Four guys on horseback show up in the middle of the night. They’ve come from the four winds of heaven and have just traveled to the four corners of the earth and back – their horses didn’t even break a sweat. The riders report that the nations are all resting quietly.

God is angry with the ‘rest’ the riders reported, it means that people are laying around, doing nothing useful. Jerusalem and Zion are in ruins and God is looking for somebody to get up and fix it.

Four attitudes have crept into the minds of the people and their leaders. The prophet Zechariah calls them four ‘horns’ meaning ‘powers’. The four powers have beaten the people into laziness, shame, poverty, and division.

The promise to the people (and a threat to the powers) is that four craftsmen are coming. They are fabrications, builders of the church, builders of the Kingdom infrastructure, and they will defeat the powers by rebuilding Jerusalem and Zion (the church).  

The four craftsmen  

Jesus gave gifts to the church, we already have them. Ephesians 4:11 lists four key ministry gifts; apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor/teacher. (Don’t freak out, read as many versions as you like, and read it in Greek if you can – it’s four ministry gifts) The New Testament speaks of nearly 30 apostles, numerous prophets, some teachers, one guy is called an evangelist, and none are called Pastor. My point is not to belittle the ministry of those who call themselves pastor but to point out that the concept of ‘pastor’ is often very limiting to church development and growth.  

Pastor, whatever you think you are, you are probably much more than what most people attribute to ‘pastor’. You can not succeed in planting or growing a church on this half-gift alone.  

When Terry and I first landed in Asia we were alone. There were no apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor/teachers in our team, it was just us. So we led, prophecied, helped people become believers and trained them up to become leaders. Are you passionate enough about growth that you are willing to become whatever is missing in your future?  

Paul said, “let us prophesy in proportion to our faith…” and implied that all the gifts work according to the proportion of our faith. (Romans 12:6) Just step up and do it. Zechariah began with, “On the 24th day of the 11th month in the second year of Darius, king of Persia, I saw four horsemen…”

Now, on the 12th day of the 11th month of the 2nd year of the reign of Donald Trump, Zachariah’s prophecy to us declares… Are you ready to get up and fabricate the spiritual infrastructure needed to grow the ministry? 

I am not concerned with what gift Jesus has given me, He gave the gifts to the church, for the equipping of the saints… You are as much of an apostle as I am if you just step up and lead. I don’t feel at all like a prophet but I will certainly open my mouth with bold declarations if that’s what it takes to move the ministry ahead, and it does.

Take the ‘pastor’ lid off.  

You probably need the live session: https://www.facebook.com/wmcontinuum/videos/323893015104860/