full of people that have broken homes and divorces, and their children are running from the message, it shows me we have a sick church, and something's very wrong. Something's very wrong when our churches are full of people from generations of broken families. And you see, you ask and start to see, and you find out they're all they all grew up in the message. Why would our churches and why would the ministries be producing broken homes and broken families? It's because the ministry is not qualified itself. They might be able to speak, they might be popular. But if they haven't led their family well, what is it going to produce? Messed up families. The Bible says that God takes the fatherless and sets them in families. If you can catch it in this way, it means it takes the the true ministry of God takes broken people and makes them whole so they don't repeat the evils of their past life of a broken home. They get married and raise children to never do such things. So if the fruit of our ministry is divorce and children leaving the gospel, then we should quit and sit on the pew until we learn what ministry really is. This is a great this is a great danger and a great evil that we're facing right now in the message, is you we have anointed preachers and the sick are healed, but the families, the husbands, the wives, the children are sick spiritually. If the husband and wives are not producing healthy, spiritually healthy children, then it shows there's something wrong with that marriage. And if the church is not producing healthy families, there's something wrong with the ministry. It's broken, it needs repentance. Some ministries, uh, they're they're they've grown, they're big, and everybody looks at them and pats them on the back, and they're they have churches where they're collecting all kinds of tithes. But the reality is, and and tithes from uh many places, people are streaming their service from all over. It comes to a place where it almost doesn't even uh matter what the condition of the local church is because so many people are sending their tithes from streaming their services that it doesn't even matter what the local church is, it's become a cesspool of corruption. And the devil is having his way, producing broken homes, broken families, peoples running from the message because they view it as such an unhealthy emotional and spiritual place. Why would our churches and our families, when we're embracing the true word of God, become places where young people would say, this isn't healthy and this isn't a safe place? Why would wives, husbands and wives and people think that it's because the ministry has created such an atmosphere where it isn't healthy and it isn't a safe place? And that's a fact. And we need to repent and we need to turn our focus from producing a big emotional workup and a big emotional meeting where people respond emotionally, but yet their lives are not changed, their homes are corrupted and destroyed, shows there's something wrong. Now I understand, I understand you say, well, people walk away in the best places. Judas was a devil and following Christ, and he had the best, he had the best pastor that's ever been, and he turned away. So I'm not saying, hey, everybody, but I'm saying in general, why would we have churches full of divorcees and churches full of broken homes? Is something wrong, something dead wrong. Let's read once again there in Ephesians 5 25. I want to refocus on this part of it. Husbands love your wives, even if as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. So the duty is for husbands to agape their wives. This is divine love. This is a love like Christ loved the church. He says, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. So it so it is a love that gives comfort to your wife. It's a love that also corrects, because as we read it before, it washes with the water of the word. It's not a correction out of pride and anger to maintain appearances, but a correction from divine compassion for that one, for the one that needs to straighten the way. You speak the truth in agape love.

