Secrets of Success 3B: What to Do When Leadership Fails

Navigating the Leadership Crisis ...

We have all got stories of ministers and Christian leaders who have failed. I have had pastors lie about me, a director of a Bible College physically assault me and lock my son in a room, and I have had a worship leader raise his fists at me and tell me he hates me. What a life! And I know that many other Christians have similar stories.

Today, I want to help you handle the failure of a leader and still walk into success, because none of the leaders I know who have failed have made me fail. Failure can be contagious, but we can immunize ourselves from it.

The first thing we have to understand at a heart level – when a leader fails around you, God is not looking at that leader’s actions to decide if you are going to be promoted, HE IS LOOKING AT YOUR RESPONSE TO THE FAILURE. Jesus told the Pharisees to pay their taxes to Caesar – He was not saying Caesar was perfect. Even though leaders may not be perfect, we still have to pay our dues of honour. We need to learn how to respond without rebellion and without dishonour.

When you are asked by a leader to do something wrong, there is a right response and a right attitude.

When you are abused and insulted by a leader, there is a right response and a right attitude.

When leadership oversteps the mark, there is a right response and a right attitude.

Physically attacking authority is never the right response, hostility is never the right response, gossip, slander and causing strife is never the right response. So, what is the right response?

  • Go to a higher authority. If your boss at work is overstepping the line, go to your boss’s boss. If your pastor asks you to do something wrong, go to your pastor’s pastor. It’s not gossip if you are following the hierarchy! The highest authority is God, so definitely praying about the situation is never wrong!
  • Peaceful retreat. If you were David, and Saul was literally throwing spears at you to kill you, most of you would start a blog, tell all your friends, make a YouTube video, David did none of those things – he did not tell anyone what Saul was doing, he didn’t raise an army to take him down – even though David was 100% in the right, he just left peacefully. Most people cannot leave churches peacefully when the pastor is right and they are wrong, but someone who can leave peacefully when they are right and the pastor is wrong – they are wise, mature Christians. David was later promoted by the Lord because he did not take advantage of Saul’s failure.

Secrets of Success 03: Respect Those Over You!

I have never met anyone who has become a success who did not respect those who God has set over them. In any successful business, family, church or nation, there has to be an org chart – a hierarchy, a chain of command. God has actually designed authority to hold back all sorts of problems – lawlessness, poverty, chaos, confusion.

We need good authority, and we could talk for hours about how to be a good leader, but my theme for these posts is how to get to that place of success. And to get to that place – you need to learn how to respect, honour and submit to authority. It’s that simple.

Jesus was once asked – should we pay taxes to Caesar. He knew if He did that the Jewish leaders would say He was dishonouring His nation and the Jewish faith, but even though the Romans were an invading nation, He honoured and respected them. Jesus has taught us in this what our response to authority should be – even if the authority is corrupt.

This is a strange secret to success, it might be the most secret secret of them all – and this is it summed up – if Caesar asks for a coin, give Caesar a coin. Jesus gave Caesar everything He wanted except worship! That’s how we should be.

If you do not learn how to respect those who have authority, if you focus on their errors but not your attitude, then you will have problems in life and not make it as a success. Often when you want to challenge authority, God wants to challenge you and bring you to a place of greater success.

The hardest time to respect and submit to authority is when we disagree with them. No one has a problem being asked or told to do exactly what they want to do. We must be careful in our attitude when we disagree.

Now I can almost hear someone saying – hold on, what about bad leadership, what about someone asking me to do something wrong, some people in authority – in government, in the church, in business, even a husband and a parent can be corrupt. All of us have stories of encountering bad authority! Well, what you need to do is learn how to respect and submit – even if you disagree.

We need a fresh revelation of authority, especially in the Western world, like Jesus we need to acknowledge Caesar’s authority. We need to locate those who are in authority in our life and accept them as authorities – are you letting them lead or are you trying to be equal with them and reluctantly submitting? Did Jesus honour Caesar because Caesar was a great man – no, He honoured him because of his position. Who is in authority over you in your family? In your workplace? In your church? In your college? In your nation? These are questions you should know the answer to!

The only time a man amazes Jesus with his faith is a man who was a military man and his military training taught him about authority. Understanding authority is actually a key to great faith, not just understanding it from a textbook, but actually being in a place where if someone says go – you go. We need to know what it is to be under authority if we want a place of authority.

As a teenager, I was not submissive to my parents, but once I had my own children, I understood a lot more why my parents did what I did. I know people who have become pastors in Tree of Life and suddenly my decisions made a lot more sense. Until you are a manager at work, you won’t appreciate the job. But unless you learn to submit, promotion is not coming your way.

