THE 5 FOLD MINISTRY

HIGHLIGHTS OF ITS IMPORTANCE TO THE BRIDE’S PERFECTION

Part 1.

BEARING THE ARK OF THE COVENANT.

The Ark of the Covenant

Moses made the Ark of the Covenant out of shittim wood, with dimensions of 2.5 by 1.5 by 1.5 cubits.
(It housed: The Golden Pot with manna, The 2 Tablets of Stone, and Aaron's Rod which budded).
The Ark of the covenant was designed to have two staves for bearing it on the shoulders of the priests. Understandably, the staves provide 4 positions for 4 Priests to bear it, every time it is carried from one place to another.
Therefore it took four priests every time to bear it. This is clearly telling us that it is not, and I repeat, it is not a one ministry burden.
THAT WAS TO STAY AS GOD’S PROVIDED WAY AND PRINCIPLE OF BEARING HIS WORD
“And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host;
And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.
Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed [this] way heretofore.”

[JOSHUA 3:2- 4]

“So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselvesto bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel.
And the children of the Levites bare the ark of God upon their shoulders with the staves thereon, as Moses commanded according to the word of the LORD.”

[I CHRONICLES 15:14-15]

Nowhere has it ever happened that one Levite attempted to lay the Ark of the Covenant upon his own shoulders to bear it alone.
The Word of God today is to be borne on the shoulders of five Ministerial offices and not only one. As in The O/T, the bearers at the ends of the staves provide a perfect support and balance for The Ark of the Covenant and for one another.
BACKING ONE ANOTHER UP
E-81. In His army... He presents His army in the form of five offices, first, apostles, prophets, teachers,pastors, evangelists. That's His army; that's His soldiers; that's His commanding officers, all with the baptism of the Holy Ghost, waiting out there to meet the enemy on any grounds he comes upon; to meet the enemy with the Word of God (Amen.), each one backing one another up, with Him the Chief Captain, not out there in front, up here, above, back behind; but in them. That's the army. Vindicating, vindicating what? His resurrection, by the proof of His works.

TAKE ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. 62.07.01

The 5- Fold ministry provides the balance in the WORD as The Word is delivered to the heart of the Bride of Jesus Christ.
When David, in [2Sam.6: 6], used substitutes, OXEN and CART, these could not provide a perfect balance to The Ark of the Covenant, causing it to stumble and to almost fall.
... Now, brethren, I don't know what your procedure of--of man's meeting, just what you do or how you conduct your meetings. And if I get off of schedule here, off the regular routine, why, you call my attention to it.

MINISTERS COULD GET TOGETHER AND EXAMINE THEMSELVES BY THE WORD TO HAVE THE SAME MIND.
743-3 It was purposed tonight, I thought, as I had a dinner not long ago with our most beloved pastor, Brother Neville, and I was saying something to him what was on my heart. And I thought if we get a bunch of men together and the ministers (They're our colleagues here of the Gospel and men.), we could talk to one another in a way that we wouldn't talk it before the public, because we' re all men that understand as men, Christian men. And that way ... Usually in a congregation, a group, you say something, and one 'll lean it a little this way, and one ‘ll lean it that way, and then it goes all out. But where we come to try tonight to tell you what I have in my heart of, concerning the church and its place and its position.

TAKING.SIDES.WITH.JESUS. 62.06.01

When ministers are of the same mind speaking the same thing, then they will raise up Christ Bride, balanced up in his Word, not leaning this way or that way. She will not be staggering or stumbling, fussing or stewing with one another, but will be marching on to the tune of her revealed Word as shown in the preview.

But that requires that, THE 5-FOLD MINISTRY ITSELF, be positionally and correctly placed in the Body. Paul the Apostle recommended the same thing: [PHILIPPIANS 2:1-7]

“If [there be] therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, [being] of one accord, of one mind.
[Let] nothing [be done] through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
But made himself of no reputation,”
Let seekers of reputation and fame; know that those attributes never originated from Christ. Ministers, who love vainglory and strife, please, be reminded that it was Lucifer who first started strife because he wanted vainglory.

THE 4 LIVING CREATURES which represent THE 5 MINISTERIAL OFFICES in the Bible are: LION, OX, MAN and EAGLE
God did not intend to have Lion, Lion, Lion, and Lion on the 4 ends of the staves. Neither did He intend it to be borne by Man, Man, Man, and Man. Nor, did he ordain it to be borne by Eagle, Eagle, Eagle and Eagle. No wonder when David used Oxen, Oxen, Oxen and Oxen, to move the Cart which bore The Ark, it stumbled and almost fell. And when Uzzah, withhis good intention, put forth his hand to HELP STABILIZE it, he died.

