PRINCIPLES OF LEADERSHIP

PRINCIPLES OF LEADERSHIP

Originally Aired on February 25th, 2016

The following is a text based version of this program

You've been lied to, but you don’t know how. You’ve searched, you’ve struggled, you’ve cried out.

You want the truth, but where is it? You’ve wandered, you’ve fought, you’ve strived, and you have not been satisfied. What is truth? Where is truth? Who is Truth?

The Kingdom of God.

Mind control.

The last days.

Higher dimensions.

Unity.

The power of faith.

Discovering the truth.   

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but through me.”
God has promised that he will hide us under His feathers, and under His wings, we will trust. His truth shall be our shield and our buckler. Discovering the truth with Dan Duval, is the premier program that is designed to center you on the kingdom of God, to equip you with faith in Jesus Christ, and to unveil the truth behind the lies. This program is designed to show you how to become more than you have ever imagined, through the power of truth. “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” And now, prepare for your host, Dan Duval.

[Dan] -You’re listening to Discovering The Truth, with Dan Duval. This program is designed to center you on the kingdom of God, to equip you with faith in Jesus Christ, and to unveil the truth behind the lies. This program is a production of Bride Ministries and you can find us at www.BrideMovement.com.

All right. So, I have a pretty big announcement that I am going to make at the outset of this week’s program. That announcement is, this thing that I’ve been talking about for months, and I mean for months I’ve been talking about it. I said, “Guys, we have a vision to build an internet based ministry service, in which people using their iPhone, iPod, tablet, computer, smart TV - doesn’t really matter - will be able to join with other believers from all around the world, at specific times, during which live services will play.”

There will be a worship experience, there will be an empowering, equipping message delivered. And this revolutionary idea that afterward, everyone involved will be put in discussion groups which will utilize cameras, and audio devices on their pieces of technology, to allow them face-to-face communication with like-minded believers from all around the world, empowering community. I’ve been talking about this for months. I said, “We’re gonna do it!” Guess what? We’re setting a deadline. Realistically, if everything goes the way we are pushing for it to go, we will have a prototype service, website built, everything being done by April 1st. That’s a Friday. We plan to do this on Friday nights, and we are really pressing in. I believe the Lord has given me April 1st as a target date deadline to have the internet based ministry service up and running. So we’re going after it.

We are going after it, just like we said, “We’re going to do the discipleship.” We started and launched the discipleship. Just like I said, “We’re going to start helping survivors.” We launched the help for survivors. We have a community of DID coaches now. We are underwriting the cost every month of nine survivors, and you know what? We’re going to keep adding survivors to that list as we can, indefinitely. We have vision to help thousands of survivors.

Well now, we’re going to build the internet based ministry service, and folks, this is the thing. The thing is, we move by faith and not by sight. I am realistically not looking to spend any less than, and I’m going to throw a number at you, twenty thousand dollars, on building this project. Why? Equipment. Costs. Cameras. Technology. Lighting. All that. We are doing this as a completely decentralized effort, and we are building the platform, the website, everything from scratch, and interfacing all kinds of different components. We’re bringing in an internet website developer to do it, we’re gonna pay all these costs. It’s not cheap if you wanna do it right. And we wanna do it right! We believe in the spirit of excellence as a mark of Kingdom culture. So realistically, we’re moving by faith. This isn’t a, “Oh, well if you guys don’t give us $20,000 we can’t do this thing for the Lord!” I’m gonna do it. Whether you give me money or not. Because I believe that God underwrote the project. But I believe that as partners in advancing God’s Kingdom, you can get onboard and help us. And some of you will, some of you won’t. The project is gonna move forward, and those of you that are on our email list, you’ll be getting an email about this.

We’re believing God, that through the month of March, we’re gonna produce this thing debt free. What that means is, I’m not gonna take or borrow a dime to do this. Will there be a deficit? No. Why? Because faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. I am fully convicted that this is the heart of God that we build this internet based ministry service, and so we’re gonna do it. And so all of you that are looking forward to this project, a lot of you are excited about it! You want the community that this is going to allow you to engage in, you want the ministry that’s gonna go forth, you want the regularity, you want the message of the Kingdom that we’ve been talking about to become a regular diet in your spiritual life. And well, it’s here, it’s now, it’s soon. And you know what, we’re believing God, it’s also paid for, and it’s all going to go according plan. We are birthing this thing in prayer, and we are very confident that April 1st is realistic.

So for those of you that can’t afford to financially help us, sow some prayer into this with us, stand with us in faith. I know the devil is gonna fight this, he does not want us to build this thing, because you know what? This platform could realistically host a church of tens of thousands around the world, and it could be streamlined. I mean, we could reach a lot of people with this platform, and I mean, the growth, it doesn’t have any limits! ‘Cause we’re not limited by geography at all! And so the potential is really limitless, there is so, so much on the horizon. So I hope you’re excited! If you want to support us, BrideMovement.com.

In light of what we’re setting out to do, I said, well, this will probably be a good week for me to take a little break from interviews, and creating material to put out on my own radio program. I’m going to play a recording from Australia. Now this is the trip I made to Australia in the fall of 2015 going into winter, and they had me out there to talk on the Kingdom. But they had me talk about a number of subjects. I was there for, well the whole trip was about two weeks. I was traveling, and everything else, and it was about a week of ministry, solid. And at one point, on the first night that I spoke, they had me speak on leadership. And going forward into a project like this, where you are launching a ministry service, there’s gonna be leadership that goes under that. Well, what kind of leadership is to be expected from Dan Duval? Well, you’re gonna get to hear my philosophy on leadership as I presented it to them in Australia this week, and I hope you enjoy it.