In a healthy organization, responsibility and authority should go together – if you ask one of your children to babysit another one, then the babysitter should be given authority (measured, not all of it) to go with that responsibility. If a bill is not paid in Tree of Life, the creditors come after me, not my pastors and associate pastors – so that responsibility ties with my authority. The two should tie in – the one with the responsiblity should be the one with the authority. In most churches, there is someone who wants authority but no responsibilty. They may not be like the man who told me – I want you to be the pastor and do all the work you do, but I want to preach every Sunday and run the service. That is an exceptional level of immaturity, but there are people who try and take a pastor’s authority with zero responsibility. It’s not God’s plan or will.

It is not an abuse of authority to make a demand on someone they cannot make of you.

That’s what authority is – the person who makes the decision. Trust me, there’s been a few Miriams and a few Aarons in the Tree – who are you to do all the preaching, I am also called to ministry, and God wants my voice to be heard too. These people think I am selfishly hoarding the pulpit, but that’s not true – I have the responsibility to feed the church, and so I must ensure they are fed well. God gave me the responsibility and the authority.

Authority depends on location. You might be allowed to pray for people in your Bible College, that gives you zero authority in your church. When I get on a plane, I have to listen to what the flight attendant says no matter what my job title is. When I get off the plane, and the flight attendant comes to a church service, they have to listen to me. The teacher only has authority in their classroom, the police officer cannot function in another nation. This is true because all true authority is under a higher authority. They submit and they have authority. They say I am a man under authority therefore I have authority. The manager’s authority comes from His authority, the elder’s authority comes from the pastor, the babysitter’s comes from mum and dad.

If you are in the position of delegated authority, to quote Greg Mohr from our recent leadership conference, your job is to represent your authority and work for their best interest. People who slack off when the boss is not in the office are not seeking the best interest of their company!

If you have authority, remember that delegating that authority does not mean you no longer have it. If your elders are not living for Christ, well – I made them elders is not an excuse, you have to submit to your authority, Jesus, and make something happen. I’ve seen new pastors – and managers in business – say “I asked such and such to sort this, and they didn’t do it” – it’s still on you though – your job is to ensure they do their job!

Yes, promotion is not less responsibility – it is more. That tracks with Jesus – if you want to be great, serve!

Next week – I will explain what to do when your authority utterly messes up.

Secrets of Success 02: Patience and Efficiency

We all live in time. But we must learn how to become friends with time, and not enemies of time. The ability to befriend time is called patience. The ability to use your time well is called efficiency. We need both.

Jesus was efficient. He made the most of every day. He taught, he healed, he cast out demons, he raised the dead, he loved people. Sometimes he travelled, sometimes he stayed in the same place. Sometimes he preached to crowds, sometimes he sent the crowds away and ministered to a handful of people. Before Jesus spent three years of intense ministry, He spent decades as a carpenter, but that was also time well spent.

Time is not measured in years, Methusaleh lived to be 969 years old and only got 4 verses, Jesus lived to 33, and got four books! Time is measured in accomplishments. So a big secret of success is to learn how to use time well. You cannot change the past, but you can change what you do right now and change your tomorrow.

I have a reputation of being able to get things done, so I am fairly regularly asked to speak at pastor’s conferences and Bible Colleges on time management. I always find that phrase strange – time management – because you cannot manage time. No one has ever prayed so hard they got 25 hours in a day, or even 62 second in a minute. I would love to be able to manage time – just give myself an extra 2-3 days a week, and that would be a game changer! No, you do not manage time, you are given time as a gift, you manage what you do in that time.

You know what wastes time in our house – choosing what film to watch! Ever spent more than thirty-forty minutes trying to decide what film to watch – you could be half-way through a film, but you are still watching advert after advert of what is in each film, trying to decide from that which one is best! That’s fine, but many Christians live their life like that – they are telling themselves when I finish uni I will serve God, when I get married I will be happy, when I own my own home I will give to the kingdom. Rather than starting watching the film of their destiny and doing what God told them, they are watching preview after preview and never doing God’s will.

That attitude will not lead to success – you are not doing because you don’t think your time has come. Jesus told his disciples that there is no time to come, it’s time right now (John 7.6). You do not have to wait for an event before you start living for God. You can live for God right now. It’s your time – it’s your go – so do something.

We used to have a plum tree in our back garden when I was growing up – sometimes I would pick a plum from the tree before it was ripe. If I did that, it will never ripen. I broke the power of ripening through impatience. If I had waited, that plum would have been good, but it wasn’t, it was sour. We sour things God has for us by pulling them off the tree too early. Abraham had a promise of a child, but Ishmael was obviously not the way, and became a very sour event in Abraham’s life. Many of us, including myself, have started ministry or businesses or plans too early, and it became sour because we were not ready. We did not wait for the Lord to promote us, we promoted ourselves and it all went wrong.

