WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000
There's something that happens when you feast with God

2
00:00:05.800 --> 00:00:08.360
by not feasting on food.

3
00:00:08.360 --> 00:00:12.440
Something about your willingness to give up

4
00:00:12.440 --> 00:00:15.960
what your body basically needs, which is food,

5
00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:18.480
in order to make God your priority

6
00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:22.020
that seems, all through scripture and history,

7
00:00:22.020 --> 00:00:26.160
to be one of the key tools that gets God's attention.

8
00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:31.760
Just the other day, I was meeting with a leader

9
00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:38.200
in Colorado Springs, and he's a pastor

10
00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:42.560
of a very large, growing church in the city.

11
00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:46.160
He was sharing with me just the ups and downs of his church.

12
00:00:46.160 --> 00:00:48.240
And he had been through a lot.

13
00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:49.720
I mean, there's no doubt about it,

14
00:00:49.720 --> 00:00:53.960
that through COVID and other things

15
00:00:53.960 --> 00:00:55.640
that had happened in his church,

16
00:00:55.720 --> 00:00:59.360
he's seen it rise and fall a few times.

17
00:00:59.360 --> 00:01:01.680
And I felt so much compassion for him

18
00:01:01.680 --> 00:01:05.000
because it just felt like that in his life

19
00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:09.120
he was trying to find what was the DNA of his church.

20
00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:10.760
And I totally understand that.

21
00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:12.080
But I wanna talk about today

22
00:01:12.080 --> 00:01:14.280
partnering with God in our leadership.

23
00:01:14.280 --> 00:01:15.960
I think that's a big part

24
00:01:15.960 --> 00:01:18.100
of what I'm calling organic leadership.

25
00:01:18.100 --> 00:01:20.520
And when you partner with God,

26
00:01:20.520 --> 00:01:22.880
God shows us the way to go.

27
00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:26.520
He guides us in what we should be involved in,

28
00:01:26.520 --> 00:01:29.400
where we should be, what we should be doing.

29
00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:31.680
I know for me and for my wife, Liz,

30
00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:34.680
we have spent a lot of time

31
00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:37.240
in fasting and prayer through the years.

32
00:01:37.240 --> 00:01:40.120
We've actually never made a major change

33
00:01:40.120 --> 00:01:44.080
in any area of our life without fasting and prayer.

34
00:01:44.080 --> 00:01:48.600
And so it's been just pretty glorious, actually.

35
00:01:48.600 --> 00:01:52.920
I mean, we've gone now for 30 years of ministry together,

36
00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:54.640
actually 38 years.

37
00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:57.880
And rarely have we made big mistakes

38
00:01:57.880 --> 00:02:00.520
in decisions we've made in leadership areas

39
00:02:00.520 --> 00:02:02.720
because we really made sure

40
00:02:02.720 --> 00:02:05.120
that we had heard from God

41
00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:07.720
and that we were partnering with God

42
00:02:07.720 --> 00:02:10.240
in what that next thing was.

43
00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:14.680
So we first met and got married in Japan.

44
00:02:14.680 --> 00:02:18.560
And so we had ministry on the college campuses in Tokyo,

45
00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:20.840
and after that, God moved us to Okinawa.

46
00:02:20.840 --> 00:02:24.680
After that, God moved us to Southern California.

47
00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:25.760
I went to graduate school,

48
00:02:25.760 --> 00:02:27.820
then I got involved in the Vineyard Movement.

49
00:02:27.820 --> 00:02:30.520
I became the director of the Vineyard Bible Institute,

50
00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:32.920
and I worked for John Wimber as his assistant.

51
00:02:32.920 --> 00:02:35.080
And then God called us to Colorado Springs

52
00:02:35.080 --> 00:02:38.140
to plant a church, and we've planted two churches here.

53
00:02:38.140 --> 00:02:42.640
And so it's been a really, really adventurous 38 years.

54
00:02:42.640 --> 00:02:47.640
And I would say that partnering with the Holy Spirit

55
00:02:47.640 --> 00:02:49.680
is the key to everything.

56
00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:52.700
Being able to hear His voice and see what He's doing.

57
00:02:52.700 --> 00:02:56.720
And that's not just in Christian vocational work.

58
00:02:56.720 --> 00:03:00.840
So we have two LLCs, and we have two houses that we rent,

59
00:03:00.840 --> 00:03:02.560
and we have an Airbnb.

60
00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:06.400
And those decisions in purchasing those houses

61
00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:07.780
and paying off those houses

62
00:03:07.780 --> 00:03:12.180
were also very clearly led by the Holy Spirit

63
00:03:12.180 --> 00:03:14.320
in partnership with Him.

