TEAM INTEGRITY
by Ron Wood
When God put Adam and Eve in the garden, a paradise of heaven on earth was his goal. Unfortunately, an evil interloper interfered with God’s ultimate intentions. Satan slithered into camp, caused a disruption in the harmony of God’s team, and cost mankind our inheritance. Thankfully, God’s grace has appeared in the person of Jesus Christ to repair the breach, restore our relationship, and return us to our rightful inheritance.
How did Satan succeed in infiltrating God’s first apostolic team? If we can understand this, then we can uncover his tactics today, because Satan hasn’t changed. He is still attempting to disrupt harmony and disqualify headship. He uses one basic tactic: lying accusations. His lies provoke sinful reactions which in turn dissolve our unity and erode our vision. Divided we always fall, and the devil knows it. So, doubting God, we fall from grace. We no longer experience the grace of God helping us overcome and achieve. Absent God’s blessing and presence, w are on our own and it isn’t easy. The way of the transgressor is hard. God means it to be. He wants us to repent.
If Satan can insinuate his doubts, then he can divide our team (marriage, company, church, etc.), divert us our direction, delay our mission, and destroy our effectiveness. Satan did this with Eve and then with Adam when he distorted God’s word and caused them to doubt God’s motives.
Satan kissed up to this Primary Couple, our progenitors on planet earth. The Master of Deceit led humanity down a trail of tears and sorrows that have caused untold suffering for six thousand years. It is time we learned how to live in the light of God’s word rather than the darkness of deception. We need to decide if God is true so we can stay in agreement with God’s word (and with each other) so that we can possess our inheritance and enjoy God’s blessings.
The components of the fall are these: Eve was deceived; Adam was disobedient. On this First Team, Adam represented headship; Eve represented the heart of their relationship. Both head and heart need to be guarded from deceit. They momentarily turned away from the words of their loving Creator who had been walking and talking with them every day. They listened to the lies of a fallen angel. His whispers seduced them into unfaithfulness by means of independent action, rebellion against the rules of Eden, and ultimately, a fall from life into death.
Team integrity disintegrated due to doubting the words of their Leader, God. They allowed seeds of doubt to take root. Discord, deception, and disaster ensued. Did this fall begin with a thought subtly sowed into someone’s mind? At what point could Eve have taken every thought captive and confessed God’s word instead of Satan’s lie? How far did she go before there was no turning back? When did the insanity of sin control her thinking? When did Adam disbelieve the warnings of His Eternal Father? At what point did he forfeit his leadership and abdicate his responsibility to husband Eve to guard Eden? Could he have said something to stop the downward spiral? Who he listened to eventually affected what he believed.
Never forget, the words you incubate today will be the words you are controlled by tomorrow. Your future circumstances are being forged in the furnace of your beliefs today. What you believe is critical, but who you believe is just as important. Adam and Eve didn’t need to know everything in order to be safe. They just needed to know the One they were believing, their Savior. By turning away from Him, they chose soulish knowledge rather than spiritual life, pride rather than humility, self-government rather than holy headship. We have all been on a long road trying to find our way back from confusion ever since. It will take the return of Christ to finally put back everything that was lost. But look at the price we have paid in the souls that have been damned and the damage that has been inflicted. Sin extracts a terrible price.
The integrity of this husband-wife team under God’s headship could have been preserved. Unlike Adam and Eve, we are no longer naive concerning evil. We now have something they didn’t have: a Savior, God manifest in the flesh, and a Bible, God’s infallible word, to give us wisdom and power to overcome Satan’s campaign of discord and deception. We also have a decisive edge only possible since Christ’s death and resurrection: the new birth, whereby we are given a new nature, one that is empowered to freely choose to do God’s will. By God’s grace and indwelling presence, we can, if we want to, walk our talk and maintain our integrity.
Our Lord is the ultimate realist. He knows that sin will enter in, that confession will need to be made, that reconciliation will have to occur. God has already made provision for us to be restored to Himself and to one another into righteous relationships. God wants the "tie that binds" to remain intact. When it fails, He wants us to repent so we can be "super-glued" back together.
In the gospels, it seems to me there are three primary directives from our Lord. Jesus gave us very few commands, but the few He gave us are crucial. Here are three I consider most vital: 1) Follow Me. Nothing else works if Jesus isn’t front and center in our faith and conduct. 2) Love one another. Perhaps the hardest of all His commands, this one requires building bridges of trust and community under the watchful eye of our Chief Shepherd. 3) Go with the gospel to every creature. This is our great Commission, to preach the good news to the whole world. Three basic things: Follow Jesus. Love each other. Go with the gospel. If we do these things, we can be saved, we can serve one another, and we can send out workers and be faithful witnesses. These three things are also the basic ingredients for the success of an apostolic team.
