Your Prayer Can Change the World - Part 2 — Derek Prince

I'm just going to make some general statements. I could offer you, I believe, scriptures to support these. I said first of all earlier that I believe the church was never intended to function without apostles.

The Apostolic Ministry in the Church

I don't believe that Jesus Christ ever planned to withdraw the apostolic ministry from the church. First Corinthians 12 28 says God set in the church first apostles, secondary prophets, after their teachers.

How many of us believe that God has set teachers in the church? Well why have we subtracted apostles and prophets from the same sentence? Our way of interpreting scripture is not based on what God says.

It's based on what we see around us. I want to suggest to you that we have no right to reduce the standards of God revealed in scripture to the level of our experience. God's standards have not changed.

I want to speak about the apostolic ministry because I believe that without that the church can never achieve its God-appointed function. An apostle by definition is one who is sent forth. A person who is not sent forth cannot be an apostle.

Because it means to be sent forth. The apostolic ministry should be attested by supernatural signs and wonders. Paul said in first Corinthians second Corinthians chapter 12, truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all endurance and signs and wonders and mighty deeds.

The key word in the ministry of the apostle is one very short simple word of two letters beginning with G. Go. And basically when the apostolic ministry dried up, the missionary outreach of the church dried up at the same time.

Bearing Fruit Through Going

Let me give you just a few statements. John chapter 15 and verse 16. Bear in mind that from John 14 onwards Jesus was not talking to the multitudes. He was talking to his own chosen apostles. And if you read those chapters as if they were spoken to everybody.

You'll be misapplying scripture. A lot of wonderful promises in this chapter are claimed by all sorts of people who've never met the conditions met by the men to whom Jesus was speaking. But he says in John 15 verse 16, you did not choose me but I chose you.

I want to suggest to you brothers and sisters the only persons and ministries that are effective in the church are those that are chosen by God. The essence of fruitfulness is God's choice. Not man's appointment.

You did not choose me but I chose you to be what? Apostles. Not for salvation but for apostleship. And I appointed you that you should do what? What's the first word? Go. That's right that's the apostolic word go.

That you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain. Now listen we cannot leave out the word go and claim the bearing of fruit. The bearing of fruit is contingent upon the going. That you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.

That whatever you ask the father in my name he may give it to you. Don't quote that as a promise of answered prayer to people who haven't met the first part of the condition. If you go and if you bear fruit and it's fruit that remains then you have the right to ask the father in the name of Jesus and he will give it to you.

Don't cut that verse up in little strips take out one sentence and claim that and leave the rest. I'd like to point out something else to you. Something that I only saw a few years ago. And I've read the same passage in the Bible many many times.

Acts chapter 1 verses 1 2. We are aware that Acts was written also by Luke. And Luke is speaking about his gospel. He says the former account, that's Luke's gospel, I made Ophiopolis of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.

Until the day in which he was taken up. Until his ascension. After he through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen. I never saw that. I never saw that the words of Jesus quoted after his resurrection and between his ascension were not addressed to the multitudes.

To whom did he give instructions? To his apostles. Now you read the closing verses of Matthew 28 and Mark 16. They make an altogether different sense. Turn to Matthew 28 verses 18 19. Then Jesus came and spoke to them.

To whom? To the apostles. Saying all authority has been given to me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. What's the first word? Go. All right turn to Mark 16 verse 14.

Afterward he appeared to 11 as they sat at the table. 11 what? And he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart. Because they did not believe those who had seen him after he'd risen. And he said to them?

Go. That's right. Go into all the world. Preach the gospel to every creature. That's the apostolic thrust. To go. I believe if you ever meet a true apostle. And you could cut him open. And read what's printed on his heart.

It would be just one word of two letters. Go. The apostle is a man with a passion to go. He's a restless man. He's a man who cannot settle down in the standard procedures of Christianity. Because he's got a vision of a world outside the doors of the church.

Outside the even consideration of the church. And something in him says go, go, go. People don't understand him. He gives up privileges. He gives up positions. He gives up comforts. And he's driven by something inside him that says go, go, go.

Now God has given the church in the last century some very wonderful leaders. Think of Hudson Taylor, William Booth, other. I think all of you who have read their stories would agree. The key word for them was go.

Wasn't it? Go. And people didn't always understand them. But they had to go. Go where the need was. Go to the people who haven't been reached. I believe that's an apostolic thrust. I don't believe that necessarily those were fully fledged apostolic ministers.

