Divine Order for Spiritual Dominance by Paula A. Price

Author:Paula A. Price
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Religion, Administration, Christian Church, Christian Theology, Ministry
ISBN: 9781886288119
Publisher: Apostolic InterConnect, Inc
Published: 1994-01-01T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

One Office Per Vessel

Chapter Topics:

Creation Manifests Divine Order • God’s Creation Controls Human Pursuits • Perception, Attitudes, Other Signs • Creator Design Limits Arbitrary Ministry • Ministry & Minister: A General Survey • A Biblical Concept of Official Divine Service • How the Human-Divine Relationship Began • The Ministry from the Priest’s Office • Biblical Terms Depict an Office • Divine Office Applied

In previous years, the doctrine of ministry office universality has taken hold and run many ministers off track. Leaders and front runners of the last several decades so feared religiosity, order, and the call for criteria and rank that they dismantled the vital functions of a very good organization, the Church. The Church has fallen victim to extreme liberty and has consequently brought about libertinism, liberty taken to the humanist extreme. Proverbs 19:18, with broken restraint and perishing saints rampant among its members, has taken effect. Impulsive reactions to established religion, not entirely ignited by Christian frustration, fueled a revolt against order and structure that set in motion the church’s preset downward spiral. Sadly, neither fear nor retaliation makes good motivators for change. Similarly, anger at predecessors’ failed efforts is a poor tool for repairing their damage. Historically, fear and retaliation release an extremism that eventually displaces the original problem with another.

Often the removal of barriers, guardrails, and firewalls from ecclesiastical orders yielded a very dangerous fruit. Radical change is always risky, but sweeping elimination of what holds a foundation together is dismantling. Those initiating such eliminations may have thought through their reasons enough to benefit from the change, but rash liberation invariably succeeds in affecting other essential boundaries down the line. The heirs of this legacy are not faring so well two or three generation later.

Lack of enlightenment evidently led earlier leaders to believe no boundary is drawn between the church’s officers, their offices, and other members of Christ’s body. Since God’s resources are mainly spiritual, popular teachers and scholars treat them as non-existent or intangible. Believing God sees things as they do—out of sight, out of mind—people are educated to ignore His fundamental premises governing all creation. That premise the apostle Paul told the Romans is clearly understood by what may be seen throughout creation’s governmental order and hierarchical structure that permeate every aspect of God’s visible creation. The mere fact that Paul could write about thrones, dominion, powers, principalities, rulers, and spiritual hosts in high places is significant. What do all these mean but that creation is an ordered hierarchy? Review the following passages of scripture for confirmation:

1. Psalm 97:9

2. Titus 3:1

3. Colossians 1:16; 2:15

4. Ephesians 1:21

5. 1 Peter 3:22

No matter what realm of God's handiwork and institutions you study, you find that boundaries and hierarchy are integral to them all. Jeremiah’s prophecy in Jeremiah 6:13 is brought forward to Hebrews 8:11, further supporting this truth. God ranks not according to man, but according to His own callings, based upon His Creator foreknowledge of His handiwork. Despite irrefutable scripture evidence to the contrary, the church maintains a lateral leadership structure.

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