Call for men to lead from a higher vantage point — seeing what God sees

KMMC speaker Louis Els will bring a word he feels is on God’s heart

Men play an important role in God’s Kingdom, because as it goes in the family, so it goes with the nation, according to Louis Els who will bring the Word of God to the Friday-night session of the Karoo Mighty Men Conference 2015 (KMMC), which sets the tone for the rest of the weekend.

Els, who grew up in Despatch and felt the call of God as a young man, says mighty men who are prepared to be leaders in their families and communities are desperately needed in South Africa.

In 1991 Els and his wife Edna, planted a church in Jeffreys Bay with a heart for the whole of the Kouga area.
God has blessed them abundantly as the church has grown and been used mightily to have a huge impact in the area with two Christian schools, an orphan village, a health clinic, a Gap Year Bible College and a SETA Skills Training Centre.

Els has an apostolic and prophetic thrust with a unique understanding of the father-son principle, which has resulted in him sending “sons” to plant eight churches across South Africa, four in Canada, three in Holland and one in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, numerous other churches relate to him for spiritual covering.

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“I want to bring the word that I feel is on God’s heart to KMMC 2015 to encourage men and challenge them to rise to the occasion and be the men that God has called them to be,” says Els.

At the beginning of the year God gave Els the phrase “a higher vantage point” as a focus for 2015.

“God laid on my heart that we need to get out of the woods, so that we can appreciate the view of the trees and see what God sees.

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“When God assigned Jeremiah to his Kingdom purpose, to be a prophetic voice and bring God’s people back to Him as they were living in rebellion, He said Jeremiah should accurately say what God told him to say and not give his own opinion, feelings or emotions.

“He also asked Jeremiah if he saw for Israel what God saw for the nation and later said: “There is hope in your future Israel’.”

Els says God explained to him that likewise, this is the day and time for leaders to rise up in South Africa and see what God sees for the country from a higher vantage point.

“The Lord laid on my heart to read Jeremiah chapter one. I read it and re-read it, but could not understand the significance.

“Then the Lord said to me: ‘Make it real to yourself’, so I read it like this: ‘And the word of the Lord came to Louis in the days of load-shedding, it came to him also in the days of mismanagement and corruption, and the word of the Lord came until the end of all of this’.

“God wants to bring His word to us, but God cannot bring His word concerning our nation, concerning management of municipalities, concerning the economy when we don’t see what God sees.

“And if we don’t see what God sees then we begin to speak evil, because the Bible says in Matthew 6:22, ‘The light of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light’.

“I realised that in Christian circles although we preach that ‘Jesus can and is able to’, when we go out into the world we have as little faith as the world; and God said to me, ‘it is because you have not got My vantage point’.

“God said to Jeremiah, if he could see what God sees Jeremiah would speak what God wants him to speak, because God watches over His word to perform it.

“God is watching over what He sees and says that He is not watching us randomly confessing His word.

“God says He wants us to see as He sees and to only say what He wants us to say.

“I believe that we live in a day and a time when God is calling for leaders to withdraw from what they see in the natural; to go before God and say: ‘Father will you remove the scales from my eyes and let me see beyond the physical and the natural, where I respond with judgement, opinions and criticism, let me see from a higher vantage point with You’,” says Els.

Seeing from God’s vantage point will enable all men to be leaders, according to Els.

“We were designed to lead. God will never give you an assignment and not equip you for it, because He is a just God and a fair God, and a loving Father.

“God would not give us the assignment to be fathers if we did not have an inbuilt capacity to be caring, to look after, to guide, to provide for, and to be responsible for those He has placed in our stewardship.

“As fathers and husbands, we lead our wives, our children and, very often, neighbours around us.

“Leadership is largely the ability to influence and we all influence people around us, whether it is in the family, community or at work.

“We are all leaders, but God determines to what capacity we lead. That is why the word of God speaks of leaders of tens, hundreds and thousands. Not all of us are leaders of thousands, but we all are leaders, because God needs men to be leaders at all levels.

“We can’t change a nation only from the top, but also through the influence we have in our workplaces, communities, homes and families.

“The way we treat our wives, children, workers and neighbours will determine how South Africa’s towns, cities, provinces are changed – one family at a time,” says Els.

He contends that having a higher vantage point is not about standing on a high mountain and looking down; it is about living life from God’s perspective instead of from an independent spirit.

“It is living life out of a place of fellowship, intimacy and faith, whereby even if I go through a valley of darkness or the shadow of death, I know that God is with me, that He sees me and that if I listen He will guide me, which means that God is in control and I am dependent on Him.

“It is a life of constant dependence and practising the presence of God that gives you a higher vantage point, which allows you to see as God sees, speak what God wants you to speak and do what God wants you to do.

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“This is dependence not a weakness, but an exciting adventure of approaching life from God’s vantage point that gives us a broader perspective and changes our attitude towards life and people.

“A life dependent on God and His truth changes peoples’ hearts and minds. Walking in God’s ways gives people a broader outlook, allows them to think inclusively, to act kindly, to be more generous, and enables them to overcome.

“To live from a higher vantage point, from God’s vantage point is extremely important in the day and time that we are living,” says Els.