2 Samuel 8:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Kerethites and Pelethites; and David's sons were royal advisers.

During the time of the reign of David, he set up his administration to include his own sons and appointed them as royal advisors. This was a method of developing their ability to advise by allowing the young men to take part in leadership. They could learn firsthand how things operated as they listened as David received counsel from his senior advisors. The sons of David then matured over time and developed their logic to a place where they could also provide counsel and the counsel that they provided was an indication of their maturity. If they gave poor or rash advice then that would be an indication of their immaturity but if they gave wise counsel beyond their years it would indicate their maturity and wisdom.

1 Kings 2:6 (NASB)

⁶ "So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray hair go down to Sheol in peace.

When David gave his parting words to his son Solomon (on his deathbed) he told Solomon to act according to his wisdom. This is an indication that Solomon had also been a part of the apprenticeship training program that was set in place to groom the king’s sons for leadership. Solomon had distinguished himself when he was able to give wise counsel so that he was in fact noted for his wisdom as a young man under training.

Being assigned a position as being one of David's royal advisors gave Solomon the opportunity to be involved with the decision making process. In the beginning these trainees would just sit and listen to the wise counsel of senior advisors. The over time David could ask them to offer their advice and they could be judged based upon the advice given. Even if their advice was not followed it would still prove to lend credence to them if they turned out to be right later.

Being a part of this leadership apprentice program gave these young men the opportunity to be involved in the decision making process for running national affairs. Solomon evidently proved his maturity and wisdom by the good counsel that he had provided and this proved that he was ready to assume the leadership of the throne after his father David vacated the office by death.

Spiritual and Civil Leadership Training

In our own organization we seek to train up our young men through leadership apprenticeship programs. For those young born with a Fivefold Ministry Gift we will conduct a School of Ministry. For those young men born with civil leadership ability we will have a Civil Leadership Training program similar to the program operated by David for mentoring his sons as royal advisors.

The young men for both programs were be selected by the Apostles and Prophets. Both Apostles and Prophets commonly operate with the Revelation Gifts which are a sub-category of Spiritual Gifts.

See the link "Spiritual Gifts" for more details.

Among the Revelation Gifts is the gift of "Discerning of spirits" which can discern the heart motivations of humans. This gift is highly valuable in appointing young men for leadership training and also for appointing leaders into leadership positions.

If a man with a bad heart motive gets into a position of leadership like a Korah-type or a Absalom-type they they can cause great destruction for an entire group of people. It is therefore important that the appointment of young men to leadership training schools and the appointment of leaders to civil positions be confirmed by the Apostles and Prophets operating using Revelation Gifts.

In the School of Ministry young men born with a Fivefold Ministry Gift will be selected by Apostles and Prophets because Apostles and Prophets have the ability to perceive and discern a similar or like-calling in others. Young men with an Apostle or Prophet’s calling will be assigned under senior ministers of the same calling who can guide them on how to operate within their calling and instruct them how to exercise their gifts.

These young men in the School of Ministry will also be included in the decision making processes of the Board of Trustees together with the young men under training for the Civil Leadership Program. Both groups will be mentored in much the same as the David’s sons were mentored in civil leadership and taught how to provide wise counsel.

In this manner, the young men can be tested because if they are given an opportunity to present a leadership solution and they are later proven to be right then it will add to their credence. Over time if they consistently prove to have displayed wisdom they will be on the top tier of those who will be later be considered as candidates for leadership positions within the organization.

Civil leaders will provide natural common sense wisdom as is the type of wisdom displayed by Solomon in natural matters and as seen in the book of Proverbs. Spiritual leaders will learn to operate in Spiritual Gifts receiving revelation and direction directly from the Spirit of God. Both the civil leadership apprenticeship and the ministry leadership apprenticeship candidates will be given the opportunity to prove their wisdom and give evidenced to their God-given leadership talents and the presence of Revelation Gifts for those called into the Fivefold ministry.

Spiritual Direction

The entire basis of Apostle and Prophet leadership is established upon the fact that the Revelation Gifts are commonly manifested through these offices and these gifts are used exclusively for making leadership decisions. With the gift of Word of Wisdom an Apostle or Prophet knows about future events. This is necessary in preparing for these events in advance much like the Prophet Agabus predicted a coming famine and the believers were able to prepare for it in advance based on this man’s prediction of upcoming events.

