Gift Gone Dormant
The header image of this web-page is that of an orchard in Namibia Africa which was swallowed up by the desert and today is nothing but a few dried-up trees. It no longer is fruitful or flourishing but has gone dormant and dead. This image can be used as an illustration of what can happen to a Fivefold Ministry Gift if he should ever reject himself or his calling and gifts. His gifts can go dormant if he does not embrace them and flow with them and nourish them. Being swallowed up by a desert can serve as a depiction of spiritual things when a Fivefold Minister dries up and his gifts cease to function in his life and ministry.
There are a number of ways that a Fivefold Ministry Gift can do dormant and these include being intimidated to back down or if the Fivefold Minister should yield to insecurity and reject his own calling and reject the way God made him or if he should ever apologize for operating his gifts.
Gift Gone Dormant by Intimidation
1 Kings 19:1-4 (NIV)
1 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”
3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,
4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”
The prophet Elijah was intimidated by Jezebel and ran for his life rather than confronting the wicked woman and putting her to death! This type of behavior is one of the ways that a Fivefold Minister can have his gift go dormant. Never should a Fivefold Ministry Gift ever back down to anyone but they are to use their God-given authority to execute God’s plans on the earth. If, however they back down or hesitate then the devil can take their authority and use it against them as in the case of Elijah who ran away from the threats of Jezebel rather than destroying her as he should have done!
Gift Gone Dormant by Rejection
I know of a man who possessed a dual gift of Prophet/Teacher and had amazing revelation about Spiritual Gifts and operated in these Gifts and was able to produce anointed teaching on this subject. But later he married a widow woman who was the former wife of a denominational leader. This Prophet/Teacher later remarked that he should never have married a widow because this woman never got over her first love for her deceased first husband and would constantly compare him to her first husband. This had great detrimental effect upon this man who made the great mistake of marrying this widow. Hearing her constant comparisons was wearing him down on a daily basis because he could never become someone that he was not and he could never become like the deceased husband of this widow that she wanted him to be. Over time this detrimental effect was pronounced and this once-anointed man had his gifts go dormant. This happened because of the constant criticism from this widow which worn him down like a continual dripping upon his head. Eventually he rejected himself and his own gifts and become hugely insecure. This is when his gift went dormant and he no longer could teach the way he did before he married this widow woman. He also had operated in the Gifts of the Spirit continually before he was married to this widow but after his marriage these gifts ceased to function as well. This can happen whenever a man rejects himself and his calling and this can cause his gifts to go dormant.
My Own Experience with Gift Going Dormant
When I first got married and my wife and I were still going through marriage adjustments there was a time that she would compare me to her favorite WOF preachers. The method of delivery of their sermons was such that they would memorize their scriptures and shoot from the hip and give a performance that seemed impromptu and appeared anointed. The problem was that I was not made like that and even though it is good to memorize scriptures my teaching style was systematic and I am able to produce a series of scriptures that bring the listener into complete knowledge of the subject in systematic manner. I am better in writing than in speaking for this reason. But when I was being compared to the WOF so-called “anointed” preachers by my wife (when we were newly married) this had detrimental effect upon me. I remember this occurred once just before I was to go to a preaching schedule at a church. It seemed that my gift suddenly went dormant as if I was in danger of losing my gift entirely! What I had to do was fight through this thing and the insecurity caused by being compared to others and refuse to reject myself or reject the way God made me. So that morning I was able to fight it off and overcome and my anointing and gifts again returned. I was able to give my sermon under the anointing using my systematic style that God had given to me. Since them my wife has learned to accept me as God made me and today, she says that she is so happy to be my wife and is so blessed by the written teaching lessons that I produce and the systematic revelation that she now enjoys. But the conflict we had in early marriage gave me some experience with this subject of a Fivefold Ministry Gift going dormant.
I immediately knew what happened to the Prophet/Teacher who married a widow woman who constantly put him down and compared him to her first husband. This comparison made his gifts go dormant when he finally rejected himself and rejected the way God made him. This nearly happened to me one time and I had to fight it off and I was able to overcome just before it was time to deliver my message at the church that invited me to preach. This is a warning to all Fivefold Ministry Gifts that they must steward their gifts and they must be loyal to how God made them and never try to be like someone else and never try to imitate someone else or their gifts can go dormant. If their gifts go dormant, they can lose everything and are in danger of eternal damnation if they are not able to fulfill their calling given to them by God. So, this is a serious matter indeed!
