My conversation with you is about leadership and self-leadership. It is important to understand the platform from where I lead and that leading myself is imperative to leading others. Leading others and leading myself, needs a high level of engagement. Unfortunately, history has shown us that leaders have tried to lead from a disconnected position with self; it compromises accuracy and subsequently leads to a default into their careering journey.

It is important to always remember that "core" is first and foremost the heart and life of a leader. The "core" resembles the innermost part of man from where life and truth is flowing. If the "core" of man is not redeemed the possibility is that corruption, self gain and selfishness will be the motive of leadership. Insecure identities will mostly produce inaccurate heart positions. If the "core" is weak, underdeveloped or has cracks in it, then it will compromise the power and strength of true leadership gifts and skill.

The "core" gets redeemed when a leader or person presents himself to the initiatives of God upon his life. This in itself is the biggest miracle that can happen within any man!

If our heart and life structures are weak then everything that pivots around the "core" will be influenced by that default. Our heart and life structures are strengthened when we ensure that there is actual implementation and actualization of the principles of the Kingdom in our daily lives. The depth of personal application of developing the strength of the "core" is critical to our forward movement.

Building the core requires radical confrontation of ourselves. There is a need to speak truth about ourselves to ourselves. The reflexive tendency of self to hide requires deliberateness on our part to deal decisively with who we truly are. Human beings have all kinds of means of avoidance and self-imposed blindness.  This is a season in which we have to talk truth to ourselves. This requires critical choices and decisions to be made in this season by all of us.

This requires that there be a quest for personal truth, a desire to truly see and the readiness to end the tolerance of self-delusion. We must know where we came from and where we are going. The challenge of the complexity of the world is for actual action, actual implementation, and practical realization, clear, conscious and definite change. This is the only appropriate response to the call for leadership.

So we will talk again......

*I wish to give acknowledgement to Dr Noel Woodroffe for much of the content.

Leadership is a Calling.

The topics of “leadership” and “how to be successful” are surely the subjects that are the best-selling topics on the market at the moment. I therefore thought that we could talk and meditate on these subjects so as to encourage one another.

We must remember that the difference between management and leadership is that management is a carrier and leadership is a calling. For managers, it is all about my job and how high I can get on the ladder of success. A leader, on the other hand, is driven because of a vision and the sense that there is a calling upon his/her life that he/she need to respond to.

President Nelson Mandela was, and still is, such a leader. In the years of liberation he was prepared to give his life for the cause. He could not ignore his calling because his calling took possession of him and he would have failed himself if the price to live out what he believed in became too big. Today, regardless of what the color of your skin is, you will agree that President Mandela was faithful to his calling. Managers put the success-ladder against the wall but leaders make sure that it is the right wall.

To be proactive in life is a leadership trait, if leaders don’t discover their own qualities and don’t have the courage to stand up to lead, we will be forced to be reactive one of these days. We cannot allow our own personal world to take us in captivity!

There is much more to all of us than our current reality.  It is true that we need to discover our hidden selves. It is also true that not all of us are leaders but that there are many undiscovered leaders amongst us. The majority of our true identity cannot be seen with human eyes. It is when we start to experience that irritation towards our environment, and we start to sense that we can make a difference, that self-belief and the discovering of hidden potential becomes important.  Our growth stalls when our invisible potential is not fed with positive attention and expectation.  There are some areas in our lives that, at times, get too much of our attention and, as a result, start to overshadow the leadership-potential in us.

One of the most important traits of leadership is relational capacity. Once again I want to use Mister Mandela as an example. It is known that, when he meets somebody, he will remember that person’s name even if it was only a once-off meeting. Relational capacity is an art that we need to develop however it is also important to know that it comes with the realisation that another person’s success becomes more important than your own. This is when we become fathers, when we are not afraid to give everything for the calling.

Leaders dream dreams. They refuse to let anyone or anything get in the way of achieving those dreams. They are realistic, but unrelenting. They are polite, but insistent. They constantly and consistently drive forward toward their goals.

You can be a leader. You will be – when it matters enough to you. 

LOVE; The Key to Kingdom Provision

I wonder if you lately thought about love and the power that love has to change. It is the one thing you cannot buy with money or even try to act out. I listened the other day to the testimony of Heidi Baker, she works with the orphans in Mozambique, it touched me when she said that you need to “Stop at the One” because love do have a face. Love looks like something!

