The Number 12 Represents God's Government
Isaiah 9:6-7 KJV
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
The purpose for government is to establish order.
God has been dealing with everything in our life that is out of order, everything that can be shaken has been shaken.
We cannot govern others well if we haven't govern ourselves well. God works within then without. How we are privately is what will manifest publicly. For God allows nothing to remain hidden, He exposes all.
God can only govern our affairs to the degree we pray. He said to pray without ceasing meaning to allow Him to govern all. In everything, pray! Our prayers as a child are self centered where basically God does everything for us. Many of us are no longer children and that is why are prayers are not being answered, God is not going to do everything for us, He will though do things with us. That was His original intention from the beginning, the reason He made mankind was to have relationship, to have someone to rule the universe with. We see this in the original mandate:
Genesis 1:28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
God never intended to just be used as many use the government as a bail out plan. It is not His government here to serve us, but we are the government of God, (each member of His body), and if we don't govern, the government doesn't do well. We are all part of restoring the earth, for we are the restoration of God. As He restores us, the earth transforms. His goal is to restore things to it's original intention. We are the garden of God. We are Eden. Darkness is removed as each one comes into the light.
1 Kings 3:9 NLT
Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”
Each member needs the church to be in right order itself. Our spiritual growth is largely due to the body He has attached us too. If our local church is out of order, not properly governed, then our lives will be out of order the same. Many believers suffer lack because of this. When Jesus rose to Heaven He descended His grace in five different elements the office of Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher as we see in
Ephesians 4:10 And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. 11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
If these five elements or I like to call nutrients are not in place, we are malnourished, not fully developed, immature. A Harvest comes when fruit matures. We are not seeing church growth because of immature self-centered Christians because the Five-Fold Government is not established in most church bodies. Many churches are being maintained well through Pastors, taught well through Teachers, prophesied through Prophets, but the office of Evangelist isn't functioning well so evangelism is little, the office of Apostle is still rarely recognized so people being sent to transform the community is minimum. We need to receive from each of these five grace gifts if we are going to walk balanced, not continuing to stumble, and measure up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
© Demonstration Generation MINISTRIES. All Rights Reserved 2010
site designed by: jdeugene@gmail.com
page 1-2