You know, I’ve really thought through this leadership thing. Well, one of the reasons is, is because I’ve seen so many ways leadership is done wrong, and I wanna avoid as many of those pitfalls as possible. I want to position everything that God has assigned to me for the greatest likeliness, likelihood of success based on what is in my power. And part of what is in my power is my own mindset. And so, you’re gonna be listening to leadership today, I’m gonna be talking about it in just a minute.

In addition to what I just said, look, we’re going in the direction of continuing the discipleship. If you wanna be part of the discipleship, you better get on that waiting list. Right now, in addition to the people that are actually in discipleship courses, we have another 120 people that are now on our discipleship course waiting list. In the next round of classes, there are going to be 120 seats available, total, unless I open up more classes than four, and have like, doubles of some of them. So if you’re not on the waiting list, you say, “Well, you know, maybe we’ll just get the email after the waiting list gets to pick their seat.” You might not get anything at all. Realistically, there are less seats than there are between the waiting list and all the people that are currently involved in this round of discipleship. I mean, this thing is just really taking off, and the reason why is because it’s producing real fruit. People that are in these discipleship courses are having real change, real empowerment, real equipping, and you know, this is why we’re producing teachers manuals, because we want those that do these classes to go out! And to use what has empowered them to empower others to be disciples of Jesus Christ. So folks, we’re growing there!

Where else are we growing? Survivors. People that have suffered through Satanic Ritual Abuse, mind-control agendas that were government sponsored. We’re helping nine people! I said that. You know, we keep adding more. More costs, but there’s more of you that are financially supporting us! So go figure, that the more people that get on board with us and our vision, the more people we are actually helping! The next step? We’re going to build a DID coaching school so we can train hundreds, thousands of DID coaches to help thousands and tens of thousands of survivors around the world! We’re just gonna keep advancing. Folks, as fast as we can advance, it seems like the Lord is just pulling us forward, dragging us. And He’s like, “It doesn’t matter if you see it or not. It does not matter if you see the provision that I have. It doesn’t matter if I have people standing up saying, we’ll stand in line to help, or not. It’s there.” So, we’re like, “Yeah!” This is Kingdom. This is where the bible comes in and says, God will provide your every need out of His abundance of riches, through His riches in glory, by Christ Jesus.

So you know, we’re growing there. We also have plans for the media studio. That didn’t go away. That didn’t go, that’s still coming! We’re going to be getting into media, movies, television, music, all that. Producing it, distributing it. Look, God has big things, he’s not done yet. This is Kingdom. So, with that said, you know, I’ll leave the rest. You know, I have books, Australia DVDs, it is available, it’s on the website. You say, “Wow, Daniel, you were preaching some pretty good stuff in Australia.” You should hear the rest of what I said! Grab the DVD. It’s on our website, not that expensive.

Folks, you’re listening to Discovering The Truth, with Dan Duval. We'll be right back.   

[Voiceover]- Hi, welcome to another great message from Full Life Church. We pray this message helps and inspires you. For more information, please visit www.4life.org.au  

[Speaker]- As I said earlier, I encourage you to open your heart to the Holy Spirit. Let God really touch your heart, Let Him minister to your heart tonight, so you can walk outta this place, fresh, filled, ignited, blessed by God. That’s what we need to do. Have a heart of expectancy, amen?

[Audience]- Amen.

[Speaker]- Can I get a real amen?

[Audience]- Amen!

[Speaker] So I’m going to get Daniel to come, but I want you all to stand, and we’re going to show our appreciation. Let’s show our appreciation.

(applause)

[Dan]- I’m really not sure if I wanna hold this mic, or leave it here. If I can’t make up my mind up, I’ll just go back and forth. I have news for everybody here. I had a revelation when I arrived, that I have red in one eye. I have green in the other eye, and a Rabbitoh in the middle! There is still hope for America! Right? And everyone that is not Rabbitoh fan just kind of stop, stop. Okay, all right. Now, Wayne actually took time to explain all this to me, so.

You know, I’m really happy to be here guys. I mean, just the fact that I am in Australia is huge! You know, with what I do, I am really finding myself at the frontline of a lot of things. And you guys are really awesome, because the people that I talk to, so far, seem to be very interested in frontline topics. So I am sure that between sessions we’re going to be having some really interesting discussions, and I’m really looking forward to that. You guys are a group of very special people, all of you, I mean, your attitude, just the love that you have for Jesus that I am sensing, is so encouraging, and to me, that just speaks volumes of Michael, who has really been piloting all this for you guys. And so, you know, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Michael over the past few days, and I’ve just been super impressed. And I just wanna honor Michael, really. Because he is an awesome man of God, a real leader, and someone that really has the heart of God beating in his chest. And so Michael, I just wanna honor you. Thank you!

(applause)

[Dan]- And so, you know, there’s so many interesting topics we could talk about. I could talk about you know, from Mars, and all kind of really strange things dealing with satanic rituals, and stuff. But today Michael asked me to talk about leadership, and I said, “You know, really, this is the thing.” In the direction that things are going, God needs real leaders. He doesn’t need people that are gonna sit in the bleachers and watch the world pass before our eyes, and complain about it. And I see a lot of christians, and that’s their M.O. “Let’s complain about everything the devil’s doing, and sit here in a back corner and talk about how you know, well, we’re not like that, and we’re just gonna disagree with it.” But really, God needs leaders. God needs real leaders. And I think that God has really big plans for the last days. And there’s a whole thing about Kingdom, right? We’re going to talk about Kingdom the whole weekend. The whole thing about Kingdom, is learning how, as citizens in God’s Kingdom, we are called to be ambassadors, in the earth, to cooperate in the agendas, and the resources of the King of kings, and Lord of lords. To enact change, and to reveal the power of God.

