FIVE SMOOTH STONES - The Five Ascension Gifts in the Heavenly Shepherds Bag

FIVE SMOOTH STONES — The Five Ascension Gifts in the Heavenly Shepherd’s Bag

in the desert. He certainly has the authority to intercede for Israel for their failings in the desert, as He redeemed their failings while in the desert, and can forgive their sins specifically. When Paul the apostle was defending his apostolic ministry to the Church in Corinth, he did not list miracles or wonders done through his ministry. Rather he listed the many things which he and other apostles had endured on their behalf. This, perhaps, was another way of emphasizing what he wrote to them in 2 Corinthians 12 :12 that the first sign of apostleship is perseverance. Because of this, it might be said that to call someone a “young apostle” would be an oxymo - ron, as Paul said one had to be proven through perseverance before having the signs of apostleship. He put it in an interesting way to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 6:6, quoted here from the New Living Translation, “ We prove ourselves by our purity .” Like with the purification of precious metals, he said that their purity was proof of their having been purified or tried like silver through the fire. In 1 Kings 13 there is a wonderful, if not tragic, example of a man with a gift from God who lost his ministry because he was not proven. A young man of God, who clearly was called and gifted as a prophet came on the scene with signs and wonders. Yet God did not yet commission him a prophet, but sent him to accomplish an important task of prophesying revival and bringing reproof to the King and was told, “Y ou shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came .” The scripture says that he had every intention of obeying the Lord, but was tricked out of obedience by another prophet. First let’s look at the power with which this man of God entered the biblical record: 1 Kings 13:1 “ And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. 2 Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, "O altar, altar! Thus says the Lord: 'Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men's bones shall be burned on you.'" 3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, "This is the sign which the Lord has spoken: Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out." 4 So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, "Arrest him!" Then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back

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