However, I would like to now take David as a prototype, which is why this book is entitled David the Apostolic Prototype. That is because in David we see a picture or model of what all apostles should look like, which includes amongst other things the following aspects.

1. What the apostle will go through

2. What the apostolic preparation and training look like

Similar to Paul

At times I will be comparing David with Paul as a New Testament apostle. David was not an apostle, but he is a picture of the apostle taken from the Old Testament. So I will be comparing it at times with Paul who was a real apostle in the New Testament.

To start off, I would like to share one fairly lengthy passage of Scripture with you. I don't normally like to share a lot of Scripture references while I'm teaching. And I also don't expect people to go and look up the Scripture passages with me.

The old way of doing this was where the preacher said,

"Turn with me to…"

Then everyone flipped through their Bibles and said,

"Where is that again?"

But I don't do that anymore. I want to share with you this passage from Acts 11:19 to 26.

19 Now those who were scattered and separated through the persecution that arose against Stephen traveled as far as Phenice, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one except the Jews only.
20 And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had entered Antioch, spoke to the Hellenistic Greeks, preaching the Lord Jesus.
21 And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned to the Lord.

In other words, a church was founded.

22 Then news of these things came to the ears of the church that was in Jerusalem: and they sent out Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch.
23 Who, when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and encouraged them all, that with a decision from the heart, they should continue to hold onto the Lord.
24 For he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith: and many people were added to the Lord.
25 Then Barnabas left for Tarsus, to look for Saul:
26 And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And they ended up spending a whole year together with the church, teaching many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

Not Apostles

Before we get into teaching about David officially, I just want you to see something in this passage.

Firstly, a church was founded in Antioch. Who founded it? Ordinary Christians did, not apostles. It doesn't take an apostle to start a church.

When the apostles in Jerusalem saw that a church had started, they sent Barnabas to go and take charge. Barnabas was not an apostle yet either, but he went and began to encourage the people.

Then he realized he needed a bit more in his ministry, so he went to go and look for Saul from Tarsus. He brought Saul in, and they worked together, teaching and preaching to the people.

Saul wasn't an apostle yet either. Neither of them were apostles, but the whole church got built up and became one of the most famous churches. It was there that they actually started to call believers Christians.

Many Stages to Go Through

As we look now at the life of David, I want you to see that there are several stages that you will go through if God has called you to be an apostle.

David's life illustrates this very clearly. We are going to go step by step through his life, and I am going to share with you some of the stages that God takes people through when He trains them for the ministry of the apostle.

I hope that as we go through it you will be able to identify with some of it and say,

"Yes, I've been there. I am there right now."

Or maybe you will say,

"I haven't arrived there yet."

Look at where you fit in. You will then know more or less how far along you are on this journey of rising up and taking your place as an apostle of God if God has called you to that. Perhaps by the time we are finished, you may say,

"I thought I was called to be an apostle, but after looking at this I'm not so sure anymore. Quite honestly I don't know if I want to be an apostle."

That is a good thing, because the sooner you find out the better. You may have spent a long time in preparation and training, only to find out that actually, the little prophet who prophesied over you was wrong.

So by the time we have finished this teaching, I want you to know without a doubt what God has called you to. I want you to know where you are at, where you are going, and the price you will have to pay if you want to rise up into this position.

Based on My Experiences

When I was first placed into the Apostolic Office, I didn't know it had happened. So much of what I am going to share with you started out with me experiencing it, then going back into the Word, seeing it, and understanding it.

I had been going through the prophetic and had just finished a full Prophetic Course. After this I began apostolic training, but what model did I have? There were no models out there, and the books I could find on the apostle taught me little.

I didn't know where I was going, and the Lord said,

"I don't want you to read other people's books, because I will teach you by the Spirit concerning this. You will learn by living it before you teach it to others."

And so I went through many different experiences along the way. Then as we were praying one day, someone who was in Prophetic Office, felt to come and pray over me and share what they were seeing in the Spirit.

We didn't know what was going on, but she said,

"I see you like a king. I see a crown and royal robes, and there's like a thing in your hand."

I said, "You mean the scepter."

She said, "Yes, that's what it is. I see that the Lord is clothing you in this and God wants me to release you into something."

And so she prayed with me and it was a great experience but I thought,

"What happened tonight?"

I didn't fully understand it, and it took a while before the penny began to drop. Then the time came, where later on as someone else qualified, God showed me the same picture.

He showed me the exact same thing - that I was to place a crown on their head, put the royal robes on their shoulders, and put a scepter in their hand.

I felt then that there was one more thing that I needed to give them. After that, it became a pattern as we began to train the apostles.

Different Types of Apostles

When we came to release someone into apostolic training, I found that I knew the person was called to be an apostle, because as I came to them I saw the crown, the robe, and the scepter.

This was something I hadn't fully understood before then. But now as I saw it I realized,

"Oh yes, God has called you to be an apostle."

So I would say to the person,

"I am releasing you to be officially trained to take your place."

I thought to myself, "Why the royal robes? Why the crown and the kingly thing?"

We had started teaching on the apostle and God had begun to show me things concerning it. I thought originally that Moses was the ultimate picture of an apostle.

I started a series called The Moses Mandate which I did not finish at the time. Then I realized that Joshua actually took over from Moses and he was also a picture of an apostle.

In my mind, Moses was given the pattern, so he was the apostle. God gave him the pattern for the church, took them out of Egypt into the Promised Land, and showed him the pattern.