64
00:03:14.320 --> 00:03:18.600
And so let me read Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24.

65
00:03:18.600 --> 00:03:23.280
I think it explains why partnering with the Holy Spirit

66
00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:25.840
is so important in any form of leadership.

67
00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:27.520
"'Thus saith the Lord,

68
00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:31.560
"'let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,

69
00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:34.660
"'let not the mighty man glory in his might,

70
00:03:34.660 --> 00:03:37.880
"'nor let the rich man glory in his riches,

71
00:03:37.880 --> 00:03:40.800
"'but let him who glories glory in this,

72
00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:43.000
"'that he understands and knows me,

73
00:03:43.020 --> 00:03:47.480
"'that I am the Lord exercising loving kindness,

74
00:03:47.480 --> 00:03:51.080
"'judgment, and righteousness upon the earth,

75
00:03:51.080 --> 00:03:54.520
"'for I delight in these things, saith the Lord.'"

76
00:03:54.520 --> 00:03:57.680
So remember in the past episodes,

77
00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:00.800
I've talked about corporate inorganic leadership.

78
00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:05.800
And you see what drives typical cultural

79
00:04:06.160 --> 00:04:09.120
or inorganic corporate leadership.

80
00:04:09.200 --> 00:04:13.640
So let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,

81
00:04:13.640 --> 00:04:17.360
let not the mighty man glory in his might,

82
00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:19.320
nor let the rich man glory in his riches.

83
00:04:19.320 --> 00:04:23.200
So I see three forms of leadership

84
00:04:23.200 --> 00:04:28.200
that most people are more in partnership than with God.

85
00:04:28.320 --> 00:04:32.200
The first is wisdom that influences others.

86
00:04:32.200 --> 00:04:36.600
And so God is saying here to and through Jeremiah,

87
00:04:36.640 --> 00:04:41.560
don't trust in your personal wisdom.

88
00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:46.560
Number two, power by gaining advantage over the competition.

89
00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:51.000
So this is using might and power

90
00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:53.000
to press in on your leadership.

91
00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:54.760
And then number three, wealth,

92
00:04:54.760 --> 00:04:58.160
which is the accumulation and control over resources.

93
00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:00.160
Let not the rich man glory.

94
00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:07.720
in his riches. Rather, organic leadership, partnering with the Spirit, is knowing and

95
00:05:07.720 --> 00:05:12.620
understanding God. It says here, But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands

96
00:05:12.620 --> 00:05:13.620
and knows me.

97
00:05:13.620 --> 00:05:19.600
Men and women, I just want to encourage you, whatever you're doing, that you be growing

98
00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:24.140
in your knowledge of God. You be growing in wisdom with God. That means spending time

99
00:05:24.140 --> 00:05:29.960
in his word. That means hanging out with godly people. Listen, if you're hanging out with

100
00:05:29.960 --> 00:05:35.480
ungodly people, you're going to start making ungodly decisions. If you're hanging out with

101
00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:44.000
carnal people, you're going to become carnal. Your associations determine your destiny.

102
00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:49.160
And if you're around people that gossip, you're going to become a gossip. If you're hanging

103
00:05:49.160 --> 00:05:56.860
out with people who have very weak, unplanned lives, you'll become weak and unplanned in

104
00:05:56.860 --> 00:06:01.000
your lives. And you think you're going to pull them up, but usually they pull you down.

105
00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:07.740
And so to walk in the partnership of the Holy Spirit, hang out with and be around other

106
00:06:07.740 --> 00:06:13.660
leaders who are partnering with the Holy Spirit. That's what I've always tried to do. And I

107
00:06:13.660 --> 00:06:18.380
have a fire pit in the back of our house, and it's always got leaders around it. Some

108
00:06:18.900 --> 00:06:23.980
of these men and women are the top leaders in the city of Colorado Springs. In almost

109
00:06:23.980 --> 00:06:30.980
every area of leadership within Colorado Springs, some key Christian leader has probably been

110
00:06:31.380 --> 00:06:37.820
at my fire pit talking about leadership, talking about the kingdom of God, talking about how

111
00:06:37.820 --> 00:06:44.820
to be a better leader. And so they've rubbed off on me, and their impact on me has been

112
00:06:44.820 --> 00:06:50.440
huge. Jeremiah says it this way, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says

113
00:06:50.440 --> 00:06:57.060
the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you

114
00:06:57.060 --> 00:07:02.780
will call upon me and go and pray to me, and I'll listen to you. And you will seek me and

115
00:07:02.780 --> 00:07:08.460
find me when you search for me with all of your heart. So organic leadership is about

116
00:07:08.940 --> 00:07:15.940
seeking the life of God in your life. It's God as the giver and the provider, sustainer,

