This morning I was at our church fellowship about 4:30 getting the fire going in the stove, making sure the heat was right and spending some time in prayer.

One of my thoughts was in regard to the Super Bowl. I was thinking how many will be focused on the game. (Well except for the New England Patriot folks…)Tonight one of the largest TV watching times of the year will be upon us. The Super Bowl. Pitting the Denver Broncos against the Seattle Seahawks. And while that is being played think about some of these facts.

More than 100 million pounds of chicken wings will be consumed. Dominos says it will serve over 11 million pieces of pizza. 11.5 million pounds of potato chips along with over 8 million pounds of avocado for the guacamole. Over 50,000 hotdogs at the game itself. 4.3 million pounds of pretzels. Wow! People love to eat.Okay, enough about food! As I prayed I thought about the fact that there is an amazing team out there. His people. Who have won regardless of circumstances. (Vegas is not taking that line I am pretty sure.) We have our own special teams. People of love and kindness who are doing what they are called to do. We have our own fans-they are the  great cloud of witnesses.

Whether I watch the game or do not, I am sure that amazing things will take place long before the game begins tonight.

Many years (February 7th 2006) ago I wrote the following article. Ironically the Seahawks were in that game as well. My thoughts have shifted some on the apostolic. The man or woman who is carrying the word of God forward to see Christ formed in you. Only a few years later I began to work with an apostolic gift.

We are in an amazing season.

One For The Thumb

Like millions of others, I watched the Super Bowl. And while I had no favorite, it was tough. I saw Seattle as a young team with a lot of fire and hope. My emotional ties to the Steelers stemmed from my youth where there were annual trips to the practice field and many
autographs including “Mean Joe Greene.”

As the game ended, I felt a “letdown” of sorts. I had actually   watched a lot of football this year and a lot of pregame stuff on Sunday. And I felt everybody watches the Super Bowl. And yesterday I read about churches that had Super Bowl parties with prayer at halftime (Obviously, they did not know who Mick Jagger was!!!). And the rest of the day was a blur yesterday, with no real highlights. So exasperating were many of the situations yesterday that I found myself in the bathroom in front of a mirror crying out for the Lord to come back and “now” would be a good time. Last night a family situation put the cap on it.

But during the day I thought about the meaning of the win. Was there one? I certainly would have been wrong had I bet on the game. And I thought about this line, “One for the thumb.” Lord, that means 5, a completion of sorts. And the more I meditated on it (Better than meditating on the lies of a company we spent a lot of money with last week and they changed their pickup days causing us a complete change of our week. But hey, if we wanted to keep the schedule they would only charge us $500 per day.) the more I sensed something to it.

Another ring for the thumb. A fifth ring indicating victory. For me, it was deeper than that. It represented a recap of prophetic words in Ephesian 4:11, when Jesus says He will give the church the gift of the five ministry gifts. One of the gifts being the apostolic. So many denominations have held on to the pastor, teacher and evangelist gifts, but have denied (I am sure in many cases it is out of misunderstanding.) the gifts of the prophetic and the apostolic. Many have embraced the prophetic in recent days, but let’s be real, we have almost been taught that the apostolic represents control. But what if it simply means what it means? People “sent” to a people for the purpose of establishing His kingdom, What if we recognize the word apostle because signs and wonders follow and not because it is  on their business card?

Is it possible, “one for the thumb” represents a season of true apostolic leadership and gifting coming to the church?

Written by Lee Johndrow

Lee is the Senior Leader of Abundant Grace Fellowship Church in Keene, NH

He is the father of five wonderful children. Married for over 26 years to his wife Tina. Loving life with family, friends, faith, fun and food!