Love is actions coming from the spirit man that is in connection with the One whom saved us when we were caught up in our own lust. Jesus Christ stopped at you and me and He called us by name. He reached out to us and pulled us out of the pit of decay so that we could become according to His image.

Love is something you need to discover, it is like a key that unlock the powerhouse of the Kingdom. Love is a Person, Jesus Christ, manifesting himself through those that discovered Him unto the world that we moving in.

When Love is in operation then heaven is unlocked to support the actions of

Love and nothing is impossible! Love does have a Face!

As the Church we need to understand that the Holy Spirit wants to lead us to discover Love. Our praise and worship, our preaching will draw people but we will only remain a church with numbers that needs continuous motivation.  If we allow the Holly Spirit to help us to discover Love then Love become our motivation and the Power of Heaven will flow through us. Love unlocks and opens the provisional rooms of heaven. What ever we ask in the name of Jesus Christ according to John 15 will be given to us. What God can do for us will not be our song but rather what the Holy Spirit and us does together will be our desire.

Let March 2012 be the month that we together put the focus on love and let us change the confession of our mouths so that our ears will get used to the things that are beautiful and lovely.  

To Live Life Right

Through the years a person collects golden nuggets from life that helps you to make right decisions and to live life right. One of the strong convictions I have is the importance of tutoring people to live life right.

That is what wisdom is all about. The true meaning of wisdom is to “live life right”. The challenge is to make the right decisions at the right time and to have a godly attitude towards any given situation. Linked to Wisdom is the word responsibility. Responsibility is the ability to respond correctly towards my environment and what life throws at me through circumstances. 

I will never forget the early morning a few years ago when I was in a prayer with dairy farmers in the Free State when, while praying, the impression came to me “Stay long enough so that emotions can turn into strategies!’ I realized at that moment that it is so easy to get captured in one’s emotions and that the release of emotions might seem to be the answer. The fact is that we need to stay long enough to receive the answers from God that will release the strategies.

I also realized through this incident at this early prayer meeting with the farmers that “promise” and “presumptuousness” are two very strong aspects that can change the course of life. I have listened to many farmers and business people and realized how many times we function on presumption and even strategies on feelings and mysticisms (mystic).

Genesis 26 tells us the story of God interacting with Isaac telling Isaac to stay in the land and not to go to Egypt “Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you.” Now that is a promise! Genesis 26 verse 12 tells us about Isaacs responds: “Isaac planted crops in that land and in the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy”

Faith always follows the promise because my faith is in the person that makes the promise. (PROMISE - In general, a declaration, written or verbal, made by one person to another, which binds the person who makes it to do, or to forbear to do, a specified act; a declaration which gives to the person to whom it is made a right to expect or to claim the performance or forbearance of a specified act.)

Luk 1:37 For no promise from God will be impossible of fulfillment.”

Rom 4:20 Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn't waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God) Romans 4:21 and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. Titus 1:2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who can't lie, promised before time began;

Maybe we need to understand, reading the above, the incredible infallible integrity of our God.

The opposite to receiving a word or promise is to presume. Presumption is dangerous and can lead us to much pain and disappointment.

Presumption - the act of assuming or taking for granted; belief upon incomplete proof. (That which is presumed or assumed; that which is supposed or believed to be real or true, on evidence that is probable but not conclusive. The act of venturing beyond due beyond due bounds; an overstepping of the bounds of reverence, respect, or courtesy; forward, overconfident, or arrogant opinion or conduct; presumptuousness; arrogance; effrontery.)

Daniel 5:20 But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit hardened unto presumption, he was deposed from the throne of his kingdom, and they took his glory from him;

Revelation 3:17
Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.

Until next time….

Infallible integrity of God

I wonder if you have been thinking lately on the infallible integrity of God. Through the years I have learned to do word studies to be able to understand what I believe.  It is important to understand that our faith is in a Person, and what we believe about this Person will have a tremendous influence on our Christian walk. We listen to preachers and they tell us what we must believe and what they believe but we ourselves are inactive in studying the Word of God to speak out a verdict about God. Allow me to tell you about the infallible integrity of God.

In the first place the word infallible means: ‘absolutely trustworthy or sure,’ ‘unfailing in effectiveness or operation’.  It is no wonder that God’s integrity becomes the fuel of our faith. God has proved Himself faithful in the death and resurrection of Christ, by bringing man back to success and glory in Christ Jesus.

