Revelations 3:2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. KJV
Dangerous Temptation
Micromanaging is all about the finite interfering with the Infinite flow of the Holy Spirit, servants, deducing that they must impede the fluency of the work of God on behalf of those they serve by not trusting God enough as a Teacher, they nitpick at the Word, control what is to be said and meddle with the anointing of God. Instead of the Holy Spirit breathing life into a situation, human beings in leadership begin breathing down the necks of other human beings, setting a fixed comfort zone by their wisdom which comes from their human experiences, and boxing in His Holy Spirit by that finite point of view. This is a dangerous temptation for servant leaders and we need to side step it, we need to serve God wholly-holy and be led by The Holy Spirit in complete followship, belief and trust of Him. Lord Jesus, let it be so in our hearts. We repent of micromanagement and holy align ourselves to the fullness of Your Living Word. This is Your world, Your mission, Your future plans and followship and faithfulness needs to be founded upon You, out of our vital-vertical relationship with You. Hands off and heart surrendered we fully face You. Change us Lord God!
And know this: in the last days, times will be hard. You see, the world will be filled with narcissistic, money-grubbing, pretentious, arrogant, and abusive people. They will rebel against their parents and will be ungrateful, unholy, uncaring, coldhearted, accusing, without restraint, savage, and haters of anything good. Expect them to be treacherous, reckless, swollen with self-importance, and given to loving pleasure more than they love God. Even though they may look or act like godly people, they’re not. They deny His power. I tell you: Stay away from the likes of these. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 The Voice
Micromanage = Devalue NOT Disciple
Sometimes our humanity stinks, it reeks of the odor of people trying to control people; put them in boxes, and compartmentalize their freedom according to a comfort zone that is set up by the viewpoint of the experiences of one leader. Let us never be a servant leader who micromanages people, atmospheres or ministry, because this is NOT the example Jesus set. When you micromanage, you devalue. Jesus was a servant Who added value to everything, every one, every life experience He was present in. He calls us to do the same, to go and make disciples of people.
Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18- 19 New Living Translation
Micromanage Multi-Campus
The biggest temptation in our generation when it comes to our churches, especially multi-campus churches with large memberships, is to micromanage people; it is a joy to our enemy to see this temptation stepped into, because it shuts out the power of the anointing of God’s Holy Spirit and the great commission of making disciples becomes dysfunctional and we create church volunteers, who never grow into Disciples of Christ.
“God has uniquely gifted every person. Leaders are tasked with seeing those gifts, feeding them, and giving people room to use them to the fullest extent. Micro managers either cannot or will not do this. They see people as tools to be wielded or foolish sheep to be shepherded. They cannot recognize that the people under them may be better at certain tasks and responsibilities and that this is a good thing! Those serving under a micro manager cannot reach the potential God has imbued them with until they are free to use their gifts. Micro-managers stand in their way.” Author Barnabas Piper
NO Micromanaging = NO Re-Gifting
Experience is not to be boxed and re-gifted. When we experience Christ among us, it is always new. God is very creative and we should be swept up in the flow of this divine creativity as His purposes freely flow in us and through us. We human beings tend to work very hard at compartmentalizing God and creating an atmosphere in our church according to the preset comfort zones of a few leaders. We set up our man made rules that reinforce human comfort. How do we get to know God when He is so chopped up in compartments and zoned for comfortable experience? Get to know God, but stay in this box to do so is kind of a rote paradox.
And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote. Isaiah 29:13 NLT
Show And Tell – Say And Do
We lead our people, we tell them to embrace the fullness of God, we teach them to NOT to be afraid of the Holy Spirit, to embrace all of Him, to receive all He has to offer, yet behind the scenes, leaders edit out parts of the word, to “protect” their church from weird experiences. How funny is our human nature! We tell people not to fear knowing and receiving the Holy Spirit, yet we ourselves micromanage their experience of Him according to the comfort zone of our denomination. We cut out a piece of the Holy Spirit, don’t even talk about it, and edit it from our sermons in the back rooms of our church leadership meetings. Yes we tell others to fully give yourself to the Holy Spirit, while all along we are “micromanaging” what we share about Him according to what we “feel” comfortable with. This could very well explain why we, God’s church gets tagged with the title of “hypocrites”.
