Radical Disciples – A Remnant Revolution

In the Word we find that Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of spiritual leadership. When most people think of leadership, they picture a military general handing out orders or an employer closely supervising his employees, making sure all the work gets done. These aspects can be part of leadership, but they are not the essence of spiritual leadership.

The truth is that Spiritual leadership is the opposite of what most people think. The essence of true Spiritual leadership is based upon servant leadership. Jesus Christ Himself taught us, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). Jesus was most definitely a leader. He was the leader of the twelve disciples and a much greater group of followers beyond them (Luke 10:1-17). Jesus did not lead by giving out orders or by supervising. Jesus led by being a servant and serving alongside of His followers.

Spiritual leadership involves humbling yourself and doing the tasks that no one else wants to do. In Jesus’ time, the act of washing feet was to be assigned to the lowest of servants. However, at the last supper, Jesus humbled Himself and washed the disciples’ feet. Afterwards he declared, “Do you understand what I have done for you? … You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:12-17).

We do have the authority of Jesus yet history itself shows that authority in the church can lead people down the wrong path if it used in the wrong way or used with pride and out of step with the Lord. Yet being armed with this knowledge in regard to the pitfalls of false authority can help us to recognize how the leadership of Jesus should be in all that we do. One finds that the as disciple in spiritual unity, the more we grow together in humility, the more authority God will be giving us. God is truth and we are seekers of the truth, we can not concern ourselves with the wisdom that the world gives us but as obedient servants we must always seek to decrease and allow the Lord to increase in each one of us.

It should be a clear cut goal in each of our lives, especially those knitted together in localized branches of the Bride that every one of us must desire to operate in the prophetic and bear witness to each other. This is the way it should be.

Now in regard to spiritual authority, it is ultimately ours through faith, God has given us the authority over spiritual wickedness in high places, we have the authority to cast out demons, to bring down the high places and to cause destruction to strongholds. And it is with the same authority that Jesus had, He spoke as a man having authority but He did not speak on His own authority while He was here on earth but what authority that His Father had given Him.

The scriptures clearly show us that Jesus has shared His glory with us and in His name, we have the authority to bless and rebuke, to intercede for others, to establish, to break down, to build up and to rule over the earth as our dominion. We have the power to stretch out our hands and allow the blood of Jesus to course through our veins and out of our bodies in spiritual power to heal and to deliver and to fill others with His spirit. We have the authority to release the mandates of God that will cause signs and wonders to bare witness to their divine truth, God speaks and lives through us through the death and resurrection of His Son and in the power of His Holy Spirit. This is true authority but it is derived authority, not assumed.

I true disciple comes to that place where it is a reality that we are nothing without Jesus, it is not our authority, dominion or glory, it is His. We have no righteousness in ourselves, we cannot save others and for sure we are not to rule over them in the church.

Let us all come to the truth that we are never called to lead apart from total submission to the Holy Spirit. He is the Promised one who leads us with all Spiritual truth and we are not part of a worldly army but a spiritual one that must march as One in unison, marching in one rank shoulder to shoulder behind Jesus, not one another. We should only submit to others that have the humility, love and servant attitude that we have been taught from the beginning.

God is moving an His Spirit is declaring that we are to be restored to the original purity of the early church. How can we submit to each other as in the Lord if we differentiate between leaders and followers among us? To be one body, we must submit to One Head. Let the fragments fall where they may but they will be devoured by the dogs. Jesus want us to be perfect, without spot or wrinkle and ready to meet Him in the air.

Through out the past generations we have all seen pretended watchmen of the walls that think they have a ministry of tearing people in the church down instead of building up. This is not the character of a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

A true disciple must be strong in the spirit, accept the authority themselves and submit one to another. They need to acknowledge that Jesus wants our eyes focused on His leadership and that we are not to put our confidence in man. They need to know that Jesus is the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne and He is the One that shall feed us, and lead us unto living waters. What could be the motivation that any one of us would follow any other than Jesus unless you don’t have the faith to know that He is among us when we gather together!

The sons of God are not the ones that are being led by men but rather the ones led by the Spirit of God.

Regretfully, much more than simply causing division, the problem with the question of authority has caused mass confusion. Yes, there is leadership in the church. But it is only true leadership if it is Jesus living through us. The problem is in the fleshly leadership that has manipulated, controlled and dominated the church and brought it into the mess that it is in and saturated it with the traditions of men and the doctrines of demons. Wanting to be a leader in the church is a hard bad habit to break. This is the spirit spoken about in Rev when the Lord is addressing the seven churches, it injures and alienates the same ones that the church was supposed to have served and ministered to, not ruled over.

The spiritual sin that a disciple must guard their own hearts against is pride and the power of the flesh taking control instead of the power of the Holy Ghost. To have leadership in the church that does not take into account the service and ministration necessary to keep it pure is to allow pride to creep in, corrupt it and leave us in confusion.

If Jesus is truly operating His will through us, then He is the leader and still the only leader, we are only operating according to His purpose and He is living His leadership through us through our submissive service and ministration to others. This is why we are to submit to each other, because He is living His shared leadership through us – but be careful, not all are following Him in the spirit. As a true disciple of Jesus, do not seek to promote yourself or your ministry but rather act upon the spirit and allow others to do the same in order for that position to be manifested. If God is truly speaking and acting through you then His sheep will hear His voice and the words and actions will speak for themselves.

Jesus is still the only leader.

For Jesus to share that leadership with us is to give us the responsibility to continue in that spiritual service to the point that we do not seek titles, exalt ourselves, lord it over others, act in pride, operate in the flesh or any such thing. To be in a leadership position requires you to operate totally in the spirit. And it is shared leadership only among us that are living in the spirit, there are no chiefs here, no rulers outside of that spiritual authority, no pecking order; we are to submit to each other and not to seek others to submit to us. We must have the mind that Jesus had to be effective.

The saints of the New Testament walked in the understanding that Jesus was the true leader and His true followers were given gift’s which allowed them to function as servants in the church. The elders and overseers among them were divinely inspired and endowed “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ.” Way too many in leadership positions in the church today are acting in the flesh according to the pride of their calling. It is important that we not step out of Gods will into any kind of presumption through leadership.

If we are to meet Jesus as His Bride, we need to have a mind-set that we only want to follow the Bridegroom. The best that we can do to get others into the kingdom is to point them to our leader Jesus Christ. The carnal mind will never understand what we are trying to do here. Jeremiah prophesies of the last days,

A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end thereof?

It is time for the true disciples of Christ to stand up and declare through sanctified and holy lives the call of Heaven – Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church and He alone. Let us fall on our faces and cry out to heaven for the restoration of the first church, the true apostles assigned to the Bride in this hour step forth, that the true prophets assigned to this hour step fourth and that the true watchman of this hour take to the walls. Teachers of purity and truth step forward, Evangelist of the Kingdom, step forward and let the air be filled with the “Kingdom Message:.

And as true disciples of Yahushua, we must all realize that we are given to humanity as a sacrifice offering. Just as Jesus laid His life down for the brethren, we are to lay our own lives down. Jesus did not come to lord it over humanity, but to lay His life down for it; we could never do more yet no less is expected.

For indeed we serve an Awesome God!