Agape Love As The Leadership Test

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1 Corinthians 13 gives us a picture of what divine love really is. I'm going to read from the ESV. Starting verse 4, love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude. Verse 5, it does not insist on its own way, it's not irritable or resentful. Verse 6, it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Verse 7, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Are you patient and kind to your wife? Are you boasting about the great things you have done in the pulpit? Are you arrogant towards other ministers and towards the people in your church when they ask you questions? Are you rude when people need correction? Are you insisting on your own way over the ways of the Lord? Are you easily irritable when the sheep need your help? Are you resentful? Resenting other ministers and ministries, and resenting younger ministries in your church? Alright, so we can take this then from our ministry to our wife, to the ministry of the word to the bride that belongs to Christ. Again, are you patient and kind to the people? When they're frustrating to you, do you lose your patience and start to boast about the great things you have told them and that they are not doing in your opinion? Or do you get so proud of yourself that when someone would bring you correction, you say, I have this much experience, you don't know what you're talking about? Are you insisting on your own way or on the way of Christ? Are you insisting that the people obey you, or are you a channel for the word so that they would obey Christ? There's a great difference in teaching the people to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit and living the word from using fear tactics to control them. I've seen in many places that the preacher is constantly using public shame against individual believers if they take a trip or if they go to some special meetings that he didn't approve of for them to go. This is arrogance and insisting on our own way. It's not love. And then to do it publicly is rude. Matthew 18 describes the steps to confront sin for every believer, not just the preacher. So as we look at the word love, we often find that people don't fully understand what love is. Now there's four different words for love in the language of the New Testament: Greek, magape, which is divine love, filio, which is friendship, storge, which is affection, eros, which is sexual desire. Divine love has a vision and purpose, and that purpose is that we would grow spiritually. That is what that is why God allows difficulties and trials and doesn't always deliver us out of trials. He keeps us through trials. The trials will cause us to grow as we apply the word and faith to them. But if we comply, if we apply complaining and running and blaming others to them, then we'll repeat them and we won't grow. We'll go backwards. Agape love is a power that extends itself for the purpose of spiritual growth. The other loves are human loves. But without divine love being in us, friendship and affection and sexual love will be perverted and will bring damage. So in the ministry, our purpose is to bring spiritual growth to others, to help them mature. That's part of the what the Lord is doing in through the fivefold ministry in the lives of believers today. It's to help them to mature, that they would grow up into Him which is the head, even Christ. So if we just make all the decisions for the believers and just tell them what they should do, they'll never grow. If you control them by fear of being publicly shamed, by you calling out their name and what you think they did wrong, they will not grow. They will just learn to become excellent hypocrites. Now this is another part which I think has been greatly neglected, but a big part of our ministry is to raise up and train the next generation of leaders in the local church and beyond. The Bible says, train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old, they will not depart from it. Your job is to work yourself out of a job. We have too many pastors that are hanging on to power too long, and their minds aren't sharp, and they get tired and they can't properly lead in day-to-day affairs of the church, but they hold on to the bitter end because they have no other income, no means of support, or they just like the position so much. This causes mature men to look at the situation and be frustrated

Passing The Baton To New Leaders

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and split the church and start a new one somewhere. We have to get better at passing the baton to the next generation before it gets too late. And then we have to do a better job of when that baton is passed to be involving the elders who set aside their position to be a part of a help in advising and leadership and preaching from time to time. So if you look at Numbers 8, even the Levites had an age when they had to complete their work in the temple. Now, this timing doesn't apply to us, but being an apostle or being a pastor requires a certain amount of energy and strength to do it. If you go way past this time, the sheep are going to suffer. So the pastor's job is to train up a group of young men to take his place, and he should be wise and purposeful and consistent in this process. You train someone to do what you do. The Bible has ministers going out in pairs. One is more mature and one is younger, and can be trained in this process to grow up to place. He can prove he is gifted to do the job. Instead, we treat the next generation as a threat, and we try to subjugate them and suppress them out of fear. This is nothing but spiritual weakness manifested in pride and arrogance, and it's absolute foolishness, totally contrary to scripture. But you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So every believer is a priest, not just the preacher. Every believer is called to a royal priesthood, to a ministry. Let's look at what Brother Branham says in the Church Ages book. He says Paul saw it coming, but he warned them about this subtle priesthood that would come and take over with its false doctrines. He knew they would implement a way of worship that excluded the people from any part in a Holy Spirit ministry. And even right today, among those who claim to be free and full of the Spirit, there's not too much freedom in the laity. And the best we can see is a few preachers with inspired preaching while the flock just sits there and tries to absorb it. This is a far cry from Paul who said that when he all came together, all had the leading of the Spirit, and all participated in spiritual worship. And the church corporate has never learned this lesson from the scripture nor from history. Every time God gives

