THE GOD OF STRATEGY
© Morris E. Ruddick
“Then David gave Solomon the plans for all that he had by the Spirit. ‘All this,’ said David, ‘the Lord made me understand in writing, by His hand upon me, all the works of these plans.’” 1 Chronicles 28: 11,12,19
One of the greatest virtues of God’s game-changers has been the ability to respond to current 
developments in a manner that resets the course of the future.
When David was made King and brought all Israel together, the clan of Issachar served as his special advisors. Their gift was in understanding the times in order to know what should be done. They were the planners and forecasters. They evaluated and they made predictions.
The tribe of Issachar served as the observers of the dynamics and trends tied to the events of the day. Together with the prophetic insights and David’s abilities to discern the heart and intentions of the Lord, the result combined as a gift to the community. The opening scripture then describes how David captured in writing these matters he got from the Lord for the next generation. All together, they combined as the elements forming the strategies shaping Israel’s future.
The Components
So it is that in this time of global turbulence, we see the unfolding of the restoration of the components of this cooperative effort between the Lord and those who are called by His name. The Lord is the God of strategy.
It includes the restoration of the anointing of Issachar to discern the times and advance change. It combines shrewd evaluation with prediction, but is ultimately driven by the prophetic. It manifests with the actions of game-changers.
When out of balance it represents analysis that results in interim, albeit man-made efforts. When properly enshrouded in the prophetic it becomes revelation that predestines the future ordained by God.
This grasp of anticipating the future, which merges forecasting and the prophetic into God’s plans for the future, is a vital differentiating factor between God’s game-changers and those whose impact of leadership may simply be less than global in nature. It is encased by a big-picture outlook that triggers the application of the diversity of gifts to spawn the type of change that challenges the status quo.
The Gifts
Throughout the history of God’s people, the Lord has given gifts to men. These gifts have combined natural “gifts” or abilities with spiritual ones. For the game-changers, more often than not, they’ve been applied during times of duress, enhancing their dependency on God. The application then, guided by the God of strategy, eclipsed by the prophetic, has been the catalyst for paving the direction of societal change.
It represents the discipline of the process in reaching for God in concert with the action needed to implement God’s prophetic strategies. It defines the heroes of faith. In viewing the primary feats of the heroes of faith, we observe a progression of strategy.
Abraham began the legacy by his sensitivity to God and radically obeying God’s voice. He honored God with his willingness to get out of the box by leaving everything familiar to him. He established the community model for God’s people to live in self-sufficiency, as a people of God. Isaac’s response to God amid a time of famine unveiled the secret of God’s economy. He supernaturally prospered through God, gaining the respect of the regional power-brokers observing him.
Joseph demonstrated how stewardship and an identity and faith in God can influence and release God’s authority to harness the spiritual climate and resources of a pagan society. Joseph then managed the largest wealth transfer the world had ever seen.
Moses outlined the framework for the Abrahamic model to inoculate God’s own from the subtle wickedness of the world and become a society of the righteous, living for God. David demonstrated the leadership response to God’s guidance and then shaped a society of diverse factions into a Kingdom of God’s people, that would prompt awe for God and His people from all those around them.
Each involved strategies that changed the course of events for the people of God. Jesus then raised the bar to the challenge of strategy and opened the gates to the authority that governs cultures, economies and seats of power. In so doing He set up the Kingdom standard for applying righteous power in a corrupt world.
The Uniqueness
For each it involved understanding the times and knowing what to do, not as an analytical precept, but as a strategy discerned and acted on from the heart of God.
When game-changers such as these go into action, the change begins with a shift in the spiritual climate. In each instance spiritual climate change came as a result of the response of God’s people interacting with and obeying Him. The implementation of God’s strategies then influences a mix of the cultural, the economic and of power. Technology-advances factor in as accelerators to the change. The status quo is both the blind-spot and the resistance in the application of God’s strategies for change.
However, beyond the role of the game-changing heroes of faith, there is another way to look at the impact of the God of strategy. It is the change brought about by the community of those known by His name. God’s heart has always sought for it to be His people who would respond to His path of strategy, becoming as a light on a hill.
