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GLIMMERS
From the Preface of "THE HEART OF A KING"
(c) Morris E. Ruddick
Note from Morris:
Let me begin this post with a request. Tuesday is Veterans Day. As a Vietnam-era Marine vet, I've had some unusual insights lately into the significance of how the Lord used that "old season" in my life to prepare me for the season we are now walking out -- in Vietnam.
I've enjoyed the special bond with many of you who are vets. However, I suspect there are some of you who are vets or are married to vets or have family/ ones you are close to who are vets, who I'm not aware of your/ their service.
If so, please pop me a reply and let me know -- that I may send you a short, but special message I'm preparing for my fellow vets for this Tuesday.
Shifting gears, the thrust of spiritual burdens I have carried over the last few years, along with the associated answers I have sought in my prayer closet might be summed up in two key words: leadership and revival. Maybe it's three: leadership, revival and strategy.
In the Kingdom those words are entwined. Those whom our ministry places highest priority on serving, are those who have served in genuinely walking through the fire: those believers persecuted for their faith and those in lands with a heritage of cultures dominated by witchcraft.
These are serious times. While we are among the many within US boundaries, encouraged by the signs reflected by the recent elections, the reality is that there remains much to be done. It begins and ends with our time in God's presence and with serious intercession.
So, within the context of understanding the times and knowing what to do, the answers and the response indeed can be summed up with: Kingdom leadership, strategy and revival.
Spiritually, we walk a fine line. Yet, that fine line defines the dividing asunder between revival, true outpourings of God Spirit -- and the leadership response, the strategy that pays the cost to actuate it.
When darkness prevails and is on the move, the response, as it is in our day, is very serious business. If you haven't noticed lately, the fires have been stoked and the fiery darts aimed at those known by His Name have been multiplied. We are marching toward the fulfillment of Isaiah 60, as God restores His order and the evil one frantically tries to prevent it. What is seen in these steps is a mere shadow of the realities.
The burdens we carry, from those we've been with recently from Africa to Asia, to our brethren in Israel and Eastern Europe, each of whom are pioneers and forerunners has triggered a recall of this piece written five years ago. I made it the Preface to one of my deepest compilations of truth, having been forged from the prayers and work we do with those walking through the fire.
As I've already noted, these are serious times. We covet your prayers, for the missions we undertake and for those we serve to strengthen and equip us and them, for what at times seem like overwhelming odds.
Yet, as I emerge from my mid-watch of prayer -- refreshed from the "glimmers" I've received from the presence of the Lord -- I pray that the message of this piece will encourage you to prevail and not grow weary from the evil that has been manifesting in every sector of the earth today.
Again, this issue of SIGN is the Preface of my 2010 book: "The Heart of a King." One of our friends commented: "My progress in reading 'The Heart of a King' was a bit slow, as I had to stop frequently to praise God, repent, pray, or just express joy or soberness with the content of the pages."
I trust the message and anointing from the Preface of this book will release the glimmers needed -- that's all it takes from His presence -- as you reach for that "something more" to reshape your priorities and take you over the top in the calling you steward.
While being a member of SIGN is a special reflection of your service to the Kingdom, please remember to let me know of your -- or any of your family member's service in-arms to our/ your nation.
Morris
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In extraordinary times, knowing-what-to-do takes something more. That something more is what distinguishes true leadership. If we can just get the door sufficiently open to get a glimmer from God, it will be enough. It will be that "something more" that makes a difference. The following chapters of this book are a collection of "glimmers" that I've drawn from my time of prayer, of seeking the Lord for answers to the times.
This book targets a select audience of men and women of God called to be the movers and shakers for the times upon us. Much like Joseph and Daniel, their destinies come with a high cost. Likewise, the pathway is narrow. The calling is one that follows the description of Jesus' followers in Acts 17 of "turning the world upside down."
This volume is a sequel to my two previous books about this calling. Reading "The Joseph-Daniel Calling" and "God's Economy, Israel and the Nations" is strongly recommended before savoring the "glimmers" contained in this book.