Nicolaitan Control And True Shepherds

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a visitation of the Holy Spirit and people get free after a while, they bind themselves right back to the very thing they came out of. That's from chapter three, the Ephesian Church age. So third John one, verse nine, I wrote unto the church, but Diatrophes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Verse ten. So I want to read that out of the NLT to give a little bit some highlights out of that. When I come, I will report some of the things he is doing and the evil accusations he is making against us. Not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, but he also tells others not to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church. This is a great example of a Nicolaitan minister. He loves to have the preeminence. He tells others not to support them. And when they do support them, he casts them out of the church. This is the pattern of control and spiritually damaging ministers that bring death to their people. He wants to be sure everyone knows he's in charge. He tells them what they can and cannot do based upon his own personal desire to be the leader. If they do not obey his commands, he kicks them out of the church and tells everyone they cannot associate with that person. This is an evil preacher, and he should be avoided at all costs. If you're in a church that the pastor handles things that way, run for your life. Spiritual death is coming. Let's look at the real ministers, the real examples. First Peter five, verse one. The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Verse two, feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Verse five, likewise you younger, submit yourselves unto the elder, yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. So the primary duty of the overseers of the church, of the pastors, is to feed the flock of God. Not your flock, but God's flock. And that what you're supposed to feed them with is spiritual food for today. You're to do it willingly and not because you feel forced to do it, and you shouldn't be serving for a paycheck because you're eager to, but it's because you're eager to serve the Lord and his people. And you're not to do it as being lords over. What does lording over God's heritage look like? It is not governing over them as tyrants with arrogance, looking down on them. You don't lead them by telling them everything they can and cannot do, or by forcing them to ask you if they can buy a car or take a trip or start a business or go to special meetings. You teach them the truth, lay the scriptures into their hearts so they themselves know how to make decisions under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Next Peter says, but by being examples of the flock. Doesn't say examples, although it implies that, but he says examples. An example means a die that is cast. You cast the die, and then you can manufacture more and more pieces of metal. You make the original die, and then you can make coins from that. You make more and more and more and more and more coins. And so that's what he's saying. The pastor, the overseer overseer, is to be the stamp from which the coins are made. The life you live should speak to the people so that they would in turn live the same life. It's not by mimicking what you do or being actors, but being but by watching a living epistle, listening to him preach, and then the Spirit of the Lord using that consistent life and word to mold and shape them into the same image. So how do we lead the churches? By constraining them and lording over them, bossing them what to do and not to do? Nope. By not allowing anyone to preach in the church, by not allowing anyone to operate in the gifts? No. You do it by feeding them the word of God and by being an example, an example to them by the pure life you live, by being patient, giving, forgiving, kind, gracious, patiently instructing and advising them in a one-on-one basis when they have done wrong, taking time to fellowship with them and know them. All right, now let's look at a quote of Brother Branham that is often misused and misunderstood. It says, Well, Lot's wife did the same thing, you know. She set out to go with Lot, follow her husband, her children, her loved ones, but it wasn't in her heart. She still loved the world. So it's possible. You can make a start and still be be the world in you, see? She never overcame. And even though she was well on the road, it finally overthrowed her. She had to take that one big, long last look. There's where she got caught. Don't even look back, don't have no desires. Keep going. Put your mind on Calvary and keep moving toward Christ. See? See? She started out as an overcomer, but she never did overcome. Oh, she left the denomination.

