The Apostolic Career!

Jim Becton

1 Tim. 1:18-20- (Message)
I’m passing this work on to you, my son Timothy. The prophetic word that was directed to you prepared us for this. All those prayers are coming together now so you will do this well, fearless in your struggle, keeping a firm grip on your faith and on yourself. After all, this is a fight we’re in.
There are some, you know, who by relaxing their grip and thinking anything goes have made a thorough mess of their faith. Hymenaeus and Alexander are two of them. I let them wander off to Satan to be taught a lesson or two about not blaspheming.
Great passage from Paul concerning his son, Timothy, about keeping the faith and “waging the good warfare”- strateia- “the apostolic career”, which is where the real fight of faith is! The apostolic career is not just a “profession”, or saying I have 20 or 30 years in my career so I can now retire! No, the apostolic career is a lifestyle of spiritual “military service”, the apostolic career (as one of hardship and danger): — warfare.
This warfare is as a soldier serving in a military campaign; To Paul and Timothy it was executing the apostolate (the apostleship) with its arduous duties and functions, to contend with carnal inclinations. Go to War-fare. It is about dealing with the mindsets and strongholds that hold men in fear, religious traditions, and even heresies, or those being diverted from truth. When we see the apostolic as contending with carnal minds and inclinations, then we can understand what the “good fight of faith is.”
We will be looking at this more extensively over the next few weeks, as we prepare for our apostolic campaign beginning in the month of July. We will look at the scripture concerning the apostleship and how territories are where the greatest battles are, because men are “territorial!” The apostolic career is NOT something we choose, it is the calling and choosing of the Father that through apostolic fathering relationships, we can begin to take back the land through inheritance, blessing, and birthright. May we continue in “fighting the good fight of faith…”