Good question! Here is what the Bible says:
1- (1 Corinthians 1:1) An apostle is first called by God with a very specific task in mind. Not all believers are. Most giftedness is broad with lots of flexibility and with many combinations, and maybe a little more undefined.
2- (1 Corinthians 12:28) An apostle has been given the highest spiritual gift. It is listed first for a reason.
3- ( 1 Corinthians 9:1-2) An apostle has seen Jesus Christ, if not when He was on earth, afterwards in a vision or dream or appearance…that’s how Paul, the greatest apostle, saw Him. This is the seal, or proof that one is an apostle.
4- (1 Corinthians 4:9-13) An apostle is esteemed least of all by the body,even though God has called them first, and they have the greatest responsibility.
5- ( Romans 1:1-5) An apostle has been given this gift because they are obedient. They are classically and vehemently non-compromising, at all times, therefore are treated as refuse because they are always caused to irritate and correct. (1 Corinthians 12:22-23) The highest gift is esteemed least, and the least gifts are esteemed Highest. This is God’s will.
6- An apostle is most likely gifted with some administrative abilities but not always. That is delegated sometimes. An administrator is not necessarily an apostle. We see Paul behind the scenes giving instruction to those who would administer those instructions. Good deligators. We see the churches in the Bible being run by local stationary believers with supervisory tasks and abilities. The first apostles appear to have been more mobile with no permanent location (1 Corinthians 4:11, no certain dwelling place).
7- An apostle is always a prophet, but not all prophets are apostles. Too many scriptures to list, but we see every apostle called a prophet and possessing a prophet’s gifts. This is the office of prophet, an apostle. (Romans 11:13) Paul magnified his office.
8- The office of apostle has always been. The gift as never been suspended or in need of coming back since the Lord first called His apostles. (1 Corinthians 13:10) the gifts will cease only “when that which is perfect has come”. Paul meant the return of Christ here. So when Jesus returns to rule and reign on earth during the 1000 years, the gifts will cease because there will be no need for them. They have never ceased…this is false teaching.
9- (1 Corinthians 4:15) An apostle does not always have to be a man. Paul once referred to the believers in this office as “fathers” but he nowhere excludes the possibility that women also may hold this office if the Spirit sees fit. However, she still is not permitted to “teach” men in a church setting, where she could usurp mans’ authority…even a believing man who might be less gifted and newer in faith. God’s order prevails (1 Timothy 2:12). This is so critical that it is called a commandment of Christ. (1 Corinthians 14:37). Paul says if a man thinks he is spiritual and does not adhere to this teaching then he is not a prophet or spiritual.
10- An apostle is heavily gifted with every spiritual gift because of their obedience. Obedience forms the fullness of Christ in us and Jesus fully possesses every trait the gifts embody.
1 Corinthians describes an apostle: He or she is:
1-set forth as last
2- made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men
3- fools for Christ so that others can be made wise
4- are weak so that others can be made strong
5- despised so others can be made honorable
6- can be seemingly destitute though clearly Paul is using some hyperbole
7- mal-treated
8- no certain dwelling place…non-local
9- labor, working with their hands
10- hated but bless in return
11- persecuted, suffer
12- defamed, yet plead with and beg in exhortation
13-considered the trash of the world and are rubbed off, as it were
Who does this sound like? Jesus Christ. An apostle has allowed God to make him one with Christ, in God. Hidden. Hidden ones. They have grown, through obedience to Christ after the second birth, into the measure of the stature of the fullness in Christ. Paul said,
“I now therefore take up in my flesh, that which is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of the body which is the church”.
This is a true apostle
Paul said that there would be a catching away of true believers in the twinkling of an eye, and that those who are caught up “raptured” will be alive when it happens, but they will not go before the dead saints go (1 Thessalonians 4:17, 1 Corinthians 15:52).
In other words, there is a time at the end of time, here on earth, just before the Lord’s second coming (in judgment), that the dead in Christ are resurrected in their new bodies, and caught up with the Lord in the air…and those who are on the earth and living and in Christ will go immediately afterwards with them; also in our new bodies, and we will be forever with Him.
