The preacher, R.W. Shambach, tells the following:

While he was ministering to a congregation in the early 1950s, they supported a missionary in India monthly for over 30 years. During this time, the missionary told Pastor Shambach that in these 30 years of missionary work in India, he had not seen a single Mohammedan converted.

This made Pastor Shambach wonder if a financial investment in such a person’s ministry was a good investment in the Kingdom of God! So, he decided to go to India himself to experience what was happening there.

Shambach recounts how, in 1956, during his first visit to India, he ministered to over 50,000 people. He visited all the markets there and was amazed at the thousands of beggars, blind, and paralyzed people around him. He had never seen so many sick and poor people. For the first time, he truly understood why people described India as one of the poorest nations in the world, where millions of people were homeless and without a cent of money sitting on the streets!

Shambach goes on to tell how they even invested thousands of dollars to build a structure that could protect the people from the hot sun while they sat and listened to the preaching of the Gospel.

Upon the opening of this structure, he preached there for two hours straight, while an interpreter interpreted everything he preached for the crowd in their language for another two hours.

In the end, the “sermon” with the interpreter’s contribution was a total of 4 hours long!

To his complete surprise, however, when he extended an invitation to the crowd of 50,000 people to accept Jesus as their Savior, not one person came forward to do so!

For the first time, he understood what that missionary had told him.

So, he prayed and said: O Lord, now I understand why You have equipped us with Your Spirit and with the gifts of the Spirit, and why it is not enough just to preach the Word. You have called us to demonstrate the Gospel message to the people as well!

Although the crowd anxiously awaited the “amen” of the preacher, Shambach told them, “No, I am not finished yet. My God has promised in His Word that He will confirm His Word through wonders and signs. Now I am going to do what God has instructed us to do as well!”

Shambach then invited 3 specific people to the stage. All of them were beggars. One was blind, the other was deaf and dumb, and the last one was a woman who had never been able to walk upright, but rather walked on hands and feet, like an animal.

50,000 people’s eyes burned at everything that was happening on the stage!

Shambach then laid hands on the blind man and said, “In the name of Jesus, I command these blind eyes to see!”

Immediately, the Lord opened her eyes, and she stood up, running into the crowd while crying out in her language: “I can see! I can see!”

Shambach then walked over to the deaf-mute man, put his fingers in his ears and put his thumb on his tongue, and said, “In the name of Jesus, I now command this deaf-mute spirit to come out and leave!”

Within a few minutes, this man began to speak in English. He did not know his language, but the Lord opened his ears and loosened his tongue so that he could speak in English.

It was time to pray for the crippled woman. Shambach then said, “Now I am going to lay hands on this woman in the name of Mohammed, and I am going to give him the same time as I gave Jesus to show what he can do!”

The interpreter, however, refused to translate it.

Shambach then said to him, “You will say exactly what I tell you to do. I am the man of God, and you are my interpreter!”

Shambach then laid his hands on the woman in the name of Mohammed and said: “In the name of Mohammed, stand up straight and start walking normally!”

Not one person in the crowd thought at all that this woman would stand up straight and start walking normally, because they knew that Mohammed was dead!

Therefore, Shambach continues: “You see, this is the difference between the god you serve, and the God I serve! I did not come to humiliate your god. I did come to honour my God here before you! You go to the tomb of Mohammed many times, but the tomb of my God and Lord is empty, because He rose and He lives! Today I am going to show you that Jesus lives and that He is still the same today!

With these words, Shambach lays his hands on the woman in the Name of Jesus, the Name above every other name, who died on the cross for the sins of the whole world, also for the people of India!

In front of the eyes of this crowd of 50,000, this woman suddenly stands up straight and can walk normally for the first time in her entire life of 58 years!

Do you want to know what happened next?

Suddenly, people in the crowd started running forward as one man. Poor Shambach went to hide behind his interpreter because he thought his last day on earth had arrived!

The people started to keep shouting the same words over and over again. Shambach then asked the interpreter: “What are they saying?”

