Do What They Ask You To Do

Years ago, when I began receiving opportunities/invitations to minister in my home church & in other churches, my pastor taught me...“If they ask you to sing, don’t preach. If they ask you to preach, don’t sing.”

He was teaching me to do exactly what I was asked to do & to not try & freestyle. In my young understanding, I submitted to this.

I now know that my pastor was imparting much wisdom in my life. He was teaching to honor protocol & to be a submitted & seated son. He was teaching me ministerial etiquette. He was teaching me about order, function & authority. He was helping me hone my gift & walk worthy of my vocation.

We need Spiritual Fathers who will CHEER for us, CORRECT us, & CHALLENGE us. This is a great need in ministry training today.

Sadly, it seems, more & more, we are seeing the rise & fall of superstar speakers who think they're the next, ________ & want to rent a warehouse, preach into a camera & have someone follow them around with a camera as they display their newest wardrobe & walk from the Green room to the pulpit. 🤦🏻‍♂️

QUESTION: How is Christ being exalted & sinners being saved...by us watching you be filmed walking to the make-up chair, dressing room, green room, the platform & then behind the scenes to be toweled down by 10 armorbearers?

A revival of HUMILITY would do us well. 🔥

If they ask you to preach...PREACH.
If they ask you to sing...SING.

Do WHAT you're asked, WHEN you're asked, WHERE you're asked, HOW you're asked & don't forget WHY you were asked in the first place.

Good teaching will keep you.
Russell Hylton

@Leaguership

www.russellhylton.com 

Can You Be Trusted?

When you place your TRUST in someone, you're confirming your confidence in their integrity, ability & character. That is not a light thing. In fact, when you give someone your trust, you are giving them a very close space near your heart...an area that is tender & willingly open. For trust to continue, there must be a sacred covenant of loyalty & an internal decision not to misuse that trust.

One example: As a pastor/minister, when I stand in someone else's pulpit...I realize that I am there by invitation & given latitude to operate in my gifts & abilities for the glory of God & the good of those who have placed their trust in me. I am careful to operate in proper alignment with the leadership of the house & not to assume that I can just "take my liberty", because of the anointing (empowerment to serve) I sense. I always bare in mind that I am invited to function in my calling & gift in divine alignment with the angel of the house. I don't "freestyle" or "pull rabbits out of hats" when I have the mic. Trust has been placed in me either through relational equity or experience, to carry the continuity of the house...being mindful of the climate & culture of the house while fulfilling my assignment.

I have seen trust trampled on because of showmanship & personal desire. Sadly, when you can no longer trust a person to operate in proper protocol, you can no longer ENTRUST them with responsibility. To entrust means to give over (something) to another for care, protection or performance.

Basically, there are two kinds of people who seek to be in a relationship with you: 1) Those who want what's in your heart. 2) Those who want what's in your hand. You have to discern the difference. It's one thing for you to enter into people's lives...but another to entrust your life to them.

One way that I've learned to gauge trust is in the way someone talks to me about someone else. If they reveal entrusted secrets to you & you still entrust them with your secrets...you're just asking for heartbreak.

Years ago, someone I trusted spoke negatively to me about a mutual friend. I was rather shocked, not at the things they were trying to allude to in a negative connotation, but because I knew this person they were talking bad about had been very good to them & I too held that person in high regard. I didn't immediately pull back my trust in this person, but I watched the way they operated from that point forward & eventually knew that I couldn't carry the same level of relationship with them as I had before. I realized that if they talked about someone else to me...they would talk about me to someone else, too.

Now, don't get me wrong. I believe in repentance, restoration & plenty of "second chances”. I've extended many olive branches in my life & I've also had olive branches extended to me, as well. I believe in graceful relationships. I believe that we should see the best in one another...be honest & forthright with one another...not seek to plot someone's downfall with hearsay, secret meetings, plots & schemes. Thankfully, those things backfire on people who live like that. It is ALWAYS best to talk with a person face-to-face, rather than to believe what's being said about them. True covenant relationship is, "I will talk with you...not about you."

Once trust is broken, it's difficult to recover it. However, it can be recovered through the help of The Lord. It might be a marriage relationship, ministry relationship, employee/employer relationship, etc. God is able to restore all things.

To be trusted is a big deal. To be loved & trusted is a great responsibility. Manage both well.

Every Blessing,

Russell Hylton

Leaguership

ALIGNMENT structures ANOINTMENT for ASSIGNMENT

The complexities of ministry are best understood in retrospect. As I look back over my shoulder, I see more clearly the path that God laid for my future. 

I didn't set out to "pastor."  I did, however, feel the "pull & desire" to SERVE in ministry wherever, whenever & whatever.  It's as I served the Lord & His leaders that doors began to open for me. Doors I didn't imagine. Doors that my leaders helped open for me, through the Holy Spirit's leading. 

I remained "undercover" (and still am). I never made a move without FIRST coming to my leader(s) & laying before them the burden & burning of my heart. Then I left it there & kept doing what I was doing. No rush. No hurry. Sure, I was full of excitement & expectation but not looking for a "new thrill"...when everything God had for me was already before me & if I would just OCCUPY what I was already assigned...my NOW would produce my NEXT.

When the Lord begins to order your footsteps, He ALIGNS you. 

• He aligns you to His Kingdom purpose
• He aligns you with those you're serving 
• He aligns you in such a way that there is no confusion

The ALIGNMENT structures the ANOINTMENT 

that equips you for the ASSIGNMENT!

There remains in me an inward confidence & a Godly fear all rolled into one.  A confidence that God will NOT fail, has not failed and never will fail. This knowledge keeps me on the edge of my seat with an expectation that God is at work IN all things and THROUGH all things in my life. 

When you feel the STIRRING of The Lord, it's not always a change of BOATS...but rather a knowledge of where to best CAST your NET for Kingdom Harvest.  It's so important to be in covenant with a spiritual father/mother who will GUIDE you, PROTECT you & COVER you.  Without their blessing & covering, you'll be tempted to do things in the FLESH while trying to classify it as "The SPIRIT" leading.  For this reason we find a DIFFERENCE in those who are SENT and those who WENT. (Read more about this subject)

God is a God of order. He doesn't operate in confusion, coercion or collusion.  He operates in the LIGHT.   For example: If God has truly spoken to me about something He wants me to work towards, He will have me consult with those I'm "under" & "submitted" to.  He WILL NOT have me get everyone else's opinion (those who I'm not submitted to), work my own plan & then try to lay it out before my leader as if it's an already done deal. He will have me operate in ALIGNMENT because ALIGNMENT structures the ANOINTMENT that equips me for my ASSIGNMENT.

In the Kingdom of God, PROTOCOL is PARAMOUNT.  Without it, we are a runaway train heading down the wrong track.  May I also add, a dangerous practice in the Body of Christ is identifying ourselves by titles BEFORE our gift is fully proven.  (Notice that the early church knew this & set up PROTOCOLS when laying hands on anyone.)

If God has CALLED you, rest assured He will QUALIFY you...and it won't be in the way you see it or expect it.  We must get our eyes off of PEOPLE and quit listening to POPCORN PROPHETS who are gifted in TALK but lack a quality WALK in the Kingdom of God.

Friend...everything isn't "Thus saith The Lord!"  Allow me to teach here:  It's best to give prophetic words without a label. There's no need to say, "The Lord said or the Lord told me to tell you" unless necessary. 

Stay in ALIGNMENT & you'll receive the ANOINTMENT for the ASSIGNMENT.

Selah