A while back, God put something on my heart which I believe is for this new season. The word was this: “the body (of Christ) won’t be healthy until each one takes their place, and each one is allowed to take their place”.
I’m not sure if you have noticed, but the body of Christ for the most part is dysfunctional – or at the very least, segregated. And that segregation is not separation by skin colour or race as much as it is by gifting. You see, I want people around me who think like me, talk like me, are just like me – because I understand them. But that’s not what makes a healthy body.
You get churches who are great at exhortation (bringing the basic message of salvation to the lost), but don’t want anything to do with inner healing or prophecy. Or you get churches who are great at teaching, but won’t accept anything to do with Holy Spirit. And so on…
So what if my gifting is prophecy, and I am in a church whose gifting is exhortation? Well, unless the leadership embrace this word, then you don’t fit. You feel like a square peg in a round hole. No one knows what to do with you, and so you end up serving in a capacity that doesn’t develop you, or release you to be you*.
What we need is a paradigm shift. A radical shift that allows each one to play their role in the body of Christ, from a foundation of love. This shift that means we take a look at our own wounds and triggers, which cause us to control others.
So, here are some thoughts based on what God highlighting to me at the moment:
- Be leaders who aren’t afraid of looking at areas of our lives/businesses/churches that aren’t bearing fruit. What is it that’s causing me to control others, or not allow them to be who God made them to be?
- Learn to lead without control. (Trying to control people to be like us, when actually, most will not be like us).
- Be the kind of leader that can bring out the treasures of each person’s unique design, whilst moving towards the common goal, without hurting them.
- Set people free, to let them be who God made them to be
- Embrace this season, where intimacy with God – being in His presence – is crucial, more than some goal or target. (What kind of gospel are we sharing when most of us don’t intimately know God ourselves? And what kind of fruit can we bear apart from the vine?)
I know that I’m not there yet, but this is the journey I am on, and believe anyone in leadership needs to be on.
*God works all things for good, to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes (Rom 8:28), however I believe that God’s heart is that this would only be a season, and not a lifetime.
Life by the Spirit 