Meeting: Bible Study
Date: 29th May, 2026
Topic: The Sense of Understanding the Spiritual Pt. 2
Minister: Pastor Laide Olaniyan
(Neh. 8:5-8) The readers of the law didn’t just read to the hearing of the people; they also caused them to understand. The Ethiopian eunuch read but didn’t understand until God sent Philip his way (Acts 8:30). It is possible we read the word and don’t understand what we are reading. When understanding came, the people were able to stand in their place.
The readers of the law also gave the people a sense of what they heard. Giving the sense was more than just understanding; it was instilling in them the spirit of the eye of the law to help them comprehend and navigate the allocation or dispensation they were in. One can understand an allocation/dispensation, but they lack the grace to navigate it. For every dispensation, there is a sense for it. A minister who, by allocation of grace, has been given the sense of an allocation/dispensation can fetch from his treasure the light of that allocation/dispensation from every scripture (Matt. 13:52).
As humans, we have 5 senses, all of which are governed by the brain. What constant exposure to the word does is tune our senses to Scriptures. There is a reason God gave us senses, as our senses make us respond as living beings. If a man’s five senses shut down, the man becomes immobile.
So also in the spirit, there are senses to be gotten, which, if a man does not have, he cannot respond to sins and iniquities. That man might also not be able to recognize life because he has no senses in the spirit. (Psalm 89:15). However, senses can be trained. The teaching of the Word trains and tunes our spiritual senses (spiritual faculties of our soul) to pick up spiritual signals that will teach us to thoroughly weigh things in the spirit, to discern the trajectory of life, and to avoid death. (Heb. 5:14) The training of the senses doesn’t have to begin with the strong meat of the word. The Lord, through Scripture, also begins to train our senses, even from a child, to particular understandings of Scripture.
Some people feel the five-fold is unnecessary (Eph. 4:11), since the Bible is now generally accepted and everyone can understand it when they read it. Whilst we can read the English language and understand it, we must know that the Bible is Spirit. Even though the holy reformation of Martin Luther allows every child of God to know the Bible individually, we should know that it would be an error for us to, for that reason, discredit the five-fold whom God has raised and given as gifts of Christ for the perfecting of saints, for the work of the ministry. For the edifying of the body of Christ (Eph. 4:12). Indeed, the Lord has ordained the five-fold to remain till we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). God will keep anointing men into the five-fold until we all come into all the fullness of God. “Unto” means destination. No minister in the five-fold has any job description outside of this. All the five-fold gifts have the responsibility to raise a perfect and complete man in Christ—”Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” (Col. 4:12). It should be settled that we will always need the five-fold. Without them, the body of Christ will suffer.
The “work of the ministry” doesn’t mean owning a church. The actual meaning of ministry given to the saints in the New Testament is found in 2 Corinthians 3 & 4: 1.
There is a ministry we have received, which is the ministry of the spirit, the ministry of change and conformity to the image and glory of God. Every minister ought to minister in the spirit, partnering with the Lord to minister to His people by the Spirit of the Lord. This is the work of the ministry every believer must do. (Rom. 12:1-2) The five-fold will continue until perfect men have arisen, and all believers attain the fullness of God!
The Apostolic work of Paul was to oversee a dispensation of the gospel. We can have some Pastors within a particular dispensation of the gospel, and their labor will not transcend that dispensation. They are sent with Apostolic strength to lay within that particular dispensation. (Eph 3: 2 & 4) They are within that dispensation to make the people find pasture. Some others are also placeholders. God raised, anointed, and kept them deliberately in that dispensation to fill a gap/manage the flock, just like the law. God gave the law as a placeholder, to serve as a schoolmaster, before the revelation of the faith of Christ. (Gal. 4:1-3) There are tutors and governors. The tutor trains a person in a specific skill, while a governor is a householder who oversees general affairs.
A member of the five-fold can occupy the position of a tutor/instructor to pastor a particular thing. They are the instructors. Paul didn’t despise them (1 Cor. 4:15). A governor isn’t an instructor. He oversees in a general sense. He oversees all aspects to ensure the training is thorough and well-rounded. A pastor who is a tutor should know that the part he supplies should be geared towards the overall aim of the five-fold office, which is conformity to the image of the Son.
However, there are Pastors, servants of God, who are not just tutors but also overseers, with the ability given by God to impart a sense and move a people from partaking of all provisions in one dispensation into another dispensation. It takes growth and consistent, close following of the Spirit to become such a governor.
So we see that the Apostle Paul was given a particular sense to give to the Ephesian church. (Eph. 3:6) – “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel”—This isn’t just letters; it’s a work; it’s the raising of a Christ/Spiritual man who is then hoping for glory. Not just the communication of knowledge, but the working of a man into a particular image. At the end of this administration, a man of charity and a man of peace should be born. A man of peace is raised by reason of a dispensation of the gospel (Eph. 2:15). The man of peace is a man who has gained mastery of life in Life and Peace, and he can use it to live anytime. The man can use Faith, Hope, and Charity to live by reason of what has been communicated to his soul.
THE END.