This message was released by Apostle Kathryn Krick Lead Pastor/ Apostle of 5F Church in Los Angeles, CA on  November 9, 2019. Below is a word for word translation of the message as if Apostle Kathryn is writing this to you. To watch the full answer scroll to the bottom of this post. We pray this teaching blesses you and equips you to walk as a powerful vessel of God. 

Question:  What’s the difference between a disciple & an apostle?

Well, Jesus calls the disciples both disciples & apostles, so it’s a very good question. Well, an apostle is one of the five-fold ministries. An apostle is one of the five-fold ministries that Jesus said in Ephesians, He said, “I’m sending my spirit”. When He ascended to heaven, He ascended, He said, “I’m sending my Holy Spirit & with my Holy Spirit, I’m giving gifts to the church”. When He said gifts in the verse of Ephesians 4, He’s talking about offices, like people holding offices of ministry. Now it says, “I am pouring out, I’m giving apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, & teachers”. They all have different roles. In this verse it says, the next verse says, the purpose of these gifts, these offices, are to edify the body of Christ, to strengthen the believers.

Apostles’ job are to lay the foundation, to teach foundational truths. They correct. They have a special anointing to correct. They have this passion inside to see when something is out of line, a way the enemy has come in the body, in the church & tried to divert the people or blind the people. So, they have this gift & passion to teach, to direct, to be sharp. They also prepare the way for the prophetic message as John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus. John the Baptist says, “I prepare a way, I’m preparing a way. Make the paths straight”. He’s telling the people to stop their sinful ways, to look up for there’s someone you must receive. There’s a word you must receive. There’s miracles you must receive. So, that apostolic gift he had was preparing the people. The people needed to be prepared to receive the prophetic, sharp word, straight from God. If they weren’t prepared, they couldn’t receive it. People need to be prepared to open their hearts, to be expectant. This is a principle of receiving miracles, receiving the word of God.

Prophets speak the word of God. God will not speak certain things to other people, but He will speak it to prophets. It’s how God works; it’s His order. So, prophets will speak a word for the body. This helps everything be organized. It helps us be in line so we’re not all confused. (Random people) God told me this. God told me to go this direction. God told me to go this direction. The prophet comes in and says THIS WAY. There’s a special grace & God chooses the prophets, the true prophets carefully, very carefully so that they can be accurate & handle this responsibility.

Evangelists' jobs are to reach the lost. They have a special heart & fire, “I need to save the lost! I need to bring them into the kingdom. I need to bring them into the church”. But that is their focus. They don’t have a focus on growing & maturing, which is so important, but they don’t have a grace. Their grace is to reach the unsaved. The other offices don’t have that grace. Apostles have the grace to mature, to teach, to help grow up the body. They don’t have as strong of a grace to reach the unsaved, that’s the evangelists job.

The pastor is a Shepard! The pastor is the Shepard. They have the grace to care about people in the body, in the church. They have a grace to care about their individual, specific needs. They don’t want a sheep to be lost. The other offices don’t have that grace as much. They’re about doing their work, what they’re called. (Example) I’m about reaching the lost. If this person wants to run off from the church, that’s fine. I need to go save the lost. They don’t have that grace as much. Same with apostles & prophets, they’re more like “This is the word of God! I’m doing my business. If you don’t care about it then fine, leave”. I mean they don’t have that grace as much where a pastors like, “Oh I understand. I understand you’re going through a rough time right now. I want to meet with you. I want help you. I don’t want to leave you”. They have that special, nurturing, Shepard grace.

And teachers, they chop up the word. They have a special grace to take this word, specifically prophetic word & the word of God & dissect it, chop it up into little pieces so the people can eat the meat, so that they can understand it, so that they can take it in rather than being confused “What is this word mean? What does this mean in the Bible? What does this prophetic word that the prophet spoke mean? I don’t know what that means”. So, they help, they chop it up. They have a grace. God gives them revelation. This is how you can deliver it to the people so that they can understand it better. Apostles have that grace as well, that teaching gift.

So, those are the five offices. So, an apostle is actually one of those offices.

A disciple is all of the believers. All of you, whether you’re an office of ministry or whether you’re calling is something different. But every single believer, anybody who calls on the name of Jesus as Lord is a disciple. You’re a disciple. You are a learner & you’re calling is to make disciples. So, you learn the words of God, the teachings of Jesus, the way, & then you grow big enough to be able to disciple others, to teach others.

And the reason why there’s confusion is because Jesus, I’ve heard that question a lot, a lot of people don’t know is because Jesus, when He calls the first 12, He didn’t actually call a pastor, prophet, teacher. He just called apostles, so that’s why there’s confusion, because it looks like the same thing, that’s why there’s confusion. But He could’ve called other offices, He just chose to choose apostles. What did He choose to choose all apostles? I believe it’s because the apostles actually have a grace to touch all five offices, but they can touch, they have a special grace of pioneering, that’s why He chose just apostles in the beginning because they have that grace for pioneering where they can touch. God gives them a grace to understand all the little areas.