 just waiting for the recording. Good morning and great to have you all in today's class. Hopefully in one class or two we will try and cover the content for Apostolic ministry today. So let's pray and get started. Heavenly Father we thank you that you are pouring out your spirit and Lord we believe that in these times you are restoring O God the Apostolic in a powerful way and Lord even as we learn from your word we pray may our hearts be established in this truth and help us O God to flow in what you are doing O God and Father let that be a great blessing to the kingdom of God. We thank you once again Lord Father we commit ourselves our families the college and Father God everyone who's serving we pray God that we will experience your increase in every way. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay so let's get back to the trends. We said that there are some 60 trends that have been listed out and we touched upon a few where we saw the apostolic role of planting churches, raising leaders, bringing new insight, revelation and we were saying that there will be a great boldness to step forward even in the face of persecution and you know there'll be a lot of different ministries also coming forth. So as we break down whatever is given in these 60 points I'll just tell us in an overall way you know what these points carry but I would request us to read through every single point when you know you have the time. So here we are seeing that the supernatural will be released more and more in many of the churches and we see that also. People are understanding that the power of God is for today and the expectation for the supernatural the gifts of the Holy Spirit earlier. Yes people were moving in it but now we're able to teach it so that we can equip every believer for the practice of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and then if there are any doctrinal heresies because in the end times when we read some of the writings of the apostles like Peter, like John, even Paul they warn us that there will be heretical teachings. There will be teachings which move us away from whatever doctrine has been given to us. So the apostolic the rising up of the apostolic will be such that these wrong teachings, confusions in the body of Christ they will deal with it like they will confront it. So that that confronting will happen. We see that you know individual saints right meaning each believer will be groomed, nurtured into stepping into their purpose and we see a lot of that happening today isn't it? Where individual believers are equipped wherever God has called them maybe they are called in the five-fold ministry or they are called in the church ministries of some sort or in the marketplace. There are so many equipping like trainings that are going on around the world where believers are being groomed so that they can step out in their own calling. So we see it's like the apostolic trends are very all-round where it is preparing the individual, it's preparing the church, it's extending the kingdom and you know we will see that many believers will be able to do great exploits for the kingdom of God. It's not just going to be like you know one or two leaders or one or two key pastors. It's not like that but every single believer will be able to step out in what God has called them. There'll be a greater reverence for the things of God. Do you remember we said that the standards the apostles, what do they do? They uphold the standards of God's word like for personal living, for you know marriage, family life, every area holiness and right standards. Similarly in the trends, the apostolic trend people will also rise up to adopt these standards and live by these standards. So that is an apostolic thing. There will be an emphasis on prayer and intercession like a greater understanding. Now also we are praying but then how do we really move forward in it and lots of people bring over communities, territories. See a lot of this we know and we practice to an extent but as the apostolic anointing of God is poured out on us, what we can expect is like an enlarging of what is exactly is going on. So that is something that we can expect. Then of course you know I'll just kind of as I said I'll summarize. We'll see many different kinds of ministries. So in these trends there are ministries where we talk about ministry to the children, ministry to the widows, orphans, poor because the church is supposed to make an impact. So it's not only going to be about doing church but like literally we say right we are the hands and feet of Jesus. So we'll see a demonstration of those things taking place in addition to all the other spiritual moves, patterns that we see emerging and along with this we will see a great favor of the church with the government. So what we are saying is the church will arise in such a way that there will be an influence that God will give over the laws, the regulation in the land and because that can make an impact isn't it? We are not saying that the church will replace the government or the church will kind of push the government. It's not like that. The Lord will open the door and we will have the right kind of influence in the righteous way and the church should be like that you know when in a city imagine if the church is so righteous and powerful and making an impact even the officials will come and ask for help or for guidance or for instruction. So that's the way having an influence even with regard to the government and we'll see moves of justice, we'll see moves of what like you know when there are divisions in the community in the society in every country, every nation or across nations we see issues of injustice, injustice with regard to you know like the economic status of people or if you all remember I think in the 2021 if I'm not wrong there was this huge thing about racism right across the globe and even now like equality these matters are in the forefront like diversity, inclusion these are big buzzwords in the marketplace and when we see what the apostolic can do the apostolic anointing see we know one thing that man has been created in the image of God so it's not like any one person is above the other person you know because of race gender or some status the family that you're born into as far as the Bible is concerned all are equal and that equal status and equal honor has to be given equal privileges opportunities so the apostolic will sort of encourage these things okay inequality division the apostolic will go against that so in many places we are seeing this also multicultural like our church itself for example we have people from all kinds of walks of life all languages all you know different age groups it