These days many people are asking, “How has your life changed since COVID-19?” As a warrior hearted leader I listen to the variety of responses and another question comes to mind.
“How were you living before?” For example; If your life was prone to giving way to fear, panic, and anxiety, how has this current pandemic changed how you live? On the flip-side, if you chose to stand firm on the promises of God, trusting in His power to work all things together for good, what does the ground you stand on look like now?
This is an exciting time to be alive as world history is not only unfolding right before our eyes, but we are more than witnesses, we are writers. What story will you pass down to the generations to come? What did this pandemic expose in your life? How were you living before and how did it change how you lived through it? Will it be said that you allowed spirits of fear, panic, anxiety, and death run rampant without any resistance? Were you found following your spiritual leaders who had cowered in fear to the giant called SARS COVID-19?
Enter the warrior hearted leader who does what others cannot and will not do. A warrior hearted leader chooses to have a Majesty Mindset and operate in their Kingdom Authority. This time on the Kingdom Calendar is exposing unbelief in many of us, including those we look to for spiritual leadership. What would it look like today if our spiritual leaders lived and led the Kingdom Principle that 2 is greater than 10?
2>10 Principle
As we read the story of the 12 spies in Scripture, we can plainly see this Kingdom Math at work. God spoke to Moses and said, “Send men to scout out the country of Canaan that I am giving to the People of Israel. Send one man from each ancestral tribe, each one a tried-and-true leader in the tribe.” The twelve went and spied out the land for 40 days and then returned to give their report to Moses, Aaron, and all the Israelites.
They reported that the land flowed with milk and honey and the produce was abundant but the people who live there are fierce, and their cities are fortified. If that wasn’t enough to convince the nation to retreat another one testified that they saw the descendants of Anak the giant, and in comparison, they were no taller than a grasshopper.
Two leaders from the group, Joshua and Caleb, stood up to speak. They challenged the people to go and take the land now! “We can do it! God is with us.”
Do you see the different mindsets between Joshua and Caleb versus the other ten? What belief about God do you suppose, was in Joshua and Caleb’s heart that caused them to stand against the majority ready to take action?
Choose to see the Spiritual Battle
A warrior hearted leader must choose to see the battle for what it is, a spiritual battle. Do you see the correlation between the Israelites wailing, grumbling, and complaining about the giants in the Promised Land and the current reporting on COVID-19 with its devastating effects on the economy? Has this virus been made to be a giant that is bigger than God? Where have we allowed this giant to cause us to forget who God is for us?
We have a choice. To be like Joshua and Caleb or take after the ten who saw themselves as small and powerless – like the grasshopper. We can march forward into the battle knowing that it may be a struggle but our trust in the Lord is bigger than our fear for we are certain that God will lead us as He promised. The other choice is to shrink back in fear hiding with our money and resources just in case God doesn’t come through.
A Warrior Hearted Leader Takes Action
What now? How do we become like the two?
To be like Joshua and Caleb, to go after the giants in our land, we take authority over the demonic spirits of fear, anxiety, panic and death and bind their influence – refusing to entertain their fear mongering tactics. We bring the death, blood, resurrection and victory of Jesus by the cross against these opposing spirits and teach others to do the same!
Our people don’t’ need another devotional, another Bible Study, stop providing pat answers while offering weak prayers for safety and protection. They need us to be the kind of leaders who know the authority Jesus gave, who are not shy about praying in this authority commanding the demonic influences to go!
We must be leaders who tell those who are “giving gloomy reports”, who are going on about how awful this COVID giant is to stop talking. Instead we need to challenge and teach those we lead to move in a Majesty Mindset of Kingdom Authority. Calling them up into their true identity in Jesus and to set their focus on God, paying close attention to what He is doing, instead of tracking the daily movements of this COVID giant.
As Joshua and Caleb told the Israelites, “We’ll have them for lunch!”
After all, in the Kingdom of God, 2 > 10.
