WHO IS AN APOSTLE?
Having written about REVIVALS and AWAKENINGS in a recent post, and, especially zero-ing in on what I call(ed) THE ONDO AWAKENING, I feel compelled to do a follow-up by writing this piece on WHO IS AN APOSTLE? I was born Francis Akinbiyi Akintunde Akinpelumi Anibijuwon Olukayode Akinnola, simply known as Francis Akinnola, but, on the pulpit, I am better known as Apostle Akin Akinnola. So, who is an apostle?
Over the years, and especially in the on-going days and years of THE ONDO AWAKENING, one question that I knew (and still know) many people asked (and are asking), is, What is the (ministerial) "secret" of Apostle Akinnola?
Well, there's no secret I know, other than the fact that I am called by God, and appropriately anointed by Him, to stand in this peculiar and unique apostolic office, and to fulfil the same through His grace.
Let me, by way of information, though, tell you that I was specifically dedicated to Jehovah - - the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by my father, the late Chief Olukayode Akinnola, precisely 5 days after I was born. I am told that my mother and I were in the hospital for 5 days after my birth before being discharged; and that as we left the hospital my father took me straight to the St. Thomas's Anglican Church, Isinkan, Akure (our home church), where I was immediately DEDICATED to God! That is, upon my arrival on planet earth, my first point of call was THE CHURCH, ever before we went home!
Going from there, my father made sure that, as I grew up, I had the very best of 'evangelical training' that was available back then - - at least within the precincts of the Anglican Communion.
I remember as a child I would ask my father about where God dwelt! And, although the Yoruba word for 'God' is 'Olorun' ('Owner of the Heavens'), my father, quite deliberately, would not point to "the heavens," but would say, 'God dwells inside us;" so, from my childhood, I grew up with a "God-inside" consciousness!
From my Primary Four year, and at just 9 years of age, my father registered me in the church as one of the officiating ministers! He knew my calling ever before I was aware! I was the only officiating minister below 40 years of age, and there were just about 5 officiating ministers in all! I grew up knowing and believing that Jesus is the Son of God through whom we have access to, and acceptance with, God! although it wasn't until I was nineteen years of age that I decided, having come to personal revelation of it, to make my faith a life-pursuit! So, I never had what people call a "past" - - as in a bad past! You know what I mean! I cannot refer to any time when I was an "unbeliever." I cannot refer to any time when I was "in the world"! No! And although we were never the "anti-social" type that "born-again" christians seemed to be, we were people who were Bible believers. My father was a follower of Billy Graham's ministry. So, you could say, from 9 years of age I was already in ministry!!! (although I actually count my time in ministry from when I was 20).
I am a very unique personality. I am a very intense person. I took after my Dad in that regard. I am a LOVER - - just like my Dad. So, from the beginning, I fell in LOVE with God and with His Purposes. God has been able to make me see a difference between man's purpose (even when that 'purpose' is divinely indicated), on the one hand, and "God's Purpose" on the other. There's a rather thin but important difference between the two! I learnt that it is in loving the Purposes and Desires that God has for His own self, that I would find and have my own highest fulfilment! Jesus was of this very mind. My father tried, all his life, to make me love his (Chief Akinnola's) purpose! In loving his purpose, I would find my own purpose! Unknown to me at the time, that is what has helped me to seek to KNOW and to LOVE God's purposes for God! In learning, over time, and from one level of revelation to another, to know and to love God's supreme purposes for God, I have found my own fulfilment and purpose!
