PROLOGUE
GOD SPOKE a word to us towards the end of last year. We felt led to pray, speci cally asking God for wisdom, intelligence, and creativity. e word He gave us was:
“So that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; en you will understand the fear of the Lord, and nd the knowledge for God. For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;” (Proverbs 2:2-6)
We began to claim this promise and confessed: Lord, Your Word says that You give wisdom and intelligence to those who ask You for it, and we long for a new measure of it… We wanted to have His wisdom and intelligence and ow in its fullness.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).
Pastor Cesar and Claudia Castellanos have taught us to pray, using a rhema word from God as our foundation. We began asking our Heavenly Father for creativity, intelligence, and wisdom. He did not take long to respond and we began to see change in our lives, ministry, and everything else we did. e Lord also spoke to us through a scripture in Ezekiel that said, “ … the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God” (Ezekiel 1:1). We understood that the heavens were really open and that it was time for us to see God’s vision for our
lives ful lled.
is is a season of “ open heavens.” Now is the time when dreams of multitudes coming to Christ will become real. Now is the time to go forward in the Vision that God has given you to conquer.
God used a message Pastor Castellanos shared with the leadership team in Miami to take us to the next dimension of faith. God’s word was, “Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength…” (Isaiah 52:1a NIV). We understood that we had become comfortable with what we had already conquered. We were leaders of a precious group of people in Colombia, multitudes gathered in the Coliseum, and the church was seeing the multitudes. Nevertheless, the Lord told us, “You cannot be satis ed with this because I have so much more for you as a church. You need to desire what I truly desire.” His will is for everyone to be saved, know His Word, and be discipled and trained to change nations.
We started thinking about the word God had given us. We wanted to really wake up and clothe ourselves with strength to conquer more. God gave us a strategy that was easy, simple, and based on the Word that He had given us. is strategy helped us reach one million souls who later became members in the church in Bogota for the rst time. We believed the Word, applied it, and worked.
Although we worked with the book, e Ladder of Success, and had great results, we felt that God wanted to take us to another level through a new strategy of evangelism. e strategy that God gave us was to contact three people each day of the week for one month. Using this strategy each leader could reach sixty people in one month.
Winning is only the rst step in this Vision. We challenged the team in Colombia with this goal. Together with the third generation of leaders, we accepted the challenge in October and went on to conquer. By the end of the month, we realized that we had not only met our goal but had surpassed it and evangelized to 107,200 people that accepted Christ. e leadership teams in
Colombia were so encouraged that they joined us using the same strategy. In three months, we were able to evangelize to more than one million people together as a church.
Now is the time to apply the teachings of this book, which will help you transform each person won into a fruitful leader.
Eliemerson and Johannna Proenca
Chapter 1:
THE POWER OF A VISION
“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing (Genesis 12:2 NIV).
WHEN YOU begin your walk with Christ and become a follower and doer of His Word, a certain kind of blindness is removed from your mind, heart, and eyes. e Lord gives you a new view of life and makes you a person of vision.
Using His creative imagination, God created the world and man. God’s vision for creation is an example of the desire of His heart. “We are his workmanship” (Ephesians 2:10). e Lord marked us with His character as participants with His nature. He made us according to His image and lled us with creative capabilities that are useful in the church, if and only when we believe God can use us.
Vision is the determining factor in the path to success. rough out the Bible we can see how God works through a man or woman by revealing His will. He gives His plan to someone and surrounds him or her with people that they can identify with and are determined to help in whatever they do. Together, with God, they become a force driven by His vision. God uses people that believe and are willing to obey Him.
WHAT IS THE VISION?
e vision is God’s idea revealed to man in such a way that he can put it into action.
Everything that exists originated in the vision that God had for creation. God created man in His image giving him the ability to use God’s creative ideas. By using His creative ideas, God expected man to attain a Vision. In spite of adversity, Vision is the catalyst in leaders that have changed the history of nations even in the midst of adversity.
Creation originated in God’s vision and caused all things to be set in motion including His masterpiece, man.
en God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness; (Genesis 1:26 NIV).
Vision also consists of having a clear image of what God wants us to be. It is only when we enter into the spiritual realm through faith that this creative idea can take place with the help of the Holy Spirit.
God works through you
God lives within us and speaks to us through His Word. When we allow doubt and other voices to speak to us God does not have control and the Holy Spirit is grieved. When you believe in God’s Word in spite of your circumstances, He is able to work in your life with freedom and power … “the desire of the righteous will be granted” (Proverbs 10:24).
You should have a clear goal of what you want
When the image on your television screen is blurry and cannot be seen, it means that there is something wrong with the television. ink about your vision. Is it blurry, can you see clearly? If it is not clear, it may be that there is something wrong with the signal (faith) in your life. ere may be fear, sin, or wounds.