The interpreter then replied: “They are shouting, Jesus is alive! Jesus is the Christ! Jesus is God! And they want Him to come and save them!”

When we allow God Himself to demonstrate the Good News of the Gospel to people through His power and His gifts, we will also see what we read about in Acts 3 and Acts 8.

This same Jesus is still the same today, and He will do what He promised! Also, through ordinary people like you and me!

Now that I have shown you from Scripture why Jesus promised His followers that He would not leave them as “orphans” when He returns to heaven to reign at the Right Hand of God the Father as the “new King”. After all, He is going to send God the Spirit Himself to come and live in them to always be with them and to personally guide and teach them as He who is Jesus has done for the past three years.

Jesus also explained to them how God the Spirit will equip and anoint them with the same supernatural gifts of the Spirit that they have seen function in Jesus’ life every day for the past three years.

Therefore, from the beginning, in the early Christian congregation after the outpouring of God the Spirit on God’s people, we see how every believer becomes a witness and instrument in God’s hand.

We see that when a new convert has had a “normal spiritual birth” on that first day or days of their conversion, baptism in water, baptism in the Spirit, according to Acts 2:37 to 39, how from day one they truly become “witnesses” of an invisible God who came to reveal Himself to us in Jesus the Christ’s incarnation, life, crucifixion and resurrection.

Let me show you from Scripture what it looks like practically when believers believe and understand this.

Turn to Acts 3 and read this chapter.

Do you hear and see Peter standing before that lame man who asks him for a little begging coin, and then the following happens:

Peter says to him with certainty of faith: “I have no money; but what I have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

Then he took the man’s right hand and helped him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones became strong. He jumped up and stood upright, and could walk.”

Yes, I hear some of you saying: Yes, but it was Peter, one of Jesus' twelve disciples, who walked and lived with Jesus for three years!

Yes, I know you want to tell me that this might be true of Peter, but how can we believe that it is also true of "ordinary people" like you and me?

Okay, let me show you an "ordinary person" who God also began to use in such an extraordinarily wonderful way.

Turn to Acts 8 and quickly read this chapter.

Did you at least read Acts 8:5 to 8 and hear how the Holy Spirit began to use an ordinary man, in this case, Philip?

“Now it happened that Philip went down to a city of Samaria and preached Christ. When the people heard Philip and saw the miracles he was doing, they paid close attention to what he said. Unclean spirits came out of many, crying out, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. There was great joy in that city.”

Next time I’ll tell you what it looks like practically if and when believers in our world truly believe this.

In light of the prophetic word of Ezekiel 37:1-10.

“The hand of the Lord was upon me. He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the valley—it was full of bones. He led me around it again and again; and behold, there were very many scattered on the face of the valley, and they were completely dry!

Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I answered, “My Lord, the Lord, only you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones. Say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Behold, I will put breath in you, and you will live. I will put sinews on you, and put flesh on you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”

So I prophesied as I was commanded. As I prophesied, there was a sound—a rattling! The bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh was coming out! Skin was covered on them from above, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me: “Prophesy to the wind! Prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O wind! Breathe on these slain, that they may live.”

I prophesied as He commanded me. The wind entered them and they came to life and stood on their feet – an exceedingly great army!”

Therefore, God’s Word to His Body ...

It is time to arise, Body of Jesus!

Listen, dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to you:

“Behold, I will put spirit in you, and you will live. I will put sinews on you, and put flesh on you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”

If you listen and look, with the ears of your spirit, and with the eyes of your spirit, you will have long heard and seen the sounds and signs of this revival in the Body!

It is now time to hear how God urges us to continue calling for His Wind, the Spirit-wind!

Call, pray, beg God's Spirit to come and give life!

Call, pray, beg: “O Holy Spirit, come from the North, the South, the East, and the West! Bring life into this Body now!”

Because God, for many reasons, still cannot use them as He wants now.

Therefore, I hereby call upon God's chosen, anointed, and equipped apostles, prophets, shepherds, teachers, and evangelists to stand up and to start doing what they should do, where and how God has placed and called them.

