Leaders in the church today are in competition and jealous. It seems as though some are holding their people back instead of propelling them forward.

Jesus said, "Go out and make disciples." Making disciples is not only training people how to do it, but activating them to do it. When we look at the life of Jesus, he activated his disciples and told them to go out and make fishers of men.

Too often in our churches toda,y we are experiencing cliques within the leadership with our favorite elders and prophets only allowed to minister at the altar. I'm not saying order isn't good. But, we must also give new and rising prophets and ministers a chance to activate and implement their gift. What is the sense of having a gift if it is never opened?

The complaint I hear over and over again as I travel the U.S. is that pastors and leaders never let their people minister. Anointed men and women of God were never given a chance because their anointing may have succeeded that of the leader of the church. They were told to sit and wait for years and never were given a chance to release the gift that is within them.

I believe the greatest way for us to learn is to be activated alongside a leader. I believe Christianity should be like a secular job. We job shadow a ministry leader, but shadowing doesn't mean to always stay behind in the shadows. Like with in secular jobs, we must eventually take the position and the front line in our Christian walk. We can't train forever; sooner or later we need to get out and do the job.

I believe one of the reasons we don't get to do the job of altar ministry, prophecy or preaching is because pastors are overworked and don't spend enough time with their disciple to really know their heart and that they are ready. Pushing them aside and telling them "not yet" seems to be a simple solution. It's as if you are saying, "I don't have time for this." Exactly right! You don't have time and that is precisely while we need to activate as many people as we can. We need to activate, dispatch and release them.

Investing in a few would actually make pastors' lives easier. Leaders, ask yourselves the next time you want to push someone away, "is this true discipleship?" Discipling people goes beyond a Sunday pulpit message. It is investing in people one by one, one at a time, to develop the full potential within them.

Kathy DeGraw is the founder of DeGraw Ministries a prophetic ministry releasing the love and power of God, igniting people in the prophetic and releasing people from emotional bondage. She's passionate about teaching people the power of prayer through declaring. She speaks at conferences and travels hosting evangelistic love tours. Kathy is the author of Spiritual Warfare Declarations, A Worship Woven Life, Time to Set the Captives Free, and Flesh, Satan or God. Connect with Kathy at www.degrawministries.org.

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