Kingdom Authority

Not Everyone Clapping Is Cheering , Guarding Your Circle & Becoming One Accord Part 1 with Pastor Lonnie

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Not everyone who applauds your calling is celebrating your purpose.

In Part 1 of the Kingdom Authority Podcast, Pastor Aaron is joined by Pastor Lonnie for a powerful conversation about discernment in ministry, discipleship, and spiritual relationships. They discuss the reality that some people will shake your hand while secretly waiting for your downfall, and why every believer must learn to recognize who truly carries the DNA of the Kingdom.

This episode explores the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people, building authentic discipleship, and understanding that while the Church is called to be one body, not everyone walking beside you is walking with the same heart. True unity isn't created by proximity it is built through shared vision, shared sacrifice, and a shared pursuit of Christ.

Topics include:
• The difference between supporters and spectators.
• Why discernment is essential in ministry.
• Recognizing people who celebrate you versus tolerate you.
• Gaining the DNA of healthy spiritual leaders.
• Becoming one accord without compromising truth.
• Why not everyone is assigned to your journey.
• Building biblical relationships that strengthen the Kingdom.

Whether you're a pastor, ministry leader, disciple, or believer seeking wisdom in your relationships, this conversation will challenge you to evaluate who you allow to influence your life and calling.

This is Part 1 of a special conversation with Pastor Lonnie.

Subscribe for more biblical conversations on leadership, discipleship, revival, and advancing the Kingdom of God.

#KingdomAuthority #PastorAaron #PastorLonnie #Discipleship #ChristianLeadership #Ministry #Discernment #OneAccord #ChurchLeadership #KingdomCulture #Revival #BiblicalLeadership #ChristianPodcast #Faith #BodyOfChrist

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SPEAKER_00

Good morning and welcome to Kingdom Authority Podcast. Um, man, what what a beautiful day. Um got one of my closest friends on the planet here with me, Pastor Lonnie Thompson. He's from City Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Uh, just a just a brother in Christ, um, more than just pastor friends, like true friends, uh, walking life together, uh, fighting battles together, rejoicing in each other's victories. Uh, you know, the great thing about our church is it's not about branding.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And um, and we're so I'm so grateful because you see that so much. It's just this competition. And you know, we're what four blocks away from each other, pretty much, and there's no competition.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Weird kingdom workers. Yeah. Um, but anyway. What a concept. What a concept. Uh, you know, this podcast, uh, it's about learning how to walk in the authority uh that Christ died to give us. And you know, I I was telling you the other day on the phone, I am absolutely just mind-blown. I got a hair on me. Oh, it's a thread.

SPEAKER_01

Not for me.

SPEAKER_00

This is how I do, not for me. Um, it was tickling me. How'd you get it off? Don't make fun of me. You've had threads on you too. Um, I was telling you the other day how mind blown I am at the traction this podcast has gotten. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is just like uh every week, Tony's sending me, hey bro, we we're in five other countries. We're another 100 subscriber. What it's just silly to me. I'm like, how in the world? Um I don't what are y'all doing? Like people are hungry for the truth and reality. That's what it is. What do y'all y'all y'all tune in to listen to me? That's funny. I love y'all. That's awesome. Oh crazy. It's awesome. Um, but you know, in this podcast, we we have just dove into what authority looks like. And uh, so before we get started, I want to pray and we're just gonna go after. Father, we love you, we thank you, we praise you, we thank you for how good you really are. You give us strategic battle plans. And right now, right now, I just feel this in my spirit that there is an army of angels around us blowing trumpets so loud that the enemy cannot hear our battle plans. But it goes straight to the soils of the hearts of the men and women that are tuning in, that they understand what you died for them to have. Guys, we dive into this today. We just thank you for the words that are anointed before they ever come out. That they're your words, they're never our words, that you've you've instilled this wisdom in in us to just help others. And so, Father, we thank you, we praise you for the victory that every one of our listeners has through you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, um, I I'm gonna throw a curveball. I I had told Pastor Lonnie we were gonna talk about identity. Oh boy, curveball. On my way here, and it does, it does tie, uh, but on my way here, I had been writing this message to preach, um, but I was asking the Lord, what is it you want on this podcast today, and how can we strategically, you know what I'm trying to say here, use Lonnie in this avenue um to help our listeners? Well, God has really been putting on my heart that not everyone in the room is your friend. Um, not everyone that smiles at you is friendly. And I think this it really does walk into the avenue of identity, knowing who you are, but also knowing who your enemy is. And, you know, I I one of the hardest lessons uh in life was for me, and I think it is for most people, is just realizing that proximity is not the same as loyalty. You can you can be in the room with someone, that does not mean that they are your friends. Um it doesn't mean that they're even for you. And as pastors, yeah, we see this a lot. Um we see in rooms that we are in, people want to get into the rooms we're in because they you you you know this. This is crazy to me. The devil got thrown out of heaven because he's a moron. Yeah, he's dumb. I mean, how do you get thrown out of heaven, right? But he was so accustomed to being around the anointing that he still has that desire. Sure. That's why he comes into churches. It's not just to divide, it's a hunger he has that he can no longer fulfill. I can't feel it, yeah. He can't feel it. And so, you know, just because people clap for you do not mean they're really cheering for you. That's the crazy thing. And knowing who we are in this, uh, and you can jump in at any time, man. You're not interrupting me, the actual podcast is for you anyway. Yeah, uh, but I he's just really been pressing on me. And this morning on my drive here, I was just praying. I was like, God, what do you want to do? And he was he was highlighting some of the stories, and we won't go into details of anything, but you've been in ministry how long? Shoot.

