Strategy is the leader’s wisdom, the strategic blueprinting of revelation and assignment. Strategic wisdom becomes available for every leader at whatever level of leadership that leader functions. The term “wisdom” has many definitions and applications in terms of its use as a word, but the spiritual wisdom that comes from above comes to and through leaders because God invests His strategies in leaders so His strategies can be carried out or fulfilled by them.
Having information or knowledge cannot be equated with wisdom any more than having an army can be equated with victory in a battle. The term “strategy” has a historic reference to “a general” and to the concept of “spread out into placements.” Just as a general has an army he is responsible to prepare and position, kingdom leaders have revelation of God’s purpose for people and prepare and position them for function in the Body of Christ. The metaphor of war and the metaphor of the Body carry this common sense or meaning through the use of terms that describe how leaders prepare and position people to fulfill Divine strategies.
Awareness of people is not more defining of purpose than having an army provides that army a battle plan or having body parts describes a functioning physical frame. Speaking of the metaphors gives us a strong impression that God knows exactly how each warrior can be best prepared and positioned for victory, how each part of the Body can be best prepared and positioned for function, and how leaders can receive both revelation and strategies for individuals and the assembled living stones that will build the proper building.
The Bible uses metaphors to discuss these spiritual realities. Sheep. Building. Body. Army. Family. However, kingdom is not a metaphor. Ecclesia is not a metaphor. To understand the metaphors, we begin with the spiritual reality of the kingdom. Not the opposite. Obviously, believers don’t grow wool, bleat, and fatten up with mutton. The metaphor describes how shepherds function in the aspects of leadership that fit the behaviors of believers that resemble sheep. The metaphor of army doesn’t mean that believers literally arm themselves and function in ranks. The metaphor describes how generals and soldiers interact and how leadership functions in those aspects of spiritual life in which believers must fight, war, and win. The believers are not literally ears, kidneys, toes, or thyroid glands. The metaphors describe how the fivefold ministry leaders prepare and position believers to function within the spiritual systems of the Body to produce a working whole. Believers do not literally become brothers and sisters in terms of natural birth but spiritual birth that gives them the authority to be God’s children. Spiritual birthing brings them into the kingdom, according to Jesus’ words, so they can grow up in that spiritual reality. The metaphor of family allows us to understand how leadership relate to believers in terms of fathering them through relationships we can understand by natural relationships.
However, kingdom isn’t a metaphor. Kingdom is real and kingdom is actual. There is a King and He has a domain. He rules in that domain and expands and establishes that dominion through believers who are part of His kingdom. In the same sense, Ecclesia isn’t a metaphor. Believers actually assemble together when called together for kingdom purpose and assignment. They function as citizens of the kingdom in this assembled conditions and kingdom leaders function within these assemblies to prepare and position, to protect and provide, to train and set battle plans, to produce healthy relationships that produce a Body that matures and functions in wholeness and health.
So we speak of wisdom. Knowing about something isn’t wisdom. Knowing what to do with something, possessing the skill to utilize something, setting strategies that position working parts and prepared warriors, and relating to believers how revelation tells them what to do today in order to reach God’s goals tomorrow, that is wisdom.
