Pastor’s Dilemma
The header image above shows an ewe (female sheep) which has a shriveled-looking mutation horn drooping down a from the right side of its head and another crooked horn (partially visible) that protrudes rearward from behind its left ear. (There are some sheep-breeds which have both male and females that carry horns). This image of an ewe-sheep carrying horns could be compared to a woman growing whiskers like a man! However, having whiskers does not make a woman into a man any more than having horns makes an ewe-sheep into a ram!
Also falsely trying to elevate the office of a “pastor” to the highest office in the church is like trying to promote an ewe-sheep into being a ram. The ewe sheep (pastor) may have some shriveled looking horns but they do not have the spiritual authority of an Apostle or Prophet. Often the bible depicts the “horn” as being symbolic of authority or dominion so an ewe-sheep with horns seems “ironic” since they do not have the same dominance as a ram. So also, a pastor assuming the role of having all “dominance” in the church is as laughable as an ewe with horns pretending to be a ram!
A further analogy can be given here as well because the gift and office of a pastor is “feminine” in nature much like an “ewe-sheep” because the pastor gives milk of exhortation and comfort just like an ewe provides milk for her lambs. The problem is however that milk is for babies and once a child is weaned from the breast then it is time for them to come under the discipline of their father. Believers will never progress into full spiritual maturity if they remain on spiritual milk even after being saved for decades. They must progress onto meat teaching (which contains rebukes and correction) or they will never become spiritual adults.
There is a bible school near Tulsa Oklahoma whose founder is well respected and provided basic doctrines such as “Faith” and “Being led by the Spirit of God” which transformed thousands of lives. However, he does have a “cult-following” meaning that people will accept anything that he says without question and without going to the word of God and seeing if it is true or not. This man made several errors when he authorized “Women Equality” into the church and also when he elevated the office of “pastor” to the highest level of ministry gift in the church. He got it wrong on both counts because God does not believe in “gender-equality but instead God believes in “oneness” because a woman was created for the man and they are to become “one-person” together in marriage. They are not equal but rather “one-complete” person in marriage.
See the link “Genders Not Equal” for more details.
Also, there are five ministry gifts and the office of “pastor” does not even rank in the top three! So, this bible teacher from Tulsa was wrong when he said that the pastor is the most important office in the church when in fact the pastor gives out nothing except the milk of exhortation and comfort!
1 Corinthians 12:28 (NASB)
28 And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, . . .
The first three ministry gifts in the church are the Apostles and Prophets and Teachers. Often men will have a dual-gift such as Apostle/Teacher and Prophet/Teacher and these men will display the fruit of the ministry as evident in their teaching. The Apostle/Teacher will have his teaching flow along the lines of setting things in order and character development topics. The Prophet/Teacher will typically define sin in great detail with his teaching and give instructions about how to overcome that particular sin. The Apostles bring divine order and the Prophets bring holiness and fear of the Lord.
See the link “Fivefold Ministry Gifts” for more details.
The gifts of Apostle and Prophet are masculine gifts and they deliver rebukes and warnings and even death-threats to hell! This is called “meat-teaching” because it can be something hard to chew and swallow but at the same time this type of teaching is satisfying just like eating a good steak!
But babies will typically choke on solid food because they have not yet developed the teeth needed to chew and swallow anything solid. This is why babies must only drink milk because they cannot chew anything solid.
It is for this reason that God provided the gift of “pastor” which is a feminine gift which provides babies with the milk of exhortation and comfort. This is fine for babies because babies need milk but this is not fine for those who are mature because a mature believer will no longer be satisfied by drinking only milk.
In fact, there are believers who have been saved for decades and the only thing they have ever tasted at church is the milk of exhortation and comfort from a pastor. They are not satisfied with this anymore and even the pastor himself will typically find they are sick of their own teaching after several decades of teaching the same old thing.
