EXHORTATION: LEADERSHIP

How many times did our parents have to tell us to clean our room before we did it. If you are really hungry, every time you hear the word it will be new, fresh bread, this Bread doesn't go bad! As leaders, we should be ready to explain to complainers that if we are really living for God, we can get something new from the same message every time, this is a Living Word. If you keep hearing the same thing over, ask God “OK God what am I missing”, maybe He is trying to show me something I missed. As leaders we must realize that everybody has a complaint, people have not changed since the times of Moses, we must be able to explain so that they can understand. We cant try to please everybody, everybody will not be happy with the decisions that you make. Sometime it is basic simple things that we miss. God is in the little things, we are looking for Him in thunder, lighting and earthquakes and he is in the still small voice. A disciple is a disciplined one, and we need to become disciplined in hearing and doing the small things God calls us to do. This is your food for thought today. I'm ready to share with you what God is speaking to me. Touch your ears and say, “ Jesus help me to hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church – Thank You, Jesus for Your word.” Matt 25:31- There is a shifting of leadership; God is putting His anointing on people that He has reserved for such a time as this. He said I’ll take the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. He is going to raise up a people that most folks wouldn't think would ever amount to anything. It does not matter what color, social background, education or what you have been through. You can go with God as far as your dedication and devotion will take you. We see in the body that people are filled with fear because of what is going on in the world. This spirit of fear has penetrated even the church and they are grabbing for straws because the leadership has not emerged as they should. Jesus talked about these signs in Matthew 25:31 - 39. We are the righteousness of God in this text, we see that God's people are victorious no matter what happens in the world. We as the righteous have ministered to the Lord personally, and true leaders are interested in ministering to the body. We talked about the priest sons of Zadok who minister to the Lord. The body has to grow and expand that is why He gave a symbolism of the body as an organism that has to be nurtured, feed, taken care of and ministered to. We as leaders can't have anointing without a relationship in the body of Christ and the relationship cant be superficial. If it is superficial, God is not in it. How many of you want superficial relationships? If we are going to judge our relationship with God just look around you. Cannot get to God any other way but through Jesus and that happens through His body, someone had to tell you—a part of the body had to minister to us.The bible teaches that we are the body of Christ we are a part of the body and He wants to do it through us. There is a God man walking in the earth, the body of Christ. We must find our place in the body so he can use us to minister to Him by ministering to the body. Every part of the body has an assignment, a function, a call, and a purpose and there is nothing that is insignificant. We don't know what our assignment is most of the time. If we want to have longevity of life, always have a Holy Ghost assignment, we can not step off this planet if we are on assignment. He who has begun a good work in you is faithful to perform it. He might start out with small assignments, because if we are faithful over a few things He will make us rulers over many. Our assignment is to minister to Him, how do I minister to Him - through touching my neighbor. The problem is we disrespect the Lord's body and that is why there are many sick and dead among us, because we discern not the Lord's body. I am not just talking about the partaking of communion. How can you discern the blood and body in the act of partaking communion but you can't discern the body and blood in your brother and sister? I'm glad my brain is not territorial about the other parts of my body or my body would be in trouble with the brain wanting to say that there is no need for my liver, kidneys and other body parts. There is a place that we as leaders must mature to the point that we can minister to the body at every level. This is how we become priests unto Him. You can be a priest to the people but you carry your weakness, your iniquities and you are working, but working with a limp. I want to minister to Him, you cant minister to Him and not reach the world. Consider such a time as we are living in now, there is fear of stuff that is going on in the world right now there is fear in the church.I'm grieved by the things I hear from Christian TV, I want to say is there a prophet in the house. Last month we did a prophetic activation and some of you actually prophesied, and did a great job. We learned the different levels of the prophetic -- household, national, cooperate, regional and governmental. The world is asking questions and reaching for an answer and the leadership of the body has got to emerge (this is prayer food), because these things are going to continue to happen until we wake up. You have nothing to be afraid of, 1000 can fall at your side and 10,000 at your right hand, but it is not coming near you. Some folks lived near where Hurricane Katrina hit and were completely unharmed. I'm here to tell you if you are on Holy Ghost assignment, even if you were on a ship like Paul and the whole ship crashed, God will save everyone on the ship just to save you for completion of your assignment. Leaders cannot preach fear from the pulpit and minister to the Body of Christ at the same time. We have learned that prophecy is for edification, exhortation and comfort. If we are going to minister to the body we must have a prophetic voice and hear a prophetic sound so we can minister to the body as we ought to.There are plenty folk going around calling themselves prophets trying to conjure the next tragedy that will happen, crying something is going to happen -- yea something is going to happen something is happening right now, something will always be happening. We can not get on national TV guessing at a prophetic word. If God is going to give a prophetic word, He is going to give clarity and there is going to be a reason why He gave it, not to the point that you having a lot of questions in your brain.In Acts 11 the prophet prophesied that there would be a great dearth in the land and encouraged the people to get their food and stuff together because there was going to be a famine. God desires to raise up true apostles and prophets to prophesy with accuracy and authority, we have got to be bold with this thing. The world needs to hear from God. We cant be leaders and feel like we need to get in before people and make up stuff, we must make ourselves available to God, so He can use us. Many talk about false prophets, but I'm here to tell you that if there is a false prophet, then there is a true prophet. We resist the prophetic anointing, but we want to speak in tongues, Paul said I would rather that you all prophesy than speak in tongues. I am not against speaking in tongues, go into your prayer room and speak and pray in tongues. If you are going to speak in tongues in the house of God, there should be mature persons to interpret. Leaders need to prophesy with authority. I