Meanwhile, others are letting the plums over-ripen and fall off the tree to the ground, never to be eaten either. So we need God’s wisdom when it comes to timing. If what God is calling you to do is clearly beyond your reach, don’t sit on your hands waiting for a miracle – prepare. Spend hours with the Lord praying in tongues, studying His Word, stand against satan, support others who are doing what you are dreaming of doing. Then when your time comes you will not fall apart. Time like this is always preparation time – can you go get education, can you serve God in a certain way, can you use some of that time honouring your father and mother, can you serve another ministry, can you start tithing, giving, saving, can you train others, can you just say thank you to some people.

The biggest key to becoming a friend of time is developing good priorities – put family above work, put church above your rest time, entertainment and hobbies – and conferences and fixing your house and your car and boat and whatever else it is It is easy to forget what is important, so leave time for prayer and meditation to help you remind yourself over and over again.

Another key is know the destination. I was in a town once, and I found out a friend of mine happened to be in the same town. We agreed to meet for lunch, and discussed restaurants, and decided on one called Bobby’s. I got there early and waited and waited and waited, finally my friend called and said where are you – I said in Bobby’s, he said no you are not. After some back and forth, we found out there were two restaurants in different parts of the town with the same name, and very similar logos! What we thought was the right destination was not. We must have a clear dream of the future, a clear scheme to get to that dream, so that time is not wasted on things that do not somehow bring us into that dream.

Now don’t feel condemned if you have wasted time, but ask the Lord how to help you be more patient and more efficient. If you are reading this, you are alive, so there is still more time for you. Jesus did not enter ministry until he was 30, Moses when he was 80. Zechariah and Elizabeth thought their ministry was over, until she got pregnant – and they were very old! Make a step today to befriend time, and get something done.

Secrets of Success 01: Credibility

Creative Commons credibility Image ...

I have often taught that to be a good leader you need four Cs. Most people will guess character fairly quickly, some will guess capable, rarely someone will guess compatible. These are all essential for leadership – you have to be a godly man, you have to be able to do the job, and you have to be able to work well with others. But no one ever guesses the fourth C, it’s like the forgotten ingredient of success, and it is credibility.

Everyone reading this blog post will know that at certain points in their life they had a lot of credibility, at others points they had less. You can gain it and lose it. Maybe you did something foolish, and you lost credibility with the people around you, maybe you did something awesome and you gained credibility. There is a reason credibility matters for you to have success – credibility opens the door to promotion.

Recently, a large UK ministry was advertising for a new CEO. A friend of mine asked if he thought he should apply. I said I wouldn’t if I was you, and the reason I said that was because he lacked credibility, and the people there would find it hard to follow him. He has the character, the capability and I reckon the compatibility, but that’s not enough. Credibility is the key to a new job, it’s the key to every promotion. Think about it – every time you have grown to a new level, there has been attached to that some increase in your credibility.

In our selfie culture, it’s funny to watch in public people trying to take a picture. They will move around to all sorts of strange angles to get the best possible image. But that is for their Facebook, and real life is not social media! We sometimes cannot step to the next level because we have not taken the right picture yet. And only time can get that right. Have you ever wondered why Jesus did not start preaching at age 9? Lack of credibility. He grew in favour with men (Luke 2.52) – as Jesus grew up, what He did and said gave him more and more credibility with people.

Recently I was at a large conference and they put me on the front row. I wouldn’t have been the first choice in my mind, but that’s what they did. It then happened twice again in two more conferences. I asked the Lord about this, and the Lord told me – they feel safe with you, they feel that they are in safe hands with you at the front. That’s credibility, you build it up over time, you cannot microwave it.

Anyone can open up a restaurant, but to survive you need repeat customers – and that takes one thing – you guessed it – credibility. The only proof that a restaurant is good is people going there. The only thing that verifies you are a success is people seeing you as successful.

I get equal parts frustration and equal parts humour with the current obsession in our society with life coaches. People who I would never call for advice are setting themselves up as life coaches, they have been on this course and that course, they have a website, they have a presence on social media, but what they do not have, and the reason they are making less a month than I could make in a day’s manual labour is a lack of credibility.

You need to work on credibility. The first level of credibility is credible ability. You know if I am going to take a week out of my busy life and go to a conference on how to plant churches for example, then my very first question will be – how many churches has each speaker planted? If the answer is 0 or 1 or 2, then I might as well stay at home and read a book. I have met more than one person who wants to be a pastor of pastors without ever having pastored. Work on this first – want to be an expert in your field, then get in the field and get your hands dirty. People who want to develop in any field can smell someone who has not lived where they live. Make sure you are a lifelong learner. Before we talk about love, honesty, patience and all the character stuff – this is the first level – can you actually do the job?

Some people want to bypass that level of credible ability by replacing it with friendship. Hire me, I am your friend. Make me an elder, I am a nice guy. Friends help friends. No – all credibility starts with ability. It does not end there, but it starts there. I love my sons with all my heart, they are all heroes, but if they have not gone out there and passed a driving test, and I am convinced of their capability, they are not taking my car out for a spin! That’s nothing to do with whether I love them or not. I have been accused of not loving people because I won’t let them take my pulpit out for a spin, but they have never done one thing to learn how to drive a sermon!