"Knowing," on the one hand, and "LOVING" God's purposes (for God), on the other hand, is supposed to be the whole duty of man. However, God ensures that a class of people (ministers) arise, from generation to generation, who are especially imbued with grace to understand God's purposes for God! They are called apostles! God anointed me as an apostle! The Bible says, "And he gave some, APOSTLES." Christ is the One who gives APOSTLES to His people and to the World. Christ is the ANOINTED ONE! He anointed some people as APOSTLES! An apostle is like a personal ambassador! It means "a SENT one." An apostle is a personal ambassador of CHRIST. An apostle is a personal identification and incarnation of the ministry of CHRIST unto the people to whom he (the apostle) has been sent. He is sent to, personally, incarnately, represent the Lord Jesus Christ to them. He is a personal representative of CHRIST. No one can make himself an apostle. There's a special grace (charisma) for apostleship. The apostle's person is an identification (arising from impartation through revelation) of CHRIST. The apostle has had an identification impartation of the 'Being' and of a specific ministry of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, through a personal revelation of that CHRIST, to him, and through him (the apostle)! The apostle bears "in his body" the marks of the LORD JESUS." He is, as it were, Jesus in the flesh - - in his particular area of apostleship. In the apostle's person, being, ministry and experiences, you can see, if you have the "eyes" to see, and can surely identify in him A PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE, an AMBASSADOR, of CHRIST - - a 'sent one' indeed!
Certain "afflictions" of CHRIST are still waiting to be fulfilled (not to achieve salvation, for that is already done, but to keep propelling the church to maturity.) Those "afflictions" are "filled up" in the flesh of an apostle, according to his specific apostleship!
No wonder Paul says, in I Corinthians 4:9-13, "For I think that God has set forth us the apostles LAST, as it were appointed to death:... we are made as the FILTH of the world, and are the OFFSCOURING (that is, REFUSE DUMP) of all things unto this day."
No wonder, the power of an apostle is so mighty, "for my strength is made perfect in weakness," the Bible says.
An apostle heals and delivers a people, a generation, and establishes God's kingdom. This is not just a matter of 'healing the sick' (an evangelist does that), but an apostle 'heals' a people of the infirmities of the fallen nature! He doesn't just preach the gospel of salvation (again, an evangelist does that!) rather, an apostle preaches the "gospel of the kingdom" - - the very gospel that will bring Jesus back into this World!
An apostle is a foundation-layer! He does an enduring work.! In fact, an apostle is a foundation! Jesus Christ, of course, is "the chief corner stone." No wonder, the Bible talks of the believers continuing steadfastly "in the apostles' doctrine" (see Acts chapter 2 and verse 42 in the Bible)!
Apostles are so much part of the personal ministry of CHRIST, that the revelations they have are the foundation upon which the church of Jesus Christ, and individual ministries, therein, are built! They are (by reason of their revelations and anointings) a part of the only foundation Jesus Christ. The apostle is a 'foundation,' not only by reason of his personal revelation of CHRIST (that is, CHRIST revealed to him), but also by reason of his personal revelation of the Word of his (own) apostleship! For CHRIST is that "personal" WORD revealed to him (the apostle) to communicate to the people unto whom he (the apostle) is a "SENT ONE"!
Each "apostleship" is specific!
An apostle has got deep insight into God's PLAN and PURPOSE for the people, the generation to whom he has been sent.
An apostle is a spiritual architect and builder, who uses the anointing of his apostleship, over time, to erect spiritual, divine structures in the hearts and lives of the people to whom he has been sent.
An apostle stands in the place of CHRIST, in his specific apostleship.
An apostle is a preacher and/or teacher of God's Word, but (unlike others), whose message carries the personal authority of CHRIST. He speaks as CHRIST. His message imparts CHRIST and His Kingdom to you (in whatever may be his area of apostleship), rather than just enlightening you alone and urging you to make a decision. An apostle comes to you as "the Lord from heaven" (see I Corinthians 15:47 in the Bible).
Apostles are the pillars, foundations, architects and builders of the faith of CHRIST!
Each apostle is directly commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ and given the necessary spiritual and ministerial endowments to fulfil his ministry as a personal representative of CHRIST.
Apostleship is like a call to DEATH! You are given a commission and under no circumstances are you permitted to find any excuse not to fulfil it!
The greatest burden of apostleship, is "concern for the Work" - - an irresistible "pressure" to see the work done, to see that ministry of CHRIST you've been given fulfilled, and according to the divine pattern received from the Lord, as well as being done in its proper time-frame!
