In her latest article “The Grace of the Calling” Teacher Maria vonAnderseck highlights a significant teaching point where she says that “the Bible is instructional, but it’s not operational”. The Lord is breaking old habits regarding how people look toward God for instruction about how He governs His church, how they are to be led by the Spirit, how to receive from Him, how to be humble servants of His grace, how the whole body should work in the unity of the faith.

When we read in scripture about the purpose of God’s government, many believe they can use the instruction given in scripture without the operation of Jesus’ covenant. For example, we will read from Ephesians about the callings of God’s spiritual government and their ministry.

Ephesians 4:11-13
¹¹And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

¹²For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

¹³Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

What is God’s purpose for His apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers? Why did He call them? What are they expected to do? Looking at verses 12 and 13 we see how God instructs His government to oversee the faith of the saints and how He instructs believers to be joined to His government. When that happens there is a real equipping that takes place. The equipping comes from teaching about the operation of Jesus’ covenant.

Instruction alone (God wants unity of the faith, God wants His church edified, God wants us all to perfected) without the operation of the covenant would make unity impossible because it would not be brought into existence, and the work of the Spirit would not be tangible, not present, not real.

The point that God is making in this new apostolic season is that He did not intend for Ephesians 4:12 and 13 to be read as a Bible study, but to be lived as a result of believers joining their faith to His government, those whom He called to function in that position to teach and instruct them how to operate with Jesus’ covenant.

The five callings work together as one governing body for the perfecting of the saints in Jesus’ righteousness as they are led to function in the new priesthood. The callings work together in ministry to equip believers with Jesus’ spiritual tools to empower them to divide the kingdom of the flesh from the kingdom of God, to enable them to carry Jesus’ name into each growth cycle.

The callings work together to teach believers how to select only those things of Jesus’ fulness for their faith to reflect Him. In this way the whole body is taught how to edify one another through the stewardship of grace that God gives to each one. All the callings of God’s government minister to present each one perfect in Christ.

You cannot give instruction by reading scripture and expect the same results as the operation of the Spirit. One can see how easy it is to read the Bible and yet never really understand or experience the operation of what is being read.

What comes from such lack of knowledge about how God operates in His new covenant is a tailor-made faith model that does not represent Christ but stands in the light of man and his aspirations. Many hope to fit the aspiration into their own gospel hoping that God would be honored by their sincere heart to serve. The true working of the operation of God’s grace is not experienced in the daily function of faith when the aspiration replaced the calling.

In this new season where God has restored apostolic stewardship to the church God is again bringing the instruction that paves the way for His operation back to His church, to restore believers to the experience of His fullness. This is God’s gift to the church – a living priesthood functioning under the oversight of the government of God; a healthy church where the focus is Christ and not the aspirations of men.

2 Peter 1:20
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

Here the Apostle Peter warns the church against privately interpreting scripture. The aspiration of man is quick to resource scripture to build his own understanding. This has been the tradition of man throughout the history of the church, where men outside of the calling would step in to offer their interpretation of that which God has hidden from the logic of man. God is putting a stop to interpreting and using the Bible as a template for a lifestyle and mindset apart from God’s covenant operation.

God’s covenant operation is about our ability to function with all the spiritual things God placed in Jesus to bring forth fruit unto God. When the foundation of God’s truth is laid in the heart of a believer by God-appointed living apostles, then the instruction in the Bible is joined to the operation of the Spirit and God provides His witness in fruit and His gifts in grace.

The true gospel of God has always been preached though the mouths of those whom God has called and ordained to carry the measure of grace to give not only instruction but define the operation of our faith.

The faith crisis that exists today begins with the ministers (church leaders, spiritual influencers) who are standing in the gap trying to bridge man’s understanding of the instruction of scriptures apart from the equipping of the calling.

All can agree that the scriptures speak about bearing fruit, being righteous, being holy, having fellowship with God, worship, and truth, but this does not mean that man’s definitions reflect the mind of God.

The Apostle Paul when saying that he was sent by God was not pointing out that anyone that is zealous for God can bring the true gospel to the seeking soul. Being sent means one has submitted to God by accepting His original pattern: Anointing, Ordination, and Confirmation. I want to lay out how this works and will draw from the EVA Terms Glossary under callings which everyone who signs up for the IDCCST Course has access to, where Apostle Eric vonAnderseck has opened this up for us.

Anointing: A believer must first enter into a covenant relationship with God and receive the foundation of truth that the anointing works with, and they must receive it from the stewardship God has elected and placed His witness upon. The anointing of truth prepares a saint to serve God with perfect faith.

Each believer draws upon the same anointing of truth to confirm Jesus Christ as they use the tools of the covenant to serve God. God brings the brethren together in unity over the bread of Christ and the oil of the Spirit. This is the frame of truth God breathes into.

