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One of my favourite stories is of a Japanese tourist who went to the USA for the first time. He took a taxi from the airport to the hotel, and he was excited to see Japanese cars in the US.

He said to the taxi driver, "Look, look, look—Toyota, made in Japan, very fast. Oh, look, look—Mitsubishi, made in Japan, very fast." Turned round the corner and he said, "Oh, look—Honda, made in Japan, very fast."

By the time he reached the hotel, he was very shocked that the taxi fare was so high. And so he asked the taxi driver, "How come the taxi fare is so high?" And the New York taxi driver says, "Taxi meter—made in Japan, very fast."

We are living in very strategic times with strategic opportunities. Yes, they are challenging times. But there are times like these where there are wonderful strategic windows of opportunities that God is opening for the church. These are times where so much is up for grabs, and God calls us to a grand adventure of faith with Him—for His kingdom, for His purposes, for His glory.

But in order to embrace God's purposes, we must return to the essentials.

You see, my friend, returning to the essential is about being battle ready, because we face a spiritual warfare zone in leadership.

The battle is not against one another. It's not against flesh and blood. It's against the principalities of darkness for the souls of men. There is a spiritual warfare, and we must keep our focus right.

I'll focus upon God, I'll focus upon His kingdom, I'll focus upon His calling, I'll focus on the Great Commission to disciple the nations. But in order to do so, our foundation must be right. You see, the thing about foundation is that the foundation is unseen.

And that is why the inner life is so important. That is why cultivating the inner life is a crucial agenda in biblical discipleship today. Because if you study leadership derailment, you find at the heart of it is a compromise within.

And that is why tonight I want to share with you about the mandate and the mission. The mission is important, but the mission must be cradled by the mandate. The mandate precedes the mission.

What I want to do basically is to share with you this inside-out, this inner life where the mandate is the foundation, the mandate is the essential, the mandate is our walk with God and our discipleship unto Jesus. Therefore, this critical paradigm shift from outside-in to an inside-out discipleship is crucial in fulfilling the Great Commission Jesus has given to us.

One of the instructive stories I find is about a king who has four wives. The king was told that he had a great sickness and nobody could heal him. He was going to die, and he was very frightened. He didn't want to go to the afterlife alone, so he went to the fourth wife, whom he loved very much and had given her everything she wanted.

He said to the fourth wife, "I'm going to the afterlife, would you accompany me there?" And the fourth wife said, "I love you, and I know you love me a lot, but I cannot accompany you to the afterlife."

He said to the third wife, who is very beautiful, and he was very proud to show the third wife to the neighboring kings and kingdoms, "I'm going to the afterlife, would you accompany me?" And the third wife said, "I cannot accompany you. In fact, when you die, I'm going to remarry." He was very sad.

He went to his second wife, who was constantly with him, and said, "Would you accompany me to the afterlife?" The second wife said, "Yes, I've been with you through the seasons of life, but I cannot accompany you to the afterlife. The best I can do for you is to give you a good funeral and send-off."

The king was very sad because none of these three wives would accompany him. And then he heard the voice of his first wife. And the first wife said, "King, I will accompany you to the afterlife." And the king was struck with regret and remorse, because he had neglected the first wife. And he said to the first wife, "All these years I've neglected you, but you're the only one who would be willing to accompany me to the afterlife."

All of us, in a way, are like the king with four wives. The fourth wife represents our body—we feed it, we give it what it wants, but when we go to the afterlife, the body doesn't accompany us. The third wife represents our possessions, our wealth—when we die, we cannot take our wealth with us; in fact, our wealth will be given to somebody else. Our possessions, somebody else will possess—it is like the wife remarrying. The second wife represents the family—they have been with us through the seasons of life, but they cannot accompany us to the afterlife. When we die, the best the family can do for us is give us a good funeral and a send-off.

And that is why cultivating that life within—the mandate of walking with the Lord so that His truth, His light, His purposes, His glory shine upon us—nourishes our soul, deepens our life, builds a strong foundation in our life and our ministry. The soul, the inner life, is so crucial.

My friends, we talk about the inner life, but how do we define the inner life? What is the inner life about? I have five significant dimensions of the inner life.