shouldn't matter when we go abroad like there are multicultural churches in terms of you know many nationalities people are still worshiping together we can still do life together right so this is what the apostolic anointing is about and these are the trends and many of these things are we can observe them today and we will see a rise of it and the apostolic will steer it and that is what you know many of these points actually contain right and also one more point here is about reviving of churches so reviving of what sometimes we call as dead churches so the churches were planted and the churches were doing very well but now for whatever reason they are dry bones but what will the apostolic do it'll again go breathe life in those dead churches you know do the work like from ground up raise up leaders put structures in place so today we're seeing that also some of the churches that are doing well they try to help the churches that are not doing well whether they want spiritual guidance or they want financial help right and a lot of networking web pastors are working together ministries are working together all this is apostolic in nature so this is about the apostolic broadly any thoughts any questions before I move on to chapter five here okay quite clear right so yeah so we can expect these trends and much more in chapter five basically we're talking about the apostolic ministry of a local church so how can a local church be apostolic we have seen in the past churches having a single leader a pastor is primarily the key person in the church taking all the responsibilities but over the years we've seen and many people you know remember we said the word proton sometimes proton is used for an apostolic ministry even Antioch you know the church of Antioch when you read in the bible acts 11 even Antioch is used as an example of the apostolic because in the church of Antioch you know Barnabas he brings fall and then we read that there are teachers in the church so there is a multi multi multi gifted or a team approach for the first time we see that in the church of Antioch multi gifts so there are teachers there are you know those later on profits come in so they all together do the work of the ministry the stereotype is only pastor pastor will do everything but when you go to the Antioch model it's a team model where we may have different ministers you know some teachers some prophets some evangelists but together not only are we nurturing that congregation but we are sending people out we're extending the work of the kingdom now we would also see in an apostolic kind of a of a local church the pastor may eventually the pastor can be apostolic okay so can the pastor be prophetic yes so the pastor can be very apostolic now we can also see that sometimes the pastor is an apostle pastor they they have two offices in which they fulfill their role and responsibility so that's how apostolic churches look and the leadership of apostolic churches look and these apostles they generally what they do is they may start off as a pastor but they move on into their apostolic call and fulfill what God has called them to do and then they you know raise up a lot of other ministers of God so in a local church of that kind we could say that the pastor you know he's like like a father a spiritual father we come back to that terminology that Paul used you know when he described his relationship with Timothy spiritual father to many people and this apostolic leader okay either an aposto apostolic pastor or an apostle what they do is they provide strong leadership strong leadership and you see strong leadership is we can talk so much about it like when we say strong leadership describe strong leadership right there are many things that describe strong leadership vision you know surety of the calling then strategizing like how what should we do and coming up with ideas and enabling execution and from time to time you know going into new areas doing something absolutely new and constant upgrade right innovation creativity so there's so much when we talk about strong leadership strong leadership is not just okay you know I'm doing something everybody follow me it's much more than that so when there's a strong leader with a vision with that you know power to innovate it draws people you feel excited to be a part of that ministry because we know for sure that hey we are making an impact what we're doing is making a difference you know what I mean so that is strong leadership able to make strong decisions you know sometimes decisions can be very hard okay we will close this down or we will start that we will use the resources that we have our money like this these are difficult decisions it's not easy to take a call on these matters but strong leadership is about that they make tough decisions then governmental responsibility governmental responsibility means whatever has been given by God taking care of the people in the local congregation then extending the work in the territory it's our responsibility we are accountable to God the resources that God has given us you know we should be able to use it to show an increase right so all that is part of governmental responsibility and a strong apostle pastor will move in this direction to take on responsibility now in the trends part one other thing that I didn't mention is the the generation of resources you see when we are talking about extension extension sounds very good but you know in our world we know that it takes resources when we want to expand right where is that resource going to come from so in an apostolic kind of a ministry the apostle pastor or the apostle will have the faith for resources so as the ministry grows resources will come you know being able to steward things well to increase it I mean imagine we have a great opportunity but we don't have resource how sad right that we haven't managed our resources or we've not been able to generate resources and now we are facing a huge opportunity but very few resources become so difficult we are not able to you know step out that way but in the apostolic even receiving of resources managing of resources that's an anointing so we will we will see that where for the kingdom kingdom resources to multiply right for the work of the ministry and in terms of governmental responsibility even that comes in like where we are able to manage the finances and we are able to do it righteously and have enough to keep extending the work of God so it's a lot actually it's a lot on on the shoulders of an apostolic ministry to manage all these things then this this apostle pastor of the local church will be strong in the doctrine because doctrine is key if there is error in the doctrine