If we fast-forward to the book of Revelation, in between the lines is the story of the people of God, together with the angelic hosts experiencing this pathway of oneness with Him. It is God’s strategy triggering the final face-off with and death-throes of the forces of darkness and its minions.
The Tripping Point
What has made the heroes of faith stand out from the crowd has been their ability to determine and act on the tipping points rather than the tripping points. They have been the ones unconstrained by the spiritual myopia that has plagued far too many.
Today, one of greatest challenges and sources of confusion is the Body’s grasp of the prophetic. Despite God’s intention of the prophetic being the tipping point, instead it too often has become wrought with clutter and short-sighted prognostications.
The prophetic is not an analysis or consensus. It is the heart of God acted on that comprises the strategy of God. More often than not, it comes to the forefront in the midst of times of turmoil. It is the foundation for God’s unfolding will that reshapes the economic, cultural and power factors driving the course of events in the world.
However, with the shift materializing that changes the spiritual climate, the factors that should be the tipping point instead become the tripping point: namely the dimensions of the cultural, the economic and of power. In other words, there has been a tendency to major in the minor things and miss the focus that ought to be given to major, big-picture things.
Within the cultural is one’s worldview. Across Christendom today there is a subtle skewing of doctrinal precepts interpreted through the prism of a Western worldview. This blended perspective not only dilutes the power of God, but impedes the change intended within the cultural setting.
Within the economic setting is much the same thing. Success and money create a blinding to the realities of the economic infrastructures that hinders the change needed to be acted on in those infrastructures. This Western “overshadowing” is evidenced even in Israel. It influences believers on all corners of the globe.
It is the same in seats of power. As the changes in the world’s framework accelerates the manifestation of the age-old challenge to God and His people is again rearing its head. The power shift underway is being driven by distorted views of cultural or economic models that may have shaped past exploits. This myopia and confusion has penetrated the ranks of God’s people, impeding the amassing of the prayers and the move of God needed to precipitate the real shift of power and God’s strategy.
The root snares among the community of faith have long been and continue to be the desire to be like everyone else. Among the leaders in Jesus’ day, it was the idols in their minds that came with the seduction of power. For God’s people both the identity and the strategy must be in and from God.
The Tipping Point
The need is for what makes the Lord to be the God of strategy in the cultural, the economic and power structures. The call is for those known by His name, in humility, crying out to Him for the hunger that will bring forth His presence and intervention. Israel is the focal point, with the people of God seeking His face with the right focus.
In both 1948 and 1967, the crucible of the shift in the spiritual climate has manifested with war in Israel, accompanied by significant moves of God in the Body. These dynamics have changed the equilibrium of the equation. These are a part of the birth pangs.
Yet the carry-through to the tipping point ushering in the strategy impacting the cultural, economic and that of power requires more. This is where the way of the Kingdom, Jesus’ central earthly message, combined with maturity in the prophetic becomes critical to God’s way of strategy. It is where the premise of “he who loves his life will lose it, but he who hates his life will gain it” becomes significant.
Times of revival or renewal in the Lord are not driven by seeking ideals or their conception of solutions, but rather the One who creates the ideals and solutions. When we abandon our comfort zones and precepts, it demands a humility and commitment to His pathways. This humility and unreserved commitment to the God of strategy opens the gates and paves the way for the new thing God seeks to release among us.
“Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. I will shake the nations, so that they will come with the wealth of the nations and fill this house with glory.” Haggai 2:6-7
It is the simple things that confound the wise. A wall-hanger in my office states: “Seek not after ministry, but after the fruits of a disciplined life.” When combined with the words of Jesus, “seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness and all these other things will be added,” it incorporates the pathway needed for God’s strategy of change.
We have reached a climax in which the change needed will only come from the God of strategy. God’s change will shake up the status quo. It will bring restoration of His ancient paths and release the power that raised Jesus from the dead. It will trigger the mantle dormant within the covenant descendents of Abraham.|
“What will their acceptance be, but life from the dead.” Romans 11:15
