Les D. Crause

The Davidic Apostle's Characteristics

I am going to look in summary, at the characteristics of the Davidic apostle - things that characterize and make this kind of apostle stand out. It will help you to recognize such an apostle.

Prophetic Orientation

Firstly, the Davidic apostle is prophetic. Remember the verse we dealt with right at the beginning spoke about the patriarch, the apostle David? The Scripture said, "Being a prophet, he spoke and prophesied." David was a prophet. Today God is raising up people from within the prophetic movement to become apostles. You know what He is calling them to become? Mostly Davidic apostles, because the David apostle is prophetic. The Davidic apostle, like David probably has a musical orientation and a praise and worship orientation.

Functions out of the system

The Davidic apostle cannot function using the principles of the system. Remember when David came to slay Goliath and Saul said to him, "Okay David, here's my armor. You put it on and go and fight Goliath." Poor David. When the king says to you, "Look David, use my armor," you do not say, "I'm not using your armor you stupid idiot. I've got my sling and that's good enough!" You do not talk to a king like that. You bow yourself to the ground and you say, "Yes, your worship, I will put on your armor." You know very well, though, that it is not going to work.

Do not think that you can use the principles of the system if you are called to be a Davidic apostle. Do not think that you can work within the system and go by the way that it works, because you cannot kill any Goliaths that way.

Davidic Apostle is Pastoral

The David apostle is pastoral. What is a pastor? He is a shepherd. What was David before he became the king? He was a shepherd. In fact, David received most of his training as a shepherd.

You say, "Do you mean to tell me that a pastor can be an apostle?"

No, an apostle can be a pastor. There is a difference. Most pastors think that they are apostles. They should be so lucky! They try to act like apostles. They are apostles over a small little group of people in one building. That is not the ministry of an apostle as we have shown, and we will continue to show it. But the apostle is shepherd over God's flock. And yes, he can shepherd God's people. And I tell you what, he is an expert at it. He was trained in it and came up through the ranks of the pastoral ministry, because he rose up in that kind of authority.

Replaces the System

The ultimate goal of the Davidic apostle is to replace the system. I want you to understand this very clearly. He is to raise up something that is an alternative to the system and put it in to replace the system and take its place. He can begin before the system crumbles. He does not have to wait for the system to crumble before he begins his function. He begins by building outside of the system. David had his mighty men. He had his whole army in place long before the kingdom of Saul fell. When Saul's kingdom was displaced all David needed to do was to take what he had already formed, bring it in and put it in place.

That is the beauty of being a Davidic apostle. You do not have to wait for God to finally deal with the system and displace it before you can rise up in apostolic authority and apostolic ministry and carry out what God has called you to do. You can start right now, but you are going to have to leave the system first, because you are going to have to start outside of it.

Unfortunately the Davidic apostle cannot rise up into full ministry until the system crumbles, so you are going to have to wait. You can pray it through, you can get people ready for it, you can prophesy it and tell people about it, but you cannot do anything about it, because God did not call you to destroy the system. He called you to raise up an alternative to the system, and you must wait until the time is right before you replace the system with the true pattern that God has given you.

Early Call, Out of Obscurity

There are many more characteristics, but there is just one more I want to mention, and this is an outstanding one. That is, that the Davidic apostle is called while he is still young. 2 Samuel 5:4 says this:

2 Samuel 5:4 David [was] thirty years old when he began to reign, [and] he reigned forty years. (AMIV)

That is pretty young to take the throne of Israel. Bear in mind, also, that at the age of 30 David had already gone through the entire preparation and training for the apostolic office. Not many prophets rise up into office by that age. Have you noticed that today God is calling people to the apostolic office from very young ages? Even in our Apostolic School we have young people. God is bringing in people still in their teen years, calling and raising them up. We also have people in their early 20's.

You say, "But surely if a person is going to be an apostle of God, he's got to be a mature, seasoned person, well established in the Word and in ministry, having lived his life with gray hairs already from all the problems he's had in ministry?"

No, you do not have to all look like me. God is raising up young people. Why? Because the Davidic apostle can be trained very quickly, and he can begin to function immediately because he does not have to wait for the system to crumble. That is why, at this point in time, the majority of the apostles that God is raising up, and certainly the majority I think of those that He is bringing to us at this time, are coming from obscurity. Where are they coming from? They are certainly not coming from the system. They are coming from outside the system. They are coming from people that have been hurt by the system. They are coming from people that have been kicked out. They are coming from people that have been battling financially, that are in trouble and in debt. You read the descriptions of the people that came to David at the Cave of Adullam and it sounds almost like the people that God is sending our way.

"Glory! I must be a Davidic apostle. There must be something there. God must have raised up this ministry to train Davidic apostles."

Of course He has, and that is why I am sharing it with you. And you, if you are reading this and are part of the Apostolic School, the chances are you are probably Davidic, particularly if you are younger; particularly if you have left the system and are outside of it. I feel sorry for you if you are in the system, because the bad news is you are going to be kicked out - probably not long after joining us! You had better get out quickly. It is going to happen.

Comparisons Between the Two

Now I want to end with comparisons between the Davidic and Mosaic apostles. I have kind of given you a bit of that already, but I would like to give you some specific comparisons.

You say, "If all of this applies to the Davidic apostle, then what about the Mosaic apostle. What makes that apostle so different?"

