1 You demonstrate excellence at your present level even under pressure and against opposition. This level of demonstration comes by faithful and enduring application of gifts, anointing, authority, and power.
2 You know and understand the kingdom and Ecclesia in order to know and understand your assignment and function within them.
3 You are faithful in little to prepare for faithfulness in more, but increase your level of responsibility by expanding your assignment to more people, time, energy, wisdom, and execution. You accept more responsibility when God, leaders, and your own ministry make room for your leadership. You never wait for expansion of responsibility when you are actually waiting for expansion of authority, recognition, or approval.
4 You bring what you are doing in the kingdom and Ecclesia into a new place, expression, level, anointing, and demonstration of authority and power. You don’t expect an increase of authority and power without an update on what God is doing next. Your spiritual, kingdom innovation is simply “a new thing” because of what God is doing next, not because you are attempting to be novel or have something that you can label ‘mine.’. You fit what God is doing now into what God is doing next, living in prophetic anticipation that what you are able to sustain now is your foundation for the next level.
5 You begin to see that the next level is about what you are able to sustain more than what you are able to envision. You will always have more vision that you can presently sustain, and the next level must be built upon a foundation of sustainability. You are always experiencing a taste of the next level if you are properly aligned, assigned, anointing, and authorized; but to get to the next level, you need to expand and sustain what you are doing now at an international level. Your measurement isn’t, “Look what I can do.” Your measurement is, “I can do this without training wheels, and I can do this consistently, rain or shine, night or day, feel good or bad, alone and in front of a crowd.” [Remember the insight we received from David’s acquisition of a new weapon: doing what you are doing with expertise prepares you for the new weapon. It is not so much a difficult thing to have a one-time, one-moment show of excellence as it is to do the same thing with excellence consistently under adversity and opposition.]
6 You develop specific, measurable next level goals that you can obtain when you at the next level, and set these goals without minimizing or ignoring the completion of goals at your present level. You understand how Jesus was speaking the Message into men who were not at the next level, setting goals for them at their present level they could only hope to fulfill at the next level. You understand that God has expectations for you that run contrary to your own and those of the people who love you most. [The tyranny of expectations will sodden your life like a spiritual bog.]
7 You measure your sense of self and success by the next level instead of the present or past levels. Identity must include the next level just as Jacob’s dream, at his Bethel of promise, clarified his destiny: Jacob had to move past defining his future by “defeating Esau.” You defeat the obstacles and limitations of your present level in order to function at the next level, but these obstacles and limitations are not the next level. Beware the tendency to assume that defeating enemies and clearing the land is success when it is only the preparation for full function at the next level.
8 You articulate your next level message while you are at the highest level of communicating the message of your present level. You recognize that what you will communicate at the next level will always be built upon your mastery of message at the present level. You expect tough questions, challenges to your conclusions, and a test of your mastery of the material. Your bold defense (or defendable apology in the sense of valid bona fides) of your present message will prepare you to expand and elevate your message to the next level. More than merely having the message, you are able to articulate the message: “Be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you.”
