The Danger of Dismissing
When I taught on Ephesians 4:11 I shared something that came up in my study that I could not move past.
I use three to four commentaries when I prepare to teach. And in that study, one commentary said that apostles and prophets are not for today. Another said there is more than enough evidence to prove that they are.
Two commentaries. Two completely different conclusions. And right in the middle of that tension I heard something clearly.
The danger of dismissing.
I have read the Bible countless times and I do not see gifts disappearing. I do not see offices being replaced. When I look at Genesis, everything God created is still in existence today, centuries later. When I look at the human body, the anatomy has remained the same. Nothing has been dismissed. Nothing has been removed.
So why would gifts that God Himself gave to the church suddenly no longer be needed? No longer be valid? No longer be warranted?
Dismissing means to reject serious consideration of something or someone. And if God is consistent, and He is, then that consistency should apply to everything He established. We do not get to pick and choose what we accept from what He gave.
But I have to be honest with you. I was guilty of this.
Based on how I was raised and what I had been exposed to, I only knew of pastors, evangelists, and teachers. When I was first introduced to the apostolic and prophetic, I was so religious that I rejected it. I dismissed it before I ever truly considered it.
But my journey changed me. And it charged me.
A few years later I found myself in that same space again. The environment had not changed. But I had. I was open. I was hungry. I was desperate for what it offered. And what I encountered in that season marked my life in ways I am still walking in today.
Now I want to be transparent about something else too.
I have seen leaders operate wrongly in all five offices, especially the prophetic. I have not just witnessed it from a distance. I have been on the receiving end of it. And I had a choice to make. I could allow the bad examples to become the only examples. I could let what I experienced justify a permanent dismissal.
Or I could be healed. And then be open to seeking out pure representatives of what God actually intended.
I chose the latter. And my life is completely different because of it.
Because here is what I know now. If I had continued to dismiss what He gave, I would have never discovered what I was called to. The very thing I was tempted to reject is woven into my own assignment.
We cannot afford to dismiss what Jesus intentionally gave to His church because of misuse, misrepresentation, or unfamiliarity. The answer to abuse is never dismissal. It is discernment.
All five are necessary. He gave them on purpose. And He modeled every single one of them Himself.
He's speaking.
I'm writing and listening.
The Golden Scribe | MaShani Allen
