Apostolic Career Progression
I’ve waited seven years to release this word. It’s time has come.
With all kindness and in the fear of God, allow me to first warn you. Once you know something, you become responsible. You can’t hear a word from God without either becoming obedient to the word or else facing judgment. It is a sin to know the truth but not act on it. God doesn’t dispense useless information.
So proceed with caution. If you are happy as a passive pew-sitter, or if you are a pastor who is fat while the sheep are kept dumb, or if you are a traditionalist who is content with the status quo, then don’t read any further. Close your Bible and go to sleep. But if you have eyes to see and ears to hear, whether you’re called to business or to the ministry of the Word, your world-view is about to change.
For instance, do you know that most of the global church is now charismatic and experiencing gifts of the Holy Spirit? Do you know that a huge percentage of believers meet in homes, not in religious buildings? That church buildings didn’t develop until after Constantine’s edict in AD 313 and then the dark ages began? Do you know there are two dozen apostles identified by name in the New Testament- not just the original Twelve? Do you know that in the New Testament pastors were all initially unpaid volunteers of house churches? Do you know that denominations were non-existent, churches formed city-wide networks, and God used teams of traveling apostles to plant and water the churches?
Do you know that war has broken out in the heavens and is affecting the earth and its people? Do you know that God is preparing an enormous transfer of wealth from the wicked to the righteous to fulfill His end-time purpose?
None of these things imply that I am attacking the church. Christ loves the church and so do I. But we need a new reformation. For example, if a pastor has a building and draws a salary, wonderful. Just don't make pastoral maintenance the primary goal: get on with your apostolic mission, make disciples, and advance the kingdom. Move beyond surviving into thriving. Go further than success and have sons as successors.
Face it: there are lots of things we don’t know. One of the most profound things I ever heard God say was, “You don’t know what you don’t know, and you’ll never know it unless I show it to you.” It is humbling to admit we may not have it right or we may not know it all. Additionally, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. In my youth I considered a career as a physician. The Hippocratic oath says “First, do no harm.” With that as a preamble, let me get on to our topic.
Before my wife and I went to Africa seven years ago, a team of ministers met with us and asked us what our mission was. They were considering partnering with us. With no forethought, I said aloud words that I had never heard nor even thought about before. “I believe I’m called to equip emerging apostles in the developing church.” That amazing confession startled me and everyone else around the table. Who was I to say such a thing?
Later that evening, some pastors from the team formed a prophetic presbytery in front of the congregation and asked a respected prophet, David Ireland, to join them to pray over us to see what the Lord would say. (1 Tim 4:14) This beloved prophet had not been present for the afternoon discussions. As we gathered and waited on the Lord, David began to prophesy. He started to describe our future ministry of assisting churches and leaders. He paused as though listening, then he said, “Ron I’m hearing a conversation. I’m hearing you say, ‘I am called to equip emerging apostles in the developing church.’ Son of man, you’ve got it right. This is your job description, says the Lord.” He went on to prophesy many other things that had great encouragement.
With that amazing experience, we went forward with our plans. We traveled to various churches across the southeast and raised funds for our support and then embarked on a year-long missionary journey that was amazing, delightful, and also quite painful.
While we were living in South Africa during 2000 to 2001, the Lord gave me a revelation regarding the cycle for emerging leaders: a pattern for making spiritual sons, training them, and releasing them. It began while we were staying in Johannesburg working with Jackson Xhosa, a Christian leader in South Africa.
During that time, I had a vivid dream of a father who had a large home and many sons. In this dream, the father of the house was adding more rooms on to his own home so that his sons were kept on the property. He provided for them, but kept them dependent. The father’s house was becoming larger and larger as the sons married and moved in, but they were never sent out to have their own home or raise their own family. It was all about the patriarch’s increase, not the son’s fulfillment. The dream carried a strong sense of frustration that the sons were being denied their right. The family farm had become a prison compound. The next generation was prevented from maturing and moving on.
Not long after this, we went to Zimbabwe for a leadership conference. This was when President Robert Mugabe began violently dismantling his nation’s once-prosperous white-owned farms. He thought the way to get the land into the hands of blacks was to rob the white settlers. It didn’t work. There is a lesson here about transitions and unexpected consequences. In the midst of this chaos and fear, as we gathered with precious, brave native pastors, the Lord gave me a startling twelve-step pattern for emerging new leaders. This revelation came quickly, arriving almost full blown. Of course, I have given much prayer and biblical study to the concept since then.