The thing is, Kingdom doesn’t come without demonstration. So we’re going to get into a lot of this, but you know, opening night, right? I am sitting here talking to leaders, I mean, a lot of you are leaders in your own respect, and nothing like talking to leaders about leadership right? So I just have some points here that I think will encourage you. ‘Cause a lot of you are doing it. You’re leading in various ways in your areas of life, and things God has put before you, and there are principles that are fairly universal. And they are definitely part of the way God does things in His Kingdom. And so, one of the marks of a real leader, that I have found in my life, and something that I adhere to as well, is the principle, and I’m gonna through five principles tonight, ‘cause I’m just gonna give you my play by play. We have five points.

The first one is Vision. You know, let’s say you have a boat, and you know, I’ve watched this happen with organizations, groups, churches. You know, you have a boat, and you have people rowing the boat on both sides, right? And so, if both sides of the boat row the boat, the boat will go in the right direction! And they’ll get somewhere! But this is where organizations do, right? You have somebody that says, “Oh, okay, I wanna be the leader.” And they don’t know where they’re going! Nah, nah! Throw it out! They just turn around and say, “Oh, let’s do something!” So the left side of the boat just says, “Yeah! Let’s play cards!” The right side of the boats says, “We’re going to do something, and work really, really hard.” And so the left side is just playing cards, all their rowers are just sitting in their things, and the right side says, “Yeah, we’re gonna work really hard! Row! Row! Row!” And the boat goes in circles! Right? And a lot of things get railroaded because we go in circles. As a matter of fact, you know, the Israelites circled in the wilderness for 40 years! They weren’t going anywhere! But see, you know what the problem with the Israelites were, was that they couldn’t catch God’s vision. Ah! You know, there’s a lot of people that I run into, they can’t catch God’s vision. But God says, “I’m gonna do this.” And we say, “Haha, oh no, no way.” You know, “It’s not gonna happen.”

God says, “I’m gonna teach you how to enter the Kingdom. I wanna teach you how to really trust in My ability. So empty your bank account, and give it Michael.” Ahh! Haha! Oh no, no, no, folks! “I’m not gonna do that, guy! That’s way too challenging!” Right? And what am I picking on this for? Well, there was a parable, right? A guy comes to Jesus, and he says, “Jesus! All the laws have I kept from my youth.” And Jesus says, “Well, there’s this one thing you lack. Give everything you have to the poor, and follow me.”

Now, a lot of people look at that, and their first opinion of that example there is well, you know, God doesn’t like rich people. No. See, if you trust in your ability to fund the things that God has called you to do, then you have not tapped into Kingdom, which is God’s ability to fund what He has called you to do, and in order to break you out of that thinking, you have to abandon the things that you trust in.

(applause)

Yeah! Right? So, you know, a couple of years ago, God was like, “Daniel, empty your bank account.” And I was like, “Oh, praise the Lord! At least there’s only like, a couple thousand in there, here ya go!” I gave it to Miles Monroe. But you know, the thing is, like, vision is a huge part of this thing called leadership. Because if a leader does not have a vision, well he’s like that boat captain. He doesn’t know where he’s going! And no one else knows where he’s going, either. So the whole ship goes in circles. And eventually, if you go in circles long enough, you know what happens, people get disgruntled, and kind of upset, you know? And say, “Why am I working so hard when that guy’s doing nothing, and we’re still not getting anywhere, and I’m just spinning around in circles, and this just really stinks!” And people get, you know, kind of tired, wanna throw in the towel. It’s like, “Man, you know, I thought ministry was good until I got in it!”

Well, you know, one of the problems is, is that we didn’t get vision. Now, the thing is, the bible says, in Habakkuk 2:2, “Write the vision, and make it plain.” It says, “The Lord answered me, and said, ‘Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it.” That means, that really, if we’re real leaders, we have allowed God to give us the definition of our destination. The Israelites, they had been given by God the destination. He said, “Promise Land.” He said, “Promise Land right now.” And they said, “No, thank you.” So they had to circle, right? And you know, this is the thing about the last days. The last days is funny, because the last days is intense. As a matter of fact, the bible says funny things, like in Matthew 24, “And men’s hearts shall fail them for fear of those things which are coming upon the earth.” Oooh. That’s scary stuff. And if you wanna talk about scary, we can get into it, later. But, you know, there’s these things, and it’s like, “Hmm, I don’t wanna get a vision of what my responsibility might be under those circumstances!” But God’s looking for a group of people in these last days, that have not been given the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and of a sound mind!

God is waiting for a group of people to stand up and say, “You know what? I’m sick and tired of running in circles, and running away from greatness.” And the thing is, people often times, when you get on the subject of vision, they wanna create a vision that they can actually execute. Why? Because it’s really comfortable to be able to know that in the arm of the flesh, I can do what I set out to do. But when I set out to something that is impossible, except that God has intervened, now we’re in real faith, and that’s scary. But see, real leaders, right, understand that if God isn’t scared of the plan He has for you, than neither should you. Right? So, the vision is about more than just getting an idea in your head, like something to do, right? “Hmm, I’m going to get a box of legos, and we’re going to put it together, right, as a group, and when we’re done putting it together, we’ll have accomplished our vision.” Right? If it’s a small vision, it can be accomplished in the arm of the flesh.