Ordination: A believer must next function in his priesthood, which labor of faith prepares him and trains him to work with the grace of God for fruit bearing before he can function in his calling. Ordination is a process of learning through regeneration and growth in grace while remaining tethered to God’s sanctified stewardship.

Confirmation: Those who have been anointed and ordained and have proven themselves faithful with the 3 Cs (communication, conformity, and consistency) in their priesthood can be confirmed into the government of God through the recognition of the chief apostle.

There are many whom God calls, but are not confirmed into the government of God because they choose to walk independent of Jesus’ new covenant and chosen steward. They elect themselves to minister to the church and offer the many truth(s) they gained while searching the Bible to intrude into the mystery of Christ with the eyes of flesh.

So then, it is not those who run here and there trying to influence the church, but those whom God has anointed, ordained, called, and confirmed into His government.

This is why the Apostle Paul opens his epistles with identifying the office of the apostle; identifying himself as one being sent by God and carrying the measure of grace for the instruction and operation of our faith with Jesus’ covenant.

If we look at the following scriptures:

Romans 10:14-17
¹⁴How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

¹⁵And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

¹⁶But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

¹⁷So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

When “being sent” is not connected to the grace of the calling, everything that makes faith operational is missing. When the gospel of peace is misinterpreted and stands outside of apostolic stewardship all these words take on their own meaning outside of Christ.

Hearing the word of God preached from the office of God’s apostolic government carries the measure of grace that allows faith to hear, see and do the word of God (the mystery of Christ). Outside of this sanctified environment of the covenant, people all hear what they want, believe in who they want, and when asked to testify in whom they believe, such believers tell the story of their own desires to serve, their lack, fears and failures – thinking that the recounting of their story is a testimony of faith.

God challenges this darkened understanding and ignorance that is in them. Ignorance is the lack of the knowledge of Jesus’ covenant. Ignorance is not in God – it is in them.

Ephesians 4:18
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

What happens when your faith never overcomes ignorance? It never becomes operational. You will be unable to testify of Christ due to never receiving the instruction that will allow you to function in the Christian priesthood whereby the testimony of Christ replaces the testimony of the flesh.

Being sent by God to preach the true and living Gospel isn’t determined by the desire, sincerity or zeal of man but this has been determined by God. God chose the office of the apostle to unveil the inner working of the operation of God’s gospel, and it’s through this knowledge that believers can hear Gods voice and function in His house.

If the word of God was precept upon precept and line upon line, we would not have the faith crisis that exists today. With around 35000 denominations we can clearly see that believers have not all heard the true gospel, and their obedience is not according to the terms of Jesus’ new covenant, but going about to establish their own righteousness they have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

Can you overcome this stumbling block? The history of each revival-restoration movement tells us that man’s wisdom cannot overcome the neglect of Jesus’ covenant and the neglect of His knowledge. Apostle Paul earlier in the same chapter in Romans makes this very clear.

Romans 10:2-3
²For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

³For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

I’m hoping that this teaching point is coming through and that awareness has been created concerning the true gospel of Christ versus the many gospels created due to ignorance.

The true function of righteousness which is the standard of God’s kingdom must come through the office of the apostle, for when knowledge is set in order through this office then righteousness is removed from man and placed in Jesus Christ. Ignorance, which the apostle Paul mentions, is due to a lack of knowledge, and this lack of knowledge that God is turning around. For your faith to increase and bring forth the fruit that glorifies God, it needs knowledge.

Let’s look at what the Apostle Peter says:

2 Peter 1:5-8
⁵And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

⁶And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

⁷And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

⁸For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here we can see another good example of how scripture can be instructional but not operational. What is missing is the “how”. How do I add virtue to faith, knowledge to virtue, temperance to knowledge and patience to godliness? This is why God has restored His government to teach the church the operation of this marvelous work of the Spirit.

It is God’s desire that his children would be neither barren nor unfruitful in their faith and He has hidden this mystery from the logic and private interpretation of man and has revealed it to His chosen, called (sent ones).

The government of God is God’s selected oversight through which He has restored to the church the ability to experience the fullness of His grace and truth as believers not only receive instruction, but learn to function in the operations of God’s grace. It’s this operation that empowers faith as believers learn to draw from the foundation of truth when reading the Bible, so that the interpretation of what is being read does not stand in the understanding of one’s own traditions and history but will flow from the soul of God.

If knowledge is power, then choosing what knowledge one submits to will ultimately determine one’s destiny. God’s knowledge carries His perspective and power and as believers accept the yoke of His truth that comes through stewardship, they will again experience the fullness of Christ, as the early church had under the oversight of the first apostles.

As God changes the foundation from which the church works, you can again take confidence in the refuge He offers in His government.