The defining dimension to this calling is the heart of a king. With the need to grasp the setting and face the realities, what follows provides a glimpse into what incorporates the heart of a king in God's kingdom. The heart of a king is not patterned after the ways of the world. There are realities to the calling and the cost it upholds. There are realities to the times.
The Keys of Release
Having recently arrived back from an agenda in Southeast Asia, spiritually I was depleted and spent. A key part of our effort targets lands of persecution. We had been on the go, almost non-stop for over four months; encountering a vast array of spiritual hurdles and challenges, along with almost 60,000 miles traveled during that time frame. So with our return, all I wanted to do was veg out and recover. Yet hardly out of jet lag, I received an unexpected and incredibly difficult intercessory assignment.
As I embraced this mission, in the spirit I found myself being led into a deep, dark place with the keys to unlock shackles and lead out ones who had been immobilized in their quests to reach their high-callings. Night after night the Lord showed me ones I have been acquainted with, who bear high callings, who spiritually had been stymied along their pathways. Not due to any fault of their own, in one way or another, each had faced seemingly insurmountable barriers or become casualties in the spiritual battles raging.
One example was my dear friend David Works. In December of 2007, the Works family became victims of a tragedy-beyond-words that took place in their church parking lot. Attacked by a deranged young man firing an assault rifle, two of his teenage daughters were killed and David seriously wounded.
Understandably following this tragic event, David and his family had found a safe place in their coming to terms with its impact. However, having known and spent years praying with David prior to this tragedy, I knew this safe place lacked the vision of his calling as a modern-day Joseph. So I recently challenged him on reclaiming his significant calling.
David began doing just that. Then midway through my intense prayer initiative, David dropped by with some news. The day prior was the second anniversary of the tragedy. His church had held a special memorial service. What David eagerly shared was a newspaper article about the memorial service. In big headline print were the words: "Our Dream is Coming Back." Indeed, his dream and high calling are coming back.
There were other friends and associates the Lord showed me to target during this unusual time of prayer; who spiritually experienced set-backs from the mark of the high calling on their lives. In each case, they have been leaders. In each case, they were at a critical threshold in terms of embracing a new and key dimension to their callings. Some bore the callings to release still others; such as the leaders we've worked with in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
The Realities of the Spiritual Environment
As I progressed through these extremely intense encounters in prayer, I became keenly aware of the environment those being released would be reentering.
The best way I can describe this spiritual atmosphere is that it is filled with danger, duplicity and intrigue; not unlike the era during 16th century England in the years following Henry VIII's death, when there was a vicious and deadly quest for power from within the Tudor Court. It was a time when the lust for power capitalized on and perverted otherwise genuine leadership efforts. It was a time when it took great courage to put your hand to the plow and keep it there.
Similarly, in today's spiritual atmosphere, in keeping with the unusual developments underway in global seats of power; I became very conscious of a jockeying for power taking place within circles of believers. The generation now assuming their mantles face a toxic spiritual setting perhaps summed up best by a book title I recently came across: "Hemlock at Vespers."
The Courage to Come Forth
Like the understandable response of my friend David, there is a safe place, which is sometimes needed to regroup and heal. However, while it may be safe from certain levels of the dangers, it also maintains the enticements and protective machinations of the soul response, hindering what had begun in the Spirit as the pathway of the high calling.
The issue involves looking back rather than forward; of being immobilized from facing the realities and embracing the high calling. The message of this book is for those reaching for the mark, whose aim is nothing short of completing in the Spirit what was begun in the Spirit.
The Heart of a King
There indeed is a great battle taking place within the Body today. It reflects a transfer of the mantle between generations. With that transfer is a struggle reflecting the fine line between the good and the perfect will of God; between the soul and the spirit; the measures defining kingdom success; and the venturing forth from the safe places into the places of risk that carry the potential of impacting eternity. It is a calling of leadership for those with a heart of a king.
What's key in the parallel of the Tudor Court power-struggle to today's spiritual turbulence was what followed, when England became united under the leadership of Queen Elizabeth I. Then came a time when Philip II of Spain, saw his empire as the worldly arm of the Roman Catholic Church. Seeing himself as the sword to undo the Reformation and reunite Europe in a single faith, Philip became obsessed with conquering England. Henry VIII had led England out of the church. Now his daughter Elizabeth was defending her father's reformation. Philip, honing his blade in 1581, was at their shores with his 'invincible Armada.'