it's hugely problematic so a local church that is apostolic has to be strong in the doctrine and one of the things that the leader will do is that then establish order within the local church what is order order is you know in terms of the government church government where I think you must have done this in administration so when you're starting an organization you begin with vision you begin with mission you begin with organizational structure structure you envision a structure we'll have the senior pastor we'll have associate pastors we'll have ministry leaders you know so all that is order if there is no order okay church service format this is how it will look if we we have a you know like ministries this will how the accounting will look this is how the other things will look so establishing order because unless there is order when we start in the beginning when it grows it becomes very chaotic right so the apostle will do that establish order where things are clear what is our vision what is our mission you know and we keep moving forward then develop new wine skin that simply means be open to the new things that God is doing so if God is moving us in a certain way that we may be putting all our energy in one direction let's say you know some ministry that we are doing for the church but suddenly God says no I want you to put more of your energy in youth then that's like new wine skin you're just shifting and you're ready to be flexible wherever God is saying so that way it's a new wine skin and new order and structure of God and help the local church pioneer new works outside so yeah and you know it's quite interesting like if we we see even the apc website for where you have to apply for jobs for staff full time roles there there are roles in ai there are roles in gaming right because these are the new trends it's actually not the future it's today this is all new territory and as apostolic is we get into this kind of new stuff because it's going to make it people are there so if people are there we have to get into that to make an impact now what are the five stages of the apostolic so the five stages of the apostolic are a little bit similar to how we talk about establishing of the church you must have done this right in house of God territorial entrance pioneering stage it's there okay go back and study it fine so there are five stages of the apostolic I'll briefly explain it to us first is territorial entrance which as the name states it getting into a place so God may call us in a region let's say India or he calls you to Southeast Asia somewhere so we go there first we go there and we establish base so establish when we are establishing there pioneering stage pioneering stage is when we are just putting the foundations things like vision mission organizational structure you know guidelines we're coming up with all that prayerfully we're coming up with all these things and our most basic team okay who are we going to be like here in India you need trustees to start an organization those will be your main people then on top of that you need ministry leaders you need other pastors so you're forming all this slowly pioneering stage when things are coming together and these stages are quite hard because pioneering as a name itself states we may lack resources at that time we may lack people we are struggling we are multitasking so all that happens right but once we are set after the pioneering stage it's like construction once you do the foundation build okay so the building stage then we start off we add more leaders we add more ministries we kind of you know bring a growth from there um and the ministries can also expand in new directions then we are we become a governing voice this is so key what is a governing voice you know governing voice is influence very strong influence now we may be settled in one part of the world but what we say and do becomes a standard for other parts of the world right so then people look hey how are they doing you know how are they doing media how are they doing teaching uh are we are going to follow what they're doing governing voice what are they saying about this particular matter right about let's say gender inequality or about racism what is that church saying so what's happening people are being influenced especially in the kingdom of god you know other churches they know you're a positive influence and god is the one who positions us over there see we can't just get there god has to give us that voice we become a voice as we say right like voice to the nation and the nations of the world um and uh people are listening people are following people are learning being equipped that is a governing voice apostolic base apostolic base simply means you know while we are influencing regions around and the nations around we are uh like you know a base from where we send out a lot of people if you take the church of anti-ok people were being raised up and they were being sent out and then they would go do ministry they'll come back to the church they'll come back to anti-ok church right so it's like a home church apostolic base or home church where people come back uh and you know they are strengthened refreshed they go back to do the ministry so a lot of leaders are rising up work is continuing from the base or the apostolic base so that is a little bit about the stages of the apostolic so any questions or thoughts regarding this we went over it so quickly right like maybe about 10 minutes but for somebody to get from um territorial entrance to becoming an apostolic base it can take decades yeah so you need that kind of strength and grace from god to get to that level it is quite clear isn't it okay great all right so we can move to six chapter six so chapter six is um it's just an extension of what we are talking apostolic ministry and the city so just involve the pastors and ministry leaders of the city also now so somebody who's an apostle they will not just be concerned about their church yeah they they have governmental responsibility as a pastor towards their church but apostolic responsibility towards the city and the nation right so then what are the kind of ministries that they will engage with they'll bring unity among churches and ministers that is a feature of the apostolic more and more ministers coming together right um so it's a genuine unity see when we say unity it is more than a surface level right surface level of course we can say hello brother hello sister how are you but inside we can feel his church is bigger than my church i'm gonna make mine bigger right that is not true unity that's just outside but true unity the kind of apostolic grace is there to bring the real unity is you know