“Start to equip God's Body, every believer in the Body, for their service and so that the Body of Christ can be built up and can function as Jesus, the Head, intended it.”

Thus, every member in the Body will eventually come to true unity in faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.

Then they, as Jesus' Ekklesia and Church, will be like a full-grown man, as perfect and mature as Christ.

Then each of them will no longer be children; they will no longer be like waves tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of heresy as false teachers want to lead them astray with cunning and cunning.

No, each member will remain in the truth in love and so grow up into Christ in every way.

After all, He is the Head of the Body, and from Him the whole Body grows.

We will also discover that the different parts of the body fit together to form a unity. And we will see this happen locally, in communities, towns, cities, and in the countryside. Yes, we will see and experience the unity that Jesus, the Head of the Body, intended to be! And we will see the impact that they will have together in those communities.

And we will see how every believer, small and great, wherever God has placed him or her, fulfills his or her function, and how they love each other and others as Jesus commanded us.

I wonder if you know how many times I sometimes have to rewrite what I write to you here! For many reasons. One of the most important reasons for this is that I have often found I did not write down enough of what the Lord wants me to say. This passage you are reading now is another such case.

I realized that what we read in Ephesians 4:11 to 16 is radically different and looks different from what you and I experience in the congregations around us.

Let me just quote these verses again:

“And these are the “gifts” that He “gave”: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers. His purpose in doing so was to equip the believers for their service and for the building up of the body of Christ. So we will all eventually come to the true unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God. Then we, his church, will be like a full-grown man, as perfect and mature as Christ. Then we will no longer be children; we will no longer be like waves tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of false teaching as false teachers want to lead us astray by their cunning and cunning. No, we will remain in the truth in love and so grow up in every way into Christ. After all, he is the head, and from him the whole body grows. And the different parts of the body fit together and form a unity. Each one of them fulfills its function, and so the body builds itself up in love.”

Some of the relevant things you should notice are:

First, the “fivefold ministries” spoken of here never occur in just one person.

Practically, this means that in the congregation or family of believers in which you worship and serve the Lord locally, the “leader”, or “pastor”, or “reverend”, if they are one of these fivefold ministries, will function primarily as an apostle, or as a prophet, or as a teacher, or as a shepherd, or as an evangelist, and thus serve God’s people with the gifts that the Lord has given him or her. So please do not expect that one person to be this excellent preacher and teacher, and on top of that, to be this excellent shepherd with a shepherd’s heart!

That is why I feel so sorry for the “pastor” within the typical Reformed congregations, because from my 15 years of experience as an ordinary “pastor”, I know that the expectations according to the provisions of the church order, cause 60% of these pastors and their spouses to burn out or almost burn out somewhere in their ministry!

Secondly, it is important to note in these verses in Ephesians 4 that Jesus gave the fivefold ministries to function and minister within the ONE BODY, the ONE true Biblical Ekklesia.

Need I remind you that the church of the Lord Jesus that we see around us in our town or city or area, for example, here in South Africa, is a congregation of one of at least 30,000 different churches or denominations! And that each of them truly believes that they are the “only true church of Jesus,” where the full truth is taught!

Do you realize what spiritual dilemmas this belief causes?

Remember, each of these 30,000 different churches and denominations has its “own doctrine” and what they believe is right and according to the Bible. According to this, they train leaders to be able to serve in that specific group or part of the church of Jesus.

So, if you are not part of this faith group or theological conviction, you cannot simply serve within that part of the church.

This brings me back to what is written here in Eph. 4:11 to 16.

If my statement is correct, namely that the fivefold ministries are intended to function like the normal circulatory system of the body within the ONE BODY of Jesus, the above realities are going to have extremely serious consequences!

This is going to mean that because certain of the fivefold ministries are simply not going to be “allowed” to minister there – due to certain theological beliefs of that group in the Body of Jesus – the “blood”, life and spiritual nourishment just can’t always reach all the parts of the Body as Jesus wants it to!

Next time we’ll talk more.