This is the group of saints who are riding with Him in judgment at the second coming to the earth. He will come with 10,000 of his saints…(Jude 1:14, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, Rev. 19:14). The number is representative and not actual. It means a lot, but not a whole lot. It’s a relatively small number. I believe these are the faithful, sanctified believers… so why do all the dead in Christ go? Because death sanctifies the heart, actual or spiritual death. Remember the constant exhortation to die to self…this is it. The lukewarm or “earthy” or earthbound believers will have to stay after the rapture, to be purified as wrath begins, but will be beheaded right before the whole unbelieving world takes the mark of the beast. They will not rule and reign with Christ in the same capacity as the pure-hearted, circumcised in heart, believers who were “doers of the word and not hearers only (James 1:22).
* Why would God exhort believers to be doers of the word and not hearers only unless He saw that there was a group of believers who heard the word but really didn’t do the word? James calls them “double-minded”. Their spirit has received Jesus so they are saved, but the flesh has not come in line. And the only reason for this is rebellion towards God and a love for the things and thoughts of the world…earthy. So these are believers who are not yet the “one” that Jesus was pleading for in John 17. He pleaded that all believers would be one in God, body, soul and spirit.
“Such a person is double-minded, unstable in all they do…” (James 1:8). I believe these are believers who are alive and remain at the rapture but do not go with the Lord because they were willfully double-minded and not yet one in Christ…hidden with Christ in God, that is.Why would Jesus ask the Father for believers to be hidden with Him in God if all believers already are? Doesn’t make sense.
Remember that doing the word mostly, falls short. We are doers of the word when we have lost every ounce of rebellion towards God’s will. It doesn’t mean we don’t stumble. It means that the flesh has been cut away from the heart forever and the result is one who has Jesus Christ seated on the throne in his heart. His every unction is to do the word of God only and always. He is always growing and getting more like Christ while here but the heart has been made pure…the will is God’s alone.
We are told that God continues gathering the church until a certain day when the saints are removed. When is the day that He stops gathering her? When the fullness of the gentiles has come in. This is the time of the rapture, when the fullness of the church is gathered. No gentiles will believe during the wrath, only Israel. This is the time of Jacob’s trouble.
So when is the day the church is fully gathered? We know! We don’t know the date but we do know the day. It is either at the same moment or just before Israel is unblinded as a nation!!!
When is Israel unblinded as a nation? It’s the day the beast or antichrist sets himself up as God in the temple of God claiming that he is God (2 Thess. 2:4). It has to be at the 3.5 year mark of the last 7 years. Has to. Every prophetic scripture comes into focus if we see this.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 says this: “Let no man deceive you by any means, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition”.
This is the actual verse. Yours may have an italics verse added, disregard it, it is not in the word of God but put there by man in hopes of making the word more understandable. But in this case, it needs to be removed to see what is really said. Paul is saying that first, before the church is raptured, there will be a falling away or an apostasy of the “church”…then the man of sin (antichrist) is revealed. He is not revealed at the 7 year mark. It is a mystery. He is in disguise until the 3.5 year mark and then he reveals his true identity, and God’s wrath (the allowing of satan to do his horrible thing) is set in motion.
Isaiah said this concerning these last days before the Lord’s return, please read and know this prophecy, it’s there for the taking and is as plain as day.
Here it is:
“His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yes, they are all greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. Come, they say, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant. THE RIGHTEOUS PERISH (ACTUAL WORD IS VANISH, NOT PERISH). The righteous vanish and no one notices: merciful men are taken away, and no one considers or thinks about the fact that the righteous were just taken away from the evil to come” (Isaiah 56:10-57:1).
It’s as clear as day and cannot be confused with any other event or time. Isaiah is talking about the actual current righteous who are doers of the word, and not all believers who are positionaly righteous in Christ.
So the righteous, or the single-minded believers are taken away from the evil, or wrath that is coming upon the earth which we know is only the last 3.5 years of the last 7. Very easy.
