Dan Cheatham 5-31-2014: A Real Pastor
Get yourself a real pastor!

If you can hire or fire him, you don't have a real pastor; you've just got a preacher!

There's a vast difference between a WANNA-BE and a CALLED-TO-BE!

As someone has noted, SOME WERE CALLED, SOME WERE SENT, BUT OTHERS JUST WENT!

If you are spiritually ahead of your pastor, you're in the wrong place!

A real pastor is a step ahead of you!  If not, he is not a true pastor, or you're not under the right pastor.

Pastoring is not a CHOSEN PROFESSION; rather it's a HIGH CALLING!  It is a HOLY THING, not to be flippantly or presumably intruded into.

One cannot CALL himself.  The nature of a CALL is someone higher up gave the invitation.

You cannot CALL yourself.  The CALL must choose you.

When the sheep see the shepherd as just one of themselves, dismissing him as their ordinary buddy, the flock can go nowhere or at best is headed in the wrong direction.

No pastor is called by God to be a dictator!  On the other hand, no layman or board member or deacon or lay elder or associate or Jezebel or Absalom is called to be a dictator over a pastor either!

The FEEDER of the local church is the LEADER of the local church.  If he is not anointed to FEED, he's not anointed to LEAD, regardless of his leadership success outside the church in his or her career.  Or said in another way, if he's anointed to FEED, he should also be allowed to LEAD.

A true shepherd takes the flock where they NEED TO BE, not just where they already KNOW TO BE.

When UNCALLED MEN run the church, the church is upside down .

When UNCALLED MEN run the church, the anointing is quenched, the Spirit is grieved, and the saints are robbed of true power and victory.

God doesn't call mere businessmen or successful laymen to run the church.  It's one thing to run an organization; it's another to lead a local church.  God Himself determines who He Himself qualifies for this.  This doesn't mean that a wise pastor doesn't gleen ideas and advice from other successful people in his congregation or shouldn't view his church as a team, but it does mean that there is a DIFFERENCE between a GOD CALLED and GOD SET and GOD SENT leader and other believers who are NOT equipped by God to lead HIS CHURCH. All Gods people possess giftings and have ministry inside them, but not all are called and separated by God to lead His local church.

A pastor is meant to be a mentor.

Modeling is what a mentor was meant for.

EXAMPLE is the most powerful learning tool.

God was courageous enough to APPOINT & ANOINT human leaders.  We should be courageous enough to follow His chosen leaders as they follow Christ!  (The balance and safety valve being "as they follow Christ.")

Psalms 77:20 (KJV) - Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

As someone has wisely noted, WHEN GOD HAS A PLAN, GOD HAS A MAN!

Whom God appoints, God anoints.

God is running His Theocracy called the KINGDOM OF GOD.  In America, we almost worship the idea of democracy.  But the Kingdom is NOT a democracy.  BTW, the founders NEVER instituted a democracy, but a republic!  The founders of the USA saw the miserable failures of other nations who had tried a democracy and decided to guard against such, similar to how they guarded against a dictatorship.  They chose to divide up man's governance into the three aspects of God's triune governance, recognizing man's weaknesses versus God's strength and purity.  Isaiah 33:22 (KJV) - For the LORD is our 1) judge, the LORD is our 2) lawgiver, the LORD is our 3) king; he will save us. 1). Legislative Branch, 2). Judicial Branch, and 3) Executive Branch.

Bishop = Elder = Pastor = God-Called 5-Fold Minister = Shepherd.

No such thing as a lay elder!  (Search the scriptures!)

Moses didn't call himself.  Elijah didn't call himself.  Isaiah didn't just decide one day to speak for God.  Jeremiah didn't just up and presume to be an inspirational speaker.  Paul didn't choose the preacher profession.  Peter didn't tap himself to be the leader.  A real pastor is not just a believer who chose to go to Bible school or a seminary.  The CALL comes by an epiphany of some sort and that straight from God.  (Of course, confirmation and validation of the same comes by ordination and accountability to other anointed leaders.  And the final acid test of the calling is RESULTS!)

Man's qualifications are NOT God's qualifications.

When men water down the CALLING TO PREACH to the level of a mere chosen profession, men are treading on holy ground and trespassing HIGH PLACES & HOLY SPACES.

If God called the man, then I jolly well better listen to the man.

90% of God speaking to us comes through others or through the reading of God's Word.

God spoke to Paul the Apostle in his Damascus Road experience but then God finished talking to Paul through another man named Ananias.  Paul only got the whole picture for his life and ministry as he submitted to Gods chosen INDIRECT voice as well as Gods DIRECT voice to Paul.  THIS IS GODS SAFETY SYSTEM FOR ALL OF US!  And this is Gods BALANCE.  And this is Gods test that develops humility.

If we cannot submit to Gods DELEGATED AUTHORITIES how shall we recognize His DIRECT AUTHORITY?