Jesus fulfilled his mission by calling together disciples whom he built into a functioning team. Team-building enables a leader to multiply his efforts. Jesus used the "principle of twelve" to reproduce his ministry. He gave away everything he had to 12 trusted followers, then told them to go do what he had done. The purpose of Pentecost was to empower them to obey that command. Pentecost did not occur in a vacuum. It did not happen to super individualistic ego-driven loners. It happened to an Upper Room community, a team that had come into unity and prayed through to power, together. God has all power and can repeat the outpouring of the Spirit anytime and in any place. The question is: where is the upper room community? Can we get our act together?
Togetherness is not a fancy word for a "touchy-feely" group hug. It is the secret ingredient of supernatural power to defeat Satan. So, how do we keep our team together?
King David sought togetherness with his band of followers. God had anointed him. Saul was pursuing him. Pressure was forming them into a team. Loyalties were being decided. In the midst of this sorting out process, men of valor joined themselves to David. They saw the favor of God on him and were drawn to swear allegiance. The Bible says they "helped David with an undivided heart." (1 Chron. 12:33). An undivided heart is the opposite of being double minded. A double minded person is unstable. Leadership teams can’t be composed of unstable individuals without disastrous consequences. God builds his kingdom based on covenant love from commitments made by stable people.
Sorting out relationships sometimes requires sifting through our commitments. Often we find that we really are "our brother’s keeper." And sometimes only loving confrontation will rescue our brother from the error of his ways (James 5:19-20). What do you do when you see someone self-destructing? What do you do when you see unity disintegrating due to sin? Does cordiality make us cower behind a facade of politeness, or does covenant love compel us to speak out in love? Biblically, we have no choice: Love covers ((1 Pet. 4:8) and love confronts (Gal. 6:1-3).
We are to speak the truth but only in love, not harshly. The Apostle Paul said his ministry to the Thessalonians included aspects as gentle as a nursing mother (1 Thess. 2:7) and as firm as a forceful father (2:11). Both are appropriate at different times in a person’s life. A friend will risk the relationship by speaking the truth. True friends can tell each other the truth without destroying the friendship. In fact, real friendship can’t exist without truthfulness, otherwise it is an illusion built on shifting sand.
Here is a key I believe God has shown me to undergird honest mutual commitments. Realize that God is watching between us. He is the author of righteous relationships. He superintends our fellowship so that God’s light, love, and honor are reflected in our links with one another. This works best in community, where we "know no man after the flesh." We don’t follow leaders or love our brothers because of worldly reasons, but because of God’s grace and purpose. In Christ, we order our relationships around the joints and ligaments the Holy Spirit creates (Eph. 4:16).
Fellowship together as maturing Christians naturally progresses from superficial contact to affection enjoyment to covenant love to functioning together as a team. Part of the process involves permitting others to speak honestly into your life without recoiling in rejection. Wholesome fellowship, free of co-dependency or any spirit of control, has a wonderful sanctifying effect on us. We don’t lose our individuality, but we begin to enjoy our diversity. We distinguish the differing grace gifts and find that we are stronger togther than we are apart. This is the miracle of Christ Incorporated, the Living Church.
Proverbs 27:5-6 provides a pattern for integrity in relationships. "Better is open rebuke than love that is concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy." The Lord wants us to ask ourselves these questions: Do you want friendship or enmity? Do you want faithfulness or deception? Do you want wounds or kisses. The open rebuke can be manifestation of great love, while cordial concealment of true feelings may be great treachery.
Team building is not a social experiment invented by corporate presidents. It is an intrinsic part of the kingdom of God modeled by Christ and urged by the apostles. A New Testament team can build a New Testament church. But New Testament churches can only be constructed of materials that measure up, believers who are refined in the fellowship-furnace of truth and love, not pampered in splendid isolation.
© 2001 by Ron Wood. Ron and his wife, Lana, have been pastors more than 30 years. He has served as a State Coordinator for the U. S. Strategic Prayer Network. Ron is best known for his prophetic writing ministry. Ron & Lana are a ministry team. They are members of Reconciliation Ministries International led by Bishop Joseph Garlington. Ron & Lana were sent to Africa to help equip emerging apostolic leaders in the developing church. If you wish to copy this article for free distribution, permission is hereby granted to duplicate it provided there are no changes or omissions made to this article and this byline is included. The author asserts his moral rights of ownership. For more information or helpful literature, visit our web site at touchedbygrace.org, or e-mail us at ron@touchedbygrace.org.
