Missing Ingredient Part 3

Note to Readers:  The first 2 parts of this theme are several days back
    In recent posts I have expressed my belief in the importance of the apostolic ministry. If anyone is still with me on this, one question is how would a believer recognize this gift functioning in someone else? What are the characteristics? In over forty years of walking with Christ, I have only known two apostles personally. The rest of my reflections come from the Scripture.
     Probably the most important quality is humility. Paul refers to this in Acts 20:19 when he says that he has "served the Lord with great humility...". Peter references the same quality in 1 Peter 5 when he calls himself a fellow elder, rather than an apostle in verse 1, not lording it over the flock (v. 3), and again in verses five and six. Humility comes from a true revelation of whom we are in contrast to who God is.
     Another is breadth of vision. In Romans 15 Paul writes that he has preached the gospel "from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum (modern day Croatia). (Romans 15:19) In verses twenty-four and twenty-eight of the same chapter he expresses his desire to go to Spain, the western end of the Roman world, where the lingua franca is Latin rather than Greek. The apostolic ministry is not confined to local or even regional areas. Its true parish is the "ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8)
     Yet another is prodigious love. God's love flows through them so powerfully that people are swept along as if they had fallen into a flooded river. The two I have known have suffered in their childhoods yet through God's love have triumphed over their adversities.
     They act like a coach to a sports team, recognizing that they can't and should not try to do everything. Rather they help others to operate in the gifts that they have been given. They smooth the ruffled feathers of people who tend to see things very differently. Apostolic workers are not very detail oriented because they are looking at the big picture. And they are itinerant, typically traveling much of the year.
    The above is not in any way exhaustive but is a snapshot.