Something incredible and liberating is happening in the earth today! The Church is awakening to the truth that has been felt for so long in the spirit of its members - all of the work of God to be done in the earth is not limited to work done "in the church!" When we all received salvation and became excited about being used by God, we were subtly convinced that this meant that we were called to some form of "ministry." The truth is that most Christians are not called to full-time church staff positions, and local churches who are still wrestling with the elementary doctrine of tithing could not support them, even if they were.

In an effort to mine the great resources, talents and abilities which lay in local churches to benefit the progression of its various visions, the idea of "lay ministry" was developed, which allowed people (laity) to be involved in church ministry with the time they could spare from their secular and family responsibilities. This concept has come with a great cost!

• Families have been shattered due to the imbalance

• Christians are frustrated with maintaining this balancing act

• The Church has become less evangelistic (more introverted)

• It has depleted the energy, drive, and zeal of many sincere Christians

The answer lies in identifying and understanding the roles and responsibilities of "Kings" and "Priests" in the Body of Christ. Even though we each function as Kings and Priests in our own personal lives from day to day; we each are called to be a King OR a Priest in our church life! God has equipped you and I in a fashion that we will each find our primary calling to be a King (called to the marketplace, workplace) or as a Priest (called to the Church).

PEARL PRODUCTION

Like that in the Spirit, the principle of process works also in the physical realm. Pearls differ one from another not so much in where they come from but what they have been through. The greater the degree of intensity of the process upon an oyster, the more valuable the pearl it produces.

PEARLS are balls of calcium carbonate, created in the form of lustrous nacre around a nucleus which is irritating an oyster. Contrary to popular belief, pearls hardly ever result from the intrusion of a grain of sand into an oyster's shell.

Instead, a pearl forms when an irritant such as a wayward food particle becomes trapped in the mollusk. Pearls are not easily found. To obtain the richest and most beautiful pearls, a diver must dive again and again. Then after lifting the shells from the sea floor, he must force open the mouth of each shell and dig through the tough meat of the muscle, poking and searching for the tiny white pearl that was formed over a long period of time. These pearls are precious, rare, valuable, and hard to obtain.

This is how you should view the things God has done in your life. You can’t put a price on what you have learned through your life experiences as you’ve walked with Him. Like precious pearls, those life lessons are inestimable in their value because they cost you something. They weren’t the result of shallow swimming.

You had to go deep into God to obtain those spiritual treasures. That is why Jesus said, “neither cast ye your pearls before swine…” Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:6 that we shouldn’t waste our time, energy, or money or put too much thought into honoring individuals who don’t even care about what we are doing for them. Jesus uses the example of “swine” or “pigs” to describe this category of people who couldn’t care less about what you are trying to tell them. He urges us not to take something that has been forged through one’s process and present it before people who don’t honor your process.

Becoming a Lover of the Process

He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb. 12:2b

There is a defining season that exists between the receipt of the promise of God and the actual materialization of that very promise. In fact, we often quote the Genesis 8:22 by saying, “As the earth remaineth, Seedtime and harvest…..shall not cease.” The truth is, there is a greater revelation that is lodged within this scripture. There are actually three seasons that this season depicts. There is the season of SEED. The season of HARVEST. But more importantly, between the seasons of Seed and Harvest is the season of TIME. It is critical that we understand all there is about this is season of time. This intermediate season is the season that can make or break you. This is a season of preparation. A season of process.

Process is the season that initiates the moment we sow a seed or receive a promise from God. Process is the capsule of time that stands in between every seed you sow and the harvest that will be reaped because of the seed.

Most of us in life focus so strongly on the appearance or non-appearance of the manifestation of the promises of God that we seldom pay mind to the process that we experience in wait of the promise. God is more interested in the condition of the recipient of His promises than the receiving of His promises. In other words, God is more concerned with our production of character more than the concerns of our comfort.

Because we generally ignore the potency of our process, we tend to avoid our seasons of process, abort our processes or numb ourselves throughout our process. We like to take a sabbatical while the process is in affect or we inject ourselves with a spiritual Novocain so that we can allow the process to ensue while we numb ourselves to the effects of it.

We must understand that it is God’s process taking place in our lives, being completed, is what differentiates one believer from the next. A principle in the kingdom of God is that the greater and more intense the process, the more valuable the end product. What God does in our process is He enlarges us to match our opposition.

