26JUN26 1645Z

Bro. Salvatore Frisella Evg.

FRISELLAHQ

Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that isunprofitable for you — Hebrews 13:17 NKJV

My FLESH (the corrupt sinful nature we all were born into) does not like the word “rule” as in ruler; nor does it like the word “obey” as in — do what you are told.

Well, with a simple study in the Greek we get a better picture of what God was actually speaking through the Apostle Paul:

Let’s start with the flesh cringing word— OBEY:

I cannot help you with submission— there is no loophole for this.

In Christ Jesus, submission to His Rule and His Reign is a nonnegotiable standard. Our salvation depends on it. If Jesus isn’t your Lord then He is not your Savior— ACCEPT HIM NOW!

However, in the context of biblical Pastoral authority, while the Lord Jesus Christ Himself DOES IN FACT HAVE ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY, His Fivefold Officer’s (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and/or Teacher) DO NOT HAVE ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY. They can only lead based on the Word of God and it amazes me how many of my precious Pastoral friends have issues with this biblical relation dynamic. They have told themselves a rationalized bylaw that they are “alpha supreme leadership” which they believe gives them the right to dictate and rule over others.

There is no secret why some of their churches are either very small or they hide the doctrine of Absolute Authority for only the right kind person to groom —all tend to have high turnover in staff and inner court volunteer force.

Many churches or ministries keep these doctrinal positions of RULER on the down low. Only those who pass through the outer court into the inner court will see what those who are in the inner circle really go through as lieutenants of the executive leadership. They see the absolute submission, that only the Lord Jesus Christ deserves, as something they too are entitle to— even if they violate the Word of God.

These individuals want to sit in the Holy of Holies, as the Antichrist wants to and will do one day — 2 Thessalonians 2:4. These individuals who use and manipulate the Word of God to be self serve by indoctrinating those senior and junior lieutenants into serving them— even to the extreme of “martyrdom”.

No, not martyrdom as in laying their life down but their Gifts & Callings and even their biblical responsibilities with family and children.

So where does the Authority stop for the under shepherds (the Fivefold Office (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and/or Teacher)?

It starts and stops with the constitution of the United States of Jesus Christ — aka, the New Testament.

The one thing between you and your Pastor beside love should be The Word of God. The Word of God is the supreme authority hands down no questions asked and this is why it’s first and final authority— it protects and serves our wellbeing. If the Word of God has first and final authority, the false prophets and teachers cannot deceive us into fearing them or wasting our Time, Talent, Treasure on them.

By simply knowing the relationship bylaws that govern our relationship with our Pastor can help quite a bit in how we interact and what is expected from them and what is expect from us. Constitutions govern relationships.

Merriam-Webster defines:

A constitution is the supreme set of fundamental principles and laws by which a country, state, or organization is governed. It establishes how government power is distributed, sets up a system of checks and balances, and guarantees essential rights to the people. The Word of God is the foundation of our relationship with our Bishops and Pastors who are to be treat and honored as fathers and we are to be treated a certain way as well — More on that later.

Back in the 1980’s, as a teenager, I would want to learn the Word of God so badly it was all I thought about. I wanted it in me and I wanted to understand it. I would read word’s of Eternal Life feverishly over and over.

In conversations someone would bring up a question about God or what to do and I would remember a verse or passage that revealed “biblical sensibility”. I would be in study and know a verse was somewhere in the book of Jeremiah but couldn’t remember the chapter and verse number. I would think there should be a device where we could type in the phrase and it would pull up all the scriptures that have that phrase. Back then I was thinking something like a calculator device and then one day I was at a Christian bookstore and saw it but by then the internet has become more user friendly through search engines like Google and now we have that device. And because of the information superhighway we have no excuse to feed and study on the Word of God in multiple translations, languages and even the original Hebrew and Greek. Through transliteration programs now called APPS we can study different translations side by side.

