There are subtle shifts in how we relate to Father when we shift from charismatic to Kingdom. Prophetic words and Biblical mandates have been understood to be inviolate. We are God’s servants, and we hear the direction and obey it – it’s that simple. But, in this age, that formula is not working!

The formula doesn’t work because sons are not mindless servants. We are relational sons created in His image who have access to Father’s council, and we know Father’s Purpose. We are not just running with an intellectual shopping list of things to do supported by bible verses. We have a relationship, and we’re present for conversations around Father’s Purpose. We carry responsibility to implement Purpose out of our creativity and initiative. We are still obedient, but we’re co-laboring around Father’s broader Purpose instead of the legal details. We’re comfortable with alternative strategies to achieve the same Purpose and with different people doing the same thing in different ways.

John 15:15-17 – I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other. NIV

The Old – servants get the direction, the hunch, the intuition, red light/green light; then obey.

The New – sons are party to the conversations around Purpose. They understand alternatives and changes.

• • They go beyond obedience to initiative, creativity, alternatives, strategies
  • Ongoing conversations in the council

Servants are much more comfortable in the confines of concrete direction and theology that doesn’t change. Sons honor Father’s personality and are comfortable with strategies that make room for mid-course corrections and reinvention. Father cannot be limited to rules, directions, orders, and principles. He is not an inanimate force or a providential wind. He is not constrained by our intellectual approach to scripture. He doesn’t fit in our boxes.

Father is relational and conversational. He has a team, a son, His spirit, the seven spirits, and the host of heaven. He has a heart for sons who want to relate and join the team. Sons live by every word that proceeds from the Father’s mouth; This living word of God is new every day and Biblical at the same time!

Ps 84:7 – They go from strength to strength, Every one of them appears before God in Zion. NASU

The transition to Purpose – the servant mentality generally relies on someone else to hear from God. It can be a healthy stage of growth for new believers. But, eventually, that formula (others hearing for us) gets manipulative; also confusing when it doesn’t work. Then our religious mindset makes us feel like rebels.

Father’s heart is sons who are intentionally present for conversations around Purpose, sons who permit themselves to do what Father is doing in terms of Purpose instead of a script with directions. The difference is subtle yet substantial. We disciple new believers to hear Father’s voice, not just obey us. The crucial premise of our life in Christ is that His sheep hear His voice. In the Kingdom, we’re developing that clarity to hear Father and articulate prophetically correct Purpose for our lives, businesses, and nation(s).

Religious obedience outside the clarity of Father’s Purpose has always been dangerous. Jesus had a lot of confrontive things to say to Pharisees and the old guard who were fixed on the jot and tittle. Kingdom purpose is a breath of fresh air, an invitation to be yourself yet share Father’s heart. In a word, it’s FUN!

Only Imagine 2023 – Kingdom culture in the business mountain.

• What if ecclesia is really a term for believers gathered around a shared kingdom purpose?
• What if that Purpose was so evident that it created a Kingdom culture in our business that ignited the hearts of our staff and customers to engage in it?
• What if you could feel a difference in the spiritual atmosphere and in the hearts of people when you walked in the door?

Cutting room floor

I wrote this blog to invite people out of a motivational mindset that says, “We humans have the power and potential to be creative… apart from Father’s purpose.” Human potential, even spiritual potential, is just an empty suit that leads to a Tower of Babel. It might have unity among men. It might have power, even lying wonders, and outward success. But it still comes up empty in the end. Kingdom is working with Father’s purpose. Working apart from Him is a path to dead works and frustration. I would like to save people from experiencing this verse:

Hag 1:6 – You have planted much,

• but have harvested little.
• You eat, but never have enough.
• You drink, but never have your fill.
• You put on clothes, but are not warm.
• You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” NIV

Hag 1:7-11 – This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. 9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.” NIV

What we do – intentionally co-labor with Father’s purpose to release sons and accomplish Reformation in people, businesses, and nations. We help people become themselves and connect with their Book/Purpose.

What we don’t do – pull something out of our ass and expect the law of attraction to fund it.