Greetings,
God reveals who He is to us, but we reveal who He is to others. We are the book that is read by our neighbors. The Bible is a book for those who believe that they might seek to know the character, nature, way, power, and authority of the One they believe. The Bible is not a book for the world. Believers in Christ are the book that is read by the world. As leaders we must be examples to those we lead so they will also be inspired to those they influence in this world.
Our view of administration will influence our voice to others. As leaders we must embrace being New Covenant leaders and we cannot revert to an Old Covenant administration of condemnation and death. We have been entrusted with an administration in Christ that has the power to sum all things up in Christ. This is the administration we must embrace within our responsibilities of influence as leaders.
2 Corinthians 3:7-9 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
Ephesians 2:9, 10 …He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth – In Him… (NAS)
We have been given an administration that is suitable to sum up all things in Christ. That administration is one of true righteousness. It is based upon a glory that knows no end to its increase. That glory is seen through a change within the hearts and minds of those who believe Christ within them. We must lead to excel in this unsurpassable administration of grace!
Revelation 22:1-5 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.
These verses reveal an awesome truth in regard to the administration of God in the body of Christ. That administration is not one of the knowledge of good and evil, but one of the Tree of Life. I believe that this is the administration that is suitable to sum up all things in Christ. It is an administration of grace. If we believe that true righteousness is about being right and not wrong, our words and expressions to others will be about being right verses being wrong. If we as leaders embrace a justice system of right and wrong we will embrace those who are right and reject those who are wrong. We will govern and rule through an administration that defines some as worthy of God’s love, while others are cast out from His love. God’s New Covenant government is not based upon right and wrong. It is the power of life that prevails over every form of death. There is a right and there is a wrong in the matter of things in life, but true life only comes from an intimacy with Life. When we know Him we release the substance of who He is to the world and to all that we administrate in life. I have addressed this in my book, Prophetic Ministry – A Ministry of Life in the chapter called The Administration of God.
We must allow every thought, attitude, vision, dream, emotion, and action we express in life to pass through the Tree of Life before the fruit of our lives becomes food for others or the outward expression of our lives becomes a touch of healing to a sick and dying world. We must embrace an administration that receives mercy and finds grace each and every day (Heb. 4:16). Mercy ends that past administration of right and wrong, while grace empowers the present administration of grace that empowers us to live by the sprit of life and peace in Christ. This is the administration that loves the unlovable and empowers the unlovable to become loveable. It is the administration of love that believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. It is the administration that changes what is a substance of death to become a substance of life for others.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…
As leaders we must excel in love, not in being right. We must inspire others to excel in love more than in receiving what they think they deserve. This is a different justice system. It is not a justice system that receives the good things we deserve. It is a justice system that gives love to others. It is a justice that is better than being right. It is a justice system that reveals the love of God to others in this world.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