The second level of credibility is credible amicability. Can you get on with this person? I know a few Christian travelling preachers that can preach well, but I will not invite to preach because you cannot get on with them. Their theology is wrong – they think they are God! It doesn’t matter how well you play the guitar if the sound team are literally drawing straws because no one wants to talk to you! Some people are promoted not just because of ability, but because of amicability. They are just likeable. Work on that! It’s not enough on its own, but it is the icing on the cake of ability. If you ignore this as unimportant, you are hindering your success and potential. Be polite to people, all people, smile, have energy that radiates from you rather than being a drain. You can have a great heart to serve, but if you are doing it like you are under a personal grey cloud, it makes people uncomfortable. Every worth doing will inevitably be a team activity. Be a positive person, stop whining and moaning – that is the biggest step in this area. Smile, be the first to say hello, and value the people around you – and when you speak, speak words of life and blessing.

The third and highest level of credibility is credible dependability. Are you trustworthy? Do you keep your word? Will you run off with the choir director? Do whatever it takes to keep your character, even if it means you quit your job.

You know if you go to the west End to watch a musical, or if you go to the local village hall to watch some amateur drama – anything can happen. Someone could trip, someone could get the wrong line, or whatever. The one thing all these actors are taught is this – whatever happens, stay in character. No matter what comes at you, stay in character.

That’s advice for you today as well – no matter what happens, stay in character. Do not compromise because it is tough, taking longer than you think, unfair, or anything else. Don’t break character in difficult situations.

Work on these three and you will have credibility.

Can You See It 20: Can You See a Harvest in a Harvest?

If you are a sower, there are harvests coming your way. If you fail to perceive them, you will fail to honour them, and just like Jesus walking on the water, your harvest will go right past you unless you do some harvesting.

Sometimes a harvest comes from another person and you reject the person because you don’t appreciate that person much. Sometimes your harvest comes as an idea or plan, and you are too tired, too plugged into the world, too noisy to perceive it as your harvest from God.

Sometimes your harvest, like the natural world, needs you to work hard to bring it in, and you don’t want that, you want it to fall out of the sky and smack you on the head.

I would say failing to perceive a harvest is a problem that nearly all Christians have. Sometimes a harvest comes as a readjustment, as a correction, even a rebuke is a harvest, as it brings you into freedom and life. Many Christians would miss a harvest that came like that.

Also many miss harvests due to ingratitude for small things. Just waking up in the morning is a harvest, many people did not wake up this morning. Just having breakfast to eat, just being where you are with who you are with. I have been places where there is no food to eat, where children are dying of hunger. Your dinner is a harvest, thank God for it.

You are complaining about traffic, rather praise God you have a car. You are not impressed by your church, but praise God you can freely meet together and worship without persecution. When was the last time you thanked God for a roof over your head.

There are millions of unsaved people in the world, without any faith, any comforter, any hope – but you have Jesus. That is a harvest.

The more you perceive harvests, the more they will just gravitate towards you. If you have sown the seed, the harvest is already real – pray for the ability to perceive. One of the greatest harvests in my life is that I have always had access to people who believe in me and believe in my dream – that is a true harvest, once I spotted it, that harvest just grew more and more the more I thanked God for it.

Some of you – listen carefully, miracles are walking past you – learn to perceive a harvest, ask God for help here – stop doing what you are doing long enough to say thank you to God for what you have now. Glorious things are moving towards you – slow down and find out what!

You know harvests have changed my life and the lives of many that I know, to the point it just stuns me when I hear those Christians who preach against sowing and reaping. You know the kind of Christians who think offering time is painful not glorious. You know the kind of people who can watch a 3 hour sci-fi film, but you take a 25 minute offering they get annoyed and agitated. What is wrong with that – they have no idea of the power of a harvest.

We have Christians happy to pay hundreds of pounds to hear a billionaire singer whose philosophy of life is in line with the antichrist, and yet if a preacher drives a nice car or has a new suit, they are in pain! They can pay hundreds of pounds for a piece of steak, but putting £20 in the offering in the name of the one who saved them, the only name that can save anyone – that brings them discomfort! It’s a lack of perception of seedtime and harvest.

Listen to me – God Himself has hardwired seedtime and harvest into the entire universe to get you out of your mess, to get you into a new season – and you are whining about it, and laughing about it.

I’ve heard people tell me “I love my new church, my new pastor never talks about money”. I would never go to a church that did not talk about money. I use money every day of my life. I need supernatural supply every day of my life. The last person I would ever want as a pastor is someone who is ignorant of and does not talk about one of the greatest needs in my life. No, I want a pastor who talks about money. I want a pastor who knows how to help me sow and help me reap. I do not want a pastor who has no idea what a harvest looks like. I want a pastor who is a tither, who gives above his tithe, who is generous, and who knows how to prosper.

