THE TEACHING MINISTRY (1)

We all know who a teacher is, he is one who teaches. But there is a separate anointing and office of teaching. I have seen evangelist and prophets trying to operate in the office of the teacher because it is much easier. We feel we don't need the supernatural to teach, that as long as you have the ability in your flesh then you can go ahead and do it. The house of God is not a place of flesh. It is not a place where flesh comes to demonstrate their skills. It is the house of the God who is spirit and who demands that we worship him in spirit.

As such there is a special gifting by the Spirit for teaching. Not the gift that you have in the flesh, but something produced by the Spirit of God inside of you. We have so much subjected the teaching ministry to the flesh that almost anybody can do it, including a none believer. Just pick a Bible, read a few verses and interpret it. That's what we think the teaching ministry is all about. And we love it that way, we are always trying to subject the things of God to the flesh.

Some people have even succeeded in subjecting the prophetic to the flesh. They tell you prophecy is just about teaching God's word. So they pick the Bible, teach on some verses, and that's it, they have prophesied. No need for the supernatural, they do not want anything that is not subjected to the flesh. They don't want to reach beyond the flesh, they want to have everything and do everything within the faculties of the flesh. Anything that has to do with using your spiritual faculties, they try to cut it out.

Even evangelism have been subjected to the flesh. We have this pamphlet about the four steps to salvation, and all you have to do is administer it to people and you have evangelized. So easy, we don't even need God and the Holy Spirit, and such we've kicked them out of the Church. Our God is a supernatural Being, and everything about him is supernatural. Jesus walked the earth and we see the supernatural all over him. If the teaching ministry is of Jesus then it is definitely supernatural.

Now, when you say someone teaches, the question that follows is, what does he teach? The teaching ministry is not about teaching the Bible. It has never been about teaching the Bible, even the first century teachers did not teach the Bible. Let me share a note based on history; "Nope! The Apostles did not teach the Scripture... the first century had no printing presses. Do you realize what that means? All copies of Scripture were made by the agonizingly painful, incredibly slow, and terribly expensive process of hand copying. A city was fortunate if it had one complete copy of the sacred Hebrew writings!

Furthermore, about the only place that Scripture was available was in the synagogues - and those synagogues simply were not all that excited about making their scrolls available to followers of Jesus Christ! It is an indisputable fact that in every place the early church met it had virtually no access to Scripture. No, dear reader, those Apostles weren't standing up there teaching Bible studies for eight years. (In fact, some of them couldn't read either!) Nor will you find the 3,000 sitting around, later in the day, in little Bible study classes. But none of these facts is the real reason the Apostles did not spend their time teaching the Scripture.

If there had been no illiteracy, if there had been an abundance of Scripture, if the Apostles had all been educated men, they still would not have spent their time teaching the Scripture... The idea of teaching the Scripture never entered their minds!! The twentieth century mentality alone has superimposed such an image on those men. They didn't hang up some long wall chart and give lectures on the Scroll of Ezekiel or on "Eyeballs and Bears Tails in the Scroll of Daniel." What is more, the saints gathered in Solomon's Porch would have thrown olive pits at the Apostles if they had tried.

The believers had poured into that shed to hear one thing and one thing only. And the Apostles were interested in talking about one thing and one thing only. What was that? You can answer that question yourself. If you could go back to that day and be a new convert, and if you could actually sit at the feet of the original twelve Apostles, what would you want to hear? Or put it another way. If you had just spent four years, eighteen hours per day, living with God, what would you talk about? The twelve Apostles talked about Jesus Christ! Night and day. That's all you got out of them - Jesus Christ.

They originated the whole idea of the topic of Jesus Christ, hence [the books of] the gospels. They couldn't have thought of anything else to talk about if they had tried... Dear reader, if you ever really get to know the Lord in a deep, abiding experience, it will suddenly dawn on you that teaching doctrines was something invented by men who just didn't know the Lord all that well. Men who really know Christ well, will talk about Christ. Men who don't... they teach all sorts of interesting, unimportant things." (Revolution, by Gene Edward).

What you see in the four books of the gospel were all that the Apostles talk about—yes, the story of Jesus. It was all about Jesus, what he did and taught. They were not teaching Bible verses to Christians. The only time they expound on scripture is when they were defending themselves to the Jews and religious leaders who were trying to persecute them. There was nothing like a teacher, standing in front of fellow believers and teaching Bible. In fact, all the people that were coming only wanted to hear about this amazing Jesus, that the disciples walk with and sat with for three and a half years. That was all the apostles knew, that was all they could talk about. And they talked about Jesus as a person, until Apostle Paul came into the picture and introduced another side of Jesus.

"Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." (2Cor 5:16).

They used to know Jesus after the flesh, but now they must know him beyond that, they must know him as a spiritual reality. This is why the last of the book of the gospel—the gospel of John—emphasizes Jesus the life, the light, the bread from above, the way, the truth, the living water, etc. They were moving beyond knowing Jesus as a flesh to knowing Jesus as a spiritual reality. And when we enter the epistles we see Paul keep penning down the clause "in Christ". All over Paul's writing you will see that clause, "In Christ... In Christ... In Christ". Paul was obsessed in trying to unveil Christ as a spiritual reality and that which is in this reality called Christ.

That is the work of a teacher. Paul, as an apostle came to lay the foundation for the teaching ministry. The teaching ministry is about discovery Christ and teaching the reality in Christ. No, they are not Bible teachers, they are teachers of Christ. Yes, they may sight the Bible every now and then, but their main subject is Christ. Their subject is not Christian concepts, or Christian doctrines. They are not here to teach Bible stories and the morals in it, their focus is to teach Christ. They use the Bible to teach Christ, it is all about teaching Christ. When we do not get this right, that is when we fall into the trap of teaching our own worldviews, or the doctrines of man passed down to us.

Sadly that is what is happening in the body of Christ today. People use the Bible to teach their worldviews, they try to impose their own worldviews on others. Denomination try to use the Bible to pass down their doctrines. Do you know that nobody, since the birth of the Church, ever used the book of Malachi to teach tithe (as practiced in Christianity today) until 1873. And it wasn't that the book of Malachi suddenly appeared in the Bible in 1873, no it has always been there. So what happened? They were looking for a way to fund church activities.

You see, the first century church didn't need much funding, it wasn't as elaborate as it is today. And the people of those days were burning so much for Christ that they were ready to sell themselves to give to the church. 300 years later Christianity became a state religion, and it was the government that was sponsoring church activities. 1,300 years later the protestant came and said government is corrupting church, so church and government should be separate. When church separated from government there was now a problem; how would they get money?

The money people were dropping was too small and the pastors had tried as much as they can to get this people to drop more money yet they refused. They were not like the first century Christians who were ready to die for Jesus. These people didn't choose to be Christians, they were only Christians because they were born into Christianity. They had very little passion for Christianity or church ministry. So they careless about sponsoring church. It was now left to the pastors and bishops to figure out a way of getting this people to drop their money. That was how two southern Presbyterians, Alexander L. Hogshead of Abingdon, Virginia, and John W. Pratt of Lexington, Virginia, produced a set of scholastic treatises on tithing, which bound into one volume called, "The Gospel Self-Supporting".

In their writings they argued that it is the Christian solemn duty to give ten percent of their income to the church. They said it is their essential worship to God and it is non-negotiable. Christians were coerce to drop their money whether they like it or not. This system worked as perfectly as they wanted, and they were able to generate enough funds for church ministry. My point is that the teaching of tithe was never really about following the Bible, it was about looking for a convincing way to get people to drop their money so that church would have enough funds. For 1800 years, nobody taught such a thing, not even Paul or any of the apostles. And we had the Bible all this while.

I said all that in order to impress upon you the fact that many of what we call Bible teaching today is really not about the Bible. It's about our worldviews and about the doctrines developed by men for some reason or the other, and passed down to us. The same way I trance the history of the teaching on tithe to man's agenda, I can also trance the history of many of our Bible teachings to one agenda or the other—some brilliant idea that man came up with, and looked for Bible verses to support it. The teaching ministry is not about teaching man's doctrine masquerade as Bible teaching. It is a ministry of Christ and it should be about teaching Christ.

What they do in seminaries or theology school is imbibe in people the doctrines of man passed down from generations to generations. And these people come out as teachers in our churches. That is not the teaching ministry that Jesus gave to the body. That is just man passing down their doctrine through teaching agents. When we speak of Christ's teaching ministry we are talking about people who have been caught up in the reality in Christ, who possess a supernatural gift of understanding and identify patterns in Christ.

