Foundation Stones (Part 6) – Why Only the Life of Christ Restores the Church

Since the first century, I doubt that over 25 of those men(apostles) will live on this earth in this age. Maybe a lot of men are called to be apostles, but true functioning apostles who are doing it in God’s order are very rare. When you get a man who is of apostle size, he’s got so much power, and our age is so perverted, it usually ends up being a very perverted ministry.

I think a lot of your evangelists you see on the television, and a lot of other places probably were gifted with the gift of apostleship, but not having the spiritual insight nor the experience to know what to do with it ended up being evangelists, evangelists, and even of those 25 that might come by in any century, and that would probably be the maximum, probably about half of them were crazy. If you ever find an apostle, do one thing for me as a personal favor, would you? For goodness’ sake, treat him nice. Show him a little respect. Just a little. Not a whole lot. It’ll go to his head, but just a little.

I’ve been watching the few men that I have seen in my lifetime who operate, not even apostles who operate from the position of an apostle, are some of the most mistreated and abused human beings I have ever encountered. Those are the very men we ought to stand aside and let them get their job done. Let us let them get their job done. Clear the way for them rather than throwing obstacles in their way.

There are prophets to be backed and teachers and evangelists also who should be local, working with elders and apostles, and some may be even extra local, not local, who are working with elders and apostles. And just for a word, an elder is normally local. An apostle is generally extra local but doesn’t ever pass any rules in God’s business. There are no such things. Anytime you get it pegged down, God will come up with an exception.

Okay, we’ve got some evangelists and prophets and teachers out there beginning to emerge that are not apostles. This is new. And they’re moving around in Judea. And we’ve got elders who are locally taking care of God’s people on an administrative basis. And that’s what you have in Judea. Let me explain to you. I don’t know if you’ll be able to understand this or not.

Was Jesus Christ an apostle? That’s right. Hebrews tells us He is an apostle. Let me ask you this. Was He a teacher? Absolutely. He was a teacher, and He taught them. Was He a prophet? He was the prophet. More than a prophet. He was the prophet who had been expected, looked for, and hoped for. Okay, was He an evangelist? Oh, wow. That’s right, did He have the gift of administration? Absolutely, did He have the gift of giving? All right. I’m about to run out.

Well, I would say speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues, but I’m not going to get into that because there’s no evidence either way. All right, then, when we see that the Lord Jesus Christ is all these things, and we then see these things reappearing in the church later, what are we discovering? Can you tell me that something of the nature of God is manifesting itself in men? That something of the nature of God is manifesting Himself in men.

Now, I want all of you to listen to me very carefully, and I want you all to get alert. Every one you wave at me now. I just want to make sure you’re awake. Did you all wave? All right, Jim, did you wave? Good.

200 years ago, about the time of the French Revolution, somebody started preaching, you’re not going to believe this, that what the church of God needed was the restoration of the gifts. A movement came out of that. It worked so well. That sold so well. That was like water in the Sahara. That was like hot dogs at a baseball game. It rallied people. All we need are the gifts. We’ve got to have the gifts back. What’s wrong with the church today? Doesn’t have the gifts. Get the gifts, and everything else will come.

Well, 150 years ago, this thing got a little bigger, and 100 years ago, people began to see how well it worked, and more people began to use it. 50 years ago, even more people were using it. Today, you will hear people preaching that as though it had never been said before. The gifts have been lost, and we’ve got to have the restoration of the gifts, and when we have the gifts, we’ll have the church. That is just so much baloney.

For one thing, if 200 years haven’t gotten the gifts back, I don’t know what more we need. You do not need the gifts; you need the Life. Did you know that I am very gifted to be able to see? Did you know that I am gifted to smell? Did you know that I have the gift of hearing? Did you know I have the gift of touch? And how many know what I have left there? I got the gift of taste. You don’t know how hard I worked to have the gift of taste. Oh, brothers, the hours I spent praying. We’ve got to have a return to the gift of taste and the gift of hearing and the gift of seeing and the gift of smelling. Without that, we’re lost. We’ve got to struggle and pray. We’ve got to have a restoration of the five senses.