But I believe that the breakthrough in the church of what God wants to do. I believe he wants to give us apostles with all the signs. With all the miracles. And God is doing that today. I don't believe we've arrived.

But I believe that's our destination. I thank God for the wonderful pioneers that have gone before. Men who've had to sacrifice and give up so much. And often in the face of ridicule and misunderstanding by most of the church.

I praise God for them. Brothers and sisters I doubt whether we're worthy to wash their feet. Now in closing what I want to say is this. That in the whole church there are I believe two areas of leadership.

Local Presbyteries and Apostolic Teams

What we would call in New Testament language the local presbytery. The leaders of the local church and always in the New Testament was in a city. Here we have represented here this morning part of the presbytery of the church in Christchurch.

The function of the presbyters, the pastors, the leaders is primarily government. To govern God's people. It's conservation. It's to preserve that which has been gathered in. It's building up. To build on a foundation that's already been laid and add to it.

And in the Bible in the New Testament those people are always referred to in the plural. You will not find any passage in the New Testament where the leadership of a local church is referred to in the singular.

It is always plural. That doesn't mean every church has got to have a lot of. Every congregation has got to have a lot of pastors. It means God sees one church in Christchurch and all the God called pastors are part of the total presbytery of Christchurch.

The other group is the apostolic ministry and apostles normally operated in teams. Not just as individuals but in teams. The only time you'd find an apostle on his own was when he was put in prison basically.

Which was fairly frequently. What I want to suggest to you is that the apostolic teams and the local presbyteries between them share the God-given responsibility for the leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ.

And in my understanding in the New Testament there was no human authority set over those two kinds of leaders. They were directly answerable to Jesus the head of the church. They were mutually responsible to one another.

Neither was independent but they were sovereign. This can only function by the grace of God. But you see God has never made a plan that would function without his grace. Because he doesn't want us to function without his grace.

How many of you would agree and you don't need to put your hand up that Christian marriage only functions by the grace of God. But that's what God intended. It's the same with the leadership of God's people.

It functions by the grace of God. God shares the responsibility between two groups. Not between two individuals. One group is the local presbytery. The other group is the apostolic team. Who was the first apostle?

Come on now. Jesus that's right. The apostle and high priest of our profession. Tell you one thing if anybody was mobile Jesus was. One point they said to him stay here you've healed us now stay. He said no I have to go on.

I've got to reach the other cities. And he said for this purpose I was sent forth. And it's the apostolic word. Let me tell you something brothers. I'm really getting warmed up now. If we had another couple of hours.

A Mobile Church and the Mission of Jesus

If you look at Jesus as the founder of the church and the pattern setter. The church was mobile before it was residential. That's a revolutionary fact. It would change our whole concept of what it is to be Christians.

If we realize we are not committed to residing in one place. We don't go to church. I hardly need to tell you that. Where we are the church is. We are the church. God has chosen a mobile residence in this dispensation.

We can walk out of this beautiful building for which I thank God. And the church is not here. The church is where we are. See as I understand it what I'm telling you demands a mental revolution. And I'm trying to think if the church doesn't have a mental revolution.

It'll come under a political revolution. I think we have the options at this point. And I don't know how long we have them. You know what God said to Israel when he wanted them back in their own land.

I'll send for many fishers and they'll fish you. Then I'll send for hunters and they'll drive you out of every hole in the in the in the mountains and in the caves. And God did it. You study the history of the Jews in Europe in the 1930s.

He sent the fishers the Zionists drawing them with a bait. Come to your own land it's waiting for you. The majority of European Jews rejected the invitation. Then God sent the hunters. Who were they? The Nazis.

That's right. And he did literally what it says in Jeremiah 16. They were driven out of every hole and every cave. Because God's time had come for them to be back in their own land. And I believe the time has come for the church to be what Jesus designs his church to be.

And God says I'll send fishers and I'll draw you with a bait. But if you don't accept the fishers I'll send the hunters. Could that happen to the church in New Zealand? I'll tell you from the little political sponsor I see.

It could happen in a few years. I think we have this question. Do we want to be what God intends us to be by our own free choice? Or are we going to be driven to it? The Jews ended up in their land. The ones that didn't go perished.

