CALCULO DEL ARQUEO

The ministerial anointing can be developed within the boundaries of God’s Will and God’s call. Paul developed from a teacher to an evangelist and an apostle (Acts 11:26; 13:2). Philip developed from a deacon to an evangelist (Acts 6:5; 21:8).

In order to be developed in the ministerial anointing, we must understand that God has designed phases in each of our lives. Phases are plateaus on the way up the mountains of our lives. The plateaus are not designed to stagnate us. They are designed to allow us to rest, recuperate and consolidate our spiritual understanding and experiences that we have received in each upward step up the mountain.

Understanding the need for phases

When the Lord Jesus appeared to me and spoke for four hours about the anointing, I was so saturated that I could not sleep at all. My mind felt dumbfounded, boggled by the immensity yet simplicity of the truths of God.

It took me many, many months to understand some of the things He said. I needed a plateau to rest, to contemplate, to absorb, to meditate, to think through some of the things He said.

When Paul met the Lord Jesus on the Damascus road, all that he had understood as a Jew about what the Old Testament taught had to be realigned. He needed time to think through the Scriptures all over again. He found his plateaus in Arabia and in the ten silent years in Tarsus (Galatians 1:17; Acts 9:30). When he came out from Tarsus he was one of the best teachers of the Word of God in his time (Acts 11:26; 13:1). Even Peter admitted that some of things Paul wrote were hard to understand (2 Peter 3:15,16). Paul had thought through some of those things in his plateaus.

What did Paul do during his plateaus? I believe that he studied the Word to see what the Word said about those things he had experienced. He did not build his life on experience alone. He built it on the Word of God.

Spiritual development between the phases

The plateau is also a place where we prove out in experience, the new things God has shown us or commanded us to do. It could be operating constantly in a certain gift, a certain method or even preaching a certain message until we have perfected it. The plateau is a training ground for new

© Copyright 2008 Peter Tan Evangelism. All rights reserved. 46 spiritual weapons and operations that God is teaching us. It is where we kill the lions and the bears before the Goliaths. David tested his sling and stick as a shepherd boy. In fact he refused to accept King Saul’s weapons because he had not tested them (1 Samuel 17:37-39).

David was about to enter a new phase of his life at that point. Notice the difference before and after his conquest of Goliath. And yet his conquest of Goliath and entering into a higher phase in his life and ministry depended on his faithfulness in the plateau to that point. Note that it was prophesied that David would be king in First Samuel chapter sixteen but he only became king over all Israel many years later in Second Samuel chapter five. He developed in his office and anointing measure by measure, phase by phase.

Understanding the phases of our call and ministry would help us not to be impatient. We should not be like the horse in rushing ahead of God or like the mule in slowness to respond to God. Be not like the horse or like the mule (Psalm 32:9). The impatience of the horse will cause us to move in the flesh, the stubbornness of a mule will cause us to die in the flesh.

Obedience and faithfulness in each phase

When we are obedient and faithful during each phase, God will promote us to the next phase. When we are disobedient and unfaithful, we will have to remain in the phase until we obey. For that reason, many ministries grow to a certain level and become stagnated. They lose the anointing and become dry. We have to keep pressing on. Ministry life is a pressing on until Jesus comes (Philippians 3:12).

Some ministers live and die without entering even the first phase. Others enter up to certain phases and die without completing their call. Paul in his last epistle said that he had fought the good fight; he had finished the race (2 Timothy 4:7). He had poured his life out and he was now ready to go home (2 Timothy 4:6). He had finished every phase of his ministry. Jesus in His prayer at Gethsemane said that He had finished the work which the Father had given Him to do (John 17:4).

The level of anointing flowing is greater with each progressive phase. The church of Jesus Christ does not grow less and less glorious but more and more glorious. The day will come, when every member of the body of Christ will be moving in the perfect Will of God, completing their individual phases faithfully and the glory of God will be manifested upon the bride of Christ – the last revival to take place followed by the rapture.

© Copyright 2008 Peter Tan Evangelism. All rights reserved. 47 Faithfulness, patience and a willingness to spend time waiting on God in worship are the keys in preparation to receive the ministerial anointing in each phase. With each phase of obedience, God manifests a gift of greater anointing.

One of the most difficult things to the human soul in the preparation for the anointing is that nobody seems to notice your obedience but God.

However, the desire to be noticed and recognized must die for it is a manifestation of the self-life. It is God who promotes us from phase to phase and not men. Promotion does not come from the east or from the west or from the south but it comes from God (Psalm 76:6). It is God who appoints.

When Paul and Barnabas were faithful to the phase of their ministry in Antioch, the Holy Spirit promoted them to international ministry (Acts 13:3). With promotion comes a greater responsibility, a greater burden to bear, a greater sacrifice needed but God grants the strength to face the new task by a greater impartation of His anointing.

Recognize the phases in your life. Be faithful in each of them. Don’t promote yourself. Let God promote you. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time (1 Peter 5:6).

© Copyright 2008 Peter Tan Evangelism. All rights reserved. 48

CHAPTER 10