THE TEACHING MINISTRY (2)

This post belongs to a series and the series flows together from the first to last. So I will advice you start from the first post of the series. The first people who taught in Christianity did so because they had sat with Jesus. They spent time with Jesus, they were caught up in the life of Jesus. As such people gathered around them to hear them talk about Jesus. No, they were not teaching scripture, they were teaching Christ. Therefore, a teacher is one who have been caught in Christ and have learned Christ, and is gifted with the ability to teach this Christ in a way that others would easily be able to understand.

When Jesus taught, he wasn't expounding scripture. You can search the books of the gospel very well. There was not a time Jesus began to expound of scripture. He came to teach about the Kingdom, and that was his focus. Yes, sometimes he might site the scripture, but in everything he says he is teaching about the Kingdom. Now, to understand how teaching works we must look closely at how Jesus taught about the kingdom. He uses parables and illustrations. He uses things around him, things that people can easily relate to. This way grasping what he is teaching would not be difficult.

He would pick a seed and say the kingdom of God is like a seed. He would point to a farmer and say the kingdom of God is like a farmer. He kept using symbols of things that people could relate with and understand. Teaching is not about quoting a lot of scripture. Please, you can go and search through Jesus' teachings and see how rarely he quoted scripture. It is not about quoting scriptures. Some people would just quote, and quote and quote so many scriptures, and they will give their interpretation of it and claim they are teachers. Teaching is not about interpreting Bible, it's about unveiling Christ. If you go down the path of interpreting Bible you will only end up projecting your worldview, doctrine and culture into the Scripture.

The Scripture was written in another culture, and in an epoch too long ago for us to understand or relate with. The context surrounding the Scripture is very alien to us today. So if your aim is to interpret Bible verses, and you ignore the cultural and social context, the epoch, and the events surrounding those verses, and you just try to interpret it like that, you will end up projecting your the 21st century culture, society, church system, doctrines, and your own worldview into those verses. You will give your own interpretation, someone else will come and give his own interpretation, contradicting yours. And then both of you will end up in some argument, trying to defend your individual worldviews masquerade as Bible teaching.

Even if you took the pain to research on the cultural context, the events surrounding the scripture, the life of the person God used to write it, and every other thing related to that Bible verse. There is still a probability that you might not interpret that verse correctly. The only person that can properly interpret that verse is the person who wrote it. You, trying to interpret it after thousands of years that it was written, will only end up in speculation. And someone else will come with his own speculation, then speculation will begin to compete with speculation, leading to an endless speculation. This was what the Scribes and Pharisees were experiencing. They were not sure of what they were teaching because they were just speculations and subjective interpretations.

“For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” (Matt 7:29).
“And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.” (Mar 1:22).

They were shocked when they saw Jesus teaching. He wasn't speculating, he was dishing out the principles of the kingdom. How did he know these things, how was he so sure of himself? It's because he didn't get his knowledge from trying to interpret something that somebody wrote in the scripture. He got his knowledge from direct interaction with the Kingdom. He interacted with the very thing that Abraham, Moses, David, and the rest interacted with, as such he knew what they were trying to describe even beyond how they described it in the scripture. He knows for sure that 'this' is what Moses and David were trying to say because he has also seen and interact with that thing they wrote about.

"Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3).

Even if the authors were misinterpreted, what matters is that the kingdom is properly described. We are not called to interpret Scripture, we are called to know God. To Jesus, it was not about interpreting scripture, it's about teaching the Kingdom. Unlike the Scribes and Pharisees, Jesus wasn't occupied trying to interpret the scripture, he was busy teaching the Kingdom. And when necessary he would site the scripture to affirm that what he is saying is in line with what is written in the scripture. This was the same approach Paul took, look at the book of Hebrews very well. That book is focused on unveiling Christ. Yes, scriptures were sited, but still, the aim was not to interpret the scripture, but to unveil Christ. Please, go back and study the book of Hebrews and carefully observe the writing style—it was all about Christ, from start to finish.

So the teaching ministry is about teaching Christ, using familiar scriptures, symbols and things that people can relate with in demonstrating the reality in Christ. So a teacher is gifted with supernatural understanding and the ability to recognize patterns. One of the distinctive feature that made human intellect higher than that of other animals is the superior ability to recognize patterns. It is from this ability that we are able to understand nature and develop science. By recognizing patterns we are able to discover laws of nature and then decide how to use them for our advantage.