The first is our inner compulsions. There are dark compulsions and compulsions of the light. Dark compulsions are addictions, whereas when you come to the compulsions of the light—the passion—these are the things that drive us: either our addiction, or our aspiration in the things of God.

The second is the conviction. Conviction is different from beliefs.

The third in the inner life is our conscience—in how we live. And the conscience can be seared. That is why to have a sensitive conscience before the Lord, to keep a short account before the Lord, to walk with that sense of meekness and repentance and gratitude, is so important—in both the conscience and the fourth, the compass in life. That inner restedness comes out of the compass, and that restedness is our inner composure.

So our compulsion—our passion—our conviction, our conscience, our compass in life from the inside out, and our restedness: they form the inner life.

There are four Bible characters I want to share with you tonight that teach us about the mandate so that we can fulfill the mission—the mandate to walk with God so that our inner life is being refreshed, tutored, and strengthened in the Lord.

Now here's the question: what do Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah have in common? What do these three Old Testament characters have in common? They are sons of Jesse. And together with the rest of the other four sons, seven of them were paraded before Samuel. The godly Samuel came to their house for a visit because he was sent by God. So the prophet Samuel was on a mission as he came to the house of Jesse, the house of David, to anoint a king.

But as each of the sons went through, God said, "No, not this one, not this one." Until finally Samuel asked Jesse, "Do you have another son?" Yes—a young shepherd out in the field called David. They called him in, and Samuel recognized: this is the man called of God.

Now, notice: it is very important that we evaluate life from God's perspective. The Bible says man looks at the appearance; God looks at the heart. Even Samuel himself, when he was doing this face-to-face interview for the highest office in the land, the most important job—the king—he was looking at the appearance. He was saying, "This person looks good, looks talented, looks kingly." But God says, "No, I don't look at the appearance; I look at the heart."

The answer given by God—"I look at the heart"—is very instructive for us in our discipleship. Because we live in a world today that is obsessed with the visibility of success. We often mistake activity and accomplishment for authenticity. We misguidedly measure success by the breadth of our reach, the speed of our progress, the visibility of our results, and the size of our ministry.

Yes, the mission is imperative. Yes, by all means, serve God with passion and with commitment. But the mandate, the walk with the Lord, must cradle our mission. That is why I lovingly tell leaders, as a leadership mentor, that we must move from the platform to the pathways.

Tonight, I'm speaking to you from a platform. A platform is a place of influence. A platform is a place of ministry. I'm not saying ignore the platform—it is a platform given of the Lord. Tonight I come to you not because I have to say something; I come to you because I believe God has given me something to say. There's a platform. But we must learn to move from the limelight of the platform into the pathway of discipleship, of walking with Jesus, of walking with God. Because while the platform is for influence, the pathways define and determine our integrity.

And so when we come to the story of David, the Bible says God sees the heart. And the heart is nourished in that time alone with God.

I've been a senior pastor for 25 years. I've transited in leadership for about 14 years now. Just before I transited in leadership, there were many last things: a last board meeting, last staff meeting, last prayer meeting, last sermon to preach, last farewell dinner, etc. Many last things. But the most significant last thing I did as senior pastor of Covenant Evangelical Free Church, before I transited into the ministry of leading the Global Alliance of Intentional Disciple-Making Churches, was to bring the two new senior pastors up to the mountain to pray.

Because as a senior pastor, every October I take a month away from the office, and I go up to the mountain, and I seek the Lord. And I remember the first time I went up to the mountain, I said, "Lord, I will not come down until I've encountered You." And the Lord showed up.

I thought when I encountered God, I would come out strong, I would come out anointed. Oh, when the Lord showed up, He convicted me of my sins and my inadequacies, my pride and my presumptuousness. And I still remember, in ten chapters of Jeremiah, He convicted me of twenty specific sins. I repented of them one at a time. I cried, until I said to the Lord up on the mountain, "Lord, stop, stop—my heart cannot take it anymore."