Christ Alone Is Church Head

SPEAKER_00 45:05

She did. She walked out of Sodom with Lot, but she wanted to go back and have her hair cut. You know what I mean, see? She had to go back. She just couldn't stand the test. She had to look back again to see what the rest of them was doing. Oh, you know, I had some good friends down there after all. And after all, this might just be a little a little move. I don't know whether it could be right or not. I've got this man's word for it, though he's my husband, but yet your pastor is your husband, spiritually speaking, you see. Now, whether it could be right or not, I don't know. Maybe he, his revelation wasn't right. Then if you're not perfectly satisfied, you're not perfectly know that it's the word of God, then you can't go. See? You got to be really sold out. You've got to know, not just say, Well, I see others doing it, I see a sign. That's from the sermon in 1963, How Can I Overcome? by Reverend William Marion Branham. And so this is a type that the prophet was using to point out that he was the leading leading the church out of Sodom, and you had to be sold out to the word completely. He was not creating a doctrine that the pastor is the husband of the church. If we take that as a type that the pastor is the husband of the church, we suddenly have a serious problem because this violates the scriptures. Who is the husband of the church? Second Corinthians 11 2. Paul says, For I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. So is the is the church espoused to Paul? Is the church espoused to the pastor? Married to the pastor? No. The church is espoused and then married to Christ. The pastor, in this case, the the real type in the Bible is that the that Paul is the best man. So he's the friend of the bridegroom. And any pastor would be a friend of the bridegroom, not the bridegroom himself. That's perverted. The church the men in your church are not married to you as a pastor. That's twisted. The women in your church are not married to you as the pastor. That's twisted. They're married to Christ. Ephesians 5 23. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. So Christ is the head of the church. It doesn't say the pastor is the head of the church. Christ is the head of the church. Here's a quote from Brother Branham. He says, We have Satan's answer. God has vindicated himself, God has proved himself to his promise in this day. Hallelujah. The headship is here. And it's not the pastor. The headship is here. Amen. Christ, the risen Lord, is here in the same power of his resurrection that he ever was, manifesting himself. There's the devil's answer from 1963. Christ is the mystery of God revealed. Continue. Brother Branham says, Love one another above everything. Love one another. No matter what the devil tries to say. Now you're all one great big sweet group now. But remember my warning. See, Satan won't let you stay that way, no, sir. He'll shoot everything. If he has to bring somebody in to make his target, he'll bring some critic or unbeliever in and sit him down, cause him to fellowship with you under the quietness and things, and then he'll shoot that guy with some kind of a poison stuff. And he'll start through the church with it. Don't you take sides with it. Don't you have nothing to do with anything else? You stay right loving and sweet and kind to one another. Pray for that man that he'll be saved to, or that woman, or ever who it is. Just pray for them and stick with stick one with another and stay with your pastor. See, he's the shepherd, and you give him respects. He'll lead you through, and because he's got ordained of God to do so. Once again, in Christ is the mystery of God revealed. So it is the ministry of the Spirit, as we started out with. You are merely a vessel. He is using, and the sufficiency and power are not of you, and the ministry is not for you, it is for the people. So as we look at that quote, as the pastor is ordained to lead you through, what does that mean? He's many have taken that and say the pastor is ordained to lead you into the rapture. That's not the truth. The fivefold ministry is there to lead you into equip you for the work of the ministry. And it is through this work of in the uh in the body, in the last days, that the church is led into maturity in preparation for the rapture. What is Brother Branham saying in that quote? In Christ is the mystery of God revealed, stay with your pastor. When someone comes into the church and is injected with poison, don't side with him, pray for him, and stay with your pastor because he's ordained to carry you through. Now, of course, there's times where the pastor is the one that has been injected with poison and he's the one that's poisoning the church. Well, you're not going to stay with him then. When he goes against the word, you go, you stand against him, confront him with the word. You know, follow Matthew 18. Take him privately and confront him with the word. We ought to do that more. And pastors, if you're not humble enough to receive correction, something's wrong with you. But he's not saying that the pastor is ordained to carry you through to the rapture, he's ordained to carry you through the difficult trials that come because a man has been injected with a poison from the devil to try to bring division in the local church. Stay with a good godly pastor that is staying with the word. Verse five, who then is Paul and who is Apollos? But ministers, by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. Verse six, I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. Verse seven, so then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Verse twenty one. Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours. Verse twenty two, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's. So we as the ministry exist for others. The ministry does not exist for us, and others

Fruit, Faithfulness, And Closing Charge

SPEAKER_00 52:17

don't exist for us. God's sheep don't exist for the ministry. If there's no sheep, then there's no need for a shepherd, and he has no job. And the job of the shepherd is to lead, feed, protect, and guide the sheep. So the only reason for a shepherd is sheep. And he's to do it by the word and by a living example. It's not by becoming a diatrophese, it's by manifesting Christ in your life before the people and causing them to grow spiritually, equipping them to lead. So I want to bring it now to a conclusion. True ministry is not about building a personal kingdom or gathering people around a man. It's the ministry of the Spirit, Christ writing his word on hearts of flesh. The real measure is simple. Are fathers being equipped to lead their homes? Are the saints growing up into the stature of Christ? Or are we producing fearful, dependent people and another generation of broken homes? Fathers, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ministers, feed the flock of God, be examples, not lords. Train the next generation instead of clinging to position. The chief shepherd is coming. May we be found faithful in our homes and in his bride. Amen.