have got a message! “The next greatest tragedy that is about to happen is that Jesus is coming back and somebody is going to get left behind. Somebody is going to die without knowing Jesus Christ as Savior. Somebody is suffering in a third world country and nobody told them about a good and awesome God.” That is the message of this hour. We as leaders must emerge as people of power, destiny, purpose and authority to speak the word with clarity and boldness and God will watch over your word and what comes out of your mouth will come to pass. In order for that to happen, we must be people of integrity and God must be able to trust us. He will even watch over your word to where if you make a mistake he will still watch.Why do you think he sent an angel to stop Balaam from cursing Israel? There is an authority in the office of a prophet. Why are bad things happening, “What is coming out of your mouth”? There is a creative force working in your mouth. There is an authority that God has put in your mouth. I'm not talking about name it and claim it, we have to become experts, hit the target every time. If I don't have a message from God, quoting pastors, books and other sources is not like having the Light of Holy Ghost shine the revelation into your spirit. When it becomes real to you, you don’t have to quote others, because the same Person that told others will make it real in you, you will be able to speak from a place of authority. You will be powerful if you get this! You can have a successful church and not have an anointing. Look at new age, Jehovah Witness, Mormon, Muslim, they have successful ministries but do you want success or a real anointing. If God is not speaking, I don't want to say it. We have been entertained so long in church, that if the preacher doesn't tickle our flesh we don't feel like we have been in God's presence. We are here on assignment to deal with demons in people, but we are so busy swatting in the heavens that all the people around us are going to hell. The reason why the apostle said we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places is because people thought it was a physical fight, because demons work through people. While we are swatting in the heavens the demons are taking over here in the earth. In the Bible, the apostle cast demons out of people. Fighting in the heavens is a distraction. God gave us the earth to take over, and He will handle the heavens. We need to deal with earth; demons are running free in people. A lot of the names of demons that we have been reading about come from pagan cults. Jesus didn't care what the demons names were, don't you think He already knew, the only reason Jesus asked what legions name was- was to teach us that a person could be inhabited by more than one demon. The devil is on assignment in the earth not above the earth. We cannot accept everything we read and see on TV. Somebody told you that you had a generational curse on your life and you needed to come to the preacher to get it broke. We are trying to put Jesus back on the cross, when He said “it is finished”, it was finished. I would that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers; (how does your soul prosper?) by knowing God and knowing His Word. The reason we think we have a generational curse is because we have not let the cross do its work and our minds have not been renewed. Why would Jesus die for us and say that who the Son has set free is free indeed and we still need a preacher to come along to break a curse off us. He either did it or didn't, just accept Him, if you accept Him as Savior then accept Him as Deliverer. I m not going to tell people who have been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ that they need me to set them free. These teachings are designed to get you dependent and get your money. Jesus has set us free, He has opened up the prison doors and we refuse to come out. As a leader we do not want people depending on us, we have to teach Jesus Christ as the way to salvation and everything else we need. Ephesians 4:11 is a prophetic word -Ephesians 4:9-10 lets us know that this is a post ascension gift, given after He ascended. Jesus had other apostles that the 12 apostles were mad about, because they didn't know them. We are always busy looking at what someone else is doing, but must find what God tells us to do. - 4:11 He gave some apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors and teachers - 4:12 for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, He is calling us to perfection and the reason why we don't have perfection is because we have not embraced all these anointings. Ministry should be team ministry, but we have put it all on the pastors and that is why many of them are leaving the church. We cant even do the work of the ministry without all these anointings. The work of the ministry is to win souls and destroy the works of devil; we must learn about and be activated in these anointings. Edify the body of Christ – Ask self “How have I edified the Body?” -This is the prophetic part – 4:13 Until we all come in the unity of faith (gifts have been given until we come into the unity of faith) – Ask self “Have we come to the unity of faith” - we are not there yet, but it has to happen. God will shake the earth until we wake up. The whole creation groans for a manifestation of sons of God, which means the matured ones. -Knowledge of the Son of God—“how do you prosper your mind” by knowing Him. You won’t go around worrying about being cursed if we know Him, because what He calls blessed can not be cursed. Intimacy is a oneness, we are a part of Him, grafted into His body, a part of the organism of Jesus Christ. When the devil sees us walking in authority he doesn't see us, he sees Jesus. -Unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ - we should measure up to the same stature as Jesus Christ moving in the earth; the cooperate man, but we have a ways to go. -4:14That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro --- we can’t be a toys r us kid, children don’t have to lead, just follow around. We must become mature in Christ.-Carried about with every wind of doctrine – if it doesn't produce faith and bring closer to Jesus Christ, if it leaves you in fear, lack or wanting it is not of Christ. God fills all things and leaves us with confidence, that we can move forward in Him by the power of the Holy Ghost. -Sleight of men and cunning craftiness—leaders are trying to develop more ways to manipulate and keep people dependent, the devil is using them and they don’t even know it. If we are not trying to mentor, raise up, and share Christ with others than we are not leading and are not in the perfect will of God. - Grow up into Him in all things—God wants us to grow up and be mature in Christ. You may not be a pastor, but whatever you are called to, you are to be the best and he wants you to lead and minister to others. If we want to minister to Him and have a real anointing it is meetings like these and your sacrifice to come that will help get you there. It is nothing like knowing your assignment and flowing in it. If it is hard to do what you do, maybe God wants to mold you another way. We are going to be ministers unto Him and have a prophetic voice, you will be surprised of the people that God will use you to influence, but we must be ready. Part of our job is to help you find your assignment, develop you, so that the person coming behind you can receive what you have.Bishop Brian Jones, Apostle of Jesus Christ313-828-8192