Acts 11:27-28 (NIV)

²⁷ During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

²⁸ One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.)

It was because of the operation of Word of Wisdom to know future events that the Prophet Agabus was able to warn the believers of what was coming so they had the opportunity to prepare for it in advance. The same thing occurred with Joseph in Egypt when God warned him by a dream and interpretation of dreams about a coming seven-year abundance to be followed by a seven-year famine. Joseph was able to operate using civil authority to prepare for the famine which saved the entire known world in that time from starvation.

The Word of Knowledge is for knowing events in the present time frame and this gift is essential in making leadership decisions for matters involving things of the present realm. The gift of Discerning of spirits could also be called a “Discerning of Human Hearts” and this gift is used to discern the secret motivations of a man’s heart if they are good or bad. This is key and essential in making leadership appointments because this gift can discern the difference between a bad Korah-type and a good Moses-type of leader and can perceive the difference between a good David-type and a bad Absalom-type. If the wrong person is placed in leadership, it will bring death to those who follow him!

See the link "Thorn Bush Leaders and Freeloaders" for more details.

It is for this reason that the leadership decisions for this corporation are based upon the office of Apostle and Prophet and the operation of the three Revelation Gifts that commonly operate among Apostles and Prophets. Our future leadership will be trained under an apprenticeship program for both Ministry and Civil leadership positions.

Those young men of the School of Ministry with a reputation for hearing the voice of God operating in Spiritual Gifts will be placed first in line when the time comes for choosing a successor to the office of president. But most important is the character of a young man because without humility and love (and the character of Moses) then the most dazzling spiritual gifts will be rendered meaningless. The candidates must have both humility and gentleness together with the gifts and these character attributes are in fact more important than the gifts themselves because even if a man knows all future events but he does not have love then he is nothing! (1 Cor. 13:2)

The founding president will appoint his future successor from the young men who have evidence of the ministry gift of Apostle and the operation of revelation gifts. The president holds the authority to appoint or remove civil leaders based upon the operation of revelation gifts.

2 Samuel 15:12 (NASB)

¹² And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, from his city Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong, for the people increased continually with Absalom.

While David was still alive one of his sons Absalom conspired against him and Absalom sent for Ahithophel who was David’s own counselor and asked him to join him in the conspiracy against David.

2 Samuel 16:23 (NASB)

²³ The advice of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if one inquired of the word of God; so was all the advice of Ahithophel regarded by both David and Absalom.

The advice of Ahithophel was so highly regarded by David and by Absalom that it was as if one had inquired of the word of God! This man Ahithophel had such outstanding wisdom for counsel that it was as if God was speaking through his mouth! David trusted in the advice of Ahithophel because he was proven to be right time and time again. Absalom also knew about the wisdom of Ahithophel because Absalom was part of the apprenticeship program for training the king’s sons for leadership. Absalom no doubt sat in on the counseling sessions and he heard the wisdom that Ahithophel spoke as he advised the king in matters of State. For this reason Absalom also sought the counsel of Ahithophel and was able to secure his help to join the conspiracy against David.

2 Samuel 16:20 (NASB)

²⁰ Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, "Give your advice. What shall we do?"

Again, Absalom was able to solicit and secure the help and advice of Ahithophel who had been David’s chief counselor. This shows that the leadership model that was followed by David and his sons was not one that was "democratic" nature (where a group of people all have an equal say and they vote on a course of action and make a decision based on majority vote). In this case a king was the chief executive officer and the advisors to the king would provide the best information available with which the king based his decisions upon.

2 Samuel 24:4 (NIV)

⁴ The king's word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.

In the case of the census that was taken during the reign of David, Joab was opposed to it but the king’s word overruled his army commander and they carried out the king’s orders that were given to them. This means that whether right or wrong it is the C.E.O. who has the final say and in the event of a failure of the plan then all of the blame will rest upon the shoulders of the C.E.O. who made that decision. There were no creation of sensational "congressional ordeals" which were held in order to find a scapegoat to blame when things went wrong with committee-style leadership. When something went wrong it was only the C.E.O. who was to blame and there was no confusion about that point.

