We can have the best army in the world, but it can still be defeated without good leadership. Likewise, even with competent leadership, it can still be defeated without a well-trained and disciplined army. We need both. However, we will first focus on the leadership because any great organization or force will only perform according to its potential if it is led well. This is why leadership should always be the highest priority when we begin an endeavor, and it was the highest priority with the Lord when He began to build His army on the earth, the church.

Two weeks ago we began discussing how the habitations of God in Scripture, the tabernacles and temples, were divided into three compartments, and how we had applied this to our Katrina relief efforts, breaking it down into three phases, which were:

Phase I: Rescue. The main goal in this phase is simply saving lives and getting people to safety.

As we continue this week with our brief study of the kingdom government of God, we will consider democracy's place in that government. Of course, many great teachers who have had a vision of the coming kingdom have stated that there will be no democracy in the kingdom because the people will not rule in it, the Lord will. This argument certainly has a lot of merit to it, but there are other factors that we need to consider.

In Matthew 12:28 Jesus said, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

          The New Year is always a time for hope, and hope is one of the most powerful forces. It is often a time when we resolve to fulfill certain vows like getting in shape, spending more time with family, or being faithful to certain spiritual disciplines like more prayer or Bible study. These often help people focus enough to actually accomplish them, certainly a good thing.

We are receiving many questions about the present outpouring of the Holy Spirit, so I will periodically take those that seem to be the most common or important and try to answer them. Please keep in mind that many of these questions are worthy of far more time and attention than I can give to them here; therefore, I can only address them briefly. Even so, there can be merit to just addressing important issues superficially as even some of the New Testament epistles do the same.

     The Christian disciplines, such as daily reading of the Scriptures, prayer, worship, witnessing, etc., are all crucial for a healthy, balanced Christian life. While we should never neglect these disciplines, they alone are not enough. In the Scriptures, we find that experiences, encounters with the Lord and even angels, changed people more radically and propelled them toward their destiny far more than any amount of study could have done.

On July 22, 2002 I wrote in Special Bulletin #19:

          We are still digging into the Lord’s Word in Matthew 13:52:

          “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old.”

We have been discussing the anointing for mobilizing—to draw people together for a cause. We began to discuss how this is given in different measure, to draw different size groups. Some will be able to call dozens, some hundreds, and some thousands. The same is true for leadership. Some are called to lead small groups and some larger. Wise leaders will discern the level of their anointing or grace, and stay within it.