One of the most important things about those who carry the Blessing of the Lord is the need to live in covenant with God.
For the Joshua generation this meant renewing the covenant before they possessed the Land of Promise. Joshua knew about the promises that the Lord had made to Abraham and how they would possess their own land and govern themselves one day. He also knew that Abraham carried the Blessing and bequeathed it to Isaac who passed it onto Jacob who in turn passed it unto his twelve sons including Joseph. He understood the power of a covenant and the fact that: if God makes a covenant with you, he will fulfil it. It was well document how God had called Abraham (Gen. 12) and how he had blessed him and made him the richest man in the East (Gen 13). He also knew that God had cut a covenant with Abraham and promised to give the land of Canaan to his off-springs. He knew that he was he recipient of that covenant. So to receive the covenant promises Joshua knew what he ought to do. He had to keep the covenant as written in the book of the law (the Pentateuch) by Moses. After the whole nation had crossed the Jordon river on dry land [this was Joshua’s first miracle on his own], Joshua gathered them together at Gilgal and circumcised all the fighting men. These were the ones who were born in the wilderness and who had not known or seen the miracles of the Lord on their exit from Egypt. Circumcision signifies a binding agreement between the people and the Lord. It was here at Gilgal that the reproach of slavery in Egypt had been rolled away for the Israelites. This was a training camp where soldiers were trained to fight and wounded soldiers were healed before they were allowed to go back into battle. And nearly 1000 years later, the eternal covenant was enacted on the cross at Calvary when the reproach of the heart [disobedience to God] was rolled away from the whole of humanity at Golgotha which is derived from Gilgal. And so the old has become new again and wounded people, sick people, those who were outcasts can be trained, healed and restored at Gilgal [Calvary]. A good leader then must be a covenant person whose heart has been circumcised and the flesh that is prone to cause endless trouble is cut away once and for all. The promises of God are tied to the blessing of the Lord. Once we learn to keep the promises we will then activate the Blessing. Read Joshua 5&6.
Words to live by as we lead by carrying the blessing and prepare to pass it on to the next generation IV
Posted in Progressive Leadership | Tags: Circumcision, Covenant, disobedience, Governance, History, Promise Land, Promises, Reproach, The Heart
as we lead by carrying the Blessing and make preparation to hand it on to the next generation 3
A good leader must have a great mentor. However, the problem with having a great mentor is the tendency to copy all what they 
did and to try to emulate their actions and mannerisms. When Moses led the people out of Egypt, it is estimate that there were more than one million people including women and children [there were six hundred thousand men, Ex: 12:37); Joshua was by his side as his understudy. Throughout the forty years that they travelled around the wilderness, Joshua was by the side of Moses. Joshua saw the red sea parted in the early days by Moses listening to the voice of the Lord (Ex 14); he saw and tasted the bitter sweet water at Marah (Ex 15:22-26). He saw water flow from a rock and was instrumental in defeating the Amalekites (Ex 17:1-7), although there were not utterly destroyed at this stage (Ex 17:8-16). Even though Joshua was mentored by Moses, God wanted him to be his own man, to have his own experiences and his own testimony to tell. So the Lord told Moses that he would not cross over to the Promised Land but Joshua would succeed him and fulfil this part of the plan (Deut. 31:1-9). In the beginning of the book of Joshua the Lord reminded Joshua that Moses was dead. This was rather strange, since eight weeks prior Moses had presented their new charge to them and they had spent the previous thirty days mourning his death. However, the Lord reminded Joshua that the old order was dead and it was now time for a new order to arise up and possess the land. Joshua needed his own mandate to stamp his own style of leadership on this new generation. So he needed to hear that Moses was dead and that he must be courageous in his new role. Although his mentor was now gone, God was still with him. To become a good leader ensure that you have a great mentor, someone who will spend time with you and will tell you the truth and challenge you about every aspect of your life. For example, who is questioning you about your prayer life? or about your marriage or your personal development? If the answer to these questions is no one, then you need a mentor. Read Joshua 4.