Using the Scripture above, we understand that Christ experienced a process before He obtained His promise. While He yet was fixed on the “prize” (the promise) He experienced His own process. The Bible says He “endured the cross” – His process. The opposition’s contradictions were leveled against Christ Himself, against His person as God—man, against His authority, against His preaching, and yet He endured all. He endured the cross —all those sufferings that he met with in the world; for he took up his cross betimes, and was at length nailed to it, and endured a painful, ignominious, and accursed death, in which he was numbered with the transgressors, the vilest malefactors; yet all this he endured with invincible patience and resolution. He despised the shame. All the reproaches that were cast upon him, both in his life and at his death, he despised; he was infinitely above them; he knew his own innocency and excellency, and despised the ignorance and malice of his despisers. The real question is, “What was it that supported the human soul of Christ under these unparalleled sufferings?” Or better yet, “How did He survive His process?” The hint is when the Scripture says that for the joy that was set before him. Not only did He have something in view under all his sufferings, which was pleasant to him; but He also fell in love with His process. He rejoiced in it.

Just imagine, Jesus endured 30 years of process for a three and one half years promise manifested. Most of us crave for a three and half year’s process for a 30 year manifestation of a promise. However, in most cases, the season of process outweighs the promise’s tenure.

MAINTAINING THE MENTOR-PROTÉGÉ RELATIONSHIP

First, keep pursuing. Pursuing is permanent, not momentary. Your level of pursuit will determine your level credibility and credibility determines promotion. The relationship with your mentor will require you to go where the mentor is, more than waiting for the mentor to come to you. Relationship with your spiritual father will require you to go where the mentor is. A mentor will not chase you to teach you what they know. You will have to chase the mentor to find out what they know. You will never be able to chase the mentor out of convenience.

Second, keep learning. The quality of the mentor’s information is determined by the quality of the protégé’s questions. Don’t be afraid to interrogate something that you don’t understand. Don’t be as concerned with impressing the mentor with your ability as you are with asking the mentor for help. Smart protégés or sons are more concerned with sustaining success, than they are with achieving success. Success is harder to keep than it is to reap.

Third, keep serving. The father in the Lord that God links you to never stops being your father. Ministering to your mentor positions you in the flow of God’s favor. Before you can be a great successor, you must become a great server.

Finally, keep sowing. The more consistent you seed into the soil of your mentor, the more intensively you will reap the mantle of your mentor. When God gives you a spiritual father, He did not just give you someone who can teach you. He gave you someone with a mantle of blessing on their life that you can sow into, so that you can increase in blessings.

The soil of a God-ordained mentor is some of the most fertile soil you will ever sow into. Smart protégés are protégés who realize that the more successful they become, the more dependent they become on a mentor in order to handle the success. When you keep serving, keep sowing, keep pursuing and keep learning, God is going to link you to the right people who will be instrumental in helping you birth destiny.

FINDING YOUR GOD-GIVEN MENTOR

FINDING YOUR SPIRITUAL MENTOR

How do you find your spiritual father or mentor? First, allow God to link you, more than you try to link yourself. Don’t let your heart’s desire for a mentor of father spoil God’s maneuvering to link you to one. The manipulation of head logic is always the enemy to the determination of heart desire. Allow time to work for you. Impatience is the only reason you will become linked with the wrong people and pursue wrong opportunities. God with your heart. Find the right people that God is linking you to and allow them to speak into your life.

Silence the voice of qualification. God does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called. Don’t allow your enemy to depress you out of your future, based on what you believe you are capable of.

Developing Effectiveness within the Spirit of Armorbearing

In Him we also were made [God’s] heritage (portion) and we obtained an inheritance; for we had been foreordained (chosen and appointed beforehand) in accordance with His purpose, Who works out everything in agreement with the counsel and design of His [own] will.
Ephesians 1:11 AMP

One of the first ways to solidify your service and become more effective as an armor bearer is to zero in on God’s purpose for your life with regard to this function. The Scriptures tell us that we have obtained an inheritance because we have been chosen and appointed beforehand in accordance with God’s purpose. When you discover that it is God’s will for you to function in the spirit of an armor bearer, you will develop effectiveness. However, you will lose the edge of effectiveness if you are unsure of God’s purpose for your life. Once you discover your purpose, you must familiarize yourself with that purpose. This is done by studying the Word of God and reading accounts of those who successfully walked in this spirit. It is also good to find living examples of people with like purposes. Ask them questions. Observe the way they function.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
Matthew 13:44

Another way of developing effectiveness in the spirit of armorbearing is by being faithful in the service in which you currently find yourself. The “hidden treasures in a field” are those things that are found in the process of being in the “field” working—being faithful. The “Hidden treasures” are the giftings and talents we discover while we are busily serving others. I know this so well. I never knew that I was an author until I worked on the tenth book for my own pastor. My own leadership skills weren’t clear to me until I had faithfully served my own leader for years. This is the joy of a man who discovers treasures while working in the field.

