I was listening to (yet another) Bill Johnson podcast while funnily enough competing in the Sydney Marathon (I had to take my mind off the pain and Bill Johnson engages my spiritual intellect) and he was talking about the power in unity of prayer and the weightiness of anointing that follows that.
What engaged my spirit was his labor on the concept of bringing or drawing forth the anointing of the Holy Spirit through a corporate prayer and one accord. There is precedence for this: e.g Pentecost.
What also follows then is the capacity to achieve multiple times more through that anointing than what would have been achieved individually.
(Now don't hear me wrong, in that I am not saying that God is the answer to an equation: Corporate Prayer = stronger God's presence and anointing = ability to go greater miracles or be more productive. Period. Though this tends to be the case and has spiritual principles, e.g “When 2 or more are gathered in my name, I will be there”)
If we continue down that train of thought, what I instantly thought when listening to Bill, was Ecclesiates 4: 12: A cord of 3 strands is not easily broken.
What follows is this concept of building a servant-hood culture that can achieve so much more than individually.
This is not rocket science, but track with me:
God's culture / DNA is family, togetherness, unity, love. The outcome of those aspects/characteristics are peace and productivity. God is never unproductive. “My Word goes out before me, it does not return to me empty, it achieves the purpose for which I sent it and accomplishes my desire”
Unity / Family are central to growth, whatever definition of growth you want to apply.
Growth doesn't happen in isolation. For example, how can you practice patience or generosity with others when you are single?
Unity / Family is at essence about servant-hood. “Love one another as I have loved you” “If any of you wants to be first in the Kingdom of God, he must be last” 'Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you”
So let's think about this for a moment in our immediate worlds: Work, family, marriage, friendship, church, local communities, global communities....
When I asked this question it struck me so simply in 2 main areas:
Work: It is amazing when you think about it, that a corporation actually achieves the productivity and value that it does given the amount of disunity, back-stabbing, and selfish behavior, be it outwardly or within our individual hearts.
Could you imagine the level of productivity and growth and increase in value (to shareholders, customers, employees, governments, affected communities, environment) would be if all had a servant hood heart and culture? It would be unstoppable. Just look at Babel, and that was not to achieve necessarily anything positive for people, just a very tall tower.
Just imagine if I in my own heart, I adopted a spirit of servant-hood, I brought with me and led by example, a spirit of serving others for their benefit, not mine, what change and impact that would have?
It's at times like this I wish I was an MD speaking and more importantly leading (by example) this stuff. To usher in a corporate wide sense of serving.
Family: I thought I would like to strengthen the spiritual culture of servant-hood within my family and that's got to start with me. I was thinking as I was running down Anzac parade, in Randwick my family already has a healthy mindset to serving each other and those in our worlds, but to be spiritually aware and actively cognizant of cultivating a serving culture, is something that I would highly esteem.
To my mind the immediate practical questions of: what can I do to serve Nim and the kids better or more of? e.g. be more helpful with the day to day stuff (make kids lunches for the next day, clean the bathroom because I know he likes a clean bathroom – what woman doesn't, make the bed?, Make a cake or dinner with the kids help to give to a family in need, I don't know you figure something out! Whatever it is the opportunities are generally endless... )
I mean it doesn't take Einstein to figure out that a massive issue in marriage in general is the lack of serving. I'm not throwing stones at separated couples, I'm just stating truth, that for a significant lot of our marriages, putting ourselves last and the spouse first would help a truck load (oh and forgiveness). And yes we can (and I do) put up a line of excuses that allow me not to serve Nim, but where does that road lead to.... follow it down and see where it takes you... and your family and marriage. I don't see Jesus saying, " God I'll serve these 12 disciples and wash their feet if they just serve me better". You get the picture.
Which brings me back around to the broader Ecclesiates passage:
4: 7-12
“So I turned my head and saw yet another wisp of smoke on its way to nothingness: a solitary person, completely alone, no children, family or friends, yet working obsessively late into the night compulsively greedy for more and more, never bothering to ask “Why am I working like a dog, never having any fun? And who cares? More smoke.. a bad business.
It's better to have a partner than go it alone. Share the work, share the wealth. And if one falls down, the other helps. But f there's no one to help, tough!
Two in bad warm each other. Alone, you shiver all night.
By yourself you're unprotected. With a friend, you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three stranded rope isn't easily snapped”
Serving with others of the same mindset, is not easily broken, in fact it can carry many multiple times more than 3 individual ropes could added together. The point is, get serving, bring others with you and see the results.... it's a wise principle because its God's principle and spiritual rule.