Posted in Progressive Leadership | Tags: Experience, Following, Growing, Leading, Mentee, Mentorng, Time, Truth
as we lead by carrying the Blessing and make preparation to hand it on to the next generation 2
Carrying the Blessing requires that you become a ‘good’ leader. For us to become a ‘good leader’ there are certain things we
need to implement in our lives and we need to stick to them. Obviously if there are good leaders, there will be bad ones. Bad leaders are not bad people per se, they just make bad decisions. An example of this is Saul, the first king of Israel. During his tenure as king of God’s people, he made some awful decision. See 1Samuel 14:24 where he instructed his soldiers to go on fasting whilst fighting the enemy and almost killed his own son because he did not hear about the command and ate some honey. Similarly when he was instructed by the Lord to destroy all the Amelikites, he spared their king and kept the best of the cattle. Needless to say that Saul was rejected as king and ended up dying an ignominious death on his own sword. On the other hand good leaders ensure that they are accountable and are hearing from God about what to do. David had Ahitophel who counselled him for years until he joined the conspiracy of Absalom 2Sam 16:23. Joshua had Moses who mentored him, Elsha had Elijah and so on. Good leaders need to be good followers and to develop traits that will stay with them for a lifetime. Traits such as: loyalty, faithfulness, trustworthiness, confidentiality and so on. To carry the Blessing of the Lord we need to be people of integrity, that is, our words must be reflected in our actions. All these traits must be underpinned by great faith. Follow the faith of your leader/mentor but try to avoid their faults. Read Joshua 3.
Posted in Progressive Leadership | Tags: Following, Hearing, Honesty, Integrity, Leadership, Listening, Relaibility
as we lead by carrying the Blessing and make preparation to hand it on to the next generation
Since Adam, which in the Hebrew language means reddish man, was the first to be created, he had the responsibility to ensure 
that the order that God created originally is maintained. Firstly, Adam was created as a spiritual man (Gen. 1:27) who had no form i.e. no physicality and he only became a physical human being when God fashioned him from the dust of the earth and breathed the created Adamic spirit into his nostrils. Thus he became a living breathing spirit filled man (Gen 2:7). So Adam became a physical man with an eternal spirit with the remit to carry the Blessing of the Lord and pass it on, i.e. be fruitful, replenish the earth and take dominion over it (Gen. 1:28). Adam was deceived by the serpent and lost his ability to pass on the blessing of the Lord. So Abraham walked with God and was called his friend. Isaac, Jacob and Joseph carried the Blessing in spite of their character faults and passed it on. The purpose of Jesus coming in human form is to restore the order that once was and allow each individual, starting with the man, to walk again in the Blessing of the Lord. Although the Blessing of the Lord a huge topic, it is a vital ingredient of the believer’s walk. It is our responsibility to carry the blessing and to pass it on unto at least three generations of our offspring. However, the Blessing is not just material things but comes in its fullness when we become recipients of the covenant made between God and Abraham in Gen 12 and explained in Galatians 3 particularly vv.13 -18. When we become people who live by faith we learn to activate the Blessing. So today let us become spiritual people by living ‘in Christ’ so that we can become friends of God. Read Joshua 2.
Posted in Progressive Leadership | Tags: Adam, Blessing, Creation, friendship, Natual, Spiritual, Supernatural
As I learn how to I develop my leadership role in my family first and then in my community and my local church?
To develop suggests that we are going to dig deep then polish off any rough edges that we find when we unearth our treasures. 
The objective for developing our roles is to get a biblical understanding from the study of the lives of particular biblical characters, so that we are empowered to fulfil our roles in our families, our communities and our fellowship. To meet these objectives we firstly need to reflect back on the role of the original human as defined in the biblical narrative of the book of Genesis. From the creation narrative we notice that after the infrastructure of the earth was created, that is everything was set in its place, human being or humanity was created and given a specific mandate, viz “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over everything.” We must recognise here that the creation narrative states that God created ‘male and female’ v.27 and he Blessed them in v.28 and gave them the mandate to be fruitful and to multiply. We can draw from this narrative that God was and is not a misogynist [a hater of women]. The concept of men dominating women was not in God’s original mandate but came after the deception and the introduction of sin in Gen 3:8ff, as the very good creation, humanity heard the voice of the Lord, but ignored it and listened to the deception of the fallen angel, Lucifer, instead vv.1-7. This instituted the notion of curses on humanity, which leads to toil and hard labour to achieve the things we want. Our objective should be to get our minds aligned with our spirit so that from today we to start to listen and tune into the voice of the Lord [Adonai] God [Yahweh] again. So to become a leader in all the spheres of my existence I need to Live by Faith and activate the Blessing in my life so as to become a Friend of God. We will start the leadership process by reading from Joshua 1.
