The Fivefold Fingers
The Biblical corollary to the fingers of the hand of God
1. The thumb represents the office of the Apostle. The thumb is the "digit" that is used to give the hand the ability to "grip"... without the thumb the ability to grab, to grip and to hold onto things is greatly diminished... thus, the church without the thumb is severely impaired... yet as God restores these offices into the Body which is what God is up to these days... then we will find how much more the body will be able to achieve. The thumb, as it is able to connect with the other fingers where the others fingers cannot do so with each other is also indicative of the fact that one of the signs of the apostle is that they are able to grasp or fill any of the other offices as described in the remaining four fingers and are able to fully relate to all the offices. An apostle plants and oversees.
2. The index or "pointing finger" is represented by the office of the prophet. For it is the work of a prophet to "point" a people that had known God, back to their God or to "point" a people that had not known the true God to the true God... to prophecy, does not qualify one as holding this office of a prophet... the sign a person is called into this office is that their driving desire is that others know the true character of God... and one of their characteristics is often their "low" tolerance for things that are not of God, being done in the name of Jesus Christ.
3. The middle finger is represented by the Evangelist. An Evangelist, though he may win souls as we all should engage ourselves in, this is not the role or office and work of the Evangelist. The Evangelist is most involved in the building up of the body of Christ, strengthening it, fortifying it... stirring up the Holy Spirit within the body, helping to equip and define those gifts that are within others in the Body. It is the longest finger because it is to "reach" into and further into the Body of Christ as is typified often by the evangelist traveling from body to body... stirring up the saints for the work they should do.
4. The next finger is represented by the Pastor. Though this has been said to be the "weakest" finger... even weaker than the little finger it is the wrong perception as this really means... not weakness, but gentleness. A Pastor has such an enduring love for the flock that his gentleness for them carries far beyond the tolerance level the other four fingers have. Tolerance is the revealing aspect that shows if one is called to be a pastor.
5. The little finger is representative of the Teacher. Little, not because it is less or least but little, because the revealing characteristic of a true anointed teacher of God is their extreme attention to "detail". They love detail and they hate missing information or voids where they sense there should be none. Teachers can even see and know things because of what has NOT been said as well as discerning what has been said. They have a miraculous ability to "tie" in all scriptures with seemingly every other scripture to make the entire Bible weave together in a coherent fashion rather than a compilation of scriptures. They make the Bible and scripture come alive as they show the relation of the Words of God with all the other Words of God. This is the sign of an anointed teacher. They weave scriptures together as though making an intricate woven tapestry.
In Closing - We so desperately need all of these offices working and functioning in the church. If any one or more of these offices are missing in your church you only need try doing things around the house avoiding using those particular fingers to find out how much your work will be impeded by it. For most of church history for this century we have eliminated all but the Pastor. We have tried to win the world for Christ with one finger... I ask you now... get up and go try doing any chore using that finger, and that finger only... now you may get an idea why and how pastors become so over burdened and frustrated. The best you can often do is "hook" something with that finger being alone and hold it up... GEE sounds much like what a pastor is forced to go around doing... just trying to "hook" others and hold them up. Hey, let’s get all the fingers back on the hand, church... it is the Hand of God, we have no business cutting off fingers just because they don't look like or are like the pastor... they aren't suppose to be... I mean... have you turned your church into a hand that has only Pastor fingers... how clumsy that church must be running and how very mutant that is in God's sight. Let the Hand of God be restored and let the work of God be done. Unless the hand of God is restored as it should be... we shall not do well to work in the fields of this harvest... we shall do poorly and we shall do it as clumsily as we have done for so many years.