For Your Edification

"The record of Christ is unfolded to the mind by preaching and understood by regeneration. "

Apostolic Stewardship Series: Spiritual Government

This course will help you . . .
1. Discern between true and false Spiritual Government.
2. Appreciate how spiritual government works.
3. Understand what it means to despise government.
4. Find out why the Church need the apostles’ grace.
5. Why a church without true spiritual government results in Christians not being properly cared for.
6. Understand from scripture that God assigned apostles to teach doctrine to the church.
7. Why the church needs to conform to one understanding of the faith.
8. Understand that apostles are the chief shepherds of God's church to feed God's people with knowledge.
9. Why we cannot build faith without the foundation of truth begin laid in your heart.

A word from Apostle Eric:

A man once found a lost dog, or rather, the dog found the man because he followed him home. In order to find out who the owner was (so he could return the dog to him) the man had to first check for a collar and tags. That would have been the simplest way to get the dog back where he belonged. The dog was a beautiful white husky, but was showing signs of the lack of the care of a true owner; his coat was dulled by dirt and he looked hungry, worn, and sad.

I thought how much this sounds like many Christians today, wandering without the true stewardship of apostles. They lack the lustre of Christ’s virtue, they are hungry for truth, are worn out travelling from church to church looking for the true move of the Spirit, and are discouraged.

A church without true spiritual government results in Christians not being properly cared for. Psalm 23 verse 1 says it all: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Scripture is not poetry as we hear it quoted today. We do not quote it because it sounds good, it makes us feel good, or because that is what we envision for our faith. Scripture is the unfolding of Jesus Christ in the testimony of God as lived by the righteous—those who were in covenant with God and experienced His care. The Lord is the shepherd of those in His fold.

In the Old Testament God’s care for His people was initiated through the priesthood. The priests were charged by God to teach the people the law so that their faith would be expressed with those things God sanctified for them through Moses.

Deuteronomy 24:8
"Do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so ye shall observe to do."

There were none of the children of Israel that just stepped into the faith just simply because they were born into the nation. Each Jew received instruction of faith from those who were appointed by God. Each was brought into God’s fold by teaching priests. When Israel was without a teaching priest the people were without the law of God and not in God’s fold.

2 Chronicles 15:3
"Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law."

God’s controversy with the nation Israel has always been at the times when they departed from their instruction in doctrine and decided to walk their own faith and instruct themselves in doctrine. Today, we see that God has the same controversy with the church because Christians decided to instruct themselves in doctrine.

Some say, "The Holy Ghost will teach me" while others claim, "My pastor will teach me."

It is clear from scripture that God assigned apostles (not pastors) to teach doctrine to the church that the church might conform to one understanding of the faith. Let's read those scriptures:

Acts 2:42
"And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers."

Ephesians 4:4-5
"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism."

In this course we will learn about the “teaching priests” (apostles) of the Second Covenant and how they bring believers into the fold of Jesus Christ. Spiritual government is the thread of your faith. It is bound with Truth and the Spirit. If you keep this three-fold cord unbroken then you remain in the fold and Jesus is your shepherd. If you break the bond of this cord then you have severed yourself from Christ and he is no longer caring for your soul as the Good Shepherd.

Many today have broken the bond of this three-fold cord of government, truth, and Spirit and have broken the covenant. God is now calling out to them to come back to His fold where He will care for them.

There are 4 lessons in this course and you will find them to the top left in the menu and listed below. Click on each course to prayerfully study what God wants you to know about how He governs His church, then test your knowledge. Summary notes will help you focus on key points and help you check what you’ve learned:
1. What is True Spiritual Government?
2. What is False Spiritual Government?
3. Transition
4. Jesus is the Head of the Church

Additional courses in Apostolic Stewardship will be posted in the near future so please check back for more courses.

What is True Spiritual Government?

Understanding spiritual government begins by understanding what apostles do. Paul said very plainly what he did and what his role was in the church, “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation” (1 Cor.3:10). Apostles lay the foundation of faith as clearly stated in the scriptures, “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor.3:11).

What is the foundation? The foundation is knowledge, it is not brick and mortar. Jesus, as the foundation of our faith, speaks of the knowledge of His covenant. Apostles do not build a building i read more...

What is False Spiritual Government?

The roots of false government go all the way back to Nimrod. The Nimrodic government is the root and fruit of every kingdom today. This is why the Spirit of the Lord brings our attention to this pattern in the book of Genesis: He [Nimrod] was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel” (Gen.10:9-10).

Nimrod built the famous Tower of Babel as a monument to his achievements (Gen. 11). The reason why the book of Revelation spends a lot of time on Babylon is because the earth was overspread by Nimrod’s philosophy. Nimrod would s read more...

Transition

Do you know that the church is in a state of transition? If you are not sure, let me ask the same question another way:

1) Do you know that Jesus needs to purify the church before He comes?
2) Are you are familiar with the scripture in Rev. 2:4, 5, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against you because you have left your first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works.”

So we see two things here: (1) the need for purification and (2) the need to return to something that God wanted the church to have, but lost. Transition is about these two things. Let’s look at wh read more...

Jesus is the Head of the Church

We are going to now read from Isaiah 9:6, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

I would like you to underline the words “government” and the word “shoulder” in this verse. This tells us that spiritual government sits upon Jesus’ shoulders. What does that mean? That means that the oversight of the government of God and the church is Jesus’ responsibility.

But you know, just saying that the oversight of the government of God read more...

Test Your Knowledge About Spiritual Government

This question and answer key covers the first four lessons in the Apostolic Governance Series: 1) What is True Spiritual Government, 2) What is False Spiritual Government, 3) Transition, and 4) Jesus is the Head of the Church.

In the following exercse fill in the missing word or words:

1. Apostles are the chief ………of God's church to feed God's people with ………
2. The church needs ………to establish them in the knowledge of the……
3. Your faith cannot operate on air; it needs stewardship and ………for you to operate in your ………
4. Apostles have the measure of grace to lay down ………for the church read more...

Summary Notes

Summary notes are excellent for Bible Study and group discussion. As you review God’s purpose for spiritual government and study God’s will for apostolic stewardship of the church, summary notes help keep important details in front of you, clear up confusion surrounding the concept of open stewardship, and emphasize key points that will help the church return to the cross of Christ by returning to proper spiritual government.

1. Spiritual government is the thread of your faith. It is bound with Truth and the Spirit. If you keep this three-fold cord unbroken then you remain in the fold and Jesus is your shepherd. If you break t read more...