Jesus' Caution to the Body of Christ

A few months ago I received a strict instruction from the Lord Jesus concerning how His Church, and those who stand in its offices, should be viewed. I pray it blesses you and helps you in your spiritual walk.

"I have heard many of My children speak of a prophetic renewal, and some of an apostolic renewal, in the body of Christ. While that may be true, most who think this way miss My purpose for My Church. Since the birth of the Church I have intended to raise up and exalt the five ministry gifts equally, for the sake of My people, and this is the chief reason the Church has not grown in the way I intended for her.

"The overemphasis or underemphasis of one ministry gift over another is what has brought a defect into the growth of the body. As for you, do not fall into the same trap as many of My children. Maintain an equal appreciation for all the ministry gifts in the body of Christ, and your ministry will grow into fullness. The problem arises when one whom I have called and graced to operate in an office ends up with a narrow perspective of My purpose in the Church; his gift ends up overshadowing the others. That is not scriptural, and it is not My will. I Myself have set the five ministry gifts and given each of them equal weight in their purpose for the Church. I began My Church with the apostles and prophets, but I intend to bring her to consummation through the whole grace of the five ministries. Stay in line with the thinking of the Spirit, according to the Word of God.

"I stood in all five gifts when I walked the earth, and I was able to execute them all successfully, for I placed no greater value on one than on another. Remember that the Spirit who appoints one office also appoints the others, and He has been commissioned to promote and exalt all the ministry gifts equally. There have indeed been times and seasons when I sent men and women to address things in the body that she had not been heeding. At such times I raise up an individual or a group in a particular office, because the body as a whole has neglected or undervalued that office. So I raise men up to bring awareness, and a repentant heart for not welcoming My gifts in the Church. This happens when men and women prize their own ministry gift more than they prize its purpose, and Me. In these last days I may grant only a few to walk in all five ministry gifts. If a prophet undervalues the gift of a pastor or a teacher, he may never walk in those anointings, even though I purposed that he would grow into all five. Many have held the notion that if I call a man into a certain office, he is confined to it. That is not true. Each office I call a man into serves as training and as a test of whether he will be found qualified to enter the others. It takes consecration and faithfulness to walk fully in one's calling, and this is why you have found that very few have occupied all the offices.

"To undervalue what I have highly valued is a very dangerous error for those called into ministry. I am raising you, and have been raising you, for this purpose: to restore and rebuild the ancient paths. It will take all five ministry gifts to bring the Church into her fullness: not one, not two, but all five. Always remember that you are not living in the days of the prophets, nor of the early Church, when there were only apostles and a few of the other ministry gifts. You are living in the days of the perfection of the Church, and you will need all five ministry gifts. My people should wake up and see it in My Word. Some will say, 'But Lord, we are prophets, of the company of the prophets,' and they will miss it. Some will say, 'We are of the apostolic,' and they will miss what My Spirit is doing. Only those who are of the fivefold will be given insight and catch on to what the Lord is doing.

"Anyone who lacks the operation of My Spirit cannot say that he has the fullness of the Spirit; in the same way, anyone who says he walks with apostles and prophets only will not attain to perfection. Be open to the way of the Spirit. Do not catch one truth and miss the rest; see from My place, and understand by the Word. Do not use human thinking to reason out the agenda of the Father. The error of the body is that she has looked too much to men, even to some who are anointed, and has forgotten to look to Me and to My Word. She has studied and learnt too much of the past ways of the Lord, and failed to seek My face for new ways and new operations, and to understand My goals for the future. Do not let what I was doing yesterday cloud your spirit to what I am doing today. Have a global view of My Church. Do not narrow the state of My Church to your small thinking and your narrow worldview. My Church is bigger and greater than many have thought. Seek the Spirit for an enlarged view of the body, and you will not walk in the errors of some of My anointed.

"Cleanse your eyes of limited vision, and do not think like Elijah, because I have more pastors than you think, more apostles and prophets than you think, and more evangelists and teachers than you think. Do not be fooled by your World Wide Web or your social media. I am bigger than they are, and I have been doing more around the world than your internet has shown you. I am not limited; man is limited, and his vision is limited. Look by My Spirit, not by the vision the internet gives you, and you will walk in greater places than many have. Reach out in faith, and you will see beyond your contemporaries.

"Let My Word expand your understanding, and do not allow the deception of the internet to blur your sight and your worldview. Receive your worldview from My Spirit. I told you in 2017 that I am birthing the glorious Church, and the glorious Church is the one that understands the place of all the ministry gifts among them. As you see and understand this, I will bring you into a new way of ministry, a new way of serving the body, and a new anointing that has been lingering, waiting for those who would grasp the purposes of the Spirit in this time. This anointing requires new operations and new ways of doing ministry. The old will not suffice.

"Now remember: do not overvalue or undervalue any ministry or ministry gift above another, in your thinking or in your speech. Preferences have been the stagnation of the body of Christ. I am telling you this so that you may help My people to be children no longer, and to depart from the winds of doctrine that have divided the body. The truth of doctrine is what will join the body together. Many parts of the body are disjointed, and so they cannot be as influential as I desire them to be. If you carry this truth and walk in it, I will see to it that you are given platforms for the furtherance of the gospel and the glory of My name among the nations," says the Spirit.