What’s happening is that our movement, please don’t misunderstand me here today. I love the United Pentecost Church. I am a part of the United Pentecost of church. But we have gotten to a place in the Apostolic Church, especially in the UPC, that we have. And I’m trying to be careful here. But we have gotten to a place in our organization where we place a higher premium on organizational and structural authority then we do spiritual authority. And that is exactly the place that the children of Israel found themselves in the text that I read here tonight, the book of 1st Chronicles, because Saul had organizational, structural, organizational and structural authority, but he did not have spiritual authority. The children of Israel got to a place where they wanted to be like every other nation. And it was at that point that they were governed by judges and by prophets, and they said, we don’t want a profit anymore. We want a personality. So we’re going to reject Samuel and we’re going to elevate Saul. Even though Samuel has spiritual authority and Saul has organizational authority, we want to follow Saul instead of Samuel. And they did this so that they could be like every other nation. I find it interesting that when they wanted to be like the world, they rejected the prophet and anointed a personality. And we’re seeing a lot of that in the Apostolic Church, where we want to elevate personalities and silence the prophetic in our churches. And we wonder why devils can hide out on our pews and never get dealt with? It’s because we’ve gotten to a place where we praise sermons more than we praise a word from God.
And so God finally said, I’m tired of the way that things are going, and this is where we are in our movement. He said that I’m going to turn the kingdom from Saul to David. Saul represented structural authority, but David represented spiritual authority. Saul represented the political, but David represented the prophetic.
I’m not saying that we don’t need appointed positions that are voted on by man, but what I am saying is that structural authority and organizational authority does not guarantee apostolic authority just because you have one doesn’t mean you have the other. You can be voted into a position by man. You may be even voted into a position in this church, but that doesn’t mean that you disrupt the spirit world whenever you open up your mouth and begin to speak.
Praise god. And so we are seeing that shift where this generation understands that there is a higher premium on spiritual authority then there is on structural and organizational authority. I’m meeting young men across our movement that have a full understanding that they may never get voted into a position. And please don’t misunderstand me, we need that in our movement. But there is a movement rising up within our movement that understands they may never get appointed to a position in our organization, but they walk in true apostolic power and authority.
He. As a matter of fact, if we’re talking about Brother Barnes tonight, he also prophesied before he passed away. Then in the end times, god would raise up young prophets in the earth that would be able to control the elements of weather. And the reason that they would be able to do this, he said, is so that they could distract the spirit of anti Christ from persecuting the church. In the end times, I believe some of those prophets could be in this room here tonight. And so there is a shift taking place, and God is elevating the prophetic in our movement. And you might say, brother, hearing I’m not a prophet. Well, you might not be a prophet, but you’re a prophetic people. But I’m afraid that we have lost touch at large with that prophetic DNA that was woven into the genetics of every believer when god fields you with the gift of the Holy Ghost and you were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
And so the Bible said that these are the numbers of the bands that were ready, armed to the war and came to David, to Hebron, to turn the kingdom of soul to him, according to the word of the Lord. And one of the most important groups of men that came to help turn the kingdom were the sons of isakar. The Bible said that the children of isakar, which were men that had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do. The heads of them were two hundred and oh, their Brethren were at their commandment.
Now look at what the Bible said. It said that the sons of isakar, they were a prophetic people and they had understanding of the times and they knew what Israel ought to do. It’s one thing to have an understanding of the time, but it’s another thing to know what you’re supposed to do in that time. You see the prophetic community in the apostolic church, they are to give definition to the hour and they are to give direction to the hour. But I believe that god is trying to elevate the Apostolic Church at large back into a prophetic dimension.