If you are an under-shepherd in any ministry, working under a senior leader to shepherd the people of God you must stay in a position to be bendable to what God is doing. An under-shepherd may be the first amongst the group they lead to receive the word or instructions on how to implement certain aspects of ministry from the senior leader. If the senior leader gives these instructions but the under-shepherd is not in agreement, the instructions will be passed down tainted and perverted with that under-shepherd’s iniquity. When that individual relays the instruction, it will not have the same passion as the senior leader relayed it with.
What is important about this is that God does not value what man values. Man values attendance but God values perfection. He is trying to build righteousness through His people. He has a specific order and system by which He wants to bring this about. This is why it is crucial that senior leaders appoint under-shepherds that are in submission to the word and the ministry. Let’s consider the following scenario:
An assistant pastor is charged with overseeing the MIA board in a local church. The MIA president should be in submission to that assistant pastor as his/her senior leader but is not. As an under-shepherd, the MIA president is instructed by the assistant pastor to implement prayer and bible study within the group of MIA’s. In the next meeting with the group, the MIA president briefly relays, “It was said that we need to pray more. Is everyone praying at home? Does everyone read their bibles?” After this, the president
moves on to the next order of business for the meeting. Suppose the senior leader comes to that undershepherd and tells them to step down? Is that wrong or is that out of order?
I submit to you that it is not. If a person has set himself as an adversary by not submitting to the authority that is in place, is not working ministry and will hinder the movement and spiritual growth of those that follow. They should be removed from that position. Sometimes, it is necessary to admit that as a leader you made a mistake in placing a certain person in a position and remove them. God holds all leaders, especially senior leaders, responsible for the growth of the ministry.
SERVITUDE
Don’t be a burden to your leader as an under-shepherd. We should want to serve our leaders. This is not placing the leaders as God; it is having a mind and heart to be a help. It is so honorable for God to look at us and feel that we have worked well under our leaders. If He can declare, “You have made your leader better,” that is honorable. The truth is everyone can’t follow. God knows that many have so many hang-ups as to why they can’t simply follow. God knows that
it takes character to submit and follow. It is true that trust has to be built by the leader from those that follow but don’t make a pre-judgment about the leader. If you do, you cannot receive what God has given them spiritually. Don’t assume that everyone is walking after the flesh. Such an assumption will not allow you to follow and you cannot be productive. All ministry needs to be productive.
LEADERS AND HOSPITALITY
Galatians 5:17
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
The flesh always wants to be acknowledged. Inside of all the acknowledgement of the flesh, you are still not being productive. People fall out because they are not acknowledge in the making of certain decisions. The anointing will declare who you are. If you lust for acknowledgement as being a leader, it is because the anointing is not establishing you as a leader. The anointing is not working with you and everyone else seems to be moving on and working without you. You begin to pry and make issues of simple activities or functions when it seems you are not apart.
It is not the functions that offend you; it is your feeling that you are not being a part. If you walk in the spirit, the spirit will place you and you will be apart of the movement of God. The scripture says that a Bishop must be hospitable. He must know how to entreat others. He must be nice and courteous even when others cannot handle that kindness. The bishop is set as the head of the house he is in. The lack of hospitality in the bishop will be filtered through the entire ministry and people will feel that spirit when they come into that house. We were raised as a ministry to be hospitable.
Suppose the senior leader has a spirit of hospitality but the under-shepherd does not. If someone entertains that undershepherd, they will come away feeling that the entire ministry has that mind. This should not be. Every leader should have a mind to fulfill the purpose of God. The purpose of God is to save and deliver. Sometimes simple love and kindness will move the unsaved. There are people that can never be used by God because they do not trust love and kindness. Some feel that you fight fire with fire but that is wrong. You fight fire with water. Although we must correct others, we are still required to love. The senior leader and all under-shepherds must have a spirit of love.
1 A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
2 The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. It should not be that people have to go to the senior leader to receive a response of love, kindness, and hospitality. People should be able to go to any leader and get the same response; the response that God would give. We must be adamant about staying connected. Even when we are not all the way there, we must fight to move there all the way. We must keep the line of communication open and keep the enemy out.
Philippians 2:2-5
2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other betterthan themselves.
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
People should not have certain picks of who they are going to deal with in ministry. Under-shepherds are responsible for people knowing that they will always receive the same answer from whichever leader they approach. Under-shepherds have to trust that our relationships with the people will survive the “no’s” we will tell them or the instructions we will give that they don’t want to receive. If under-shepherds are consistent and on one accord, the congregation will trust the senior leader and all under-shepherds and the ministry will grow.
BELIEF
Romans 4:17
(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
God looked at a man named Abram, later named Abraham, and decided that he would make him a father of many nations. Isaac was not born yet and the youth to bear children was gone, but Abram still believed. There are no other Gods. When God calls those things that are not, as though they were, He is making a statement to us. When the Lord spoke on this ministry to my mother, our senior apostle we were a family of three having bible studies in our home, traveling from church to church with an evangelistic team, often wearing the same clothes each time, breaking down on the highway to get from place to place and we were being evicted out of every house we lived in. Anyone could clearly see that we had absolutely no monetary or resource means of producing what now has become a reality.
Romans 4:18
Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. Our lives will not change based upon how much we know of God. It is based upon how much we believe God. Nothing will change about our lives until we truly believe. God will wait until we are in the valley of our lives and wait for us to truly come into belief. Church people are some of the most depressed people in the world because they do not believe in the God they follow. Abraham had to believe against hope and received from God. The power of belief will cause you to push against the odds, the bad times and not having all of the means it takes to produce that which God has spoken. If the church believed in the word and the promises of God as the world believes in their dreams and aspirations, we would begin to work tireously to see that word come to pass.
Romans 4:19-22
19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:
20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
When you are fully persuaded of the Lord, you will have joy. If we believed in God’s word that says, we are more than conquerors and are overcomers, we would be joyful. Instead, much of the church is bogged down and sad and a deterrent to those that might be saved. If anyone had a right not to believe, Abraham had a reason. However, when he heard the voice of the Lord, he was able to stop and take heed. We can be in a suicidal state and can hear the word of the Lord and change directions. We can be laden with sickness and ailments and can hear the word of the Lord and change directions. Instead, the people that call themselves the people of God, walk as defeated and can barely praise God right in His service.
Unbelief has caused a lack of enthusiasm in the lives of church people. The weight of unbelief is a heavy weight to bear. The enemy wants to use the church as an offense to God. Think of how important it was to Satan that Job curse God to His face. Satan always wants to desecrate those who are blessed and mighty and make them an open show of dishonor to God. This is what he accomplished with Saul. This is what he is trying to accomplish with the church. The church sits as if it is under a spell and people looking on are wondering why they are encouraged to be saved if those who are already saved are defeated. If I cannot see my deliverance out of a situation, it is okay because I know God has a track record of never lying.
Abraham’s belief was so great that God imputed to him as righteousness. It means a great deal to God that we believe Him. It bothers God when He has written so many promises that we are to live by and trust in and we can still not believe. We open up the door for God to move on our behalf when we bring Him belief. When we truly believe that He can heal our children if they fall sick and bring our children to Him in prayer, he will count that as a righteous act and will work on our behalf. We must believe God and we must follow his leadership.