I was able to hear a recording of this same Prophet/Teacher who married that widow. He was preaching as a guest speaker at a church after he was married and traveling with his widow wife. I was shocked to hear him because he was nothing like the great man he once was before he was married to this widow. All of his gifts had gone dormant and it sounded as if he was trying to imitate a “Pentecostal Preacher” in using expressions and voice tones that seeks to project being “anointed” by using traditional Pentecostal-Preacher sounds and mannerisms. This behavior is kind of like someone whose pants is on fire and they are trying to finish the sermon before they have to find a barrel of water to jump into to put out the flames! Often those who do not have the anointing will fake it in this manner trying to pretend they are anointed. But this man previously (before marriage to this widow) was a hugely anointed teacher and he could read his sermons and they were powerful and changed lives. But now he was pretending to be someone else and he was doing nothing but making an irritating noise for the listeners without any anointing at all. I believe he was being coached by his widow wife to shout and yell and fake the anointing in the style of an old-time Pentecostal preacher to imitate the way her deceased husband used to do it. But this was not how God made this Prophet/Teacher and it was sad that he stooped down into trying to be someone he was not as he tried to please his widow wife to try to be like her former (now deceased) husband.
It may see like I have been “filling-in-between-the-lines” excessively here but these are the things that I perceived and I believe this is the operation of Word of Knowledge to know existing facts and this is what I bear witness to. This man was hugely anointed when he was “himself” before marriage and then after marriage it was as if he became a sounding gong! He was a noble and wise man before marriage and after marriage to this widow he sounded like a complete imbecile! I am not making fun of him because I knew of his ministry before he was married to this widow and I admired him greatly as one of the greatest Bible teachers that ever lived and who changed the world by his teaching on Spiritual Gifts. But he was not the same man after marriage to this widow.
If I had not experienced the same thing when I was first married then I would probably not be able to teach this subject right now about a Fivefold Ministry Gift going dormant! Possibly God allowed my own wife to reject my preaching style and compare me to others just so I could gain firsthand experience with what it is like to have a ministry gift go dormant. I had to fight it off and overcome because for a short time it seemed my gift went dormant. I was not able to see it restored again until I shook off this self-rejection and refused to be intimidated into being someone I was not. Once I accepted myself as God made me then my anointing was restored again.
This thing about intimidation also is a key factor in having a Ministry Gift go dormant. I know of another man who also was a Prophet/Teacher and he was intimidated by a group of choir members when he publicly exposed them for having sin among them. They sent him a message saying that he should say those things privately (not in front of the entire congregation). There was intimidation attached to that message sent from the choir group and this caused his gift to go dormant and he could not preach whatsoever! He had to fight through this intimidation and was able to be restored to his anointing again. Later it was exposed publicly that some members of that church choir had engaged in unrepentant sexual immorality and so he as a Prophet exposed them publicly warning them that if they do not repent, they will be exposed (which is just what happened to those who were guilty). He even wrote a book about the experience called “Breaking Intimidation” and this is something that Fivefold Ministers must be aware of because if they are intimidated, they can have their gifts and calling go dormant and put themselves in great danger.
Just having a wife (whom a man depends upon for affirmation) reject his gift and calling and delivery style is enough to intimidate him into backing off from the way God made him. If he does that then his gift will go dormant and he will not be able to do anything whatsoever. He can only be himself and flow with how God made him and not depart from it. If he tries to be someone else his gift will go dormant.
Never Apologize for Operation of Gift
It is also important for the Fivefold Minister never to apologize for the operation of his gift. If he stands up and rebukes someone or rebukes an entire congregation as an Apostle or Prophet then he must understand that these words are not of his own human origin. To apologize after delivering the word of the Lord is actually blasphemous because it is equal to apologizing for what God has said through him. There is no faster way to have a Fivefold Ministry Gift go dormant and to be rejected by God than to apologize for the word of the Lord given through an Apostle or Prophet.