Well, this is not what God is looking for in the last days. God’s got something bigger than that. He’s looking for a group of people that are going to partner with His resources. He has a lot. Anybody ever seen the streets in heaven, here? Do you have any idea of how massively wealthy God is? And how abundant His armies are? Anyone ever seen the armies of the Lord go out to battle? I have. They will raid the heavens, and tear them apart, and roll up dimensions like scrolls in the name of the Lord. See, there is power in God’s Kingdom, that you can’t imagine until it’s opened up to you. As a matter of fact, it’s something that’s called, ‘The Mysteries of The Kingdom.’ But to go into certain areas, you have to graduate into that. You have to allow God to open you up to His vision for you, as a leader, and for the people that are coming with you, as that leader.

You know, I was amazed over the years, at Lucy, I’m going to pick on her for a minute. Amazing, right? And she heard me talking on my program, because every week on my program, I get up on there and I cast vision. And I say listen, guys, this is where we’re going. And I know that because I’ve been walking with God, I’ve been talking with Jesus, and I say, “What’s next, Jesus? Where we gonna go next, Jesus? What are we gonna build next, Jesus? What are we gonna build next, Jesus, What are we gonna build?” And He’s laying it out, and He’s like, “This is my vision, Daniel.” And I say, now I’m going to make it concise. I’m going to write it down, and I’m going to declare it. I’m going to make it plain. So that people who see it, can run with it. And so I skype with her, and she shows me this vision board. My vision, on her vision board! And she says, “This is your vision, Daniel!” And I’m like, all right! I didn’t mail that to you, but I made it plain! Right? So, someone could essentially, take what God has called me to do, articulate it for themselves, and suddenly they’re able to get on board with the vision.

So now, when you have vision articulated, you can move in unity. And unity, right, unlocks explosive power. Synergy. Oh! So, the bible says, “Write the vision, make it plain.” Real leaders cast vision. You know, when I was in to bible school, I was going to a, it was a good bible school, and it was part of a, what we would call a mega-church, really. The pastor, Billy Joe Daugherty, the man had a lot of wisdom. And he always taught us, he said, “You know, when you’re going to go out to do something for God, you know, say, go out and raise money for something,” He said, “Never preach need. Always cast vision.” Because vision is something that people identify with. Need is something that people feel bad about. Vision is something that people can partner with, can seed themselves into. And so leadership, you know, God casts the vision! The whole bible is God’s vision summed up all the way up until the second coming of Jesus Christ and beyond that. God has a vision for what He wants to do. And He cast it.

So, the interesting thing is that you know, okay, let’s say you get the vision part. The next step is actually executing vision. Anybody ever been a visionary that did nothing? “I’m gonna do great things!” And ten years later, you’re like, “So what did you do, brother?”
“Nothing! But I talked a lot, you know.”

I’ve met people like that, and you know, the con artists are really good at casting vision. But then they do nothing, right? And then there are people, and what they do, is they do something for God. “I’ve identified that God wants me to do this, so I’m going to do it for God. I’m going to do it for God because I love God. I’m going to do it for God because it will make God happy. I’m going to do it for God because then I can tell everybody that I’m a great christian. I’m going to do it for God for all these reasons, and I’m going to go out, and I’m going to work my butt off, and I’m going to toil, and I’m going to struggle, and I’m going to do this thing. And even if I’m miserable, and horrible, and my whole life is failing, and my energy is down, and... I’m just going to keep doing it, because you know what? I’m suffering for the Lord. And this is definitely where God’s at with me, He just wants me to be so, so miserable.”

Anybody here been miserable for Jesus? “Jesus, I’m so miserable, praise the Lord. Hopefully pastor Michael doesn’t see me right now. Waaaahh! I’m so miserable here.” And, “I’m doing it for Jesus!” But, you know, one of the clarifications I realized a long time ago on this leadership thing, right? Right, what am I doing this for God for? God didn’t ask me to do it for Him, He asked me to do it with Him. Oh! So the bible says, in Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” And I’m sure many of you have heard this taught before, and I’m just going to give brief lip-service to this example here. When they used to plow the field, they would have two oxen, they’d have a little oxen, they’d have a big oxen, they’d put a yoke, and they would attach them at the neck, and the big oxen would do the majority of the work. The little oxen would walk alongside, and the field would get plowed. And many of us, as that little oxen, right, ‘cause guess who the big oxen is? Jesus. We kick Jesus off, we’re like, “Get off, I’m doing it. I’m the superhero here, I’m going to do it for you, you relax, it’s really big in Australia, relax. Satan would probably like, he’s probably like trying to give me some cheese, and like, “Relax! Okay! I’m kind of a type-A personality, so relax from here, that’s relative.” And you know, we kick Jesus, and we’re like, “Get off! I’m gonna do this.” And we’re like plowing, and “I’m tired, I’m tired and weak. I’m really suffering for Jesus!” And Jesus is this big ox standing over there, “Fool.”

You know, the bible uses the word, “Fool” a lot of times. When you’re in the book of Proverbs, “Fool,” right? And this is where a lot of christians find themselves, right, doing this thing. And this is silliness! When you can do it with God, why would you do it by yourself? But you know, the problem is that when we do it with God, He makes us very uncomfortable because He might be right there. Ahh, man. It’s like, He’s right there! Like, “I’m trying to be bad right now, can you go away for a minute?” You know, and so this is the thing, right? And so God makes us uncomfortable. But let’s be real, right? If we’re going to be a leader for Jesus, why are we running away from our chief executive officer? We are partnered with Him and His Kingdom. We’re citizens of His society, we are plugged into Him as our lifesource. If you can trust Jesus with your eternity, how can you not trust Him with your mission? So, leaders have a vision. And they articulate and cast that vision, and execute that vision with God. That’s what leaders do.

