To follow up the previous post, since the post was generalized. It lacked clarity with respect to the scope of leadership assignment. It addressed basic principles out of context of personal calling. It assumed authentic apostles and prophets. It ignored the myriad definitions of “apostle” and “prophet” that now make people something they are not
I purposefully didn’t do so because it was a post, not a book.
I did mention the scope of leadership assignment. Someone wished to discuss local, regional, national, and international apostles and prophets. They wished to talk about submitting as a “prophet of the house.” They wished to discuss how prophets submit to local Ecclesia.
To rehearse a bit, I started with “Ecclesia is regional.” That does not mean that every apostle or prophet is functioning in a regional assignment. I started with “councils of apostles” and “companies of prophets”. That doesn’t mean that every apostle or prophet is part of a regional council or company.
I wrote about the function of Apostles and Prophets as foundational leaders to the Ecclesiae. They prepare and position saints as evangels, teachers, and shepherds do. They do so at the practical level of their authority and assignment.
To know your assignment is to recognize your alignment. Your alignment recognizes someone with a set of blueprints for the purposes of God for your scope of the assignment.
You are not an international apostle because you preach in Poland. You are not assigned to the nation because you pray for America. You are not council member for your region until you have that scope of the assignment. In every sense, you are not an apostle at all until you step into the function of origination. You are an emerging apostle or apostolic in your local function.
We are currently telling people who cannot lead a Sunday School class they are prophets. We christened because they had a word of knowledge or went through a school. We are currently awarding apostle cloaks to boy scouts. This strategy attracts people into our downlines. This is mush. This is surface slush. This Mickey Mouse.
We continue with horrifying dysfunctions about apostle and prophets because we maintain superstitions. A large part of those carrying the calling card wishes to have a title. They cannot function as a leader in their own homes. They cannot lead themselves.
Apostle and Prophets Are Leaders
They lead at the level and scope of their assignments. So, this is where they function together. Regional ones function together at the regional level. National ones function together at the national level. International ones function together at the international level.
Local ones function at the local level.
A bunch of this stuff is so silly we ignore it. Some of it damages the restoration. We should confront it for the integrity of the kingdom culture. Some of it is a blatant rebellion within the kingdom. We should confront it until it ceases to exist. Rebellion is witchcraft and people drop dead from it sometimes.
Apostles and prophets are kingdom leadership dynamics. There are five of them. Apostles and prophets are foundational leaders, and this is what unique about them.
If you are not a leader, you are not a prophet. If you are not a leader, you are not an apostle. You can be a leader without being any one of the five aspects of Jesus’s leadership but carry the traits of an identifiable dynamic. You can be apostolic without being an apostle. You have that disposition and some of its gifts. You are not that kind of leader with respect to assignment.
A considerable portion of ministries has been founded simply because someone is a leader. Another portion has been founded because someone wanted to be the leader. They are illegitimate because they lack assignment. They have no blueprints. They have what they have but it is not a mandate to be separate. Someone wants to have his own gig.
He may have the disposition but no calling or assignment. He is an exhorter but wants a pulpit. Being “called to preach” messes with the present house because it only has room for one preacher. So, a new ministry begins that has no legitimacy.
To legitimize himself, he seeks a legitimizer. They are plentiful. The dysfunction multiplies through illegitimate legitimizers. The woods are full of them.
Remove the illegitimate ones and fold them all into the authentic, and you suddenly have a new Remnant. This solves a bunch of problems no one wants to talk about. It is the 700-pound elephant in the front yard of the present restoration.
Apostles and Prophets in Tandem
I do not wish to make a generalization of one of each. We do see a pattern of sending out two by two. We do see a sending of one. We do see a sending of a representative group. We do not see an imperative to put apostle Joe and prophet George together as a team.
The way foundational leaders operate at the foundation depends upon the assignment and who has the blueprints. Until we know who has the blueprints, we are acting like children handling adult things. We run around spouting big things that only adults can make into strategic kingdom assignments. I am talking about apostolic order.
The apostolic order begins with apostolic blueprints. The King assigns an apostle and his team to establish kingdom and kingdom culture. The King defines the scope of that assignment. At the point of construction, prophet and apostle combine function. Anything else runs cross-grain with the presuppositions of Scripture.
For the most part, we have a restoration without a Reformation because the foundational leaders do not function at the foundation. The moment anyone attempts apostolic order, he meets up with the most foundational limitation of Reformation.
We have lost kingdom culture, and we do not know we have lost it.
However, apostles and prophets work in tandem. Neither floats about on spiritual pillows, dropping into regions like genies on flying carpets. Neither operates in a vacuum of “Now it is Jesus and me” isolation, dropping down “from the realms” to enlighten us mere mortals and collect an offering. The kingdom and its culture define what the King designed, leadership dynamics inherent in the culture.
The function is defined by the scope of the assignment. All assignments answer to alignments. Alignments forge where blueprints overlap. Everyone in a region has assignments within the blueprints. The Elders prepare and position each citizen for operation and maintain operational integrity. Apostles and prophets have the perspective of the entire blueprints. They apply leadership to every citizen within the scope of their assignments. They do so at the foundational level.