Some pastors in this unsatisfied condition have resorted to “psychology” or “theology” trying to come up with something better to teach but these fields of study only dabble in the “mental realm” and are nothing but intellectual. There is no spiritual value in psychology or theology and these things cannot help any believers mature spiritually.
The only way that they are going to find spiritual satisfaction is if they submit to and accept the ministry gifts of Apostle and Prophet. However, there are many women and pastors who have accused Apostles and Prophets as being “sheep-beaters” only because they do not want to hear anything except exhortation and comfort. But the ministry of Apostles and Prophets displays true “masculine love” that does what is right for the believers and is able to save their souls from hell. If the old believers (no longer babies) remain in the milk of exhortation and comfort forever they will never enter their Promised Land but they will expire of old age and perish in the wilderness and end up in hell!
Spiritual Analogy of Salvation and Promised Land
Exodus 12:37 (NIV)
37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.
When Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt there was over 600,000 male heads of households besides their women and children. The women were one-person together with their own husbands and their offspring were under the authority of their parents. So, this means there was over 600,000 Jewish families all headed by Jewish male heads of households. Counting the men therefore automatically included their wives and children who were under their authority.
The Exodus from Egypt speaks of being set free from the slavery of sin just as the Israelites were in bondage to slavery for 430-years in Egypt.
1 Corinthians 10:1-2 (NIV)
1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.
2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
The Red Sea represented baptism when the slave-drivers of Egypt were all drown and the Israelites were set from their task masters. In the same way unbelievers were once in bondage to sin but when they become saved, they are set free from the sin that once held them in slavery. The cloud was also a form of baptism that speaks of how God leads the believer just as the children of Israel were led by a pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
Exodus 16:14-15 (NIV)
14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor.
15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.
God gave the Israelites manna to eat during their travels in the wilderness and this can be compared to a mother breast-feeding her infant child because God was feeding them daily and they did not have to grow their own food by planting and harvesting. The manna therefore represents the milk of exhortation and comfort just like the teaching of a pastor which is given to newly saved babies.
The Israelites just came out of Egypt so this speaks of them being newly saved and beginning their walk with God. But all the while they were in the wilderness, they were eating manna which represents spiritual milk for the babies.
Joshua 5:12 (NIV)
12 The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan.
As soon as the surviving Israelites crossed over the Jordan with Joshua then the manna, they had been formerly eating in the wilderness ceased. They began to eat the produce of the land at this time. This is symbolic of how manna represents milk for babies and crossing over into the Promised Land speaks of spiritual maturity and putting away the baby milk and learning to stand on their own two feet as adults.
1 Corinthians 10:5-6 (NIV)
5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.
6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.
But it should be noted that God was not pleased with most of them and the entire generation (of age twenty and above) perished in the wilderness. These were the same people who did not want to overcome and complained that there were giants in the land and wanted to give up and return to Egypt. So, God rejected them and they never entered their Promised Land but were consigned to wander in the barren wasteland of the desert until they all expired of old age.
This is a spiritual analogy of what happens to people who refuse to grow up but instead want to remain on the baby bottle of a pastor’s milk of exhortation and comfort for decades after they are saved. Even after the time has come for them to put away the baby bottle, they still want to remain as babies and continue to refuse all correction from their heavenly Father and want to be pampered and carried around all of the time like a baby.
The Israelites in the wilderness also acted like babies when they would cry out and scream when they were thirsty or for any other reason. They were just like screaming babies in the wilderness time and wanted to have everything immediately or they would throw a fit!
It should be noted here that those who perished in the wilderness were those who continued to eat manna until they died. They were therefore partaking of spiritual milk and never progressed to become adults but remained on the bottle all of their lives. They refused to grow up or receive correction so they died in the condition of being babies (even when they should have been fully mature adults at their age).
