Author:
Apostle Matthew Botha
Matthew serves as a called and confirmed Apostle in the restored government of God, and he is an IDCCST Spiritual Life Coach. Apostle Matthew knows why God refers to your priesthood as a royal priesthood. View my profile.
I recently had a friend ask me, “Why did Jesus speak in parables?” He then followed his question up with a statement, “Jesus could have made the things He said easier for us to understand.”
When asking people what they think Jesus was saying in regards to the parables He spoke, or what they think the apostles were saying in their epistles, the answers more often than not vary in interpretation.
Reading through the Bible for many people can feel like reading through a piece of poetry or lyrics from a song, in which the meaning is not entirely clear, but may become subjective to the individual’s life experience.
It’s quite interesting going onto an online forum and reading peoples’ different interpretations of a song, a poem, or even the ending of a film. However, when it comes to the Bible, God did not intend for the scriptures to be interpreted in such a liberal fashion. God wants us to understand the scriptures from His perspective.
2 Peter 1:20
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
The Author Holds the Key
So, how does one know what the true interpretation of the Bible is?
The Bible is inspired by the Spirit of God. The revelations, events and prophecies He initiated were written and recorded for future generations. The mysteries contained in the scriptures must be understood from God’s perspective.
To understand the true meaning of a poem or a song, one would need to ask the author. So too, to understand the true meaning of the scriptures we need to ask its author, God.
Does this simply mean that to correctly interpret the Bible all we need to do is pray to God and ask Him? This would seem like the logical way to go about it. However, this is not the avenue God uses to unlock His mysteries to the mind of man.
God has always chosen living vessels to steward His knowledge, to convey His mind to His people; He anoints His elect stewards with the key of knowledge which rightly unlocks the scriptures in His perspective.
God gave revelations regarding His plan, pattern and purpose through individuals like Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets, Jesus Christ and the apostles.
They, as stewards, communicated knowledge for faith in accordance with the covenant of that present time.
So, if Jesus was a steward to convey knowledge for faith, why didn’t He speak plainly to the people?
Jesus spoke in parables to the general public, but in private He unfolded these mysteries to His disciples.
Matthew 13:10-11
10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Luke 24:45
Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.
Jesus determined for His apostles to bear the key of knowledge whereby to carry forward His stewardship; to instruct believers in the knowledge of His truth, once His covenant had been established through His death and resurrection.
Acts 2:42
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Jesus’ disciples would go on to become His apostles, the knowledge stewards of His truth.
Stewards of the Knowledge of God’s Truth
Throughout the Old Testament we read of individuals selected by God to steward knowledge for faith to His people (those joined to Him in His covenant).
The same pattern is continued in the New Testament. Under the second covenant God now uses living apostles to communicate His will to His people; establishing them in the apostles’ doctrine, now, as also the first apostles had after Jesus’ ascension.
1 Corinthians 4:1
Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Through the office of the apostles the church was established, believers were given a foundation of knowledge to build their faith upon and understood their responsibility of service in the priesthood of Jesus Christ.
When the saints (joined to the stewardship of the apostles) received their epistles, they understood exactly what the apostles were writing about; they understood what grace, faith and righteousness meant from God’s perspective, because they had been instructed in His truth.
The scriptures point to God’s living Word, Jesus Christ, but the Bible itself is not the living Word of God.
We receive Jesus Christ (the Word of God) in the form of knowledge, and this holy knowledge is called the apostle’s doctrine.
Believers having this knowledge laid in their hearts by living, covenant apostles, thereby read the scriptures from the standpoint of God’s perspective. This is how believers exercise their will with the anointing, by drawing from the foundation knowledge of God’s truth laid in their hearts by apostolic stewards of His election and equipping.
John 5:38-39
38 And ye have not His Word abiding in you: for whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not.
39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me.
The Pharisees had the scriptures, yet they could not perceive Christ. So also, unconverted believers have the Bible, yet the mysteries of Christ elude their understanding.
Today, God has restored the apostles’ office, along with the offices of His prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (all four callings working with His apostolic stewardship) making up the spiritual government of God.
Having established His government, truth and Spirit, God has restored His church, returning believers to the covenant of Jesus Christ.
Once believers join to the stewardship of God’s living apostles, converting to Jesus covenant, they are re-educated in the knowledge of His truth, to know what His will is; and so, they are able to walk in agreement with Him, to serve and to know Him as He intended. By that sound foundation, the scriptures blossom to our understanding so that Christ is seen and understood with a clarity that is not of this world, but by the power of the anointing.
If you are not yet familiar with it, check out our IDCCST course, which is offered freely on s8w.org – it is the starting point of having the foundation knowledge of Jesus Christ laid in the heart, equipping a believer to experience the fullness of Christ in their walk of faith.