The New Covenant or Testament was not made between God and man but between the Father and the Son. Christ Himself fulfilled all the conditions of the new covenant for all - it was His obedience and not man’s obedience. It is by His obedience that we were able to receive Him as our Lord and Savior and that millions of people are still making decisions every week.

The scripture in Hebrews 4:2 (For also we have had the gospel preached, as well as them. But the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.), helps us to understand that the visible often has more influence on us than the Word of God, because our faith has never been activated by our understanding of God’s infallible integrity. It is a fact that our experiences of life forms our belief systems and then testifies against the integrity of God. Let me put the scripture in Hebrews differently so that we will understand the importance of faith.

·      They did not allow their hearts to be persuaded by God’s Word or promises, but rather preferred to give more credit to their circumstances.

·      Where the Word of God did not find the response of faith and of integrity in the heart of man, it failed to benefit that individual.

·      The Word was not cemented with that ingredient of Spirit Appreciation necessary to release the fullness of God’s attention in that Word.

My dear friend, God wants you and me to draw from our faith, He wants us to draw from the inexhaustible resource, the infallibility of His Word within us. I thought to ad these Scriptures to encourage you when you read them.

Phi 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthen me.

Luke 1:37 For no promise from God will be impossible of fulfillment.”

Rom 4:20 Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn't waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

Until next time.

Discovering our Spiritual Inheritance

            I have often said that we as Christians do not understand that we are unplugged from a world system and are plugged into an unseen world that cannot be perceived by the mind of this world. This is what makes Christianity different from other religions, because most religions are built on principles and religious acts. The foundations of Christianity is built on rebirth that brings us into a relationship which repositions us with God the Father. In this relationship, life principles are restored because of the configuration of a man's heart. God builds His Kingdom on the condition of the human heart. For that to happen, spiritual interaction is imperative.  
            I listen to fellow Christians and realize that a lack of intimacy between God and man eventuates in a belief to please God. Our lives then become entrapped in guilt that ends in self-condemnation. 

            However, spiritual inheritance is that which is received for free, at the cost of the price paid by another. As Christians we received a life that is connected to an unseen world. Jesus in His model prayer prayed "your Kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". If we as Christians are rightly positioned, then that which is in the unseen world must manifest in the world that we are living in. The reality of heaven must invade this earth through the sons of God! That reality, flowing from a renewed mind will change the world. 


            

Mindsets

I often think about life and the world that we are living in. Many times in the past,  I have said that it is not how much we pray, but rather the quality time we spend thinking with God. It is in these thinking processes that one's heart is configured to God's heart and that right actions can come from one's inner man.
I realized that not all of us are thinkers but I do believe that we need to spend time thinking and allow ourselves in these thought sessions to be very honest with ourselves. It is the truth that sets us free and truth can only correctly be perceived if our perspectives of this world and ourselves are accurate. It is normal to shy away from one's self and the process of configuration because of the effort and conflict that is released within.
You will agree with me that self leadership is of utmost importance in the world that we are living in and to be prophetical accurate, we need to broaden our perspectives to be able to lead and to influence. I am reminded of the scripture in Joshua 3 when the Israelites needed to cross the Jordan to enter the promise land. It is important to understand that it was a whole new season for them, being led out from slavery into their desert experience. It was a process of mind change. They were under oppression and had the mindsets of slaves. In their desert experience, God became the Miracle Working God that provided for them but it was still just a process of mindsets being changed in the journey of liberation to the Promised Land.  The process of change and the interaction between God and man is clear in this story.
A whole generation was wiped out in their desert experience because of their inability to perceive God's purposes for them. They were so caught up in their previous state that they could not reach out to their destiny!
I want to emphasize again how important the configuration of the heart is in our endeavors with God. It is important to understand that in the third chapter of Joshua, God leads the people into a brand new environment of positioning, in the desert environment God performs miracles for them to sustain them but now they have come to the crossing point in their journey, where they need to position themselves so that God can do miracles through them.
If our perceptions are incorrect, the church will not be in the position to manifest the Kingdom of God and we will perish in our old mindsets, incapable  to live as sons of the most high God! It is time to cross over into a new dispensation of sonship, manifesting the love of God!