CATALYSE - FIVE FOLD MINISTRY INITIATIVE

Pastor Denis Lu leads our Develop a Unified, Fully-functioning Five-fold Ministry initiative. This is one of 16 initiatives as part of CATALYSE. Today he shares the important of the Five-fold ministry within the local church.

Prophetic Activation

One of our core values is on Holy Spirit Empowered. We need to understand how God has chosen to equip and empower His Church if we are to fulfill the Great Commission. This is where equipping the body of Christ in the prophetic is an integral part of what God has in mind.

We don't have to go too far to establish this. Ephesians 4:11-13 in referring the the five-fold equipping ministries states that the key role of equipping the body of Christ - believers - for works of service. The key question is how we equip our churches in the prophetic.

Our philosophy of ministry is clear that we believe that every believer has at least one spiritual gift, and that each should use their gift fully to serve fully. We've had an entire conference on "A Prophetic Church". So the challenge is on how to train, activate and make the prophetic practical and applicable for every local church.

Restoring the ministering of spiritual gifts into every local church

Stated briefly, we believe it is important to restore the biblical truths regarding the ministering of spiritual gifts back into a daily reality in every church. Such a move is only possible because God Himself is backing up this process. This process begins when a believer receives the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is in line with the apostle Peter's explanation on how the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will release believers into waves of prophecies, visions and dreams (Acts 2:16-18)!

"We must note that in the very same prophecy from Joel, that the end goal is that people will call on the name of the Lord and they will be saved! (verse 21). Therefore, the release of the prophetic is closely tied with evangelism, mission and church planting. It was never meant to be merely for internal consumption! Activation in the prophetic should lead to greater effectiveness in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Ministering the spiritual gifts is God's way to equip the body of Christ.

Being open to God communicating with us through the operation of spiritual gifts does not downplay the importance of the written Word. In fact, the Bible is the sole yardstick by which we measure prophecies, visions and dreams. It shortchanges God's plans and purposes if we say, all we need is the Bible, and we leave no room for the Holy Spirit to work in His Church. After all, we get to know about the ministering of spiritual gifts from the Bible!

Training and Activating every local church

So, it is important to establish a clear biblical basis and understanding of how do we activate the spiritual gifts, and perhaps, more importantly, how we can equip HIM churches in ministering spiritual gifts.

• I'm glad to say we have the process, training & activation programme for the prophetic now in place. For more info, please contact me at denizlu2u@byhim.org

Written by Pastor Denis Lu

For more information write to us at

spt@byhim.org

HIM Corporate Communications