Do you beleive that you dont need accountabilty? Your covering is Jesus first and foremost as it should be! However accountablity and submission is all through the bible! Moses and Joshua, Joshua and Caleb, Samuel and David, Eligh and Elisha, Jesus and the Disciple (US)! the had a mentor and an accountbilty. and when it came time the mantle was passed! Brother my concern for you and I will be praying and I hope you dont feel this way! but I pray that you dont think you can do the work of the ministry on your own! maybe you can tie your own shoe but even our parents taught us that the lessons kepts coming! having a coverning is haveing a mentor or teacher to help to continue to teach you along the way! I am also an evanglist and has been asked that parent alot!  to me a covering is the Holy Spirit of course! However there are also the people that GOd has placed in our lifes to help us in Godly wisdom! We all need direction no matter how big we get! and if we dont think so we are in pride! Galations states that if anyman thinks he is something when he is nothing than he descieves himself! so I really dont think having a covering isnt a bad or wrong thing at all but is really helpful! However what if you have a call or a mandate from the lord and you have yet to find someone that can help as Paul to Timothy!!! YOU PREACH THE GOSPEL ANYWAY! the commission was already given and the permission was given by God and not man. so that is how I feel about the whole thing! seek the lord brother and ask him to search your heart as we all should do and ask him to find if there is any pride before we become a king uizzah and think we know it all! God Bless You and win souls!!

Timothy

Prophet Jay- Thank you for grasping the whole point of this blog, I knew that some people would immediately think I was prideful or think that I don't need a mentor " But the harsh reality is ( That Man) has tried to use this issue to do the Holy Ghost Job, and or to build their reputation which i believe stifles many believers into thinking if they don't have somebody they can say (THATS MY COVERING) than nothing can be done.
I have a Pastor, and many mentors who have been in ministry for years who still gives me intructions and teach me things I didn't know " but none of them can ever take the place of the one (JESUS) who called me or do for me what the (Holy Ghost) has done" I am happy to be Covered and commissioned by Jesus!

Terry- Stay wrapped in his arms.

Pastor Tim- Thanks for your prayers, and please if you get a chance read this blog again.

Pastor Keith,

You have no idea what that terms means to me.  I've been asked, more than I care to mention.  Funny how these issues never arose in my mother's or grandmother's generation.    Don't get me wrong, I have a Pastor who raised me up in the  Lord, and she is still my teacher, confidante  and leader... but that's not what I think most people mean.   

Who is your covering?   I am covered by the Blood Of Jesus Christ.   No where in the bible does it say nor teach that I need any other.     I am covered by the Blood of Jesus Christ, the one who has the heaven or the hell to put me into, the one who tell me to stop or go, the one who says when to speak and when to shut up, the one who opens doors for me to walk through, the one who died for me on the cross.

Who is your covering...?   Say what?

Now there are some, men and women in the church who wanted me to get under the covers with them, literally, "the devil is a lie."   The real question is who are you accountable to?

My answer is, I am accountable to the one who gifted me, who called me, who saved me, who filled me with the precious Holy Ghost, who sent me forth in His name....   Who is your covering... Say what?

 Pastor Aminata 

The foundation laid by Jesus and the things we see today are Mega Miles apart. for instance
in Ephesians 4: 11 I see (non capitalized) apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors, teachers.

What I don't see is Archbishop, Cardinals, Chief Apostles, Suffragan Bishops, and all of the rest of these man made titles that men give themselves as they struggle with the question.
"Who will be the greatest among us?"



24 Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them.25 Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’26 But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.27 Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.
Luke 22:24-27 (NLT)


What do people really mean when they push the "covering" question? I submit that what they are really asking is: "Who controls you?"

Common (mis)teaching about "covering" really boils down to questions about who controls whom. And the modern institutional church is built upon such control.

Of course, people rarely recognize that this is what is at the bottom of the issue. For it is typically well clothed with Biblical garments. In the minds of many Christians, "covering" is merely a protective mechanism.

But if we dissect the "covering" teaching, we will discover that it is rooted in a one-up/one-down, chain-of-command style of leadership. Within this leadership style, those in higher ecclesiastical positions have a tenacious hold on those under them. Oddly, it is through such top-down control that believers are said to be "protected" from error.

The concept goes something like this. Everyone must answer to someone else who is in a higher ecclesiastical position. In the garden-variety, post-war evangelical church, this translates into the "laymen" answering to the pastor. In turn, the pastor must answer to someone with more authority.

The pastor typically traces his accountability to a denominational headquarters, to another church (often called the "mother church"), or to an influential Christian worker. (The worker is perceived to have a higher rank in the ecclesiastical pyramid.)

So the "layman" is "covered" by the pastor. The pastor is "covered" by the denomination, the mother church, or the Christian worker. Because each is accountable to a higher ecclesiastical authority, each is protected ("covered") by that authority. So the thinking goes.

This "covering-accountability" template is applied to all spiritual relationships in the church. And each relationship is artificially cut to fit the template. No relationship can be had outside of it-especially that of "laymen" to "leaders."

But this line of reasoning generates the following questions: Who covers the mother church? Who covers the denominational headquarters? Who covers the Christian worker?

Some have offered the pat answer that God covers these "higher" authorities. But such a canned answer begs the question. For why is it that God cannot be the covering for the "laymen"-or even the pastor?

Hmmm . . .Selah

Of course, the real problem with the "God-denomination-clergy-laity" model goes far beyond the incoherent, pretzel logic to which it leads. The chief problem is that it violates the spirit of the NT! For behind the pious rhetoric of "providing accountability" and "having a covering," there looms a system that is bereft of Biblical support and driven by a spirit of control.    SO WHO IS YOUR COVERING ?                               

[star!]

 No I know that I write this months after it has been posted but I don't thing that there ever comes a time where the word is of no effect... and I pray that it helps clear up and adds to some very wonderful insghts of truth... I as a man with the gifts, in the office of an Apostle, I have been placed here by God and no man can counsel God on the direction of which I shall go; but all can give counsel to remain on course.

 I just want to pose another question... Who becomes the overseer/covering for those that lose their covering when the Coverer dies, if Jesus is not the Coverer, Huumm? I also wouldlike to admonish my Brother Elam for that very true yet descriptive word and and insite.