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

prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute ” He was most likely referring to 2 Chronicles 36:16. In this piece of scripture the word translated as messenger is the word used for apostle in the New Testament, “ But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets.. .” In the New Testament the apostle is given so much authority that Jesus chose to only ordain apostles while He was on earth and allowed them to birth the other New Testament ministries, including the prophet ministry. Throughout the New Testament apostles and prophets are teamed up with one another. Prophets and apostles seemed to have been attracted to one another (see Acts 11 & 21, Acts 15:40). There are records of apostles functioning without prophets in New Testament scripture, but not prophets functioning without apostolic ministry influence. This is clearly different than in the Old Testament. The Spirit of God has increased the potential for all believers in the New Testament because now all Christians have the Spirit of the Resurrection through Christ. The calling of a prophet is not any less now, nor the potential power or effect any less now. Nor are the standards any lower than for the Old Testament prophet. There are misunderstandings in regard to the New Testament prophet, however, primarily due to not understanding the ministry of the Old Testament prophet. For instance, those who expect any New Testament prophets to foretell future events should take a closer look at the first man in the Old Testament who is called a prophet, Abraham. There is not a single record of Abraham foretelling anything. Yet in the New Testament Jesus said he would give the spirit to every believer, and the spirit would show them future things. John 16:13 “ However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. ” Those who interpret Old Testament scriptures to mean that every prophecy must absolutely come to pass or the prophet must be severely punished or even killed should look closer at some of the well-known prophets of old who had prophecies that did not come to pass. Jonah is one obvious one. Not a single word of his prophecy

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