Greetings;
Today I am going to continue to address the issue of the stature of Christ in the body of Christ. I wrote on this a few weeks back in the Monday blog, but I feel that it is essential for this segment of my leadership input.
As leaders in the New Covenant we must lead in a way that transforms the beliefs of men and women to come in agreement with the beliefs of God and His kingdom. Those beliefs are manifested in the image of Christ. Our responsibility as leaders is to lead in a way that inspires Christ to be manifested within the life of each believer and in any corporate expression of His body for the glory of God. We are not called to merely teach godly principles or a “Christian way of life”. We are called as leaders to activate, facilitate, and release the testimony of Christ in the lives of believers.
There is a great story in the Scripture where Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream (Dan. 2:31-45). The dream troubled him and he gave an order for his counselors and wise men to tell him his dream and its interpretation. God blessed Daniel and his friends with the dream and its interpretation. In the dream King Nebuchadnezzar saw a great statue of extraordinary splendor. It had a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, waist and thighs of brass, and legs of iron with feet of iron and clay. Then a stone not cut with human hands struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. The crushing of the feet of the statue caused the entire substance of the statue to be crushed and become like chaff from the summer threshing floor and the wind carried them away so there was no trace left of the statue. The stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. The interpretation of the dream revealed that Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom of Babylon was the head of gold, King Cyrus and the Mede Persian kingdom was the chest and arms of silver, Alexander the great and the kingdom of Greece was the waist and thighs of brass, and the legs of iron with feet of iron and clay was indicative of the kingdom of Rome and its carnal ruler Nero. In the time of Rome the rock of Christ would destroy the kingdoms of self by crushing the selfish beliefs of men through the selfless sacrifice of Jesus and His God willed resurrection as Christ the head and body to change the world.
I believe this image was not limited to the four nations represented in it, but that the four nations represented in it were a testimony of the image of man throughout all time. What should have been the image of the heavenly Father had become the glory of self. It revealed humanity in a self-righteous condition without dependence upon God. It took a human being, the Seed of Abraham, to crush the image of self by the testimony of the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person in flesh (Heb. 1:3). That human being was the man Jesus Christ.
The key to the destruction of the statue in the dream was a crushing of its feet. I believe that the iron of the feet was a testimony of the control of man. This was made manifest in the dictatorial rule of the Caesars of Rome. The feet of the statue were also a testimony of manipulation. The clay in the feet was a testimony of the will of man, as Rome was also a democracy. The statue stood upon a testimony of the will of a man and the will of the people, both reveal a belief system propagated by control and manipulation. This is only true when humanity bases its beliefs upon the knowledge of good and evil. Jesus was a man of grace and truth. He stood upon believing His heavenly Father and thus all of His standing was rooted in the Tree of Life.
The waist and thighs of brass in the statue were significant of the actions of the flesh that facilitate a judgmental rule of self. A belief based upon the knowledge of good and evil will inspire actions based upon good and evil, but those actions will be fear based and self-preserving in nature. They are actions of natural sight and are absent the substance of faith that expands a belief of love and life.
The chest and arms of silver in the statue were symbolic of the imaginations of the heart. Whereas the heart of Jesus caused Him to see the joy beyond the cross, the imaginations of the statue of self are self-gratifying imaginations and motives of the heart that sacrifice the future for the present realities of men. Those imaginations are centered upon self and not those that cause the children and the children’s children to possess the gates of their enemies. Rather than being blessers with the hands of inheritance, they live as takers with the hands of self-gratification.
The head of gold was a testimony of the influence of self. Those influences are rooted in a belief system that desires to be blessed more than living to be a blessings. It is seen through the reality of actions that are not willing to yield, but done to take whatever is needed to preserve the image of self. Those actions are actions of addition and not those of multiplication. Self-preserving actions propagate self-gratifying imaginations that spend tomorrow’s inheritance today and leave the generations bankrupt in their ability to possess the gates of the enemy.
Jesus destroyed the foundation of beliefs propagated by control and manipulation. Like the promise given to Abraham He knew He was born to be a blessing and therefore He lived to bring His Father’s blessings to the world. His beliefs were fully based upon a REVELATION of BELIEVING GOD. He was not changed by the controls or the manipulations of men.
Jesus eradicated the actions of the flesh that facilitate the judgmental rule of self. Instead of seeking to add to His own life He lived to multiply. He lived to give to others. His actions were fully based upon a REVELATION of BELIEVING GOD and were not influenced by the judgments of men.
Jesus transformed the self-gratifying motives of the heart to become life-giving imaginations of hope for our children and our children’s children. He lived for the generations and thus the imaginations of His heart were fully based upon a REVELATION of BELIEVING GOD. His thoughts were for the future generations of men and his hands were the blessing hands of inheritance.
Jesus established the influence of the Father in our lives so we can influence the world with the inheritance of His name and not the influence of self. The families of the earth will be blessed because of the likeness and the image of the Father made known in the flesh of men. Jesus’ influence was fully based upon a REVELATION of BELIEVING GOD. He didn’t attack influence with influence but eradicated it by the power to transform beliefs.
Jesus stood in a true heavenly belief that revealed a heavenly rule, a heavenly imagination, and heavenly influence for all mankind in the earth. He was the man who could see, listen, discern truth, and speak clearly on behalf of His heavenly Father in this world. He did this as a human being in this world and thus He has the power to transform the beliefs of humanity to change the world!
We are called, appointed, anointed to tear down the high places in the earth through the ministry of reconciliation to God in Christ. Those high places are the seat of heaven in the human heart. Where there is no gap between God and men in the human heart there is no end to the increase of His government and peace. When the Word and the Spirit conceive in the heart the place of heavenly belief is established and there is an empowerment of changed actions. Those actions stimulate the imaginations of the heart to believe for the peoples, nations, and generations of the world. It is through the power of the heart’s eye that we can believe for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done upon the earth as it is in heaven. Those changed beliefs, actions, and imaginations establish the principle things of heaven as an influence in and to the world in which we live. The stone of Christ and a REVELATION of BELIEVING GOD will fill our lives with the glory of God!
Our leadership style must never be that of control and manipulation. We must lead to activate, facilitate, and release God inspired beliefs, actions, imaginations, and influences. All of these are rooted in a REVELATION of BELIEVING GOD! We must lead to inspire others to live their lives on the foundation of a REVELATION of BELIEVING GOD! It is a place of God-dependency and not self-sufficiency.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
Food for thought indeed.