Increase your level of faith
Faith is a spiritual thing and goes against reasoning, our senses, and the things that surround us. Faith can ow in your life when coupled with God’s desires. You can be con dent that when you pray He already heard you. “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalms 37:4).
Expect a miracle
All we have to do is wait on the Lord because our petitions are in God’s hands. A miracle is the result of a spiritual battle won through faith. When God told me: “Dream about having a big church”, I understood that the size of my church was within me and God would give me as much as I believed Him. After God promised Abraham that, He would give him a child, Abraham had to ght against unbelief with faith and strengthen himself in the Lord. Had Abraham opened the door to unbelief, he would have prevented the following generations from ful lling God’s plan. “(As it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations’) in the presence of him whom he believed-God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be’… He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform” (Romans 4:17-18,20-21).
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VISION
A God given vision has various characteristics such as honest motivation, purity, and it always contributes to the well being of the community socially and spiritually. A good vision does not create personal glory, yet it only glori es Jesus Christ. God wants us to have a vision of ful lling His purpose on earth. e following characteristics will help you understand and become more involved in the ful llment of God’s purpose.
Great leaders are motivated by Vision
God’s vision makes us overcomers. A successful leader is interested in nding out what God’s purpose for their life is and does everything in their power to ful ll it. Success is achieved when someone has the mind of Christ (Philippians 4:8).
Vision is the power that gives life
When you enter the Vision, you begin to see natural things through your spiritual eyes. When you see through spiritual eyes, you also see things through the eyes of God. is gives you the authority to call those things that are not as if they were. Just as Ezekiel, the prophet, had a vision of dry bones, we need to understand that the only way to see change in our life is through divine intervention (Ezekiel 37:1-9).
A successful leader can reproduce the Vision
God’s vision was to redeem humanity from condemnation. ere is no other hope for man except through Jesus Christ. Jesus’ vision was to save us by paying the price for our sin through dying on the Cross of Calvary. Our job is to take His vision and spread it to others by sharing the message of the Gospel. “Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter” (Proverbs 24:11).
THE IDENTITY OF THE VISION
Not only is it important that you understand the characteristics of a God given vision, but you must also understand that His vision involves leadership and ministry. If you have a clean heart and the right attitude, God will bless and prosper your work. e desire of your heart should be to win your city for Christ through the G12 vision. Your goal should be that each member of your church would become a leader who is capable of doing God’s will.
We need to understand what the vision is
- Winning souls and making disciples:
Winning souls will produce a rapid growth in your city and nation. Not only will the Gospel save people, they will also be trained as disciples that can produce fruit through the G12 Vision.
The Objective is:
-To help each member become a leader:
Each person is encouraged to complete a Biblical training course through the School of Leaders. e School of Leaders is an intense time of teaching and ministry that is sure to produce leadership in each believer. ey learned about what we have called, THE LADDER OF SUCCESS: win, consolidate, disciple and send.
BIRTH OF THE VISION
During the rst seven years of ministry, we began to develop the cell vision using Dr. Paul Cho’s church from Seoul, Korea as a model. During those years cell growth was very slow and we only reached an average of seventy cells with a thirty percent of the people as faithful members. We did not work with homogenous groups and the results were not what we expected to see. I knew that there had to be another way to implement the Vision, so I began to seek the Lord and He speci cally told me: “I will give you the ability to quickly train your people.” e School of Leaders was developed over time and then God revealed to me why twelve was so important.
He led me to ask, “How many people did Jesus disciple?” I began to think about the interaction He had with the multitudes and how one day He was with one group and another day with a di erent one. e only group that He was with constantly was the twelve that He Himself selected.
Why twelve? Why not thirteen? Why was it that He did not focus on helping the multitudes? Why did He invest His time and e ort in only training twelve? What is the secret in the twelve?
In the midst of all of these questions God opened my eyes, showed me the plan that we now use, and is being used all over the world: e Government of Twelve (G12). e Lord clearly spoke to me saying:
“If you train twelve people and help them to have the character of Christ that is within you, each of those twelve can do the same with twelve others. As twelve help twelve others, together in unity, you and your church will experience unprecedented growth.”
I was immediately able to understand and see in my mind how our ministry would develop in a very short time. God gave me a vision of how He wanted to multiply us in one year and help us grow at an extraordinary rate. When I saw this, all I could say was: “My God, this is amazing! I praise You!”
The model of twelve has always been in God’s heart God established time. e best way to organize time is through the number twelve. From the beginning of creation, God created twelve months to organize each year and each day is divided into two sets of twelve hours. In the Bible, each number has a signi cant meaning.
11.
12.
God chose the people of Israel and established the Government of Twelve
1. Beginnings
2. Team
3. Trinity
4. Earthly (North, South, East, West)
5. e ve ministries and ve continents
6. Man
7. Perfection
8. Grace, beyond perfection
9. e gifts and fullness of the Holy Spirit
10. Redemption
New Knowledge (Deuteronomy 1:2)
Government
through the twelve tribes. e Lord chose His Church and decided to manage it through the twelve apostles. e number twelve is the number of government.
