Latest / Reflections On The Word With Richard Kay / Five Fold Ministry | Episode #372 | Encore Episode #043

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Five Fold Ministry | Episode #372 | Encore Episode #043 · Reflections On The Word With Richard Kay

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to today's edition of Reflection on the Word with
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  Speaker 1: Richard K. I'm Chuck Christie, and today we are asking
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  Speaker 1: you to spend a few moments of your time with
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  Speaker 1: us each day as Richard shares from God's work with notes, quotes,
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  Speaker 1: and story along with some of his own personal experiences,
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  Speaker 1: to confirm for you God's great love for us, that
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  Speaker 1: his compassion for us never fails, and that He has
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  Speaker 1: a great faithfulness toward us in every regard. Now, if
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  Speaker 1: you miss a portion of today's broadcast or would like
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  Speaker 1: to recommend it to a friend, you can hear this
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  Speaker 1: program anytime online at Talknetwork Radio dot com. Well, now,
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  Speaker 1: here's Richard with today's reflection.
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  Speaker 2: And he personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets,
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  Speaker 2: some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the training of
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  Speaker 2: the saints in the work of ministry, to build up
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  Speaker 2: the body of Christ. Until we all reach unity in
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  Speaker 2: the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son, growing
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  Speaker 2: into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ's fullness.
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  Speaker 2: Then we will no longer be little children tossed by
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  Speaker 2: the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching
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  Speaker 2: by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit,
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  Speaker 2: but speaking the truth and love. Let us grow in
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  Speaker 2: every way into Him who is the Head Christ. From him,
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  Speaker 2: the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament,
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  Speaker 2: promotes the growth of the body for building up itself
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  Speaker 2: in love. By the proper working of each individual part.
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  Speaker 2: We have completed a series that we entitled War and Victory,
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  Speaker 2: the Christian Fight of Faith, and I have to explain
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  Speaker 2: something to you at this stage. There are reasons why
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  Speaker 2: this particular warfare seems to go on continually and we
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  Speaker 2: are still being attacked and treated as victims. And part
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  Speaker 2: of the reason is because of the neglect of what
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  Speaker 2: is referred to as the fivefold ministry. Earlier, from the
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  Speaker 2: Book of the Theesians and chapter four and verses eleven
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  Speaker 2: through sixteen, we read that Jesus himself gave some within
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  Speaker 2: the body to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some
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  Speaker 2: pastors and teachers, for what purpose, for the training of
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  Speaker 2: the saints in the work of ministry, to build up
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  Speaker 2: the Body of Christ, until we all reach unity in
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  Speaker 2: the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son, growing
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  Speaker 2: into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ's fullness.
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  Speaker 2: Do you know that as we look at this particular
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  Speaker 2: commissioning of official members within the Body of Christ, these offices,
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  Speaker 2: if you will, we refer to as the fivefold ministry,
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  Speaker 2: My question is, are there still evangelists and pastors and
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  Speaker 2: teachers in the body of Christs? Now we see these
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  Speaker 2: evident in the local church, and we also see those
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  Speaker 2: same offices evident universally throughout the Body of Christ. As
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  Speaker 2: an example, Billy Graham happens to be. Now that he
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  Speaker 2: has passed on to glory, we now realize is office
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  Speaker 2: in the Body of Christ was that of an evangelist.
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  Speaker 2: Billy Graham was not assigned the office of a pastor,
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  Speaker 2: although teaching was certainly a portion of what he did
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  Speaker 2: as an evangelist in his preaching messages, but his official
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  Speaker 2: office was that of an evangelist. Now, Billy Graham belonged
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  Speaker 2: to a local church, but within that particular local body,
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  Speaker 2: he did not function in the office of an evangelist.
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  Speaker 2: So for this reason we can see that even though
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  Speaker 2: the evangelist office was assigned and commissioned to him, it
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  Speaker 2: was not functional in that same manner in the local church.
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  Speaker 2: And so we also see there are two other offices
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  Speaker 2: within the fivefold ministry is that of an apostle, and
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  Speaker 2: the second is that of a prophet. Now evangelists, pastors,
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  Speaker 2: and teasters are evident, and I offer to you that
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  Speaker 2: the office of the apostle and the office of prophets
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  Speaker 2: still exist in the body of Christ. Today. We will
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  Speaker 2: find many examples of apostles in more than just the
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  Speaker 2: element of the written scripture. Apostles have a function within
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  Speaker 2: the office. That function is to teach others how to
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  Speaker 2: expand the Kingdom by planting churches and developing the body
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  Speaker 2: of Christs. Many examples biblically are given by apostles. We
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  Speaker 2: have the written letters by the apostle Paul. We also
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  Speaker 2: have letters that were written by the apostle Peter. We
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  Speaker 2: know that these are only two examples of apostles, And
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  Speaker 2: yet we have a tendency to think that the office
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  Speaker 2: of an apostle no longer is functional in the body
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  Speaker 2: of Christ today, and that is a gross misjudgment. There
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  Speaker 2: are apostles throughout the Body of Christ in this world today.
