Five Gifts Make Up a Whole Picture of Jesus

God is raising up a Church that is five-fold in its thinking. We have traditionally thought and operated pastorally. Now we will be thinking apostolically, prophetically, evangelistically, and with an equipping, teaching mindset, as well as pastorally. These gifts are parts of Christ Himself. He tells us in Ephesians 4 that He is giving Himself to us in these parts. He essentially says that no one of us can be fully like Him, but together we can be like Him. So, He gives us manifestations of portions of Himself as a gift. 

These are not positions, titles or hierarchies. They are manifestations given so we can equip the saints for the work of ministry. They are to connect the Body and align it to Christ, so the whole Body can function well. See, if we don’t have the fullness of Christ, we can’t reveal the fullness of Christ. If we only have pastors functioning, then that’s all people are going to see. If I am only walking in 1/5th of His anointing, then I can only manifest 1/5th of who He is. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is limited. If a group or community or region has a fullness of giftings, then they can show the fullness of who He is to that territory.

We are doing this better and better across the nation. We are being intentional about it. For the first time in perhaps hundreds and hundreds of years, the Church has the potential to reveal Christ to the planet. 

The final gift the Lord has helped us understand in the last 50 or 60 years has been the Apostle. It’s a foundational gift together with the Prophet. This gift isn’t better than a pastor. Apostles don’t know more than other gifts. An apostle is a coordinator. He is like a General in an army. He knows all the parts and what they do, so he can help get the right ones properly connected for the task at hand. He knows that without many pastors the Body won’t be well and whole. He knows that without drill instructors, teachers, we won’t be taught properly. If the people aren’t taught well, we don’t have a good army. Somebody better be recruiting, evangelizing, or eventually we won’t have an army at all! Someone has to have the big picture.

So, let’s talk about the prophets. They are the intel. Somebody has to know what’s happening in the spiritual realm, because that’s the nature of this Kingdom we are a part of. They have to be able to help the apostles know what God’s saying, and where the enemy wants to come in and work against what God’s saying. If not, there’s no way we can win the battle.

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13; NIV)

Give Him 15 minutes in prayer:

• Worship the Lord Jesus Christ for the wonderful gift that He is to us!
• Bless Him for His blessing us by parceling out His gifts to all of us, so we can display a complete picture of who He is to the world around us. 
• Thank Him for His great wisdom in desiring us to work together in unity so much that He separated His own anointings into five and gifted us with them.
• Thank the Lord for giving us apostles, the Generals of His army, who coordinate the Church.
• Thank Him for the spiritual intel He gives the prophets.
• Thank Him for the “drill sergeants” that teach and train the church, so we can be a mighty army all on the same page together.
• Thank Him for the evangelists recruiting new believers into the faith.
• And, thank Him for the precious pastors who watch over us, clean us up and make sure we are well and whole.

A prayer you can pray:

Lord, You are an amazing gift to us. We could never deserve You, yet You loved us so much You made a way to the Father for us. We are so grateful for You! In Your goodness, You desired that we could express You to the world around us. You want the planet to see Jesus, but You knew it was not the best to mantle one person with all that You were carrying. You knew we could too easily abuse that level of anointing, or at the minimum, we would try to go it alone. No. You wanted us to show the world what love and unity looks like. We don’t do that perfectly, but now we have a better opportunity.

So, Lord, we thank You for giving the Church Your five-fold giftings to equip the Church for the work of service. We thank You for the apostles who can see the big picture and make sure every area is covered and ministered to in some way. We thank You for the prophets who gather intel from the Holy Spirit and the spiritual realm. They help us navigate the world around us and they help us hear Your directions. Thank You for the evangelists ever recruiting the lost into the folds so the Church always grows and never dies out. The teachers make sure the Word of God goes deep within us and stays true to what You meant it to say. And, we could never make it without the precious pastors who love us, minister to us, make sure we and our families are well and whole. Your wisdom is amazing, Jesus! Now that all five gifts are revealed again in the earth, send us forth together to spread the Gospel of Your Kingdom in every place. Amen.

Today’s decree:

The five-fold gifts of Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, and Teacher can now reveal Christ to the planet!