Crossing Over: Trevor and Martha Banks

"I have called you to be an apostle.” Trevor Banks still remembers hearing the Holy Spirit say those words to him almost 25 years ago. It took him nearly that long to discover what that personal prophetic announcement really meant. You see, although Banks received his apostolic calling in 1981, he spent the next 20 years in obscurity before he was commissioned.

“It was a wilderness thing,” explains Banks, founding apostle and senior pastor of Resurrection Life Family Worship Center in Fort Pierce, Fla., one of the oldest communities on the state’s east coast. “There was a spiritual outworking and the apostolic call was almost forgotten, but our ministry has always been an apostolic work.”

By “apostolic work” Banks means building the local church, reaching out to the lost in his territory of 39,000, and invading the nations with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Banks and his wife Martha launched Resurrection Life in 1992 with a focus to “equip the saints for works of service” and build people of strong character. God was grooming Banks without any label or title. He was preparing the Chicago-born minister for such a time as this.

Banks was ordained an apostle in 2001. That’s when he gained a deeper understanding of what the Holy Spirit meant 20 years earlier when He whispered, “I’ve called you to be an apostle.” Banks received an impartation during his ordination that unlocked a new dimension in his ministry. “Accurately identifying, accepting the role, and stepping into apostolic ministry caused a change in the whole nature of our church,” Banks says. “It suddenly went from first to third gear.”

That third gear revved up the healings, miracles and financial breakthroughs in Banks’ congregation. It also opened his eyes to the local church’s responsibility to “police the heavens” in his territory. The apostolic mantle and the resulting spiritual face off with principalities and powers have enabled increasing levels of victory, liberty and freedom of spirit to manifest among the people.

“God has graced us with an influence,” Banks says. “And the revelation of the Word has become so much more rich and deep in us. All of the sudden the scales have come off our mind and our eyes. We can clearly see new revelation in Scriptures we’ve read for years. There’s an apostolic and prophetic flow in our church that we hadn’t experienced in years gone by.”

Banks gives God the glory and believes crossing over to the apostolic has been a smooth transition for Resurrection Life members because the Lord prepared their hearts in desert places. Still, newcomers don’t always understand why the church services often last longer than those typical “sermonettes” religion has offered or why the message challenges them to grow. They don’t always appreciate the prophetic word or the spiritual dynamics of the laying on of hands in a prayer line, but they’re starting to get it.

“We’ve practiced very stringently not to put limitations on the move of God. We let the Holy Spirit flow and sometimes that can go on for a while,” Banks says. “The capacity in the apostolic move is a little greater than what we experienced before.” The spiritual warfare has also been a little greater than what he experienced before, but as his church has unified to “fight the good fight” they have also experienced the guaranteed victory.

“Some of our members were depressed when they came in and now they are set free and walking in victory. It warms my heart to hear covenant members – sons and daughters of the church – with a strong testimony about how God has blessed them,” Banks says. “I believe that’s one of the earmarks of an apostolic house.”

Despite the guaranteed victory, Banks says battling against religious mindsets has been more trying than battling against depression, poverty, or just about any other stronghold. The evangelist-turned-apostle admits one of the greatest challenges during his personal transition into the apostolic was ridicule from his peers, some of which accused him of being arrogant because he is now addressed as “Apostle Trevor” instead of “Pastor Trevor.”

At first, Banks didn’t really want to rock the boat. After all, he and his wife host a local TBN telecast and a weekly radio broadcast called “On to Perfection.” How would his transition into the apostolic – title, function and everything that goes along with it – impact his standing with his peers? Once again, Banks’ wilderness training prepared him to make the right decision – to walk in obedience to the will of God despite religious opposition.

“This is not of my choosing. This is God’s choosing. I have to walk in my calling and I encourage any apostle that has been called to walk in the calling and allow God to manifest Himself fully,” Banks says. “Don’t let the prophetic word be imprisoned in your mouth. Speak it. We have to pioneer. We have to blaze the trail. We have to go where the Church perhaps hasn’t gone as yet.”

Over the past few years Banks has come into a greater understanding of God’s pattern, apostolic order – and the next generation. He believes the purpose of the apostolic is to set order for the generations to come so that they can find and fulfill their destiny. That, he says, makes the foundations and truths apostolic leaders are establishing today absolutely critical because error breeds error but truth establishes destiny.

Banks advice for other leaders crossing over to the apostolic: If you know without a doubt that God has called you as the apostolic set man of a church, then walk in the calling. That may mean breaking off toxic relationships that war against what God is trying to establish in you.

“Surround yourself with men and women of God that are likeminded and who can make impartations into your life, encourage you, and cause that baby in your womb to leap,” Banks says. “Sometimes religion will fight for the structure that is already in place. You may have to challenge, with wisdom, the old structure and dismantle the old order to refocus on what God has called you to.”

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