Throughout my years in ministry, I have served on quite a few committees. In church, in Youth Ministry, in university etc. Oftentimes, running a church or a ministry involves planning meetings and nitty-gritty administration. We review our progress, discuss upcoming matters and issue directions. If there is a need to, we take a vote. We set strategies and implement programmes. Over a period of time, we become effective and our organization starts to thrive. Then we hit a plateau. Despite all our planning and efficient organization, we seem to be unable to move to a higher level. How do we plan and organise for revival? The answer: We can't. Only God can.
In the growth of any ministry, we must come to the stage of realization that if we are to go any further, we cannot do it on our plans, our efforts and organization. In fact, many a times, our efforts and plans are the very things that keep us from going further. In the best-selling book Experiencing God, the authors had a simple premise: To experience God, we have to get involved in the things HE is doing. The operative key is "HE", not us. To explain, in any ministry or church or small group, the focus must be not on what our own human plans and devises are, motivated by good intentions they may be. The focus must be on what HE is doing. Seven times to the seven churches in the Book of Revelations, Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches". The responsibility of any leader in any church or ministry or small group must therefore be to seek what God IS DOING and WANTS TO DO in our ministry.
How then does this impact on our ministry leadership? The answer is not more planning, but more prayer. A leader who is unable to hear from God is like a Platoon Commander who is unable to receive orders from the Commanding Officer. That platoon simply will not be able to fight the war effectively. Now is the time for leaders to come together in prayer. To facilitate this, two things are needful. First, purity. Second, unity. Lack of purity in the life of the leader silences the voice of God. Unconfessed and secret sins form a wedge between us and our Commanding Officer, often grieving the Spirit into silence. But blessed are the pure at heart for they shall see God. Lack of unity within the leadership also grieves the Spirit and makes us easy prey for the devil. From my experience, lack of unity often comes from a reliance on human wisdom and the exaltation of human ability within the leadership. We disagree with others because we think we know best and can do it better. That is pride. The call to unity is therefore a call to humility, to recognise that we are unable to do anything of ourselves. All power, all wisdom, all ability comes from above and there is only one Commanding Officer in this ministry, and His name is Jesus Christ.
The ball is now in our court. If we are to take our small group, our ministry and our church to a higher level of revival and spiritual reality, we have to prayer. We have to bow our knees and hear what the Spirit is saying to us. Let no flesh glory in His presence for He alone is God and this is His church. I am not saying we don't plan, we don't administer. But before any of that can take place, we must pray. For if we make decisions without having heard from the Spirit, then our decisions will ultimately be fraught with the fallibility and foolishness of human wisdom.
As Joshua stood with the army of Israel on the eve of the battle for Jericho, he saw the Lord standing before him with a drawn sword (Joshua 5:13). Not knowing that He was the Lord, Joshua went up to the Lord and asked him, "are you for us or are you for our enemies?" But the Lord replied, "Neither, but as the Commander of the Army of the Lord I now come." And Joshua fell on his face and worshipped and said "What does the Lord say to His servant?" This is not our battle, we are not in charge. There is only one Commander and His name is Jesus. Speak Lord for your servants are listening.