This same type of phenomenon also exists among believers who get saved from the world and attend a church and receive the milk of exhortation and comfort from a pastor. This is fine when they are infants in Christ but after decades have passed, they are still sitting in church and receiving nothing but the milk of exhortation and comfort of a pastor! These “old babies” are just like those Israelites who refused God’s correction and were rejected and consigned to wander in the wilderness eating manna until they perished!
Numbers 11:6 (NLT2)
6 But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!”
The problem with manna (milk of exhortation and comfort) is that people are eventually going to get sick of it. These children of Israel were disgusted with manna because manna represents the milk of exhortation and comfort as given by a pastor. Only babies will cry for milk but adults will gag on it if that is the only thing, they have available to them for years on end!
But these “old babies” could have passed their tests and entered the Promised Land which was full of good food to eat (not just manna). But they refused to pass the tests and repeatedly murmured and complained against God until they were finally rejected and consigned to wander in the wilderness and eat manna until they died.
The same type of thing also occurs when believers grow old eating nothing but manna (of the milk of exhortation and comfort of a pastor) while rejecting the masculine teaching of Apostles and Prophets. There are women in the church and pastors who have rejected the masculine teaching of Apostles and Prophets because they refuse to receive anything except the manna of exhortation and comfort. They want to remain on the baby bottle forever drinking only milk without ever proceeding toward being an adult and eating solid food which can help them mature spiritually.
The Promised Land does not represent heaven because heaven has no giants to overcome. The Promised Land was occupied by illegal squatters and the children of Israel were required to defeat them and drive them out before they could take possession of the land which God had given to them. Entering the Promised Land therefore represents overcoming and taking what belongs to them as mature believers. It was in the Promised Land where their manna ceased and they began eating solid food speaking of being weaned from the breast as soon as they crossed the Jordan.
God was not going to give them any more manna (milk of exhortation and comfort) but instead they were treated as sons and had to learn how to fight and overcome and conquer as men (not babies). But those who did not want to fight were crying and whining until God rejected them and gave them what they asked for. They were consigned to remain in the wilderness and eat manna until they died of old age!
There are people who have attended church for decades and have not grown up and still have not received the masculine rod of correction delivered by the Apostle and Prophets. They want to remain on the breast and not grow up so they are in danger of being consigned to wandering in the wilderness and eating the manna until they expire of old age. These “old babies” will not enter their Promised Land and they will not enter heaven either because they never grew up and have never become overcomers.
See the link “Overcoming Christian” for more details.
Therefore, they will not enter heaven if they continue to reject the ministry of Apostles and Prophets which can make them grow up spiritually
See the link “No Apostle No Prophet No Heaven” for more details
Pastor’s Dilemma
The reason that the pastors are in a dilemma is because they are only gifted by God to provide milk of exhortation and comfort for babies. They are not equipped to provide the meat of God’s word which comes only from Apostles and Prophets. Therefore, their congregations will end up growing old having nothing but the manna of exhortation for babies and they will grow sick of it. Even the pastors themselves will become sick of their own teaching asking, “Is there anything more to Christianity than this?” But there is much more available than milk but if they reject everything that is not exhortation, they will reject the very Apostle and Prophet teaching capable of qualifying them for heaven. Rejecting the meat-teaching of rebukes and correction will result in them being consigned to wandering in the wilderness and eating manna until they expire by old age and go to hell. They will not enter the kingdom of God when they have stubbornly rejected all teaching (which is not milk) and grew old after decades in this condition and expired before they ever entered their own Promised Land.
No Promised Land of Marriage
There are unmarried women for example who want to have a husband to support them so they do not have to work. But this is the wrong motive for marriage and therefore God has not provided a mate for them. They complain to God about not answering their prayers for a spouse but at the same time they are doing nothing to better themselves in order to qualify to be married. So, they complain and blame God and continue to wander around in the wilderness growing old without entering their Promised Land of marriage.
