Our entire group was in jeopardy, and God began to speak to me about the situation during the night. I was working myself out mentally with internal discussions.
We heard that the virus was found in the city, and the city was closing down. We were to leave the next morning to cross the border, or we were not going to get out.
My mind was saying, “No way are they closing the border tomorrow, leaving this group we brought without options, right?” My spirit was clearly saying, “If you do not exert authority, your team will be stuck here indefinitely.”
I had a brief vision of myself taking the microphone on the tour bus, and declaring the checkpoint would allow us through, and we would be the first and perhaps the only bus to be allowed to crossover.
Fathering Action
I know that most leaders would take that vision and run with it. I used to be one of those leaders. I would have taken the microphone the next morning at the strategic moment and made the declaration with the authority of my assignment.
Specifically, declaring what God revealed should be declared, and watch God open the way for us to crossover as the first and perhaps the only tour bus.
I made this decree in my room the night before, knowing a decree would need to be made the next day, or we would not be allowed to crossover. However, I am a spiritual father, and the team was composed of several matured sons and daughters.
The Next Morning
Here is what I did–this will help kingdom leadership understand fathering leadership function.
The next morning, we saw from a distance that the border checkpoint was backed up for miles. I sat still and said nothing, but God has shown me that the way out was going to be a special checkpoint, and the tour guide would make a strange decision as Holy Spirit spoke to him.
The tour guide instructed the driver to turn on a secondary road. The driver questioned him, but the tour guide was steadfast in his insistence. The driver shrugged.
The tour guide spoke in the microphone, “Pray.”
He did not tell anyone what was happening, including me sitting right next to him. Speaking in his own language, he kept insisting that the driver continue on a secondary route.
Meanwhile, someone behind me took action to call on someone to pray and started playing worship music. I said, and did nothing.
Then, I sensed a critical moment. Holy Spirit said, “Do not ask Me or pray a petition since I have already told you what to do and given you permission to crossover, and I was already at work in answer to your decree last night. Make the decree now.”
I got up and provided leadership. Calling upon a spiritual son to lead the prophets in making the decree, without explaining what I am explaining now, I told them to turn off the worship music and stop praying the petition prayers someone had started praying. I told the spiritual inheritor to declare.
I said, “This is not when we ask God or pray petition prayers. This is when we declare in the authority of this assignment that the authorities at the border will allow us to crossover.”
This is what the spiritual inheritor immediately did, without questioning my leadership or hesitating at all. He called for the leaders to gather near to hear him give instructions, and he involved all of them in the declaration in the authority already available.
The Border
We drove to the border checkpoint and found it backed up. This was discouraging. We started to drive in one lane, and I heard God say, “Not this lane.” The tour guide immediately told the drive to cross two lanes and get in the other line, waving at a large truck to allow us in front of him. The truck driver stopped to give us space in that lane.
As we drove us, the soldiers took immediate notice. They stopped the bus, checked the tour guide’s credentials. Then, they waved us over into another area.
The tour guide sighed and groaned when they waved us into the other area. He turned to me and said, “This is not good.”
I said nothing. I already knew what God said.
The soldier came back, and the tour answered one question without hesitation, a brilliant answer. And, the soldier waved us through to the checkpoint. The tour guide turned and looked at me, amazed, suddenly smiling.
He said, “We are OK!”
The gate lifted. The bus moved forward. The border was behind us.
We all cheered even though no one knew the amazing issue that we were facing.
That day, only one bus crossed over—the first one at that checkpoint to be cleared. The tour guide gave the right answer. The stop took less than five minutes.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people were stranded. No other bus was cleared at the other checkpoint. Only the first bus was cleared at our checkpoint.
Lessons Learned
The meaning of submission is not seen in people kissing the ring but trusting the fathering leader. The meaning of the fathering leader is not to show his intimidating spiritual authority before all with a microphone but to trust the inheritors who are submitting to do what he does so they can eventually do greater.
The people attempting to start a prayer–with all good intentions and passion–are not corrected or condemned but learn a lot about submission at that moment.
God speaks to leaders first and reveals strategy to those with fathering assignments. Fathering leaders can diminish those in training by insisting that “I saw myself taking the microphone and declaring this decree in the moment of crossover.” God will open the gate for that leader since God has already given permission for the crossover.
Or the fathering leader can say, “I dealt with this last night,” and feel the pain when the gate does not open because he failed to followthrough at the moment when the declaration must become a kingdom key.