Well, one day I sat down and looked up in my Concordance to see if there were any more Scriptures that told me more about the pattern and how Moses found it. Then I found an amazing Scripture by David that I had never seen before. He said,

"I want you to build the temple, according to the pattern that God showed me by the Spirit."

I thought, "What? David got a pattern? I thought Moses got the pattern, but David also got one."

For the first time, I realized that there was more than the Moses and Joshua apostle. There was also a David apostle. From there of course it led to the next one that followed on from David which was his son Solomon.

Eventually, I realized there were actually four apostolic types. David just took me by surprise though. I really didn't expect it.

Confusion About David

God began to show us all of these apostolic types. I had seen all four of them as different apostolic types with different functions, and I began to teach about each of them. We began to release people and train them, but I often wondered,

"Why do we give the royal robes and crown every time we place someone into office? It's a picture of a king, and the obvious king here is David. Isn't that weird?

You would think you would start out as Moses, perhaps become Joshua after this, then move on to David because that is the way God taught it to me. But every time we place somebody in the office, we are basically placing them as Davids."

I pondered that for many years. Then as I began to look afresh at the life of David, I suddenly realized that he was actually a complete prototype model of what every apostle should go through and become.

There were some things about David that were unique and different. There is still a Davidic apostle who is slightly different, but I found out that everybody starts out if you like, as the lower-level David. Some then move beyond that to a higher level. We will be covering that as we go through this.

Two Apostolic Levels

I realized that there are in fact two levels of apostleship. In my own experience, I started out being placed in Apostolic Office. Then later on, I was given something new that took me to a higher level of apostleship.

I became an Apostolic Father and began to train apostles, and some new things were given to me that I didn't have before. I moved into a greater level of authority.

And so I realized that the lower level, if you like, of the David apostle is the model or prototype of what every apostle should go through. That is why every time we place somebody as an apostle, we actually place them as a David.

Applies to Everyone

If you are called to be an apostle, what I am going to share with you now concerning David applies to you. You might say to me,

"Which kind of apostle am I called to be? Am I a Moses? Am I a Joshua? Am I a David or a Solomon?"

It doesn't matter which type you are called to be. Whichever one you are, you will start out as a prototype model of David. As we begin to look at this and compare it with the life of Paul in the New Testament, we will find that there are a lot of similarities.

There were very similar things that happened to them. That is why I shared the passage of Scripture at the beginning concerning Paul and the experiences he went through. You will find that they very much parallel what David went through.

Two Phases

We come finally now to take a look at David. As you consider his life, you will see two stages that David went through.

This is exactly the same for everyone who is trained and rises up into an office. Whether it be the Prophetic Office or the Apostolic Office, there are two main phases in your life that you will go through before you reach that level.

The first stage is the preparation phase and the second stage is the training phase. These phases are very distinct.

Once you have completed your preparation, you will commence training. And only once you have completed your training, you will qualify to actually rise up into the office to which you are called.

Not Automatically an Apostle

Somebody may have prophesied over you way back while you were still in preparation. They may have said,

"Thus says the Lord, I have called you to be a prophet and I've called you to be an apostle."

You say, "Wow, isn't that awesome? I'm an apostle so you can call me apostle from now on."

If someone prophesied over me like that I might say,

"Doesn't it feel good to now be called Apostle Les instead of just Les? Who wants to be called Pastor Les? That is old-fashioned, and being called an evangelist is the lowest.

Prophet is a bit higher so that is a good one these days. But the ultimate is to be called an apostle. Look at me, I'm Apostle Les! Isn't that wonderful?"

We have all been there, but there is much more than being prophesied over. You might say,

"I got a revelation. I had a dream and a vision."

Maybe you did, but you are not an apostle yet. You are probably still in the preparation phase. So let me ask you this question.

When were you officially called to training? Was it the day you saw an email that said there was a new course going on? Was it the day you enrolled and were accepted into the school?

When you begin your training it is very distinct and clear. It is a moment in time, and you should be able to point to a day, an hour, or a minute when you were called into training.

If you cannot do that, you haven't started training yet. You are still in the preparation phase.

The Preparation Phase

You are going to see this very clearly in the life of David. Let's start with the preparation phase and see what the preparation involved.

We are talking apostolic level here. The prophetic has its own phases of preparation and training, and we have taught that very clearly in the prophetic course. If you go through it you will see the distinct phases.

The prophetic preparation itself is very intense and involves a lot of death. I originally did a very detailed teaching on it, which was so powerful that every time people went through it they would go through instant death.

Their lives would be turned inside out and upside down. We used to make it the second lecture in the original Prophetic School. People would start out with the signs of the prophetic calling and say,

"Yay, I'm called to be a prophet! I can see it clearly."

Then they went into the prophetic preparation lecture and would just disappear. We wouldn't hear from them again. Then we figured out that it was that course that was doing it. It just called them to death.

We actually pulled it from the official training for a while, and we saved it for the people who need to die. You know those ones who think they are hotshot prophets and are ready to go? We say to them,

"Brother, do you really think you are a prophet? Go through this course. We have saved it, especially for you."

If that course doesn't call them to death then they weren't called.

We reintroduced this teaching into our higher-level Prophetic Training because we realized that all prophets called to office need to know it.

Preparation is a very intensive time. Training is more intensive, but it is not so long. So your preparation could take you 20 or 30 years, maybe longer. It could have taken you all of your life.

God may have been preparing you since childbirth already. But your training is an official point that you reach when you are ready to be trained.

For the apostle who is called to a higher level, there is a deeper level of death and longer training. So if you haven't made it through the prophetic yet, don't think you can start waving your flag and calling yourself an apostle, because you haven't scratched the surface yet.

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