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Posts Tagged ‘Apostolic Ministry’

God Is Creating a People

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , on May 30, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Colossians 2:9-12

I have heard God speaking in our congregation in our songs, and in prophetic words. We thank God that there is prophesy in the Body of Christ in the midst of us; that God is speaking through the Body in prophesy. You see, God created a prophetic ministry so that the prophesy would be given to the Body. I don’t know if you understand it. The minister ministers to the Body and then the Body ministers. The end result of the ministry is for the Body to minister. The prophetic ministry will be abolished one day. The apostolic ministry will be abolished. All of the other ministries will also be abolished. But guess what we will be? When God abolishes the ministry, the WHOLE BODY will become the ministry, and then you will turn around and minister to the world. This is what God is training you for – to minister to the whole world; to bring the world alive! Because death will not triumph over God’s creation; God’s creation must triumph over death! So that there is no way that Satan is going to have anything near a victory, and we are the people who God is training to use. Now when I say, “We are the people”, please believe me, that WE ARE THE PEOPLE! I didn’t mean us, I mean WE.

In other words, God is creating a people to finish the job that Peter, Paul, James, John, and the apostles began. He is using a people to finish it. When God made Adam, He knew all the trouble that was going to come. He knew all of the destruction, but He looked at Adam and He said, “It is good.” (Genesis 1:31). It was a prophetic Word. God said that ‘it was good’, when it wasn’t good, but He saw things that are not as if they were. God saw that we would come forth and be victorious. So when we sing our songs about Zion, I wonder if we know what we are singing. We are singing about Zion, the very heights of God’s creation, that God is creating within you. You sing, “Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10).

God has not only given us the prophetic ministry, but He has also given us prophets. Prophets are people whose duty it is to prophesy. They have a job, and their job is to prophesy. But then the daughters of Philip prophesied, yet they were not prophets. But there was a prophet named Agabus. (Acts 21:9-10) So God is creating a prophetic nation, a prophetic body. He is creating an apostolic Body. You don’t have to worry about trying to be an apostle now. It is not your time. Your time will soon come when all the ministry of God will be incorporated in the Body, when God incorporates the Body with the fullness of Himself. The Scripture says that Jesus Christ was the “Godhead bodily” incorporated (Colossians 2:9); a walking, talking, God-man. He was the prototype of what God is making us to be.

You have to understand that I am not perfect, BUT I have a Spirit that is perfect. If I can only keep my ears and my heart to follow that Spirit, I will deceive you that I am perfect. I will act like I am perfect and some of you actually believe it. But it’s not true! NEVERTHELESS, I have a perfect Spirit and that is what you are seeing. Do you understand that I am talking about you? The same pertains to you!

(Excerpt from Breaking Through the Veil, a message given in July 2006 in Illinois)

Thought for today: God is training you to minister to the whole world, to bring the world alive.

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Everybody Must Have a Head

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , , on February 4, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: Matthew 23:8-11

Jesus called some fishermen and a few learned men. He selected twelve of them and called them the “apostles of the Lamb.” These twelve people were people who God chose from the foundation of the world to become apostles for all time and eternity. Anytime anything would happen to one of these apostles, God would put in another apostle. We find out that when Judas betrayed Jesus, God called Paul and put Paul into the apostolic ministry. The brethren didn’t get the message because they had a ballot, voted and put in a man named Matthias. And from the time that they put in Matthias, we never hear another word about him. But God selected Paul and put him in as an apostle to fill the place of Judas. So, that apostolic thing was closed. You cannot have an apostolic ascension that is like, when the king dies, his son takes over. Therefore, when the church begins to appoint their own apostles, they are going against God’s divine order.

I want to make it scripturally clear. Turn your Bibles to Matthew 23:7-8, And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. 8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. We don’t really call anybody Rabbi in English, but we do call them Master. And what about Doctor? Nowadays, all the preachers are Doctor So and So, and Doctor So and So. It means that these people are saying that they are Doctors of the Word of God. When you are sick, you go to a doctor, sure. And there is no problem about being a Doctor of Philosophy, but a Doctor of Theology is an offense before God. Therefore, you don’t call anybody Master. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven(Matthew 23:9). Now, I had a father, and you have a father, and I called him father, but that was my natural father. It wasn’t an offense before God. But if I began to call Brother John, “Father John” or “Father Smith,” then you would know that we are way out of God’s order. So, one of the problems is not only of those who are called Father, but also for those who call them father.

