Independence is highly dangerous! Especially for apostles. Everyone in leadership, and especially every apostle, must walk in submission to others. Every apostle needs a spiritual covering, another apostle, to be both a father and a spiritual covering. John Alley

Believers and leaders who lack a spirit of submission to authority and hold no heartfelt unity with the Body of Christ, are in grave danger. John Alley

But without apostles rightly in place, greater power for the church is unachievable. The authority of holy apostles must be established yet for such freedoms to come. John Alley

Every apostle, knowing the Lord’s grace, is mindful of personal circumstances and not afraid to be transparent about struggles, burdens, and weaknesses. The false apostle, so confident, boasts in perceived strengths. This grace alone so often will reveal whether we are dealing with a counterfeit or a real apostle. John Alley

When a church looks to a false apostle for relationship and spiritual fathering, the counterfeit apostle has displaced the apostle that was meant to be there. Two things result: the church has failed to receive the apostle of Christ’s choosing, and in addition the apostle was hindered from advancing the cause of Christ not only in that church but in the apostolic ministry and the church more generally. John Alley

We must look to the Lord, then, for great apostles – for those who have died to self, who walk with Christ, and have the heart an apostle must have. This great need commends itself to our prayers. We are on holy ground. John Alley

So, the test then is this: Is the apostle accountable? Are they in submission? What kind of relationships are pursued and maintained healthily? John Alley

Without willing accountability, and the maintaining of an accountable relationship of honesty and transparency with someone over us in the Lord, we become, perhaps subtly at first, a law unto ourselves. This is why submission is so important; it is, in the end, the last defence that guards our hearts from lawlessness. John Alley

Every minister of Christ, particularly apostles and prophets, needs to value spiritual covering highly and pursue spiritual fathering. No one, no apostle or prophet (no matter how old, how long in ministry, how many people greatly cared for, or what great fathering has been given to sons) is exempt from the need to walk in heart submission to another. John Alley

Without the giving of the heart to one another, and especially to the leaders over us, we hardly are walking in the grace of God at all. John Alley