117
00:07:18.100 --> 00:07:24.300
power and peace that makes the organic leader who he is. And so it's learning to seek after

118
00:07:24.300 --> 00:07:30.820
God with all of your heart. So how do we partner with God in organic leadership? Let me give

119
00:07:30.820 --> 00:07:36.340
you three thoughts on how we partner with God. Number one, partnering with the Holy

120
00:07:36.340 --> 00:07:43.180
Spirit is organic leadership, seeking God with our whole heart. This involves prayer

121
00:07:43.180 --> 00:07:50.180
and fasting. So every major decision that Liz and I have made has been built around

122
00:07:50.660 --> 00:07:55.580
prayer and fasting. This church was built around prayer and fasting. The church before

123
00:07:55.580 --> 00:08:00.980
that that I planted that grew into the thousands was also through prayer and fasting. Before

124
00:08:00.980 --> 00:08:07.540
that with our finances, we fasted and prayed. About moves to new locations, we fasted and

125
00:08:07.540 --> 00:08:13.740
we prayed. Taking new positions or new opportunities in leadership, I fasted and prayed or Liz

126
00:08:13.740 --> 00:08:18.860
fasted and prayed. So the power of seeking God with all of your heart. Now you may say,

127
00:08:18.860 --> 00:08:24.100
well, I'm not really into the fasting part. Well, I want to challenge you. There's something

128
00:08:24.300 --> 00:08:31.300
that happens when you feast with God by not feasting on food. Something about your willingness

129
00:08:34.179 --> 00:08:41.059
to give up what your body basically needs, which is food, in order to make God your priority

130
00:08:41.059 --> 00:08:48.060
that seems all through scripture and history to be one of the key tools that gets God's

131
00:08:48.100 --> 00:08:53.140
attention. So I want to challenge you if you've never fasted, if you're coming up on a decision,

132
00:08:53.140 --> 00:08:56.980
you're coming up or you're faced with an obstacle, or maybe you're even looking at

133
00:08:56.980 --> 00:09:02.180
something to happen where you need a miracle. I want to challenge you with fasting and prayer.

134
00:09:02.180 --> 00:09:07.460
That's seeking God with your whole heart. Number two, partnering with the Holy Spirit

135
00:09:07.460 --> 00:09:14.460
in organic leadership is finding God's plans and purposes and flowing in them, exercising

136
00:09:15.420 --> 00:09:21.980
his plans in the arena God has given you. So what I mean by that is rather than you

137
00:09:21.980 --> 00:09:28.980
asking God to bless your plans, you seek God to find out what his plans are, and then

138
00:09:30.260 --> 00:09:37.020
you partner with him in carrying out his plans. And so it's the easiest way for most of us

139
00:09:37.020 --> 00:09:44.020
as leaders to go is to get a vision, get a plan, and then ask God to bless it. What's

140
00:09:44.060 --> 00:09:50.060
a harder way to go, but has a more lasting impact, is instead of trying to find out God's

141
00:09:50.180 --> 00:09:57.180
will based on your plans, why not find God's will based on seeking God and then listening

142
00:09:58.020 --> 00:10:00.020
to what God says so you can hear what he says?

143
00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:02.640
what he's up to, God's up to something.

144
00:10:02.640 --> 00:10:03.480
I mean, Jesus said,

145
00:10:03.480 --> 00:10:06.880
I can only do what I see the father doing.

146
00:10:06.880 --> 00:10:11.160
So the father is always doing stuff.

147
00:10:11.160 --> 00:10:15.520
Jesus said, I can't do anything but what I see him doing.

148
00:10:15.520 --> 00:10:18.080
So God's doing a work in your life.

149
00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:22.440
God is doing a work around you, but are you recognizing it?

150
00:10:22.440 --> 00:10:24.760
Are you seeing what he's doing?

151
00:10:24.760 --> 00:10:29.360
Because if you discover where the road is,

152
00:10:29.400 --> 00:10:32.880
where the direction is, where the wind is of the spirit,

153
00:10:32.880 --> 00:10:37.880
and then you set your sails according to that wind,

154
00:10:38.060 --> 00:10:41.200
man, it's gonna go so much easier for you.

155
00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:44.680
So I challenge you to seek God for his plans

156
00:10:44.680 --> 00:10:49.680
and then follow those rather than seeking God for your plans

157
00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:51.860
and then asking him to bless them.

158
00:10:51.860 --> 00:10:53.840
Number three, partnering with the Holy Spirit

159
00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:56.120
and organic leadership is built

160
00:10:56.120 --> 00:10:59.400
from the life-giving power of God.

