The birthing of an apostle

I have spent 4 days coming to know a man and his family. Jeff and Tammy Bills are the senior leaders of Woodlands Assembly of God Church in Woodlands, California. The Holy Spirit led me to come and simply hang-out with this senior pastor and his family. So, I came and hung out with them and some of their leaders. What a terrific four days of fellowship and sensing what the Lord is doing in their lives and their church. I am tired, but good tired.

Here is a man whom God is going to use mightily and in the very near future. A pastor of a church who is in transition. His anointing or the grace upon his life is shifting so that he can fulfill the ever-changing call of God on his life – that of apostle. He is an apostle-in-training. Pray for him. Pray hard as this is not an easy or comfortable transition.

Training for an apostle means he has gone to hell and back in a basket. And he has successfully manuvered the terrain and made it back in one piece. He has passed a number of personal and ministry tests and come out with some deep wisdom and a “well done, good and faithful servant” from the Lord.

His church has had some problems – so name a church that has not had problems – and he rode the storm and is learning the lessons that the Lord would have him learn. He has been betrayed, neglected, rejected, blamed, ignored, hurt, and stepped on. Sounds a bit like Paul the apostle. He has responded in love, with gentleness but firmness. He has attempted to bring reconciliation but it takes two to tango. He has taken the high road as a leader and shouldered the responsibility for what has happened. He has stayed and has loved the church through the happenings and now is ready to rebuild upon a new foundation. And God is ready to move on his behalf as he enters into a new season for the church he leads and his soon-to-be apostolic ministry.

He is a man with much to unlearn, relearn and simply learn for the first time. Afterall, he is entering a whole new sphere of ministry … going from pastoral to prophetic/apostolic. He is a man well acquinted with the need for intimacy with the Lord – but he will be drawn into deeper intimacy in the coming months and will need to be rearranging his schedules and priorities to spend the extra time with the Lord. He will be excited about this as this is his heart. We spent a some time talking about just this. His face glows and his heart shows every time we headed in that direction and talked about intimacy with Jesus.

When one is born into the world it is a painful process. It is the same when there is a birthing of a new apostle. I was honoured to spend almost 4 days with this man and expect to spend a great deal more time with him in the coming months and years. Our paths have crossed for a reason and there are no coincidences in the Kingdom. This connection is God-directed and I plan to stay pluggd-in. It will be an honour and a great joy to have a small part to play in this man’s first steps as an apostle.