Why I Would Want The Five Fold In My Church – Part VII
Genesis 2:20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found….. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman ….., and he brought her to the man,…. 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
As independent as we like to think we are, man still has the need, the desire for fellowship. Loneliness is not a good thing! Even though Adam communed with God, there was still a void. Adam had a need, and God loves to meet our needs! In fact, God’s ways, His plans, the way He meets needs often surpasses the request given.
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule ….. over all the creatures …..” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
God saw beyond Adam’s need. Adam needed more than companionship, he needed others to help rule over all the creation God had made. He could not do it alone. True, he was lonely, but he was also overwhelmed. God understood, for in Genesis 2:22 it says “But for Adam no suitable helper was found.” He was doing everything alone; he needed a “suitable helper”. God’s answer: union with Eve! She not only filled his loneliness but was a compatible, “suitable” helper! They now ruled together by serving one another.
But Paul in his letter to the Ephesians takes it further. Ephesians 5:29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
It is all about relationships! Paul goes beyond Adam and Eve’s relationship to sharing a profound mystery: it’s about Christ’s relationship to the church! Who is the Godhead’s “suitable helper” here on earth? The Church! It is through the Church that God chose to rule over the earth and to be protectors of His creation. God has provided a “suitable helper” in his eyes.
I believe God has given the Church the five fold in order to be the “suitable helper” He has created it to be because the five fold is build on SERVICE, serving one another, helping one another, aiding one another, sacrificially, the being willing to lay down your life for another as Jesus did for His Church!
As a Church we have to begin to allow believers in Jesus Christ who function as evangelists to birth, who function as shepherds to nurture, who function in a teaching role to make the Logos, written Word, a Rhema, living Word, who function in the prophetic to draw near and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, who function apostolically by seeing the Church as a whole, networking the many parts of the Body of Christ for the common good. Each of the five ARE NOT entities unto their own, but parts of the Body of Christ who are to be “suitable helpers” to one another through service.
If the prophet has a Godly dream, he needs an evangelist to birth it, a shepherd to nurture it, a teacher to bring the truth of the Word of that dream alive, and an apostle to network everyone toward the completion and fulfillment of that dream. The prophet CAN NOT do it alone. He needs the body; he needs “suitable helpers”.