How did Samuel the young child recognize GODS VOICE?  What did Gods voice sound like to him.  Each time God spoke to him, "Samuel," he ran to Eli his mentor, thinking that the voice was Eli's.  THIS IS A GREAT LESSON:  What does Gods voice "sound" like?  It sounds like the anointing that sneaks into your heart when your pastor speaks Gods Word to you! Gods voice is similar to your pastors voice (that is, if you've got a real pastor).

Not because I am anything in my flesh, but I have noticed that in certain scenarios in churches that only possessed hirelings or uncalled laymen as leaders, that just my presence in the midst of the saints CALMED & COMFORTED THEM.  Without a word spoken by me but just mingling with the saints, things came into divine order and peace.  This is because GODS PEOPLE UNCONSCIOUSLY RECOGNIZE TRUE SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY AND LEADERSHIP AMONG THEM... AS GOD INTENDED.  But because of religious traditions and a lack of exposure to the anointing, many saints have been robbed of Gods due order and protection.  Sheep can't quite put their finger on the phenomenon, but deep in their hearts they KNOW when a man of God is present.  It's an unconscious dynamic that automatically and effortlessly falls into place!

Sheep in many circles have been ROBBED of true shepherds!   This is a tragedy in the sight of God.

Understanding the 5-Fold Ministry of Ephesians chapter 4:  Teachers can teach.  Pastors can lead as well as teach.  Evangelists can win numerous souls, and lead and teach.  Prophets can prophesy, win souls, lead and teach.  Apostles can found things from scratch in the Kingdom, prophesy, win souls, lead and teach.  These 5 offices are listed in order of their importance in Ephesians 4.  Each higher office includes the functions of the lower offices as well as it's own unique giftings and skills.

Two divisions to the 5-Fold Ministry:  FOUNDERS and GROUNDERS.

Apostles and Prophets are FOUNDERS. Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers are GROUNDERS.  (Evangelists ground unbelievers into Christ, pastors and teachers ground believers into spiritual growth and the body of Christ). Granted, all the 5-fold offices cross pollinate and end up being fruitful in many ways.  Timothy was pastoring when Paul told him to "do the work of an evangelist."

Note that in the first verse of Philippians that Paul says he is writing to three groups of saints:  the bishops, the deacons, and the saints.  Or you could say it this way:  to the called & anointed leaders, to the key helpers, and to the rest of the saints. The local church is made up of LEADERS (FEEDERS), HELPERS and the REST of Gods people!  No one is more valuable to the Lord than any other, but... some are called to different functions than the others.  Recognition of who we are and who others are is necessary to flow properly.

Philippians 1:1-2 (KJV) - Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

GOVERNANCE in any context is of EXTREME IMPORTANCE and determines the proper outcome of things.

Months before anyone had heard the name of Barack Obama (including me), God told me that Satan was scheming to raise up an IMPOSTER PRESIDENT to wreak havoc in our nation... and so it has come to pass!  MEN, NOT God, elected such an incompetent, arrogant and ignorant leader!  GOD DOES NOT ALWAYS GET HIS WAY WITH EVERYTHING.  The Bible teaches that the heaven of heavens belong to God but the earth belongs to the children of men.  Only as men seek God and obey God on this earth is the will of God enforced here!  (Otherwise we would have to say that mass murders, the holocaust, and man-made tragedies like Hitler's reign were somehow attributed to God.  How foolish!   Jesus cast out demons, healed the sick, relieved human suffering, and brought peace to men's hearts.  He Himself acknowledged the presence of evil in this sin- fallen earth and sought to CHANGE IT!  If everything that happens on earth is already Gods will, there would be absolutely no reason to pray or choose right from wrong, or ask for forgiveness... if everything that happens here is que sera sera... what will be will be!). AND PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME THAT I AM BEING MEAN IN SAYING THIS ABOUT THIS IMPOSTER-N-CHIEF.  I AN SORRY, BUT ANY PRESIDENT WHO PLOTS TO MURDER BABIES IN THE WOMB AND TRIES TO REDEFINE GODS DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE AND DESTROY THE FABRIC OF ALL SOCIETIES FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS (the family unit) IS STRAIGHT FROM THE PIT OF HELL JUST LIKE HITLER!  There is a BALANCE to submitting to the powers that be.  One cannot submit to a delegated authority when that delegated authority demands obedience to him over obedience to God!  When a delegated authority institutes an agenda or policy in direct contradiction to the scripture, one must defer to the next highest authority over that delegated authority.   "IN THE NAME OF JESUS I CURSE AND REVERSE ALL THE ANTICHRIST POLICIES AND AGENDAS OF THIS DEMONIC OBAMA ADMINISTRATION. IN JESUS NAME!  I render every ungodly word and foolish decision of Obama void and powerless to come to pass and command them to fall to the ground fruitless in Jesus name!"   (Now if the majority of the body of Christ at large would get in unity and pray militantly like I have here, and like Jesus gave us authority to do, we could see a great revival and divine intervention in our nation!)

Anti-Fear Gos-Pills!