The concept is called “Apostolic Career Mapping.” It has in it a matrix for evaluating the maturity, ministry, and mindset of young apostles. So, for the first time I am releasing The Twelve Steps of Apostolic Career Progression. I’ve nursed these ideas since the Lord gave them to me. I know that I don’t see everything fully; that we all see through a glass darkly; and that other Bible teachers or prophets may have a different piece of the puzzle. Yet, it is time to act in faith, trusting God to reveal more as we walk it out.
After seven years of waiting on the Lord, I feel free for the first time to release this word. As I do so, I am aware that a majority of Christians in America hold to the erroneous view that the major or only office in the church is that of the pastor. It is not. Pastors ought to relate to apostles, who are the primary gift of Christ to the Church. (1 Cor 12:28) Many labor under the assumption that building a local church is the goal. It is not. Raising and releasing spiritual sons is the goal; the church is a by-product. (Mt 28:19) Others believe that only specially trained people can have a ministry. That is wrong. Every believer in Jesus has a ministry. (Rom 12:6) Many also believe that apostles disappeared when we got our complete Bible. That’s wrong. There is no Scripture anywhere that justifies such an argument.
These ideas are now disproved by present reality and by reputable Bible scholars. The Holy Spirit is now testifying and the Bible confirms it that God is restoring contemporary apostles and prophets in the modern church. Why? So we can finish the Great Commission in our generation! The whole church is becoming apostolic and prophetic and we are seeing this transformation occur rapidly in our generation.
Here are the main thoughts- like the rungs of a ladder- that are the markers for the concept of Apostolic Career Mapping. The core idea is that the ministry of an apostle can be measured, evaluated, and pinpointed for the various stages they all must go through.
Please take these twelve steps and understand that they need to be fleshed out, experimented with, and detailed further. These ideas also require that fences be built around them so that abuse or bad doctrines don’t occur. The worse thing that can happen is for someone to take what is birthed by the Spirit and try to reproduce it in the flesh. God makes a man or woman into His servant for the benefit of the church.
Only God can give the gifts of the Spirit to Christians. (1 Cor 12) Only Christ can give His office gifts to the church. (Eph 4:11) While mature leaders may train or ordain young future leaders and thus recognize the call of God on their lives, it is Jesus the Head of the Church who personally calls, qualifies, and equips foundational fathers- the apostles and prophets. (Eph 2:20) These are the ones who can receive orders from the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1:2) These are the ones who lay foundations. (1 Cor 3:10) Ultimately, Jesus makes them who they are by His grace, not seminaries or church programs or Bible schools, although they must know the Bible and ought to know church history. Jesus takes them and trains them through fiery trials or difficult circumstances. Christ apprentices them and usually lets them fail many times. Like Joseph of old, they endure rejection. Like Saul of Tarsus, they suffer on the way to being recognized as an apostle. The Lord uses spiritual fathers as trainers, ministry or business coaches, or special educational classes. But apostles and prophets know Jesus, are from Jesus, and are sent by Jesus.
Please take these Steps of Apostolic Career Progression and consider them. God may be choosing you through a furnace of affliction in order to qualify you for the job of Pioneer. Are you a business owner? Think about partnering with an apostle or his team. Are you a believer who feels called to the ministry? Ask God to place you in relationship with a spiritual father who will go beyond preaching, who will relate to you and mentor you.
Here are the twelve steps a young apostle takes in his stages of development. The details can be enumerated in depth in personal presentations. But unless spiritual fathers begin to make spiritual sons, the whole concept is empty talk.
Personal walk with Christ is confirmed:
1. Saved
2. Sealed
3. Sanctified
Corporate experiences accrue under authority:
4. Set In
5. Set Apart
6. Sent Out
Young apostles display distinct hallmarks:
7. Signs
8. Seals
9. Sons
Mature apostles wage war in the heavens:
10. Seen
11. Suffered
12. Seated
There- I’ve sketched it out. That’s all that I can share by print. May God allow us to participate in the maturing of the Bride until the return of the Groom. May the Lord send forth laborers into His harvest. The climax of history, the end of the age is upon us. May we all move into our place in the Body of Christ, partner with our yokefellows, begin to perform our various ministries, and bear much fruit for the glory of God. May Jesus receive His rightful inheritance among the nations! May God arise and His enemies be scattered! Even so, come Lord Jesus!
Apostolic Career Progression © 2007 by Touched by Grace Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to copy granted provided byline is included and no editorial changes occur. Ron Wood is a pastor, a writer, a business owner, and a prophet. He lives in NW Arkansas. Contact him at rewood1@cox.net. Please- no spam emails!
