Embracing the Apostolic Call

Written by Dr. Nathaniel Duffey III

There are five powerful administrative graces of leadership to the body of Christ spoken of in the book of Ephesians (usually referred to as the fivefold ministry): The apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher. These graces are upon certain men to build the body of Christ and make it into the fully matured, multifaceted organism that we are called to be; functioning at 100% efficiency in all aspects, abilities, capacities, services, features, and identities in Christ. And if it is of Christ, then it is of God. Christ is the portrait of the invisible God. In other words, all attributes and features of God are summed up in the term ‘Christ’. Again, Christ is the package term for everything that God is. Christ is, then, the very face of God, touch of God, voice of God, savor of God, and expression of God toward mankind.

Theologically speaking, God can have no physical attributes within His original state.God has no skin or hair or eyes or fingers or toes or any other physical parts. Any biblical illustration that depicts God with physical attributes is purely metaphorical and an anthropomorphic similitude. God is preeminent and the creator of all things visible and invisible. And if He is before those things, and creator of those things, then He cannot have those things in His original state. So God,without the assistance of a post-creative form, remains invisible, intangible, unsearchable, and unknowable to His creation.

Christ, the first fruit of the creation of God, houses all of the attributes of God in a divine form. Christ is the celestial, spiritual, and angelic body of God. Christ is a multi-membered body in heaven and in earth comprised of myriads of individual vessels clothing and housing the invisible Spirit of God.Now you are part of that collective and your body is a temple! You are a member of the body of Christ if the Spirit of God dwells in you. Christ is now the visible, tangible, searchable, and knowable. So now, as members of that order, our part is to become an authentic expression of God on the earth in Christ. 

 Jesus is the epitomeof the term Christ in that He represents the highest possible level of God’s expression in the earth through a single individual. Nevertheless, the term Christ is not just limited or restricted to the man Jesus. Jesus is the preeminent head and CEO of the Christ Corporation. Jesus began the work and, therefore, is the supreme founding father and head of the Christ-principle throughout the universe.

Mankind was created as a part of this infinite celestial network of God. After the spiritual war, and the rebellion of Man began in Genesis, Jesus became the resolution to the war between heaven and earth. Ending the feud and reconciling the family of God, by making peace with our celestial family in heaven through His blood and atoning work, Jesus Christ is nowthe prince of peace and the figurehead of the catholic (universal) assembly.  This general assembly is an assembly of bodies, and not just bodies, but conduits and portals for God’s spiritual expressions throughout all of creation.  We are now called to be vessels of honor and spiritual mediums in Christ.

Now,in a nutshell, the rules of the five spiritual administrative graces are:teachers ground, pastors guard, evangelists gather, prophets guide, and apostles govern. This is not the full gambit of what these ministries do or how they operate. Within each administration there are a plethora of diverse giftings, functions, and operations.  This rule is simply a synopsis.

Everyone within the church(though they could potentially) isn’t actually going to function in these administrative graces to the body.  Likewise, all of these administrative gifts are limited in their scope and duration. Meaning: as the collective body increases in its maturity, these ministries become increasingly obsolete. Regardless of our individual giftings, we must remember all these ministries are servants within the house, but our highest calling is sonship. Sonship suggests (with maturity) eventual lordship over the house. As the scripture says, “A son, when he is immature, is not different from a servant, though he is an heir”. This is a mystery that will unfold in time.

Each ministry has a unique way of affecting the body. Each one has a strong and extreme influence that comes along with the particulars of their anointing. Because of this,it is imperative to keep a balance between administrative influences. It can be dangerous to have too much of a concentration of any one sort of administration, especially to the exclusion of the others. Like plasma - red blood cells, white blood cells, proteins, fats, and certain vitamins, minerals, and hormones within the human body that are necessary - too much of anyone thing can likewise become life-threatening.

Now, the idea here is that the minister is a package releasing his particular brand of anointing and grace to the carefully measured spiritual territory to which he is sent. Territorial callings are measured in so many different ways. Spheres of authority and influence range from geographical locations (like cities, states, countries, and towns) to certain kinds of problems that specific individuals have the power to address. Some can have authority to mend homes and minister peace to different relational issues. Some can heal particular infirmities with ease. Some healing evangelists have more success with cancer while others with blindness or deafness or multiple sclerosis or diabetes. Some ministers have a special grace to minister the Holy Spirit to new converts.  Some have power and wisdom over finance and supernatural provision.Some have great success discerning demonic activity and delivering those oppressed with evil spirits. Some are scribes with the power to memorize large volumes of information and relay it in meticulous detail. Some are seers (prophets) in a wide range of diverse areas. Some seers oversee countries; sounding the alarm for upcoming events. Some oversee congregations. Some see particular things easier than others. Some have the keys to unlock the vaults of heaven and release certain prophetic words. There are words already spoken in the heavens that have governance over periods of time. There are words over days, weeks, months, and even years. There are sealed words governing ten-year-spans of your life. Prophets will reveal and show certain things to you as the Spirit leads. Some ministers have power overt he youth and the youth find them irresistible;some have power with the elderly.Some have more power with women; some more power with men. Some have power with certain ethnic groups. Some have power to preach to prisoners. Some have power to speak to rulers (kings, presidents, and business men). Some have power with athletes. Some have power to win people in particular occupational fields.These graces withinus are given according to the will of the Spirit of God. It is a great joy and adventure to discover different giftings in ourselves and in others as we walk with the Lord.

