Ever wondered why Christians are so often seen to cry out for revival and rejoice each time there is talk of some new wave of revivals? Today Christians can read in the Bible of the strength and unity of faith known in the early church under the oversight of the apostles, yet though all claim to believe in Jesus and read the same Bible, there is evident lack of strength and unity experienced in the current Christian culture.

If we look back through the Biblical history of Israel there is something interesting to be learned about the times they were seen to cry out to God. When Israel followed after God’s instruction given through His elect steward at a given time, they knew no lack, but prospered in faith as the priesthood was kept pure and active. But when they strayed from the standard of God and began to follow other philosophies, Godly stewardship and priesthood gave way to idolatry and the people suffered separation from God once more.

So let’s spend some time looking at the role of God-appointed stewardship. Moses’ stewardship was a gift given to Israel for their deliverance from bondage; without this gift, Israel would have remained slaves in Egypt. Moses was provided by God not only to deliver Israel physically from Egypt, but to deliver their faith to Him, that they would be perfect in His sight. Through Moses, God established the terms of His covenant with Israel and gave function to faith in the priesthood. Over time as Israel fell away and again cried out to God, He would always provide a Godly steward to return the people back to the terms of His covenant and function of His priesthood.

As it was for Israel, so also for Christians, is God’s provision in stewardship (of His election and equipping) a gift to the church, for through stewardship comes the Godly instruction by which faith is given direction and function to serve God effectively (according to the terms He sanctified). Just as Moses received God’s commandments and delivered it to the people for instruction, so too Jesus came to give new direction for faith, and raise up apostles to carry forward His stewardship in the church. By the oversight of living apostles, God directs faith in Jesus’ new spiritual covenant for salvation, beginning with laying the foundation of truth in the heart of believers.

The gift of stewardship is given for the benefit of God’s people to bring the church into the unity of Christ. When given a gift it is customary to use it; when given a gift you wouldn’t cast it aside therefore offending the giver, you would utilize it for its intended purpose for your benefit which pleases the giver. This too is God’s expectation of believers today as He has once more called and equipped living apostles to restore the church back to Jesus’ covenant and spiritual priesthood – which is what worked such joy, strength and unity in the early church (leaving no lingering hunger for revival).

Ephesians 4:8,11,12
⁸ Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
¹¹ And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
¹² For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

To accept the gift of stewardship from God is to humble the heart for re-education and so accept the direction He provides for faith to function effectively, uniting believers in the strength of Christ’s present reality and power. So how can you be a part of this unity, and what are the benefits of this unity that it is highly regarded as a gift from God?

The direction that God provides for faith is His covenant. To better understand the significance of being instructed in the terms for Jesus’ new covenant, let’s look at the word covenant from Apostle Eric vonAnderseck’s terms glossary, freely accessible within the IDCCST Course on our website:

God has always been a God of covenant whereby He establishes ground rules to set the terms for contact for us to approach Him and engage with Him. Without a covenant we tend to approach God on our own terms, making promises of commitment and new resolutions, which is never a good idea as it is backwards to the way God operates.

Apostles teach the knowledge of God’s covenant through the apostle’ doctrine, called truth; truth sets order to our faith by defining what God will accept from us to serve Him. In His covenant God provided the tools of our engagement with Him. As all those who come into Jesus’ new covenant labor with the same spiritual tools of worship, we are thereby all unified with each other in acceptable service to God. Now you can see how that the unity of Christ that many desire to have, is only to be experienced within His covenant; the unity of Christ is by the tools he provided for the function of His spiritual priesthood, and the apostles teach us what those spiritual tools are and how to use them for the benefit of our soul and God’s kingdom within it, which speaks of His eternal fruit born within the soul.

These nine spiritual tools are government, truth, Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, 5 callings, manifold graces of God, prayer, preaching and prophecy. Converted covenant Christians who in faith use these tools of God’s covenant experience the peace of God accompanying Christ’s utter sufficiency in His daily issuance of grace, bringing unity to the heart and mind in service to Him.

Philippians 4:7
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Notice the word “keep” in the verse above; the emptiness and confusion that so many believers talk about when longing for revival in the church, is resolved through the keeping of God’s covenant terms. The peace of God is powerfully present through Jesus’ propitiation which we partake of through covenant contact with God; keeping us through the contradictions of life in equity of heart and mind in service to God. The contact we have with God is in our sanctified labor of faith with His holy knowledge and tools, whereby there is a coming together of the witness of the Spirit and the record of Christ in His doctrine, quickening understanding and increase within the soul. This is the benefit that God provides to the church through His apostles, that we build His kingdom.

Ephesians 2:13,14
¹³ But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
¹⁴ For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

In verse 14 it says “For he is our peace”; this verse makes reference to Jesus as our peace – even as Jesus is truth, being the pattern we follow in faith within His covenant. So, you can see that Jesus is peace and Jesus is truth, and so also is His fullness in all the elements of His gospel (unveiled through the apostles’ doctrine), and in all the spiritual tools given for our activity of faith to be pleasing to the father. So, we are made near / close / joined to God and one another by Jesus through these things that are sanctified by His blood and accessed through His covenant.

Without stewardship to give instruction in His pure foundation of truth, believers resource another Jesus, construed by the unsanctified mixing of Scripture with logic, imagination and the doctrine of man in an effort to find peace for the soul. But the peace of God is granted in reward to faith that reflects His likeness perfectly by keeping the terms of His covenant. This is why many read the history of God in the Bible but don’t experience the life of Christ which the Bible testifies of.

In restoring stewardship to the church today, Jesus provides apostles with a measure of grace to give light to the understanding of believers that they (as at the first) would walk in one mind with the true Jesus (truth), one faith (priesthood) and one baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is the pattern of unity that God has provided for the church today. Ephesians 4:5,6 “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (By the gift he provided: His stewardship.)

The benefit that stewardship provides to the church is to provide the blueprint of how God wants His kingdom built, and provide the knowledge of truth necessary for the Spirit to build His kingdom within your heart. This is how we truly know and please God by bearing forth the fruit of the Spirit in faith through God’s due order of regeneration and the renewing of the mind. Faith is obedience to God’s covenant terms, using the spiritual tools of the priesthood, and offering up spiritual sacrifices drawn from this holy knowledge (Christ in the form of truth).

When you rightly build God’s kingdom, you receive the wages of your adoption in covenant, which you carry with you in your soul. The wages of sin are death, but those of perfect faith are the fruits of Christ Jesus in the heart, transforming us in His virtue. This is living the fullness of the glory of God every day, beginning with His gift of stewardship that tethers us to a living hope and joyous experience of progressive, fruitful faith wherein there is no lack.