You pretenders (hypocrites)! Admirably and truly did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said: These people draw near Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far away from Me. Uselessly do they worship Me, for they teach as doctrines the commands of men. And Jesus called the people to Him and said to them, Listen and grasp and comprehend this: It is not what goes into the mouth of a man that makes him unclean and defiled, but what comes out of the mouth; this makes a man unclean and defiles him. Matthew 15:7-11 Amplified Bible
Micromanaging Foolishness
How funny is it that we have gotten to the place where we think we can even “Micromanage” The Holy Spirit. Only human beings could be that foolish to edit out of scriptures things we are not comfortable with and think that we can manage The Holy Spirit according to our compartmental comfort zones. This is nothing short of the religiosity that tried Jesus’ patience when He walked on this earth.
How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. Psalm 78:40-42 King James Version
Glean – Growing Through
Do we as leaders even submit to God wholly-holy, or do we keep climate-control of the relationship of God and His church through our leadership tactics. Do we keep “control” on the comfort of our congregations? I have experienced leaders who took matters in their own hands and hid things from their congregations with this rationalization: We need to make sure the people don’t find out about this, let’s protect them from it, when all along, maybe God intended for them to “grow through” a hard situation and glean wisdom and new character from it.
“Through these things, we have received God’s great and valuable promises, so we might escape the corruption of worldly desires and share in the divine nature. To achieve this, you will need to add virtue to your faith, and then knowledge to your virtue; to knowledge, add discipline; to discipline, add endurance; to endurance, add godliness; to godliness, add affection for others as sisters and brothers; and to affection, at last, add love.” 2 Peter 1: 4-7 The Voice
Micromanagement Trap
I wonder as God gifted leaders in this generation, if micromanagement is a trap of our enemy to hold us back from experiencing the fullness God has for us, as His Bride. Are we truly open to learn of and know God and lead the people He has put us with to serve? Or do we “edit” out parts of Him that we ourselves don’t want to deal with because of the discomfort it brings our humanity. Do we run from being stretched by God? The enemy entices us to be micro-managers, to walk independent of God, by our own strength and comfortable finite ways.
No one who is tempted should ever be confused and say that God is testing him. The One who created us is free from evil and can’t be tempted, so He doesn’t tempt anyone. When a person is carried away with desire, lured by lust, and when desire becomes the focus and takes control, it gives birth to sin. When sin becomes fully grown, it produces death. If you give in to temptation and desire, then sin is born. If you give in to sin long enough, it overpowers you and costs you your life. My dearly loved brothers and sisters, don’t be misled. James 1:13-16
No Compartmentalizing
As leaders in the Bride of Christ, when we compartmentalize The Holy Spirit and The Living Word of God into the chunks that can be said and the parts that can’t be said, how can we rationalize that this is embracing God fully? The editing of the Word that goes on in our generation stems from leaders trying to micromanage God’s people. I can imagine that as aggravating as that is to me at times, it is more aggravating to God. WE don’t trust Him wholly-holy and neither do we believe the Holy Spirit is able to rightly divide the Word to our church and teach us Spirit to spirit.
Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved, tested by trial, a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing, rightly handling and skillfully teaching the Word of Truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 Amplified Bible
Micromanagement Failure
As leaders in the church we ask the people to open their hearts to God and fully embrace Him. As we micromanage and box in the level of experience for our church, does this become more like a do as I say and not a do as I do kind of thing? Yes it is. When the Word is compartmentalized in the back rooms of our church leadership meetings, where we decide what can be said and what can’t be said from the Word, then we are not leading by example when we ask others to fully embrace God. If we find ourselves in a leadership discussion where we are trying to manipulate and edit what can be said and what can’t be said, we are leading from the flesh, and not giving the Spirit of God the chance to rightly divide the Word and teach us by the influence and anointing of His Spirit.
“Micromanagement is a failure to trust God. He put that leader in a position to make others’ lives better, but by acting on his own, in his own wisdom, the micromanaging leader is harming them. He is harming himself by his lack of trust, too, by taking on burdens God didn’t intend for him to have. Leaders must remember who gave them their position, who gifted them to do it, and who gave the people around them their abilities. If God can do all that, He doesn’t need a leader to micromanage all the work too.” Author Barnabas Piper
Comfort Zones Breached
I feel like us human beings don’t ever get things right, me being one of those who is constantly flailing around and trying to “flesh out”, so I can hear God fully and clearly apart from my finite prejudices. We try so hard to “micromanage” everything according to our comfort zones which are set up by our personal life “experiences” and God wants to do something new every day, teaching us about the whole of Him and shaping His great character in us. It is hard to do when we have The Holy Spirit and the Word of God compartmentalized by comfort zones, which is totally unnecessary, because He is able to send forth His Word in every and any situation and it will accomplish more than we ever thought it could and it transforms miraculously those that hear it.