You miss your harvest, you miss everything. Learn to be quiet enough to recognize your harvest, and give thanks for every one you spot. Thank God for your health, your eyes, your legs, your mind, your favour – your house, your car, your sofa, your shower, your bed. Gratitude causes our eyes to open to future harvests, ingratitude causes blindness.

Can You See It 19: Can You See a Harvest in a Seed?

My precious friend Dave Duell used to tell me frequently that anyone can see how many seeds are in an apple, but very few people can see how many apples are in a seed. Seeds are interesting when we talk about perception, because perceiving a seed means you will then sow a seed. It looks like the seed is moving away from you, but it is actually like a boomerang, it is coming back as a harvest, far greater than what it was when you sowed it.

Because the underlying truth of the New Covenant is that you will reap what you sow. Go and get a Bible and read Galatians 6.7, you need to know it is a real verse and it is in the Bible. In King James language, you will reap whatsoever you sow. There’s a lot of things included in whatsoever – your thoughts are seeds that produce harvests, your time is a seed that produces a harvest, your prayers are all seeds, your money is a seed, your mercy and kindness are seeds, your love is a seed, and your attitude is a seed. Sow it and reap it.

You have to recognize a seed or you will never be able to turn it into a harvest. Today someone gave me $150. I am currently in the US travelling and someone just put it into my hand. I asked my wife – what shall we do with this money. She said put it into the offering Sunday. Amanda has perceived that this money is seed-money. When you perceive that a certain amount of money, or an item or an attitude or whatever is a seed, you then must never ever eat it, you must sow it. Or you will miss out on power, multiplication, harvest – not to mention the rewards of being obedient to what God has showed you.

Of course, you should not even need to say that 10% of all your increase is a seed, it’s called the tithe, and you must never ever eat that, but give it to the Lord, to the storehouse that feeds you. Do not ever be so arrogant that you think you do not need to give a minimum of 10% of all your increase.

God Himself has given you the seeds so you can have the harvests so you can have a great, prosperous and glorious future. You already have what you are believing for, but in seed form, so ask God to show you the seed, then die to it, sow it, give it away (in faith, cheerfully, with a great big smile on your face) and expect a return. You need a multitude fed, that’s ok – you have loaves and fishes. Need £10000? That’s ok, you have £100. You about to die of starvation – that’s ok, you have one meal left – give it away. You do not have nothing, what you lack is the ability to perceive a seed.

In 2 Cor. 9.10, we are told God gives seed to the sower. The reason you cannot see your seed is you do not have the attitude of the sower. If you have the attitude of a sower, you will see seed. When it says God gives you seed, sometimes a person hands it to you, like with the $150 I was given today, other times, it is that you already have the money or the item, and God gives you seed by saying – hey there, sow that. If your heart is to sow, you will find something to sow. I have sowed pens, time, all sorts of things, when I had nothing. Now I mainly sow money, because it’s easier to use when the harvest comes.

I doubt that you have no seeds, I reckon you have loads of seeds, if you developed the attitude of a giver, God would show you loads of what you have and how and where to sow it. But a failure to perceive your seeds means your harvest will always be elusive, your prosperity will wander off, and you will not walk into your dreams. Take this seriously – something you already own is the key to your future. If you fail to perceive it as seed, you will keep it, and you have now set your maximum increase level, and it’s this – you will be at the level you are at now forever.

A seed of nothing is multiplied into a harvest of nothing. You need to dominate your greed and lusts, and learn how to sow. This is the only way to develop the character, faith, and increase you need for your future.

Can You See It 18: An Opponent

In 2017, boxing champion Floyd Mayweather fought MMA champion Conor McGregor. It was billed as the biggest fight in history. When Mayweather won, he took away nearly $400 million. His mother never gave him a million, his friends did not give him a million, but beating an opponent did.

David did not become famous by fighting a midget. He fought a giant and that made him a household name. God has allowed for us to have opponents because our rewards and reputation come from the opponents we defeat. Did you notice Jesus never seemed to have a day without enemies, just seven chapters into John, the Pharisees decided to kill him.

When you stand for the truth, liars will resent and despise you. When you walk by honour, the dishonourable will not like you. When you are diligent, the lazy will hate you. When you live like Jesus, satan will be coming to kill you!

There is a Scripture that I bet none of you have on your fridge or in your memory box, and it is Matthew 10.22. It says “you shall be hated by all men for my name’s sake”. Jesus goes on to say “if they called the master Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” (Matthew 10.25). Jesus sent us forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, so we need to be able to perceive wolves. Not to honour them and have them close to us, but to avoid getting eaten. I have seen wolves in sheep’s clothing this year go out of their way to devour sheep, and it has been a tragedy. We need to learn to perceive! This perception starts when you realize that you cannot be an effective Christian and not have enemies.