Much of the conflict and controversy within the body comes from people being outside of their right position and place. You can’t always determine whether a ministry is or is not of God. To assume this is pride. God is too large and we are too limited to know all that He is doing everywhere in the world. Some things we see may offend us simply because it falls outside of the spectrum of what we are familiar with at the time. Some confusion transpires when a minister goes to a place that he is not sent or when certain people attempt to receive from places or from ministers to whom they are not called. Some are at the right place at the wrong time; while others may be at the right place at the right time and their internal conflict is ordained of God to stretch their faith and chasten their pride. But discerning the Lord in the unusual and unfamiliar is a precious commodity and something that improves with spiritual maturity.

If I discern the Lord doing something and it is for me to receive at the time, I run toward it aggressively. If the Lord says, son this isn’t for you now,I bless it and let it pass. When I was young, I learned this lesson. There was a Christian book I wanted to read very badly, and I purchased it. The Lord told me clearly not to read it yet and that I was not ready for it. Well ‘my pride’ and me were too curious and we attempted to read it anyway and I was struck with an infirmity for several days.I put the book away and got better. Two years later I had more wisdom and discernment and was released by the Lord to read the book and it was a great blessing.

The danger we should be warned against is fighting something we don’t understand. Keep your gun in its holster, Billy the Kid! We only attack when we have been given specific direction and understandings from the Spirit of the Lord. I’ve been rebuked by the Lord many times and had to repent of many misjudgments in my life. I believed that certain people and things were not of God when later I found out they were. God never said we’d understand everything always, nor does He need us to ride in on our high horses of spiritual pride and intellectual, religious judgments to save the day for Him.This is true especially when it comes to you challenging the authority and operation of a man of God in his God-given territory. If you are ever led by the Spirit of God to challenge a man of God, triple check it, get confirmation, and after that, BE CAREFUL. What a difference a day makes. Many things change in the spirit under our noses all the time. We must be led every moment.

Now, when an evangelist influences a congregation or church, the anointing of the evangelist comes upon those people and they become an evangelistic group of people released to function in the spirit and grace of the evangelist. Burdens for souls come upon the congregation. Intercessory prayers of supplication come upon the congregation. Young evangelists start sprouting up and miracles and healings (which are the calling card of the evangelist) begin to increase in the congregation and through its members. Likewise, people under the influence of prophets become prophetic and all the people begin to see in the spirit, dream dreams, see visions, and prophesy. Pastor-influenced people become pastoral. The love of the brethren and fellowship increases as hearts are mended and wounded souls are healed.Teacher-influenced people begin to teach. Understandings of the scriptures increase and converts are transformed into disciples (studious and disciplined followers) of Jesus. Through teaching ministries, the natures of all things known within the kingdom of God are extrapolated, dissected, and expounded upon. Apostle-influenced groups become apostolic and should begin to pioneer new spiritual territories, leading the body of Christ into new horizons of faith and revelation.

Being an apostle and being apostolic are two different things. To deal with the subject of embracing the apostolic call, we must recognize that the apostolic call (like the prophetic call and other calls) is more than just the call to an individual to become an apostle. But it is the call of God through a commissioned apostle to a spiritual house for that house to become an apostolic house and an apostolic company. You don’t need to be an apostle and plant churches to become apostolic, just like you don’t need to be a prophet to prophesy, hear God, dream dreams, see visions, and be unlocked in facets of the general prophetic grace that is on the body of Christ as a whole.

When an apostle is sent,he becomes a living ensample and prototype of what those under his influence should appear to be spiritually at the end of what I call the apostlization process. This is the impregnation process in which the apostle dispenses his grace upon the souls of the congregation and the congregants fully absorb the spirit of the apostle. The fruit of this process is an apostolic congregation. A group of what you can call miniature apostles. A group of people unlocked in dimensions of apostolic thought, revelation, and operation that the average Christian is not privy to. This apostolic group is a group of potential leaders who are being fast-forwarded into certain facets of spiritual fullness. They are given large, yet not complete, glimpses into the future of the body of Christ. The impartation of apostolic grace is powerful and recognized by angels, demons, and by men. The Lord God Himself will respond to you, favor you, and even utilize you in alignment with that anointing.

