The Apostolic Type

From generation to generation, the Apostolic type carries forward with each conversion to faithful dedication. Are you the type? If you are, then every teaching, every warning that Christ ever made to his disciples is equally applicable to you.

I want to approach two specific verses from Luke 21 – verse 15 and verse 19. In his warnings of the future to come, Christ painted a clear picture of the people he addressed.

From verse 15, we get the point that the disciples and apostles, so warned of a dire fate, are in fact spiritually enhanced individuals. Jesus told them, “I will give you a mouth and wisdom” that will be essentially irresistible. It will be a wisdom in spoken word that the unenhanced will find compelling if not overpowering.

Now, the unenhanced believe they too have wisdom. They rest in their science of bare facts and figures, of math and measurements, of empirical physical evidence as set apart from the purely spiritual and mental aspects of reason and logic. Yet, it is the mental, that is to say, the spiritual, aspects of reason and logic that the apostolic type shall be enhanced with.

Sadly, the mouth and wisdom that will enhance many, is no guarantee of individual success. Just the opposite, in fact, as the outsmarted and outwitted will find avenues to persecute the righteous through lies if not through laws.

I have expressed in earlier works how wisdom is the trump card that beats book smarts. First, comes knowledge – that is the basic level. The next level up from knowledge is understanding. Many people have knowledge, yet fail to attain understanding. The top level is wisdom, trumping both knowledge and understanding. The enhancement given to the Apostolic type is a thing not guaranteed to academics even after years of study.

The enhancement is no mere fact or list of trivial information that an individual may trot out. Rather, it is the very nature of the Godly spirit placed in each and every man. In some of us, the tap is turned on and the water flows. In certain others, the tap is tightly closed. Some go so far as to remove the handle entirely. It is a choice and a followed path that leads to the enhancement. As I am want to say, this particular path is only open to those who are open to this particular path.

The enhancement is not meant for a peaceful life, but for a life embroiled in worldly woe. It is the perfect counterpart to the worldly mindset, ensuring that the truth and authority of God are present in every age. Our type may be assured of resistance if not outright persecution. We are called upon to persevere.

Many people cannot fathom the leap from worldly to spiritual. There is a worldly, a national Israel found in the nation of Israel and in the religion of Judaism. There is a spiritual Israel found in the Christian faith and in the walk of the apostolic. There is a spiritual individual and mindset which is an upgrade from the worldly mindset. That being said, the truth of the matter is that the worldly mindset is that same spiritual mindset, but with the tap tightly closed and the handle removed.

Man is a hybrid. He is half physical and half spiritual. All spirit is God, whether it is rightly used by some or wrongly used by others. The worldly mindset cuts its own spiritual legs off for the sake of willful independence. The worldly mindset, for all its science and measurements, is a crippled creature of disfigured proportions. Man has sought separation from God so desperately that he uses the word 'soul' to reference the spiritual aspect of himself that he has sought to be rid of.

From the beginning, the word 'soul' was a word that pointed to the hybrid nature of man. We have this usage found in Genesis 1:7, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” It has to be said; it must be understood and known with all surety that man “became” a living soul. Man was man before the spirit was introduced. God is spirit; God is life itself and truth, truth being everything that actually is.

The breath of life is the spirit of God. A soul, then, is exactly the combination of those two elements – physical man, of the dust of the ground, with the additive of the spirit of God, equals the hybrid of the living soul.

And so, I come to the second verse in Luke 21 that details the clear portrait of the Apostolic type. We get this from Luke 21:19, “In your patience possess ye your souls.” That is the same thing as saying, 'persevere in body and mind' except for the curious connotation of the word “possess.” A host is 'possessed' by something or someone other than the host. Here, I am thinking that the hybrid (body plus spirit) is possessed by the enhancement.

In the Apostolic type, the whole persona of the living soul is possessed and redirected by the persona of Christ. Christ is God in man; Christ in man is still God in man. As we know, Christ very effectively dealt with all naysayers, leaving them unable to respond to the wisdom in his words. We also know that his spiritual wisdom, received from God, was perceived as a threat by the worldly mindset.