SPEAKER_01

Uh really right around 30, about about 30 years.

SPEAKER_00

That's longer than some of our listeners have been alive.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You've seen a thing or two.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, been in church my whole life. My dad was a pastor, so being me actively, I've been in ministry since I was 15. Um, but I've been around ministry my whole life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So you've seen a thing or two.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. Good, bad, and the ugly.

SPEAKER_00

And I think this is just a topic we need to dive into today, is that not everybody in the room is your friend. Yeah. And and the quicker that you understand that, you know, there's throughout ministry, you and I have spent a lot of time together talking, uh, just fellowshipping and loving each other. And I've heard some of the stories that you had to walk through. Can you describe in a nutshell? I'm gonna put this thing into a package, yeah. Knowing who your identity is in Christ and your authority, but how the enemy will try to attack that.

SPEAKER_01

Sure. Well, I mean, I think that one of the things going back to you know, the enemy wanting wanting to be around the unneathing, what what do people do, or what you know, well, realistically, what do people do if they can't have the real thing? They get a counterfeit. They create a counterfeit. That's right. And um, so that's what I think in the church, that's what you deal with a lot, is you deal with a lot of of not shouldn't say a lot, but I guess just because of my because of my story, I have dealt with a lot of counterfeit. Right. And that's that's counterfeit personalities, counterfeit anointings, my gosh, counterfeit giftings, like all of those things, and in those things that we put so much weight in in the church world. Um, and that I think that's why so many churches have gotten to the point where it's become a performance.

SPEAKER_00

My goodness.

SPEAKER_01

Um, because they're they're they're wanting to you know, they're wanting to to portray the anointing. They're wanting to, oh well, well, if we've got the best singers and we've got the best this and we've got the best that, then we're anointed. Well, that's just not the case at all.

SPEAKER_00

You you you you've got really talented people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

What you got? You've got talented people. And can God use talented people? Absolutely. Oh my gosh, yes. And what I tell people all the time, and I and I just because you're gifted doesn't mean you're anointed. Come on. And and that this is something that that um but if you are anointed, you will have a gift. Sure, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

See, there's a there's there there's this there's a flip side to that every time.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. And see, my thing is I I don't just have a background in church, but I'm I'm a I was a professional musician, still am kind of semi, semi, still do it.

SPEAKER_00

Um he's in the triple A's now.

SPEAKER_01

But I'll tell you what, that that is an area Christian music, Christian. Yeah, I I I I go ahead. I don't want to be I don't want to be that guy, but I don't like jacket either. But that's what this podcast is about. The fact that there is something called a worship um genre. Well, a worship um the the word is gone from my brain right now. It's okay. Um industry, a worship industry. Yep. That's just a like what? Talk about it. Like what? Talk about it. Um and I think I think that what's what's happened, and this just does go, it does feed into all of it. What happen what's happened is is you've got people around you who are are trying to figure out how they can fit into that into that system and fit into that, get walk into that room, be in that room. Yep. And they've they've gone as far as you know, like, oh well, I'm I'm talented, I've I've done this, I've done that, I've done this, and and so what? Yeah. So what? You know who else did a lot of things? You look at you look at you know King Saul. King Saul was anointed from the beginning, but because of his choices and because of the things that he dabbled in, it was all taken away.

SPEAKER_00

Let's let's run that rabbit for a minute. Anoint you can lose the anointing that God gave you. But that is probably one of the most prominent. Is is King Saul, they had, I mean, this guy was anointed king of God's people, yeah, and lost the anointing. It's the same thing that Satan did. Saul is a picture, it is a it is a picture of Satan because pride entered Saul's heart and took off, and God removed his spirit just like he threw Satan out of heaven.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And so this the enemy, you know how he does this, he operates, he doesn't always like uh send opposition from the outside. Yeah. I've been in a two-part series uh Sunday and Thursday at our church about you'll see opposition on the outside, but then he changes tactics and comes in and plants opposition right at the table you're setting.

