When apostolic believers gather for a late
night breakfast after a long day of church-building, there are a few
threads that tend to get woven through almost every conversation:
warfare, work and, if there’s a prophet in the mix, perhaps casting
out devils.
But seriously, even though one can’t separate warfare from the
apostolic – if we had a Christianese thesaurus these two words would
surely be synonymous – apostolic living is not only about fighting
principalities and powers over territories. (Really!)
So you don’t have to be a skilled warrior to cross over to the
apostolic. Your local church will equip you to submit
yourself to God and resist the devil. You just have to possess a
determination to be all you can be in Christ.
Doubtless, the warfare will come just as sure as Jesus will come for
a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle. But it’s not always the
sharpest sword that wins the fight. The victor is just as often the
one that can endure the longest. The apostolic grace is an enduring
grace and apostolic living is a life of endurance. Jesus said he who
endures to the end would be saved (Matthew 10:22).
For those of you who are already living the apostolic life, this may
not be a new revelation, but it should be a welcome reminder. And
for those who are entering into the apostolic, I want to emphasize
that we do more than fight the good fight of faith. We also take
coffee breaks, vacations and enjoy popcorn and a good, clean movie
when we need a quick breather from taking the Gospel to the
uttermost parts of the earth. For spiritual warriors apostolic living means working hard,
but it also means balancing that work with healthy fun because we
know that our adversary the devil is roaming about like a roaring
lion seeking to devour unbalanced believers.
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The apostolic brings with it an endurance-boosting grace that will
carry you through the most trying times if you follow the Spirit of
God. Brother Webster calls this inner grit a “firmness of mind and
spirit, an unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger.”
Excuses are your enemy and in the Church of Jesus Christ there is no
such thing as instant grit.
Excuses or “excusions” as a German minister I know calls them, are
not tolerated. I tried every "excusion" in the book during my first
year or so in an apostolic church. No matter how well I pled my
case, the leadership wasn’t swayed by my full symphony orchestra
with its classical reasoning tunes. That’s not to say that there is
no compassion in the apostolic church. Like God, apostolic leaders
love you too much to leave you the way you are. They know that in
order to be more than a conqueror you need to graduate from the milk
to the meat of the Word, from bacon and eggs only to apostolic grit.
Apostolic living requires dedication and commitment to searching
one’s own heart and allowing leadership to speak into your life.
Every maturing Christian (and we’ll all be maturing until Jesus
comes back to get us!) should have those they minister to and those
that minister to them. Don’t hesitate to get feedback from both
sides. I recently asked one of my leaders what was the biggest flaw
in my mindset that was holding me back. She said, er, I won’t tell
you what she said. What I will tell you is that she spoke the truth
in love, I received the truth that set me free and I am thankful for
it (and a little grittier, too). If that’s not your attitude, then
you’ll never make it in the apostolic church and I question how far
you’ll make it toward your destiny. Remember, apostolic living is a
life of endurance. We endure spiritual attacks. We endure hard
truths. We endure growing pains. We endure, endure and endure some
more. And we have the grit necessary to do it.
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Whenever my emotions begin to rage against thoughts of the
discipline required to till the ground of my soul and plant seeds of
change so that God can bring a supernatural harvest of spiritual
growth, I read the Apostle Paul’s second letter to Timothy and the
sage advice it offers a young believer embracing the first apostolic
reformation.
“When the going gets rough, take it on the chin with the rest of us,
the way Jesus did. A soldier on duty doesn’t get caught up in making
deals at the marketplace. He concentrates on carrying out orders. An
athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere.
It’s the diligent farmer who gets the product. Think it over. God
will make it all plain” (2 Timothy 2:3-7 MSG).
Somehow that always straightens me right out. Apostolic believers
aren’t perfect. They stumble and fall just like everybody else. The
difference is that they get right back up and get right back into
the fight. They are ready to take it on the chin for Jesus. They are
ready to strain to reach the end of the race and receive the crown
that God, through Christ Jesus, has for us. They are willing to
endure to the end for the sake of the lost souls that have not yet
heard the Good News.
So the next time you smell bacon and hunger for eggs remember it’s
apostolic grit that empowers you to go to the next level.
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The apostolic grace is an
enduring grace and apostolic living is a life of endurance.
