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

A gift is not contingent upon a position in order to be manifested, whereas eldership over a Church is a position in which the person is set in to use their gift. A teacher will teach regardless of position, an evangelist will evangelize regardless of position, likewise a person with the shepherd’s gift will guide and carry regardless of position. This is the individual within a group who will have a direct influence on others to lead, steer and encourage them to pursue God. This person has the ability to guide and gather people without a title or position with the board because they operate in the gifting that the Lord has bestowed. The shepherd will function within the gift of being able to direct Christians to the place where they will be fed. He has the ability to guide and gather. This is the gift of a shepherd and it is not in the least contingent upon a person’s position in the Church, but as with any gift, it will belong to the person everywhere the Lord sends him to serve. In Bible times, the flocks of sheep were usually tended by more than one shepherd, and these shepherds were not usually the owners of the flock. Most usually these shepherds were shepherding the flocks belonging to their father, or their father-in-law. Often shepherds within our Churches become too possessive because they forget they are to guide the Father’s sheep and not lord it over them as if they owned them. God’s flock is entrusted to the shepherd but is not owned by the shepherd. When there are many shepherds working together this is much easier to remember. But there are other benefits for plurality among shepherds. As has been mentioned earlier, with the exception of the Lord Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd, there is no example of a person named in the New Testament as being a shepherd, singular. At a recent early morning prayer meeting a prophetic word was spoken which said: “ The Lord is doing a new thing in our days, and greater than in days of old. Even on the day of Pentecost was the great work of birthing a Church performed. But in these days He will do a greater work and birth one Church out of many .” Two hours later at the prayer time for city pastors, one of the pastors made an announcement that three pastors of separate denominational Churches in the city felt called to merge together to make one new congregation.

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