by admin | Jan 18, 2023 | Authority, Change, Change & New Things, Charismatic Gifts, Church, Church Leadership, False teaching, Featured, Fivefold Ministry, Leadership, Prophetic, Spiritual Gifts, Steven Lambert
Now as pointed out before (in the book, Charismatic Captivation), the Church is the quintessential Theocracy. Its government is not a political government wherein the governed themselves constitute, devise, and effect their own government, such as that of this nation, the United States, which is a form of democracy (republic), supposedly “of the people, for the people, and by the people.” Rather, the Church is literally governed by a singular Supreme Potentate—the Lord Jesus Christ—who God has appointed as its Sole and Sovereign Head. The absolute necessity of understanding this one concept is emphasized and re‑emphasized repeatedly in this volume, and indeed is the ultimate and salient point of this book.
But, once it is understood that Christ Jesus Himself is the ultimate Head and Cornerstone of the Church, it is just as vital to understand that the government that Jesus presides over is an intermediated or proxy government in its physical application. In other words, He does not govern alone, nor directly, nor even in person. Rather, His government is a “representative” or “delegate” form of government, if you will. This is to say that as God set apart and specially consecrated the Levites to represent Himself unto the people, so also Jesus appoints, anoints, and sends special envoys, ambassadors, to represent Him and His government unto the Church. These envoys are His personal proxies, His delegates, His stand‑ins, whom He sends to convey and effect His purposes, plans, pleasures, and passions.
by admin | Feb 20, 2021 | Authority, Charismatic Cultism, Charismatic Gifts, Church, Church Leadership, Discernment, Doctrine, False Ministers, False prophets, False teaching, Fivefold Ministry, Leadership, Prophetic, Spirit Baptism, Spiritual Gifts, Supernatural Power of God
This is second part of two-part series aimed at demonstrating that there are distinct and vital differences between the nine Manifestation Gifts, aka, the Charismata or Gifts of the Spirit, enumerated in Scripture and the five Ministry Gifts also delineated in Scripture. I urge you to read Part 1 of this series to understand the foundation and framework we are working from in this part. The overall point is that there are indeed major differences between the gifts of the Spirit and the offices Jesus established as the Head of the Church through which to continue His own ministry on the Earth in the Church He is building in His absence and on His behalf until He returns to claim the Church as His Eternal Bride, thereby culminating both the Church itself as well as the Church Age.
by admin | Feb 20, 2021 | Apostolic, Cessation Theology, Charismatic Gifts, Discernment, False prophets, Fivefold Ministry, Leadership, Prophetic, Spirit Baptism, Spiritual Gifts
Though the matter of personal prophecy is by far the element of the prophetic realm of greatest interest to the vast majority of Spirit-Baptized believers, it is not the most important. Nevertheless, personal prophecy is part and parcel of the present Prophetic Movement that has been nascent since the mid-1980s, and therefore requires some understanding and knowledge. In this article is presented a fairly simplistic overview of the matter of personal prophecy that is not intended to be an in-depth theological treatise on the subject. Herein, the term “personal prophecy” is simply a term used to refer to prophecy expressed to and pertaining to an individual person.
by admin | Jun 28, 2018 | Charismatic Gifts, Revival, Spirit Baptism, Spiritual activity, Supernatural Power of God
With the phenomena associated with the “Toronto Blessing,” the Pensacola/ Brownsville revival, and the ministry of Rodney Howard-Browne, such as falling under the power of the Spirit, trembling, holy laughter, etc., people have tended to either completely accept or completely reject all such phenomena. However, when we study the history of the church, in particular the evangelical and holiness movements of the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries, we see that many of these manifestations have occurred in these movements, but such phenomena were neither accepted out of hand, nor dismissed summarily.
by Steven Lambert | Dec 5, 2014 | Charismatic Gifts, Spirit Baptism
Nowhere does Scripture inform us that God has rescinded the appointment of the gift of various forms of tongues in the Church, though many have sought to have them “impeached” or “abrogated” from the Church without any Biblical justification for doing so. Cessationists must resort to extra-biblical theorization to support their unproven assertions, which are based virtually exclusively and entirely upon past Church history, which is the record of what the Church did vis-à-vis what God ordained and prescribed in His Word for the Church to do. The chasm between the two is vast!
by Steven Lambert | Oct 1, 2014 | Charismatic Gifts, Spirit Baptism
From the preponderance of Scriptural record, it is extremely, and in fact, unimpeachably safe, to conclude that the Biblical pattern of the initial sign or indicator that a person has received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues. Certainly, it’s safer to say it is, than that it’s not.