Now, what about the Great Father? In other words, it is wrong to call a man Father, spiritually Father So and So. But what about calling him the Great Father? Papa? Pope? That is entirely out of God’s order. So you must not call anybody Father; you must not call anybody in the church, spiritual Father or Pope. So, what about those that do call themselves Father and Pope? It means that they are not hearing from God, and it means that you cannot hear from them.

At this hour, the Body of Christ is being put in order. Everybody must have a head, and Jesus Christ is the Head of the Body of Christ. When we gather together, we gather together to hear Jesus and we recognize Jesus Christ as the Head. We want to hear what Jesus says. If someone gets up and prophesies in the name of any other name besides Jesus, he is a false prophet.

Now, how do you identify a false prophet? Can you figure it out? How would you identify a false prophet? The main identification of a false prophet is that he has a false spirit. He does not speak from the Spirit of God. His spirit is not of God, it is of the devil. His duty is to deceive, to disrupt, and to destroy. What does God say about true prophecy? It is given for exhortation, edification, and comfort (1 Corinthians 14:3). So you have to learn to recognize true prophecy – true prophet, different from false prophet.

When we look at Ephesians 4:11, we see that it says that God has set in the church apostles, prophets… Now, if somebody else sets a ministry in the church, then it is not the Body of Christ. It is the ministry that makes the Body either the Body of Christ or not the Body of Christ. Let us look at the departure, when we began to depart from being the Body of Christ to be different denominations. We departed with the appointment of ministers that were appointed of men. The seven churches of Asia rejected Paul as a minister of God. From the time that they rejected the ministry of Paul, they began to get into false doctrine. Let us make sure that we are not among those who reject the ministry that God has set in the church.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, September 17, 2006, pg. 4-5)

Thought for today: At this hour God is putting the Body of Christ in order. Make sure that you are not among those who reject the ministry that God has set in the church.

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A Need to See the Ministry Functioning

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , on November 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: John 17:18-23

The problem that we have among ourselves in the church is that we need to see the ministry functioning. Each person should be asking God, “What can I do?” One time a brother was telling us what his father used to say, “Well, sweep the floor.” You are asking, “God, what is my purpose?” “God, what am I supposed to be doing?” “What part of the Body am I?” He sent you out there to sweep the floor, and all of a sudden while you are sweeping the floor, you find yourself. You clean up refrigerators, and then you find yourself.

God is now bringing the Body together as one. He said that you would be one, even as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are one (John 17:21). Do you know why? Because there is one Spirit, and there is no division. Do you know what the apostolic business is? All it is is somebody who hears from God and gives it to you. So the apostolic vision is being sent out to the brethren, and the prophetic Word comes forth. The evangelist begins to do his thing. Some people believe that if you are an evangelist, you must go out and get revelations from God. Any evangelist that is getting a revelation from God is not an evangelist. He is an apostle. In other words, the revelation of the Spirit of the Word comes from God through the apostolic ministry to the brethren. Then you take it and begin to function under the apostolic ministry as parts of this ministry!

The next thing, the prophet gets a Word; he comes out with it, and the Word is to quicken you, to strengthen you, to help you to follow the apostolic Word. If there is another word coming forth, it is not God. God says, “Know them that labor among you” (I Thessalonians 5:12).

When I give out the Word, some of the brethren say, “Brother duCille wants everybody to follow him.” It couldn’t be further from the truth. God told me to have nothing to do with the bride. “Keep away from the bride,” He said. “Don’t bring forth any of your thoughts or things in the bride.” That was my instruction. I hope I am accomplishing it. I try my best. So, I don’t want anybody to follow me. What I am afraid of is that you are not following what God is telling me, and that’s the problem. Because, when God calls a person and gives him a direct Word, it is not something that he made up. I didn’t go to Bible school to learn it. I just listen to God and He carries me through the waters, through the fire. I gave up my accounting profession, because I couldn’t even think like an accountant any more. I had to give it up. I gave up everything that I knew and I began to concentrate on the Word of God. What you have is a ministry, a function that I have nothing to do with. I listen and I speak to you. I don’t write down what I have to say. What I am trying to say is that you have a privilege that not many people have, to hear from someone who has a fresh flow from God. Now, if it is not God, you must tell me. The fruit of what I am saying must come forth in you or else it is a waste of time.

