Keys of the Kingdom
Lately the Lord has had me in a season of contemplating various keys He has given me along my journey of walking with Him, ancient keys that He is restoring. These keys are absolutely necessary to open gates that have too often have been locked to the modern-day church. The early church possessed and utilized these keys and saw incredible advancement of the Gospel of the Kingdom with signs, wonders, and miracles. God is restoring the keys of the Kingdom to His people as He prepares us to walk more fully into the greatest move of Holy Spirit the world has ever seen!
In this blog I am simply going to talk a bit about one of the keys I have discovered that is crucial to walking in greater measures of God's purposes.
Alignment and Honor:
The Key to Multiplied Authority
This afternoon I kept hearing the phrase, "Alignment without honor can never produce the synergy of authority God intends." After a couple of times of hearing this phrase, I knew Holy Spirit was highlighting a truth, a key, that He had taught me but I had never articulated quite this way before. Again:
"Alignment without honor can never produce
the synergy of authority God intends."
When I hear the word "alignment" the immediate context relates to relationships of vital importance that have to do with life, purpose, destiny, accountability, and yes, authority. Biblically, we see this very clearly in Ephesians 4:11-13
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (NASB)
The word equipping is katartismos which means to equip, perfect, repair, mend, or put into proper position or alignment as in a chiropractic adjustment. For any who have ever had joints or a back out of alignment, this is a vivid picture of what alignment - or misalignment - can look like and the importance of proper alignment to effective functioning of the body. Katartismos "suggests making something work the way it was designed to, to bring something from a place of ineffectiveness to effectiveness." (The Kartartismos Pastor by Kayle de Waal; LINK)
In ministry, proper alignment increases effectiveness and produces increased fruitfulness which is due to the synergy of authority that comes through the life flow of alignment. When alignment is rooted in authentic relationships, authority, effectiveness, and fruitfulness increase through the power of agreement working by honor.
When someone aligns with a person with a greater measure and sphere of authority, and if they choose to honor this one (or ones) who hold a place of leadership, authority, oversight, "fathering" or "mothering" in their life, there is a gate to increased authority that becomes accessible. Alignment connects us to the gate, and honor activates the key that unlocks the gate. The key opens the gate for us to move into greater revelation and manifestation of the purposes of Christ that are available to us in revelation, wisdom, understanding, and authority to walk in the assignments He has for us.
Another aspect of alignment is the life flow of revelation, wisdom, grace, and anointing that flows between all those who are connected together by authentic relational covenant. I have people who are submitted to the leadership grace God has given, and by virtue of alignment and honor they have access to increased authority. But it is likewise true that I am greatly enriched by the alignment as I receive life-flow of the Spirit of God through them as well. Alignment and honor produces increase of authority in every relationship that is properly aligned and functioning according to God's grace in honor.
The reality is, and please hear this.... Walking in alignment with honor toward the leaders God has placed in our lives grants us access to the synergy of authority of what they carry (and have earned!) propelling all of us (leaders and co-laborers together) forward into increased dimensions of authority to do all Christ has called us to do. Alignment and honor position us to walk in measures of authority beyond what we have yet earned. Wow!
Alignment + Honor = Synergy of Authority
Let's just take a few minutes to consider all the ways and alignments (relationships) where this is true.
- Submission to the Lord. This is obvious, I suppose, but must be stated since it is foundational to all other relationships. As we honor our alignment of submission to the Lord we are granted access to life and the authority to walk in His ways and purposes.
- Relationship between husbands and wives. God set the order in the family of husbands being the head (not as in domineering) but as in order and position of function. (See Ephesians 5:22-33) As wives honor husbands and their place as head in the home, and husbands love their wives as Christ loves the Church, together there is a synergy of authority that the schemes of hell cannot prevail against. Together we are stronger!
- Honor from children to parents. Ephesians 6:1-3 "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth." When children honor parents it releases a synergy of authority to war through the fiery darts of the enemy, and to overcome the generational iniquitous patterns and curses that always seek to thwart the purposes of the Lord. Align with honor and together rout the enemy!
- Proper Responses of Employees to Employers/Bosses; Students to Teachers; Citizens to Governing Authorities: I Peter 2:13-14 "Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right." Honoring God established order unlocks blessings and opportunities to walk more fully in the authority of Christ. (Obviously, when governing authority demands disobedience to the Word of God, our allegiance and obedience is first and foremost to Christ and His Word.)
- Relational Ministry Alignments: God has set order within His Ekklesia, as seen in Ephesians 4:11-12; Ephesians 2:20; I Corinthians 12:27-31; and other places. When we align according to God's order and demonstrate honor to one another the influence and authority of the Kingdom of God is increased and multiplied in ways beyond what we have dared to imagine. When the Body of Christ, the Ekklesia, properly aligns with one another, each honoring and esteeming each other for who they are in Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of the Lord, and willingly receiving and responding to council from those of apostolic-prophetic authority in our lives, we will begin to move into increased authority and effectiveness to do the work of the ministry that Jesus declared we would do. Alignment, submission, honor, trust, obedience, preferring others over ourselves, and not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought are all crucial to living out "alignment with honor producing the synergy of authority that God desires to release."
I am most grateful for the relationships the Lord has brought me into that have become Kingdom alignments full of honor -- not just one-way honor, but mutual honor born out of the love of Christ and the Spirit of God. Out of these alignments and honor incredible gates have opened for the synergy of authority to be activated that advances the Kingdom of God and pushes back the gates of hell.
May we all come into greater understanding and realization of
"Alignment with honor that produces
the synergy of authority God intends."
