The Power We Leave On the Table

Why can we no longer have apostles? Is not God still God? Is not Jesus still Jesus? Can we not have apostles anymore because “Great men of God” have not experienced Jesus appearing to them? After all, these men who have written so many books and preached so many sermons would surely have had Jesus appear to them as he did to Paul. Moreover, what of Paul? Paul was not an apostle until after the death and resurrection of Jesus. He was called by Jesus on the road to Damascus. He can still do that today. One might ask, “How would believers know if one who claimed to be an apostle was genuine?” The answer is, the same way that they knew in the early church. The Holy Spirit will guide us. The fear is that we will follow Jim Jones or David Karesh, but if the flock is educated to understand the difference, then that will not be allowed to happen. Jesus said, My sheep will know my voice (John 10:26). Acts 2:17 – 19 says:

In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 

Are these not the last days? Those who deny the miraculous today are afraid of the scam or the abuse and will not recognize that the Holy Spirit will guide us and bring these false prophets to the light. Many do not want to be deceived by what the power of the spirits of darkness; but by denying the power of God, they already are guilty of that.

             Some might say, “Wait a minute, Jesus is no longer on the earth in the flesh. Therefore, there can no longer be apostles.” What about Paul? Paul calls himself an apostle yet Jesus was already buried and risen again when he was declared as such. Paul’s declaration was verified by Ananias in Acts 9. Paul even claimed to be taught by Jesus. Galatians 1:12 says, “I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” Even though there are those who say that Paul received this revelation from the Holy Spirit, I believe he quite possibly was taught by Jesus himself when he was dispatched to Arabia and Damascus for three years (Galatians 1:17). That is not to discount the power of the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s Word, but it is an emphasis of Paul the apostle. Wow! What a seminary that must have been. Not to mention the fact that no one has actually come up with an actual way in which the Holy Spirit revealed Scripture to the writers.

Could not Jesus appear to someone today and teach him in the same fashion as Paul? Of course he could! God is not limited by our time continuum. He is only limited by the constraints he places on himself and from his Word it would not appear that he has limited himself to us.

In the book Jesus Freaks: DC Talk and the Voice of the Martyrs there is a story of a Muslim who was converted much the way Paul was. In an account of Zahid, a Muslim priest from 1986 Pakistan, he tells of an experience he had with God. He, like Paul, was a persecutor of Christians. Zahid was a zealot for Islam. He sought those who blasphemed the prophet Muhammad or the Qur’an. Zahid reported he was reviewing the Bible looking for contradictions when a bright light with a voice appeared to him and said, “Zahid, why do you persecute me.”⁵⁶ Sound familiar? Not long after his conversion he was locked up for two years. In a “snafu” by the law he was released instead of being executed as scheduled by his captors. Could he not be called an apostle? Not much more information is given about Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus than Zahid’s. Is Zahid a liar? Is the story in the book fictitious? It is arrogant of anyone to say that God no longer speaks to people in the way he has done in the past.

As a preacher of the Gospel, the Lord speaks to me often. Sometimes he speaks through an individual, but most of the time he comes to me in a still small voice that instructs me in my ministry. He has spoken to me in dreams and prophetic messages. I have experienced what others have said cannot happen today. He has never chosen to speak to me audibly, but I have no doubt that he can if he so chooses. It would be the height of arrogance for me to say that he cannot speak to anyone audibly since he has never spoken to me.