The Anointing of the Apostleabout it. You won't start out there anyway. Paul didn't. Acts 13:1
says, "Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain
PROPHETS AND TEACHERS; as Barnabas, and Simeon... and
Lucius ... and Manaen ... and Saul."
Each of these men was either a prophet or a teacher, or a
prophet and a teacher. Some may operate in more than one
office—but a person doesn't operate in those offices as he wills.
It is as God wills and as He anoints.
Barnabas was a teacher. Saul (Paul) was a prophet and a
teacher, for a prophet is one who has visions and revelations,
and Paul received the entire Gospel that way. He would have
been called a "seer" in the Old Testament, because he would see
and know things supernaturally.
As we have seen, in Acts 13:2 the Holy Spirit said,
"Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have
called them." They had not yet gotten into the work that God
called them to do. They fasted and prayed again, and the other
ministers laid hands on them and sent them out, and they became
apostles or missionaries to the Gentiles.
Barnabas was considered an apostle as much as Paul was:
"Which when the APOSTLES, Barnabas and Paul.. .." (Acts
14:14).
In the city of Lystra, during this first missionary voyage,
Paul ministered healing to a man who had been crippled from
birth (Acts 14:8), and the people of the city wanted to worship
Paul and Barnabas as gods, saying, "The gods are come down to
us in the likeness of men" (v. 11). Paul and Barnabas had moved
into another office, that of apostle, and a stronger anointing had
come, because it takes a stronger anointing to stand in that
office.
Don't get taken up with names and titles. If I didn't know
what God called me to, I wouldn't bother a minute about it. If I
sensed the call on the inside of me, I would just preach and teach
and let God eventually set me in the office He has for me.
Notice Barnabas and Paul were not set in the office of