Greetings,
As leaders we must not only set an example to those we lead, we must activate, facilitate, and release others to become all that they are to be in Christ. We are not just those who know the word of God, we must become examples of the word of God to those we lead. We must become expressions of God’s word that will activate God’s personal voice in the hearts of those we lead.
1 Timothy 4:12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
Paul was not merely telling Timothy to be someone who was instructed in the word of God, but to become an example of the word of God. Every revelation from God is an invitation to have an encounter with God so that we will be transformed by Him to become a testimony of a revelation of God to those around us. When God has expressed something it is considered to be the logos (word) of God. The Scriptures are logos (word) of God, but so is leadership to be a testimony of an expression of God. Jesus was the very expression (Word) of God in flesh. The word of God is meant to pierce through the soul to the place where God speaks. The Holy Spirit within agrees with anything that has been expressed by God and when we are pierced through by an expression of God, the voice of the Holy Spirit brings life to the human spirit in the human heart.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Leaders are to be expressions of God to those they lead in order to activate the voice of God within the heart of each believer. Scripture is logos (word). Leadership, as well as maturing believers, are to be expressions of God (logos) as well. Their lives should pierce through the souls of those they influence to the very Spirit of God within their spirits, causing the voice of God to be activated within them. Leaders are not the voice of God to the people. This is Old Covenant. Leaders only serve to activate the voice of God within the hearts of those they lead. This is New Covenant.
The Old Covenant brought control and bondage, but the New Covenant brings life and liberty. It’s the manifest presence of God that brings liberty. As leaders we must lead in a way that the voice of God brings the liberty of God’s presence in the lives of those we lead. We cannot hear God for people and expect them to simply remember what we have said. We cannot teach law, present Biblical rules, propose Biblical principles, or enforce any form of covenant that holds people to the words or experiences of the past. This is a covenant that is read. It is a covenant that is remembered. A veil remains on this type of covenant for it is an Old Covenant of bondage and control. Only the New Covenant of the life of Christ within can bring the life and liberty of God. Only the New Covenant brings increasing and lasting change from within the human heart.
2 Corinthians 3:12-15 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.
It is only when one turns to the Lord in their hearts that the veil can be removed. We cannot teach people to know God, knowing God is a personal revelation discovered within the heart. It is there that true change is brought about in and through the believer. Leaders in the New Covenant must excel in the example of this personal experience and they must serve those they lead in a way that advances the New Covenant grace of life within the hearts of those they lead.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Christ in each believer is the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). It is the anointing oil that breaks the yoke. It is not merely the anointing, but the anointing oil. The anointing oil is the testimony of the fatness of Christ within us. It is the grease that comes out from within. It is not the illumination of Christ that makes men free. It is the manifestation of His presence within our lives.
Isaiah 10:26, 27 And the LORD of hosts will stir up a scourge for him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; as His rod was on the sea, so will He lift it up in the manner of Egypt. It shall come to pass in that day that his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.
One can experience the anointing oil or the light that comes from the anointing oil. As New Covenant leaders we must lead to activate the anointing oil in those we lead. It is like the testimony of the torch within the clay vessels of Gideon (Jdg. 7) and the sound of the Spirit within that blows through the prophetic shofar. When Moses told the people to stand still and see the salvation of their God, God told Moses to trust what was within him. He told Moses to lift up his rod and move forward (Ex. 14:13-16). These were shadows of the testimony of Christ within.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
