I believe leaders are to help give wings to people's dreams. There are different types of leaders, but I believe this is the heart. We are helpers in other's joy! I think that when it gets complicated, we've missed the point and have moved into some religion...

As Andrew Wommack says, "Opinions are like noses. We all have one and they have a couple of holes in it." So this is my opinion and I'd love your feedback.

Just recently I was talking to a leader and we were discussing the issue of raising an expectation in someone for ministry that would end in disappointment. Here are my thoughts on the subject:

When leaders raise people's expectations by promising something that they don't deliver on, this is called 'dangling a carrot' and it kills dreams. That 'carrot dangling' has kept many powerful men & women confined in contexts with the hope that their dreams will be realised 'just around the corner'.... or the next... or the next...

Amongst many other things, this can produce a group of people who are out to 'get their own' and 'protect their own'. Their hearts are growing sick...and disillusioned. The feel critical towards the leaders one one hand, but then brown-nose the next minute for fear/hope that the 'door would be opened' for them. It can create a fickle people, jealous of each other, fighting over the scraps because there doesn't seem to be space for everyone... let alone for everyone to get POWERFUL in God. I could go on and on but it's not the focus of this blog post.

However, when leaders find what burns in someone and seek to give that wings, any expectation that builds in that person's heart is between them and God. A leader cannot control that, that is a person's personal relationship with God. A leader is simply to fan their dream into flame where possible, the rest is sacred to each saint. Not releasing someone for fear of the expectation it would raise in them is tantamount to control - it is taking the place of Christ as the only mediator between God and man - it elevates the leader above the saint, assuming that they know God's will and timing for that person.

The issue of "God's timing" has been misused. Timing is between God and the saint, not the leader and the saint. I know many, MANY, dear friends who have 'wasted' years and years 'waiting' until the leaders felt it was the right time to release them.

Leaders ought not to be finding reasons WHY NOT to release someone, but rather reasons WHY TO release someone. We don't understand the intricate connection between Intimacy with God, Identity and Destiny. We justify holding people back under 'their identity is wrapped up in their gifting'... we do nothing to to help them. We simply judge (which is often inaccurate) and then disqualify someone from the now call on their life.

Destiny is tightly bound to Identity...to Intimacy. They work together. Let people run with their dreams in the safety of your leadership. Let them make mistakes. Let them risk. LET THEM GET POWERFUL!!!!!

Leaders can create environments for people to risk, make mistakes, go even wilder... while at the same time helping them with stuff in their lives. How else do you learn? How else do you become powerful in God? How else are cities... nations going to be taken for Jesus?

Once again the cry can be heard sounding out to leaders of God's people:
LET MY PEOPLE GO!!!!

- Anneline

What a simple word: gratitude. So simple and so often abused, that we rarely access the latent power in it. Thanksgiving. Gratitude.

How may of us have had people say to us: “You are so ungrateful!” or “I didn’t hear you say ‘thank you’!” The word ‘thankfulness’ doesn’t rate high on our favourite words list. I think we view it like that for many reasons, especially for the one above. Thanksgiving has for many of us been in a context of etiquette or social expectation. It’s something we are expected to say when we are given a gift or something from another.

We need to change the way we see that wonderful word!

One of the words for ‘thanks’ in the New Testament is the word ‘homologeo’. This amazing word means ‘to say the same as’, ‘to agree’, ‘to confess’. I’m not sure if you’re getting the magnitude of this as yet, so let me explain a little what the Lord showed me.

Look at these verses:
Hebrews 13:15
Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks (homologeo) to His name.

Romans 10:10
“…for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses (homologeo), resulting in salvation (sozo).”

To give thanks is an act of faith. Thanks is agreement. It is the AMEN to the word God speaks to us. Thanks in the Kingdom comes both before and after the God-given word is fulfilled. Thanks says, “I say the same as what God has said. Despite the circumstance, despite my feelings, despite what I see that is contrary. I’m not going to agree/align myself with what I see and complain. No, I agree with/align myself with His spoken word.”

