The Plumb Line True Foundations As always, if we can help you in any way, please contact the church here at P.O. Box 68309, Indianapolis, IN 46268 USA. J L T www. esus ife ogether.com Copyright © 2003 [email protected] Copyright laws, as crazy as they are when we are talking about God’s Word, require us to say the following: This material is copyrighted and may not be quoted and/or reproduced without its complete context (the entire document) except by the author’s permission. You may, however, freely reproduce this in its entirety. And, of course, this publication is never to be “sold” for any price (2 Corinthians 2:17, Matthew 10:8). The Plumb Line True Foundations Apostolic Foundations and Apostolic Patterns .......................1 Part 1: Three Units of Corporate Christian Life ..............7 Part 2: Do Apostles Really Exist Today? ...........................21 Part 3: What Good Are They, Anyway? ............................31 Part 4: What They Are… And What They Ain’t! ...........39 Part 5: Unmerited, Sovereignly-Distributed Gifts ...........53 Part 6: Territories: The Apostolic Wedge ...........................61 Part 7: Christ Circulates Among the Lampstands ...........71 Part 8: The Cost of Going All the Way With God.........99 Do We Need “Church Planters”? ............................................115 Foundational Gifts: Organic vs. Organizational Authority ............................125 Equipping vs. Edifying vs. Intimacy? ......................................131 4000 Gifts? No… FORTY THOUSAND GIFTS! ...............135 Discern His Body: A Window Into Life and Blessing .........137 Gifts and the Authority of the Body ....................................139 Below is the list of titles in a 10-part series of books about Foundational Issues of the Kingdom of God and the Bride of Christ. www.JesusLifeTogether.com/Foundations/ THE HAMMER—Breaking Down Misconceptions “‘Is not my word like fire,’ declares the LORD, ‘and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?’” Jeremiah 23:29 THE PLOW—Planting Hope & Vision “‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills.’” Amos 9:13 THE SCALES—Holding to God’s Standards “The LORD abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight.” Proverbs 11:1 THE CRUCIBLE—Refining and Melding Relationships “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.” Proverbs 17:3 THE SICKLE—Clearing the Land and Harvesting Change “As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” Mark 4:29 THE TROWEL—It Matters How We Build! “This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: ‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’” Hebrews 8:5 THE SWORD—Cutting Through the Fog “‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.’” Matthew 10:34 THE CHISEL—“I Will Build My Church…” “In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.” 1 Kings 6:7 THE ANVIL—Forging Out a Life “See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work.” Isaiah 54:16 THE PLUMB LINE—True Foundations “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty…Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God Bless it!’…Who despises the day of small things? Men will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.” Zechariah 4 Apostolic Foundations and Apostolic Patterns Video Taped in 1987, Transcribed in 2002 Prologue The nature of the apostolic is, without question, one of the most treasured and important topics on the heart of God. But before we even begin to delve into the Apostolic of God, one thing must be clear in your mind. If you don’t know anything else, know this: Everything in the Father’s heart is summed up in His firstborn Son, Jesus Christ. The Father has chosen to express His nature, all that He is, through the Son. And today, on earth, He is building His Church that will possess all the divine qualities and character of Christ Himself. The Church, the Body of Christ, is just exactly that: Christ Himself manifested through His People joined together. Just as Jesus is the exact representation of God Himself, so the Church will be HIS BODY, His representation on the earth today! While some have neglected this teaching about the Apostolic of God, others have turned it into a doctrine or theology that elevates a “thing” rather than the person of Jesus. In offering the following thoughts, I intend strictly to elevate the Christ (Anointed One) of God and to clarify exactly who Jesus is, expressed in His Church, His present-day Body. “Lampstands” and “Foundations” are nothing more than the nature and substance of the Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.” What is heaven but a shadow of the Christ of God… “But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Revelation 21:22). THE PLUMBLINE 1 The temple of God is in God Himself. “Heaven” itself is the substance of Christ and is manifested or explained to us in expressions we can understand. Such as we are “seated with Christ in heavenly realms,” and I am “in Christ” if I am truly His disciple. All of heaven itself is the essence of the heart of Jesus. So the things we’ll talk about are not “things.” They’re not just ideas, doctrines and concepts to run after. They are the very heart of Christ Himself. And if this is the Word of God, rest assured that His desire is for the Word to become “flesh and dwell among us.” Let the Word become flesh in you, not just an exciting new teaching to impress others. As Christ the Word is manifested, He tabernacles in our midst; the tabernacle of God is among His people. As the Word becomes flesh, we’re being built together to become a “Habitation of God by the Spirit.” As we go on into this, please realize that anything that is not “in Christ” is only a gimmick, a form of godliness that denies its power. Accurate, biblical “patterns” can easily become substitutes for a relationship with, and abiding in, Christ. Even with the best of intentions, you’ll never be able to find what you’re looking for—the Christ of God manifest in your midst—by using intellectually modeled forms of “the church of the Bible.” You will not be able to grab onto a form because it “looks that way in the Bible” and ever find satisfaction for your hungry spirit. This