like um we in the kingdom of kingdom builders book it is there when we treat a minister of god like a brother or a sister when we are really concerned you know how are they doing how is their health how is their ministry genuine very genuine so that is part of the apostolic where it brings people together in a genuine true way okay not just networking networking even the world does it's like a marketing strategy promotional strategy it's beyond that okay true unity of churches ministers where we let go of our differences and we come together and an apostolic leader will be like a spiritual father to the leaders of the city or leaders of the region wherever i mean whatever extent god has called them they'll be like a spiritual father they'll provide leadership not just for church transformation but city transformation right church is growing but at the same time impacting the city and so they can guide different churches and ministry leaders then represent the church or the body of christ to governments and authorities so they gain so much influence of course by the anointing of god that they can talk to leaders right and and authority figures um and influence their policies they can also become propagators of movements movements what are movements you know the way we've seen healing movement the pentecostal movement a move of god with regard to what he's pouring out something special something new that the lord may be doing they can become propagators of that movement and an apostolic leader can establish the plans and purposes of god on the city right so that is broadly same whatever we are discussing for the church just expand it to the nation and that's how an apostle looks so chapter seven here is about the nations whatever we discussed for the city expanded further to the nations same thing being a father um you know your birthing new movements your releasing new strategies in the in the body of christ advancing the kingdom having impact with the government at the national level and then you know having uh networks strengthening the networks okay so all right so let's see how far we can get um uh you know trying to cover as much ground as possible right so how do we develop and uh impart the apostolic firstly to have an understanding of what is the meaning of apostolic right and explain it what is the apostolic so when we are able to explain it then we can reproduce it okay and to see good models so these days models are rising up we can see here and there you know some churches some networks so learn from them have some good models so first thing is have a clear idea of what is the apostolic then we need strong apostolic leadership so we need people with that grace right to head up and lead people so these leaders um must be encouraged helped strengthened and uh also to have the right heart what is that heart you know that heart is the heart of a father or a mother we say it's it's about maturity where we are not looking at other leaders as competition you know no parent will look at their own child as oh what you know if this child becomes better than me if they get a better job than me live in a better house in fact a true parent will be happy that oh my son my daughter is doing better than me so the apostolic is like that being a spiritual father or a mother is when you are rejoicing in the growth the development the um rising up of your you know the the leaders god has given us so that is the characteristic of uh the apostolic now apostolic churches how to raise them up well the same characteristics are involved we need to have the ability to pioneer okay ability to pioneer it's one of the hardest things right uh because when everything is big everything is noticeable it's nice but when one starts small you know in obscurity difficulty lack of resources that's very tough and we don't know how long it may take for a minister of god to do that groundwork that is what pioneering is all about we call it breaking ground you know you see a hard nice land first you have to dig that's a lot of hard work you're breaking or what can you find only stones and mud and nothing exciting right that's a very trying time the pioneering time for a minister of god when you're coming up with the with the basics you know your vision your mission your main team don't have resources but trying to get the resources up so that is something that is needed for an apostolic church we should be able to do that and leaders should be able to do that and then build once that is done be able to govern now though we are speaking about individuals who are apostles and uh churches that are apostolic we already said that every believer can be apostolic okay so what is the meaning of apostolic we said sent sent from right sent forth jesus said to his disciples i am sending you i send you into the world i john 20 verse 21 so we can actually we we are the sent ones from god so every believer every disciple is apostolic and scripture in 2nd Corinthians 5 and verse 20 also talks about the fact that we are ambassadors and you know we already discussed this term ambassador is also related to the apostolic in fact that's what apostles were understood as ambassadors yeah so all believers are ambassadors for christ and therefore they are all apostolic and every believer for that matter can go through this process of pioneering building and you know being able to govern in in whatever area that god is calling them so the new fields we've we've talked about it right we said uh like the the people who come for guest lectures new things you're all doing new things new ministries that we see in church uh they're all apostolic they may not be an apostle but they are apostolic okay uh right so we have a repetition actually of a lot of content of what i've already shared in the next section but we'll touch upon the last part there it's on page 25 where it talks about you know once a church is like this can can you all picture with me that it says it becomes a church of influence right very strong influence that's what an apostolic church is but what can be some of the challenges or the pitfalls right of such a church in such a church where there is so much happening right there is very strong leadership there is very strong kingdom uh advancement focus uh people are always going out people are always doing something new everyone is is encouraged to work encouraged to um serve the lord right so a lot of action is going on so what are some things that can go wrong in a setting like this you see it can happen that people feel uncared for in an apostolic in a very strongly apostolic church because there's always an emphasis on you know let's all go let's all do if somebody's sitting down why are you