Posted in Progressive Leadership | Tags: Blessing, Faith, Followership, Leadership, Roles & Responsibilities
as I ‘realise’ who the real me is!
Spiritual intelligence is the ability to realise who you are to live your life in that awareness. It is associated with 
emotional intelligence which is the ability to perceive, assess and manage your emotions and that of others if necessary. I am of the opinion that emotions have no intelligence and therefore must be managed by being spiritually alive so that the driving force inside the individual is their spirituality. Your spirituality is the ability to know who you are and to understand the higher spiritual qualities and attributes you possess which are peace, purity, faith, joy, hope and so on, which are attributes of the fruit of the spirit, which is love (Gal 5:22). This realisation allows the spiritual intelligent individual to live on a different level from those in the kingdom of darkness. It is clear in scripture that if you are not in the kingdom of light you are in the kingdom of darkness; and there is no middle ground. Once we realise who we are we are able to exercise our spiritual gifts appropriately. Unlike the Corinthians, we must not use our spiritual gifts for the wrong reasons. They used the gift of ‘tongues’ to demonstrate to those that did not exercise that gift that they were better than them. Let me remind readers here that this gift is given to everyone who has been ‘born again’ of the spirit and it is rightly termed as the ‘evidence’ of the New Birth. As we become spiritually intelligent we realise that there is no other form of exclusive evidence that indicates this new birth [for those who want to contest this, contact me]. To counter this misappropriation of the gifts, the apostle Paul encouraged them to seek to prophesy rather than speaking excessively in tongues, since the former is speaking what you have heard from God, whilst the latter is speaking mysteries to God in ‘angelic’ language. So today try to develop your spiritual intelligence and keep your emotions in check. Remember, emotions have no intelligence! Read 1Corinthians 14.
Posted in Wisdom | Tags: gifting, gifts, Intelligence, Prpohecy, Spirituality, Tongues, Vices, Virtues
as we live under the canopy of love!
I am intrigued at the lack of spiritual intelligence that there is among believers. We have been conned into piety and the 
inability to bring transformation to our communities by our lack of understanding of the will of God for humanity. There are many Christians who exist or live under the shadow of death because of lack of knowledge. Indeed the prophet Hosea says that the people of God perish because of lack of knowledge (Hosea 6:4). We are in the season [a particular time in history] when natural knowledge is increasing and so must the level of spiritual knowledge increase. For me this means activating the knowledge and living under the canopy of God. What does all this mean? We must become spiritually intelligent, that is, we must know why we exist and understand the purposes for which we are here. If we fail to do this we will leave this life without leaving a mark in the sands of time. As Christians we are called to exhibit our covenant relationship with God to those who are in the kingdom of darkness. We do this by activating the blessing of the Lord. Since the Blessing of the Lord make you, the believer in Christ rich, and he, Christ, adds no sorrow or toil to it (Proverbs 10:22). We are called to live under the blessing rather than under the curse. We are called to love all those we come into contact with by demonstrating the kingdom authority we possess. We are called to exercise the power to govern, to reproduce and to show leadership in all spheres of life. We can only do this when we love those who hate us and forgive those who despitefully use us. so today, let us chose the more excellent way as the précis of 1Corinthians 13 reveals to us.
Posted in The Armour of God | Tags: Dominion, Emotional intelligence, Kingdon Principles, Leadership, Love, Spiritual intelligence
as we give greater attention to developing our minds!
Our body parts are very important and no individual part is of greater importance than any of the others. We can live 
without certain parts of our bodies and can function as though they were never there. However there are certain parts that are absolutely necessary for us to function and if we did not have them we would not be able to exist. Similarly, there are parts of our spiritual body, that is, the spiritual set available to all believers that we can live without. We are encouraged by the apostle Paul to seek to prophesy so that we can bring revelation to people. As you are aware prophets are those who speak as they hear the heartbeat of God.