So the point is that God appoints men and women with good faculties, who can listen and say, “Wait, this didn’t feel right!” “This did not sound right!” When you say that, it is a blessing to me. When anybody comes to me and says, “What you preached tonight didn’t sound right!” it is a blessing to me. The blessing is that I don’t know anything for myself. If you say something, I go back to God and say, “Did You tell me this, or did this come out of my mind?” If ever I find that it came out of my mind, I will be the first one to correct it. The reason is that I must bring forth Christ in His people. I cannot fail God. I cannot say things that are in my own mind. I cannot behave as I would love to sometimes. But God wants the Word to come straight to you and so that is what I must do.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, December 2006, pg. 9)

Thought for today: The revelation of the Spirit of the Word comes from God through the apostolic ministry to the brethren. Then you take it and begin to function under the apostolic ministry as parts of this ministry!

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No More Slackness in the Church

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , on November 5, 2021| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Romans 12:6-8

Let us look at God’s ministry today. We hear about the apostolic ministry. We are talking about the thumb ministry as the thumb is the apostolic ministry. Now, the church must have an apostolic ministry or else it is a church without direction. God drew another picture for us. He drew a picture of the boards of the tabernacle. The boards in the tabernacle are kept in a straight line by one bar that runs from one end to another, and all are in complete order because the Spirit of God is in the board. Why did I say that? The bar there is not just wood, it is covered with gold. Don’t you see? The bar is covered with gold, and it is the gold that makes it straight or else that bar would bow. The bar is 30 cubits long (a cubit is about a foot and a half). The temple cubit would be a foot and a half and a span. So we are talking about one long bar that is 45 feet long, plus 45 spans (each span is about four inches). A span is the width of your hand. We are not sure if it was the temple cubit or the natural cubit. Of course, the temple cubit was supposed to be bigger by a handbreadth than the natural cubit. So, the natural cubit would be what we would call about 18 inches, but the temple cubit would be like 22 inches. So, think of a bar that stretches approximately 60 feet long. It would bow without being covered with gold. But it had gold on the outside, and that bar kept the whole tabernacle standing straight. Let me tell you, brethren, do you know how thick the boards were? They were over six inches. You can imagine a board 1.5 cubits wide, ten cubits high [15 feet tall], and 6 inches thick with gold all around it. Can you imagine how heavy that must have been? That is some weight! It was standing on mortise and tenon. So the two legs went down, like man’s legs, into the sockets, and that is what kept it standing. Therefore, from side to side it would be firm, but from the front to back, the boards would have the ability to sway forward and backward. The only thing that held it from going forward or backward was the apostolic bar, the middle bar covered with gold running from one end to the other.

So you can see what has happened to the church. The church lost its apostolic vision when it began to reject the apostles of God and accepted other apostles. That is why we are in the condition that we are in, because some of the ministry that is in the church is not ordained of God. Now, behind that apostolic bar, the Lord said that there are helps and governments (I Corinthians 12:28). It is very important that some of you are helps and governments in the church. You are not ordained to preach, except to preach with your life.

One day the Lord told Mavis that the women should preach with their works. “When they behold your chaste behavior” (I Peter 3:2). It brings correction to people when they can look at you and see how you live your life. But there is a service that each of you must do and you must either come in to God’s service now or be left out.

God had a time when He would allow a certain amount of slackness to be in the church. But at this time, God is saying, “NO MORE SLACKNESS, MY PEOPLE MUST BE ONE!” The only way the people can be one is to be under the ministry. Do you hear me? Not minister, but ministry. The ministry that God has put in you, you had better look after it. He says, “Wait upon your ministry” (Romans 12:7). If God endows you with a voice, sing! If God endows you with wisdom, use it for God. Do you understand? The ministry is a spiritual endowment that God puts upon the church. Every time two or three of them gather together, God gives them their portion. That ministry is supposed to stand and minister life to the world, not just to the church, but to the world. That is why God said if you don’t behave at home, you can’t come into the church and prophesy. If you talk and you use your mouth as a weapon out there on the job site or anywhere you are, don’t bother to try to come to church and speak the Word of the Lord. It will be contaminated. It will be mixed. God wants you to wait upon your ministry. Somebody says, “Well, what is my ministry?” That is your business! Go ask God. Go ask God. What do you do best? Jesus said to Matthew and Mark, “Come! Be a scribe unto the Kingdom of God.” That means to say that the Kingdom of God needs scribes. The Kingdom of God needs people who can write, who will be able to take the Word and put it in places, and divide it up where people can be fed all over the world. The Kingdom message needs to go forth. Hallelujah!