I also believe that believers who are not interested in or refuse to even see that there is a rapture are those who at this point are not going. They will be refined during the first part of wrath and have to be beheaded to be purified. This is what will purify them, making them submit and give whole hearts to God.
These are the only gentile believers during the wrath. The rest of the people are the lost, and the nation Israel. God tells us that no one can believe during the wrath except for Israel, because they ( gentiles) have crossed the point of no return with their unbelievable defiance of God. He sends delusion to blind them irrevocably. Remember that the lukewarm believers during this time have already believed before the delusion was sent. They are saved but lukewarm.
Next time… How we KNOW there is a millenium coming and how we know precisely when.
God has given us prophecy to know and not to trick us. But it takes a heart thinking on God to want to know. The rest are blinded. They do not love God and this proves it.
So how can we be certain we will go if it happens in our lifetime? Stop resisting the Spirit. That’s it. Mortify the flesh and God will sanctify you wholly, body, soul and spirit (1 Thess. 5:23).
Choose life! He is coming soon!
We know there is a rapture, a catching up. Here is why:
There are two distinctly different second returns, if you will, of Christ. They are very different, which tells us that they are not the same event. Let’s look.
1- One event (rapture) says that Jesus returns FOR the saints (John 14:3, 1 Thes 5:28, 2 Thes 2:1). The other event (2nd coming) says He returns WITH His saints 1 Thes 3:13, Jude 1:4, Rev. 19:14).
2- One event (rapture) says only true followers will see Him because He comes like a thief in the night (1 Thes 4:13-18). The other event (2nd coming) says that EVERY eye shall see Him (Rev 1:7).
3- One event (rapture) says, Jesus comes in the air and we are caught up to Him (1 Thes 4:17). The other event 2nd coming) says that He touches the earth (Zechariah 14:4, Acts 1:11).
4- One event (rapture) describes believers being taken away from the earth (1 Thes 4:15-17). The other event (2nd coming) describes unbelievers being taken away from the earth (Matt 24:37-41).
There are many more but they get a little more complex and detailed. Just a glance at these very obvious events, shows us that there are two events and they are almost completely opposite one another.
*We also know for certain that there is a thousand year reign of Christ on earth (millenium) coming (also called the kingdom of God or Christ’s kingdom on earth), and we know when it is.
*And it seems, in my opinion, without a doubt, that the catching up (rapture) has to happen pre-wrath, some say pre-trib. So the interesting thing is that God narrows down the rapture to a very, very specific time in relation to certain other events, and He does it while still keeping the exact timing a mystery!!! Just like Him.
So let’s ponder this thought till next time: Revelation 3:3 is spectacular. Read and understand…”Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Hold fast and repent. If, therefore, you shall not watch, I will come on you as a thief, and you shall not know what hour I will come upon you.”
* Jesus is saying this: “If you don’t watch, you won’t know.”
* Which is also saying that: “If you do watch, you will know.”
Taking all of scripture into account, we can see that He means we will know and recognize when it is happening and not in such a way as to set a time or date. Instantaneously we will know as it is transpiring and I believe there will be a sense or knowing in a very brief way beforehand, maybe not even so as to articulate it, but in a flash.
I’ll examine these two other events in later posts.
Here is another truth: Not every generation has thought that the rapture was in their lifetime. The church at Thessolonica did because of some false teachers who came in telling them that. Paul rebuked them for not knowing the truth. He reminded them of what he had previously taught them and what they should have known. Also, anyone who has read Christian writings from the time of the New Testament till today, will notice an absence of talk and thought about last days being in their lifetime except mentioning them briefly. They rightly mention them but almost in a far distant way with not as much understanding as we have today.
Daniel was told that knowledge in the last days would increase. This is a broad statement but with close examination and knowledge of the original Hebrew we see that there is an emphasis not only on general human knowledge with technology and such, but specifically with knowledge of the family business (quoting Barry Stagner from World News Briefing). In other words, the Holy Spirit is opening up the prophecies to our understanding more today than ever because the time is very near.
