recognizing a gift. james 1:17 every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down...

RECOGNIZING A GIFT

James 1:17Every good gift and every perfect

gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with

whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

64-1205 - The Identified Masterpiece Of God

93 Politics don't belong in Church. The Holy Ghost is to take the Church over, and not a politic vote of who is who. "God placed in the church some apostles, some prophets, and some

teachers, and evangelists, and pastors," Not men voted them in there. God placed them in there, by the calling of the Holy Spirit,

prayer meetings, and laying on of hands, and staying before God.

58-0720E - The Placing Of Deacons

1 And that is, that the first is the placing some deacons into the church. And our little church here is sovereign. It doesn't have any denomination or

anything to send its deacons; it elects its own deacons. It elects

its pastor; it elects its trustees; it elects everything that comes in

and out of the church.


No one person has the say-so over anything; it's the church. And the

church are those who come and support the church with their presence, with their tithe and

offerings, are always the ones that has legal say-so in the placing of such.

Not a democracy•God places gifts “anointed not

appointed”

•we recognize those gifts (vote of confidence)

•leaders are to serve by fulfilling their office

•worldly: competition - judges, governors, presidents

•competition: campaigns, personal attacks, dishonesty, popularity, reputation

•“among you it shall not be so”

Not a democracy•comparing one with another

•preaching to the crowd

•pulling punches: popular topics

•issues will not get addressed properly

•pastor is usually a life-long position with job security

•invitation to compromise: keeping everyone happy to ensure re-election

Vote of Confidence•the board, duly recognizing the

desires of the people puts forward the candidate

•the people confirm or reject this suggestion by vote

•not democratic vote: just an indication that they will allow this person to serve in this office

•if rejected, another candidate has to be found

Vote of Confidence

•every office has to be confirmed each year

•the church body has the final say over every office

•simple majority for board

•percentage for pastor/interim/associate


3 And ever so often, according to the bylaws of the church, every year, the deacons or trustees automatically

fill their time. And if they want to come back, all right. If they do not

want to come back, then they can place some in their places, that

this board has resigned.


The way this is done is the board can ap—appoint deacons, men that they have associated with and found

to be honorable and just men.


And so therefore, then it has been found favorable with the board and

the pastor, and the overseer, to select in this group of people here some men who we think to be honorable and just

men. We can only bring them. And it's then they are appointed by the church, by their own vote.


And then these man shall serve, if they feel that they will accept this office. Then they will come for a

short time to see if they feel that maybe that God has called them. And if later, if they feel that they are disqualified, then they have a right in

the next few weeks to resign the office, that someone else could be

appointed in their place.


It's the sovereignty and the law of the church by the Word of God. Therefore, that—they just can't say that, "I think this man would be a right man." That

isn't it. "Brother Neville thinks this man would be a right man," or "the trustee board thinks this man would be a right man," it has to be by the

church. No one does anything within himself here. It's the vote of the church. It's a sovereign church.

61-0112 - Questions And Answers

How does one know their rightful position in the Body of Christ?


Your position is—in Christ is revealed to you by the Holy Spirit. And then if you want to know whether it's the

Holy Spirit or not, find out whether He blesses what you're doing, or not. And if He blesses it, then that's

Him. If He doesn't bless…


50 Like someone said to me not long ago, said, "The Lord called me to

preach." I said, "Well, then preach." See? And so he—he… I

really think it's so… Satan, if he can just get somebody as to act like that and then deceive them, that's just

what he wants to do. Then the whole world points their finger right there.


Sometimes they're mistaken in those things. See? And sometimes they think they haven't got it when

they have. So it's very tricky.


52 So always do this, brethren, whenever you feel that you're

supposed to do a thing, first find out if it's Scriptural for you to do it, if it's in the Scriptures, not just wrote in

one place, but I mean completely Scriptural through the Bible for

you to do it, your position, say if you'd be an evangelist, pastor, teacher,

prophet, whatever that God might've called you to be. You see?


Then, usually, way I watch it for myself, just… This is me. I watch the nature of the person and see what kind of a gift that they're professing. See, God will work with His creature the way He's made him. See? He'll

make a creature…


54 If you see him real flighty and going on, you—and he says, "The Lord called me for such and such a—to be a pastor." Now, a pastor can't be a flighty person. A pastor's solid, sound. See? "God called me to be a

teacher." And watch him how he interprets the Word. See? He gets It all mixed up and everything, then

you can tell. See? But then, the thing to do, your position is usually known

whether you can do it or not.


And I wasn't a successful pastor, never would be, because I haven't

got the patience and what it takes to be a pastor. See? So

therefore, if I tried to pastor, I would just be as far out as a pastor is trying to be an evangelist. See what I mean?

62-0607 - Putting On The Whole Armor Of God

76 Now, God fortified His army. What with? Himself, in the form of prophets, apostles, teachers, pastors. What did He do? What was God doing? Listen,

did you ever think what that offices of the church is? It's God's dress, inside dress, an apostle, a prophet, a seer.