There was a really cool thick Bible that was called The Interlinear Bible. I wanted it so much but it was out of my price range as a teenager. I coveted so badly I actually would frequent the bookstore and read through it. Nowadays that Bible is free online. We can read our favorite translation scroll up and with a simple click— no not five minutes of rifling through a huge book, but click straight to the exact same verse and behold its original wording without the contamination of a translators theory or denominational thinking and see the Word of God in its original expression—HALLELUJAH!

If you choose to read the Bible this way you need to understand you just might actually learn what God is really saying and other believers might not like this greater light. Because this greater understanding might just uproot their way of thinking and doing.

For instance the word “obey”in Hebrews 13:17 isn’t an obedience of a slave who has no choice or thought for themselves.

In this context the Word obey from the Greek is actually “to be convinced by”

By simply going to the Greek you can find, for free, on the internet, what this word means: Πείθεσθε. One might joke it’s all Greek to me brother lol and it is for me but we have tools to learn what this passage is saying. Let translate this word—Peithesthe. Okay nice! It’s Greek translated but still means nothing to me.

Ok, let’s take that Greek Word and let’s pull up our translator and put it in the search engine:

Πείθεσθε = Be convinced. Woe wait the word obey isn’t like what I grew up with. Mama said obey me you just did what she said— blindly, because if mama ant happy— nobody is gonna be happy.

This is different, it’s saying that the relationship with my Pastor is one of discourse and not just command and submit to serve his ego. It’s saying my Pastor has a specific job to do and so do I.

Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you — Hebrews 13:17 NKJV

Sometimes it helps to break the scripture down word for word and flesh it out:

One: Obey— BE CONVINCED BY.

Two: That have NOT WANT IT— (positioned leader)

Third: Rule — ABBA (Fatherly Leader)

Fourth: Over — THIS IMPLIES SENIOR RANK

Fifth: Submit yourself — under, junior, sub-to-the mission and do it at your own freewill.

Sixth: Watch for the soul — this is intimate— This implies your condition, your mentality — your state of being.

Seventh: Account — The fatherly leader has to give an account for your state of being. Your condition is in part, their responsibility before God.

Eighth: JUNIOR’s responsibility again— submit with willingness that the senior may do it with joy.

Ninth: Just like the promise of children submitting to their parents:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”—Ephesians 6:1 NKJV.

Ninth(continued) …Let them Lead — without grief: for that is unprofitable for you—

Grieving your Anointed Fatherly Leader goes into the opposite direction of a promise of blessing and long life — simply put—it’s unprofitable.

Now we can see the true spirit of what this holy scripture is saying. I grew up hearing we are in the army of the Lord but that not quite true— we are in the family of God— the Body of Christ is the Bride of Christ. And in every family there is a ABBA-Father. It all starts with God the Father — Ephesians 4:4 — and this love and holiness trickles down through the Fivefold Offices (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and/or Teacher).

The 7 purposes and goals of the Fivefold Office:

1. the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry,

2. edifying of the body of Christ,

3. the unity of the faith,

4. the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity,

5. the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ — the same dynamic that Jesus and the Holy Spirit had when Jesus walked the earth—

6. that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,

7. speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

This is arguably the sevenfold purpose of the Fivefold Offices (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and/or Teacher) Gifted by God to the Body of Christ. Notice not one stanza said we are to martyrdom our Gifts & Callings, to obey outside the Word of God, outside the Word of God, to be in fear of them. No this is the constitution of the United States of Jesus Christ— and it’s where we fellowship with those the Fivefold Offices.

Remember, this teaching has really only held up one scripture as a pillar and one scripture does NOT make a doctrine. We built on one teaching alone and make a doctrine just like you cannot build a building with just one pillar. One verse doctrines violate biblical principles of study, principles of hermeneutics and systematic theology.

By the grace of God I have established just one pillar— now, we need two or more to ratify this into a doctrine. This is where many have gotten off into error and become unbalanced or worse into false doctrine.

Because of the constraining love of God we want to fulfill at least purpose number 6 of The purpose and goal of the Fivefold Office— so that you are very difficult to deceive “by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting”.

In our next lesson we are going to erect the second pillar with Jeremiah 3:15 NKJV.

And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding— Jeremiah 3:15.