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, December 2006, pg. 5-6)

Thought for today: There is a service that each of us must do and we must either come in to God’s service now or be left out.

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Everybody Must Have a Head

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , , on July 16, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: Matthew 23:8-11

Jesus called some fishermen and a few learned men. He selected twelve of them and called them the “apostles of the Lamb.” These twelve people were people who God chose from the foundation of the world to become apostles for all time and eternity. Anytime anything would happen to one of these apostles, God would put in another apostle. We find out that when Judas betrayed Jesus, God called Paul and put Paul into the apostolic ministry. The brethren didn’t get the message because they had a ballot, voted and put in a man named Matthias. And from the time that they put in Matthias, we never hear another word about him. But God selected Paul and put him in as an apostle to fill the place of Judas. So, that apostolic thing was closed. You cannot have an apostolic ascension that is like, when the king dies, his son takes over. Therefore, when the church begins to appoint their own apostles, they are going against God’s divine order.

I want to make it scripturally clear. Turn your Bibles to Matthew 23:7-8, And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. 8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. We don’t really call anybody Rabbi in English, but we do call them Master. And what about Doctor? Nowadays, all the preachers are Doctor So and So, and Doctor So and So. It means that these people are saying that they are Doctors of the Word of God. When you are sick, you go to a doctor, sure. And there is no problem about being a Doctor of Philosophy, but a Doctor of Theology is an offense before God. Therefore, you don’t call anybody Master. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven (Matthew 23:9). Now, I had a father, and you have a father, and I called him father, but that was my natural father. It wasn’t an offense before God. But if I began to call Brother John, “Father John” or “Father Smith,” then you would know that we are way out of God’s order. So, one of the problems is not only of those who are called Father, but also for those who call them father.

Now, what about the Great Father? In other words, it is wrong to call a man Father, spiritually Father So and So. But what about calling him the Great Father? Papa? Pope? That is entirely out of God’s order. So you must not call anybody Father; you must not call anybody in the church, spiritual Father or Pope. So, what about those that do call themselves Father and Pope? It means that they are not hearing from God, and it means that you cannot hear from them.

At this hour, the Body of Christ is being put in order. Everybody must have a head, and Jesus Christ is the Head of the Body of Christ. When we gather together, we gather together to hear Jesus and we recognize Jesus Christ as the Head. We want to hear what Jesus says. If someone gets up and prophesies in the name of any other name besides Jesus, he is a false prophet.

Now, how do you identify a false prophet? Can you figure it out? How would you identify a false prophet? The main identification of a false prophet is that he has a false spirit. He does not speak from the Spirit of God. His spirit is not of God, it is of the devil. His duty is to deceive, to disrupt, and to destroy. What does God say about true prophecy? It is given for exhortation, edification, and comfort (1 Corinthians 14:3). So you have to learn to recognize true prophecy – true prophet, different from false prophet.

When we look at Ephesians 4:11, we see that it says that God has set in the church apostles, prophets… Now, if somebody else sets a ministry in the church, then it is not the Body of Christ. It is the ministry that makes the Body either the Body of Christ or not the Body of Christ. Let us look at the departure, when we began to depart from being the Body of Christ to be different denominations. We departed with the appointment of ministers that were appointed of men. The seven churches of Asia rejected Paul as a minister of God. From the time that they rejected the ministry of Paul, they began to get into false doctrine. Let us make sure that we are not among those who reject the ministry that God has set in the church.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, September 17, 2006, pg. 4-5)

Thought for today: At this hour God is putting the Body of Christ in order. Make sure that you are not among those who reject the ministry that God has set in the church.

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