The truth about the need for the church to know and understand Bible prophecy and especially Revelation is mentioned as being imperative in the Bible and not unnecessary!
*Daniel says blessed is the man who understands what is being said (Dan 12:10).
*Revelation says blessed is the man who makes it his business to read and understand all the prophecies in Revelation.
Revelation 1:3 “Blessed is he who reads, and they that hear (meaning to hear so that one understands and perceives what is said, to learn and to know “akouo”) the words of this prophecy’ and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”
*2 Tim 2:15–“Study to show yourself approved”.
God wrote Bible prophecy for us to know. He requires it.
Tomorrow: how we know there is a millenium and how we know when it is.
The Bible is filled with examples of the requirement by God, of the believer, to believe God, in order to see. When I say see, I mean to both see with my eyes and my understanding. They are related , one to the other. I have noticed that God does just what I have faith enough to believe He will do. This is not only a principle in the little things of faith, but in the biggest also.
Now I am not talking about the name it claim it false doctrine, the believe it achieve it nonsense. But what I am saying is that believers who see miracles, works of God, answered prayer, etc. have first believed God would do it.
I have seen so many who admittedly have tiny faith… faith, but tiny faith. They really don’t believe God for much. They are earth bound, and do not receive much at all from Him. And its all because they don’t believe He will do anything. Remember the man who asked for healing for his son who said, “I do believe, help my unbelief”. This was a response to Jesus saying to the man, “if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes”. The man received his request. God is so generous and good and delights to bless His children. The man’s words were, “If You can do anything have compassion on us.” Jesus used the man’s own words and gave them right back to him. “If you can believe, you have it…” Amazing.
Now I have walked long enough with the Lord to see with my own eyes that this is true. I have known it in trials and in the easy times. Its the same principle either way. God requires faith to receive from Him. But the sweetness is that He even gives faith to the one with small faith.
Believe God for the outrageous. Ask Him. The lovely part about it is this: If I am walking with Him, in His will and as a doer of His word and not ill motivated, but purely motivated for my requests, then they are His will and I will receive them!!
If you are a believer who is not seeing prayers answered my first admonition to myself and to others would be to check and see if I am in His will, obedient in all my ways and motives. If I am, then Ill receive what I ask, and if I don’t then He has a better plan and I can rest waiting for His will to prevail. Its all good!
If you believe God today, good! Now increase more and more. If you struggle believing God, turn your thoughts to making sure you know His word well and do it. Then watch Him work in your life. I think the obstacle to so many is that they just do not know His word, so they don’t really know His will. Start there. With all they getting get understanding! You will see that you will grow in faith and will learn to believe Him. He is truth.
God bless you today as you increase more and more in faith and in the knowledge of God. Seek first to become of doer of the word!
Help my unbelief! (Mark 9:23-24)
With all thy getting (Proverbs 4:7)
“But AS he which hath called you is holy, SO be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy”(1 Peter 1:15-16).
Notice here above what Peter said about the holiness of God…AS and SO. His aim for believers is that they would submit to the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God after salvation and as He is holy so we are to be holy.
The holiness of God is the attribute He reveals to us that has meant the most to me. I think many would say that the love of God is but I would like to present the concept that they are two sides of the same coin and one can’t exist apart from the other. I never had to be convinced of His love for me. I feel that in some strange way, even when I was lost and had no knowledge of God or of His word, I knew it. I can’t say that I ever have doubted His love because He wrote it on my heart and your heart when we were a thought in His mind. Now later, when I read the gospel and my heart was opened to receive it, the forgiveness of sin and redemption through His blood, I was overwhelmed with the knowledge of His love and have only been more and more sure of it as time has gone by. God is love.
It is the holiness of God (and if He were not holy, He would not be love) that changes me, strengthens me and gives me hope. A true revelation of His holiness does one thing to the believer…it makes them also holy as He is. A believer who does not favor, esteem and adore His holiness, remains unholy in all manner of conversation…a word which is broad and means both conversation but mostly behavior from the heart. He is a double-minded man and robs himself of a glorious existence in Christ Jesus.
