Disrupt the System

A Year in Review.

Recently, I was asked how I would rate the value of my activity throughout 2022. I needed time to pause and reflect on my answer. After all, 2022 was a big year involving over one-hundred days of travel across ten nations. The year included speaking at several international business leadership gatherings as well as coaching sessions with dozens of business and governmental leaders of influence from across the world.?

My response went something like this, “I have been called a lover of God and people, an influencer of nations, a facilitator of encounters with Heaven, a trouble maker and a heretic… I would say that is a pretty successful year.”

And it was. I had taken the baton passed by Jesus to be the light of the world very seriously.?

Cause and Effect.

Disruption is an effect caused by blessing. That’s right, blessing disrupts the status quo. Blessing changes things.?

Blessing affords us access to new favor that requires new skill sets, new questions, new risks and new systems to light the way forward. When a leader is accessing favor at one particular level, then is blessed to access favor at a new level, change is inevitable. And that change will always be disruptive to people and processes.?

When it comes to leadership, of the many areas disrupted by blessing, legacy systems sit right at the top of the list. Why? Because legacy systems prove trustworthy and faithful over time to help the leader steward the favor they have been entrusted with up to that point. However, legacy systems can create an illusion of security. Legacy systems can seem illuminating as they help guide decision making each day. Yet, legacy systems can also keep a spiritual leader stuck in the dark while seeking to walk in the favor of the new blessing.?

Silent years.?

In reading John chapter 11 and verse 48, we get to eaves drop in on a conversation being held by some leaders who were being disrupted by the blessing of having the Light of the World in their midst.?

Approximately four-hundred years had passed since God had spoken up to this point. And, in order to keep their faith in God alive and alight in very challenging conditions, the leaders of Israel had placed some pretty robust systems and laws in place to protect their faith, their way of life—their very existence. The systems were good and necessary. The systems served their purpose by revealing how to remain holy in a hostile world. However, over time the systems had morphed from protecting and illuminating a way of life, to now becoming the way of life. The legacy systems were creating an illusion of security. In fact, it could be argued that their legacy systems had become their god.?

Enter Jesus. God. A new favor, future and freedom was revealed, but none of those new realities could be realized by holding tightly to the existing legacy systems.?

“If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him. Then the Roman army will come and destroy both our Temple and our nation.”

A New Question.

The year was 2017 when I was invited by the Lord to ask a new question of the legacy systems I had trusted and built to grow leaders strong in their leadership and faith. Over time I had asked many questions about how to improve on those systems to make them more efficient and effective, but I had never asked, the question that would threatened the very existence of those systems. What’s more, I wasn’t out looking for an excuse to do so. I was quite comfortable with the systems right where they were thank you very much.

Many dominos fell as a result of that one single question from the Lord one morning. While journaling, He said, “Mark, do you want to change the metric of success?” Now that was a new and dangerously existential question.?It was the kind of question that had potential to shatter everything.?

New Light.

A friend of mine once asked if I would install some lights in his garage. He had one, very small incandescent light that provided just enough light to do some basic tasks such as put the trash out, get in the car or store some boxes. He needed a new light because he had bought a woodworking lathe, electric grinder and drill press and needed to see properly.?

And boy, did we install some lights--A retina burning 5 Kilowatts of raw Halogen power baby! When he turned them on and opened his garage door, the neighbors had to pull down their window blinds to shield their eyes. His old lighting system could neither support nor deliver on what his new purpose required.

A new question can highlight the shortcomings of our existing legacy systems. As I allowed that new question from the Lord to shine on my activity, it became clear that the favor being offered for me to impact nations with the light of His perfect love could never be realized if I tried to steward it with my old, trustworthy legacy systems--my existing systems simply weren't designed for that. The blessing of accessing new favor, future and freedom caused a necessary disruption.

A Brutal Fact.

Past legacy systems have at times become my god. Well intentioned systems, but micro gods nonetheless. Here's a brutal fact as to how this has happened: These systems have produced false security, and these systems have been a source of my strength and even held my awe when they have performed well. Some of these systems I have managed to deconstruct. Others, perhaps are still there in my mindset.?

Any system we build that replaces the need to rely totally on the leadership of God is extremely limited and needs to be challenged and deconstructed. If not, even the works of God Himself will prove threatening to us and cause us not to step into any blessings of favor, future and freedom He has for us.

What’s Next?

Does Jesus have a new blessing of leadership favor, future and freedom for you that isn’t presently being realized due to your insecurities? What legacy systems are you being invited to shine a different light on in order for them to be challenged and released? What new question is the Lord giving you permission to ask?

Here at Anothen we are in the business of building leaders to hear from Heaven, so that they may access every blessing and walk in the fullness of the new favor, future and freedom that our always good Father has for them.?

Perhaps today you could join me in praying something like this...

“Jesus You are the light of the world. You have called me to be the light of the world as well. That means You want to reveal things to me and through me. What new question are you inviting me to ask today? Reveal to me any areas in my life and leadership where I have trusted systems above trusting You? Help me to see the systems that I have built, that frankly, need to be challenged and disrupted so that I can truly live a life of deep intimacy with you. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear what You are leading me toward today. In Your name Jesus. Amen.”

OK… let’s go and stir up some Holy mischief in 2023! Let us bring the disruption of blessing to the world by lighting up the places we are each called to lead in with His perfect love. And let's jettison any old systems that get in the way of that.

Connect with Mark today for a FREE introductory advisory call: https://anothen.co/schedule