England's greatest weapon, however, was the selfless leadership of its queen. Now in her mid-fifties, she had ruled England for thirty years and was skilled in the use of power. She knew how to use the crown, and, in that hour of national peril, how to mobilize her people. Unlike the divisions created by the ambitions of unworthy aspirants to the power of the throne during the interim after her father's death, Elizabeth united her people to stand against the Spanish invasion.
While the Armada was still off England, dramatically riding up on a white horse, Queen Elizabeth, known among the people as "Good Queen Bess," reviewed the army and addressed them with these stirring words:
"Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, resolved, in the midst of the heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you, to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain or any prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which, rather than any dishonor shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field." (Source: Winston Churchill, "Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples," Barnes & Noble, 1995)
Good Queen Bess' words exude the true heart of a king. Indeed, let tyrants fear, along with the misguided and the lawless interlopers whose human efforts impede the true work of the Spirit. A line has been crossed. The stakes are far higher than in the days of Elizabeth. The clash of all ages is before us. These are times of monumental change.
These are times that cry out for true leadership in the Body; the type that unites and mobilizes. It comes from a calling not to be treated lightly or with presumption. It is a leadership of sacrifice, but one that is not reckless. The goal of the high calling involves lethal realities and demands a wisdom that avoids the entrapments and diversions.
Those bearing this mantle have been prepared by God. They are unwilling to acquiesce to the safe places that fall short; or be seduced by the rule of power or the rule of profit that lures those called by His Name into the intrigues and games played by the world.
They are a remnant whose calling is directly from God; not presumption, ambition or any other quest emerging from the heart of man. It is a calling that excludes the pretenders, wannabes, interlopers and tyrants. The heart and identity defining this remnant is inexorably tied to God.
These are the ones with the leadership mantle of Joseph and Daniel, who are facing the realities, paying the cost and faithfully stewarding their callings of bringing forth God's Kingdom. These are the ones who will themselves receive the keys to release His Kingdom in their domains. These are the ones with the heart of a King. These are the ones for whom this book has been written.
GLIMMERS
...of Kingdom insights for the times
In extraordinary times, there are no ordinary answers
...and sacrifice will mark the pathway
When freedom flounders; truth stabilizes
When tyranny undermines; liberty unmasks
When self-interest entices; commitment perseveres
When disorder advances; wisdom redirects
When fear invades; courage takes its stand
When destiny calls; true leaders arise.
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Morris Ruddick has been a forerunner and spokesman for the call of God in the marketplace since the mid-90s. As founder of Global Initiatives Foundation and designer of the God's Economy Entrepreneurial Equippers Program, Mr. Ruddick imparts hope and equips economic community builders where God's light is dim in both the Western and non-Western world.
He is author of "The Joseph-Daniel Calling;" "Gods Economy, Israel and the Nations;" "The Heart of a King;" "Something More;" "Righteous Power in a Corrupt World;" and "Leadership by Anointing," which address the mobilization of business and governmental leaders called to impact their communities with God's blessings. They are available in print and e-versions from www.Amazon.com,www.BarnesandNoble.com and other popular outlets.
Global Initiatives Foundation (www.strategic-initiatives.org) is a tax-exempt 501 (c) 3 non-profit whose efforts are enabled by the generosity of a remnant of faithful friends and contributors whose vision aligns with God's heart to mobilize the persecuted church to be the head and not the tail. Checks on US banks should be made out to Global Initiatives and mailed to PO Box 370291, Denver CO 80237 or email us atsign@strategicintercession.org for access information on our secure web-site.
Likewise, email us to schedule a seminar for your congregation on the wisdom the persecuted church has for the times emerging in the West.
Reproduction is prohibited unless permission is given by a SIGN advisor. Since 1996, the Strategic Intercession Global Network (SIGN) has mobilized prophetic intercessors and leaders committed to targeting strategic-level issues impacting the Body on a global basis. For previous posts or more information on SIGN, check: http://www.strategicintercession.org
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