In Nigeria light (power) is not constant, so there was this time in my home when I was a kid. My younger brother said the light will come up now, and immediately the light came. I was surprise, how did he know the light will come up. So I asked, and he said the light always come up at this very time every Thursday. "Who told you that", I asked. He said he had been observing it for a while now. It was a pattern, every Thursday the light would comes up at that very time. He was observant so recognized the pattern and as such he was able to make an accurate prediction—that what science is all about.

As we interact with nature we recognize patterns, and with those patterns we discover principles and laws of nature. Christ is a reality, he is not just a person. We are in this reality called Christ, that is why all over the New Testament you will see the frequent use of the clause, "in Christ". We are inside this Christ which is a reality; "For in him we live and move and exist." (Acts 17:28). During salvation we were translated into another world, the new creation. This natural world is the old creation, God has created a whole new world in Christ.

"So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. But Jesus answered them, My Father has worked [even] until now, [He has never ceased working; He is still working] and I, too, must be at [divine] work." (John 5:16-17).

The Jews observed the seventh day as Sabbath, for God rested on the seventh day. Now Jesus is saying God didn't rest, but he is still working till that very date. What does this mean? That rest of the seventh day is the rest that God entered after creating the old creation, this natural world. But there was a higher plan, God was still working behind the scene. He had rested from creating the natural world, but he was still working on another world, the new creation. He finally completed this work when Jesus declared, "It is Finished!" (John 19:30).

"and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;" (Eph 3:9).

"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, [even] the hidden [wisdom], which God ordained before the world unto our glory:" (1Co 2:7).

"He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you" (1Pet 1:20).

Christ, the new creation, have been foreordained before the foundation of the world. God has been planning and working on something behind the scene before He even began to create the natural world. He was working on the new creation, and he created the old creation (the natural world) as a shadow of the new creation, so that before the new creation comes we would look at this natural world and have an idea of how the new creation will look like. The new creation began to come the moment Jesus walked the earth, and it will completely come at Jesus second coming.

So right now the new creation is here, but not completely here. The natural world was created as a shadow of the new creation. Therefore the same way we observe patterns in the natural world, and through those patterns we discover laws and develop science. That is how we are to observe this the new creation, recognize patterns, discover laws and principles, learn how to make spiritual technologies in order to manifest the glory of this new creation. The glory of the 21th century civilization is science. We have been able to understand nature and with this understanding we have invented and made all kinds of amazing things.

Look at how glorious our cities are, especially those very advanced nations. There are some cities that when you see them you are filled with awe. That is the glory of human civilization. But there is also the glory of the civilization of Zion, the heavenly Zion, and its glory surpasses that of the old creation. But this glory cannot be manifested until we have teachers who's focus are not to teach doctrines, concepts, stories and there morals. Teachers who are so awakened to the reality in Christ that they interact with this reality. And through that interaction they recognize patterns, discover laws and principles, and learn how to apply them in order to make our city glorious.

THE TEACHING MINISTRY (3)

This post belongs to a series and the series flows together from the first to last. So I will advice you start from the first post of the series. In the previous post I established that the teaching ministry is about recognizing patterns, and through the patterns laws and principles in Christ are discovered. Normal Christians will experience Christ throughout their lives and may never recognize significant patterns. They are not gifted with that sight to see the patterns, they will just go through these experiences without recognizing the patterns. But a teacher has a supernatural ability of sighting patterns and discovering laws.

The Teachers would look at the spiritual walk of other people as well as their own spiritual walk and sight patterns of the reality in Christ. I emphasize, PATTERNS OF THE REALITY IN CHRIST. Not just any patterns or any principles that work. It is not about what works, it is about what is Christian. Witchcraft works, the occultic works, diabolic powers works, just because something work doesn't make it Christian. And just because something is in the Bible and it works doesn't make it Christian either. The Bible is largely about a religion called Judaism than the Christian religion. Yes, the larger part of the Bible (the Old Testament) is not about Christianity but a completely different religion called Judaism.

Even the New Testament still consist of people who were largely adherent to Judaism. The twelve disciples didn't saw Christianity as a new religion, they saw it as a government, a kingdom. Judaism was still their religion, while Christianity was their government. So what you will find the most in the Bible are content of Judaism. So following a principle just because it's in the Bible doesn't guarantee that you are practicing Christianity. It has to be Christ, otherwise it is not Christian. Do you know that the way the Ifa priests in the Yoruba culture, do divination by casting cowries, was the same way the priests in the Old Testament consult God by casting lots (as a die, pebble, or ball).