Now, to give an exhaustive definition of the apostolic on paper would be too large of an undertaking. I simply don’t know everything there is to know about it. It is an ever growing and enlarging revelation within my heart. Nevertheless, one aspect of the apostolic is judgment. The apostolic seat is a judgment seat. The apostle represents the coming of the Lord and His appearing. In the midst of an apostolic congregation we can literally see the manifestation of the judgment seat of Christ (not just Jesus the man, but Christ the multimembered body) in the earth today. An apostolic house flowing together in one Spirit and in one united mind should become a place of all discernment; a place of light where all things are uncovered and all pertinent things are revealed.

Apostles are the only administration that has the ability to function at times in the order of the other four administrations. The apostle may have to begin a congregation single-handedly (often with the help of a prophet; I call it a ‘wing man’). So apostles are put into positions where they must function as evangelist, pastor, teacher, and prophet for a period of time until true ones develop and grow up in the midst of the converts.An apostolic house should have a burden for unity and a strong appreciation for diverse giftings and operations. Apostolic congregations should have unusual levels of unity, loyalty, and devotion to one another.

Apostles are stewards of divine mysteries. They house these revelations within the congregants like a treasure chest. The congregants become storehouses of spiritual meat and reservoirs of spiritual drink. They become the true breathing books of the New Testament and living epistles. Apostles write these mysteries secretly in the Spirit on the walls of the hearts of the people. Apostolic congregations should be marked by unusual, rare, and precious revelations into the workings of God and His universe. Theseof the congregation will also begin to walk in a spirit of revelation marked by God-given wisdom and deeper, uncommon perceptions even in regard to understanding the scripture and the heart and intentions of God. We have the mind of Christ.

Though there are many other things pertaining to the apostolic, one thing is my primary burden within this writing. Embracing the apostolic call is embracing your new identity in Christ. Embracing your apostolic call is embracing your destiny! Embracing the apostolic call is embracing a higher life; a higher existence! An eternal purpose and an everlasting reward! Prophets are messengers primarily in word. Apostles are more like angels. Apostles are messengers in deed. An apostle exemplifies Christ’s mind in a portrait. God has many appearances and many revelations and many likenesses and many faces. The apostolic call is like a painting of what God wants to portray. It is an evolution into the perfect will of the Father by embodying one full expression of His heart. 

What a calling! What a life! What a death! What a resurrection! What exquisite peace! For the Lord to paint a portrait of an eternal truth in Christ using our whole life as an illustration. How awesome it is to be a living example and ensample of Christ the kinsman redeemer as in the lives of Ruth and Boaz. Or Christ the Spirit overturning and ultimately putting to death the flesh as in the story of Esther and her plight with Haman under Xerxes the King. How glorious it would be to portray Christ the pilgrim in Abraham, or Christ the firstborn in Isaac, Or Christ the rejected brother in Joseph, Or Christ our savior in Moses,Or Christ our high priest Aaron,Or Christ the strong man Samson, Or Christ the commander Joshua, Or Christ the judge Samuel, Or Christ the eternal king David!

What if the Lord was painting a picture with your life and you didn’t know about it? What if the Lord needed some of your blood to paint an eternal picture? Would you donate? What if God needed to hang you from a tree to reveal Himself to the world in a particular way? Or what if He needed you to be a prisoner down in a dungeon? How would you like that? How would you like to be a prisoner in a dungeon, where you can’t leave, or go home, or lie in a comfortable bed, or slip to the kitchen in the middle of the night to grab a quick snack out of your refrigerator? You can’t go for a walk in the park or see your family and friends. No sunshine for you. You are in a dungeon. No fresh air or air conditioning or toilets or private restrooms. Restroom? There is no room to rest in the dungeon. No movies, no sex, no video games, no showers, no good times; down, down, down, way down deep in the dungeon. Would you be available? Would you embrace the apostolic call?

If you had an opportunity to get out of that dungeon and get free from those chains, you’d run screaming and crying and thanking God, wouldn’t you? But Paul and Silas sang in the midnight hour and there was an earthquake and the chains fell off like wet tissue paper and the walls of the prison began to rattle and shake and break apart and opened up! When the prison’s guard got there, he was sure the prisoners had all fled. He even went to kill himself, thinking the Roman officials would execute him for letting the prisoners escape. But Paul cried out to the man not to harm himself! Paul was still there! He didn’t run. Silas didn’t make for the hills. He had fully embraced his apostolic call, I tell you! They weren’t there by the will of men, but by the will of God! God said, “Paul! I need to paint a picture of true freedom. I need to make you a prisoner!” Paul became a prisoner by the will of God! God needed to illustrate true freedom in the spirit in spite of apparent circumstances. God wanted to show a man in chains more free than men without chains! They sang late in the midnight hour! They sang while they were still bound up! Still in that dungeon!