The believer who instead offers himself as a living sacrifice to God (death to the old ways) who is transformed (Romans 12:1-2). It is our submission but His work and it is where abiding in Christ, hiding with Christ in God, occurs.
This is the abundant life!
Paul said in Galatians 6:1-2 to bear one another’s burdens. But what does that mean and how do we do it? I truly believe that the burdens we bear are of two kinds: lets say one kind of burden is something weighing down on a believer and IS NOT due to sin in their lives, and a second type of burden being one that is also bearing down on someone, a loved one, and IS due to sin in their lives.
We are to bear both. This is what it looks like: to bear the burden of a believer who is suffering for a reason not as a result of sin, we are to be comforters, weepers, prayer warriors, laborers. By doing so we hope to mitigate the agony just a bit or maybe a lot. We can see this illustrated for us in Simon the Cyrenian, as he was asked to come alongside the Lord to help him carry the cross. This is a very profound picture here within which is a very profound spiritual truth…I’ll elaborate later.
The second type of burden bearing happens when we suffer, thereby bearing another’s burden, for some sin and namely for the sin of unbelief and a lost life and all the baggage that comes with that. Either way we suffer. I would say that the second type is more grievous to be borne. But we are called to it.
This suffering for the believer may not manifest itself in any physical way, but I want to proclaim from the housetops, that the burden bearing for the lost soul, the sinner, often does. And it is the fruit bearing believer who sees it.
Paul asked the Lord to remove his physical ailment which we find in Galatians was very likely an eye illness. I submit that Paul’s eye sickness, whatever type it was, was a physical manifestation of the burden he was called to bear for the unbelieving nation Israel. God refused to remove it. Paul tells us that it was so that he would not become proud because of all the glory that had been revealed to him. But he also tells us another profound truth.
He claims in Colassians 1:24 that he “now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh, that which is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of the his body, the church”. He was speaking literally. We are the body of Christ…His hands and feet and also eyes, etc. He is no longer here taking the blows that came to Him as the Lamb slain. He returned to glory and is there now while we, His body, the true church, remain and are doing His work. It has to be His body that receives the blows (all of the sin which afflicts His body)so we receive it. Paul said these blows that Jesus took for our sin as He became sin for us, continue today and we take them up in our flesh, which is actually and not just spiritually His body. We are bruised and afflicted now because His physical body has ascended never to be bruised again. He is the Lion.
We are finishing up His work…which was His commandment to us who believe. So we will see physical manifestations at times in our flesh, when we are receiving the sin blows of another that only His body can receive. Paul’s burden was for a nation who would not See. Maybe our burden is for children who will not walk as they should. Could it be that a physical ailment of a holy believer is bearing the burden for a time until the one whose burden we bear will follow God? Its very clearly what Paul said.
Galatians 6:1 says that if we see a man overtaken in a fault (sin) correct them in a spirit of meekness lest we also are tempted. The next verse finishes the thought by telling us to bear their burden in the meantime.
The burden bearing for a believer not in sin but just suffering, might not and probably won’t result in a physical manifestation by the one bearing the faithful believer’s burden. Joseph is another example of bearing burdens for the sin of others. He went to prison…that was his physical manifestation. He said that he was rejected and imprisoned in order to save many people alive!
This is all part of being crucified with Christ…fruit bearing.
Now as with all serious spiritual truth, Satan loves to counterfeit. This truth spoken to the unprepared, the un-sanctified heart, will be miss applied. We cannot just look at all physical illness as spiritual or even as a result of bearing a burden. Sometimes the sinner himself bears his own sin burden…especially if they are a believer and should know better but they remain willful in sin or even a willful source of stumbling, inhibiting the Master’s work in a heart.
I also think that a believer could suffer a physical affliction (burden) for the sin of one in his life, when the believer has failed to lead properly the one sinning. They have fallen down on the job and have not spoken truth and have not corrected in season but have encouraged by permission the one sinning. God knows, either way.