Your opponent will hate you, and hate what you are doing for God, and will want it to stop. They will often try and persuade you not to go all out for Jesus, to calm down, to give less, to serve less. They will try and get you to serve other gods. Your opponents will be revealed as they resent your increase. One of the things that will happen as you increase in goods is that you will find out who your true friends are, as fake friends will actually resent your increase and success.

Nehemiah faced opponents who were unhappy he was rebuilding the wall, Ezra faced opponents who were unhappy he was rebuilding the temple, David’s brother was annoyed he wasn’t afraid of Goliath.

Your opponents will often go hard to recruit others to oppose you too, they will share their misguided and envious comments with others to get them to despise you too. In Ezra 4.5 they hired counsellors to stop them building the temple. Do not be surprised that your opponents are trying to recruit others to stop you building.

Listen carefully – if you are in a church that is advancing, someone in that church is recruiting people to the opponent camp, opposing the building, the growing, the increase. If you listen to them, then you will become an opponent too. You are literally joining satan’s team and becoming an accuser. Do not do that. You will forget how to dream, you will forget how to make a noise for Jesus, you will become a Pharisee.

Your opponents will go for your weaknesses, Delilah knew how to weaken Samson! I have noticed opponents spent a lot of time discussing the past not the future. The Pharisees were the opponents of the woman caught in adultery, but Jesus never was. Why? They were looking back while Jesus was looking forward.

Sadly, often an opponent is family (Matthew 10.36) – whether that is your biological family or church family. Judas was right in the middle of Jesus’ ministry but still betrayed him and opposed Him.

What do we do with opponents like this? David handled Eliab perfectly – he just walked on and got on with his mission. He didn’t use his stones for his brother, he kept them for his mission – but neither did he listen to his opponent or spend time in a committee with him discussing the giant. NO – he walked on and kept doing his mission. That’s what you do – keep building, keep standing, keep winning.

And your opponent will lead you into rewards that no family member or friend has ever given you. The spoils of war should be your focus. Like David we should say what do we get when we win – well, we get to sit on His throne and reign with Him.

Can You See It 17: The Money Man

2025 is our year of immense increase at Tree of Life Church, and the number one way God brings increase into any area of your life is through a person. Not a sugar daddy, or some kind benefactor with more money than sense – even though some of you are praying that way, you will not get that because you are asking amiss from God’s will, purpose and principles. No – God brings a money man into your life to teach you the truth about money and prosperity and increase.

Poverty is the greatest evil in the world. It causes pain to more people than anything else. It stops more people walking in their dream and destiny than any other force of satan. It steals from you, and worse than that it steals your ability to be a blessing to others. Especially if – like me – you are from the UK – you will find culturally that when God sends a money man, that money man is often rejected because talking about money is seen as inappropriate in the house of God. But unless the church and unless pastors talk about money then the only place you learn about money is the world – and that is why you are so worldly about money.

There are very few money men in the UK – very few pastors with the courage, the wisdom, the experience, the knowledge of the Word – to set you free from financial poverty, and when you meet one – you need grace to perceive them. If you fail to perceive them, you will not honour them, and you will fail to benefit from them.

It’s even harder in the UK because the church has been possessed by a mentality that hates prosperity. They call anyone who talks about prosperity a cult. I personally think the anti-prosperity people are the cult, so far removed from the Word of God, quoting each other and being disfellowshipped if they dare to break tradition. The reason is that a true money man – a true man of God prepared to tell you the Biblical truth about money – will wind you up because you still think you can do what you want with your money and win in life. You cannot.

Any pastor who teaches on money immediately sets into place an attack on his credibility across the entire United Kingdom. That’s why I say it is an anti-prosperity cult that dominates the UK churches. Even ministers in the US and other nations who teach on Biblical prosperity are vilified, sometimes even by their UK staff and partners. It’s a cult – a poverty cult!

Imagine having toothache and going to the dentist, then getting upset because your dentist wants to talk to you about teeth! Imagine going to a steakhouse and getting upset they are not selling sushi! Imagine going to church poor, worried about money, working yourself to the bone and getting upset that the pastor is not talking about the antichrist and the number of the beast. A good pastor should be a money man, but so few are.

Forty percent of all bankruptcies in the UK are born- again Christians, when we are less than ten percent of the population. You know people in your church who are struggling to pay bills, taxes, their rent! Yet, when a pastor talks about money and prosperity they get annoyed! What is wrong with people – a failure to recognize God’s gift of a money man to them.

Someone recently told me if God wants to prosper people He will do it without my help. That sounds spiritual but it is stupid. That’s like the people who told William Carey that if God wants to save people in India He will just do it without you. No – if you do not hear you will not believe, and if you do not have a preacher willing to preach then you will not hear! That’s how God works.