Even in the New Testament this same thing was done among the twelve disciples. It was how they picked the person who would replace Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:23-26). Yes, the apostles did Ifa, and it worked, God spoke to them through it. We don't do it today in Christianity but this practice is all over the Old Testament and even in the New Testament. Our very 12 apostles, our oga on top, the first apostles in Christianity, did it, and yet it is not Christian. So just because something is in the Bible, and just because it works doesn't mean it is Christian. We are not after just anything that works, we are after that which is Christ.

"To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ," (Eph 3:.

The riches of Christ are unsearchable. They are so many that when we begin to dive into it we would be so occupied that we will not have time to entertain doctrines of men. Now, because of the riches of Christ is unsearchable, there is need for specialization. This would allow for different people to be assigned to specific riches, so that there will be higher concentration and greater discovery. In the study of the natural world we have numerous specialization, there are the biologist, chemist, geographer, zoologist, etc. And each specialization are further divided into other specialization. Under biology we have marine biology, physiology, ecology, botany, etc. All of these are for a world that is no way in comparison with the unsearchable riches in Christ.

Christ is filled with infinite diversity, and this diversity is one of the reasons the body of Christ is so divided today, it ought not to be so. All this can be likened to the whole of humanity divided over the diversity of the earth. Some people going out to live in the sea and declaring that they are only interested in marine biology and water life, and they don't want to have anything to do with the land. Do you know what such a people would be missing? They will miss farm product, they will miss gold and other natural resources found in the land, they will be deprive from eating meat and fruits, they will miss on a variety of nutrients that are available on earth and needed for good health. These people would eventually suffer from a terrible health. They will not grow healthy being isolated in the sea.

The body of Christ is not growing healthy because of our unreasonable division over the diversity in the riches of Christ. Just as the "ministry" of science is existing independent of the people of the world i.e the people of the world are not classified and categorized based on the different specialization in science, so also the body of Christ is not meant to be categories as; the faith people, the prosperity people, the holiness people, the grace people, the prayer and intercession people, the spiritual gifts and power people, the word people, the kingdom people, and so on—it's just absurd. All of these diversity are supposed to exist on their own without dividing the people. Then the people can patronize them based on the leading of the Spirit.

In elementary education we are taught a little of everything. We were taught the basics of zoology, biology, chemistry, physiology, ecology, geography, etc. We were allowed to explore everyone of them so that we can be well grounded in the knowledge of the earth. All these are shadows of the reality we are supposed to be experiencing in Christ. There is no need for the division, we should all be grounded in the basics of everything. Yes, we must be well grounded in Christ, even though he is filled with diversity and unsearchable riches.

"Have the roots [of your being] firmly and deeply planted [in Him, fixed and founded in Him], being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving." (Col 2:7).

"Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth." (Eph 4:14).

So the teaching ministry is diverse in nature yet they work together to establish God's people in the knowledge of Christ. Every Christian should be established in the elementary of the diversity of riches in Christ. And the advance part should be made available in special schools or books, so that those who feel led to learn the advance of specific areas can easily access this knowledge. I may feel led to study deeply on light, and it would save me a lot of time and energy if there is some teaching ministry out there that have gone very deep in the advanced level of the revelation of Christ as the light. Rather than doing all the research myself, I will just patronize this ministry and grasp what the Lord is trying to teach me concerning light. In that way I will be built in my unique ministry in the body—a ministry that is somehow connected to light.

We would have people more established in their ministry if only we have the teaching ministry existing in their specialization. Today, I see people in their ministry, without a proper understanding of what their ministry is about. They have not been well trained in the underlying truths upon which that ministry is supposed to be built. The dysfunction in the teaching ministry is affecting the whole body of Christ. We need the teaching ministry to be well established if we are to be a glorious Church on earth.

THE TEACHING MINISTRY (4)

Here I am going to be unveiling a unique dimension of the teaching ministry. I believe the teaching ministry is not only there to help us grow in the knowledge of Christ, but teach and equip us to be united in the faith and knowledge of Christ.

"until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (Eph 4:13).

"that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me." (John 17:21).