Foresee, before Satan ever gets to it, done told it. What is it? God dressed up in His church. These offices is

God's dress-wear.


When you see those offices, pastors, teachers, evangelists, what is that?

That's God's dress-wear, God's Presence, God's Spirit (And if…)

working through man. And if that office denies any of this Word,

then it's not God-dressing…?… No, not that. That's that wolf in sheep's

clothing. Watch that fellow. Beware of him.


But when he just takes what the Word says, remember, that's God, 'cause

He's speaking His Word. See? But if he says, "Well, it isn't…" Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, my. Get going, sheep; get

going!

58-0503 - The Queen Of Sheba

22 And no matter what God does, if you don't come with respect to

His gift, you'll never receive nothing from it.

61-1015E - Respects

165 If you can't respect the man, respect the office he holds in God.

That's exactly right (See?); respect him. If a minister comes up, your

pastor, always respect him. I've heard congregations talk about their pastor,

how just talk about him, run him down, ridicule him. How is that

pastor ever going to do anything for you? He can't do it.

61-1015E - Respects

You've got to love your pastor. You've got to know that he's a human being, but yet God has made him His pastor.

The Holy Ghost has made him overseer; then you've got to

respect him in that manner. And no matter what the pastor's done, if

you respect him in your heart as God's servant, God will respect you for

doing it.

61-1015E - Respects

187 Now, what is the gift of God today? It's the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Ghost that's in us. We've got to respect That. We've got to respect It on every person It comes upon.

We've got to re—give… to God's Divine gifts. When He sends those

gifts, no matter how real they are, it'll never help us until we get to a

place till we can respect it.

61-1015E - Respects

You've got to have reverence and you got to respect it. You've got to

believe that it comes from God. Believe it till it's proved wrong. Then

when it's proved wrong, then you have a right to disbelieve it; then

don't associate with it no more. But as long as it's being proven out to

be the truth, then believe it.

An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages - Chapter Three - The Ephesian Church Age

So the people are led by people who presume to be what they are not. They say they are vicars of Christ, but

what they are is antichrist.

An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages - Chapter Four - The Smyrnaean Church Age

Instead of the straight Word of God, instead of the Spirit-filled men in

the church who were led by Spirit-given revelation, there are now creeds, and by-laws, and the

educated guesses of educated men. Learning has taken the place of

revelation. Reason has replaced faith. Program has replaced spontaneous

praise in the Holy Ghost. It wasn't so from the beginning. The whole specie

has changed. It has become a hybrid church.


The minute the church moved toward form and ceremony, and toward priesthood by organizing the ministers into a group that

decided leadership apart from the Holy Spirit and His Word, that very

moment death entered and she started to get sick, and as she got sick she changed to a powerless group of

people whose only weapon was argument.


She could produce nothing in the Spirit, for her hopes were built on

program and not on faith in His Word. They sowed program so they reaped program. They sowed

perversion so they reaped perverted children.


In every age we have exactly the same pattern. That is why the light

comes through some God-given messenger in a certain area, and then from that messenger there spreads the light through the ministry of others who have been faithfully taught. But of course all those who

go out don't always learn how necessary it is to speak ONLY what

the messenger has spoken.

58-0928M - The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit

Go look in the—what a "missionary" means: "One sent." Same thing. The highest order is a missionary who

travels the seas for the Lord Jesus.

63-0724 - God Doesn't Call Man To Judgment Without First Warning Him

107 And then, we find out, the apostle is a special man. He's a—he's a "setter-in-order." He's a man that's sent from God to set the things in

order.


108 The prophet is a special man. A prophet is a man of whom the

Word of the Lord comes to, because the prophet is so

designed (life) that his subconscious and his first conscious is so close

together that he doesn't go to sleep to dream his dream, he sees it when he's

wide awake. See? Now, that's something God has to do.


105 The evangelist is a special man. He's a man that's burning like a

fireball. He runs into a city and preaches his message, then gets out of there somewhere else. See,

he's a special man.

62-0719E - Perseverant

History shows that a—a man, an evangelist, usually his best part is his first three years, and after that he lives on the reputation of what he

preached in them three years.


106 The teacher is a special man. He sits back under the anointing of the

Spirit and is able to take the Words and put them together by the Holy Spirit, that, the pastor or evangelist either one could not

compare with him.

57-0908M - Hebrews, Chapter Five And Six #1

52 Oh, I know there's many rise up and go out and say, "Oh, I don't need to go to church anymore. Praise God,

the Holy Ghost has come, He's the teacher." When you get that idea,

you're just wrong. For why did the Holy Ghost set teachers in the

church, if He was going to be the teacher? See?

57-0908M - Hebrews, Chapter Five And Six #1

The Holy Spirit set teachers in the church, so He could teach through

that teacher. And if it—it isn't according to the Word, God doesn't confirm it, then it isn't the right kind of teaching. It must compare with

the entire Bible, and be just as alive today as It was then. There's the real

thing made manifest.