So point number two. You know, I have really, really been beat up. A lot. I’ve been beat up a lot of times. I wrote a book called “Wounded By Leadership” because I’ve gotten beat up so much I said, “Well, you know, maybe someone else can benefit from my beatings.” Right? And the whole book is actually a tool. Half is a testimony, half is a tool. It’s like, this is how God healed me, these are the actual strategies that He gave me to heal from all of the beating, and all the pounding that I took, to get the poison out of my system. Because you know, there was a point in my life where I would say, “God, where I am with You is an indictment against the church.” And that was wrong. That’s the kind of comment you make when you’re hurting. When you need Jesus to heal you. And I did, I mean, I was there, totally. I didn’t know so much, right? But you know, when you are moving into leadership, right, you know what makes you comfortable, and you know what doesn’t. And certain people make you very uncomfortable. I make a lot of people very uncomfortable. I found out, apparently, I don’t know! It just gets uncomfortable, it gets kinda heavy! Maybe I should just stop talking! You know? When leaders get uncomfortable, what we wanna do, is we wanna put people in a mold that we can accept. And the problem is that God broke the mold with each and every one of you. You are infinitely special, and unique. And you know, it feels really great saying it, and then you’re like, when it comes time to actually make that a part of the way you’re doing things, you have to change. But yeah, you know, this is uniqueness, right? And I remember, there was a point time when I was really struggling with something, and God just stepped in, and He’s like, “Daniel, I like you. You’re not allowed to change. I like you the way you are.” And I’m like, “God! The way I am is ruining my life! Don’t you see how many doors there are everywhere?” And you know, but God’s like, you know, “Don’t worry about that. I like you.”

You see, all our lives, we’re told that we’re not allowed to be the person that God designed us to be. Because that is unacceptable to the devil. The devil wants people squashed, he wants you unexpressed, he wants you restricted, limited, imprisoned, jailed, and shutdown. And he’ll use insecurity to do it. So what I realized, is that good leaders, they allow people room and freedom to fully express the person God designed them to be. Now, that still leaves a lot of room for correction and rebuke, believe me. And it leaves a lot of room for discipleship, and training, and mentoring, and counseling. But the real goal of a leader is not to make a disciple of Dan Duval, it’s to make a disciple of Jesus. I’m actually trying, when I disciple someone, to get them fully empowered to be the person Jesus designed them to be. I am outside of that box.

So the whole idea of discipleship as a leader, your job, our job, is to fully release people and break them out of their bondage and not put them in another cage! Because, you know what? When people are able to fully express who they are, well, they’re powerful. They’re powerful. People are powerful. You are powerful. They can make waves. Until they’re shut down, and then they have to be quiet, and sit there, and just listen, right? And we’re all different in the ways we express our different giftings, talents, callings, and abilities. And we can talk about this for days. But the idea that I want to bring out here, just talking about leadership in general, the things that I wish that I would have had more of as I was coming through the ranks and coming through the different situations that God planted me in, was someone to say, “You know what, Daniel? I recognized that God made you this queerball of just, weirdness, but there’s a reason why He did that, and I’m going to help you fully release into that, as opposed to shutting you down, and oppressing you, and conspiring against you, and stabbing you in the back, and doing all… You know, because I ran into insecure leaders. And I forgive them, you know, and I mean, I’ve had my own issues with insecurity. So it goes both ways. You know, you might wanna look at someone and say, “Oh, you, you know, dirtbag, look what you did to me!” And it’s like, yeah! But look at you! And you go, “Oh!” You know, we’re all having issues here! And if you were in my place, you would have done worse! All right? So, you know, let’s just be real. I mean, understanding the principle is the first step. Understand the principle, I mean, what are we doing here? We’re making disciples of Jesus Christ. We’re not making disciples of Dan Duval.

And so, Jesus, in Matthew 28, He comes and He says, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore, and make disciples.” Right? What are you not supposed to do as a leader? Use people to build your kingdom. Use people to build your platform. Use people- You don’t use people. You empower people. And when you empower people, they will identify with your vision, and will partner with you to build a platform that glorifies Jesus. Ohh! So, we make disciples for Jesus. And you know He says, “Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I’ve commanded you, lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age.” Right? The nice thing about discipling people for Jesus, is that when you’re doing it, or with Jesus, you are also able to do it with His power and His resources. You’re not limited to your own faculty.

So Hebrews 12:2 says this, “Looking unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith.” You know, God didn’t call you to be the author and the finisher of the faith of the people which you are leading. He’s the author. You’re the employee. I’m the employee. We’re working with Jesus to set His people free, into destiny, calling, purpose, full ability, expression. Oh! I mean, when that becomes our attitude, it’s healing! It’s like the living waters just flow through what’s happening there, because people are like, “Wow! You know, everywhere I go to church it’s just so oppressive, and I just come under this umbrella of misery.” And you know, “But suddenly, there’s this, this oasis! I’m finally released into this arena where Jesus is become the author and finisher of my faith, and people are partnering with me to get me to that destination.