161
00:10:59.400 --> 00:11:01.560
In other words, God's gonna call you

162
00:11:01.560 --> 00:11:03.320
into things in your life

163
00:11:03.320 --> 00:11:05.880
that you do not have the capacity to do.

164
00:11:05.880 --> 00:11:07.120
He does that all the time.

165
00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:10.760
There are responsibilities right now

166
00:11:10.760 --> 00:11:12.080
in your life that are hard.

167
00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:16.520
And I would say many times hard is from God

168
00:11:16.520 --> 00:11:19.000
and easy is from the devil.

169
00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:22.440
And what I mean by that is that most of the time,

170
00:11:22.440 --> 00:11:26.400
God's ways are not the easiest way

171
00:11:26.400 --> 00:11:29.680
because there's always obstacles to accomplish those.

172
00:11:29.680 --> 00:11:32.540
And so what a lot of people do is they start running.

173
00:11:32.540 --> 00:11:34.980
They book it out when things get hard.

174
00:11:34.980 --> 00:11:38.920
They book, they take off, they go to the next easy thing

175
00:11:38.920 --> 00:11:42.160
and they live their life from easy to easier,

176
00:11:42.160 --> 00:11:44.000
to easier, to easier,

177
00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:46.160
and they never accomplish their destiny

178
00:11:46.160 --> 00:11:49.520
because a lot of times your destiny, men and women,

179
00:11:49.520 --> 00:11:52.920
is wrapped up in hard stuff, doing hard stuff,

180
00:11:52.920 --> 00:11:56.520
being able to push through that and not quit.

181
00:11:56.520 --> 00:11:59.280
That's where the treasure is.

182
00:11:59.280 --> 00:12:03.960
And even in allegory and in fairy tales,

183
00:12:03.960 --> 00:12:06.720
you know the stories of the dragon.

184
00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:08.520
There's the dragon in the cave

185
00:12:08.520 --> 00:12:10.280
and what's always behind the dragon?

186
00:12:10.280 --> 00:12:13.960
There's always a virgin or a treasure.

187
00:12:13.960 --> 00:12:15.720
The gold's behind the dragon.

188
00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:20.440
And so you come in the typical fairytale story

189
00:12:20.440 --> 00:12:23.960
and the warrior comes, he pulls out his sword

190
00:12:23.960 --> 00:12:28.960
and he slays the dragon to win the heart of the virgin

191
00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:32.440
or to get the golden treasure that's behind

192
00:12:32.440 --> 00:12:35.600
and back deep in the cave of the dragon.

193
00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:38.440
That's a picture, allegory,

194
00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:41.120
of what the spiritual life is often about,

195
00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:43.080
that there's a dragon, there's a devil,

196
00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:46.480
and he opposes you every step of the way.

197
00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:51.480
But the more you build up your spiritual sinew and muscle,

198
00:12:51.720 --> 00:12:53.320
it's not as hard anymore

199
00:12:53.320 --> 00:12:55.240
because you just expect it to be hard.

200
00:12:55.240 --> 00:12:57.320
And when you expect it to be hard, it's hard,

201
00:12:57.320 --> 00:12:59.400
then you're like, okay, whatever, that's exactly what I,

202
00:12:59.400 --> 00:13:01.860
I must be right where God wants me to be

203
00:13:01.860 --> 00:13:03.520
because it's difficult.

204
00:13:03.520 --> 00:13:06.200
Challenge you to partner with the Holy Spirit,

205
00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:10.960
push through hard, listen to God, follow God,

206
00:13:11.040 --> 00:13:14.600
don't run when things get hard

207
00:13:14.600 --> 00:13:17.880
because when you run from the hard things,

208
00:13:17.880 --> 00:13:20.840
usually you end up making your life actually harder

209
00:13:20.840 --> 00:13:23.500
because you're not in the center of God's will.

210
00:13:24.400 --> 00:13:25.240
Bam!

211
00:13:25.240 --> 00:13:26.060
Bam!

212
00:13:26.060 --> 00:13:26.900
Bam!

213
00:13:26.900 --> 00:13:27.740
Bam!

214
00:13:27.740 --> 00:13:28.560
Bam!

215
00:13:28.560 --> 00:13:29.400
Bam!

216
00:13:29.400 --> 00:13:30.240
Bam!

217
00:13:30.240 --> 00:13:31.060
Bam!

218
00:13:31.060 --> 00:13:31.900
Bam!

219
00:13:31.900 --> 00:13:32.740
Bam!

220
00:13:32.740 --> 00:13:33.560
Bam!

221
00:13:33.560 --> 00:13:34.400
Bam!

222
00:13:34.400 --> 00:13:35.240
Bam!

223
00:13:35.240 --> 00:13:36.060
Bam!