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  Speaker 2: And then there's the office of the prophet. Now, many
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  Speaker 2: people look upon prophecy and the office of a prophet
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  Speaker 2: in the same manner. First, let's look at prophecy. What
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  Speaker 2: is it. Prophecy can either be foretelling what God is
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  Speaker 2: already planning and what He is revealing, and it can
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  Speaker 2: also be forthtelling. In other words, it is more in
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  Speaker 2: the emphasis of a warning or an instruction, and this
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  Speaker 2: is given to the Body of Christ at large. It
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  Speaker 2: is also given through those that are members within a
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  Speaker 2: local assembly. The gift of prophecy can function in either area.
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  Speaker 2: A prophet is one who speaks for the Word of
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  Speaker 2: God and proclaims what God determines is right, regardless of
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  Speaker 2: what the circumstances may be. Prophets are usually found in
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  Speaker 2: an area where other people are in great need of
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  Speaker 2: some form of spiritual guidance. They are not the same
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  Speaker 2: as teachers. Teachers are certainly needed within the body because
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  Speaker 2: they can explain many of the aspects of what the
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  Speaker 2: Word actually states and how to apply it in daily life.
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  Speaker 2: Prophets are actually speaking the Word without necessarily giving the
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  Speaker 2: teaching that will explain it. Does it mean that that
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  Speaker 2: could not be a combined means of the use of
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  Speaker 2: the gift of prophecy, But we don't want to get
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  Speaker 2: ahead of ourselves for this particular session. The reason that
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  Speaker 2: we're talking about the fivefold ministry is because when it
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  Speaker 2: is properly function and recognizing the function of that fivefold
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  Speaker 2: ministry within the Body of Christ, then the result is
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  Speaker 2: that there will be saints or believers in Jesus who
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  Speaker 2: will continue the work of ministry. And as we had
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  Speaker 2: studied in the earlier sessions, in war and victory, the
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  Speaker 2: Christian fight of faith, those that would be assigned to
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  Speaker 2: equip the Body should be equipping the body for the
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  Speaker 2: work of ministry. Jesus said in John fourteen twelve the
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  Speaker 2: greater works would be accomplished by those who believe in him.
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  Speaker 2: Those greater works are going to be accomplished because the
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  Speaker 2: fivefold Ministry functions and is recognized. So I want to
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  Speaker 2: give us some encouragement as we recognize the function of
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  Speaker 2: the fivefold ministry. When we recognize that apostles and prophets
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  Speaker 2: are still available in the Body of Christ, as are evangelists, pastors,
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  Speaker 2: and teachers, then we can also recognize their importance in
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  Speaker 2: training and equipping the Body of Christ for the work
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  Speaker 2: of ministry. The purpose is to build up the Body
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  Speaker 2: of Christ until we all that word is all reach
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  Speaker 2: unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son,
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  Speaker 2: Growing into maturity, the scripture says, growing into a mature
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  Speaker 2: man with a stature measured by Christ's fullness. Think about
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  Speaker 2: this for a moment. We talk quite a bit about
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  Speaker 2: how we can be wholly armed and prepared for combat
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  Speaker 2: in this spiritual fight, but we need those who will
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  Speaker 2: come alongside of us and help us as we are
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  Speaker 2: trained to fight. You see, the areas that we have
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  Speaker 2: discussed are very real, and if we're not made knowledgeable
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  Speaker 2: about their reality, then we are not going to function
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  Speaker 2: as we should. We will not mature as we should.
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  Speaker 2: And so I offer this as an encouragement. As I
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  Speaker 2: stated before, the fivefold ministry should be recognized and encouraged
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  Speaker 2: throughout the Body of Christ, both in the local assembly
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  Speaker 2: as well as the Body of Christ at large. It
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  Speaker 2: should not be relegated to only one group. It should
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  Speaker 2: be available for all to become trained equipped to do
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  Speaker 2: the work of ministry. We want to be able to
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  Speaker 2: do the very things that Jesus did. We want to
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  Speaker 2: be able to do what he said, and that is
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  Speaker 2: to actually do even more greater works could be achieved
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  Speaker 2: because we are properly trained and equipped for ministry. As
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  Speaker 2: we have looked at the fivefold ministry, we want to
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  Speaker 2: see how it actually correlates with our training for warfare.
