As New Covenant leaders we are not called to merely teach principles of the Christian faith. We are called to serve is seeing New Covenant believers become the testimony of Christ in the world. That means we must serve to activate Christ in the heart of those who believe. We are leading for the sake of the redeemed human race. This is the testimony of Christ’s glory filling the earth as the waters cover the sea.
Today I feel it is necessary to post some revelation that I posted in a blog in 2012. These are the issues of human purpose and the objective of leadership in affecting the lives of human beings. Our destination is not just to go to heaven, but to bring a heavenly testimony to the world in which we live. I believe this is the good news that was preached to Abraham. A man named Abram was transformed by God to become an Abraham, the father of many nations through the power of faith in God. It was through a revelation of God that Abraham believed. God’s promise to Abraham was:
- In blessing I will bless you
- In multiplying I will multiply
- Your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.
- In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed
These four realities are the testimony of multigenerational blessing of God to humanity and it has the power to change the world. Here are some thoughts in regard to the challenge to this heavenly destiny. I will begin by looking at a Scripture that is commonly taught concerning spiritual warfare.
Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Notice that Paul sites here that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. There are spiritual realities that affect the testimony of mankind. The contact of our struggle appears to be flesh and blood, but there are spiritual realities behind that wrestle. Many people focus on the top level that is stated as principalities. There are many books, teachings, activations, practices, and focuses upon warring against principalities to change the world. I happen to believe that the secret of our warfare is not to assault principalities, but to eradicate the foundation that those principalities rest upon. I believe that the true issue of victory is found in the eradication of the spiritual hosts in heavenly places. Those heavenly places are the high places or the secret places of the human heart. What creates those places is the power of word and spirit conceived together to create a place of strong belief. Outside of Christ those words are lies and the spirit is one of deceptions. In Christ the words are truth and the Spirit is the power of God’s grace working with His words. In either case, it is word and spirit that create the beliefs of men. Those beliefs then propagate rule or actions. Those actions establish a force of inheritance to the future destiny of a belief. The ultimate testimony is seen as an influence and then a principle thing or a principality.
I believe that some common English words for these four levels of expression are beliefs, actions, imaginations, and influence. Influence is the result of beliefs that inspire actions and propagate imaginations that expand that belief to become an inherited influence in the world. This principle is true for individuals, families, regions, nations, people groups, or wherever there is a manifestation of flesh and blood. These four levels constitute the elements of the likeness and the image of humanity in the earth. The good news preached to Abraham was a means by which these things can be changed to become the elements of the likeness and the image of the Father in human form upon the earth.
There is a great story in the Scripture where 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.
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.
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!
As leaders we must lead to help others live for human purpose and destiny. We must lead to activate, facilitate, and release a culture that receives a revelation of believing God in their hearts that empowers them to become the stature of Christ in the world.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