Character Development of Joseph
Joseph was tested by unjust treatment when he was sold as a slave and he also ended up in prison for a crime he did not commit. This was all God’s masculine rod of correction using circumstances to build the character of Joseph. Joseph was prepared for leadership by the things that he suffered as a slave and as a prisoner. But Joseph passed the tests and remained faithful to God and was diligent where God placed him. In the right time and season Joseph was suddenly promoted out of prison to become second-in-command over the entire nation of Egypt. Joseph entered his Promised Land of being a ruler after he learned to overcome and accept character development.
But often the teaching of Apostles or Prophets is not popular when they touch on subjects related to character development and speak of how God tests believers to prove them faithful. But often the people are so accustomed to the milk of exhortation and comfort that if someone gives them solid food they will start screaming and accuse the Apostle or Prophet as being a sheep-beater! But when they refuse good solid food of “meat teaching” they are refusing to grow up but want to cling to their baby bottle. If they persist like this then God will give them what they want and consign them to die of old age in the wilderness eating manna (spiritual milk) without ever entering their Promised Land. This will equal hell for them just as all those twenty-years old and above went to hell after they perished in the wilderness for their refusal to grow up and learn to overcome. Someone who is twenty years old and above is no longer a baby and cannot remain a baby forever. The same is true of someone who has been saved more that three years. Typically, it is time to be weaned from the breast at age three. But if they are still using a baby bottle after three decades of being saved then they are willfully refusing to grow up and have refused to accept responsibility as adults!
Give Us Meat to Eat
Numbers 11:4-6 (NLT2)
4 Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed.
5 “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted.
6 But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!”
The Israelites were previously eating meat (such as fish) in Egypt during their slavery so in this sense meat could be compared to food of slavery. Being a slave means they have to obey the taskmaster so eating meat can also be related to coming under lordship to God (as a bond slave) to do whatever he might command them.
Herein is a paradox because the Apostles and Prophets provide good meat to eat that is satisfying but at the same time those who receive this meat-teaching are also held accountable to live up to it. If they want to eat meat as an adult then they will have to also accept being treated as adults instead of babies. This means they will be held responsible for the knowledge they are given.
Numbers 11:31-33 (NLT2)
31 Now the LORD sent a wind that brought quail from the sea and let them fall all around the camp. For miles in every direction there were quail flying about three feet above the ground.
32 So the people went out and caught quail all that day and throughout the night and all the next day, too. No one gathered less than fifty bushels! They spread the quail all around the camp to dry.
33 But while they were gorging themselves on the meat—while it was still in their mouths—the anger of the LORD blazed against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.
This is an example of God providing them with the meat which they were craving for but while they were gorging themselves with this meat then God struck them with severe plague and many of them perished by this judgment!
So, there is a paradox that exists here when the Apostle and Prophet provide meat-teaching for the old-babies. These old babies who loathe manna will finally be satisfied rather than having nothing except the milk of exhortation and comfort. But with the adult-food (meat) comes along with-it adult responsibility to live up to the standard God has set by the meat-teaching delivered by the Apostles and Prophets. If they want to reject this responsibility and continue to live like a baby then they will have immediate judgment because they are being deceitful in pretending to want to learn more but then refusing to submit to this teaching once it has been delivered to them.
Jeremiah 42:20-21 (NIV)
20 that you made a fatal mistake when you sent me to the LORD your God and said, ‘Pray to the LORD our God for us; tell us everything he says and we will do it.’
21 I have told you today, but you still have not obeyed the LORD your God in all he sent me to tell you.
The people vowed to obey whatever word of the Lord the Prophet Jeremiah brought to them. But when Jeremiah delivered God’s orders then they did not want to obey these orders but instead tried to “find-fault” with the delivery boy in a weak attempt to relieve themselves from having to obey God’s words as delivered by Jeremiah. Jeremiah told them that they made a fatal mistake when they came to inquire of the Lord because after God spoke to them then they rebelled and refused to obey God’s commands as delivered to them by Jeremiah.