An apostle is always looking forward to that day, when he can truly say, "I have finished my course"!
An apostle has got a divine jealousy for the people he is sent to bless, and the work he is sent to do.! Such a jealousy that can often make him take things too personally, so to say, when the welfare of the people, or of the work, is being threatened! The apostle, remember, is CHRIST in his situation - - and He is a Jealous God!
Very often, the passion with which an apostle handles the work of the ministry can make an ignorant person see him as making a "personal affair" of the whole thing, or, as "building a kingdom" for himself! (And, unfortunately, this is sometimes true - - yet, that personal touch must be there, for that, indeed, is a distinguishing mark of an apostle, and the burden will not let go of him until everything has been done "according to the pattern" (see Hebrews 8:5)!
There is a pattern (God-given pattern) for every apostolic work. Every apostle is "free" in God to be the CHRIST that has been revealed to him in his specific apostleship! If faithfully done, then somewhere along the line, the different dimensions of CHRIST represented by these apostolic streams, will take shape across the BODY OF CHRIST, culminating in the formation of the full stature of CHRIST in that BODY. Then, we would not just be His BODY, but, indeed, His BRIDE!
An apostle, by reason of his kind of calling and the burden that goes with that calling, has, usually, an out-of-this-world devotion or commitment to his work, all things being equal. That is, if he's personally a matured believer and has chosen to fulfill his calling, he goes about it in a do-or-die manner! (Paul said, in I Corinthians 9:16, "woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel")! It's that serious!
The apostolic calling is so unique, such that the apostle has a sense of" if I don't do it, the kingdom of God will eternally lose something." No, not that he thinks he's indispensable; rather, it's because God's choice and election are fashioned in eternity and the apostle is one person who should deeply understand that. Because he does, there's a drive in him by which he would rather be spent for the ministry!
God has to put such a drive and an unction on him to ensure total commitment to the work. The unction upon an apostle, therefore, is such that, like Paul, an apostle would say, "... one thing I do..."
When an apostle has fulfilled his ministry, the proof of it remains a living testimony to all whose eyes God opens to see it! When that is the case, then, people may not remember who pastored who, or who got who saved, or who prophesied about who or what, or even who taught who some Bible doctrine! But, but ... they'd know who (apostle) established or wrought what in his generation!
Thank God for true apostles!
In perhaps every nation (ethnicity) of this world, there may have been at one time or another, a genuine apostle raised by God Himself to establish His Kingdom there! What about Evan Roberts of Wales? Or, those sent with a specific message - - like John Alexander Dowie, the Healing Apostle; or Maria Woodworth-Etter, the Demonstrator of the Spirit; or Charles Parham, the Father of Pentecost; or William Seymour, the Catalyst of Pentecost; or John G. Lake, the Great Apostle to South Africa; or Smith Wigglesworth, the Apostle of Faith; or Aimee Semple-McPherson, the founder of the Foursquare revelation of the Gospel; or Kathryn Kuhlman, the enigmatic woman through whom the modern-day charismatic ministry was born!
The proof of apostleship stands as an eternal testimony before God that Christ has been "ministerially" incarnated, in a dimension, in that apostle!
The proof of apostleship is the visible "approval" of his apostleship. That proof must be according to the divine pattern given to that apostle, for it to receive reward!
It is a requirement of apostleship, that CHRIST must have specifically been "seen" by the apostle. Not just seeing Him to be blessed (no! as many believers experience that!) But seeing Him to be commissioned for apostleship. It's not just the man, seeking Jesus as it were, but He, the Lord of the work, leaving His throne, so to speak, and revealing Himself to the man, in apostolic credentials! It's an actual "seeing," an actual vision of the LIVING CHRIST, a personal revelation of Himself to the man as it pertains to (the man's) specific apostleship!