The Lord's desire is not just to have a people fill with the knowledge of him, he also desire that we will be united as one. He wants us to be united in the faith and in the knowledge of Christ. As such he will set special teaching ministry that will be used to work out this oneness in the body. We must understand that this oneness is very important in the testimony of Christ; "that the world may believe that you have sent me." This oneness will be a testimony to the world about the authenticity of Jesus Christ.

Look at Christian today, so divided over the knowledge of Christ. We are constantly arguing—hair splitting arguments. Sometimes the argument gets so intense that we call each other names and insult each other. We fight with one another, break fellowship with each other, all on the issue of truth. If we do not learn oneness in the knowledge of Christ, there is no way the body of Christ can be one. Yes, we can't be one until our theologies and doctrines have been reconciled into oneness. The reconciliation of our doctrines will be crucial to the attaining of oneness as a body.

Therefore, the Lord would be setting in his body, special ministry of teachers to ensure this oneness. The reason there is so much conflict and division on the issue of knowledge is because we don't know how to handle the Truth (Christ). Hence, there will be teaching ministries that would teach us to handle Truth (Christ), to apprehend truth, to recognize truth, to express and demonstrate truth, to organize truth, and to break down and simplify truth. These ministries unlike the other teaching ministries will not just teach us the truths in Christ, but will help us understand the structure and nature of the Truth.

It will establish us in the foundation of the Truth and help us properly understand the anatomy of the truth. This kind of ministry is the foundation school for other teaching ministries, because whatever dimension of Christ you are exploring and building on, you must be well grounded on the foundation of the Truth (Christ), and only from that foundation we can continue to build. We can't have teachers straying and teaching errors. So there must be a foundation teaching ministry for all teachers and all of the body of Christ. This foundation ministry will teach the body of Christ how to reconcile all truths. Today we have ministers growing in truths yet finding it difficult to reconcile their truths with that of others.

"but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ." (Eph 4:15).

We are to grow up into Christ, into that single head in which we are one. Our growth in the Truth shouldn't drive us apart, rather it should bring us together. We need a foundation teaching ministry that would teach us this way of growing in knowledge, so that as we grow and discover more truths it drives us together as one. Hence, this ministry will teach the whole body of Christ how to reconcile our individual truths (doctrines). It will also teach the body how to get contradictions in truths resolved. In a situation where truths seem to be contradicting each other, we must be equipped to know how to resolve this contradiction.

I am also speaking in the advent of arguments. When we found ourselves in an argument where our truths are contradicting each other, how do we resolve it in a way that the world would look at us and be amazed by the level of wisdom, love, unity and oneness that we possess? Today what we see in the body of Christ at the advent of argument is just ugly, it's not giving out a good testimony at all. All that must change if we are to fulfill, "that they may all be one... so that the world may believe that you have sent me." (John 17:21). We must uphold this testimony, as such, ministries should be set to teach the body how to behave themselves in the advent of an argument, and also how to resolve such arguments and reconciling the contradictions.

When we have all these teaching ministries well set out then we can watch the body grow so gloriously, upholding a great testimony on earth and drawing many unto Christ. The whole body of Christ would be greatly equipped and we will function effectively as Christ’s body, fulfilling God's plan on earth.

Happy Sunday

Hiswordxray:
THE TEACHING MINISTRY (1)
I said all that in order to impress upon you the fact that many of what we call Bible teaching today is really not about the Bible. It's about our worldviews and about the doctrines developed by men for some reason or the other, and passed down to us. The same way I trance the history of the teaching on tithe to man's agenda, I can also trance the history of many of our Bible teachings to one agenda or the other—some brilliant idea that man came up with, and looked for Bible verses to support it. The teaching ministry is not about teaching man's doctrine masquerade as Bible teaching. It is a ministry of Christ and it should be about teaching Christ.

What they do in seminaries or theology school is imbibe in people the doctrines of man passed down from generations to generations. And these people come out as teachers in our churches. That is not the teaching ministry that Jesus gave to the body. That is just man passing down their doctrine through teaching agents. When we speak of Christ's teaching ministry we are talking about people who have been caught up in the reality in Christ, who possess a supernatural gift of understanding and identify patterns in Christ.

I believe Jesus meant for no one to be called a teacher of even that which is His law...

Matthew 23 vs 8-12
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8. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.[c]
9. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
10. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.
11. The greatest among you shall be your servant.
12. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Kobojunkie:

I believe Jesus meant for no one to be called a teacher of even that which is His law...

You are very correct