“I’m free! Praise the Lord I’m free!No longer bound! No more chains holding me! My soul is resting! It’s just a blessing!Praise the Lord! Hallelujah, I’m free! ”

 How powerful was that freedom? How potent was that liberty? Think about it. Not only did nature itself respond to such a great contradiction by breaking the shackles, the message was so powerful that NONE of the hardened criminals that were with Paul fled either! They saw God’s portrait in their hearts! Paul’s life became the canvas! The prisoners’ minds were baptized in the beauty and the texture and the colors radiating from God’s canvas! The prisoners could see through Paul that there was no need to run! No need to hide! Perfect peace! Perfect contentment. God had total control. THIS IS THE POWER OF EMBRACING THE APOSTOLC CALL!

Are you called to be the prisoner? Perhaps not, but you should recognize that your life is God’s theatrical portrayal of Christ! The suffering prisoner of love was Paul’s part. But there are many cast members, many parts to play. Your life is setting you up for a grand debut. You must put on your character and embrace your role. You must take upon yourself yournew God-given identity. We are talking about the reason for your life and existence in the earth.

Christ has become to us every role and every part. When you embrace the desire for complete surrender to the perfect and ultimate will of God for your life, God will begin to reveal to you the big picture! Though we are God’s in everyway, and will grow up into Him in all things, there may be only one distinct message that He will use you to deliver to the world. There may be only one picture of one truth He needs you to portray. Some will portray Christ the king, some will be the subject, some will be masters, and some will be servants. Some will sing, some will dance, some will preach on soapboxes. Some will be lovers and some will be loved. Some will be abandoned of all, save God. Some will endure great hardships. Some will show the strength of youth; others will show the wisdom of age. Some must be captains of ships, some theologians, some lawyers, some politicians, and some antique sellers. Some will be judges; some will be judged.Some missionaries, some shepherds, some seers, some despised, some honored. Some will exhibit great faith, while some will show great patience. Some will be Christ the Father. Some will be Christ the mother.Some will be Christ the Son.Some will be Christ the husband. Some,Christ the wife, and some, Christ the child. Some will be Christ the savior, some, Christ the lover, and some, Christ the friend.Some will play many different roles at different times. Some will play a few roles. Some will only have one part yet make a loud, distinguishable, resounding sound, which will affect multitudes.

How does one embrace a call? A voice? A sound? How does one embrace a vibration of vocal chords; a reverberation of syllables? A breath blowing upon the eardrums of your heart, saying, follow me! Follow me! I hold your destiny and I know your true name. What you are in is a façade.I will show you your true depths. I will show you your true reason. Come away with me, my love, my dove, and leave those other lovers. Don’t embrace them any longer. There is no true security in their arms. There is no true peace. Embrace my voice. Embrace my words. You are my love, the one that I long for, the one I adore. Join my ensemble. Put on the garments I have made for you; fitted and woven together and tailor-made for you from the foundation of the world. Before even your parents were named I named, you and created you to be my masterpiece. Come away with me, spread your wings and fly with me to a place, a land I will show you made of dreams.

Your life in this world - your childhood and your upbringing - has set you up for your premiere theatrical debut. To embrace God’s will and ultimate design seems difficult. It seems so hard to let go of our worldly identities, accomplishments, and goals. It is true that there is a degree of comfort in the arms of the familiar flesh, but it is a pseudo-rest; a fleeting emotional sensation that is replaced by more pain and addiction when it passes. There will never be true rest except in the arms of God.

We say in our hearts “What an awesome feat and a difficult accomplishment it is to forsake all;let go and trust God’s leadings into the unknown while relinquishing our(apparent) safety by forsaking the arms of the familiar”. We might surmise that it is for an elite few. But we must understand that while the natural man looks at a jet plane on the ground and wonders how that plane weighing so many thousands of pounds could possibly get off the ground; and not just off the ground, but fly thousands of feet in the air, the engineer never thinks that. The engineer, understanding the laws of aerodynamic motion - the basic forces of thrust, drag, and lift, and the power invested in that jet engine - wonders how it could ever stay on the ground! It is not difficult to let go of this world. That is the deception of the enemy. With all the grace, mercy, and power operating in you, it should be difficult to hold on to this world. As soon as your heart releases the love of this world for the love of God, you will be overwhelmed with His peace.The Lord says all things in your life are beginning to make sense. I created you. I know what is in you. You are called to high places. You have what it takes within you to overcome all things necessary! Don’t fear time; you have time. Only believe. Throw off your old identity; step into a new role and embrace My call.

Your servant,

Dr. Nathaniel Duffey III

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