sitting down you know then people feel what is this nobody cares for me as a person you know the thinking kind the people who want to take time by themselves they may feel so left out so why are we learning a pitfall so that we fix it have a strong apostolic wing how do we um you know prayerfully equip people and they themselves should come to a place of being excited about what god is doing in our times and step out in the role that god is calling them to so those are the pitfalls but when we look into these matters it's really going to help the church grow and thrive and the last chapter here is chapter 10 where we're looking at certain concerns or issues about apostolic ministry so there are some dangers okay now these are real dangers which we have to be careful about but you see whenever there is power given there's always the the you know the possibility of abuse like if power is not handled properly power is in we needed to do the work you know that god wants us to do to bless people but when there is abuse of power people can be hurt so when we are huh see abuse means you're using it the wrong way you're using it for the wrong reasons with the wrong motive selfish reasons and all pride yeah wrong motivation so any authority which is which is used selfishly or with the wrong motivation can lead to abuse right so when there is a lot of power governmental authority we need a lot of humility otherwise it won't work so that would be the best combination but authority without humility is a terrible combination because then there'll be abuse people will you know be treated badly and things go wrong so pastor was sharing once about the shepherding movement you all must have heard the shepherding movement I think the 1990s where there were some leaders who rose up and they they had a lot of influence and many people followed their teaching the doctrinal teaching but they introduced a subject called a shepherding and in that shepherding they taught that you need to have a leader over your life to guide you in all decisions like even personal decisions yeah and it led to abuse because what happened people started controlling other people and this was going on large scale right and it created so much problem in the body of Christ but that is an apostolic movement because it spread across churches and nations and you see there governmental authorities there but people are being abused so these are the dangers right second when there are strong leaders sometimes in the apostolic move of God we'll put too much of focus on the man and we'll go on like oh so great you know how how they are doing wow you know we become fully overtaken by the person it's more like the charisma of the man or the woman as compared to the anointing of God on their lives that's a problem right so we must and that leader should should also guide in such a way that hey like don't make it a big deal leaders will come and go but Jesus is the cornerstone right he is the preeminent one you need to give your focus to Christ today I'm there tomorrow I may not be there I hand over the work and go so don't make people the focus so in an apostolic movement because a man or a woman is so dynamic people can shift their focus to that person then doctrinal error right one if the person the apostle or the apostolic team is not careful about doctrine they have influence right once they say it everyone is catching it immediately that one error can damage a lot of people so you have to be very careful about the doctrine and of course as we said you know accountability and humility so no person is above the word no person is above you know the governance of the Trinity like we have the standards God is our standard his word is our standard his spirit is our standard now we may have a very strong apostolic call but one must be trained you remember we did the developing of an apostle how God takes a long time to form them because these are the character matters that one should not get attached to their title and their influence their power so accountability and for somebody in a in a position of power we must always keep channels open for accountability okay that means someone should be able to question us why did you do this why did you make this decision you see when we don't from the beginning we have to make that a like a what can I say make that channel there in your structure because when the power gets very high maybe at that point we may feel no nobody can question me whatever I say is like take it like the word of God okay but at that time when the structures are in place people can still hold you accountable and say why did you make that decision with money or why did you make that decision with that leader it's so necessary because at the end of the day we are just a human being isn't it so these are all the dangers the power can get very crazy right that's about the apostolic so with that we close off the apostolic and we may not need to do another class today yeah and I can look forward to your assignments today ready I'll just post it okay so you'll have sufficient time to complete all your assignments as well so any closing thoughts closing comments yes please like in five-fold ministry is called like a some of the apostles prophets and all so like on apostle can handle every gift can or cannot like not apostle see a few things can be there Francis like an apostle can be a teacher but he may need a prophet he to some extent apostle can multitask because they have to get the pioneering work going but after that they have to open up to others helping them so an apostle will not have all five they may have one or one or two extra so in the book revivals visitations and moves of God I think pastor has listed out a few names of people you can look look it up as apostles so yeah who have initiated some moves of God he's written like names like Bill Hammond even in India like DJS dinner current because something started like when he was there and when he began things in his times so they had they carried that apostolic anointing so yeah there are some names mentioned so you can go back and look up those examples okay sure so let's pray and close then I'll just request one of us to please pray and we can wrap up the class Father God we thank you Lord we thank you for this time you're giving us Lord thank you for all the teachings Lord we are so blessed with blessed with that and Father help us to carry this responsibility of your word teaching and teaching others learning ourselves and teaching Lord we submit each one of us unto your loving hands thank you Lord in Jesus precious may we pray amen let's go thank you thank you Nina thank you everyone and all the best for the assignments God bless