So, a Fivefold ministry gift can go dormant if a man possessing such a gift is not aware of the protocol that a Fivefold minister is required to follow. As a Fivefold minister, a man cannot do anything that might even suggest an apology for the operation of his gift. There is serious consequences for a man whose gift goes dormant and there is a danger of opening himself up to demonic torment if this sin is committed in willful manner.
1 Samuel 16:14 (7KB)
14 Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD terrorized him.
Saul was anointed as the first king of Israel by the Prophet Samuel. The Spirit of God came upon Saul after he was anointed and so he stood in an ordained office as “King” and had the anointing for leadership and defeated the adversary Nahash the king of the Ammonites in the first battle fought by Saul as king of Israel. But when Saul began to disobey God then the Spirit of God departed from him and an evil spirit terrorized him instead.
This has application also to a Fivefold minister because if the gift and calling goes dormant within a Fivefold minister then it is as if such a man is like a sheep abandoned in the woods (full of wolves) and is just waiting to be devoured. If the anointing and gifts lift from such a man he is open to be terrorized by the adversary Satan. Much is at stake for a Fivefold minister if he does not fulfill his calling and it will be disastrous for him if his gift should ever go dormant.
It is for this reason that Fivefold ministry gifts must be aware of factors that can cause their gifts to go dormant. If they are not aware of these “offenses” they can easily find themselves without God’s anointing and their gifts dormant and then open themselves up to demonic torment as a result.
Numbers 20:25-28 (7KB)
25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son and bring them up to Mount Hor.
26 Remove Aaron’s garments and put them on his son Eleazar, for Aaron will be gathered to his people; he will die there.”
27 Moses did as the LORD commanded: They went up Mount Hor in the sight of the whole community.
28 Moses removed Aaron’s garments and put them on his son Eleazar. And Aaron died there on top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain,
The gift and calling of a Fivefold minister can be compared to the priestly garments of Aaron which he wore as he ministered before the Lord. As soon as the garments were removed from Aaron then he immediately died! In the same way, if the gift and calling of a Fivefold minister goes dormant then it can open the man up to demonic torment and even death! It is like being naked and without protection and left open to the devil who is just waiting to attack such an exposed man as this.
Immaturity is not a Sin
It must also be noted here that immaturity is not a sin so therefore God will not immediately forsake or cast off a minister who is unaware of divine protocol only because he is ignorant of spiritual things. But the same cannot be said of a man who knows better but still persists to break divine protocol that governs the operation of a Fivefold Ministry Gift.
One example is that of Samuel who was born with the gift of Prophet but he had to learn how to operate in that gift so God was merciful and tender with him when he was still young and inexperienced.
1 Samuel 3:4-7 (7KB)
4 Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.”
5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.
6 Again the LORD called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”
7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.
When Samuel was yet a young boy (and still innocent) the Lord came and called his name. Samuel was not familiar with the voice of the Lord and never had God speak to him before. So, Samuel supposed that Eli was calling him and so he went to Eli and said, “Here I am because you called me!” Samuel did not yet know the Lord at that time and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
This has application that carries over under the NT Fivefold Ministry Gifts because a Fivefold minister has to start somewhere and typically, they will be innocent like the child Samuel and have no idea what is happening when God first starts to operate the gifts through them.
1 Samuel 3:8-10 (7KB)
8 And the Lord called Samuel the third time. And he went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you did call me. Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy.
9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10 The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
In this case, Samuel had a senior mentor who could instruct him in what to do so Eli instructed Samuel that if the Lord called him again, then he should reply, “Speak, Lord for your servant is listening!” So, Samuel followed his instructions and then God spoke to Samuel and provided him with the revelation of his will.
Having a Fivefold Ministry “Mentor” however is often a great luxury that many men born with a Fivefold Ministry Gift simply do not have available to them. Most of the men born with a Fivefold Ministry Gift will simply have to learn how to operate that gift by trial and error and by gaining experience over time by exercising that gift.
For example, I know of a man who has a dual gift of both Pastor/Evangelist and as such the gifts of an Evangelist would operate for divine healing in his ministry (which is a gift that often operates for showing unbelievers or new believers that God is real). This man would be preaching in his church and suddenly have visions of human aliments in the church. At the time when this gift started to manifest, he had no idea what was happening and he was as innocent as the young boy Samuel who was not aware of spiritual things! So, this Pastor/Evangelist would rebuke these visions in Jesus’ Name because he thought they must be satanic distractions to spoil his sermon because this would occur in the middle of his preaching! But the more he rebuked these visions in Jesus’ Name the more they would manifest! This was because these visions were not from Satan but in fact it was the Holy Spirit who was manifesting himself to this man.
