Spiritual planning is the art of receiving from God the details of what He wants done, how He wants it done, when He wants it done, for what purpose He wants it done, with what materials He wants it done…, and setting out to obey what God said by doing things in full conformity to His will.
The pathway of every believer has already been mapped out by God. The believer is under obligation to discover that pathway and walk in it, neither turning left nor right. The believer is to pray for the details that are yet unrevealed to Him and ask for power to obey everything that has been revealed to him. Let us take for example that God calls someone to lead a major city to a knowledge of the Lord
The leader should do the following:
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He should obtain all the information that he can about the town. This information would include:
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the population of the town,
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the different tribes in the town,
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the different languages spoken.
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The educational level of the town:
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the university population,
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the secondary school population,
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the primary school population,
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the illiterate population.
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The professions represented in the town, e.g. percentage of
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office workers,
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manual workers,
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traders,
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jobless
people
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The different religions present in the town; e.g.
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Islam,
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Bahai faith,
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Traditional religions…
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The different denominations that are represented there, e.g.
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Catholics,
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Presbyterians,
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Apostolics,
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Global Frontiers and so on.
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The doctrines taught by the different denominations;
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He must assess in which of the denominations a young believer can grow and in which one he would most likely die;
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The main vices of the people like:
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drunkenness,
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prostitution,
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smoking
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pleasures like
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cinemas,
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night clubs
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and the like…
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The main manifestations of Satan in the town e.g.
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unbelief, and doubt,
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demon possession,
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idol worship, and
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ancestral worship
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The family structure, for example,
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Are the marriages strong or weak?
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Are the husbands generally faithful or unfaithful?
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What position do the women occupy in the society?
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What freedom of independent action have the children?
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The spiritual history of the town.
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Have there been real moves of God in the past?
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What was their origin?
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What was their impact?
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When did they stop?
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Who encouraged them?
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Who worked against them?
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The customs and attitudes of the people.
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Are they faithful
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or unfaithful?
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Do they speak the truth or do they lie?
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Are they lazy or hardworking?
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Is commitment to anything a serious matter that lasts or is it superficial?
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The people’s attitude to literature.
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Do they read much,
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averagely or little?
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What is their capacity to understand?
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How do the people easily pass information from one person to another?
The person should gather all this information, buy a map of the place and withdraw into hiding to sort things out with God. He should also know how much freedom is available for public meetings.
He should now spread the map of the place before the Lord and spend days and weeks and if necessary months and years before the Lord, praying for the different aspects of the place according to the information that was received. It would be better if he had visited the place and gotten the information first hand. Nehemiah did that. The Bible says, “So, I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; and I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no beast with me but the beast on which I rode. I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Jackal’s Well and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which had been destroyed by fire. Then I went up to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool; but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall; and I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing; and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest that were to do the work” (Nehemiah 2:11-16).
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A number of things come out here. The most important one is secrecy. Taking a town for God is a serious work of God, and the Enemy will surely react. It is unwise to alert him before the work is started. For that reason, all of Nehemiah’s study tour of Jerusalem was at night. He went by night with only the few people who were trusted. He visited the various key places and saw the exact state of things. He inspected the wall. He also inspected the broken gates. His inspection tour was neither made known to the priests nor to the nobles, nor to the officials, nor to the Jews who were to do the work.
When the strategy is being worked out it would be folly to tell everyone. Each leader must have a few in the inner circle to whom he can expose the strategy under development. All the rest should not be told what is to be done. To think that Christian honesty demands that everyone should be told everything all the time, is folly. The Lord Jesus did not do that. He shared different things with different people depending on the degree of their intimacy with Him. In one circle there was He and John; then He and Peter, James and John, then He and the twelve; then He and the seventy, and so forth.
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Jesus and the beloved disciple.
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Jesus and Peter, James and John.
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Jesus and the twelve apostles.
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Jesus and the seventy disciples.
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Jesus and the 120 disciples.
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Jesus and the 500 disciples.
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Jesus and the multitudes.
As the leader waits before the Lord and prays over all the information received, the Lord will show him the overall strategy and the sub-strategies. There will be the plan on how to reach the:
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businessmen,
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professional people,
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students
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in the University,
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in high schools,
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in secondary school,
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pupils in the primary schools,
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those in prison,
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the women
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the jobless people,
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the religious people,
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the irreligious people,
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the illiterates and the rest.
The plan will include the type of people in the leader’s team who are able to reach out to the different groups according to their spiritual gifts and talents. He will specifically ask God for people and wait on God to show him the right people. If the right people are not found in his team, he must not force people to do things for which they have no anointing from the Lord. He must report his need to the Lord of the harvest who is able to raise up people for His harvest. He must then be open to the ministers whom God will send to work side by side with him, even though they may not be the people that suit his peculiar inclinations.