It has been said that the fastest way to accomplish nothing is to appoint a committee over it. This is a feminine-style leadership model that contains the feminine traits of “equality-for-all” and “open-mindedness” and a system of “checks and balances” which results in insuring that no decisive action can be taken. In a feminine-style committee they will air their opinions and everyone in the group has an equal say so they spend all of their time debating. This is much different than having a body of men providing counsel as to what is the best means of implementing a plan! Debating is only the airing of opinions and is a great contrast to giving wise counsel because debating provides no solutions to problems.

Feminine thinking seeks “equality-for-all” much like a mother being equal and fair to all of her children by giving them each an "equal-sized" slice of the pie! While this is good for raising small children it is certainly out of place as far as making leadership decisions are concerned. This feminine style of leadership model results in making everyone in the group equal and giving them all an equal say and when none of them can agree on what course of action to take they move from debating to voting and they try to settle the issue with a majority vote!

In a case where there are 13-people on a feminine-style committee and they are equally divided with six people for an issue and six people against an issue then there would be one undecided person left. So the two opposing sides would all vie to secure the vote of the undecided person because the side that has the majority vote will win the right to take their own course of action.

The undecided fellow is most often the idiot of the bunch who was not able to make a clear decision either for or against. So the end result of this feminine leadership model is that it will throw the decision to the idiot of the group to decide for them by default! Whatever side this idiot casts his ballot for will be the side who obtains their right to follow their course of action.

This faulty decision making process is by no means can be used to make the right decisions. As a matter of fact it is the worst possible leadership model that can be imagined and if they did anything right at all, it would only be because of a fluke of luck (when the idiot of the group happened to cast his ballot with the right group)!

Ezekiel 21:21 (NIV)

²¹ For the king of Babylon will stop at the fork in the road, at the junction of the two roads, to seek an omen: He will cast lots with arrows, he will consult his idols, he will examine the liver.

Superstitious pagan kings would often keep in their employ men who had passed themselves off as wizards or warlocks or magicians. The king of Babylon had such characters in his employ as also did the Pharaoh King of Egypt during the time of Moses. These types of men were able to create a livelihood for themselves by being retained as paid staff by potentates!

Moses confronted these tricksters in Egypt and they resisted him because they felt that their position of influence in the court of Pharaoh was being threatened! The same was seen also with the king of Babylon who would stop at a fork in the road and try to decide which way to turn. So his “court-tricksters” would babble and peep and they would cast arrows into the air. Then they would observe which way the fallen arrows were pointing and try to determine a direction to take based on a majority of the arrows falling down with their points facing the left or the right. They would pray to idols and butcher a chicken and look for any spots on the liver to see if that could be taken as an omen to guide the king. This sort of nonsense was common among ungodly kings who did not ask direction from the God of Israel.

The fact of the matter is that the feminine-style of leadership model (with equality-for-all) is no better than a peeping and chirping witch doctor casting his magic-arrows into the air and then trying to discern what direction to take based on a majority of the fallen arrows pointing toward one way or the other! The fact of the matter is that a majority vote does not make something right or wrong! If a group is following the majority vote they would most often make the wrong decision!

But this is what feminine style leadership models do because they follow the feminine attributes of “equality-for-all” and “open-mindedness!” They try to give equality for everyone in the group to make a decision and this will result in nothing but debating and arguing and then they are forced to vote on the issue and allow a majority vote to decide. If one side gets 51% of the vote then that is the precedent that they use for making their decision!

I actually heard of a founder of a company who generously gave his two favorite employees some stock in his company. But what happened is that these employees joined their stock together and their shares happened to amount to over 51% and so they voted the founder out of office and took his entire company for themselves! This is an example of a majority vote and this can hardly be construed to be the right thing to do! Majority voting has no more ability to make the right decision than a witch doctor casting magic-arrows to see which way the majority of the arrows will fall! Rolling some dice would be just as logical in decision making as having a majority vote!

2 Samuel 17:4-7 (NASB)

⁴ So the plan pleased Absalom and all the elders of Israel.

⁵ Then Absalom said, "Now call Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear what he has to say."

⁶ When Hushai had come to Absalom, Absalom said to him, "Ahithophel has spoken thus. Shall we carry out his plan? If not, you speak."

