People I come across who actually have the most authority are mostly people who don’t know it. Or if they do, they sure as heck don’t advertise that they know…!
I am more and more aware, as Father has done more and more weeding in the patch of pride I have a tendency to cultivate (I heap manure on that one on a regular basis), how much currency we give notoriety in the west.
Becoming successful often means becoming famous, well known, acknowledged by someone in the media spotlight, getting into the media spotlight, going on some kind of tour, making a million dollars, or at least enough to pay cash for a house and other stuff, you know the drill.
There are other measures of success too for some of us. Traditional nuclear family, picket fences, vehicle, stock, (the hairy kind and the trade-able NASDAQ kind), reliable income, superannuation that pays for boats, shacks or whatever. Pick your particular poison.
There are a couple of very self-effacing individuals of my acquaintance whose prayers and prophetic actions move things that they would be quite alarmed to understand is happening. When other people look at these individuals, mostly as I understand, they see mousey, ignorable, flighty creatures whom it is difficult to understand and not worth more than a quick pat on the head and a five minute conversation about the weather.
However. Because of their complete reliance on Father for their every living moment, their deep intimacy with Him, their long years of cultivated relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in both wilderness seasons and seasons of (even meager) abundance, their mustard seed faith holds the keys to holding up or toppling the most significant powers in the universe…It comes down to what we are capable of carrying. What can our Lord trust us with?
If you are a parent, a teacher, or a leader, a boss, or supervisor, you are not going to give additional authority over others to a child or a worker who is not capable of carrying their current responsibility for their own work load or deadline.
If a 20 year old doesn’t remember to feed the cat, you don’t necessarily give them the responsibility of feeding five hundred head of cattle, no matter how well they can drive the tractor.
If a person in your workplace consistently pushes their own deadlines, you may think twice about asking them to manage the responsibility of the deadlines of not just their own work but those of other people.
The amount of responsibility we manage and our authority should ideally rise at a similar rate. The load may feel awkward at first as we adjust our shoulders and learn to carry it, but it shouldn’t be out of balance.
There are a lot of people out in the world who have more responsibility than they have authority. They do more and carry more than the weight their voice is given to speak out. On the flip side there are a bunch of people who seem to have been given a very large amount of authority, but they do not seem to manage any responsibility to go with the weight we give their words or actions.
In the Kingdom, if I want to be trusted with throwing mountains into the sea (Mark 11:23), I need to be careful how I manage my intimacy with God, how I manage my personal boundaries, how I choose to see others, how low I am willing to sit on the pecking order, whether I am willing to continually be ready to address the next thing Father brings to my attention, am I willing to not be seen, ever, by anyone except the God of All Things.
This is part of the reason why honour is so important among the Body of Christ. We do not know who may be holding our particular world together, who He considers the most and the least among us.
Go lower, go slower. There is more weight in the low and slow, ask God to show you things from His perspective.
God Bless You Very Much
Anita