Glory Days Gone Bye...Pastor Tilson Shumate And Streams Of Ministry

Pastor Tilson And Melody Shumate

The fellowship was sweet in the days that Christians everywhere were beginning to encounter the same powerful anointing.

 

 Today we find it hard to stay in any one church for very long due to our longing for that anointing.

Some of the most anointed people of that early encounter with Jesus have detoured into the world for lack of fulfillment.

 No matter where they go to church they become disappointed and fall away.

Everywhere they go to begin fellowshipping with believers they soon find out the belief of that fellowship is extremely limited and so they leave wounded and empty.

Is there anyone out there that even remotely understands what I’m talking about? 

It’s like witnessing to someone about the grace of God for salvation and then they respond with “Well, I’m not such a bad person."

Can’t they see?

 And why is it that Christians of today look at you with such a blank when you share spiritual things with them.

Soon there is no real fellowship and many backslide and recluse with the feelings of not fitting in...

I have come to understand that when light emanates from the throne of God, it takes on a variety of shades and colors.

 There must be a billion shades of every color and even colors that are completely unknown to man.

 When people have encountered the same color or shade of light a kindred spirit is born.

When people of that same light ray become dispersed, they are lost without each other and become discouraged.

 As a result, many of the greatest Christians of our day remain dormant. 

They are desperately searching for someone out there who walks in the same dimension of light; anyone who has been exposed to the same light ray in shade or color, especially the same shade.

Jesus who is the light of the world said that we are the light of the world.

 All Christians are partakers of that same light, but within that light there are diversities of anointing.

 When a Christian receives the baptism of the Holy Ghost they walk in a new dimension of the same light that it took for any of us to be saved.

 All we like sheep have gone astray.

We were lost but now are found, we were blind but now we see.

When we became born again we received spiritual vision.

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3).

 Now that we are saved we see.

But until we become baptized with the Holy Ghost it is as though we only see in black and white.

 If the Christian does not move on to become baptized with the Holy Ghost they will eventually interpret everything spiritual with limited vision.

 Like the letter of the law, they will only see black and white.

An experience with the Holy Ghost is an exposure to light that will develop your pictures in living color.

Once you see in color it’s hard to return to black and white.

 Black and white is nice, it’s nostalgic, traditional, but color is a dimension of the Christian reality that is available to anyone hungry enough to receive it.

 Not more of the same, but more as in more.

When I speak of GLORY DAYS GONE BYE, I am not talking about day old manna.

I am talking about genuine fresh manna.

Where has it gone?

 Good shepherds get ready.

 “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17).

Pastor;
Tilson Shumate
Shekinah Fellowship

***

As I read Pastor Tilson's post today I reflected upon the tongues of fire that were on top of the heads of everyone present the day of Pentecost. 

They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
Acts 2:3

It was one fire with tongues that "separated" and came to rest on each of them.

Everyone there had their own tongue of fire representing a stream of ministry that would go on down through history as a stream of ministry.

A stream that would be handed like a baton in a relay race to the next recipients of that particular stream.
 
...and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord;
1 Corinthians 12:5

Only one fire but many flames from that one fire.

Healing oriented ministries, salvation evangelical oriented ministries, Bible teaching oriented ministries, prophetic signs and wonders ministries, the list goes on and on of myriad ministry types and emphasis's.

We can't rule out any of them.

They are all streaming from that upper room of the day of Pentecost.

Rich and alive, handed down through the centuries to this our day and time.

Some may have seemly died off but they are still very much alive because of the over shadowing of the Holy Spirit attending to the baton handed off from one people to another running down through time to this very moment.

Bob Mumford had a hold of a stream of ministry that differed from Chuck Smith's stream of ministry that differed from Lonnie Frisbee's stream of ministry that differed from Brant baker's stream of ministry and the list goes on and on.

Etter Woodhouse handed off a stream to Aimee Semple McPhearson who handed of the stream to Kathryn Kuhlman who handed off multiple stream splits to Brant Baker and Lonnie Frisbee as it were.

Chuck Smith sat in the night classes of Aimee Semple McPhearson at Angelus Temple in Echo Park along side of Kathryn Kuhlman where they both were exposed to her stream of ministry in the days of their youth.

That is why we see Chuck Smith and Calvary Chapel being invited to Kathryn's broadcast studios during Chuck's early ministry in Costa Mesa.

Kathryn tells of working at Bullocks department store during the day and attending the classes at night when she was a young woman.

So you see there is something to Pastor Tilson's post above.

I once heard an apostolic level teacher, that I had great respect for, share how a Christian could sit under a particular ministry and absorb their ministry type and style through the process of osmosis and impartation over time.

There is something to this.

During Lonnie Frisbee's  time at Calvary Chapel there were a lot of Christians that emulated his style of ministry.

The same was observed of Greg Laurie.

And then there were "little Greg's" running around after a time.

Jack Hayford's son in law sounded and acted just like him before the lord took him home.

