THE ROYAL PRINCIPLEOF LOYALTY

One important quality of a royal soldier is loyalty.

Beloved, the rules of spiritually engaging the enemy is to have somebody cover your back.

So, our dearest Lord Jesus always sent a minimum of two people on any mission. And He still does so today because He has not changed?

Armour for your back

Loyalty is armour for the back. In the Armour of God in Eph. 6, there is none for the back. But, we need one because the devil is weak and defeated by Jesus. Now, for believers who are well aware of this, the devil does not attack them from the front or in obvious manner, but from the back.

Beloved, an attack from the back is a subliminal one, and is often involving people around you or close to you. Yes, the devil likes to weaken and use people who are familiar to you.

If you carefully study the callings of God, you will see that God calls us as individuals, but He gives us assignments that cannot be done without another. Yes, God often gives us work that can only be done together with others. God Himself does not work alone, but in a team – Gen. 1:1, 26.

This is how loyalty comes in as an important principle for the expansion and consolidation of the Kingdom or rule of God. Without it, the rule of God will be impaired among us, and Satan will have a field day running down believers, infiltrating our ranks, turning us against each other whilst he stands aside and enjoys it – Gal. 5:14-15.

Christ is teamwork

“And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” – Matt. 16:16.

“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ” – 1 Cor. 12:12.

Now, according to the Apostle Paul, Christ is ‘one body, many members’. So, when Apostle Peter said Jesus was the Christ, he was saying Jesus was ‘one body many members’. This is what the Kingdom-church is built on.

Beloved, the Church is founded on the revelation of ‘one body many members’ or teamwork. Yes, anybody with this revelation of teamwork is ready to lead the Kingdom-church to ‘Kingdomize’ the world, causing Heaven to come down – Matt.16:19.

Kingdom-teamwork and religious-teamwork

The revelation of Christ or ‘one body, many members’ that is badly needed in the Church, can be given by God or by humans. When it is given by humans i.e. “flesh and blood”, it results in a religious-church, full of human antics and wisdom as in running a secular company.

You know, according to our dearest Lord Jesus, many will rise with a religious version of Christ or ‘one body, many members’ – Matt.24:5.

On the other hand, when the revelation of ‘one body many members’ is given by God, as in Simon Peter’s case, it results in a Kingdom-church, with the ability to unleash the Kingdom or rule of God on earth as in Heaven.

Christ is the anointed One

As a Church, when we get to the place where we have the Kingdom-version of ‘one body, many members’ or teamwork, Jesus will be found in us, His anointing will abound among us, and we will reach the full stature of Christ – Rev. 3:20; Eph. 4:13.

With this understanding, when Jesus came on earth, His first strategic assignment was to form an apostolic group or team. In Jn. 17:4, He referred to this assignment and gave an account to God that He had finished forming the Christ, by emphasizing the need for teamwork or unity in His physical absence – Jn. 17:18, 21.

Yes, our Lord clearly said that the world would believe and receive God’s love when there is Christ or teamwork – Jn. 17: 23.

In other words, the Kingdom or rule of God in people and places will advance as we operate in a Kingdom-way as an army or a team of royal soldiers who are knit together by loyalty. Yes beloved, the way to practically maintain and expand the Kingly rule of God on earth is by sticking in love-based loyal unity to our fellow believers.

What is an army?

Beloved, an army is a group of soldiers who have a common goal and so mutually support each other at all cost. So, Christ is about teamwork. It is about enjoying honour together and shame together – 1 Cor. 12:26.

You know our Lord Jesus so taught and prayed teamwork on His team that the ‘twelve’ Apostles did not work alone, but as a team in His physical absence.

Yes, all the over twenty-five named Apostles in the Bible operated as teams. The well-known team was the one in which Apostle Paul was.

Even Apostle Paul’s writing was by his team – 1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Col. 1:1; 1Thess. 1:1; 2 Thess. 1:1.

My friend, God is indicating to us through the exemplary Apostle Paul that, it is through teamwork or the Christ that the Kingdom or influence of God will be established in people and places – Col. 4:11.

Christ and loyalty

Loyalty means trustworthiness, dependability, faithfulness and reliability. A royal-soldier in the visible army of God’s Kingdom should be dependable. Every soldier understands the need
for teamwork else, loyalty as a soldiering code of conduct does not even arise.

Dear child of God, loyalty is to the course of Christ or Jesus’ team. This course is higher than that of any one man. So, it is when anyone stands for the course of the Christ that the person attracts loyalty.

Thus, this loyalty that a person receives is not because of him-self per se, but the course of Christ that he represents or is committed to.

You know, sometimes the people that Jesus rides on are tempted to think that people are around them because of them – Mk. 11:7-10. Beloved,
Apostle Paul said “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ”- 1 Cor. 11:1.

He was saying that, the course of Christ is to be your focus and what you must ultimately follow. So, He commended the Church in Macedonia for setting up our Lord Jesus as their ultimate, unlike the Church in Corinth – 2 Cor. 8:5; 1 Cor. 1:12-13.

Love, the basis of loyalty

The root of the principle of loyalty is the Kingdom-love of God which has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit – Rom. 5:5. Because this love is in you, you are capable of walking in this important Kingdom-soldiering code of conduct.

On the other hand, there is fear-based loyalty. This is where a person is loyal because he fears the consequences of not being loyal. Such loyalty is on sinking sand because anything born out of fear or threat can be torpedoed by the devil. In a matter of time, such loyalty will start sinking.

God Kingdom-expansion strategy

But, love-based loyalty is God’s Kingdom expansion battle strategy – Jn. 17:21, 23. As you know, the battles of our lives and societies have been won by Jesus Christ already.
As a result, it is strategy, not strength that what is needed to personalize Jesus’ victories but strategy or wisdom.

We will now turn our attention at discussing the benefits of working as an Royal army or being ‘one body, many members’.

Twelve blessings of teamwork

Royal loyalty comes easily to a person who understands teamwork as revealed by God, as follows:

1. Our output becomes small when we lack respect for the true-Christ or teamwork – Eccl. 4:9

2. Teamwork helps us to give the glory to God and not take it for ourselves – Is. 42:8; 48:11.

3. Group or army-work eliminates pride because of the individual- contribution and team-output mismatch. Teamwork humbles you and gets you into a disposition that makes you inherit the earth, in the Kingdom-way – Matt. 5:5.

4. The believer’s judgment will mainly be based on faithfulness or loyalty to the group assignment – Lk. 22:28-30; Matt. 25:23. Loyalty is often towards a common course.

5. Christ is God’s end time sign of maturity – Eph. 4:11-14. It takes maturity to work with others in a group or as an army.

6. People who respect team-work do not seek their own personal glory, but that of the true-Christ – Phil. 2:1-5.

7. Army or group work is God’s end time rule of engaging the enemy, and dislodging him from ‘his’ place – Lk. 10:1-20.

8. Teamwork enriches, matures, develops and humbles you as you get exposed to other people’s graces and personalities – Rom. 1:12.

9. Christ or ‘one body, many members’ affords you the opportunity and enablement to show God’s love and care for one another – 1 Cor. 12:26.

10. The world would believe in Jesus through being ‘one body, many members’ in a practical way – Jn. 17:21, 23; 13:34.

11. Satan can defeat you when you attempt to confront him without any one backing-you up. The only time Jesus ‘fell into Satan’s hands’ was when Judas decided to betray Him – Mk. 14:10-11.

12. The kingdom of darkness is a network of spirits and it takes a network of soldiering-saints or the true-Christ to overcome it – Zech. 1:18-20.