And one of the king of Israel’s servants answered and said, Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah.
2 Kings 3:11b

How would you like to be remembered? By the effectiveness of your service or by your title?

I hope to be remembered by my service. Elisha is known by two different descriptions:

(1) the son of Shaphat, and
(2) the one who poured water on the hands of Elijah.

The first description speaks of where he was born. Where are you from? Your origin is very important. Who raised you? Who’s your daddy? What is your spiritual heritage? But even more important, what are you known for? Who have you served? Elisha developed his effectiveness through his commitment, loyalty, faithfulness, character and integrity while serving Elijah’s ministry. Elisha’s reputation preceded him. His service brought validation to his own ministry.

There are four powers that are linked to an armorbearer’s effectiveness:

(1) Initiative Power. This is the power of creative works, which causes an armorbearer to take the initiative in service. This is the power of the one who doesn’t wait to be asked to do things, but through observation, discernment, wisdom, and understanding possesses the initiative power to get the job done.

(2) Producing Power. This is the power that kicks into gear after initiative power has run out. After an armorbearer has initiated a task, producing power backs up what is to be done. This power causes an armorbearer to be productive and fruitful. They aren’t just making attempts to do things; fruit is manifesting in their life.

(3) Staying Power. This is the power of longevity. It grounds an armorbearer in the truth that their spiritual walk is not magical, but is a process. This power allows an armorbearer to stay the course. Despite obstacles, setbacks, and disappointments the servant is able to push on further because they possess staying power.

(4) Capacity Power. This is the power to receive the mandate of God and more. The armorbearer’s capacity power controls how much they can bear under pressure. Their degree of effectiveness is directly proportional to the vastness of their capacity. God enlarges them so that they can effectively serve those whom they have been ordained to serve. How does this enlargement take place? God doesn’t do it publicly. He enlarges their capacity inwardly through experiences, trials, and tests that the armorbearer endures in their own personal life. I like what king David said in Psalm 4:1b, “thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.” In other words, when we are experiencing tough times in life, God is stretching and enlarging us.

When You Have Been Put on Pause!

“In His Quiver Hath He Hid Me”

A true armorbearer can enjoy a long wait until the chosen time that they go forth in a leadership capacity. The “quiver experience” is difficult for many armorbearers, especially if they feel they have already taken the necessary steps of preparation to be elevated into leadership. Those who have endured bitter experiences successfully and have responded correctly to their calling, their word, their preparation, their time of hiding under God’s hand, and their polishing may ask, “Why the waiting period now?” This is a time when the armorbearer learns patience. Because of this important lesson, the quiver is no less a place of preparation than the sanding block. The importance of the quiver experience lies not in the external, but the internal. This is almost always the hardest test for any armorbearer of the Lord, but each must realize that God’s timing is perfect.

But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. Galatians 4:4

The Lord Jesus was sent forth “in the fullness of time.” Jesus came to earth at the perfect moment in history. This arrow, Christ, had been waiting at least four thousand years to be sent forth. But Jesus, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, waited patiently for the “fullness of time” in which He would be made known to the world.

David was destined to be a king of Israel. He was anointed to be king when he was about seventeen years of age, but he did not take the throne until he was thirty. David had to wait in the quiver for thirteen years. Several times, David could have killed Saul to gain the throne by natural means, but the Lord gave him the grace to know that He would open the throne to David in His own time.

David chose to wait for God’s timing, not man’s or his own. Every armorbearer has a special season set aside by God in which they must hide in the quiver. Their ministry will only be revealed at His appointed time. Temptation and pressure will come to every armorbearer, both from without and within, urging him to run ahead of God’s timing, but God’s armorbearer must take great care to avoid tampering with the perfect timing of the Lord. There is no set age for the release of an armorbearer. There is no set pattern for an armorbearer to follow regarding release into ministry. The time and manner of release is different for every armorbearer. This is why no armorbearer should compare themselves to another. Each should wait patiently for the timing of the Lord, for He is the only perfect marksman.

Those armorbearers who have an idea that God will use them further in ministry, like Joshua, David, or Elisha, should serve their Moses, Saul, or Elijah as if it were the last thing on earth God wanted them to do. What you do to help bolster the ministry of another person now will open the door for your own ministry in the future.