A good pastor will tell you to tithe. Any pastor that says tithing is not for today or not relevant is not a money man. They will never help you financially, they are too scared to upset you to help you. A money man will also tell you to pay your taxes and not defraud the government. They will help you come to a place where you have enough money to leave an inheritance for your children’s children, to give to the church, to give to other ministries, to give to world mission, to give to your future and your success – and to give enough to ensure your pastors are paid well.

A good pastor will not platform someone through preaching, the gifts or worship who does not have the integrity and faith to tithe, even if that person then gets so upset they lie and tantrum. They will love people enough to help them, no matter the evil treatment they receive. No matter if people misunderstand them. No matter if people think they are only after their money. They know that unless you know the Biblical principles about money you will never have the power to change the world.

One of the most powerful moments in your life is when you hear a pastor preach on money and rather than criticise, faith rises up in your heart. Just like God sent Elijah to a broke, starving, dying widow with no income and no assets and changed her life forever, God has sent a money man into your life to change your life forever. I pray you recognize them. If it is me, if it is Tree of Life, I suggest you become a tither if you are not right now, I suggest you give a generous gift, and push past your unbelief and get into a place of sowing generously so you can reap generously. If you think I wrote this just to get money, you are not there yet, keep listening.

Let me help you recognize your money man. They will have to be a very strong person because the persecution when a pastor speaks honestly about money is exceptionally intense. When a pastor has money, that’s even worse. There will always be satanically inspired people in that pastor’s church who will not tithe or give (sometimes saying things like – “we give to better ministries”, and if you believe that you need to get into the Word) and dissuade others to stopping giving too. Or at least just tip a few pounds, the church doesn’t need that much money. No – it doesn’t – you desperately need to give that much money because you are trapped in a weak, faithless life and need to do something to break free. A money man is not looking to learn about your chains, he just wants to break them.

Every money man is like Elijah, they know what it is to have the ravens feed them, they have seen miracle after miracle in their own lives. They will be tithers. They will not be sharing things they do not know. They will have testimonies of giving huge amounts of money, they will be giving far more than a tithe every month. You may fail to recognize them because they are not interested in listening to how bad things are or giving their money to you because what you need is not money but wisdom. DId you notice that Elijah never once moans or whines about the brook drying up to raise money! A money man is not whinging about his own financial pressures, he lives above them to help you!

Like Elijah they may seem very controlling. Elijah said to the woman – give me a cake first. That would not be appreciated by most British Christians today at all! But it was the key for this woman to become rich! He gave her an instruction she did not want to do. He didn’t cry with her, give her money, give her some raven food. He came with an instruction to give. She could obey or disobey. She chose to obey in faith and became rich. That’s a money man! Do not fail to perceive who God is bringing to you.

A money man will confront the biggest problem in your life to prosperity. It’s not a lack of money, it’s a lack of faith for money. It’s a lack of imagination, a lack of a renewed mind, it’s a lack of knowledge about the Biblical principles about money that is destroying you.

Your money man will speak words that provoke you to either act in faith or back off and have unbelief. He has faced a dried up brook and the loss of raven partners so he knows how to handle these situations. He has personally fought poverty and won, and therefore can help you win.

He is not interested in experience, he is interested in expectations. He is not interested in your past, but wants to help you build a future. And it’s your job to perceive your money man and honour them. Then their wisdom will be close to you. What you perceive you honour, and what you honour will move closer to you.

Can You See It 16: Your Achilles Heel

In Greek mythology, there is a hero called Achilles, he is the main character in the Iliad. His mother dipped him in the River Styx as a baby to make him immortal and super-powered, but she held him by the heel so the heel never went into the river. Therefore, he could be killed, but only by a blow to the heel.

It’s a story that has lasted centuries because it contains a truth that is universal to humanity – every one of us contains weakness. As Christians, we are earthen vessels containing great treasure. God is very aware of this – “He remembers we are but flesh” (Psalm 78.39). But you need to be aware of it too. You need to perceive your weakness, not so you can exalt it, but so you can be aware of it and ensure it does not destroy you. A refusal to look and perceive that you have weakness will lead to your destruction – pride leads to destruction.

Once you perceive your main weakness, your Achilles heel, you are going to save yourself a world of pain! I know several brilliant men who have failed to perceive their frailness and weakness, and I have watched that weakness destroy them. A weakness not addresses will grow – Jesus talks about yeast that infects everything. You cannot afford to ignore your Achilles heel. Your treasure is in a vessel of clay, and if you do not dominate that vessel, it will move your life towards destruction.

The truth is we all have sinned, so we all have vulnerable areas in our life, in our thinking, and if you do not deal with it you will end up in trouble. Judas had a weakness – it was a love of money (twinned with envy, as it often is), and he did not address it and ended up possessed by satan. He could have been one of the twelve, he could have spent decades ministering in the early church filled with the power of the Spirit taking the gospel to the nations. But he did not perceive his weakness, he did not deal with it, and ended up betraying Jesus for a price.

