Generational Leadership: An Inheritance of Secrets Revealed

Conclusion

Preface:

Life is not just about a lifetime. It is about the converging of generations and the culminations of transitions that ride the backs of those who seek to change the world in which they live. The world is very often better at change than the church, because they seek to lay hold of the things of the past and then they attempt to leap beyond their boundaries by using those things discovered as a foundation for further discoveries. The church should be best in the transitions of life, because she is comissioned to expand the increasing boundaries of life in the world. Unfortunately, she often repeats the past through a narrow-minded focus and a limited expectation that constantly binds her to repetitious patterns that simply resemble a reinvention of the wheel. Rather than being significant in changing the world, she settles for small measures of success in the repeated patterns of limited humanity. She has no plan of generational greatness and therefore she becomes old in her ways, helpless in her power, limited in her vision, and ends up being bankrupt in her destiny.

God is a multi-generational God. His very existence demands change in the worlds of those who embrace Him. His greatness transcends the limitations of men and He therefore expands the boundaries of their worlds. He should be embraced in increasing measures in the successive generations of men. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Israel. He is the God of Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and others also. God possesses secrets that when revealed become the power to bring revolutions into the world. When those secrets are discovered, they become treasures of inheritance to those who posses them and their children and their children’s children. This is why I have written this book, Generational Leadership - An Inheritance of Secrets Revealed.

The church is not merely an organization built upon certain creeds and principles of a Christian belief system. The church is a living organism that is called to influence the world with the power of a heavenly revolution. God is progressively revealing the will of His Spirit in a way that brings life to the world. God’s inheritance is being given to His generational family. That inheritance is His power given to change the world. Those who lead in this move of destiny must lead for the will of His purpose and they must activate, facilitate, and release the body of Christ to become all that she is meant to be in Christ. God is writing spiritual letters of purpose and destiny in the hearts and minds of corporate expressions of His heavenly communities in the earth. His plan is an unending and an unfailing plan of victory and transformation. Relationships of life-giving covenant are emerging in the generations of men. The community of God is invading the earth with heaven’s grace.

This book reveals secrets given to me in my forty years of Christianity and my thirty years of spiritual leadership in the church. The principles, patterns, and values presented in this book are meant to inspire the reader to discover the generational strengths of revelation given as inheritances to those who lead in Christ’s church. The reader will be challenged to embrace a generational mind-set with a perpetual 100-year plan of multi generational victory. The Holy Spirit will use this book to inspire leaders and those who influence others in the church to think in life transforming ways. The church and its members will grow in maturity and progress in their destiny because of the truths revealed in the pages of this text and because of other generational truths that will be inspired in hearts of on-going leaders; because ‘iron sharpens iron’ in the hearts of men.

This book is based upon personal revelation, experience, and corporate testimonies. I pioneered a ministry based upon the secrets revealed in this book and I was the senior leader of that spiritual letter for twenty years. My son Jonathan is now the senior leader of that spiritual letter. He has embraced the inheritance of the things written in this book and is continuing to expand with new revealed secrets of his own as a father in the faith. Abundant Life Church is a spiritual letter of my credentials for the authority of the truths revealed in this book. The testimony of life among its members and reality of its spiritual DNA is a confirmation of the life-giving secrets revealed. Before I led the facilitation of the transition of the ministry to the hands of my son, I spent a year sharing the truths written in this book to the rising generation of inheritance. My objective was not to merely get them to accept these non-negotiable and nearly non-negotiable truths in my life, but to inspire the next generation to also lay-hold of the secrets given to them by God that will advance in the generations of men. The weight of the authority of this book is not just found in the testimony of the church that I once led, but the increasing testimony in the church that is now led by the generations beyond me. I have not only given the inheritances of the secrets revealed in this book to my son and the church of Abundant Life, but I have helped to transform the lives of many churches, in many nations, with the things revealed in this book.

I begin by presenting that God’s will is the body of Christ in the earth. I challenge leaders to understand that their roles as leaders are not ones of ministry, but of serving the will of God in revealing His body in the earth. I continue by presenting secrets of God’s government and reveal how the government of God is found in the life of the Holy Spirit and not the control or rule of men. The purpose of the equipping gifts of Christ and the testimony of their true function in the church is presented. I challenge the reader to consider not just the individual will of men, but the corporate purposes of the expressions of Christ’s body. I address the truth of God’s written letters of the Spirit in His corporate connections of purpose. The good news of Christ is revealed with His desire, ability, and challenge to change the beliefs, actions, imaginations, and influences of men. Truths of the destiny of the bride of Christ as the life-giving womb of God in the earth are presented. You will see the role of the church in bringing the kingdom of heaven and the will of the Father into the earth. I will challenge you with the mind-set of a 100-year plan and a mandate to change the world. The secret to covenant relationships, the scheme of the enemy to destroy them, and the grace to grow in them will be revealed. The challenge of the flaw of self and the keys to being true to who you are will be given. Ten key influences of the community of God will be shown that will empower leaders to see God release the life of His kingdom to the families of men.

I believe that this book will empower leaders, and those who influence human lives, to unlock the keys of destiny and the release of a powerful multi generational inheritance in the church. The church will become strong and grow in her destiny of influencing the world with the life of Christ. Purpose will be birthed in the hearts of leadership members and leadership teams because of this book and the inheritance revealed within its pages. Relationships will become covenant in nature and members of the church will be inspired to live beyond themselves for the glory of the Father and the well-being of others.

