Leadership:

In the military, leaders are charges with instilling values in their soldiers, ensuring their technical and tactical proficiency, and reinforcing their motivation.  It seems obvious that these duties easily transfer into spiritual parallels meant to be observed by God’s leaders.

Ephesians 4:11-13 says, “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,

12) for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

13) until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

From this scripture, we can see that God has equipped leaders with specific gifts which are to contribute to the overall readiness of His army.  Verse twelve indicates that the overall purpose of these gifts is to “equip the saints for the work of service,” or, in my personal opinion, to equip the army of God for war.

These special ministers of God’s grace who possess special gifts, known commonly as the five-fold ministry gifts or the ascention gifts, are commissioned as leaders in the Army of God.  The authority to lead comes along with the ability to preach, prophecy, and evangelize, although it may take special effort to develop the gift to the level of proficiency required to effectively command in combat.

It is important to remember that verse thirteen above, referring to the “maturing” of the saints, also applies to the ministers of the five-fold graces.  One can expect a young person who is in the process of developing a five-fold anointing to be inexperienced and in need of training, much the same way as a Lieutenant would require professional development before he could perform at the level of a Colonel.  The common mistake is for senior officers, such as Pastors or Apostles, to refuse to allow young officers to partake in combat because of their inexperience, effectively forgetting that it is combat that helps to develop experience.

2) Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,

3) knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

4) And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  (James 1:2-4)

For the purpose of this writing, the “combat” to which I am referring is the opportunity to practice the anointing with which these young ministers have been equipped by the Holy Spirit.  In the military, young officers are given many, many hours of instruction on the principles of war.  Then, in the event of an actual war, the young officers bear the brunt of performing those combat tasks which they have studied in actual combat.  The reason is two-fold:  first, the young officer is in need of practical application to cement their understanding of tactics and principles.  Second, and perhaps most importantly, the time of the senior officer is much better used to focus upon strategic objectives.

Case-in-point: a senior Pastor of a local church operates in an Apostolic anointing.  He has been charged with the development of several young people with five-fold giftings. In addition, the Pastor is developing a network of ministers who will engage in the work of the gospel internationally.  The pastor teaches several times per week in his local church and spends countless hours in preparation for those teaching engagements.

The most effective use of the Pastor’s time in this scenario would be to actively engage in the development of the young ministers, and to pour himself into the development of his international sphere of influence.  In this way, his Apostolic anointing becomes a force-multiplier which enables the Gospel to be spread farther and wider than would have been possible before.

The opportunity cost for this shift of focus is the ability to preach in every service that takes place in his church.  Fortunately, the Pastor has available several young preachers who are capable of administering the teaching and preaching in his absence.  In delegating some of the responsibility for teaching and preaching, the Pastor is able to achieve a two-fold objective:  to free up time in order to pursue the greater, strategic objective of Apostolic alignment for his international sphere of influence, and to partake in the development of his subordinates.   This is the essence of combat leadership.

Core Competency: Learn the Word of God and internalize it to the point that it is ready to be utilized at a moment’s notice to combat deception, confusion, and inferior realities.

If spiritual warfare  is an endeavor during which a defeated enemy solicits the agreement of the saints in order to empower his schemes, then absolute reality (the truth of the Word) is the bullet that will end his combat effectiveness.   The enemy will spin elaborate tales designed to keep the saints all wrapped up in intellectual nonsense, psychological uncertainties, and self-doubting confession for the sole purpose of getting his target to confess something that will empower him to take dominion over the subjects life.  For instance, a man who’s feeling under the weather confesses, “I’m sick, so I can’t go out tonight.”  The sickness is an inferior reality which points to the divine healing provided by Christ on the cross, but the enemy has successfully trapped the man in his own misery to the point that the confession never progresses beyond saying “I’m sick.”  The man, having confessed his own sickness, empowers the enemy to dominion over his body through his own agreement for a season.

The same man, when presented the absolute reality of God’s word, would never be deceived into confessing his sickness.  Let’s say the friend with whom the man is speaking, upon hearing the man’s confession of “I’m sick,” responds with absolute reality: “No. You’re not sick.  You’re healed by the stripes of Jesus.”  Can you see how the friend possessed the firepower needed to solicit a change of confession and thus stripped the enemy of the power of agreement?

Just having a friend on the phone (as a result of divine inspiration, thus maneuver) would not be enough to keep the man from confessing his own sickness.  The fact that the friend had knowledge of the absolute reality of the word of God (firepower), combined with his presence at the right time, enabled him to affect the outcome of a tactical engagement in the spirit.

Maneuver and firepower compliment one another.  Firepower magnifies the effects of maneuver, and maneuver creates the optimal circumstances in which firepower may have the desired effect.  In order to achieve the maximum battlefield effect of decisive victory, we must have both.  The right Christian with the right word of knowledge or memory verse at the right place at the right time equals certain defeat for the enemy in his little game of soliciting agreement from the saints.

Increasing firepower should be the goal of every believer.  We should endeavor to learn the word of God and internalize it to the point that it is readily available at the first signs of spiritual combat.  Think of scripture memorization as a license to carry a concealed weapon.  The enemy will never see it coming.

More importantly, think of every trial that you encounter as a grenade on your belt.  Why a grenade?  If the enemy ever decides to pull the pin on that situation again, it should blow up right in his face.  Take every trial that comes your way as an opportunity to add ammo to your fighting capability.  Study the word as it applies to every situation that you encounter, and you will begin to learn the absolute reality of God’s word in the context of life.  This is a truly lethal combination for the enemy.