With all kindness and in the fear of God, allow me to first warn you. Once you know something, you become responsible. You can’t hear a word from God without either becoming obedient to the word or else facing judgment. It is a sin to know the truth but not act on it. God doesn’t dispense useless information.
So proceed with caution. If you are happy as a passive pew-sitter, or if you are a pastor who is fat while the sheep are kept dumb, or if you are a traditionalist who is content with the status quo, then don’t read any further. Close your Bible and go to sleep. But if you have eyes to see and ears to hear, whether you’re called to business or to the ministry of the Word, your world-view is about to change.
For instance, do you know that most of the global church is now charismatic and experiencing gifts of the Holy Spirit? Do you know that a huge percentage of believers meet in homes, not in religious buildings? That church buildings didn’t develop until after Constantine’s edict in AD 313 and then the dark ages began? Do you know there are two dozen apostles identified by name in the New Testament- not just the original Twelve? Do you know that in the New Testament pastors were all initially unpaid volunteers of house churches? Do you know that denominations were non-existent, churches formed city-wide networks, and God used teams of traveling apostles to plant and water the churches?
Do you know that war has broken out in the heavens and is affecting the earth and its people? Do you know that God is preparing an enormous transfer of wealth from the wicked to the righteous to fulfill His end-time purpose?
None of these things imply that I am attacking the church. Christ loves the church and so do I. But we need a new reformation. For example, if a pastor has a building and draws a salary, wonderful. Just don't make pastoral maintenance the primary goal: get on with your apostolic mission, make disciples, and advance the kingdom. Move beyond surviving into thriving. Go further than success and have sons as successors.
Face it: there are lots of things we don’t know. One of the most profound things I ever heard God say was, “You don’t know what you don’t know, and you’ll never know it unless I show it to you.” It is humbling to admit we may not have it right or we may not know it all. Additionally, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. In my youth I considered a career as a physician. The Hippocratic oath says “First, do no harm.” With that as a preamble, let me get on to our topic.
Before my wife and I went to Africa seven years ago, a team of ministers met with us and asked us what our mission was. They were considering partnering with us. With no forethought, I said aloud words that I had never heard nor even thought about before. “I believe I’m called to equip emerging apostles in the developing church.” That amazing confession startled me and everyone else around the table. Who was I to say such a thing?
Later that evening, some pastors from the team formed a prophetic presbytery in front of the congregation and asked a respected prophet, David Ireland, to join them to pray over us to see what the Lord would say. (1 Tim 4:14) This beloved prophet had not been present for the afternoon discussions. As we gathered and waited on the Lord, David began to prophesy. He started to describe our future ministry of assisting churches and leaders. He paused as though listening, then he said, “Ron I’m hearing a conversation. I’m hearing you say, ‘I am called to equip emerging apostles in the developing church.’ Son of man, you’ve got it right. This is your job description, says the Lord.” He went on to prophesy many other things that had great encouragement.
With that amazing experience, we went forward with our plans. We traveled to various churches across the southeast and raised funds for our support and then embarked on a year-long missionary journey that was amazing, delightful, and also quite painful.
While we were living in South Africa during 2000 to 2001, the Lord gave me a revelation regarding the cycle for emerging leaders: a pattern for making spiritual sons, training them, and releasing them. It began while we were staying in Johannesburg working with Jackson Xhosa, a Christian leader in South Africa.
During that time, I had a vivid dream of a father who had a large home and many sons. In this dream, the father of the house was adding more rooms on to his own home so that his sons were kept on the property. He provided for them, but kept them dependent. The father’s house was becoming larger and larger as the sons married and moved in, but they were never sent out to have their own home or raise their own family. It was all about the patriarch’s increase, not the son’s fulfillment. The dream carried a strong sense of frustration that the sons were being denied their right. The family farm had become a prison compound. The next generation was prevented from maturing and moving on.
Not long after this, we went to Zimbabwe for a leadership conference. This was when President Robert Mugabe began violently dismantling his nation’s once-prosperous white-owned farms. He thought the way to get the land into the hands of blacks was to rob the white settlers. It didn’t work. There is a lesson here about transitions and unexpected consequences. In the midst of this chaos and fear, as we gathered with precious, brave native pastors, the Lord gave me a startling twelve-step pattern for emerging new leaders. This revelation came quickly, arriving almost full blown. Of course, I have given much prayer and biblical study to the concept since then.
