GOD'S PLAN FOR A NEW WINESKIN

God's Word has already given us the blueprint for the ONLY wineskin that can hold His new wine. In Ephesians 4, He tells us how HE designed the church to operate:

“ ... He ascends into the heavenly heights, taking his many captured ones with him, and gifts were given to men.” He “ascended” means that he returned to heaven, after he had first descended from the heights of heaven, even to the lower regions, namely, the earth. The same one who descended is also the one who ascended above the heights of heaven, in order to begin the restoration and fulfillment  of all things. And he has appointed some with grace to be apostles, and some with grace to be prophets, and some with grace to be evangelists,  and some with grace to be pastors,  and some with grace to be teachers. And their calling is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry, and as they do this they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ. These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness into the faith, until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God,  and finally we become one into a perfect man  with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ."

When the resurrected Jesus ascended to The Father's right hand, He was given ALL authority in Heaven and on earth. From that position, as the reigning King of the Universe, Jesus gave His Church its God-ordained administration. This administration was made-up of five (5) distinct gifts: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Together, these make-up The Church's "FIVEFOLD MINISTRY".

It should be noted that, if they believe in an oversight administration of The Church at all, many have taught that there are only four (4) gifts listed in this passage, combining "pastor-teachers". Still others deny all-together the existence of New Testament apostles & prophets.  Both of these errant theologies violate the fundamental principle upon which the very context of this passage is established ... that Christ carries ALL AUTHORITY over His Church; man's interpretations otherwise are false teaching. The Greek text of this passage clearly indicates that there are five (5) distinct gifts to The Church.

According to Ephesians 4, these five (5) gifts have a common goal ... "to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry". That was God's plan for His Church, and it's what He is calling His Church to return to in this hour!

I believe that God's been speaking to His people about the restoration of this administration for quite a while now. I can remember hearing talk about "The Fivefold Ministry" 30 years ago! The problem is 1 of 2 things:

1) church leaders have not studied to show themselves approved in this matter

OR WORSE, THEY ...

2) refuse to teach it, because it threatens the "power-structure" of the modern-day church

Either way, the result is that most Christians today have no idea what is meant by "Fivefold Ministry", nor do they know how to set it in place. But if we're ever going to become The Church that God intended, that Jesus prophesied, and that Holy Spirit was sent to empower, we're going to have to allow Him to destroy the OLD wineskin, and beckon Him to establish the NEW!