If you closed your eyes you would think that it was Jack himself speaking except for the difference in voice sound.

Streams of ministry are like that.

Some intentionally grab a hold of a baton and run the race with it by faith.

Others are assigned a stream of ministry by the Holy Spirit.

That is what we see in the spiritual landscape around us at any given moment of time.

It has always been like that.

I loved Bob Mumford's stream, and I enjoyed Kathryn Kulhmans stream, Lonnie Frisbee's stream, Brant Baker's stream while learning the Bible in Chuck Smith's stream and then enjoying fully Jack Hayford's stream and so on and so on...

Some of my two or three readers keep coming here because they are drawn by our multi streams that emerge here every now and then and gush all over them.

They are drawn by the Holy Spirit to get exposed to what we have to offer at times.

In fact YOU are here right now reading this and getting wet!

Some will get divine revelation confirming these words and others will just ponder them.

Black and white is not so bad, you get used to it.

But wouldn't it be nice to see in color?

Here get wet from Jack Hayford's stream...

 
"Every person who receives Jesus Christ as Savior has received the Holy Spirit as the indwelling Spirit.

 In fact, we wouldn't have come to the Lord without the Holy Spirit drawing us.

He brings us to Christ, He glorifies Christ, and He magnifies Christ (see John 15, 16).

 Jesus makes clear, however, that there is a difference between the indwelling Holy Spirit and the overflowing Spirit.

In John 4, He tells the woman at the well, who needed saving grace, that the water He had to give would become in her a fountain springing up unto everlasting life.

 Then, in John 7, speaking about the Holy Spirit who would later be given, He says, "Those who believe in Me, out of their inner being will flow rivers of living water." 

Jesus distinguishes between coming to receive eternal life at the well of salvation, and rivers of living water that not only refresh us, but also flow out of us in ministry to other people by the power of the Holy Spirit.


Little children...you have an anointing from the Holy One, and...the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you – 1 John 2:18-27 NKJV

To be Spirit-filled is to come to the King Himself – to bow at Jesus’ feet and receive divine power from His own hand.

To be Spirit-filled is to have the Holy Spirit – the “oil of heaven” poured from God’s throne into your own being; to be anointed by Christ the King.

There are three reasons Jesus Christ wants to anoint every redeemed son and daughter of God, three abilities He wants to enhance and expand in each of us, and three offices He wants to fulfill.
He wants to anoint us for these three reasons:

   1. However sincere we may be, we cannot, on our own, worship God s freely and fully as He deserves.
   2. However zealous we may be, we cannot, on our own, witness  for Christ as effectively as He desires.
   3. However zealous we may be, we cannot, on our own, do warfare for Christ as penetratingly as He directs.
The three abilities Christ wants to give us through the Holy Spirit are these:

   1. An expansion of our capacity for worshiping
   2. An extension of our dynamic for witnessing
   3.  An expulsion of the Adversary through our spiritual warfare
Then there are three offices that involve our receiving an anointing:

   1. Priests
   2. Prophets
   3. Kings

At the heart of this marvelous plan, arranged by the Lord Jesus Christ to ensure our sufficiency for true Christian living, is a beautiful Old Testament picture: the practice of anointing – of pouring holy oil upon candidates for the holy offices of priest, prophet, and king.

This anointing was a symbol of the Holy Spirit of God being poured on them to energize and bless them for their tasks.

Each of these offices or positions presents an example from which we can learn and a role that we are to fulfill. The Spirit-filled life of expanded worship (as priests), extended witness (as prophets), and expelling warfare (as kings) is no accidental parallel.

The Holy Spirit is given to us so that we may experience all God foresaw and designed from the beginning.

“In the last days,” God said, “I will pour out my Holy Spirit upon all mankind.” – Acts 2:17 TLB

Thus, as New Testament priests, we are elevated to allow us to offer new dimensions of sacrifice in our worship to God Almighty, Creator of us all.

You  have been chosen by God Himself – you are holy and pure, you are God’s very own – all this so that you may show to others how God called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light. – 1 Peter 2:9 TLB

As New Testament prophets, we are enabled to reach new dimensions of worldwide witness in the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God.

“But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power to testify about Me with great effect, to the people in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, about My death and resurrection.” – Acts 1:8 TLB

And as New Testament kings, we are enriched to rule with new dimensions of kingdom authority and power.

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father. – Revelation 1:5, 6 NKJV

The Spirit-filled life is the new-dimensional life of worship, witness, and warfare. And the key to its realization is the anointing Jesus places on your life – like heavenly oil poured over the heads of priests, prophets and kings in ancient times.

And that anointing is the result of being filled with, overflowed by, and baptized in the Holy Spirit.
 
This promised anointing is for everyone who has received Jesus as their Savior.

So let us take hold of the new dimensions of practical spiritual available in that anointing by coming to Christ and allowing Him to release His Spirit in us all!