John 14:6 says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. Which means that no one comes to the Father except through me!” So we’re making disciples of Jesus Christ, He is the way. Not Dan Duval’s way, He is the way. He is the way, He is the truth, He is the life, right? I don’t want to make disciples that rely upon my spiritual life, and can’t operate apart from my charisma, or my gifting. That’s dangerous! Because for someone like me, you know, you can run into that problem. So it’s always this idea that Jesus is this person who wants disciples made, and I am helping Him to make that person a disciple of Himself, not of me. And I am moving myself, taking that degree of separation from the process, and saying, “Well Jesus, what was the mold that you made with them?” You know, and “How can I help them to fully walk into that expression?”

So leaders make disciples of Jesus Christ and not themselves. And good leaders allow people the room to fully express the person God designed them to be. Insecure leaders? They’re only comfortable with the followers that are willing to become disciples of them. To act like them, and to fit their mold. You know, here’s the thing, when I walked in here, is not all of you acted like Michael. Wow! That’s a real leader. You see that? ‘Cause you walk into some churches, and you’re like, who’s the pastor? You’re all talking exactly the same way, a bunch of clones walking around, you know? And it’s like yeah, there’s a mind-control spirit in here and we’re gonna have a big problem!

So, my third point. Leaders in God’s Kingdom, they understand their identity in God’s Kingdom. Now, this is the problem. You come to me, and say, what do you do? “Daniel, I’m an alcoholic.” You have a problem, right? Well, not just the fact that you’re at the bar every night, getting drunk. The problem is that your identity is tied up in, ‘alcoholic.’ Which means that, when you assess what you do, you will make a simple conclusion and say, “If I am an alcoholic, and alcoholics get drunk, I guess what I should do is get drunk.” Because we are always going to follow suit with self-identification. If we believe we are a miserable person, well, people come around, “What should I do?” Be miserable! Right? You know? Identity is something that we sowed. And you know, for all of the things that God deals with me on, stuff dealing with last days, stuff dealing with higher realms, dimensions, Satanic Ritual Abuse, systems of doing things with the dark side, occult powers, you know, the Kingdom of God, grace, spiritual warfare. God is speaking to me in so many areas! The most profound words that I am getting from God often come along the lines of identity. Because if I don’t understand identity, the Kingdom doesn’t make sense! It doesn’t make sense! I don’t get it, I don’t know who I am! You know, and for many Christians, we walk around like, “I’m told I’m a child of God.” It’s a philosophy, and you don’t know what it means to be a child of God. ‘Cause if you did…

Let me ask you a question. If a dog mates with a dog, and gives birth, you have a… dog. So, if God gives birth, right? You have a divine being. As a matter of fact, the bible- Okay, it sounds like heresy, right? I mean because it says we sow out of identification, we don’t get it! We’re so earthly-minded that we can’t see that the fact that the bible says, “We have been made heirs with God, and co-heirs with Christ,” puts us in a heavenly position that exceeds that of even many of the angels. And we are so out of touch with identity in God’s Kingdom that we, well, we can’t see His Kingdom. We can’t see our ability to operate in His Kingdom, or to connect with His Kingdom, we just don’t get it! So leaders in God’s Kingdom I say understand their identity in God’s Kingdom.

If your identity is failure, you’ll always find ways to fail. Because that’s more than what you do, it’s who you are. If your identity is vanity, you’ll always be vain. Right? “Vain. It’s what I do, it’s who I am.” And the problem is, when you’re vain and your good looks fail because you turn 40, midlife crisis! “I don’t know what I should do!” In America we go and buy a porsche and go in debt, so… You don’t know who you are, right? Our identity in God’s Kingdom, though, right? It’s established by Jesus. But our connection to it is established through relationship. So we can’t connect with identity until we come through the Way. It doesn’t make sense. I could tell you you’re a child of God all day long. “Yeah, of course I’m a child of God, designed and put on the earth to suffer for Jesus. Ohh, I hope Michael doesn’t see me over here like this.”

(laughter)

And so you know, the thing is, right? And there’s a few passages I want to point out here, along this line. Big problem areas for Christians. In Revelation 1:6, “And has made us kings and priest to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.” Right? And so the bible says we are kings and priests. Some versions say kingdoms and priests. The word ‘kingdoms’ is actually a really interesting word, because it does mean kingdoms, and kings at the same time in Greek. It’s really interesting the word that connects them, ‘and’. ‘Kai.’ It’s actually ‘and’ and not ‘of.’ And then you know, then there’s the word ‘priests’ there, right? And I’m going to pick on this for a little bit right? Because you know, as Christians, our identity is as priests. Now what do priest do? Well, priests minister to God, and they minister to people. That’s what the priest in the temple did. They ministered to God, and they ministered to people. And so our identity is to minister to God, and to minister to people. And many leaders get so fixated on ministering to people, the idea of ministering to God is strange.

What does that mean, to minister to God? “No one ever told me about ministering to God before.” You see, we’re told, you know, this is Jesus, He came and died for your sins, now go serve Him and be obedient. So we serve Him, and we be obedient, and try to get all the sin out of our lives, and you know, do all these things, right? You know, we go to church, we get our lives get our lives cleaned up, and you know, positive things are happening there. But they stop and they say, “Well, what does it really mean to minister to God though, because I mean, I know that there is no actual temple that a high priest would go into the holy of holies once a year.” And be like, “Well, we can’t do that, can we?” Except for one problem, you know. The bible said, “You are the temple of the Holy Spirit.” See, there’s a vast connection that we have to God because of what Jesus did. And you, your body, has literally become the temple of God, and in your spirit there is a connection point to the very throne.

