Chapter 11
The
Question
As the Spirit
of God begins to move upon the hearts of His people to compel
them to leave the old, dead, dry, religious systems of this day,
a question will arise:
What shall I
do now? I can't find a Third Day Church in my area? And,
what about ...
Hebrews 10:24
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good
works,
Hebrews 10:25
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the
manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more
as you see the Day approaching.
Even though
you can't find a Third Day Church, you should be able to find
some Third Day Christians with whom you can have fellowship.
Acts 2:46 tells us that the first-century church continued from
house to house. This speaks of home-fellowship groups.
The first
order of the home-fellowship groups should be prayer for the
purpose of seeking God's direction for their group. Also,
pray that God would bring your group into contact with other like-minded,
Third Day Christians.
As the groups
grow, the Holy Spirit will identify and establish leadership
within the groups. Eventually, a glorious, local, Third Day
Church will emerge from these home fellowships.
Most churches
in their present structure will not be willing to be restructured
into a Third Day Church. Third Day churches will be
patterned after the book of Acts church. The book of Acts
church didn't have a voting membership, and it didn't have an
Elder Board or denominational hierarchy that controlled the set
ministry.
The Third Day
churches will function according to the scriptures. They
will have a five-fold ministry function-ing under the leadership
of a man or woman who has been designated and gifted by the Lord.
There is a
prophetic picture in John chapter 4 of the harlot church
that refuses to embrace the five-fold ministry.
John 4:6
Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from
His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
John 4:7
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give
Me a drink."
John 4:8
For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
John 4:9
Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You,
being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For
Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
John 4:10
Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of
God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would
have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."
John 4:11
The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with,
and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?
John 4:12
"Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the
well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his
livestock?"
John 4:13
Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this
water will thirst again,
John 4:14
"but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will
never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in
him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."
John 4:15
The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may
not thirst, nor come here to draw."
John 4:16
Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."
John 4:17
The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus
said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,'
John 4:18
"for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now
have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly."
In verse 6 the
sixth hour is the hour of man. The woman is not of the
Jewish faith; she is a Samaritan, and she is a harlot. She
has rejected five husbands, which represent the five-fold
ministry.
She is not
married to her sixth lover; again 6 is the number of man, the
number of flesh that isn't in covenant relationship. She
needed the living water that Christ could have provided for her,
but she refused to believe and receive it.
Verse 25 tells
us she even knew the Messiah was to come, and in verse 26
Jesus said, "I who speak to you am He." Even
though Jesus told her that He was the Christ, she questioned that
statement.
John 4:29
"Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did.
Could this be the Christ?"
She referred
to a man, a prophet, who told her about her husbands. But,
we have no record that this woman ever believed in Jesus as the
Messiah, nor do we have a record in the scriptures that she
followed Him.
I have
witnessed this same kind of a thing in ministry. I have
watched some of those who didn't believe in the five-fold
ministry hear a prophetic word, and even though they saw the
fulfillment of that word, they still refused to believe that we
have prophets today.
Ephesians 4:8-11
tells us that He gave gifts to men, and He gave those men to the
Body of Christ for the equipping of the saints.
1 Corinthians
12:18-28 tells us that He sets these (apostles, prophets,
teachers/pastors) in the church as leadership.
A position of
accountability will be established, but not a position of control.
The present Babylonian church systems are designed to control set
ministry or leader-ship. This was never God's plan; His
government is a theocracy, not a democracy.
The scriptures
reveal that the majority vote is usually wrong. Seventy
disciples voted to leave Jesus; twelve stayed. Ten of
Moses' twelve spies voted to stay in the wilderness. Only
two wanted to possess the Promised Land. Satan is able to
move in most church boards to control the leadership.
If the set
office is truly of God, everything will function for the good of
all. Plurality of leadership (five-fold offices) will only
function in proper order under set ministry, which can be that of
an apostle or prophet or teacher/pastor. Ephesians 4:11
identifies the office of pastor AND teacher as one.
The set man
will facilitate the other offices of the five-fold ministry in
the local church. To facilitate means to make a place for
these ministries. In other words, he will make it easy for
these gifts, which Christ has given, to function within the
assembly.
In the
beginning, the local church may not have all five offices in
place. If that is the case, they should seek some outside
input from the offices that are not yet established locally.
For instance,
let's say the set man/woman has been identified and is a pastor/teacher.
The pastor/teacher should seek the input of an apostle and a
prophet from outside the group until those offices are raised up
within the group.
The Lord is
establishing His divine government in this the Third Day. And,
when the church is in proper order, then resurrection power will
be found in His house.
Many will say,
"Is this possible?" Can a glorious, local
Third Day
Church come into being and function as I have described? The
answer to that question is, "Yes!" That is
exactly what has happened here at Faith Tabernacle, Kremmling,
Colorado.
The Master has
used our ministry as a prototype of the Third Day Church. His
blessings and anointing have come as a result of our obedience to
follow His plan and not man's. We are a small, local church
mightily blessed by the Lord, and we believe that the Lord wants
to establish this kind of dwelling place around the world.
Be bold,
believe for God's best, step out, and say, "Here I am, Lord.
Use me. Position me. Establish me in the habitation
that you would have me in." And, then, launch out into
a bright new day...the Third Day!
Faith Tabernacle