But God’s mercy was present for him because he had absolutely no idea about what was happening and never heard of anyone else in his country or abroad who had experienced the same thing before. Therefore, he had no means of judging if this was of God or the devil because it was all new to him! Eventually by trial and error he began to learn how to flow with the Holy Spirit when these manifestations occurred.
He then began to call these visions out and in doing so many people in his large congregation were healed. My mother-in-law for example had a skin disease on her hands and he called this out in the service and she received her healing (as a new believer) and the rash and peeling skin disappeared instantly! Thousands of people received healing in this manner without them having to go forward to have hands laid upon them in prayer. It was the fastest and most efficient means of ministering healing to a large congregation of people and was a great blessing to many people who received healing by this method.
But this Fivefold minister had to learn how to operate in this gift and flow with the Holy Spirit because he had no mentor to instruct him and had never heard about anyone ever doing such a thing before. God often does a new thing like this and a minister may not have anyone to counsel him so he will have to pioneer a new way himself without any mentor to give him instruction in these matters.
Learning to Operate as an Apostle/Teacher
In my own case, I started to operate in the gifts related to my calling of Apostle/Teacher back in 1986 in Tulsa Oklahoma when I was attending a large church in that city. Suddenly I would know things and perceive secret things about anyone who would stand before the congregation. It would operate for anyone standing before the congregation such as a visiting preacher or someone giving announcements or even musicians or singers or choir members. I would instantly perceive if they had a good heart or if there were evil motives or a bad spirit about them or if they were spiritually unclean in some way. At this time, I was just a baby in the Lord and was much like the young boy Samuel who had never experienced the operation of a Fivefold ministry gift or the Spiritual Gifts that typically flow with a Fivefold calling from God.
See the lessons “Fivefold Ministry Gifts” and “Spiritual Gifts” for more details.
Being a baby-Apostle, I had absolutely no idea why God was showing me these things and I had no one of “like-calling” to mentor me or explain what these things meant. I even presumed that others could see what I could see but they did not and would simply reply, “Do not touch God’s anointed!” when referring to those I knew to be charlatans. I was unaware that God was training me in the operation of the Spiritual Gifts of “Discerning of Human spirits” and “Word of Knowledge” which discerns the heart motives of people and which reveals present-knowledge. In fact, everyone with whom I had knowledge of as having impure motives or secret sin were all later exposed and so it confirmed that what I received from the Lord was true. This is not the same as a woman having a so-called “gift of suspicion” and imagining someone is evil when they are not. What I experienced was an operation of Spiritual Gifts and I also received confirmation later when these secret things revealed to me were exposed publicly.
I confess however that I did not have the proper response and instead of just rejoicing that I had the operation of Spiritual Gifts, I instead got offended and angry at the guilty parties and wondered why God had revealed these things to me when I had no authority to cast these fakers out of the church because someone else had invited them to preach and had appointed them in these positions which placed them before the congregation.
Again, I was just a baby Christian much like the young boy Samuel who did not have a clue as to what was happening because he was innocent in mind about spiritual things! Looking back now I see that I should never have become angry (in the flesh) or have become offended at these charlatans because God did not reveal these things to me for that purpose. These revelations were only to provide practice for me to operate these gifts and later what I knew by inward witness was confirmed so that I would also know that what I was hearing was God’s voice and operating in spiritual gifts (not from natural suspicions derived from the human mind).
How I wish I had a Fivefold Ministry “Mentor” of like-calling who could have just told me blankly, “When the gifts of the Spirit begin to operate and God reveals things to you then do not get angry or offended at the person you know things about because God is just teaching you how to operate the gifts and this knowledge you received is not for the purpose of exposing them but only for you to have confirmation that you are hearing God’s voice right!”
So, all that happened was all just exercise to teach me how to operate in Spiritual Gifts as an Apostle/Teacher.