So the idea that you can be a priest and a minister to God is absolutely made available, the question is, are you tapping into it? You know, when people ask, “Well, how do you minister to God?” And I tell people, well, the bible says, “The Father seeks those that will worship Him in spirit and in truth.” How do you worship God in spirit? You know, worshiping God is much more than just opening up your hymnal and saying, “Ahh, you know, blah-blah-blah, and grace, grace, grace, and truth, and yeah, okay. Yeah, let’s listen to some good preaching. Wayne? Oh, thank you.” And the truth is, worship is done in spirit. So if you can’t connect with your spirit, wherein the Holy Spirit dwells, where God has connected you to His realm, you’re really not ministering to God, at all. You’re disconnected. And many leaders find themselves disconnected. No one told them that they go deep like this.

Actually, I’m here to tell you that that’s the source. You know, the bible says, in Jeremiah 2:13, “My people have committed this evil, they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters.” Now see, they did it, and we look at them and are like, “Ohh, they were a bunch of bums!” Well, when was the last time you visited the Fountain of living waters? In spirit, in that place of worship, where that presence and atmosphere became so thick that it changed the very nature of the room you were in. It became heavy, it knocked people out, you know, I’ve watched it happen. I’ve literally been in prayer, people pass out. I did not even lay hands. They’re just out. But that, that place, right? That source. What Christians don’t understand is that the worship in spirit is actually part of their spiritual DNA. You were actually designed, your identity is that ministry to God. It’s who you are, and what you do. And it’s not something you consider, “Maybe I’ll try this thing this crazy guy from America’s talking about, praise the Lord, he roots for the Rabbitohs.” (laughter) It is this place. It is your DNA. It is who you are!

So every day at 6 am, my alarm goes off, I push, ‘off’. And then I push ‘on’, and worship music comes on, and I worship God immediately! Every day. That’s how I start my day. And it is there because that source, you know, the bible says, “Be not drunk with the wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit of God!” You know that word in the Greek is a continual, it’s a progressive verb. It means to be continually being filled. Where do you get filled? At the Fountain of living water. You connect to God into spirit, you worship Him there. That’s your identity! The bible said you’re a priest! So you’re out of touch with identity. The bible also said you’re a king, we’ll get into that one later. There is a lot on king.

But see, when it comes to leadership, leaders in God’s Kingdom understand their identity in God’s Kingdom. You know, God told me, He said, “Daniel, you need to be the destination that you are pointing others towards.” Sounds like Paul who said, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” You know, real leaders don’t back down from that call. Real leaders don’t back down from that call. That’s a deep call. That means, I die. Yep. Yes, yes you do. Yes you do, and you know what? The life that you will gain when you die to pitiful thing you thought was life? Is the thing that you point others towards. And when you begin to talk about your rapturous relationship with Jesus, it’s like, “Wow, who are you? Who are you? You’re weird.” You know, I was telling someone, I’ll be ministering in my office, just sitting there, doing things, whatever, praying for people, and there have been times when it’s been this mist, this glory cloud just manifests in my office. Just like that. Oh, I could tell you guys things. The bible says, in Romans 8:16-17 “That the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with Him that we may be glorified together.” Child of God. Heir of God. Joint heir with Christ. How high does that take you in the hierarchies of heaven? Who are you? “Well, I’m a miserable alcoholic, Dan Duval! I’m so upset right now!” And you know, that’s what I run into, you know? It’s like, just keep saying, it, you know? People in the body of Christ are out of touch. And as leaders, we need to get in touch if we’re going to help them across that valley.  

You know, fourth point. Good leaders, they only keep people in their lives that can tell them when they’re steering in the wrong direction. That can seed correction, good advice, and you know, good leaders? When they mess up, are allowed to apologize. I have been surprised at how far an apology goes. And I’ve messed up. All of the times that I’ve been wounded, and guess what? I can still mess up. I mess up! And I know that every other leader does too. And that’s why we have grace, that’s why we have forgiveness, that’s why we have, apologizing. You know, the biggest barrier to real, healthy relationships is an inability to apologize, and say, “You know what, I did, I blew that one. That was really, that was just really dirty of me, and you know, I see your point. Yeah, I’m sorry.”

You know, the bible says in I John 1:8-10, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.” You know, the only perfect person is Jesus that’s ever walked on this earth. That’s as close as we get. There’s still room for correction, for tailoring our walk with God, for getting that word of rebuke, and for apologizing. And you know, I’ve met a lot of leaders that can’t. Won’t. You know? And it makes the, well, it puts all of the demand on the maturity side of things. On the people they’re trying to lead. ‘Cause now everybody has to be the maturity so the leader can continue to be the prideful, and insecure, and it’s not healthy.

The bible says in Proverbs 11:14, “When there is no counsel the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” You know? We gotta keep people in our lives. We have to run things by people, you know? Every time I make a major move, it’s like, I run it by a bunch of people, “What do you think of this? What do you think of that?” You know? Well, of course, an executive decision when it’s your life, does go to you, but at the same time, keeping that in your life, keeping that relationship, people that you know are on your side to empower you to get where God has called you to go. Huge. Huge, huge, huge.

And so, the last point I want to make on leadership. Now, leadership in God’s Kingdom is not established apart from God’s Kingdom. (cuts out for a second) ...building is somehow ordained of God to do that job, and they’ll point to Romans 13 and say, “Well, you know, God knows every person that’s in any kind of situation of authority.” Except that I know that satanic organizations infiltrate churches, and I know pastors that are Luciferians! And they are conducting rituals in the basements of churches! And then they get up and preach Romans 13 and say, “Well, here in this church, God has ordained me to do this. No questions.”