It's more than just seeing Jesus in a vision! Many believers (and even non-believers) experience that! On the contrary, to have an "apostolic" revelation of CHRIST to you, means Christ's Being, Person and Ministry, being UNVEILED to your spiritual understanding, such that, that revelation of Him gets branded into your very personality and your consciousness, such that it becomes a constituent nature in you! Then, when you minister, you are as Him! That's apostleship!
Every apostle must have seen the Lord in his specific area of apostleship, otherwise his apostleship is yet in name alone. The revelation is more than words; it leaves an aspect of the personality of CHRIST permanently "burned" into your being. It's more than creed; it's more than "do's and don'ts;" it's even more than morals; it's more than denominational dogma; it's not a system of "good and evil;" it's not even a system of what is "right" or what is "wrong;" it's not a code of ethics - - rather, it's a living message of a LIVING BEING, God Himself in Man! It becomes a "living" message that you carry in your bosom, and "woe" is unto you if you don't deliver that message or wrought that work!
That's the reason I'm so passionate about the things I declare! I'm an apostle! I've seen Him! A dispensation (quantum, and quanta) of the gospel has been committed into my hands!
A "quantum" (and "quanta") of the Son of God, has been given to me, to give to His Body, so that, that Body, in conjunction with other "quanta" coming from various apostolic STREAMS OF DIVINE LIFE, would "come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man [Humanity], unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of CHRIST" (Ephesians 4:13).
When a "dispensation" of the gospel is committed unto you, you cannot but preach Him! It's an apostolic ministry that you cannot shake off! Everything in you speaks it! Everything in you manifests it, until you become as a "mad man" to those who don't understand!
Friday, the 12th day of June, 1981, was the day! I stepped into apostolic unction through a very unique encounter with the Holy Ghost, ............ By then (1981) l had been on the pulpit for seven good years, but that encounter, I was made to know, was my entry into apostolic unction. Thereafter, apostolic revelations of CHRIST, and apostolic visions of Him, became a continuing phenomenon in my life!
Brethren, I do hope I've helped you, in this write-up, to appreciate, or have a glimpse of, WHO IS AN APOSTLE?
Having written about REVIVALS and AWAKENINGS in a recent post, and, especially zero-ing in on what I call(ed) THE ONDO AWAKENING, I feel compelled to do a follow-up by writing this piece on WHO IS AN APOSTLE? I was born Francis Akinbiyi Akintunde Akinpelumi Anibijuwon Olukayode Akinnola, simply known as Francis Akinnola, but, on the pulpit, I am better known as Apostle Akin Akinnola. So, who is an apostle?
Over the years, and especially in the on-going days and years of THE ONDO AWAKENING, one question that I knew (and still know) many people asked (and are asking), is, What is the (ministerial) "secret" of Apostle Akinnola?
Well, there's no secret I know, other than the fact that I am called by God, and appropriately anointed by Him, to stand in this peculiar and unique apostolic office, and to fulfil the same through His grace.
Let me, by way of information, though, tell you that I was specifically dedicated to Jehovah - - the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by my father, the late Chief Olukayode Akinnola, precisely 5 days after I was born. I am told that my mother and I were in the hospital for 5 days after my birth before being discharged; and that as we left the hospital my father took me straight to the St. Thomas's Anglican Church, Isinkan, Akure (our home church), where I was immediately DEDICATED to God! That is, upon my arrival on planet earth, my first point of call was THE CHURCH, ever before we went home!
Going from there, my father made sure that, as I grew up, I had the very best of 'evangelical training' that was available back then - - at least within the precincts of the Anglican Communion.
I remember as a child I would ask my father about where God dwelt! And, although the Yoruba word for 'God' is 'Olorun' ('Owner of the Heavens'), my father, quite deliberately, would not point to "the heavens," but would say, 'God dwells inside us;" so, from my childhood, I grew up with a "God-inside" consciousness!