Israel, the Holocaust, and a Warning to the Church

I've meditated much on the holocaust. Because I live in Israel and I'm very much exposed to Jewish people. Although I'm not Jewish. I believe God loved the Jewish people. Loves them with a deep passionate love.

He'll never totally abandon them. And yet he permitted six million to perish in the most horrible circumstances. Of three million Jews in Poland, two million seven hundred found and died. That's ninety percent of all the Jews in Poland.

Why? Because God had a purpose. If they wouldn't listen to the fishers, they had no options but to listen to the hunters. Now the question I've asked myself many times. Suppose that the church of Jesus Christ was stubborn and disobedient and refused to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Would God send a holocaust to the church? Have you ever considered that possibility? No I'm not telling you the answer. But I think it's something we need to ponder. Let me read just a few words in Romans chapter 2.

Beginning at verse 6. God will render to each one according to his deeds. Eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor and immortality. But to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath.

That's God's reaction. Tribulation and anguish. That's what comes from God's reaction. On every soul of man who does evil. Of the Jew first and also of the Greek, the Gentile. That's a tremendously significant statement.

The majority I know of the Christian church don't have a real intimate understanding of the Jewish people. I was born non-Jewish. I wasn't interested in the Jews. I had no concern for them. But the Holy Spirit through God's dealings has forced me to face these issues.

I think in a certain sense the holocaust that came upon the Jewish people is a warning that what came upon the Jews first will also come on the Gentiles. Unless we listen to the voice of God. Are we really prepared to be radically changed?

Are we prepared to give up our so-called security, comfort, habits, patterns of life, patterns of church activity. And align ourselves with the clear requirements of the New Testament. I smile. It always comes to my mind an incident that happened years ago.

Challenging Church Culture and Religious Complacency

I was in Denmark. In the island of Fyn and in the city of Odense. Which is Hans Christian's Anderson's city. There was a little Pentecostal congregation. I was preaching to them. And two things happened.

While we were talking there was a dear old lady. She was a widow. She was poor. She was sick. And while we were discussing what we Pentecostals were in hand. She said in Danish. We've got it all. And I looked at her and I thought to myself.

What if that's all? It isn't much. Now I thank God for Pentecostals. This is not an attack on Pentecostals. It's an exposure of the mentality of Christians. We've got it all. Well then the pastor had a daughter of about 18.

So I don't know why I asked her this question. I said what is an elder? And she said an elder is one who sits on the platform. And I thought to myself that's it. It's where you sit. That's what defines who you are.

Brothers and sisters what I'm trying to expose to you. And I didn't intend to go this way. I feel pressured by the Lord. Is that our thinking is out of line with the New Testament. We are set in habits and patterns of life and cultural forms.

That we have to break out of to do the will of God. And I believe and I'm going to close with this. The two key thrusts in the heart of God. Are intercession. To give the Levites their rightful place.

Intercession and Restoring Apostolic Balance

To put the ark on their shoulders. And not to move until the ark is on the shoulders of the Levites. In other words not to go ahead with a whole series of programs and plans. That have never been prayed through.

That have never been birthed in intercession. And second to restore to the church the balance between the presbytery and the apostolic team. If you read the New Testament with an open mind. I think you would probably agree that there's considerably greater emphasis on the apostolic team than there is on the presbytery.

But let us suppose that God's plan is that they be equal. Let us consider them like the two legs on which the body of Christ moves. And say there's a 50 emphasis on each. What is the emphasis in the present church?

What is the emphasis? You've got as much right to answer as I have. But when I first thought this I said the emphasis on apostolic outreach is about two percent. And on conservation keeping the thing going about 98 percent.

And then I thought I don't want to be guilty of exaggeration. So I adjusted it to five percent and 95 percent. Now I would ask you to ask yourself. Is what I'm saying true? Does it roughly correspond with the facts?

Am I painting a direct picture of the church? I have no desire to be negative or cynical. But I have a deep conviction that God is saying what Paul said to the men of Athens. The times of this ignorance God has closed his eyes to.

But he is now commanding all men everywhere to repent. I appreciate you're listening so patiently to me. I trust I haven't offended you. I've not intended by any means to misrepresent anything or anyone.

Or to be in any way unnecessarily negative. My whole trust in life is positive. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe he's going to get a church like he said he would have. But I think at the present moment it's going to demand some very deep radical changes in the church.

And primarily in its leadership. May God grant to us the grace to face these issues honestly. And to seek God for what he has to say about them. God bless you.