⁷ So Hushai said to Absalom, "This time the advice that Ahithophel has given is not good."

In the case of Ahithophel his advice sounded good and his plan pleased Absalom and the elders of Israel. It is evident that Absalom employed elders in decision making who had great scope of wisdom and years of experience in their particular fields. When they first heard the plan of Ahithophel it sounded good to all of them. But then they asked the council of Hushai the friend of David, who pointed out why the advice of Ahithophel would not be good in this situation.

2 Samuel 17:11-14 (NIV)

¹¹ "So I advise you: Let all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba--as numerous as the sand on the seashore--be gathered to you, with you yourself leading them into battle.

¹² Then we will attack him wherever he may be found, and we will fall on him as dew settles on the ground. Neither he nor any of his men will be left alive.

¹³ If he withdraws into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city, and we will drag it down to the valley until not even a piece of it can be found."

¹⁴ Absalom and all the men of Israel said, "The advice of Hushai the Arkite is better than that of Ahithophel." For the LORD had determined to frustrate the good advice of Ahithophel in order to bring disaster on Absalom.

The good advice of Ahithophel to attack immediately was defeated by Hushai who suggested an organized mass invasion! The delay in organizing this big attack plan enabled David and his men to make their preparations. If David had been attacked swiftly as Ahithophel suggested then he may have been destroyed because of lack of preparation. But it was God’s plan to defeat the good advice of Ahithophel and bring disaster on Absalom.

Absalom and his men thought that the plan of Hushai sounded better but the delay in organizing a national assault on David was what saved David’s life! Sometimes a plan will sound good until someone else presents another plan that sounds better. This is why there is an advantage to having many counselors.

Proverbs 15:22 (NASB)

²² Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed.

With many counselors a plan will succeed because having a group of men involved in planning brings a greatly increased chance of success. But it should be noted that having many counselors is not the same thing as having many people debating and sharing their opinions! People who share opinions are not helping the decision making process but they are just trying to persuade others to cast their vote on their side. They offer no wisdom in problem solving because the airing opinions does not offer solutions or solve any problems. Only men of experience and wisdom can offer wise counsel and good advice. Throwing the decision to a group of people who have no experience or wisdom is like having a jury decide based upon majority vote. Randomly chosen people who are void of wisdom have no more power to make a right decision than a handful of magic arrows! All they can come up with is a majority vote which is not based upon any wisdom of any kind.

Proverbs 24:6 (NASB)

⁶ For by wise guidance you will wage war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.

Before a king is to wage a war he has to have wise counsel and he has to consider all of the facts and consult with his military commanders. The more counselors that are present to provide input then the better chance there are of having victory. If an invasion expedition should forget one thing (like making provision for a river crossing) then the entire plan can be doomed to failure. They must consider all of the information pertinent to their plan and they need experts in every field to give their counsel for every aspect of the proposed war.

The masculine leadership model of a king and his advisors is such that the king receives counsel for war and he bases his decision on the best information available. The king then makes the final decision and everyone supports him.

In the feminine-style leadership model they fear having one man take decisive action so they install a system of “checks and balances” to check the authority of leaders and to balance the power among the opposing groups. If one political party is in control then the other party still has enough license to hinder them through the system of “checks and balances” and keep their opposing party from implementing their plan. If either political party is in control they will still be resisted by the system of “checks and balances” which will check their every move and balance the power between two opposing sides! This system has the inherent quality of impeding action and is guaranteed not to accomplish anything. It is designed to stalemate the implementation of any plan as two opposing parties have equal power to cancel out the leadership of the other and they will flounder in “inaction” while bickering among themselves!

It is for this reason that we have a Chief Executive Officer who makes the final decision after hearing the counsel of his Trustees and Advisors. This masculine leadership model is not concerned about giving everyone an equal say in the decision making process and it is not seeking to be “open-minded” to the thoughts and opinions of everyone! Under the CEO leadership model there is one man who has been given full authority to act and to make the masculine decisions that are needed to bring his group to success.