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  Speaker 2: You see, we can be trained in areas that are
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  Speaker 2: suitable for today's standards. We can be trained to be
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  Speaker 2: the type of workmen that will constantly and accurately divide
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  Speaker 2: the Word of truth. We can be taught how to
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  Speaker 2: discern things that are not of God. We can be
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  Speaker 2: taught how to properly divide the Word of truth. We
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  Speaker 2: can be taught, and we also can be instructed to
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  Speaker 2: develop our spiritual muscle so that we can exercise and
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  Speaker 2: put in practice those things that Jesus said we will do.
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  Speaker 2: You see, today we rely a lot on what man
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  Speaker 2: can accomplish, rather than on what God will accomplish through
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  Speaker 2: men and women who are submitted to Him and who
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  Speaker 2: are filled with the Holy Spirit. Speaking earlier in a
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  Speaker 2: session about the baptism in the Holy Spirit, I realized
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  Speaker 2: that some people think that the baptism in the Holy
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  Speaker 2: Spirit takes place strictly at the time that they receive
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  Speaker 2: Jesus when they are saved. And let me ask you
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  Speaker 2: a question. When you're saved, you might be an adult,
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  Speaker 2: you might be a child, you may be very young,
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  Speaker 2: or you may be very old. But what are you
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  Speaker 2: regarded as in the body of Christ? When you become
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  Speaker 2: a new believer, you're regarded as a baby, a baby
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  Speaker 2: meaning you are to be nourished, taught, brought up as
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  Speaker 2: we would any child. And so this is the purpose
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  Speaker 2: for the fivefold ministry. They are to bring us from
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  Speaker 2: the stage of immaturity children, if you will, into maturity,
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  Speaker 2: the full stature of Jesus himself. People today will rely
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  Speaker 2: on what man says rather than on what God says.
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  Speaker 2: The proof of that is in this example. And let
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  Speaker 2: me use this example only in closing.
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  Speaker 1: Richard will be right back in a moment to wrap up.
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  Speaker 1: But if you've just joined us, you've been listening to
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  Speaker 1: Reflections on the Word with Richard k. You can hear
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  Speaker 1: this message in its entirety again online as well as
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  Speaker 1: Richard's entire archive at Talknetwork Radio dot com. We would
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  Speaker 1: like to acknowledge our theme song, how Great is Thy
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  Speaker 1: Faithfulness from the America's twenty five Favorite Hymns album, Unless otherwise,
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  Speaker 1: express scriptures are read from the Homan Christian Standard Bible,
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  Speaker 1: which is published by Home and Bible Publishers in Nashville, Tennessee.
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  Speaker 1: Additional resources used for reflections on the Word with Richard
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  Speaker 1: K include Great Is Thy Faithfulness by Our Daily Bread
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  Speaker 1: and printed by Discovery House Publishers. Again, here is Richard
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  Speaker 1: to wrap up today's message.
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  Speaker 2: Because we want to continue the value and the importance
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  Speaker 2: of the fivefold ministry. The example is simply this, when
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  Speaker 2: an individual today becomes sick or ill, the very first
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  Speaker 2: thing they should do is go to God. The very
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  Speaker 2: first thing they should do is go to God. They
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  Speaker 2: should be in God's word. They should have been trained
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  Speaker 2: to see the scriptures that state Jesus is the healer,
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  Speaker 2: so that they go to him first. Now, that doesn't
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  Speaker 2: mean that they might not seek medical attention afterwards. That
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  Speaker 2: doesn't mean that they might not receive some form of
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  Speaker 2: treatment from a local practitioner. But if we don't go
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  Speaker 2: to God first, we may be eliminating the possibility that
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  Speaker 2: God wants to do something perhaps miraculous in our life,
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  Speaker 2: and he wants to do it so that others will
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  Speaker 2: see the reality of Jesus in us. And the reason
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  Speaker 2: that I bring that out is because if we are
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  Speaker 2: trained to go to God first. We will go to
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  Speaker 2: God first, and by going to Him first, we will
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  Speaker 2: find help in our time of need. And that is
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  Speaker 2: today's Reflection on the Word.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Richard. Join us again tomorrow when we continue
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  Speaker 1: with the next edition of Reflections on the Word with
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  Speaker 1: Richard K. For Richard the Hire team, this is Chuck
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  Speaker 1: Christie saying thanks for listening to this edition of Reflections
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  Speaker 1: on the Word.