Different Emphasis

The Davidic apostle has a prophetic emphasis as we saw. The Mosaic apostle has a teaching emphasis - those whom God is raising up who are well grounded in the Word and are teachers in the Word. They can be prophetic too, but their emphasis tends to be very strongly Word-based. Those who tend to veer towards the prophetic usually have a Davidic emphasis.

Apostolic Preparation Time

The Davidic apostle does not require a long a preparation as Moses did. When David was 30 he was on the throne. When Moses was 40 he was in the backside of the desert and had not even started yet. It is tough being called to be a Moses.

I can see you young guys saying, "I just hope I'm not called to be a Moses." You have a lot of years to wait yet. The good news is however, that you do not have to wait to be a Moses. You can start being a David in the meantime, if you are prophetic of course.

Different Ages

The Davidic apostle is usually younger than Moses for that very same reason. It does not necessarily follow. It does not mean that an older person has to be a Moses. It does not mean that God cannot call older people to be Davidic apostles. Certainly if you have a prophetic orientation more than a teaching orientation, the chances are you are Davidic.

The System

David works outside the system. Moses works inside of the system. David waits for the system to be displaced. What does the Mosaic apostle do? He causes it to be displaced.

You are saying, "But you have been talking about displacing the system, haven't you? Now you tell us that the Davidic apostle is not supposed to displace the system. He has to wait for God to do it. So hold on, I thought the apostle was meant to destroy the system." You do not destroy the system if you are Davidic. If you are a Moses, yes you are going to be there, right in the middle of it.

To Confront or Not

The Davidic apostle is non-confrontational. David did not confront Saul. He did not go there and shake his harp in Saul's face and say, "Don't you dare throw the javelin at me, because I bind you in the name of the Lord of hosts, and you demon, you come out of him!"

No. David ran. The Davidic apostle does not confront the system. He works outside of it. And if ever he confronts the system he will confront it as a prophet by sending forth a decree. We will be speaking about that, particularly when we look at the displacement of the system.

Moses of course, is the one who goes to the highest authority, Pharaoh himself, puts his stick in his face and says, "You let God's people go. Now!" You do not have a young guy doing that I assure you. You do not have somebody who does not know the Word trying to do that. And you do not have somebody who does not have maturity and experience behind him trying to do that. So do not think that you as a young guy, being raised up as an apostle, full of arrogant self-strength, can rise up and be a Moses. It is going to take a bit more maturity and experience than that to rise up and become a Mosaic apostle.

Different Concerns

David is more concerned about the functions of the Body and the ministries of the Body. After all, he is prophetic. That is what the prophet does. The prophet sets the Body in order and brings out the ministries. The Mosaic apostle is concerned about the structure.

"The structure's got to be right. We have to have a plurality of elders. We've got to have things set up correctly. The meetings must be in order. We've got to have the finances in order. We have to have things run the right way. People must be grounded in the Word and established properly, according to sound Scriptural patterns and principles."

When you hear somebody talking like that you say, "Moses!" When you hear somebody saying, "We've just got to get revival power. We've got to shake the church and turn it upside down. We must get people stirred up. We've got to bring out the ministries and the signs and wonders. We must see the gifts in manifestation," you say, "Hello David."

David has a revival anointing emphasis. Moses's emphasis is the Word and counseling, and dealing with deep spiritual problems. The revival junkie is a David. The Word junkie is a Moses. Do not play the one off against the other. They work together and bring balance, and they are both necessary.

Difference in Approach

David is a warrior. He is going to go out and conquer the world. Moses is a statesman and is going to do it democratically. He is going to rise up in political power and change the constitution. There is a whole different approach. You do not have a young 30 year old guy rising up and becoming the President. It takes somebody with a bit more age and maturity behind him. I am not saying it is impossible, just not usual. People do not follow somebody who is young and inexperienced.

Apostolic Training

The Davidic Apostle is trained in obscurity. When did Moses' training begin? Think about it. His training did not begin in the backside of the desert. Moses' training began when he stepped into that Red Sea. It began as he walked through the desert and climbed Mount Sinai; as he wandered for 40 years with the Children of Israel in the desert.

Moses was trained on the job. David was trained outside of the job in obscurity, looking after his father's sheep. And having been trained, and having raised up and built his little empire outside of the system, David then brought it back in and rose up. The Moses apostle is going to be trained on the job. You do not want to be a Moses if you can help it. It is a tough job. And in the end you have to hand over to some young upstart called Joshua, and he gets all the glory for it.

David grew up outside the system and he was brought into the system. Moses grew up in the system and he had to leave it. There is a total different orientation altogether between the two apostles. Yet if you put the two together you have a balance and you have a full picture of the apostolic ministry and the apostolic office. You have a picture of the two end-time apostles that God is raising up - the Davidic apostle and the Mosaic apostle.

Get Moving with your Apostolic Training

I think by now you should have a pretty good idea of the differences between those two, and particularly by now you should have a good picture of exactly what a Davidic apostle is. By now you should be able to clearly identify whether God has called you to such a ministry, and you should be able to look at your life and tick them off and say, "Yes, been there, been there. I've got a sneaky suspicion what's coming next. Oh dear, I was afraid of that. I was hoping I didn't have to do that."

You have no more excuse anymore, because now you know what is going to happen. So stop wasting time and get to it. Go on to the next step, get moving in your training, get moving through your preparation. Rise up and take your place as the Davidic apostle in today's end-times church, and begin to prepare that new system that is going to displace the existing system that is so totally out of order.

Training David Apostles now at Apostolic Movement Training College.