A few weeks ago the Lord began to speak to me about who are the true players in the kingdom of God. In the secular word and unfortunately in the kingdom world too you hear the term player used to describe someone who has influence and power. Normally in the world it represents someone who has a lot of money, authority or prestige, someone who is a mover and a shaker. A player is someone who makes things happen. In the Christian world a player is someone who has a lot of influence and authority. Someone who has a large church and therefore they have influence through money, through numbers or someone who has a large ministry can have influence that way. So you will find players in the spirit realm in the western world because that is where most of the wealth is. I believe God spoke to me that he is going to redefine what a player is from his perspective. For us he is redefining this term in order to help us repent of our humanistic understanding of what a player is in the spiritual realm. An example of that is in I Samuel 16. When Samuel came to Jesse because God told him among his son’s a king would be chosen. Jesse had 8 sons but when Samuel came to anoint one of them as king, Jesse invited all of his sons except for his youngest. His youngest, David was left out keeping the sheep on the hillside. As all the sons came together before the Lord, the first one who was brought before Samuel was Eliab. When Samuel saw Eliab he thought surely the anointed was before him. Eliab means strong or father of might and evidently he was a very imposing, athletic person, much like Saul. Yet the Lord said to Samuel ‘do not look at his appearance or the height of his stature for I have rejected him for God does not see as man sees For man looks at the outward appearance the Lord looks at the heart’. The next son was named Abinadab – his name means father of generosity – it carries the idea of personality. He wasn’t the great athlete or imposing one but he had a very winning personality. But of course he was rejected. Next was Shammah – which means to stun or amaze – he was probably the really bright one, who had really great leadership skills and he would be good in so many different ways. Of course he is also rejected. When it was all done Samuel had met all of his 7 sons but the Lord had not chosen any of them. Finally Samuel asked Jesse if these were all the sons, there must be someone left. He said there yet remains the youngest and he is tending the sheep. So Samuel told Jesse to bring him and it says when he arrived Samuel saw that he was ruddy in appearance and had beautiful eyes, then Samuel knew. The Lord said arise anoint him for this is the one. He anointed him with oil in the midst of his brothers and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him from that day forward. Now his name was David, and David means to boil over, a heart that boils over for God.
Here is what God is trying to say to us; there are a lot of David’s out there who in the natural look like they don’t have much to offer, they don’t appear to be players. They don’t have a big ministry, they don’t have a big church they don’t have a lot of books written they are not invited to a lot of conferences they just don’t look like they are players. But they have the heart of a David – they have a burning heart for Him. They have been doing battle and learning to be faithful. Learning how to trust on the hillside, fighting the lions and the bears, finding how to trust the Lord and walk by faith in the midst of those private battles. Like David they have the heart of a psalmist and are true adorers or worshipers, who have learned to trust the Lord in intense battle. I believe what God wants us to start to do is to begin to look beyond the outward appearances. If you have a big ministry it doesn’t preclude you from having an apostolic anointing it also isn’t the thing to determine if you have an apostolic calling. I’ve watched this too many times over the decade where men have been chosen and have been told they have an apostolic calling because they were a player, but a player as compared to the to the worlds standards. They really didn’t have the anointing as an apostle or an apostolic calling at all and because of that it caused a lot of destruction. There are people all over this world hidden away, and we need to look beyond our western culture to realize the kingdom of God operates outside of the western world where all the wealth is. I remember meeting a Masi woman who lived in a dung hut and without telling all her stories, I listened to all the stories told about her. How the history of a continent that was shaped and formed because of the prayers she prayed and the authority she was given and yet she would never write a book, would never be invited to a conference, she’ll never have a big anything, she lives in a culture where those things are not accessible. We can’t believe all the apostolic people, all the ‘players’ are only in the wealthy nations.
I believe that one of the things that God wants us to do is to begin to stop looking at the outward appearance and to start looking at the heart. I believe God is going to raise up the David’s. We are going to see people being raised up out of obscure places, who don’t appear to be players in the eyes of the world but that they are players in the eyes of God ones whose heart boils after him. Those who have learned how to do battle, they have learned how to move and release the divine activity of God in their lives and in their situations. God is going to identify them, he is going to raise them up and he is going to teach us who are true leaders in the body of Christ. How we can recognize a player from His perspective so that we are no longer moved and impressed and motivated by just those who seem to have influence and power from a western perspective. We wil begin to recognize that there are players out there who may be little in the eyes of the world but are big in the eyes of God. God is looking for the David’s, God wants us to see the David’s and God is raising up the David’s. We are going to see people raised up out of nowhere; men and women coming up out of nowhere from places of obscurity with hearts so ablaze, hearts so tenderized with leadership on them but many of them have been held back.
Those of us who point out leaders have been so caught up doing what Samuel did, just calling people players who seem to be players in the natural. They may be good men or good woman but are they really the players God wants to raise up to lead this revival of God. This is what God is doing in these days, showing us His true players. Maybe you are one of those players. God is going to set us free to stop choosing players through the grid of this world and start recognizing His player, so they can become part of the leadership in these days of revival.