From my Primary Four year, and at just 9 years of age, my father registered me in the church as one of the officiating ministers! He knew my calling ever before I was aware! I was the only officiating minister below 40 years of age, and there were just about 5 officiating ministers in all! I grew up knowing and believing that Jesus is the Son of God through whom we have access to, and acceptance with, God! although it wasn't until I was nineteen years of age that I decided, having come to personal revelation of it, to make my faith a life-pursuit! So, I never had what people call a "past" - - as in a bad past! You know what I mean! I cannot refer to any time when I was an "unbeliever." I cannot refer to any time when I was "in the world"! No! And although we were never the "anti-social" type that "born-again" christians seemed to be, we were people who were Bible believers. My father was a follower of Billy Graham's ministry. So, you could say, from 9 years of age I was already in ministry!!! (although I actually count my time in ministry from when I was 20).
I am a very unique personality. I am a very intense person. I took after my Dad in that regard. I am a LOVER - - just like my Dad. So, from the beginning, I fell in LOVE with God and with His Purposes. God has been able to make me see a difference between man's purpose (even when that 'purpose' is divinely indicated), on the one hand, and "God's Purpose" on the other. There's a rather thin but important difference between the two! I learnt that it is in loving the Purposes and Desires that God has for His own self, that I would find and have my own highest fulfilment! Jesus was of this very mind. My father tried, all his life, to make me love his (Chief Akinnola's) purpose! In loving his purpose, I would find my own purpose! Unknown to me at the time, that is what has helped me to seek to KNOW and to LOVE God's purposes for God! In learning, over time, and from one level of revelation to another, to know and to love God's supreme purposes for God, I have found my own fulfilment and purpose!
"Knowing," on the one hand, and "LOVING" God's purposes (for God), on the other hand, is supposed to be the whole duty of man. However, God ensures that a class of people (ministers) arise, from generation to generation, who are especially imbued with grace to understand God's purposes for God! They are called apostles! God anointed me as an apostle! The Bible says, "And he gave some, APOSTLES." Christ is the One who gives APOSTLES to His people and to the World. Christ is the ANOINTED ONE! He anointed some people as APOSTLES! An apostle is like a personal ambassador! It means "a SENT one." An apostle is a personal ambassador of CHRIST. An apostle is a personal identification and incarnation of the ministry of CHRIST unto the people to whom he (the apostle) has been sent. He is sent to, personally, incarnately, represent the Lord Jesus Christ to them. He is a personal representative of CHRIST. No one can make himself an apostle. There's a special grace (charisma) for apostleship. The apostle's person is an identification (arising from impartation through revelation) of CHRIST. The apostle has had an identification impartation of the 'Being' and of a specific ministry of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, through a personal revelation of that CHRIST, to him, and through him (the apostle)! The apostle bears "in his body" the marks of the LORD JESUS." He is, as it were, Jesus in the flesh - - in his particular area of apostleship. In the apostle's person, being, ministry and experiences, you can see, if you have the "eyes" to see, and can surely identify in him A PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE, an AMBASSADOR, of CHRIST - - a 'sent one' indeed!
Certain "afflictions" of CHRIST are still waiting to be fulfilled (not to achieve salvation, for that is already done, but to keep propelling the church to maturity.) Those "afflictions" are "filled up" in the flesh of an apostle, according to his specific apostleship!
No wonder Paul says, in I Corinthians 4:9-13, "For I think that God has set forth us the apostles LAST, as it were appointed to death:... we are made as the FILTH of the world, and are the OFFSCOURING (that is, REFUSE DUMP) of all things unto this day."
No wonder, the power of an apostle is so mighty, "for my strength is made perfect in weakness," the Bible says.
An apostle heals and delivers a people, a generation, and establishes God's kingdom. This is not just a matter of 'healing the sick' (an evangelist does that), but an apostle 'heals' a people of the infirmities of the fallen nature! He doesn't just preach the gospel of salvation (again, an evangelist does that!) rather, an apostle preaches the "gospel of the kingdom" - - the very gospel that will bring Jesus back into this World!