You see, leadership in God’s Kingdom is not established apart from God’s Kingdom. You know, God makes determinations, believe it or not. God did not go to heaven and leave us down here to figure the mess out. A lot of Christians think that’s what He did. So they make a book of laws. They call it their denominational whatever they call it. And it’s just like, “This is just how things are done.” That’s how you do something without the power of God. Actually, that’s how you kick Jesus off the little cart and you begin to plow all by yourself. What I have realized, is that God’s Kingdom is completely designed to interface with us believers. The bible says the Kingdom is in your hearts, and also surrounding you.

And so what we need to understand, is that leadership actually begins with God, where God is. And His appointments and assignments are designed to be reflected in the earth. God will ordain a prophet in heaven before that prophet walks in that office in the earth. And the funny thing is, the fakes and the frauds? They can’t be around the real children of God. Because the Holy Spirit in them will convict, will blast, will expose. That can’t be controlled. When the Holy Spirit is moving through an individual freely, that can’t be controlled. That’s when I have to squash your spirit, and make sure you’re never fully allowed to be who God designed you to be.

So leadership in God’s Kingdom is really not established apart from God’s Kingdom. As a matter of fact, we’re gonna be talking about this all weekend. The Kingdom of God. We’re going to be talking about how this thing was designed to work, and in cooperation and collaboration with the realm of God. As a matter of fact, you know, I’m going to be introducing it like this: What is a Kingdom? The Kingdom’s a government. It’s a government, and that government is governed by the King. And when the King wants to get something done, He makes appointments and assignments. What are we living in? A Kingdom! So what makes us think that God would not be making appointments and assignments? You see, there’s a break in logic, a total break in logic. So the bible says, in Ephesians 4:11-12, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, and prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.” These are offices! For the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry.

You know, the reason why God gave us offices is to equip the body. It’s what we’re talking about, to be disciples of Jesus, to be fully expressing the person that God designed them to be. That’s what the leaders in God’s Kingdom are called- they’re equipped for that, they’re ordained to that. And that ordainment begins in heaven. Which means that you can’t fake it! You can’t fake that. You either have it or you don’t. You have the King’s approval or you do not. And the end is for the edifying of the body of Christ, until we call come to the unity of the faith, to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a fully mature man, to the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ! Now, see leadership, there’s an end goal, and vision that God will give each individual leader, for their particular call, going towards you know, this ultimate vision that God has for His body. Which I believe is His bride!

And so, guys! You know, that’s my word of encouragement to you. Leadership, I mean, when done properly, it unveils, it unveils possibility. It unveils the true nature of the people of God. It goes far beyond, far beyond what we have ever been taught, and I’m convinced we do not know what the body of Christ looks like when God has fully unpacked us. You know, in Ephesians chapter 1, the bible says, “Give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and the knowledge of Christ, the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, that we would know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches and the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”

See, they often want to talk about our inheritance in God, which is another thing we don’t get. And then we realize, wait! Not only did we get assigned an inheritance in God, God put an inheritance in us. We have to allow Him to unpack that. You have no idea what God has put inside of you. Wow.

So, that is leadership 101. Can I pray, real quick, right here? Can I pray?

Father God, we come before you in the mighty name of Jesus. We thank You for the wisdom hidden in Your word, and in Your council, for the power of your Kingdom and Your glory, and Your strength. Lord, I pray to you, because You have revealed Yourself as Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Shammah, Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Tsidkenu, Jehovah M'kaddesh, Jehovah Raah, Jehovah Shalom. Lord God, I thank You, that you do endow us with wisdom which is from above, Wisdom, and in whose right hand is length of days, and in whose left hand is riches and honor. I thank You, Lord, that you are the God who causes us to walk in the words which were prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And Father God, I pray for every person here. Lord God, that there would be activation of things that You have deposited into them that have been suppressed, shut down, Lord, stolen, in the name of Jesus. Father God I thank You that there is power, and there is glory. As a matter of fact, Your Word says, “We all with open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” And Father God, I say let there be a restoration of calling! A restoration of purpose! Lord God, a removal of flat-lined spirituality, a break in the power of depression, a cancellation of spiritual assignments designed to steal destiny in Jesus name!

Lord God, I thank You that the darkness cannot comprehend the light! And Lord God, that there is hope, because when there is hope deferred, Lord, it makes the heart sick, but when it comes, it is a tree of life. I thank You for an endowment of hope. Lord God, I thank You that You minister to the needs of the heart, that You came to bind up the brokenhearted, and open the prison doors to them which are bound. Lord God, we thank You that there is a glory and a presence, and an authority, Lord God in the name of Jesus, that grants us the ability to be free of the power of darkness. That You have given us power over all the power of the enemy, to tread upon serpents and scorpions, that nothing would by any means hurt us. And I declare, Lord God, that angels are being put on assignment to destroy the prisons of the devil that have shut down the people of God. And that there is a reawakening to the reality of what You have done, the power of the persons which you have placed into this room, and Lord God, the glorious visions that You have for the lives here. Lord, we turn it over to You, and we thank You for removing artificial boundaries that have no right to remain in the paths that You have called us to walk. We call it “Stopped” in Jesus name! Amen.

(applause)

Discovering the truth with Dan Duval is the premier radio program designed to center you on the Kingdom of God. To equip you with faith in Jesus Christ, and to unveil the truth behind the lies. This program has been a production of Bride Ministries. You can find us on the web at www.BrideMovement.com. At our website you can contact us, access resources, and support us with donations. We need partners in order to continue to promote our vision, which is to promote unity in the body of Christ worldwide, and to assist in the development of sheep nations. Partner with us, and be sure to like us Facebook, and follow us on twitter. Until next time, God bless, and Godspeed.