Lessons Learned from Denver Meet-UP

Leaders Are the First to Listen

(Intro Video) I have led Courts and Council sessions on Zoom since before 2020. I always had to be willing to play the bad-cop to keep it on track and honor the holiness associated with Ascension. We all come from a church background of Bible studies and home groups where everyone is encouraged to share, and the ministry model is “preaching and teaching.” People expect opportunities to share their promptings from Holy Spirit (Breadcrumbs), their insights on Bible verses, and their opinions on theology and politics. It’s called Freedom of Speech, an inalienable American right – That doesn’t work in Heaven!

In the past, whenever someone jumped into a Council session and said whatever came to mind, the group lost focus on what Father was saying, and we chased the rabbit. It was contagious, and people would comment on the last comment and begin a dialogue among themselves. Of course, it took us right out of the Council and back to earth in a home group. After a few of those descents, I got pretty vigilant about shutting off the chatter, which had the potential to cause offense. People were gracious with my bad-cop approach because we were friends, and they valued Living Words from Heaven too.

But Denver was a different setting because I knew people would be prone to the same rabbit trails, but I didn’t have the same personal rapport. It scared me a little, so I went to the Council about it beforehand (Council Meetup). The graphic below was from that Council session.

In Denver, I shared this graphic at the beginning. I was looking for an accusation worthy of a Court Session we could do together anyway, so we just used this theme of being too talkative when we should prioritize what Father is saying; took our need to preach & fix people to the cross. I explained the phenomenon, that none of the sessions would be like church or a bible study. We wouldn’t be trying to fix people with what we brought to share. It would not be our opportunity for “ministry.”

It worked well – I had never connected with hearts and explained why we needed that focus. They got it, and the meet-up was 8 hours over two days, and we honored the atmosphere of heaven even though we weren’t always in the Courts or Council. We still honored the atmosphere because everyone understood why, and God really was speaking to hearts, not minds – and I was too.

The Leadership Ego – It’s one thing to keep the participants from rabbit trailing, but what about the leader? As a former pastor, have the teach-preach-prophecy bug worse than anyone.

I naturally thought about slide decks and talking points to fill the 8 hours. I came with a few ideas but avoided droning through multiple slides and handouts. I emailed everyone the Lead Your Tribe Playbook in advance. It was 14 pages of graphics and all the details and links to every step of our coaching process. That seemed to pacify my engineering fear of not providing enough content.

What I really did was speak to their hearts and not their heads. Father has helped me distinguish between what He is saying to me and what He is saying to them: My “ministry out of what He is saying to me” projects a superiority that misrepresents Father’s heart. Those sons are treasures, not targets! I put my focus on loving them and helping each one of them take their next step in “listening,” Hearing what Father is saying to them – becoming Seers and Doers. Some were fairly mature, and some were brand new to Sonship, Ascension and Reformation. Justin and Tonya were further along in their experiences in the Courts and Council in the business context, so their testimonies of the fruit of ascension were gripping, relevant, and inspiring.

Lastly, we didn’t try to make the workshop replace the mentoring that goes with coaching. It typically takes months of weekly 1-on-1 sessions to receive some level of fluency in the Courts and Council and gain clarity on our Kingdom business purpose in writing. The people there were inviting their circle of friends whom they will coach and mentor into Sonship. I was equipping coaches to “father” and introducing sonship to their tribe at the same time.

Our goal is sons and daughters, not workshops. We do it with fathers who listen to hearts (God’s and the hearts of His Sons and Daughters). Sonship, Ascension, and Reformation are going viral – it’s a movement engineered by Father himself; people are hungry to trade religion for sonship, especially in the context of Business (Rom 8:19).

The workshop was really fun! God was totally with us. (Read Tricia’s experience below)

PS: The few Denver Meet-UP Slides we did use are linked.

The links we recommended as follow-up were:

• Ascending to the Council Made Simple
• Sonship & the Divine Council
• Court & Council Tool Kit
• The Roadmap to Sonship
• Lead your Tribe Into Sonship
• Lead Your Tribe Playbook
• Speaking to the Heart
• 7 Spirit Assessment

This blog was inspired by a Council Session, a typical example of what you can do as well.
2026-04-15 Council – Leaders Listen First

• • James 1:19 – My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this:
    Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak…
  • Pro 17:27 – The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint…
  • Pro 18:13 – To answer before listening— that is folly and shame.

 

Q & A

Q1: Why do leaders need to listen first instead of teach? Real ministry opens their door to hear Father directly (Ascension); It’s not just a platform/microphone to be like God and share your revelations and opinions.

Q2: What’s the difference between fathering and feeding? You feed servants with “your” information; you father sons via ascension, pulling the curtain back on “their” heritage.

Q3: How do I keep group sessions from becoming rabbit trails? Connect with hearts first—explain why focus matters, take the “need to fix other people” to the Courts of Heaven together.

