Greetings,
In these past blogs I have been looking at the failure of Lucifer and how he now schemes as a fallen creation to destroy the uniqueness of who we are in our creation in God. He hates the authority of life and God designed submission is something he seeks to destroy. The failure of Lucifer was made manifest when he became self-seeking in his heart and began to boast and lie against the truth. He became focused on natural understanding and sensual in his practices. It was than that his life-giving attributes transformed to death-producing activity. He was no longer pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, or good fruits. He became partial in his decision-making abilities and demonstrated acts of hypocrisy. He was no longer a peacemaker, but became a propagator of division to the purposes of God. God cast him to the ground, evidence that he had become bound to natural understanding and could no longer live in the destiny of his original creation. Lucifer become unwise, though he was anointed to be wise. He didn’t understand what the will of God was.
Ephesians 5:17-21:Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.
Lucifer became self-gratifying rather than life giving to others (Eph 5:18). He was a taker and not a giver. His psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs became tunes for his own purpose, not for the life of others (Eph. 5:19). He did not see thankfulness to God as the essence of his purpose (Eph. 5:20). The fruit of it all was the inability to submit to others and the absence of the fear of God (Eph. 5:21). He defiled the sanctuaries of his responsibility before God (Ezek. 28:18). He ended up consumed by his own self-seeking fire and thus became ashes upon the earth (Ezek. 28:18). He became a disgrace to God’s purposes in his life and could no longer bring honor to God’s name. The only thing that he can produce now is self-seeking and death to any environment he finds himself in. He is absent the glory of God (Isa. 14:15). Now, he is Satan – a false accuser. He is the Devil – a destroyer of the souls of men through the perversion of their soul’s identity. He only brings death and destruction and is thus doomed to that same judgment (Isa. 14:19,20).
What lessons can those involved in team ministry learn from Lucifer’s fall? God reveals His wisdom to the Church by His Spirit (1 Cor. 2:10). Any ministry team called by God must release a sound and expression that enables others to sense what God is desiring to bring to pass in their midst by the power of His Spirit. Leadership team members are not those who know all things. They simply release an expression that helps all come to understand what God is bringing to pass. Leadership teams are not mere teachers of God’s way. They are activators, facilitators, and releasors of the expressions of God in a corporate community. Any expression of God must be one of God’s light to a new day. It will be filled with life, hope, and a testimony of His overcoming grace.
Individual members of a community of God must never get their identity from their position or their function within the community. They must get their identity from God their Father and then express who they are in Him through submission one to another. Leaders must set the example for others in this and create an atmosphere and a culture where submission can flow. Only a corporate expression together will reveal who God really is. Neither leaders nor congregation members can ever grasp for the place of another.
Leaders must set an example that others can follow. They cannot do this by rules of law or command. They must do this by becoming the substance of God’s true life in a way that activates, facilitates, and releases others to become the same, Jealousy and bitter envy must never be found in a leadership team. They are to seek God intensely and never be seekers of themselves. Carnality, sensuality, and self-seeking agendas have no place in a leadership team. Team members must never be wise in their own understanding, but must exhibit meekness to God and to one-another.
Every expression of the community of God is anointed to reveal God’s beauty. Every expression should reveal some attribute of who God is. Who someone is must never be used to perform or express who they are as individual members. Each must know that they live for the well being of another. Whether it is a leadership team or an expression of the community, the rhythm and sound that comes from them together as a team is meant to magnify God and announce His holiness from the place of His manifested presence. The essence of that which is released through their ministry is thankfulness to God in every way.
Leadership team members must live to be pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, and good fruits before God and men. They must never be partial in their decision-making abilities, or hypocrites in their actions before God and men. They will no doubt fail at times in this process, but their hearts must be in pursuit of these qualities. They must be givers of life to others. Their lives must be filled with the sound of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs that bring life to others and magnify God’s purpose in the earth. These are the testimony of their attitudes, their expressions, their focus, and their agendas in life. The sound and expression of their lives must exhibit a submission to others and an awe of who God is. In this they will bring honor to the name of God in the earth and life to every environment they find themselves in.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
Good article Ted.
Really enjoyed reading it and examining oneself through the lens of Scripture.