satisfaction is found IN CHRIST—our abiding in Him and us as His Habitation. That is what the Kingdom, the Church, is all about. Introduction The following thoughts are far from the last word on this vast subject, just as they are certainly not the first words written. Nevertheless, I offer no apologies for suggesting that the Church of Jesus Christ has suffered tragic loss at the hands of those who have abused the Biblical teaching on apostolic principles—some to attain power, some for financial gain, and others simply desiring respect for themselves. At the opposite end of the spectrum, though equally as dangerous, some have created a “post-apostolic” third covenant in which “God doesn’t work that way anymore.” They have denied the existence of obvious truths in the Word of God regarding apostles and prophets, lampstands, and other critical issues. They plant “church” after “church,” and denomination after denomination, out of presumption, ambition, or division rather than on the basis of Apostolic Authority (which is the Biblical pattern). The result has been a religious world 2 THE PLUMBLINE marked by 2000 years of decline. Many, unfortunately, know little of the spiritual Power and Substance of our Lord’s Church, the Church we read about in the Bible. Here’s something to think about: You can study what other people have done for years, but that doesn’t make you who they are. Painting the picture of some city or country far away from here doesn’t put us in that country. To be able to paint a portrait in the minutest detail of what the city of Jerusalem or the landscape of Galilee or any other place looks like doesn’t mean that we’re there. This is the dilemma we face as we pursue the nature of the Church. To study in great detail all that they were, to know what they knew, even to believe in what they believed in, does not make us the people that they were. The people of God’s Church have substance, integrity, and a pure attitude of the heart. They are characterized by a unique perspective and priority system. Our lives are either hidden in Christ—or we just “know about” being hidden in Christ. We are either full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, or we simply study people who were. What a massive difference between those two things! Hanging around people who truly are birthed in Heaven and breathing Heaven’s air (pneuma) every moment of their lives doesn’t mean that we have that same life. Even if we were right in the middle of those people, literally 2000 years back in time, it wouldn’t help us a bit unless we were living in the same life and power that they were. Even if you lived in the first century and called yourself a Christian, that would not make you a part of the “first century church.” Why? Because you’re only part of the Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven” in as much as your life is truly “in Christ” and as your substance, your genetic structure, is newly created of uncreated Life (Heb. 12:27). Only if you are truly Born of the Spirit, and Born of water, and Living in the Life of Jesus Christ— penetrating into Deity—will you partake of a Supernatural Life. Merely mimicking behavior and words that you read in the Bible doesn’t make you part of the Church. Neither does a philosophical system of morals, behavior, and culture. That’s not it. Either Christ is real in you, or He’s not. “The Kingdom of God is not scientifically observed and studied, but it is within you.” You can hang around the Life of God Almighty in His People your whole life, but never actually be a part of it yourself. You need to know that. I make these observations in the hope of better things for the future! Jesus is building for Himself “a glorious Church, not having spot THE PLUMBLINE 3 or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish”—a Church that “the gates of hell cannot prevail against” and of which the principalities and powers are in awe!1 As always, we must build “according to the pattern,” “on earth as it is in Heaven,” in order to see His Glory fill the earth! Notice the sequence of verses in Exodus 402 which state, “As the Lord commanded, Moses did,” “as the Lord commanded, Moses did,” “as the Lord commanded, Moses did,” and finally, in verse 34, “and the Glory of God filled the temple.” That’s the kind of life that we lead—the Glory of God filling His dwelling place “on earth as it is in heaven” because we “do as the Lord commanded.” Because we go right into the Pattern of God, right into the Life of God, right into the Most Holy Place with nothing stopping us, we will understand what the Glory of God is. We discover His ways as we go into His Presence individually, and the same holds true corporately. The Glory of God is found in walking as the Lord commanded. If you don’t do “as the Lord commanded” (out of ignorance or fear) you might still be His child, but you’ll die in the wilderness, pathetically impoverished. It doesn’t have to be that way. There have been too many generations like that. The understanding of Apostolic Foundations and Apostolic Patterns is not a salvation issue. It is a Glory issue. “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed to you. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as He promised long ago through His holy prophets” (Acts 3:19-21). Apparently, there is a restoration of things that God (according to Acts 3; 2Pet.3:12; Rev.19:7 and other passages) is waiting for. There’s a part that we play in speudo—“speeding His coming,” “hastening the return of the Lord.” There’s an active part that we play, mysterious as that may sound. Somehow, in some way, we hasten His return. It’s not that we can make God do anything. He’s not a genie in a bottle with our wish being His command. Absolutely Not! But there is a cooperation in which both “the Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come.’” Just as every safe deposit box requires two keys to open (the bank teller’s key and the depositor’s key), so we both—Jesus and His Bride, the Church—put our keys in the lock-box and together we turn the keys…and the vault opens. 1Eph.3:10; Mt.16:18; Eph.5:27. 2Ex.40:16, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 32, 33, 34. 4 THE PLUMBLINE