The concept is called “Apostolic Career Mapping.” It has in it a matrix for evaluating the maturity, ministry, and mindset of young apostles. So, for the first time I am releasing The Twelve Steps of Apostolic Career Progression. I’ve nursed these ideas since the Lord gave them to me. I know that I don’t see everything fully; that we all see through a glass darkly; and that other Bible teachers or prophets may have a different piece of the puzzle. Yet, it is time to act in faith, trusting God to reveal more as we walk it out.
After seven years of waiting on the Lord, I feel free for the first time to release this word. As I do so, I am aware that a majority of Christians in America hold to the erroneous view that the major or only office in the church is that of the pastor. It is not. Pastors ought to relate to apostles, who are the primary gift of Christ to the Church. (1 Cor 12:28) Many labor under the assumption that building a local church is the goal. It is not. Raising and releasing spiritual sons is the goal; the church is a by-product. (Mt 28:19) Others believe that only specially trained people can have a ministry. That is wrong. Every believer in Jesus has a ministry. (Rom 12:6) Many also believe that apostles disappeared when we got our complete Bible. That’s wrong. There is no Scripture anywhere that justifies such an argument.
These ideas are now disproved by present reality and by reputable Bible scholars. The Holy Spirit is now testifying and the Bible confirms it that God is restoring contemporary apostles and prophets in the modern church. Why? So we can finish the Great Commission in our generation! The whole church is becoming apostolic and prophetic and we are seeing this transformation occur rapidly in our generation.
Here are the main thoughts- like the rungs of a ladder- that are the markers for the concept of Apostolic Career Mapping. The core idea is that the ministry of an apostle can be measured, evaluated, and pinpointed for the various stages they all must go through.
Please take these twelve steps and understand that they need to be fleshed out, experimented with, and detailed further. These ideas also require that fences be built around them so that abuse or bad doctrines don’t occur. The worse thing that can happen is for someone to take what is birthed by the Spirit and try to reproduce it in the flesh. God makes a man or woman into His servant for the benefit of the church.
Only God can give the gifts of the Spirit to Christians. (1 Cor 12) Only Christ can give His office gifts to the church. (Eph 4:11) While mature leaders may train or ordain young future leaders and thus recognize the call of God on their lives, it is Jesus the Head of the Church who personally calls, qualifies, and equips foundational fathers- the apostles and prophets. (Eph 2:20) These are the ones who can receive orders from the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1:2) These are the ones who lay foundations. (1 Cor 3:10) Ultimately, Jesus makes them who they are by His grace, not seminaries or church programs or Bible schools, although they must know the Bible and ought to know church history. Jesus takes them and trains them through fiery trials or difficult circumstances. Christ apprentices them and usually lets them fail many times. Like Joseph of old, they endure rejection. Like Saul of Tarsus, they suffer on the way to being recognized as an apostle. The Lord uses spiritual fathers as trainers, ministry or business coaches, or special educational classes. But apostles and prophets know Jesus, are from Jesus, and are sent by Jesus.
Please take these Steps of Apostolic Career Progression and consider them. God may be choosing you through a furnace of affliction in order to qualify you for the job of Pioneer. Are you a business owner? Think about partnering with an apostle or his team. Are you a believer who feels called to the ministry? Ask God to place you in relationship with a spiritual father who will go beyond preaching, who will relate to you and mentor you.
Here are the twelve steps a young apostle takes in his stages of development. The details can be enumerated in depth in personal presentations. But unless spiritual fathers begin to make spiritual sons, the whole concept is empty talk.
Personal walk with Christ is confirmed:
1. Saved
2. Sealed
3. Sanctified
Corporate experiences accrue under authority:
4. Set In
5. Set Apart
6. Sent Out
Young apostles display distinct hallmarks:
7. Signs
8. Seals
9. Sons
Mature apostles wage war in the heavens:
10. Seen
11. Suffered
12. Seated
There- I’ve sketched it out. That’s all that I can share by print. May God allow us to participate in the maturing of the Bride until the return of the Groom. May the Lord send forth laborers into His harvest. The climax of history, the end of the age is upon us. May we all move into our place in the Body of Christ, partner with our yokefellows, begin to perform our various ministries, and bear much fruit for the glory of God. May Jesus receive His rightful inheritance among the nations! May God arise and His enemies be scattered! Even so, come Lord Jesus!
Apostolic Career Progression © 2007 by Touched by Grace Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to copy granted provided byline is included and no editorial changes occur. Ron Wood is a pastor, a writer, a business owner, and a prophet. He lives in NW Arkansas. Contact him at rewood1@cox.net. Please- no spam emails!
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