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

The scripture says that of the increase of His government there would be no end. If He were not still calling men and women into the five ministry gifts today, then His government would not be increasing but would be decreasing, and it would signify that the Lord Himself had changed, which is an impossibility. Jesus Himself said that He was going to send other fivefold ministries. Luke 11:49 "Therefore the wisdom of God also said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles..” He could not have been speaking of a time while He was still on the earth, because He never fulfilled that, He did not ordain any ministries while He was upon the earth except apostles. But He was saying that after He ascended that He was going to commission and send more gift ministers from His throne in heaven. Ephesians 4:10 “... the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.” Since the early centuries after Christ ascended, heresies have crept into the Church including the idea that the ascension gifts passed away with the passing of the first century ministers. This false teaching has promoted that the gifts of God from heaven were replaced by positions of bishops, priests, kings, and administrators. This was never the will of the Lord and, as usual, when people replace the ways of the Lord with their own ways, darkness, not light, is the result. And the resultant years after the ministries were hidden are called the dark ages, because the light of the simple gospel was hidden and masked. During these dark times there were still men and women each given as gifts to the Church, under the authority of these five ministries, by the Lord. But their function was hindered, and often confusion, and ignorance limited their open functioning. Even Jesus could not do many mighty works when confronted with an unbelieving populace (Matthew13:58). There are many different types of unbelief and lack of knowledge is a type of unbelief.

1