60-0515E - Adoption #1

And sometimes I think that preaching is a wonderful thing, but I believe sometimes, Brother Beeler, that

teaching goes beyond that, it kindly… Especially to the church. Now,

preaching usually catches the sinner, brings him under condemnation by the Word. But teaching places a

man positionally what he is. And we can never rightly be able to have faith until positionally we know what

we are.

54-0512 - The Seven Church Ages

16 I remember staying a year and six months in this Book of Revelation, in—in the tabernacle here. That's what I

like, in—in teaching. I just love teaching. Oh, my! I—I—I—I think it's wonderful. It gives the basis, and

settles the church. 17 And, in preaching, now, there is

some people that are preachers. They can pick up the Word, with inspiration,

and sway It out there in places.

54-0512 - The Seven Church Ages

That's watering the Seeds that the teacher has taught. See? Now, you

got to put some Seed in, first, and then water It. And the watering comes from the preaching of the

Word. 18 There's a great, vast difference between a teacher and a preacher. See? It's two different gifts of the

Spirit, altogether, two different gifts. And I humbly say this, but, I haven't a

gift of either.

57-0922E - Hebrews, Chapter Seven #2

282 But the full and complete authority of the church is the

pastor. Read that in the Bible, see if that's not Bible order. That's exactly right. There is no one above the

elder. I have nothing to do with what Brother Neville does here. That's up to

you and Brother Neville. If Brother Neville wanted to preach Jehovah

Witness doctrine, that's up to him and you. See?


If he wanted to preach anything he wanted to, that's between you and

him. That's all. If the congregation votes for him in there, to preach that, that's all right. That's up to

him.


We have no bishops and overseers, and boards and so forth, moves this

one in and got a lot of authority. There's nobody got authority here but the Holy Ghost. That's right. He does the moving. And we take

Him as the majority of the people, the way the people go.


292 Now, if there's anything wrong in the church that you ever know of, some individual or some person or

anything, you are duty bound and will answer before God if you

don't clear that thing out; you, the church. Now, remember, it's not

on my shoulders. It's on yours.


And anything wrong in the church, God will make you answer for it.

That's right. That's the way He runs his church. That's the way it is in the Bible. That's the order of the Bible.

That's the sovereignty of the local church. The pastor is the head.

That's right. Amen.


We don't run it; there's nobody in head. No. All, we're all the same. But, we got a leader, that is the pastor,

as long as he's led by the Holy Ghost. True. All right.


349 And you people with these saw-blade tempers, that's always spouting off in the mouth at somebody, can't

put up, and things like that. Be careful. You're guilty if you speak a word (against your brother) that's not right, not just, go around and

tear down it. You don't have to stick a knife in a man's back to kill him.


You can break his character and kill him, kill his influence. Speak against your pastor here, say something bad about him, you just might as well as

shot him. Told something that wasn't right about him, well, it'll kill his influence with the people and things like that, and you're guilty

of it.


104 But, you see, in the church there is the pastor, and that pastor is a

special person. He's built to where he can—he can put up with the fusses

of the people. He—he—he's a burden-bearer, he's the ox of the team. He—he's a man that can sit down when the… somebody's got something against somebody else,

and sit down with them two families (and take neither side) and reason it

out and bring it right back into sweetness. See? He—he's a pastor, he

knows how to take care of things.

58-1005M - Hear His Voice

73 But we modern Americans, what we do… And the false prophets behind the pulpit say that's all right. I'm kind of in the notion of saying this; if I'm

wrong, God forgive me. And I'm persuaded that a lot of them don't know God. And the congregation

will never live any higher than its pastor.

60-1207 - The Pergamean Church Age

You'll never live no higher than your pastor. You just remember that,

see. And so… Cause he's the shepherd that feeds you. If he's

the shepherd, he's got to know where the manna is, to feed the—the sheep.

Is that right?

53-1109 - How The Angel Came To Me

And the church will never live higher than its pastor teaches. You seldom find that. If you got a

good, sound, sane, Gospel teacher, you'll usually find that type of church. And it's just where your pastor leads

you, the—the pastors that you feed on.

58-1007 - Church Order

The pastor must be a man that has got a very humble way about him, but not too humble but what he could be like the Lord Jesus Christ

when He seen wrong going on in the church, He platted ropes and ran

them out of the church.

58-1007 - Church Order

And now the Church of God is the house of judgment, and the pastor

is the highest order in the Church. The elder is the highest thing in the apostolic Church, outside of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings

His Message straight to the elder, and the elder gives It to the

people.

64-1205 - The Identified Masterpiece Of God

99 What we need today is the Life of Christ inside of us. That's what

purifies; not the outward, a turned-around collar, or a degree of

psychology, or something. It takes the power of the resurrected Christ to

make us what we should be. God has no other plan than let the Holy

Spirit rule and reign in the Church.

recognizing a gift. james 1:17 every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down...

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placing of deacons

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pastorinterimassociate

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church body

little church

democratic vote

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