Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Leaders lead others to know the Prince of all princes, not merely principles of a Christian faith. It is the voice of God to our hearts that empowers us to live, move, and have our true being in life. Principles of truth testify of God in His character but only God can transform us to become like Him in His ways. Knowing Christ transforms our character. Seeking to merely adhere to principles of His character can only conform us by restraining us in some way. The New Covenant is revealed through an intimate relationship with God in each one’s heart. It is a spirit-to-Spirit connection that transforms us from within to be growing and maturing members of the body of Christ. A priority of leadership is not teaching people what or what not to do. It is inspiring others to seek to know God for who He is so that they can become who they are meant to be.
I believe that much of the church tries to operate with Old Covenant principles. Principles alone cannot change the lives of people. We all need the influence of a greater Prince that can empower us to be sons and daughters of God in Christ. Christ in us can give us the true life-giving changes that are only testified of in godly principles. The system of the Old Covenant was one of law and conscience, while the New Covenant is an administration of grace and truth. Under an administration of the knowledge of good and evil it was necessary to have a knowledge of good to inspire the human desire for the One who is good. That knowledge either came in the form of the administration of the human conscience or in the form of law. The perfect knowledge of good was given through the full expression of law in the Torah Law of God. God had no intention of the Torah Law changing the inherent lives of people, it simply pointed to the perfect knowledge of good in a time of the administration of the knowledge of good and evil. It lacked the fullness of truth, which could only be revealed in and through a human expression of grace, and truth.
Galatians 3:24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
Jesus was the Word of God in flesh. God became a man as an expression of God in human form as the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person. The word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood so that anyone and everyone could be transformed by God and become an expression of God in their flesh.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…
John 1:17 …For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
Jesus as a man was full of grace and truth. The influence of His life was the Spirit of God within Him and by this He grew as a testimony of God in human form. He was the Word in flesh. He was the Truth. To lead the church as New Covenant leaders we must embrace the realities of New Covenant grace and truth. We cannot put New Covenant rule with Old Covenant principles and expect it to work. Godly principles are a witness to God’s character, nature, and way but only a NOW relationship with God in our hearts empowers us to become truth. As church leaders we are governors of the government of God, but the government of God is the life of God within the heart of the church and within the heart of each believer. We must lead in a way that activates, facilitates, and releases the life of God within the church and its members. Our role is not merely to teach godly principles but to demonstrate an intimate relationship with God that inspires others to follow.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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