And I walked off the mountain convicted, but grateful. Grateful that I do not have to depend on my own strength or my own intelligence or my own wisdom to try to walk the pathway of discipleship. Grateful that the Lord Jesus helps me and strengthens me. Because without His leading and His strengthening, it is impossible to walk the pathway of discipleship—not in our own strength, not in our own wisdom.

Some years ago, my beloved friend Luis Bush called me up and said, "Edmund, can you come to speak to my leaders in the 10/40 Window movement?" I said, "Luis, I love you and admire your ministry, but I can't. I'm in between trips." I travel a lot, but this was a season where there was not enough time for me to come to his conference, because there was a next trip I needed to go on in the midst of it.

He said, "Edmund, the conference is in Bali—it's a neighbor to Singapore. Just fly in, share one plenary message with the leaders, and fly out." I said, "Luis, I can't do that. Fly in, fly out—only celebrities do that; I can't." And Luis said, "We'd love for you to do that. Just fly in, share the message in Bali, then fly back to Singapore the same day, and be ready for your next travel and conference." I prayed about it, and I did—because the Lord gave me a burden to share from this particular verse.

This particular verse showed them the way they are to walk and the work they are to do. The way they are to walk is the mandate. The work they are to do is the mission.

And so what I shared with them is basically what I want to tell you tonight: we have misinterpreted Exodus chapter 18. In a lot of Christian literature on leadership, when Exodus 18 is quoted, it is often said that the key principle is leadership delegation—found in verses 21 and 22: you select able men and you let them judge; you delegate to them. But I'm here to tell you that we have misinterpreted Jethro's advice and counsel to Moses.

The focus is not on delegation. What Jethro was telling Moses is: "Listen, Moses, what you do is not good. You will wear yourself out; you will wear the people out. Listen to me, I want to give you advice, and the Lord give you wisdom. Keep your focus. This is what you are to focus on: you are to teach them two things—the way they are to walk and the work they are to do. Everything else that distracts you from this focus, you delegate out. You select able men and let them lead. You delegate. But you keep your focus."

You see, the focus is in verse 20. Verses 21 and 22—select men and delegate—are to help Moses keep the focus in verse 20. So we ask: what's the focus? You teach them, you instruct them, you exhort them on two things: the way they are to walk and the work they are to do—the mandate and the mission—and the order is important. The mandate precedes the mission. In other words, the focus is not just on the work they are to do; first, it's the way they are to walk. Because the way they walk determines their heart, their loyalty, and their allegiance to God.

It's an important leadership principle: we keep our focus in the way we walk and the work we do, so that we can teach others the way they are to walk and the work they are to do.

Manoah was the father of Samson, and an angel of the LORD came and gave a revelation that Samson would grow up to be a mighty servant of God. And notice the question Manoah the father asked. He did not ask the angel of the LORD, "Is what you say true?" Rather, he says, "When your words come true"—in other words, since what you say is true, I have two questions: what is the child's manner of life, and what is his mission?

As CCCOWE celebrates your 50th anniversary and you move forward into the future, you have to focus on the mandate and the mission. But in focusing on the mission, do not forget the mandate. Put it first. Because the mandate, our walk, must precede the mission.

When he comes to order the walk before the work, the mandate before the mission, the authenticity before the accomplishment, he is setting his priorities aright.

Our position might not be compromised—you are still the head of your department, or the pastor, or the missionary. Your ministry is not compromised—you can still preach, you can still lead, you can still minister. But the spiritual authority is compromised when our spiritual priorities are compromised. Our spiritual authority is compromised when we reverse the order that God intended—for the mandate to precede the mission.

Tonight we must come back to the basics as we look at the future. We must come back to the foundation, the essential, the mandate in our walk with the Lord. It cannot be compromised.

I want to show you how we as a church—not just the Chinese church, but the global church: Asia, Africa, Latin America, the West—how the global church has compromised our walk because we neglected the mandate.

You see, our starting point in our foundation is the Word of God. The Bible is our foundation, the Word of God. It is the authority that God has given in His revelation—the authority by which we have to once again be realigned to and re-establish God's authority in our life: obeying His Word, affirming the truth of the Scriptures, and living by it. It is not the acquisition of knowledge of the Bible; it's the application of the truth that changes our lives.

