“And He Himself (Jesus Christ) gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping (complete furnishing) of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”
Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting…” – Eph. 4:11-14.
The primary objective
It is important to clarify the primary objective of the five-ply governmental gifts i.e. the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. It is to mature or completely equip believers.
This implies that the five-ply governmental gifts must be matured themselves in order to be able to equip the saints into the maturity expected by our dearest Jesus.
You know, you cannot give the maturity that you do not have.
Infantile instability
Why should believers be matured? Isn’t it enough to be born-again? Dear minister of the Gospel, God does not want His children to be spiritual babies who are unstable in their lives forever.
You know, even in the natural, children who do not mature are a burden and not a blessing in the way they should be.
Now, Apostle Paul gives us four causes of infantile instability, namely being tossed by waves, winds, trickery or sleight and craftiness.
Let us discuss these briefly in the rest of this chapter.
Tossed by waves
Waves refer to constant temptations that the enemy brings to a believer at a particular season, using particular people, events, programs or activities.
They are bad circumstances that, like waves, hit your life so constantly and in the same way that you tend to be haunted by them.
The objective is to unsettle your life temporarily and recede, leaving ‘no trace’ of their attack, only for them to come back again.
This is a constant bashing at your life that irritates, interrupts, disturbs and moves you away from your right focus and peace of mind.
These waves can be social and or physical weaknesses, such as seasonal sicknesses, bad events, dreams, or curses along family, tribal or national line, down through generations. But, a matured believer gains mastery over these weaknesses and pressures.
And so, although they may still attack his life periodically and rhythmically, they have no effect on him – Ps. 33:10.
Rather, he rides on these waves to where God wants him, making nonsense of the enemy’s destabilization efforts – 2 Cor.12: 7-10.
Tossed by winds
Winds are teachings that come to engulf the life of a believer.
They are mental in nature and so attack the mind in order to rival and confuse the purposes of God in one’s spirit.
This can be avoided if one is established in the six primary teachings of Jesus and one loves the Word unconditionally – 2 Jn. 9-10; 2 Thess. 2:10.
Winds or different teachings are bound to come your way, but a believer is supposed to be so convinced about his beliefs.
This way, his understanding forms the dominant wind when the opposing wind of teaching comes his way.
You know, when two opposing teachings meet, a destabilizing storm arises in one’s mind or life.
For an infant believer, such storms cause stagnation in the progress of their lives because they ‘go after’ the other teaching to discover it, which tends to waste their time.
Adults who are settled in their Word-lives however, are not moved by the clash of teachings.
They are mentally and emotionally stable in the storm and still persist in what God wants them to do; in spite of the new winds of teachings that will come to them in church or from their friends in life.
Tossed by trickery of men
This is psycho-emotional in nature. Ministers of the Gospel can be tempted to be manipulative.
Manipulation is playing with human life or with people’s destinies. To a manipulator, life is sport and human beings are toys that he plays with to give him pleasure.
A manipulator, therefore, plays with people’s minds, emotions, Will etc. to his advantage. He deliberately uses gifts, marketing techniques, unbalanced sermons, his personal weaknesses or strengths etc. to unsettle and move people to his favour or advantage – Ex. 23:8.
Such people may also use miracles, money, threats, superior information etc. to try to bend believers to be loyal to them and their course.
The use of all these instruments of domination may sound okay to the baby believer because it is a normal human behaviour or activity. He may, therefore, be swayed by them. However, to the matured believer, manipulation is evil, and it does not move him.
Even the manipulator him-self may not be aware of the evil nature of his activities on the young believer.
So, he may not be deliberate in unsettling the life and faith of young believers, although he does it.
Tossed by cunning craftiness
A young believer can also fall victim to a deliberately-planned and well orchestrated scheme of people to shake, deceive and trap others to their side or their way of life.
Here, baby believers may be tossed by the wayward philosophy or thrust of their society or even the world, in its present depravity.
The matured believer, however, is firm in his convictions about the Way of Christ or the Kingdom-way on which he is. And so, he is not moved by the force of society or a group of people.
Witchcraft
At the worst, cunning craftiness is the use of witchcraft by people to move others from their spiritual stance to come under their control – Gal. 3:1. Witchcraft is possessiveness.
But, in the Kingdom of God, you possess nothing, including people like your husband, wife, children, church members, property etc. Everything ‘you have’ is actually for our Jesus, including you yourself – Jn. 13:3.
But, witchcraft is a desire to own and be in charge, with every other person under your feet, for the fulfilment of your will, ambition, or pleasure.
Beloved, with witchcraft, people have been moved from their spiritual position, used and dumped, leaving them spoiled, half-fulfilled or half-empty; something that Jesus did not do.
Getting people fulfilled and not half-filled may be partly why Jesus chose only twelve Apostles instead of two hundred. It may be because of the added responsibility of fulfilling them, and not leaving them regretting.
You know, He had to account for each of them to God – Jn. 17:6-13.
The manifestation of witchcraft
Dear leader of God’s people, witchcraft is a craft i.e. a profession or activity that requires skill and training.
People actually learn directly and indirectly to sway and dominate others.
This craft has its origin in the carnal human nature – Gal. 5:20. And it expresses its self in self-promotion, self-appointment and territorial preservation. In other words, mankind has an innate proclivity to employ self-promotion, self-appointment and territorial preservation in life, which are all signs of witchcraft.
The example of King David
So, David was tempted to dominate Israel through witchcraft.
Although he could have manipulated to move Israel from Saul’s rule when Saul was alive, he did not do that. This was even though God had spiritually rejected King Saul and anointed David.
Minister of God, it is because mankind was created to rule or be on top that you must beware of witchcraft or the tendency to use deceitful or cunning craftiness.
Human evil crafty ways may seem okay to you, as long as it sways people for the promotion of the work of God, but it does not please God. Moreover, such a tendency can easily degenerate into occultism power.
Witchcraft is a controlling spirit which makes you so jealous that nobody can have anything without you.
Everything is about you and your input; and without you, God’s people are in ‘trouble’ because it is all about what you can do for them.
So, baby believers can get moved to people by witchcraft and other human deceitful craftiness; but not a matured or fully equipped believer.