1. LION represents The APOSTLE; He is a setter in order, and is fearless
2. OX represents The PASTOR ; He is the sturdy shepherd, and burden bearer
3. MAN, represents The TEACHER; who grounds and establishes the believer in the Word.
4. EAGLE represents both The PROPHET & EVANGELIST; referred to as “the Flying Eagle” & “the
Swift Evangelist”. [These 2 offices are represented by the Eagle.]

One ministry of the five cannot bring the Bride into perfection. It requires the input of all the five at their appropriate time and season, and according to the measure of faith, and gift and spirit given to each. [ROMANS 12:4-8]

4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:

5 So we, [being] many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, [let us prophesy] according to the proportion of faith;

7 Or ministry, [let us wait] on [our] ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;

8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, [let him do it] with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.
We cannot depend on any combinations, whether of any 2, or any 3, or any 4, alone. For the Bride to be brought to Perfection, it requires all of the 5 offices. These 5 Offices will not necessarily be placed in one Assembly or Church. So, any church walls which hold back these offices need to be pulled down, to free them from any such camp spirit.

Let us go back to the pattern set for us in the Book of Acts where all THE 5 FOLD OFFICES were at work in the entire body of believers: The Timothy’s, the Titus, the Silas, the Epaphroditus, the Barnabas, the Philips , the Agabus, the John Mark, the Pauls etc. They freely moved to all the Churches within their reach. They did minister whether in THE SMALL, 12 MEMBER CHURCH OF EPHESUS, or THE BIG CHURCH AT JERUSALEM, at ANTIOCH, at CORINTH, etc. It didn’t matter; they all made up the Body of Jesus Christ. A large church is not an indication of more God in it. Neither does it mean that a small congregation is an indication of less God. Enoch in his day made a one man rapture
There were Apostles, [Acts8:14]; Prophets, [Acts Acts.9: 10- 11; Acts15:32]; Pastors, or Elders [Acts. 20: 28 – 30]; Evangelists; [Acts.21: 8] and Teachers, [Acts 13: 1] Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen].
At Corinth, Paul the Apostle corrected them immediately as they tried to settle down into clicks, and party spirit according to their carnally chosen favourite Ministers Camps of Apollo’s, Cephas, Paul, and Christ.
No wonder the believers of The Church of The Ephesians lived as if Jesus Christ was coming in their age. [2Thess.2: 1-2].
According to [Rev. 6: 1; 3; 5, and 7], it has always taken THE 4 LIVING CREATURES to put up the required combat to the various assaults of the devil in all the Church Ages.
How do we measure with them of The Book of Acts, who served as an example to us?
Have some of the believers of today also fallen into the same error of some of the believers of the Corinth Church and of the days of Joshua?
FAILING TO RECOGNIZE THEIR CALLING AND VOCATIONS
204 Ephraim doesn’t want to stay. One of them go over here, we find the Manasseh just over here, say, "Oh, my, the Lord's give me a good cornfield." Then here comes over here Gad, said, "Well, now, now, wait a minute." Said, "I'm supposed to raise oats, but I'm going to get corn too. Hallelujah."
See? You ain't got nothing to do with corn; get oats; oats is your part to raise. You ain't supposed to herd sheep when you're supposed to herd cattle. God wants to place the church. But every one of them wants to do the same thing. "Hallelujah."
You can't tell them a thing about it. No, no. They still got that goaty nature, "Butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt." See, you can't tell them. That's right. Now, isn't that true? And you can't place the church. See?

MANIFESTED SONS OF GOD. 60.05.18

RECOGNIZE, ACCEPT THE MESSENGER’S PURPOSE IN PREACHING THIS!
51 Where the church is... Now, this is my purpose of doing this. The church is always trying to take somebody else's corner. But don't do that. You can never raise corn inEphraim's corner, if you're Manasseh. You've got to take your place in Christ, positionally take it.

EPHESIANS PARALLELS JOSHUA. 60.05.15E

Have you learnt something? Our prophet Messenger has delivered to us the Word of the Lord to make us see andrecognize what we arein the Body Ministry. Obedience to that word is the challenge for all who are concerned. Read on, in the next article. [Part 2] God bless you.

Please continue the article in Part 2.

Bro. Martin Tombe

Pastor: Restored Bible Truth Assembly.