Thanksgiving understands that no word, no rhema, from God is without power for fulfillment. When He speaks, thanksgiving celebrates its fulfillment in advance because it knows God’s word is sure. Faith, thanksgiving and praise are inextricably linked. What comes out of our mouth will either aid that rhema seed into fulfillment or hinder, even choke, its fulfillment. A person who is full of thanksgiving is anchored in the rhemas of God; that is someone who knows the goodness and faithfulness of God despite anything contrary around them. They know they are not a victim of a system or at the mercy of fate. No, they are powerfully governed by the supernatural reality of God’s Kingdom, where nothing is impossible!

Father, I repent, change my mind about what I say. I return to believing in Your word above everything else. In this place, all my complaining leaves and is powerfully replaced by an irrepressible thanksgiving. He who began a good work in me, will be faithful to complete it!

- Anneline

Some time back I read an amazing comment about worship in a book by Rick Joyner. Rick was describing a vision he had received from the Lord. He spoke about how there are myriads of angels worshipping the Lord day and night – glorious worship that we humans long to hear. And yet, He stopped and listened with the greatest tenderness to the broken worship of a few believers on earth. The often broken attempts at worship by human beings, who see only glimpses of His glory, are worth an infinite amount more than the worship of angels who see the fullness of His glory all the time. I’ve never forgotten that.

Worship is not the singing of songs. Worship is not even a life of good works or holiness. True worship is not based on performance, self-righteousness or theological cognizance. No, true worship is what is happening continually in the spirit of a believer. It is the source, the foundation, the soil, out of which everything grows and is made manifest. It is possible to sing a slow ‘worship’ song and not be worshipping. It is very possible to be doing all the right things and not be ‘worshipping’. Conversely it is possible to be singing a pop song and be worshipping. It is very possible to be getting some things wrong and still be worshipping.

God is not looking for a people who are trying to be free from sin, trying to be holy or obey His laws. He is longing for relationship. Relationship and worship are inextricably linked. We cannot relate to God on the basis of the law, law-keeping will hinder worship more than anything. God no longer relates to us on the basis of the law, He relates to us on the basis of what Jesus has done on our behalf. This revelation of being free from the law liberates the believer to express the worship that is unceasing in his/her spirit. And this worship, that comes from a liberated heart, results in all kinds of glorious, effortless fruit unto God. 

As Matt Redman wrote in a song, “Worship comes from seeing You.” We cannot worship in spirit and truth while we are still behind the veil. We are hindered in our worship to the extent that His goodness is veiled to us. The veil of the law has been torn so that all who believe can look fully, boldly, confidently in the smiling, glorious Face of Jesus.

John 4:23
“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.”

2 Corinthians 3:13-18
“…and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”    

- Anneline

The varied texture of worship cannot be confined to convention, formulas, methods, melodies, keys, frequencies or popular expression. Worship is as infinitely multi-faceted as our Creator... as Graham Cooke says, "Whatever God is, He is infinitely... He is love, infinitely; He is joy, infinitely..." We cannot simply reduce our knowledge of the character of God to twelve qualities we learn at a bible college... 

He is infinite in Who He is, in His expression. 

As a people, as His bride, as His body, we each, uniquely and exquisitely reflect a facet of His infiniteness.  We cannot elevate our expression above or below another's. Coming together we bear His fruit, blend our unique fragrances into a sweet perfume for His pleasure. As we honour and love and prefer one another, the worship that is released is an intoxicating wine from Love Himself.

Worship is in praise, worship is in the fast and slow, the loud and soft, the crazy and calm, the prophetic and declaration, the intimacy and intercession... worship is the heart that sees Him - and He is all in all.

I had a dream some months ago where Heidi Baker said to me, "Be free from the care of religion. When religion tells you to sing softer, sing louder; when religion tells you to go faster, go slower..." The heart is simply one that is yielded to Him, His reality, and not to religious form or dictate.

The songs I write are an expression from my heart to my King and I don't ever want to conform to popular demand so as to be acceptable, to be purchasable. He has purchased me at the price of His blood - and that is the sweetest, richest treasure.

May you encounter Him as you listen. As a believer, you are already in the encounter of Who He is. 

Enjoy Him, He's enjoying you.

- Anneline