This morning’s passage shows that Paul was a gifted evangelist from the beginning. The Spirit of the Lord was with him. To the point where the Jews — who had sponsored his visit to Damascus so he would destroy the Christians there — were wanting to kill him. But when he returned to Jerusalem he was not considered safe to be around. The apostles knew he was a zealot for the Pharisees, and had seen him arrest believers.

But Barnabas vouched for him Barnabas was a mentor and leader in the church: neither an apostle nor a deacon, but a person whose worth was known. He bought Paul to the Apostles.

Paul needed mentoring. Barnabas provided shelter, support and let him into the network. Leaders, even gifted ones, need support and correction and training.

Acts 9:19b-31

^19bFor several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, ²⁰and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” ²¹All who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?” ²²Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.

²³After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, ²⁴but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him; ²⁵but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

²⁶When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. ²⁷But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. ²⁸So he went in and out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. ²⁹He spoke and argued with the Hellenists; but they were attempting to kill him. ³⁰When the believers learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

³¹Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

One of the issues with training physicians is that the process requires support. The tradition is that you meet with your boss, your supervisor, and discuss what to do. It is done together. When the educationists get involved and try to measure everything or define every topic (and they have) then the need for this remains, and people are now talking about mentorship to bring back the humane support needed to sustain an individual through a long apprenticeship.

My suggestion is that we borrowed this from the church. The church does not educate as much as make disciples. We aer not sitting in the pews to gain a PhD in theology, but to live rightly and to preach the word of God. This is not a meme war, though a meme war is raging.

We need to be skilled in the use of visual rhetoric (memes) and verbal rhetoric (good preaching engages the emotions). We need to pray that there will be those who want to grow. And we need to shun those who think that because the Spirit said something, they can do it, for they fall into error.

This is an example: The preacher went to wonder woman and starts saying that which scripture does not. (Hat tip Dalrock).

A sword represents authority. A sword qualifies you to fight. A sword is not a shield. A shield is defensive, but a sword is offensive.

In the spirit, I see the King of glory knighting women with swords, as if to authorize them to offensively advance the kingdom into spheres of society that demand solutions only Holy Spirit can provide. When men carry these solutions, half of the assignment is being accomplished—and that’s great. But when the Spirit was poured out, men represented only half of the containers purposed to carry God’s glory, power and strategies into the earth; women are the missing link. I believe God’s wonder women are the key to unlocking the fullness of outpouring into the earth, an outpouring that will only come to the world through the people of God.

The Lord is releasing women from the restraints of the “Women’s Conference Circuit.”

As daughters of God, you carry messages, anointings, talents and leadership abilities that are purposed to bring solutions to problems. It’s not just solutions for women; it’s solutions for both the body of Christ and society at large.

For too long, Christianity has perpetuated a “women’s conference” mentality, where anointed and gifted women preachers are given opportunities to share what Holy Spirit has put on their hearts—but in a restrained setting, woman-to-woman. Yes, continue to have women’s conferences. Yes, continue to ensure that women disciple women. The problem is this cannot be all there is.

I prophesy that the hour is at hand where women are going to be released from exclusively speaking to women. Because they have been knighted by their Father in heaven, I see the daughters of God arising to boldly declare the Word of the Lord to the church and release supernatural solutions into the broken parts of society.

This is clear error. A mentor needed to get alongside this lad and remind him that not everything spiritual is from the Lord, and that Ms Gadot is acting.

I am aware and have blogged on Ephesians and Galatians. There is a role for woman, and teaching in church is not part of it. This is what happens where there are no mentors, and no one teaches to test all things and take it to the elders. Paul knew that, which is why he wanted to meet with the apostles.

But our hypergnostic friends flirt with heresy, and feel they need no correction. A brother comments.

I am a Charismatic. Yet, I have stopped going to this type of church for a long time. The reason is their laziness. They presuppose that since the Holy Ghost is God Himself, anything He says to them must be correct and the Word of God Himself! So it is at the same level as the Bible! So there is no need to read the Bible. Yet the Bible clearly states to test all spirits and doctrine. Even in the Church of Corinth there were people alongside each other that were spouting different doctrines; one Godly and another blashphemous and from evil spirits. One was saying that Jesus is Lord while the guy next to them was spouting that Jesus was accursed. Modern day Charismatics would give both messages equal value.

Jesus is our example to follow. He was very devoted to reading the Holy Scripture and knew it in His physical brain very well. He had set aside His divinity to fellowship with men for a season and only did that which any man could in theory do. He did not depend on His divine powers to do anything but only the gifts that the Father had given Him when He needed them. So, He had to know scriptures extremely well to battle the evil one especially at His moments of physical weakness such as at the wilderness and even during the crucifixion.

Moderne day Charismatics believe that the “whispers” trump anything in the Bible. Thus you will see the so called laughing blessing spreading throughout its churches with no one question it. Or you will see people howling like hyenas and jumping like Kangaroos at the Toronto VIneyard Church.

We are in a spiritual war. We need training. Let us seek support: when defeated shelfer and comfort, and when stanidng training. For we all need others around to support and keep us from error.

And we need those who will introduce us to that person who will help, though that person usually is already burdened. For those who do lead as such, we all must petition God that they have strength, support and recall the words of their mentors.