There are several ways God can open the gate. There is a better way: when a fathering leader is involved with his submitted children since the submission is not about kissing the ring or bowing to the commands of a set an or figurehead.
When the fathering leader shares authority, his inheritors share the spiritual experience, build bold faith, deepen trust that God has provided them a trustworthy fathering leader, and do what the leader does while that leader is alive.
There is no need for the leader to die and leave a mantle in this situation because the leader isn’t training a successor. The leader is fathering inheritors who operate in authority and power on the estate during the bet years of the fathering leaders’ life, expanding the estate because they operate in their own bold authorizations that come from God through their submission.
Most leaders would desire to show their authority and power in front of the tour guide and driver, using the microphone to exhibit authority for everyone on the bus, and think this show will make the inheritors more proud of them and more submissive in awe-inspiring human leadership.
Fathering Leadership
Fathering leadership is different. It moves the discipling of Jesus into the new covenant kingdom culture principles, processes, and protocols. It is a discipling form because of the submission to the roles of the relationships, but it is a fathering relationship.
Jesus discipled with a fathering spirit because He only did what He saw Father doing and said what He heard Father saying. The word “disciple” disappears from the discussion at the book fo Acts mostly because the new leadership pattern is fathering in nature.
The goal of the disciple is to become like the Leader. This continues to be a mark of discipling. The goal of fathering is not successors but inheritors. Fathering takes discipling into a relational dynamic available only in kingdom culture.
A fathering leader sees success in those he fathers, not his own success in doing things in authority and power. The fathering leader is vital because he represents Father. Submission is critical because the inheritor represents Jesus.
Discipling was common in the generation of Jesus. It was not a Spirit and Power of Elijah relationship. The spirit and power of Elijah upon John passed to Jesus, moving the leadership dynamic from water to fire, from succession to inheritors, from sect to estate, from “watch me do it” to “you do what I do so you can more.”
This story is an example of how fathering leadership functions once there are mature, submitted, trusting inheritors. I am a poor example of this fathering, but these inheritors make me look pretty good because they have learned that trust in God includes trust in God’s selection of their fathers.
Submission to Fathers
The roles of the relationship define submission to anyone. Submission is a relational dynamic. Submission is not possible without a definable relationship. Submission is positional because it refers to how relationships between leaders and followers function.
When Jesus says, “Follow Me,” He is calling you to submit to Him as a Leader. If you submit to anyone as a kingdom citizen, it is because the King designed and defined the relationship and its roles.
If you follow–or to the extent or depth you submit to the defined and designed roles and fulfill the assigned responsibilities–you are in discipling mode. The discipling aspect occurs because you follow with a posture of submission.
If you follow, you have the heart to obey. If you limit submission, you immediately limit obedience. You have every right to limit submission, but you have no right to limit obedience. Of course, your limitation on submission will simply mean you stop following, and obedience with no longer even be in question since you will not be asked to participate in the process of fathering preparation.
Fathering in never tied to person but a purpose: you are submitting to a purpose that a fathering leader receives from the King. You are not submitting to a person but an assignment.
However, in that assignment, you submit to the process that produces the purpose, and that includes the preparation for complete obedience.
Think of it like this: You can only finish what the King assigns you through complete obedience, so the King calls you to submission, so a fathering leader will train you to sustain obedience when it is too difficult for you to endure circumstances.
Think of it like this: You can only finish what you are assigned when you are submitted to a leader with a broader assignment. Your assignment in the kingdom always involves you in submission to someone with a broader kingdom assignment. Both you and the person with whom you aligned remain in submission to the King by maintaining the roles and responsibilities the King designed and defined by your relationship.
You cannot obey the King without submitting to the King. Submission means “place at the disposal of.” To whatever extent your All is submitted to Jesus, you are receiving empowering and enabling grace to obey. The obedience is continuously tested by adversity, including painful discipline that tests your complete obedience. So, the real measure and point of contact between you and a fathering leader is always submission. The fathering leader is strengthening your will to submit to the process that produced your greatest obedience.
Spiritual fathering matures inheritors so that in moments like the one I’ve shared here, nothing needs to be said or done to enter into “do what I do” kingdom authority. When an inheritor or group of inheritors do what you do, the same outcome occurs as if you had obeyed yourself.
The impossible crossover becomes possible when inheritors declare. You read the vision to declare with a microphone. You then declare that authorization. You then have a representative inheritor or group of inheritors do what you do. It is the same as a fathering leader doing it when the inheritors operate in and under authority. You are a father functioning with inheritors who can do what you do.
