“You can be replaced.” The remainder of the discussion will center upon leaders filling empty places. I being with this statement because it applies to every leader as well as the quitters and traitors. Bring yourself to account for your leadership: do you have empty places you refuse to fill? Do not wait for God to bring you to account.
God Abhors Empty Places
God abhors an empty place where He positions strategic leadership. When you run, ignore, or dishonor your assignment, you leave an empty place. Remember, you can be replaced.
Jonah finally went after God vomited him where he belonged, but he could have run a second time. We do not know what God would have done had Jonah run off again.
God could have replaced him. God was determined to warn a city and see it transformed. God gets what He wants, one way or the other.
Simon Peter was a restorational leader. Jesus says, “Simon, satan has received permission to sift all of you like wheat, but I prayed for you (singular)…”
Simon Peter said, “We cannot leave the shareholder position Judas once held empty. Someone must take his place. To be restored, we must restore the entire strategic team.”
Consider the Remnant. When God looks at a region or nation, He looks at His Remnant. When God sees an empty place in His Remnant, He fills it. When the Remnant suffers division from quitters or traitors, the vacant positions must be filled.
The Dream of Zeroed Accounts
Christmas night of 2017, God gave me a three-part dream. In the dream, two angels, who looked like two people I know very well who manage other people’s money, sat down across a desk from me and opened up a computer. The computer was representative of God’s books of account. The angels opened to my accountability summary and showed me the records.
All the accounts were zeroed out. They said, “You owe no man anything.” I immediately lost all sense of responsibility for the quitters and traitors and stopped investing emotional energy in them.
The angels said, “Fill the empty places with others. God will complete your twelve sons as you father the fathers.”
I knew it was time to move with the movers and fill the empty places. God began sending the authentic sons who will not quit.
If you have left empty places open in your assignment, kingdom leaders, consider that God abhors an empty place that should be filled by a shareholder.
Koinonia
The word koinonia suffers from wanton and pervasive misinterpretation and application. Koinonia is not a pizza party in the “fellershipping hall” after evening service. It is not dinner on the grounds. Koinonia is not fellowship by definition given to that word.
Koinonia means “no empty places” because the shareholders have all accepted their assignments by aligning with the leaders in agreement: assignment meets alignment and produces agreement.
Like Judas, who gave up his share as a shareholder, who left his place empty, koinonia means the shareholders are in place and devoted to the apostolic assignment.
“They maintained steadfast devotion” – no quitters – “to the apostolic Didache – the training in kingdom culture – “koinonia” [with the apostolic assignment through alignment], “sharing meals, and the prayers” (Acts 2:32).
Do you have empty places? Either you have someone right in front of you that you have failed to mature, or God is preparing to send someone for you to father who can fill the empty places. Do not assume He is sending when the person is right in front of you. Do not imagine you can force someone into position if God is preparing someone to send.
Know this. You must divest yourself of the emotional energy you give the quitters and traitors if you wish to see the fathering leaders you will father clearly. If your assignment provides three or eight or twelve, whatever God assigns, know that God will not tolerate an empty place for long.