The model of twelve used for administration
King Solomon selected twelve governors that would provide for him and his household for one month of the year. “And Solomon had twelve governors over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household; each one made provision for one month of the year ” (1 Kings 4:7).
The model of twelve used for restoration
e people of Israel fell into a time of apostasy and idolatry. Elijah challenged Baal’s prophets to show the power of their gods to the people. e God that answered with re was the true God. is is how the process of restoring the altar began. “And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob… en with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord” (1 Kings 18:31,32).
God’s re fell on the sacri ce that Elijah prepared and the people of Israel returned to God. e model of twelve prepares you to restore God’s altar.
All over the world God’s altar is in the same condition that it was during the time of Elijah, in ruins. ere is a need for men and women to be full of God’s zeal and who are dedicated to working with people that Jesus died and gave his blood for. Today many people feel let down and discouraged by the bad testimony of religious leaders. eir discouragement has destroyed and left their altar to God in ruins.
The model of twelve used to bring reconciliation
It is not by chance that the last book of the Old Testament ends with the explanation of Elijah’s ministry saying: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the
prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse ” (Malachi 4:5-6).
I am con dent that it is now, in these last days which we live in, that God is going to pour out the anointing of Elijah as a mantle that covers the earth. e anointing of Elijah will come over many di erent Christian leaders in the world and cause them to make family restoration a priority. God wants each leader to be His hands by bringing peace to the many families that are about to collapse because of the lack and loss of spiritual values.
The model of twelve in the creation of Israel
God revealed himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham’s life is an example of faith, Isaac an example of sacri ce, and Jacob is an example of government. God’s promise to Abraham was ful lled when the government of twelve was established through the twelve sons of Jacob. ”But God said to Abraham, ‘Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called ‘” (Genesis 21:12).
Jesus’ example
Jesus invested the majority of His time training His twelve disciples. He had limited contact with the multitudes and did not really spend a lot of time discipling or teaching them. When He was with the people, Jesus would supply their needs, heal their sicknesses, deliver them from bondage, and minister to them. However, He did not spend time trying to form their character. It is easier to disciple twelve people than all the people who heard the “Sermon on the Mount.” Jesus’ focus was to break religious patterns, religious form, and reproduce His character in the lives of twelve men.
Jesus never did what was conventional. He did not nd his twelve at a theological school or seminary. Jesus found them through prayer (Luke 6:1112).
e reasons for selecting your twelve cannot be sympathy, intellectual capabilities, oratory skills, or natural abilities or talents. e reason why you select your twelve is that the Holy Spirit bears witness to your spirit and shows you that they have a faithful heart. In the same way that a sculptor shapes clay, Jesus took twelve men in His hands and began to form their character. Jesus spent three years and a half teaching, cleansing, and sharing eternal truths that would prepare them to completely depend on the Holy Spirit and live the same way that He did. Jesus’ twelve are part of the foundation of our Christian faith. e best example to an e ective pastor is the work that Jesus did in the lives of these men. He won them through prayer, consolidated, discipled, and sent them.
The model of twelve is relationship based
It is crucial to meet once a week in small groups that spend focused time on strengthening relationships. When you meet, you should be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and put aside all other things to allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen the team and minister to them. Jesus had a consistent and permanent relationship with His twelve through which He could discern when something was out of order. Having a consistent relationship with your disciples will allow you to know them at a personal level and be able to minister to them continually. Everyone usually goes through a process of inner healing and deliverance in which chains of religious patterns and demonic oppression are broken. A person that is not ministered to cannot minister to others.
Choose people who are fruitful
Do not choose your twelve because they are a long time friend. First, look at their fruit. e rst step is starting a cell. e leaders that work the hardest and are faithful to open twelve other cells in a year are the ones quali ed to be part of the twelve. Leadership is not given to anyone because of sympathy, but because they have truly earned it. From the beginning, your goal should be to have a team of twelve who are the type of people that produce fruit,
understand the Vision, and have begun to multiply.
Everyone is a soul winner
A team of twelve should clearly understand how to evangelize and win souls. Where are they? How do we minister to them? Leaders should be capable of planning evangelical strategies to win people.
Work in homogeneous groups
In the church there are di erent networks one for men, women, youth, and children. In these networks the message is tailored to each of their speci c needs. e goal is to motivate and strengthen each group to achieve their dreams. We have made the decision to organize the children’s network by ages 5-7,8-10, and 11-13 and this way we are able to speci cally share a message for them.
The Pastor is strengthened
Your twelve become your assistant pastors. e twelve work in harmony as a team with Vision without worry about competing for a position. God helps the team care, respect, and bond with each other. e strong help the weak and everyone works and helps each other.