That's the words of Jesus: practice, do, apply. Now, here's the problem. We have the Word of God. We know His truth. We love His truth. But in the contingencies of life, the pressures and the trials of life, we find it difficult to practice God's Word. Why? Because now we are thinking, "Oh, it's so hard, it's so difficult." And there is a warfare that deceives our mind away from God's truth and power.

And so, out of our own feelings, distant from the Word of God, we make our choices. Our choices become habits, and it leads us astray from the Word of God—because now our thinking, our habits, our choices are not grounded in the Scriptures. We believe the deception of Satan that says it is hard to practice the Word of God, it is demanding, discipleship is so difficult, obeying God's Word is impossible. With this deception, rather than growing and maturing in the Word of God in His power—which takes time—we drift very slowly from God's Word.

Very soon we have another thing codified within our soul—another perspective, another conviction, another worldliness. Now, here's the problem: there are now two source codes in our soul, two authorities.

So what do we do? In the global church, amongst Christians, there are three responses. The first response is repentance. We come before the Lord and say, "Lord, we are sorry. We missed. We want to come back to re-establish your authority in our lives through the Word of God." We repent. And we say, "Lord, it's difficult to follow you, because our carnal nature doesn't allow for it. But Lord, we want to be crucified with Christ—nevertheless we live, yet not us; Christ lives in us. That's what we want." We repent. That's the first response.

Second response: there are Christians who backslide, and they walk away from God because they don't turn back. Now, if there were only two responses, it would be quite clear: either you are for Christ and His kingdom, or you are not. The problem with discipleship today in the global church is that there's a third option. It shouldn't be an option, but we have taken the third option.

Many Christians in the church—they don't backslide, they don't repent, because it's too hard. What do they do? They pay lip service to God. They come to church, they sing and worship God, they go to Bible study and cell group, they can preach and share. But in their daily walk—in the office space, in their home, and most importantly, in their private world—their self is enthroned, not Christ. They give lip service to Christ.

That's the problem in the global church today: we have compromised our mandate. We have missed that tremendous call of God to walk with Him and to see His grace and His power, so that we walk with a sense of gratitude, a sense of joy, a sense of submission, where we re-establish His authority in our lives—because we know He is worth it all.

That is why the most important question Jesus ever asked is a question to Peter—and through his question to Peter, to us: "Do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than the mission? Do you love me more than the ministry? Do you love me more than the accomplishment? Do you love me more than this?" The mandate—the love for Jesus and the walk with Him—must precede the mission. Otherwise, the mission is severely compromised.

I want to close with a testimony from Africa. Some years ago, I had the privilege of mentoring Isaias Acerbo, and Isaias mentored a bishop called Aloysius Arbo. Bishop Aloysius was converted in August 1988, and in 1995 he was called into full-time ministry. This is his testimony as he shared it, and I share this with permission.

He said: "Weaknesses I never knew were there—pride, being easily provoked, not understanding my wife, lack of good communication in my marriage, reading my Bible for others, as well as many other things." In 2019, Bishop Arbo joined the discipleship training which Isaias was conducting.

And then he said this: "It was not long before people around me began testifying to the new person I was becoming." And the diocese declared 2020 to 2030 as a decade of discipleship. "As urgent as I wanted everyone around me to experience the transformation, the principle 'think big, start small, build deep' was fresh in my mind. I started with only four senior pastors in November 2019." Then twelve lay pastors were brought in, and it included the archdeacons and the lay pastors and their wives in discipleship groups—small groups of more than five clergy couples each.

The church began to be transformed in its spiritual depth as they put the mandate first. And the national church began to notice this church and its transformation, and other bishops asked him, "How do you do it?" So he started with seven bishops, and eventually he had five cohorts of seven bishops—five groups, which means 35 bishops that he was mentoring in the Church of Nigeria.

He ended his testimony by saying this: "Above all, my greatest joy about this movement is not how wide it is growing, but the noticeable change of life demonstrated by those in the movement—the testimonies of victory over sin, healing in marriages and homes, positive change in approach to ministry and life issues, unity, love and understanding—and not just in my own diocese, but in all the 165 dioceses in the Church of Nigeria."