Teaching

In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Matt. 6:9-10 (NKJV)

1) Apostles establish the headship of Christ in the nations

When it comes to the spiritual order of the Kingdom of God, it's important to understand that no single man has ever been given the position of headship over the Body of Christ or the world in general, besides Christ Himself. Jesus of Nazareth is the Chosen One to rule the world. He's the only one who has unlimited authority in the lives of people. No mortal man, regardless of how wonderful, wise and powerful may be, can take the place of headship in the Church, a place exclusively reserved for Christ Himself.

The papal office of the Roman Catholic Church doesn't measure up to the teaching of the New Testament. Neither does the structure of the Eastern Orthodox Church with their national Patriarchates. In a broad sense I consider myself as belonging to the Protestant branch of Christianity. It's sad for me to say this, but even the Protestant denominations have formed their own institutionalized structures called denominations, which claim headship within the confines of their own membership, i.e. denominational constituencies.

From a purely human or social standpoint, all these religious institutions do have the right to exist, so long as they are not for the purpose of committing crimes against humanity. Since God himself has given mankind the free will to choose their beliefs and convictions, even of this means that some people will choose to remain in ignorance or deception, no one has the right to use political power to bar this or that religious body, just because it doesn't measure up to the Biblical revelation of God and his order. No religious or political system has to right to persecute people of other faiths or convert them forcefully to their own belief systems. The world has seen enough bloodshed in the name of religion. This has never been the intention of God. It's unfortunate that in history different nationalistic and imperial rulers have engaged in various forms of destruction and oppression even in the name of Jesus Christ. All of these are examples of what humans are capable to do in the name of God, while ignoring the very teaching of Christ and the Bible, the Word of God.

A true apostle therefore will be interested in establishing the headship of Christ, which requires believers to trust God for their lives, the future of the Church and the future of the work of God. A church, or a movement which understands the headship of Christ and dares to receive their direction from Him, has no limit how far it can develop and reach. The human vessels God has chosen to represent Him on the earth, are all finite. The sooner the Church understands this, the better for us. Paul the apostle sought to make people dependent on Christ, the Head, not on his role as an apostle. There is no conflict in this teaching. My friends Otto and Sharon Bixler, from Ellel Ministries, like to say this when teaching and training others to pray for healing through deliverance: "We're here to work ourselves out of work." They feel that the true test of a job well finished is a body of people who no longer needs them as trainers.

The apostle Paul says:

"For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ."
( 2 Cor. 11:2)

Seeing local churches and national movements looking up to the Headship of Christ instead of their man-made traditions and set ways is the ultimate joy of those who understand the Kingdom. When the Body seeks the Headship of Christ on all levels, ready and willing to change whatever it takes to implement the leading of the Holy Spirit, we can say that such body of believers, local or national, is truly in Kingdom, New Testament order.

2) Apostolic access means the release of the gifts of Christ

Apostles can't do more than what Christ has planned or what other people are willing to accomplish together with the Lord. To whom much is given, only of him much is required. I can't outdo yourself. I can develop my skills, character and habits as much as I want, but it will always be within the loving confines of God's plan for who I'm supposed to be. To access a territory apostolically means to identify the gifts of Christ in a territory, to work with them, to discover their purpose and role and to assist in their release. Those gifts may be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors or teachers. They may be entrepreneurs, civic leaders or political activists, who all in their unique way are called to bring forth the will of God in a nation or a region.

This is what it means to pray for workers for the harvest. Traditionally the Church has been praying for missionaries. Let's snap out of it - the old stereotype of a missionary going to a place where he doesn't know anything and gets killed and eaten by the natives in the first few days after arriving, doesn't bring glory to God and doesn't achieve anything. We need the release of the gifts, which God has deposited in a given territory, we need to nurture them and help them receive keys to unlock their nation for the Kingdom. That's a whole different approach than just praying for heroic missionaries who fear nothing and sometimes also .... achieve nothing.

3) Apostolic access means to establish a platform

Once we identify and help raise territorial apostles, we'll know they are such by the fact that they have responsibility for their land. They carry a burden from Christ. They have made a covenant with their land. They want to obey God and do their part. They put a demand on Heaven and God sends them help. Look at Paul in Acts 16. The vision he had was one of a man. When Paul got there, it was a woman, Lydia. The gender is not the operative dynamic here, the demand is what opened the door for the apostle and the Kingdom of God advancing in Europe. Someone in that territory was placing a demand on Heaven and Heaven used this open door to establish a base of the Kingdom.

The Philippi church became a hub for the Kingdom and for Paul. The believers and the leadership there never lost the art of placing a demand on heaven and on their apostle. Many loose the demand after a period of time, they become self-centered. When there is a demand from the people and from territorial leaders, it unlocks, releases and attracts the ministry gifts God has prepared for the territory.

Establishing a territorial church or a body of people who know how to place a demand on Heaven is crucial to seeing a breakthrough in a territory. The local (territorial) body must understand that so long as there is hunger, intensity and "pulling" on the Spirit, there will be a flow and provision. True apostles must never allow strategic territorial churches to become complacent and lax regarding the will of God for them and their region.

4) The role of the apostle

The sending of an apostle represents the release of authority. This authority comes to serve those who have a demand. It closes the chain. It's a top-down movement. It's also a forward movement. However, apostles are limited. One lays a fondation, another one bulds on it. One plants, another one sows and yet another one waters. An overseeing apostle can help the release of a territorial breakthrough because he has an outside perspective and yet understands the inside dynamics of a territorial work. He knows that the true heirs of the Kingdom are the people of the territory. He's not self-serving but rather a task oriented.

However, an apostle can't make anyone's ministry "happen". There's no magic wand by which we pop people on the head and they become what we need (if we need a pastor or a teacher) or what they want to be. Moreover, a church, a network and a national movement is of very complicated and unpredictable nature. It's made up of people and wherever you have people involved, you have changes, failures, ups and downs and so on.

So the best an apostle who has been given an access into a territory is to navigate through all the uncertainties and steer the ship of the Body of Christ through unchartered waters into the promised land of the Kingdom being established and overtaking this world. Sometime to be able to even navigate through the process is a success in an of itself. Significant and measurable results are important and we must expect those, but don't underestimate the process of getting there.

Today we measure successful ministry against the standards of this world. Not the success shouldn't be measurable. But success in the Kingdom is not the corporate dimensions of today's world. The greatest success is forming Christ in people, establishing divine order, changing the culture of the a church, activating the believers, bringing healing and restoration, positioning the church as an overcomer in this world.

We must have a big vision, but we can't reduce Kingdom breakthrough to that only.

In the process, the apostle helps:

- to establish a foundation
- to establish the house governmentally
- to reveal and confirm God's strategy for the nation
- to establish doctrine
- to challenge for growth
- to position the church as ambassador in it's territory and culture

5) What apostles can't do:

- you can't make someone an apostle or a prophet
- you can't produce a move of God on your own (it's the synergy of God's doing and our obedience)
- you can't fake an open door (you can pioneer, but that's different from being a religious tourist)
- you can't substitute for a territorial apostle
- you can't compensate for the lukewarmness of the church
- miracles can't compensate the church's (people's) unwillingness to evangelize their friends, family, neighbors, etc.

Purpose and limits of apostolic access for territorial breakthrough by
George P. Bakalov is licensed under a
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http://www.gbmi.us/Contact_Us.htm.
George P. Bakalov