What a true burden it is then to afflict the Lord’s body with my sin if I am one doing that. I seek to never be that one afflicting the burden. I rather seek to be a blessing and to never let my sin afflict another…whether it’s a blatant sin or one not so detectable. A holy life is the remedy to that. If we seek God first in all things, we can be sure that affliction for others is coming, maybe even in a physically manifested way. The affliction or burden that blesses God though is the sweetest. The one like Simon the Cyrenian. He just came alongside and helped with the weight of a cross righteously borne. This is an easy one. Jesus said …My burden is light…” The burden He has us carry is light. His was heavy.
Galatians 4:15 Paul’s eye ailment
Mark 15:21 Simon of Cyrene
Matthew 11:30 Christ’s burden is light for us
Selling your birthright for a pot of stew…Esau’s choice. It was a deadly one. It is difficult for some to grasp the magnitude of God stating that Esau He hated; and it should be. It should give us all pause. We can’t get around it. God says He hated Esau. God does hate. He is love but He hates evil. He hates all that is against His holiness and love. Esau chose that which showed he hated God. There was no remedy and this is why God gives His judgment here. He sees the end from the beginning remember, so He saw that Esau wanted the lowly pleasures of the flesh, having no regard for or desire for the gifts of God. And these gifts were freely available to him, that’s why God says that it was his birthright he rejected.
All who are created, that is, flesh born, the first birth, have the right, because they were born, to grab hold of God’s offer for salvation through faith. To deny Christ and rather live in the flesh is to reject your birthright as a human. God hates it. Everyone flesh born is written in a book called the Book of Life. It can only be blotted out when we for good reject Jesus Christ and His forgiveness of sin. Once we are spirit born (born again as Jesus said) then we are in what is referred to as the Lamb’s Book of Life. It’s the same book, but it is irreversible because we have been Spirit born…salvation is irreversible.
As the Spirit of God so often does, we see some hyperbole here with the pot of stew. Hyperbole is very effective in communicating severe truths. Esau chose a pot of stew because it satisfied his immediate fleshly craving to fill his gut.
There are hearts that will always choose the low road, the easy one, the path of least resistance, because they have no regard for God and what He desires for all. His desire is that we first are spirit born. But then He desires that the fullness of Christ would be formed in us. We delay and even stunt that maturing and transforming into the image of God, by putting fleshly choices and ways above the right choice; God’s ways.
If you are a non believer, today, reject the worthless pot of stew which is being your own God and living for the flesh. Rather, choose Jesus. Your heart already knows He is God and that His word is true. God said you know it deep down. Grab hold of the higher, the good, the perfect. Enter eternal life and know God. This is what He loves.
***A side note here: Esau was the father of the Amalekites, who were a Nephilim tribe…Esau’s son, Eliphaz was Amelek’s father. So, Esau’s grandson was Amelek, the tribe God instructed Saul to totally obliterate. Any people group that God ordered obliterated, incuding women, children and animals, were Nephilim tribes…demonic hybrids. This is the primary reason God hated Esau. He married a Canaanite woman, Adah, who was the daughter of Elon, the Hittite. Esau forsook God and mingled his flesh with Nephilim hybrids.
Bible References for the text above:
Genesis 25:29-34, Malachi 1:3, Psalm 11:5 (His soul hates the wicked…those who choose to remain lost and reject Christ), Romans 9:13 (He hated Esau in the womb because He knew Esau would never desire God but would always reject his birthright, salvation, Romans 11:29 (salvation is His gift and it is irrevocable…can’t lose it), John 3:1-21 (being born again), Ephesians 4:13 (fullness in Christ), Roman 1-2 (every heart created knows there is a God and has His truth written on the heart so that when he hears the gospel he knows it’s true). Genesis 36, whole chapter (Esau’s mingled flesh). Genesis 6 (the account of fallen angels marrying human women and producing a hybrid offspring, the Nephilim.
To be crucified with Christ,
Bind me, oh God, to Thy glorious self,
Attach my person to Thee.
Make me cling to Thy glorious body, oh Lord,
Till my hands are Your hands, and my feet are your feet.
See, I walk as You walk, and speak as You speak.