This same sort of thing happens often with those old babies who are sick of the milk of exhortation and comfort and want to have some meat to eat instead of the manna which they loathe. But when they have “adult-food” like meat-teaching they are then treated as adults instead of babies. They are therefore required to obey whatever God delivers to them from the mouth of his Apostles and Prophets.
But when they refuse to obey (once they have heard God’s instructions) then they bring judgment upon themselves. This is their fatal mistake to cry out for meat only to reject that same meat-teaching when they refuse to comply with what God is commanding them to do.
Fault Finding with Delivery Boy
Jeremiah 43:1-4 (NIV)
1 When Jeremiah finished telling the people all the words of the LORD their God–everything the LORD had sent him to tell them–
2 Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to settle there.’
3 But Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians, so they may kill us or carry us into exile to Babylon.”
4 So Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers and all the people disobeyed the LORD’s command to stay in the land of Judah.
For thousands of years it has been the typical “mode of operations” for people to find-fault with the delivery boy as they look for an excuse to disobey the word of the Lord delivered to them by Apostles and Prophets. Johanan and the other leaders all said that Jeremiah was a liar and God had not spoken to him but accused Jeremiah that he had evil motives in trying to get them handed over to the Babylonians. So, with this excuse they refused to obey the word of the Lord given to them by Jeremiah the Prophet. They did not honor Jeremiah as a Prophet and so they were all destroyed by judgment for disobeying God and going to Egypt against God’s commands!
This is typical behavior of people who vow they want to hear and obey God in anything God says to them but when an Apostle or Prophet deliver God’s word to them then they will typically find fault with the delivery boy and declare “That message is not from God!” This is like asking for meat but then bringing judgment upon themselves just like the Israelites who asked for meat and then were destroyed when they ate that same meat!
The meat teaching of an Apostle and Prophet can bring judgment upon the hearers if they are given a clear message from God but then willfully reject that message and refuse to submit to it. It does them no good whatsoever to play these lame-games of finding fault with the delivery boy looking for an excuse not to obey God’s word. Saying that the Apostle or Prophet is a liar is not going to absolve them of the responsibility of obeying the message which they just received.
The horns of an ewe-sheep pastor are shriveled up and crooked and weak and he typically has nothing to say except to tell the unrepentant sinner “Jesus Loves You!” But the horns of authority carried by the Apostle and Prophet are not weak. Their authority (horns) are strong and can bring death to those who were hypocrites when they asked for meat-teaching but then rejected it after they received it because they did not want to obey the word of the Lord given to them.
Last Rebuke from Apostle
An Apostle is often sent to give the last word of warning to people who have been living in self-deception for decades. If they do not repent and stop their error then they can meet with an untimely death. This is often true for those laymen intruding into the office of the Fivefold Ministry for which they are not called. Many of these laymen intruders died after they received a warning to get out of the ministry but they stubbornly refused to comply with the warning delivered to them by an Apostle.
See the link “Endorsing Laymen Intruders” for more details.
Sometimes an Apostle will deliver a warning (such as a woman being rebuked for having a Jezebel spirit and exercising manipulation and control over her husband and his household). But if they reject that warning and then they will find that they themselves become rejected like King Saul. They may still continue to go through the outward motions and are still attending church but the Spirit of God has already departed from them. They will hear no more voice of God speaking to them because they rejected their last warning when their specific sin was exposed by an Apostle.
Again, finding fault with the delivery boy or employing “counter-accusation” of some kind does not relieve them of the responsibility to obey the command given to them. If they harden their hearts and try to proceed the same as they did before the rebuke then they will have the Spirit of God depart from them and they are left like an empty-shell of a person going through the motions but having no more anointing.
When the Spirit of God departed from King Saul then God would not speak to him anymore by any means because of his disobedience. This also happens with old believers who refuse to obey what God has said to them through Apostles and Prophets. They will be cut off from God’s voice forever! This often happens when old believers resist the message delivered from an Apostle and they continue to insist on going forward with their old sin just as they did before the Apostle’s rebuke.
