Every Christian is called to ministry. Every Christian is given a measure of Christ’s nature to manifest as a part of His body, as is stated in Ephesians 4:11-16:
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
In Proverbs 24:3-4 we are told, “By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge the rooms are filled. It takes wisdom to build, understanding to establish, and knowledge to fill. Knowledge of the truth is crucial, sound doctrine is essential, but much of present Christianity has evolved on the devotion to knowledge without the application of wisdom that builds the house. Now we must build the house.
We generally define wisdom as the ability to apply knowledge correctly. This certainly applies here. Without the proper application of wisdom to our knowledge, we can have the correct doctrines, and really believe them, but not do them. We can know and believe that the first commandment is to love the Lord with all of our hearts, souls, and minds, but still not do it. This is why it is important to understand the three basic Hebrew words for wisdom, which together give us a more accurate understanding of wisdom or how to apply knowledge correctly. One speaks of having the ability to see the big picture; one speaks of the wisdom to get things done or the “how to” wisdom; the last speaks of tying them together. To apply knowledge correctly, which in the case of Christian knowledge is to build the house of the Lord, we need all three of these types of wisdom.
Christianity is filled with some of the best teachers on the planet—perhaps of all time. We should be deeply appreciative of this, and I think it is the fulfillment of the truth that the Lord has saved the best wine for last. However, it is a sad truth that much of this wisdom has yet to be applied to building the house of the Lord, which is also His body, and could reflect the Ephesians 4 mandate for the body we read above.
To a large extent, having so much knowledge without the building up of the body is the result of having many teachers, but not many builders, or true apostolic ministries. A builder can see the desired finished product, evaluate the materials available and those still needed, then evaluate the same with the skilled workers needed, and put them together to get the job done.
In relation to an army, this would be a leader who can take the mobilized people, train and equip them to become an effective fighting force, and then lead them with strategy and vision to accomplish the objectives. These are called “generals” because the nature of their work is general more than specific. They have to see the whole picture and get all of the parts working together properly.
Historically, we also have generals who could build and train a powerful army, but were not good at leading in battle. The Union General McClellan was such a general. He probably fielded the best-trained and equipped army of the war, but was so hesitant as a commander in battle that he let at least two opportunities to end the war in 1862 slip away, which led to the war lasting three more years at a huge cost to both sides.
If the ministry of the body of Christ functioned together as the team that it is supposed to be, the evangelists would mobilize but give way to the apostles as we see in the Book of Acts, who would build the people into what they are called to be. Then we would see the apostles working together also, transferring leadership to the one who is best at each phase. This would take wisdom, humility, and devotion to the Lord’s ultimate purposes above building our own ministries, which is presently rare in the body of Christ, but it will come.
Of course, God’s building, or His army, will manifest His nature. His nature is manifested by both His character and His power, which is the application of His nature. His power to heal was the result of His love for people and not wanting them to suffer. So we have the nature of Christ manifested through the fruit of the Spirit applied through the gifts and ministries of the Spirit. This is what His body will ultimately look like—being like Him and doing the works that He does.
As we read in Ephesians 4, every member of the body has a part to play, and according to this text, there must be a proper working of each individual part for the growth of the body into what it is called to be. At present, less than 10 percent of believers even know their parts, and far less than that are functioning in their gifts or ministries. How well would any physical body do if only 10 percent of its organs and parts were working? It would probably be considered a miracle if it just survived, and that is the present state of the body of Christ. This must and will change for us to grow up into what we are called to be—a manifestation of Christ’s fullness on the earth.