© Dr. James C. Boswell Sr.

The following is an outline of 11 hours of teaching. The outline was given at the December 2006 annual meeting of the International Coalition of Apostles (ICA) as part of a panel on the subject of "What is an Apostle?"

It is my opinion that an apostle is identified by two things:

2.   What the Holy Spirit does thru him (his functions)

I have emphasized the presence, control and actions of the Holy Spirit because you do not have to even be saved to build a network, raise up a megachurch, raise money for buildings or staff. Human charisma, intelligence, training, diligence and persistence can do that. Multi-level marketers build networks every day. Land developers raise money for buildings and hire staff. Large businesses are built by CEOs and a staff.

To do the work of establishing the Kingdom of Jesus, the Holy Spirit must be totally in charge. Yes, He uses your mind, emotions, will and body, but it is not your talent or wisdom that can establish the Kingdom of Jesus. You can achieve many things and appear to be successful in church life without being saved or without the Holy Spirit.

During the 40+ years that I have been in ministry, hundreds of individuals who occupy five fold ministry positions have suddenly received revelation that they had never been saved. To them church was just a good business. One classic case was a pastor who had been in ministry for 30+ years and was the senior pastor of a megachurch of 5000. One day he suddenly received revelation that he had never been saved. After repenting, surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus, appropriating Christ's blood sacrifice, and being baptized with the Holy Spirit, he spent the rest of his life spreading the message of the cross of Jesus Christ. But he didn't need any of those to build a megachurch. His natural talent had been sufficient.  

Do not be misled by human talent and charisma.    

The Level of the Holy Spirit's Presence and Control in His Life (Who He Is)

To effectively identify an apostle you must be enabled by the Holy Spirit to distinguish between talented human charisma and the Holy Spirit's presence and control.

Below are six manifestations of the Holy Spirit that can help you make this distinction and identify true apostles. 

1.   Sovereign Selection - His personal calling by Christ and confirmation by human delegated apostolic authority

2.   Character - Kingdom ethics - both in and out of public ministry. Humility - (Romans 8:29) Image of Jesus

3.   Leadership Skills - People want to follow him. He has a Holy Spirit impartation to select and inspire the right people to carry out each function to establish the Kingdom. Fathering - Servant Leader - Excellent Administrator

4.   Spiritual Knowledge - Holy Spirit-given biblical and spiritual insight (John 17:3); Visionary

5.   Ministry Skills - Holy Spirit-inspired anointed transmission of Kingdom knowledge

6.   Charismatic Gifts - One or more of the gifts of the Spirit (word of wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of good and evil spirit, healings, miracles, wonder working faith, prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues) 

What The Holy Spirit Does Through Him (His Functions)

1.  Vision - Establishes, clarifies, imparts and maintains Kingdom vision for the sphere of influence the Lord has assigned to him

2.  Strategy - Divinely receives, transmits and implements detailed short term, mid term and long term strategy to fulfill the vision

3.  Develop and Maintain Apostolic Teams - Gifted to carry out the strategy. Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers, Administrators, Healers, Miracle Workers, etc. (Eph 4:11-15; 1 Cor. 12:28)

4.  Conflict Resolution- Restores unity - Releases power (Matt. 18:19)

5.   Lay Biblical Foundations- Along with Prophets (Eph. 2:20)

Biblical Foundations consist of:

●        Kingdom Government

●        Biblical Doctrine

●        Kingdom Procedure - Discipleship

Faulty foundations are the cause of all conflict, confusion, wasted energy and ineffectiveness!

Further Details of the Five Apostolic Functions

Vision

Psalm 127:1 (Amp)  Except The Lord builds (is the architect of) the house, they labor in vain who build it 

●    You must have a Kingdom vision or you will expend your time and energy on projects and programs that will not produce the Kingdom. All efforts used to create, maintain, and/or complete projects and programs that will not produce Kingdom results are wasted and you will become frustrated with your failure to produce perfected saints (Eph. 4:11-15).

●    Most individuals in ministry do not have a true Kingdom vision. Below are some of the common goals of church leaders. These are not Kingdom vision - Bigger church buildings, larger congregations, larger staff, programs for men, women and youth, TV, radio or media. All of these are projects or programs, but they are not Kingdom vision and will not produce Kingdom results.  They will produce something, but not Kingdom results.

●    In the USA, 21,000 full time committed Christian workers quit the ministry each year in frustration because their best efforts have not produced Kingdom results (Charisma and Christian Life Magazine, Strang Communications Company, Lake Mary, FL, Stephen Strang, Founder and Publisher, June 2004, Volume 29, Number 11, p. 32)

●    Below are four aspects of Kingdom vision that every ministry person should allow to guide their every thought, motive and action to produce. This list is progressive.

■    Make disciples and train them to obey all that the Holy Spirit reveals to them (Matt 28:19-20)

■    Perfected Saints that are effective in their ministry callings (Eph. 4:11-15)

■    Establish Christ's dominion over every aspect of human life (Gen 1:26,28; 9:2-3; Hebrews 2:7-8)

■    Glorious Church without spot or wrinkle. (Eph 5:27)

Strategy

●    Strategic Planning - How do you plan to achieve the vision?

●    Set biblical goals and objectives

●    Assign individual team members specific goals based on divine revelation

●    Set short-, mid- and long-term goals for each member of the team. Establish time lines.  

●    Set up reporting and accountability system to ensure completion of vision

Apostolic Teams

●    Perfecting the saints is impossible without the input of a completely unified team of five fold and motivational gifted ministries. All of them believing and teaching the same things and working as an integrated team.   

●    No individual can fulfill Kingdom vision by himself.

●    Identify, teach and train a divinely selected team of five fold and motivational gifted ministries (Eph 4:11-15,1 Cor. 12:28)

●    The apostles are first among equals. Acting as a CEO would in a corporate structure. Each team member being given and owning a portion of the responsibility for perfecting the saints.

●    Accountability must be established and implemented.

Conflict Resolution

●    Essential for the unity of the Body of Christ

●    Essential for the saints to have prayers answered

●    Matthew 18:19 (Amp)  Again I tell you, if two of you on earth agree (harmonize together, make a symphony together) about whatever [anything and everything] they may ask, it will come to pass and be done for them by My Father in heaven.

[anything and everything] they may ask, it will come to pass

●    Train team members in the skills of conflict resolution. Resolve all conflict between:

Family members - husbands, wives, children, relatives

Church - individuals, elders

Business - employees, customers, competitors

Community       

Government - internal, external

Biblical Foundations

Biblical foundations have three general categories: Biblical Government, Biblical Doctrine and Biblical Procedure.

1.   Biblical Government - Mostly out of divine order.

●    Establish Spiritual Authority - Lordship of Jesus + Delegated Authority.

Jesus has all authority in Heaven and earth and He has  delegated some of His authority to each of the following four entities.

Four Delegated Authorities

●    Holy Spirit - Exclusive agent of revelation (Rhema) and empowerment.

●    Five Fold Ministry - Teach; hold disciples accountable to obey the Holy Spirit.

●    Family - Husband to demonstrate the nature and character of Christ to family and any observers. Provide love, security, recognition and adventure to family.

●    Civil Government - Protection and opportunity to have your needs met.

2.   Foundational Doctrine

Teach essential truths that will eliminate conflict and build the Glorious Church. 

Teach and implement the various provisions the Holy Spirit has made available to live a godly life filled with power and authority. 

3.   Biblical Procedure - Discipleship

Discipleship is the only procedure recorded in the New Testament for perfecting the saints for the work of ministry.