The body can operate without the little finger, and even operate without one of the hands. However it cannot operate functionally without one of the major internal organs such as the liver or the intestines or the heart. These organs are vital for all human beings to survive. To survive as a spiritual being, we also need our major spiritual organs to be intact. So although we can live as spiritual beings and do so happily without prayer, fasting or reading the word, we cannot exist without a renewed mind. Our mind is like the physical heart in our bodies. Everything occurs in the mind and if our minds are not renewed we will die spiritually. It is from our minds that we activate the various gifts that are available to us. It is our minds that are renewed first when we are born again. It is in our minds that we must first overcome the battle against the evil one. David had to believe that he could defeat Goliath (1Samuel 17); Daniel had to believe that the lions would not eat him (Daniel 6:19-28) and Peter had to believe that he could walk to Jesus on water (Matt 14:28). Today let us cherish all the parts of our body, but let us give the greater attention to our minds, for it is from here that our spirits are renewed and our faith is made alive. Renew your mind and build it on the foundations of love! Read 1Corinthians 13.
Posted in The Armour of God | Tags: body Parts, Fingers, Heart, Love, Physical, Spiritual, Underpining
as we make our claim for what is rightfully ours!
A family is comprised of many people who are all different. They have different needs and different aspirations. The 
decisions they make at a young age will have a massive impact on them for the rest of their lives. All family members were born with the same raw materials and each one has the propensity to develop into a fully formed human being. We are all given gifts at birth how we use and develop them determines how unsuccessful or successful we become. It is our gifts that makes room for us (Prov. 18:16), it opens doors and brings us into the presence of people of influence. When a new baby is born great celebration is made because another miracle has occurred. The birth of a child is a still a miracle, although our scientists are advanced in their research into the process of reproduction; they cannot produce a living organism without the raw ingredients that comes from God, the seed and the human egg.
Similarly, when an individual is ‘born again of the sprit’, there is great celebration by the father and all the spirits [angels] around the throne in heaven. The new individual is given spiritual gift and these gifts must be worked so that they can develop. It is a shame that many spiritual babies grow chronologically but never develop the spiritual gifts that were deposited in them at birth. There are a variety of gifts (1Cor 12:4) and they are all available to all of us. There is wisdom, knowledge and faith; healing, miracles and prophecy; discerning of spirits, tongues and interpreting of tongues (1Cor 12:8-11); Then there is preaching, teaching and exhorting; giving, leading and showing compassion (Romans 12:5-9). All these gifts are available to us so no one can claim boredom in the kingdom of God. Today say with me; ‘it’s my inheritance, since I am a seed of Abraham because of what Christ has done, and I claim my gift in Jesus’ name.’ Read 1Corinthians 12.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Eggs, gifts, Greatness, Inheritance, Seed, Spiritual Birth, Unclaimed
as get in order and keep in step with the Holy Spirit
Sometimes we forget who it is we are supposed to be worshipping. And this anointing of forgetting allows us to develop a 
false concept of who God is and whose we are. Some men act like women others dress like women. Some go to the extent of removing all evidence from their bodies which would indicate that they were men. In Corinth there were men who used to do similar things. They would walk up and down the streets with well oiled bodies looking for other men to engage with. Sadly this trait is still with us and there are people in positions of authority who condone and even commend these actions. However, in the Church, there is a definite order. And this order cannot be violated. This lack of understanding of who we are will creep into our worship and cause us to propagate the wrong concept of who we are supposed to be and the order we are supposed to follow. When God created the world he set everything in order and then he created man on the sixth day. He put him in charge of everything that was created and commanded him to have dominion over them. After a while he created woman [a man with a womb] as a partner for him. This order continued for some time until the couple were deceived and chaos set in. Today we are the beneficiaries of the deception and the chaos, but we can circumvent this. The only way this can be circumvented is by restoring the original order and this is done by accepting the fact that Jesus Christ has paid the ultimate price for the original deception by dying on the cross and thus atoning for the sin of Adam. So how can we benefit? We can benefit by putting our faith in Christ, accepting him for what he has done and coming under his order. So the natural order for those who want to worship in Spirit and in truth should be:- we worship God the father, through Jesus Christ the son in the power of the Holy Spirit. Although the Father, Son and Spirit are one, there is a natural order in the Godhead and this should be replicated in every church which is the body of Christ. When we are in Christ we are in ORDER. Read 1 Corinthians 11.
Posted in The Armour of God | Tags: Concept, disobedience, Dominion, Forgetting, Obedience, Order
Pastor Bell's Words To Live By 