Q4: What does it mean to speak to hearts not heads? Speaking to hearts means saying what Father is saying to them, not just sharing what He said to you.

Q5: Why is ministry about what Father says to them, not me? Ministry out of what God says to me projects superiority; ministry out of what He says to them inspires sonship and ascension.

Q6: How long does it take to gain fluency in Courts and Council? Typically several months of weekly 1-on-1 sessions to receive fluency and clarity on Kingdom business purpose and get it in writing.

Q7: What’s the difference between a workshop and coaching? Workshops introduce sonship to a group; coaching mentors individuals into clarity on their personal and business purpose.

Q8: How do I distinguish what God is saying to me vs. them? Ask: Does this open their door to heaven/Father or showcase mine? Fathering helps sons and daughters hear for themselves in the Courts of Heaven and Father’s Council that includes the 7 Spirits.

Q9: What makes sonship “go viral”? Sharing the experience—the 9 conversations plus the fruit on earth that results from those conversations. Hearts want to know “What is there for me?”

Q10: Why are sons treasures, not targets? They are Father’s Sons and Daughters! Treasures are loved and valued; targets are fixed and managed. One fathers sonship, the other feeds servanthood.

 

1 to 3 Compelling Things about the Denver Meet-UP

Peter

• Very good to walk through the 3 aspects of Sonship, Ascension and Reformation i.e. the “7 Spirit Profile”
• The 2 one sentence comments from John:
  1. First: “alternating our intelligence with the intelligence of the Father.”
  2. Second: “walking into the inheritance that God has given me; my inheritance.”
• When Trish explained that she wasn’t ready to share her purpose. It gave me the liberty or space to realize that God is still downloading to me my purpose/ profile.

 

John

1) Hearing Tonya and Justin’s stories of how Sonship can work in a business (totally thrills my heart).

2) Seeing the lights come on for the potential of Kingdom in those new to all this. “I might really have an exciting purpose!!!”

3) The peace of hearing “Well Done!” from Father. It felt like we got it mostly right and it was a good experience.

We made room for Father to lead… that felt really good – thank you Lord!

 

Tricia

I came to the workshop because I’m tired of the aimless prayer life I’ve had. I was drawn to learning more about this structured prayer and communication with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. I had never heard of the seven spirits of God before. If I had, I never pondered it. In addition to my aimless prayer life, I’ve also realized I haven’t been living with a purpose much beyond self and survival.

#1).  It took a moment to absorb the concept behind the nine conversations and the seven-spirit profile, I think I understand it better after diving into it again today. This would be my most compelling takeaway from the workshop. Once I understood that the seven spirits are not seven entities, not separate personalities, but a symbolic way of describing the Holy Spirit in his complete, perfect fullness, then the idea of prayer became much richer. Like one light through a prism: one source, multiple expressions, same essence. After I sat on that for a bit, I was able to move into the nine topics with the seven-spirit profile chart John gave us.

#2).  I stayed on identity the entire time which has been my next compelling takeaway. To be honest, my religious spirit was pricked when I heard the word “servant” depicted as something less desirable. I have always thought of a humble servant or slave of Christ as a mentality to AIM for.  I’m still working through this. But when I had a recent conversation with Tonya, she put a very different imagery out there. I am a Daughter of the King. I am (because of Jesus) now dressed in royal robes as a member of the King’s family. When I enter the King’s chambers, I am welcomed in with gladness and a special joy, the way someone would be delighted when their most favorite person enters the room. Now when I sit down to pray I’m really enjoying that imagery and for the first time I feel excited to engage in prayer, not obligated. The king’s children support the king’s mission, and they also inherit the kingdom. They do serve the king as servants do, but with a special relationship knowing that God already delights in me just because I’m his daughter. I did nothing to achieve being a member of his family, Jesus did that for me. And with that identity, comes a different way to approach life on this earth.

God‘s mana for me today: embrace your identity as a Daughter of the King. It’s OK to spend some time here. Go through today with a new identity woven into everything you do. Explore more about what it means. Your purpose will come, but understanding your identity is the first step. I WILL reveal your purpose.

The imagery from my favorite movie The Chronicles of Narnia stands out to me more than ever now. First the children needed to understand their identity in the new kingdom (they actually had to be told who they really were by the beavers I think). From there, they were equipped with the tools they would need to live out their purpose. They eventually came to understand the sacrifice Aslan made to break them free from the accuser, and at that point they were able to receive the wisdom and strategy and courage to use those tools.

I’m excited to embark on this kind of journey.

Jacques

For me it was a real blessing to meet people that place the leading of the Lord above all else. It is seldom that one sees such commitment and pursuance of His purpose and calling in their lives.

It has opened a new area for exploration that I look forward to walking with the Lord in as He leads.