Sometimes the Apostle or Prophet will deliver a corporate rebuke for some sin that exists within a congregation. I once rebuked a bible school when the Spirit of God revealed that the upperclassmen were abusing the underclassmen in this school. I know of a Prophet who rebuked an entire congregation for their disrespect of the things of God by talking and socializing during the church service. At other times a rebuke will be given to a specific individual (as in the case of laymen ministry intruders or a woman operating with a Jezebel spirit). There are a number of secret sins and disorder which can be exposed by Apostles and Prophets by the operation of “Revelation Gifts” which are a category of the Spiritual Gifts. These gifts can expose corporate sins of a congregation or expose individual sins committed in secret by individual church members.
See the link “Spiritual Gifts” for more details.
When sin and disorder is exposed and rebuked then the offenders have a choice to make. They can humble themselves and repent and be spared judgment or they can resist and rebel (by playing tricks like finding fault with the delivery boy). The later options however will typically bring swift judgment upon themselves or else they will be cut off from God after that time in the same manner of King Saul.
When an Apostle or Prophet delivers a message from God, they will typically give the lesson in systematic manner to expose and define the disorder and sin. Then they will point the guns at the offenders and say, “You are the guilty ones!” This has explosive effect and leaves the guilty parties with nothing they can say in response because they were exposed so clearly that they cannot deny it anymore.
Again, the fate of the offenders will be determined by their own actions. They can repent or they can resist God and experience judgment.
This is illustrated in the manner that the Israelites asked for meat but when they ate that meat then it brought judgment upon them. This also has application when old babies ask an Apostle or Prophet for “meat-teaching” but then resisting this teaching after it has been delivered to them. But then they are unable to reverse the circumstance anymore because they are now judged as an adult and they have been given full-knowledge and are held accountable on how they respond to that knowledge. This is why the meat-teaching of an Apostle or Prophet can bring death to those who rebel against it. The Israelites ate meat and died and the same can be said of old babies who receive meat-teaching but then reject it or rebel or resist so they do not have to obey it. It is a fatal mistake for them to ask for meat-teaching and for them to falsely vow to obey whatever God says only to change their minds when they hear God’s message as delivered by the Apostle or Prophet.
Rock and a Hard Place
The pastor can find himself between a rock and a hard place if he invites the Apostle or Prophet to speak to his congregation. If he rejects the mandate delivered to him then he could become “Ichabod” which means the glory has departed.
1 Samuel 4:21-22 (NIV)
21 She named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel”–because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband.
22 She said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”
The party was over when Eli was judged together with his two wicked sons on the same day. Eli’s daughter-in-law gave birth and died herself after naming her child ‘Ichabod” meaning the glory has departed. So, when judgment comes, then God’s glory will depart and leave a rebellious pastor and his church and they will be reduced to just going through empty motions of dead rituals. But there will be no presence of God remaining among them. They will be faking it after that and will be unable to return to the way it used to be before they were rebuked.
So, what should a pastor do? Should he avoid the Apostles and Prophets and just keep giving his manna (milk of exhortation) to his congregation? Those who live on milk for decades will not enter their Promised Land and will perish in hell just like the Israelites who expired in the wilderness eating manna until they died of old age.
But if he accepts the teaching of Apostles and Prophets they can repent and change and overcome and mature and enter their Promised Land and qualify for heaven as well. But rejecting the meat-teaching given to them by Apostles and Prophets will only bring swift judgment upon them.
They cannot continue playing games with having church anymore once they have been rebuked. They have to repent and change or they will experience judgment from this time forward because God deals with them as sons rather than like babies still on the breast. Once they are weaned from the breast it is time for them to come under the masculine rod of correction given by Apostles and Prophets. The choice is theirs but they cannot continue as they were prior to having been exposed and rebuked by the Apostle and Prophet.