An apostle is a foundation-layer! He does an enduring work.! In fact, an apostle is a foundation! Jesus Christ, of course, is "the chief corner stone." No wonder, the Bible talks of the believers continuing steadfastly "in the apostles' doctrine" (see Acts chapter 2 and verse 42 in the Bible)!
Apostles are so much part of the personal ministry of CHRIST, that the revelations they have are the foundation upon which the church of Jesus Christ, and individual ministries, therein, are built! They are (by reason of their revelations and anointings) a part of the only foundation Jesus Christ. The apostle is a 'foundation,' not only by reason of his personal revelation of CHRIST (that is, CHRIST revealed to him), but also by reason of his personal revelation of the Word of his (own) apostleship! For CHRIST is that "personal" WORD revealed to him (the apostle) to communicate to the people unto whom he (the apostle) is a "SENT ONE"!
Each "apostleship" is specific!
An apostle has got deep insight into God's PLAN and PURPOSE for the people, the generation to whom he has been sent.
An apostle is a spiritual architect and builder, who uses the anointing of his apostleship, over time, to erect spiritual, divine structures in the hearts and lives of the people to whom he has been sent.
An apostle stands in the place of CHRIST, in his specific apostleship.
An apostle is a preacher and/or teacher of God's Word, but (unlike others), whose message carries the personal authority of CHRIST. He speaks as CHRIST. His message imparts CHRIST and His Kingdom to you (in whatever may be his area of apostleship), rather than just enlightening you alone and urging you to make a decision. An apostle comes to you as "the Lord from heaven" (see I Corinthians 15:47 in the Bible).
Apostles are the pillars, foundations, architects and builders of the faith of CHRIST!
Each apostle is directly commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ and given the necessary spiritual and ministerial endowments to fulfil his ministry as a personal representative of CHRIST.
Apostleship is like a call to DEATH! You are given a commission and under no circumstances are you permitted to find any excuse not to fulfil it!
The greatest burden of apostleship, is "concern for the Work" - - an irresistible "pressure" to see the work done, to see that ministry of CHRIST you've been given fulfilled, and according to the divine pattern received from the Lord, as well as being done in its proper time-frame!
An apostle is always looking forward to that day, when he can truly say, "I have finished my course"!
An apostle has got a divine jealousy for the people he is sent to bless, and the work he is sent to do.! Such a jealousy that can often make him take things too personally, so to say, when the welfare of the people, or of the work, is being threatened! The apostle, remember, is CHRIST in his situation - - and He is a Jealous God!
Very often, the passion with which an apostle handles the work of the ministry can make an ignorant person see him as making a "personal affair" of the whole thing, or, as "building a kingdom" for himself! (And, unfortunately, this is sometimes true - - yet, that personal touch must be there, for that, indeed, is a distinguishing mark of an apostle, and the burden will not let go of him until everything has been done "according to the pattern" (see Hebrews 8:5)!
There is a pattern (God-given pattern) for every apostolic work. Every apostle is "free" in God to be the CHRIST that has been revealed to him in his specific apostleship! If faithfully done, then somewhere along the line, the different dimensions of CHRIST represented by these apostolic streams, will take shape across the BODY OF CHRIST, culminating in the formation of the full stature of CHRIST in that BODY. Then, we would not just be His BODY, but, indeed, His BRIDE!
An apostle, by reason of his kind of calling and the burden that goes with that calling, has, usually, an out-of-this-world devotion or commitment to his work, all things being equal. That is, if he's personally a matured believer and has chosen to fulfill his calling, he goes about it in a do-or-die manner! (Paul said, in I Corinthians 9:16, "woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel")! It's that serious!
The apostolic calling is so unique, such that the apostle has a sense of" if I don't do it, the kingdom of God will eternally lose something." No, not that he thinks he's indispensable; rather, it's because God's choice and election are fashioned in eternity and the apostle is one person who should deeply understand that. Because he does, there's a drive in him by which he would rather be spent for the ministry!
God has to put such a drive and an unction on him to ensure total commitment to the work. The unction upon an apostle, therefore, is such that, like Paul, an apostle would say, "... one thing I do..."