Satan loves to get involved in your weakness. He sent messengers to Judas to offer him money, he sent Delilah to Samson to offer him immoral sex, and he left Job’s wife alive to strengthen his self-doubt. Satan has an agenda to get you to sin so that you can die (see James 1.15).

Jesus loves to reveal someone’s weakness to them, not to patronize them, but to help them. He told Simon that his weakness was the fear of man and that within a day he would deny Jesus due to the fear of man – and He prayed for Peter too.

You need to know that your weakness is a magnet, and will attract the wrong people to you. The amount of people that tell me they always attract the wrong kind of man or woman – it’s because they have never dealt with their Achilles Heel! Your weakness also separates you from the right people, it makes you uncomfortable in the presence of people who will not justify your weakness.

Now once you perceive your weakness, your Achilles heel, you cannot beat it with will-power. If you could, you would have done by now. You need the power of the Holy Spirit. You need to feast on the Word of God, you need to see yourself how God sees you and you need to listen carefully to Jesus. You don’t need to tell the world, but you do need to tell someone. You need someone strong and mature in Christ to stand with you and help you be accountable before it grows. YOU CANNOT CHANGE WHAT YOU NEVER CONFRONT. If you think it is just a small little sin, and everyone has a little vice, then you are in big trouble and heading to destruction.

I believe that when David killed Goliath, the entire nation changed. I believe when you deal with the heel, everyone around you will change. You need Scriptures to deal with it, and you need to remember that dealing with it will bring a Heavenly reward.

Become an enemy to your Achilles Heel. Let your story be one of victory – do not become a retelling of Samson or Saul. If Judas had the power to walk away from thirty pieces of silver, we would have a very different Bible and his name wouldn’t be synonymous with back-stabbing.

If you have failed, get back up and start looking forward. Struggling? Good – that means you have not been beaten yet.

Finally, choose friends who weaken your weakness. If your weakness is gossiping about your pastor, there are friends who will look at you with shock in their face when you share something. Keep those friends. There are friends who will join in and nurture your weakness and grow it – they are not friends, and I recommend ditching them.

Can You See It 15: Your Super-Power

All of us have a bunch of gifts from God, but I also believe with all my heart that every one of us has been given by God a superpower. We have a gift that when we use it, we put in minimum effort, get maximum results, other people go “wow, how do they do that”, and you effectively change the world. Every one of us has a superpower, and so few people ever perceive theirs so they do not benefit from it.

David was one of the most gifted people who ever lived. he could worship, sing, he was a remarkable shepherd, he could play musical instruments, he could invent things. But none of those things was his superpower – his superpower was he never lost a battle. No matter who David fought, he beat them. When Goliath turned up, David did something no one else had ever done. He beat the giant.

Joseph was another gifted man, Prime Minister of the largest nation on earth, a remarkable leader, an organizer, and he could interpret dreams. None of those were his superpower though. His superpower was he really loved other people. In prison for a crime he didn’t commit, he noticed that the baker and the cupbearer had a sad face. No one else noticed, but he did.

Paul had a superpower, again a gifted teacher, a prophet, a learner, a writer. But he introduced himself as “Paul, an apostle” – his superpower was to walk into any town anywhere in the world and pull a church out of Heaven into earth and watch it manifest. He was more than a writer or philosopher, he got stuff done because he discovered his superpower.

You have a superpower, but what is it? Jesus wants you to perceive your superpower. Not just a power, but your superpower. Your greatest gift. You were given a superpower, and with great power comes great responsibility – and that power is there to serve others and help others.

I believe most Christians never discover their superpower, they never discover what God has designed them to do. We need to spend time fasting and praying and find out our superpower.

If it’s a superpower it works best in difficult times. Someone once said that you get £30 an hour to paint a house, but £150 an hour to paint the top floor of a skyscraper. You get more reward for doing things at altitude. The giant discouraged the nation, but inspired David, and made him bold. When you are in a challenge, that makes others back off but excites you – that’s your superpower.

My superpower is not what I reckon you reckon it is. My superpower is similar to Paul’s in that I can start things that have never started before. Some people plant churches with a million pounds in the bank and three pastors on staff before their first meeting. That doesn’t excite me at all, when I have bills coming in from every direction, a meeting with eight people and none of them could at that moment lead anything, that’s when i get excited.

It is unlikely that your parents will be able to tell you your superpower, They normally are better at telling you your flaws and lacks! You often can tell your superpower when you see someone else with a similar power – it’s like your spirit wakes up and you really want to do that. Just be careful it’s that, rather than you idolizing someone who is just successful and popular. Listen to your heart!

Imagine having a superpower and letting a crime happen right in front of you. Well, if you didn’t know you had the power you might! Do what it takes to find out your superpower. It will be what you would do if money was no object. If every job paid £15 an hour, what job would you do – there’s a clue.

What energizes you like nothing else, what makes you get excited. There’s a clue. God will reveal it to you if you seek Him!