I have presented secrets given to me by God that can empower the church to become an expression of the New Covenant life of Christ. I know that those secrets can merely become words on a page used to create the methods of men. Those secrets were not given to me that you or I might simply know truth. They have been given to me as an inheritance for my children and my children’s children. That inheritance is not a wealth to be spent upon them, but a power to be used to expand the influence of the family of God in the earth. I pray that the truths presented in this book will become inheritances of your own, not because I have written them but because you have received them from the Holy Spirit in your own measure of conviction and truth. I pray that the truths presented in this book will inspire your own journey in Christ and will serve as a catalyst to inspire further truths and the inheritances of the family of God. I especially pray that spiritual letters of God’s kingdom transpire in human form to advance a perpetual 100-year plan of God to culminate in the summing up of all things in Christ for the glory of our heavenly Father!

Chapter 1

God’s Will Is A Body

I am writing this book to share some things that I feel are necessary for a multi-generational focus in the church. The topics presented in this book are based upon personal revelation from God and years of hands on experience in the church. My experience with God in ministry has created some strong values in my heart. I believe it is beneficial for me to share some of the strong values of my own heart for the sake of inspiring you to find the values of your own.

Let me begin by addressing the topic of the body of Christ. As leaders we can easily get caught up in the task of ministry. We can become very focused on the task of ministry or the works of ministry. I believe that God has much more in mind than the task, or the work, of ministry. As leaders we must lead for the purpose of a BODY not a WORK OF MINISTRY. God’s will is not sacrifice and offerings. It is a body!

Whether you are called to leading in the church or leading in missions, you are called to people. I believe that the place of God’s choosing for all of us is the place of our planting in the body of Christ (Deut. 12:5). Jesus Christ was the first expression of the body of Christ in human form. He became a manifestation of God in the flesh so that we, as flesh, could become an expression of God. The human expression of God in the earth is the very thing that Jesus came to restore. We are called to become the fullness of the likeness and the image of our heavenly Father in human form (Heb. 1:3).

It is the expression of the body of Christ in the earth that is going to subdue the enemies of God in the earth (Heb. 1:13). Jesus as the head is waiting for the fullness of His life to be made known in His body in heaven and on the earth. Our covenant with God is not one of works, but one of relationship. God is writing His nature upon our hearts and upon our minds. The body of Christ is an organism, not an organization. God’s covenant is with a living body, not an institution of works. I believe that the true holy place of God is not a place of coming together for Christian efforts, but a relational place of knowing God in the Spirit.

The power of God’s grace is not discovered in the works of ministry. It is found in the relationship of the body of Christ. The forgiveness of sins is not a testimony of works, but one of relationship with God in Christ as a part of the body of Christ. We must never forget this in our focus of ministry. We are not here to build the works of the kingdom. We are here to participate in the increasing testimony of the kingdom.

We have entered the holy place by the blood of Jesus. It was through the rending of His flesh that we have been invited into membership in His body. The veil that was rent at the cross was not merely the veil of the temple. It was the veil of His flesh that invites us into true relationship with God in His true temple. The body of Christ is the temple of God and is being increasingly filled with the life of His Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 10:19-25 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

As leaders and those who influence the activities of the church, let’s not be distracted by mere activities. The holy of holies is the heart of the church and it is a corporate place of life in Christ. God is doing a good work in the earth and His enemies will be made a footstool beneath His feet. Those feet are the standing place of the body of Christ in heaven and on earth.

It is not the works of church ministry or mission endeavors that proclaim the glory of God. It is the increasing habitation of God in the earth through the testimony of the written letters of Christ in the body of Christ. Works of ministry are adjustable; relationship in the body is not. We must keep our covenant responsibilities in tact and make relationship with God and people our primary goal in life.

Divinely joined human relationships empowered by the grace of God’s Holy Spirit are the true testimony of Christ’s power. We must never cheapen the life that God has entrusted to us that serves the edificantion and destiny of one another. If you are seeking to expand the influence of the kingdom today, don’t just look for good works, look for God relationships. Who are the connecting members in your life that will become the ground in which God writes His expanding letter of life? Maybe we should honor common relationships and discover common purpose in life? Surely there is a true sound of purpose that attracts common relationships, but I also believe that supernatural relationships spawn the expansion of greater purposes in the earth. Divnely joined relationships produce God empowered purposes.

Who are the people that God has divinely joined you to? Who is God sending you to? What is the letter that God wants to write with you and others that will reveal the testimony of God’s grace? They will know us by our love!

A revelation of God’s love will empower our commitment to God and one another. A receiving of God’s love will activate works of love toward God and others. An understanding of God’s love will invoke a response of love. A relationship of love will inspire a submission of love. An awakening to love will call for a contribution of love. A sharing of love with one another will further a transparent and vulnerable communion of love with one another. An awe of love will empower the reigning of love. I believe that these things can only be found in the place of true relationship, not merely the function of ministry. We are called to great things in Christ! The body of Christ is not just a fellowship of socially connected people, but a divinely joined connection of members of Christ’s body for Christ’s purposes in the earth.

When completing my masters degree in Biblical Studies I was asked to write a theology of the Old Testament. My theology of the Old Testament was quite simple. The first thing that God wanted was a people who could say, God, You are our God. This was known as Passover and the Old Testament was filled with principles, patterns, and values revealing the need of God as man’s God. The second thing that God wanted was to have a people that it could clearly be testified of them,