When an apostle has fulfilled his ministry, the proof of it remains a living testimony to all whose eyes God opens to see it! When that is the case, then, people may not remember who pastored who, or who got who saved, or who prophesied about who or what, or even who taught who some Bible doctrine! But, but ... they'd know who (apostle) established or wrought what in his generation!
Thank God for true apostles!
In perhaps every nation (ethnicity) of this world, there may have been at one time or another, a genuine apostle raised by God Himself to establish His Kingdom there! What about Evan Roberts of Wales? Or, those sent with a specific message - - like John Alexander Dowie, the Healing Apostle; or Maria Woodworth-Etter, the Demonstrator of the Spirit; or Charles Parham, the Father of Pentecost; or William Seymour, the Catalyst of Pentecost; or John G. Lake, the Great Apostle to South Africa; or Smith Wigglesworth, the Apostle of Faith; or Aimee Semple-McPherson, the founder of the Foursquare revelation of the Gospel; or Kathryn Kuhlman, the enigmatic woman through whom the modern-day charismatic ministry was born!
The proof of apostleship stands as an eternal testimony before God that Christ has been "ministerially" incarnated, in a dimension, in that apostle!
The proof of apostleship is the visible "approval" of his apostleship. That proof must be according to the divine pattern given to that apostle, for it to receive reward!
It is a requirement of apostleship, that CHRIST must have specifically been "seen" by the apostle. Not just seeing Him to be blessed (no! as many believers experience that!) But seeing Him to be commissioned for apostleship. It's not just the man, seeking Jesus as it were, but He, the Lord of the work, leaving His throne, so to speak, and revealing Himself to the man, in apostolic credentials! It's an actual "seeing," an actual vision of the LIVING CHRIST, a personal revelation of Himself to the man as it pertains to (the man's) specific apostleship!
It's more than just seeing Jesus in a vision! Many believers (and even non-believers) experience that! On the contrary, to have an "apostolic" revelation of CHRIST to you, means Christ's Being, Person and Ministry, being UNVEILED to your spiritual understanding, such that, that revelation of Him gets branded into your very personality and your consciousness, such that it becomes a constituent nature in you! Then, when you minister, you are as Him! That's apostleship!
Every apostle must have seen the Lord in his specific area of apostleship, otherwise his apostleship is yet in name alone. The revelation is more than words; it leaves an aspect of the personality of CHRIST permanently "burned" into your being. It's more than creed; it's more than "do's and don'ts;" it's even more than morals; it's more than denominational dogma; it's not a system of "good and evil;" it's not even a system of what is "right" or what is "wrong;" it's not a code of ethics - - rather, it's a living message of a LIVING BEING, God Himself in Man! It becomes a "living" message that you carry in your bosom, and "woe" is unto you if you don't deliver that message or wrought that work!
That's the reason I'm so passionate about the things I declare! I'm an apostle! I've seen Him! A dispensation (quantum, and quanta) of the gospel has been committed into my hands!
A "quantum" (and "quanta") of the Son of God, has been given to me, to give to His Body, so that, that Body, in conjunction with other "quanta" coming from various apostolic STREAMS OF DIVINE LIFE, would "come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man [Humanity], unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of CHRIST" (Ephesians 4:13).
When a "dispensation" of the gospel is committed unto you, you cannot but preach Him! It's an apostolic ministry that you cannot shake off! Everything in you speaks it! Everything in you manifests it, until you become as a "mad man" to those who don't understand!
Friday, the 12th day of June, 1981, was the day! I stepped into apostolic unction through a very unique encounter with the Holy Ghost, ............ By then (1981) l had been on the pulpit for seven good years, but that encounter, I was made to know, was my entry into apostolic unction. Thereafter, apostolic revelations of CHRIST, and apostolic visions of Him, became a continuing phenomenon in my life!
Brethren, I do hope I've helped you, in this write-up, to appreciate, or have a glimpse of, WHO IS AN APOSTLE?
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