Under a feminine style leadership model they seek to give equal rights to every minority and every special interest group that exists. This results in these small pockets of people crying out like spoiled children who say, “What about me?” This fuels self-centeredness because instead of everyone pulling together as a group, they splinter into special interest groups who all want to have their own way! There is no faster way of destroying unity than to cater to special interest groups which sacrifice the overall long-term good of the entire group in order to cater to their own individual desires.

Feminine-style leadership is not focused on solving problems but rather it is focused on giving everyone a chance to air their opinions so they can vote on what course of action they might take. This method of decision making is no better than a witchdoctor casting his magic arrows or suicidal man spinning a pistol cylinder to play Russian roulette! It is pure chance how the matter will turn out and it is not based on wise counsel and is not implemented by decisive masculine leadership!

Masculine leadership is such that there is one leader who bases his decisions on the best input of his advisors and once his decision is made then his followers rally behind him to support him in it. This produces unity of purpose in contrast to the feminine style leadership that produces nothing but bickering, arguing, voting, and then seeking a scapegoat after their majority plan fails miserably! There is no blaming a scapegoat when a masculine leadership model is followed because there is one man making the decisions and executing their implementation!

The Chief Executive Officer is the chief and this is similar to a tribal chief who takes counsel with his elders and then the chief determines the best course of action to take for their tribe. This however is not a feminine-style debating and voting situation with every person in the group having an equal say! The chief has the final say and he makes the final decision based on counsel provided by his elders rather than basing his decision on debating and airing of opinions.

The Chief Executive Officer therefore can be compared to a chief of a tribal community that has full executive powers. The tribe does not adopt a system of “checks and balances” in order to hinder their chief and rob him of his authority to take action! They are not concerned about having equality-for-all and giving everyone in the group an equal part in the decision making process! Equality may be fine for raising young children but when “equality-for-all” is misplaced for leadership then it will bring nothing but a curse and failure.

It is for this reason we do not follow the feminine-style leadership model of having a voting committee or a voting democracy. We do not make our decisions based on the opinions of everyone in the group and we do not decide our fate by a majority vote! Sometimes there may be only one person in the group who is right and if that is the CEO he will implement his plan regardless if he is unpopular or not.

I once heard of a man who was building a large church under the direction of God to do so. But when he presented this plan to his elder board they were all opposed to it. He told God that he would have to drop the plan because his elder board did not approve of it. But God rebuked him and told him that He never asked him to inquire of the elder board! God told him to build this project with or without their approval! Some of the elders were so against this plan that they even organized resistance against it. This man went through many troubles and great testing of his faith but in the end this project was completed. God moved supernaturally to provide all of the needs and he was vindicated when it was proven that he did hear the voice of God about this project. This man was proven right by God even when no one else supported him!

This illustrates that sometimes the leader may have to stand alone when he obeys God even if no one else agrees with him. The right thing to do may often be the thing that only one man has heard from God. Under no circumstance does a majority vote make something right and under no circumstances should a majority vote be used to make decisions!

Giving counsel is vastly different than debating and arguing and trying to obtain a majority vote! Counsel is given to a man who has the authority to make decisions. The decisions however are not to be made by feminine “equality-for-all” by trying to tally the opinions of everyone in the group!

It is for this reason that we have a President who is the CEO and his decisions are based upon the input of his Trustee Board and his Board of Advisors. This is an all-male leadership model because women have introduced their feminine thinking into every area of leadership in the world today and often it has brought a curse wherever it is found in leadership. We operate only by masculine logic (not feminine thinking) which is based in “equality-for-all” and “open-mindedness.” Feminine thinking is a curse whenever it is misplaced in leadership! Leaders cannot be “open-minded” to the thoughts and opinions of others and give everyone an "equal share" in decision making or else they will accomplish nothing! If a man tries to please everyone in the group, then he will please no one and he will in fact “not” be making decisions that are for the best interests of the group!

Under our system we have a C.E.O who is an Apostle and this C.E.O. will appoint department heads based upon the operation of Revelation Gifts. This C.E.O. holds the authority to remove or appointed based on the operation of Discerning of spirits and Word of Knowledge and Word of Wisdom.

A training program for both the Fivefold Ministry and the Civil Leadership will be implemented to groom young men under an apprentice program to prepare them for future leadership positions. This leadership training program will insure that we will have the spiritual and natural leadership needed for future expansion as well as leadership needed for operating current community enterprises.