Greetings;
Leaders must lead others in commitments, actions, responses, submission and contributions of life to others. These things are the foundation of true community. Without them we can never discover the mystery of being the community of God in the earth. These are essential for a life-giving community of Christ.
The focus of your contributions determines the value of your community. If we do not see that the contributions of our lives are for the life of others we will seek to take life from others and we will experience less than what God has for us. Our contributions are not about ministry. They are about be who we are for the sake of others being who they are. Our contributions have to do with who we are in Christ. They have to do with how we bring the resurrection life of Christ to our spheres of influence in life. Leaders must set an example in this and they must lead to help others find who they are in the testimony of Christ.
Our contribution to our relationships empowers us to also live for the shear love of being a part of the relationship. I believe that true community is the testimony of God’s presence that draws each member of the community to come-to-unity around the presence of Christ’s life. We then live with sacrificial love for one another we make decisions in our hearts for one another based upon love and not law. We become willing to make decisions for those we are in relationship in love and not a logical measurement of whether they deserve our love or not. This is the true testimony of sacrificial love for one another as one community for the glory of the relationship as one.
The value of your community determines the determination of your destiny. If we don’t have a revelation of our community together we will be willing to forfeit our destiny together in life. The purpose of our lives is not simply to live successful lives filled with earthly blessings. We were born to live significant lives that bear the fruit of generational destiny and inheritance. The fruit of our relationships in not merely revealed in our lifetimes, but it is ultimately revealed in the lives of our children and our children’s children. The ultimate testimony of our relationships in life is the life-giving purpose and destiny that reaches the generations touched by our lives in some way. Our commitments, actions, responses, submission, contributions, community, and destiny are all joined together as a road to bringing life to the destiny of others. New Covenant leaders must embrace the process of relationship as a key role in their testimony as leaders that inspire those they lead.
If we don’t have a revelation that love is the empowerment of our commitments, we will be easily offended when the natural circumstances of our relationships shake in life. When we become offended with another we then make a judgment towards them based upon things that are naturally true or perceived to be true in the relationship. Those judgments are birthed in the environment of fear, a fear of our own death in some way in the relationship. Our actions will become ones of judgment and will not be acts of love towards another. When we make a judgment of another we then become defiled in the relationship. Rather than responding to the other partner we seek to isolate and separate from the relationship. We no longer see the need for a testimony as one and thus we seek to protect our own individual identity. When we become defiled it inspires an insubordinate attitude towards the relationship. Submission to those we are joined to is lost and a protection of personal agendas is sought. We become negatively expressive towards the relationship. We don’t see the other as a part of us, so we are willing to destroy them with our attitudes, words, and acts in life. When we become insubordinate we then become apathetic towards the relationship. We no longer see the need to live to contribute who we are to another. We don’t care about the relationship anymore. We are not awake in our hearts towards them and we no longer see the need for them in our lives. When this happens, we become bound to the logic of our own judgments. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil has surpassed any revelation of the tree of life in the relationship. We seek to be separate in our desires, attitudes, visions, and aspirations in life. We find no need for the relationship. The end result is a total destruction of the relationship. Destiny has been laid in the dust and the relationship has been annihilated. There is no more future together and we have found the grave of disconnection, isolation, and disintegration to the corporate purpose of destiny. Offense has led to judgment, judgment has led to defilement, defilement has evolved to insubordination, insubordination has transformed to apathy, apathy has grown to atrophy, and atrophy has now been revealed as death. The relationship has ended. Its end began with an offense, a refusal to stay in a revelation of love. Love is the foundation and love is the substance in the journey of our relationships in life. New Covenant leaders seek to live in and for life-giving relationships.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
