As we studied last week, the Jordan River, which represents death, will be overflowing its banks “all the days of harvest” (John 3:15). At the same time, God’s people will be crossing over this death on dry land on the way to possessing their Promised Land. It is fundamental to God’s wisdom that we love life, the most precious gift of all, and that we are devoted to saving and preserving it in every way that we can. However, at the same time we must learn how to deal with death all around us while keeping focused on our purpose and pursuing it.
We also briefly discussed how there was a change of leadership coming. This is much bigger than the change that takes place from one generation to the next. It is a far more basic change than that. As a prophet, except for the Lord Jesus Himself, Moses was without peer in giving the oracles of God to His people. He was likewise without peer as a teacher, helping God’s people to understand the ways of the Lord like no one did until the Lord Himself came. In these things Joshua could not compare to Moses, but Joshua had a different purpose. His purpose was to help Israel possess its inheritance.
Likewise, the church has been blessed with some remarkable leaders throughout the church age. They have helped God’s people understand how to enter into salvation, departing from Egypt. They have also helped the people understand how to walk in God’s ways, and they have helped them to get across this great, nearly two thousand year wilderness. However, there is a new leadership about to arise that is not here to lay those foundations again, but they are here to lead God’s people into their inheritance. The church must have a fundamentally different kind of leader to take it into the Promised Land. Just as Joshua was a military leader from the time he was first mentioned, the coming leadership of the church will not be administrators, but generals.
However, these will be different kinds of generals from what the world knows. Instead of taking lives for their conquest, they will give life. Instead of wounding, they will heal. Nevertheless, they will be intent on conquering, possessing lands, and people for the sake of the gospel. They will know how to use the divinely powerful weapons for the destruction of enemy strongholds. But instead of enslaving the people they “conquer;” they will be setting them free. Nevertheless, they will be spiritual warriors, and they will live to fight. They will know how to mobilize God’s people into armies that are intent on a purpose. As these arise, the advancing church will take on a much more military feel to it. The church will become far more militant and aggressive, but for the sake of life, love, and healing.
We must understand this change is from the Lord. We cannot continue to wander in the wilderness. Any church that continues to wander will not last long in these times. We must move forward, with strategy and vision, but above all we must move forward. We cannot continue to just sit in our churches and sing songs and talk about the great things the Lord has done or is doing for us. We must go out and engage the darkness that is destroying this world. We have been given the power of God, the power of the truth, to defeat the darkness, saving multitudes from the destruction that is coming, and we must use this power.
There are different kinds of leaders who tend to excel in different situations. For example, a coach may be a great recruiter, great at motivating and training players, but not as good at drawing up a game plan, or coaching in the game itself. The greatest coaches will recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, and hire assistants that are strong where they may be weak, and they will delegate this responsibility.
Likewise there are military leaders who may be the best at training their troops, but are not as adept at strategy, or dealing with the fluid and usually confusing situations of battle. The same is true of business leaders. One may be good at discerning the market, attracting good people to their business, and developing the product, but weak in the actual marketing of the product. Therefore, almost every truly successful leader will excel the most important quality of the great leaders—building other leaders into teams.
This is why the Lord made His leadership for His church a team. The greatest leaders of all were not those who said great things, or even did great things, as much as they built great teams that helped turn the message into a tangible reality.
As we read in Ephesians chapter four, it takes apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip the people to do the work of the ministry. None of these alone can do the job, and actually no four of these will do it right. This is becoming an increasing realization across the spectrum of the church, and it is time for it. It is now seems to be taught and written about continually, but there still may not be a single place on earth where it has yet been truly implemented. However, it will not be long before it becomes a reality that is so powerful that every church on earth will be devoted to it.
Even so, just knowing the doctrine of good leadership will not necessarily make one a good leader. All true spiritual leadership comes from one thing—abiding in the One who is the Leader—the King of kings. It is not just a cliché, but a profound truth, that the greatest spiritual leaders are the greatest spiritual followers of Jesus.
The body that the Lord is building will ultimately be more perfectly formed and effective than any other body or organization on the earth. This is because He Himself is the Captain of the host who will do this. He will do it through His ministries that He has Himself called and trained.
We are coming to the time when we will see authentic apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, like they have not really been seen since the first century. Then they will go to even new heights of effectiveness. This is not necessarily because they are greater leaders than the first century apostles, but because this is not the church coming out of Egypt, but the one coming out of the wilderness ready to conquer its inheritance. Therefore, our purpose should not be focused on trying to build another first century church, but preparing the twenty-first century church for her purpose. These things will become more clear as we begin this final phase of the church age.