Manifestation of Righteous Anger
Another thing that would happen after I began to travel and minister before congregations is that sometimes a righteous anger would come upon me and I would deliver a hard rebuke to the people for some type of disorder which I perceived in the spirit. It must be noted that this anger was not derived from natural human anger that originates from the soul realm of humans. It was an anger of God over which I had no control and in fact there was no natural reason for me to have been angry and no one said or did anything to have triggered this anger because it came from God. This has occurred on a number of occasions during my international travels but it was not derived from my own natural human anger.
The problem however is that the manifestation of holy anger shocked myself as much as it did the congregation! Often, I would even take on an “apologetic-attitude” afterward as if to say, “Gee, I do not know why I was so angry!” But in this there is a great danger because to apologize for God’s anger manifest through a Fivefold minister is actually blasphemous! To act apologetic about God’s anger is as if to accuse God of doing wrong and herein lies a great danger!
If a Fivefold minister is yet young in the Lord (like the young boy Samuel) then there will be a grace to cover his ignorance since he does not know any better. Immaturity is not a sin because all humans have to grow and mature and this includes those in the Fivefold ministry as well. But if the Fivefold minister is mature and should know better and he should take on an apologetic-attitude after delivering an Apostle’s rebuke from God then that can have serious consequences! If he should apologize (even in attitude) then it is the same as accusing God of wrong doing because the anger and the rebuke came directly from God (not from the Apostle himself and did not originate from his own mind or from his own human will or human emotions).
If an older mature Fivefold minister should even suggest he harbors an apologetic-attitude (after delivering a rebuke from God) then he is in great danger of having his gift go dormant! Whether this occurs or not is largely dependent upon his maturity level and how much grace God has extended toward him. But if he does the same things as a mature minister (as he did as a baby) then he could have his gift go dormant.
If a Fivefold minister has his gift go dormant then it is like Aaron having his priestly garments removed from him and so Aaron was hit with instant death! The devil is just waiting for an opportunity to destroy a Fivefold minister because these men are on the top of his satanic hit-list. If the devil can destroy a Fivefold minister then he can do much harm to the kingdom of God on earth!
Normally the devil cannot touch a Fivefold minister except if he does something or says something that can cause his gift to go dormant and thus leaves him naked and a standing target for the enemy to destroy!
One way that a Fivefold ministry gift can go dormant is to apologize (or even act apologetic) after God has just delivered a rebuke through such a man. This can make his gift go dormant because this attitude is showing that he fears humans more than God and is therefore being apologetic toward the people. An Apostle and Prophet cannot fear humans or try to gain their human acceptance otherwise their gifts will go dormant and they will be like Aaron who was open to death as soon as his priestly garments were removed from him!
Never should an Apostle or Prophet apologize (or even take on an apologetic attitude) after delivering God’s rebuke to a congregation. They should not seek to comfort them either but instead allow God’s rebuke to have the good effect of bringing the people to repentance so they will produce the fruit of righteousness in their lives.
To comfort or apologize can cancel out the good effects of God’s rebuke much like a foolish mother comforting a child after the father has disciplined them and thus canceling out the good effects of masculine discipline upon that child. A mother should never apologize for her husband’s discipline nor should she comfort a child after he was disciplined but allow that discipline to have the good effect of changing their behavior. The same is true with the rebukes delivered by an Apostle or a Prophet and these men themselves should not cancel out God’s rebuke by being apologetic or comforting the people after that rebuke was delivered. The rebuke must be allowed to have its full effect of bringing people to repentance.
If that rebuke is cancelled out by apology then the man who has the Fivefold ministry gift is in danger of having his gift go dormant and this will be a great disaster for him and can open the door for demonic-torment just as King Saul experienced. Once the gift is dormant, they have no more spiritual authority and are standing naked and defenseless before the adversary who seeks their destruction!
If they have not yet crossed the line of perdition (like Saul) then a Fivefold minister may still be able to repent and be restored to God and close the door to demonic-torment. But for those who are yet “baby” Fivefold ministers this is a good warning to them so that they will know and understand divine protocol that they are never to apologize for a rebuke given by God through them and they are not to even have an “apologetic-attitude” about it afterward because this is a serious offense against God and if they are mature and know better, they could have their gift go dormant and experience demonic-torment just as King Saul did.