Isaiah 55:10-11 For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens, and return not there again, but water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless, but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Amplified Bible
Exchanged Mark
One of the ways we really exchanged a human mark for an eternal mark made on history was the Charismatic Renewal of the Catholic Church. The Holy Spirit is not weird, we humans made him out to be weird during this period of time. Yes, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit got really “human controlled” for a part of one generation and because of that things got really crazy and it became all about a finite paint by the numbers “emotional” experience. Truly, I believe it started with a fresh move of God that people tried to micromanage and that dysfunction that caused still continues till this day. The enemy set a stake in the ground of humanity, messing with the reputation of the Holy Spirit to keep us away from the power and anointing He has for us in everyday life. We exchanged the truth for a lie because we opened the door to satan by our micromanagement of a God anointed renewal.
“The only correct road to follow is the road that leads the believer closer to God and purity, and farther away from the world and sin. Just as we do not like to be grieved, and just as we do not seek to quench what is good—so we should not grieve or quench the Holy Spirit by refusing to follow His leading.” Author: gotquestions.org
Reproduced Rot
The Catholic Church did experience a very unusual “touch” of God, a renewal, it happened suddenly and God poured out revival in this church. I remember, I was part of it. Then leaders tried to bottle it up, reproduce it. It was meant for that period of time, that place, God reached down with renewal, and we humans turned it into the “Charismatic Renewal” we titled it, we boxed it up, we tried to recreate and re-gift the “experience” of it. After a while it tasted and smelled horrible like the sour manna that the Israelites kept longer than they should when they disobeyed God and tried to store up the miraculous manna for the next day. Oh what a stink that ill managed miraculous manna became, when micromanaged by human beings. When human beings try to recreate a miraculous moment of God, it truly begins to reflect the other side of goodness, evil inhabits a good face and the heart of the renewal turns to stone.
When the dew evaporated, a flaky substance as fine as frost blanketed the ground. The Israelites were puzzled when they saw it. “What is it?” they asked each other. They had no idea what it was. And Moses told them, “It is the food the Lord has given you to eat. These are the Lord’s instructions: Each household should gather as much as it needs. Pick up two quarts for each person in your tent.” So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed. Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.” But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them. Exodus 16:14-19 New Living Testament
New NOT Re-Gifted
The thing is, God is always doing something new, not something Re-Gifted, so when we micromanage an act of God and we try to recreate an experience, the only thing that happens is a really dysfunctional time period. The enemy wanted to make the Holy Spirit look freakish and he accomplished that, because for many, many years after that, churches micromanaged The Holy Spirit’s influence out of fear of the past.
Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43: 18-19 New King James Version
Personally Limited
Leaders personally limit the Holy Spirit through the tactic of micromanagement. The Bride of Christ needs to be cleansed from this. We are led to embrace the truth of the Holy Spirit, we are told not to be afraid of knowing The Holy Spirit, yet our very church leaders are still micromanaging parts of His Gifts, editing out parts of the Bible. The very thing preached about, they still are not wholly-holy in with.
“Quenching is what you do to the Spirit; grieving is how He responds to what you did. Grieving speaks of the personal anguish of the Holy Spirit when a believer quenches the holy fire that He has kindled in the heart. You do not quench the Holy Spirit without grieving the Holy Spirit, and you will not grieve the Holy Spirit unless you quench the Holy Spirit. There simply two sides of the same problem; one describes what you do, the other describes what He does. You quench, He grieves. He grieves because you quench. So as sheep wanting to be rightly related to the Great Shepherd, we must not quench the Holy Spirit.” Author John MacArthur
Trust The Teacher
Now here is a thought: Why not trust The Holy Spirit to be WHO He is, the Teacher, the ONE Who can rightly divide and teach the living word in a way that no human could ever do. He is our Teacher, so why not let Him teach instead of micromanaging HIM. Church leadership tells us one thing, to fully embrace God and His Word, yet they edit out the parts they can’t embrace, therefore Churches are not receiving the boundless gifts of the Holy Spirit.
John 3:34 For since He Whom God has sent speaks the words of God, proclaims God’s own message, God does not give Him His Spirit sparingly or by measure, but boundless is the gift God makes of His Spirit! Amplified Bible
Common Denominator
Our humanity stinks, yet I am so grateful that our God still embraces us, fully. But do we embrace Him fully? Honestly, I have been in both camps about the topic of the Holy Spirit. One side says you receive everything you need at salvation and they have a lot of good scriptures to back up there interpretation, the other side says you need three baptisms, salvation, water, Holy Spirit and they have lots of scriptures interpreted to back them up. You either get it all at salvation or salvation is not enough. Which one is it? Well, what is the common denominator of this equation? The Holy Spirit. I stand with HIM! Either way, He is still here. So why don’t we just open our lives to HIM, let HIM teach us what humanity has only managed to twist up by micromanaging HIM. Why don’t we let HIM make our finite, crooked places infinitely straight?
Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 Amplified Bible
No Quenching
I can’t figure it out! And that is a good thing, because it causes me to need Jesus, to walk with Him as my Living Word, because I know without Him, I know nothing. Why do we human beings need to figure it all out? Maybe some things are better said and then left to the interpretation of the Holy Spirit in us instead of all our man made interpretations. That is why He is here with us. He is our Teacher. He has the final word in everything!
Do not quench, suppress or subdue the Holy Spirit; 20 Do not spurn the gifts and utterances of the prophets, do not depreciate prophetic revelations nor despise inspired instruction or exhortation or warning. 1 Thessalonians 5:19-20
Unhealthy Micromanaging
Honestly, you know how in Revelations when the Lord spoke to the churches and basically talked about the quality of the church and its works, but also shared the flaws of the heart of that church. I believe that God will say to some churches: “You loved people greatly, you helped provide for them, but your leadership was lacking because you micromanaged the Holy Spirit, compartmentalized Him according to your human comfort zone, therefore you did not know Me as deeply as you should have and did not fully connect to the passion, promise and power of My Living Word, and because of this grave miscalculation, you made too many church volunteers and not enough disciples of Christ. Micromanaging people is something God never intended us to do and I think that the larger churches get, with more and more campuses, the greater the temptation is for human beings to compartmentalize and micromanage people “for” God, acting as if His Holy Spirit is not capable to do so.
“Churches that are healthy have a sense of allowing God to work in and through their people to build a healthy, loving community. Unhealthy churches tend to coerce and manipulate or micromanage their people, which does not build a healthy community. • Churches that are healthy are making disciples for the transformation of the whole person, both faith and personal life.” Dr. Richard J. Krejcir
No Middle Management
When God said His Word would not return void, He meant it, every part of it. He knew the Holy Spirit would apply it exactly when and where it is needed, purposefully so and uniquely individually so, in that special creative way only He can. We all have divine appointments with the Living Word of God that shape our individual lives; it would be a shame if we don’t meet up with these because our church leaders are micromanaging our experiences. God has a plan and it has always begun with us fully surrendered to the ALL of Him and His Word; being open hearted, fully facing Him.
“God does not need middle management as He has all the management He needs by the power and revelation of His Holy Spirit on earth. Get out of His way, and serve only in His way. All Priest-craft must go, “apostle-craft, prophet-craft, and pastor-craft included,” and they all must surrender to the Master-craft of all creation, Jesus our Lord. Ungodly hierarchy has no place in the Kingdom of God. Leaders are called to serve. The greatest of leaders becomes the servant of all. Servant leaders never micromanage or manipulate others; rather, they exercise their power in constructive ways to serve others and empower them to be more effective and character-driven.” Author: Robert Ricciardelli
God took the first step to rescue us from this corrupt world. He has granted us His power, revealed to us true knowledge, and spoken to us great promises. He has done all this for a reason: that we might participate in His own nature and reflect His own life.
But we are not passive observers of God’s saving actions. We must receive His grace, grow in knowledge, and join Him in this work of redemption. The Voice Commentary
Selah! Seek God First!
“It would be said, ‘We must change the management,’ and there would be this change and that change; but if the Lord were gone, what could you do? By what means could you ever make this church to revive again, or any other church? Alas! for the carnal, spasmodic efforts we have seen made in some churches! Prayer meetings badly attended, no conversions, but still they have said, ‘Well, it is imperative upon us to keep up a respectable appearance; we must collect the congregation by our singing, by our organ, or some other outward attraction:’ and angels might have wept as they saw the folly of men who sought anything except the Lord, who alone can make a house his temple; who alone can make a ministry to be a ministration of mercy; without whose presence the most solemn congregation is but as the herding of men in the market, and the most melodious songs but as the shoutings of those who make merry at a marriage. Without the Lord, our solemn days, our new moons, and our appointed feasts, are an abomination such as his soul hates.” Author: Charles Spurgeon
Revelations 3:8 I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can close. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me. New Living Translation
The Servant Table is a place where Jesus serves up His meals of exhortation to His Servant Warriors, those in ministry for him, servant leaders. Jesus makes spiritually nutritious meals for his servants, which help us grow robust, keeping our hearts strong and vitally connected to Him. Please leave a comment on this meal, and encourage other servant leaders! Please share this with your social media venues! God bless you much and do everything to you do unto Jesus! KimberlyMac