SPEAKER_01

What I mean, when you when you look at let's just just go into the natural for a second. Any of the wars in the Middle East, where are most of our soldiers killed or wounded? IEDs. Yep, not missiles coming in, come on, driving over top of something that's right in front of it that they can't see that someone has planted.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. Oh my gosh, come on, bro. Like that's preach.

SPEAKER_01

That is that is the danger of people like that being in the midst of what you're doing. Yes, because and sometimes the reality is sometimes they don't even know they do it, and that's the that's the sad part.

SPEAKER_00

It is.

SPEAKER_01

They don't know that they're that they're being used as a tool by the enemy.

SPEAKER_00

I'm not I'm not gonna run this rabbit hot, but it is a little bit of a cold trail here. But God has really been giving me a vision about something that happened in this city years ago that there was a there was a deal made, honestly, deal with the devil. And that person didn't even know they done it. They had no clue. They thought they were doing the right thing. Yeah, and that's what's so dangerous. He is the great deceiver, he is he is the father of lies. And so often we we we we eat that chocolate-covered strawberry of a lie because it looks so good, and you think you're doing the right thing. And that's why, listen, uh, to our listeners, I need you to understand something. It's great to know people. You should you should network, you should, you should get out there, you should be in the world because we're in the world. Yeah, okay. I'm not saying live by the world's standards, but we are in the world, so we have to operate in this realm. This is the realm we're in.

SPEAKER_01

Sure.

SPEAKER_00

But you better get your circle real close.

SPEAKER_01

Um I just heard somebody just yesterday, I don't remember even who it was, but they talked about how Christianity has has gone from, specifically in the United States, too, um, that Christianity has gone from moving the world to being moved by the world.

SPEAKER_00

My goodness.

SPEAKER_01

And that that hurts to hear that. It does, but it's the truth. In a large sense, it's the truth. It is the truth. One thing too that we're talking about is sort of the people that you surround yourself with, you you surround them by by who they are, not what they do.

SPEAKER_00

Come on.

SPEAKER_01

Because that goes into identity. Yeah, because then that goes back to you. What you do, what you do is not your identity.

SPEAKER_00

I'm not a creature, bro.

SPEAKER_01

It's it's who you are. Now, who you are in fact affects what you do, though. 100%. Because you've got a lot of people, you've got a lot of you know, people in the world who are, I mean, Bill Gates, these guys like this who have given have given millions of dollars away, but have also caused havoc and death and and and all these things. So it it's it's not about what you do, it's about who you are. And and then that gets into the identity thing. Well, who are you? Well, I am am I a pastor? Uh that's what I do.

SPEAKER_00

It is about identity.

SPEAKER_01

Am I a father? That's what I do. Yeah. I used to be a husband. Yep. I'm not anymore. So what does that mean? Well, it's because when when you become a new creation in Christ, his identity becomes your identity. And that's that's the key. That's what we have to, that's what you have to focus on. When you make this choice for young believers specifically, um, you know, it talks about, you know, the old things shall pass away. There's a reason that it says that, because when before we're that new creation, those are the things that we hold on to. Yep. Those that's that's what people identify as. Yep. And um, you know, it it's it's like uh it's like one of those things. I I guess Tim Tebow is a perfect example. You know, for the longest time people knew Tim Tebow as a football player who's a Christian. Yep. But when he made the choice to say, you know what? That's not who I am. I'm I'm a Christian, a follower of Christ who just happens to play football. Right, God used football as a tool. Yep. As big as people think football is, it was nothing but a little tool for God to use to get him on the global stage. Yeah, and and and that's how you have to be careful, first off, with yourself. That's key. First off, you have to know who you are. You are a new creation, you're you know, uh that's that's a part of the renewing of your mind every day. You have to do that. That's being in your word, that's praying. All those things are important because that's what gives you your identity, because your identity comes from Christ, and the only way you know that is through the word, through a relationship with him. But it's the same thing when you're looking at other people. Um, you know, I I I didn't when you and I first start connected, yeah. Okay, it started off as like, okay, we're both we're both pastoring churches. But that's not what that's not what the relationship is built on. Not at all. That happened, that might have been what drew us at first. It is. But when when you start to get into the depth of things, you get into relationships and you start being used, then it's like, okay, it's it's it's who we are that that draws us to one another. It's it's our it's the it's honestly one of the biggest things um that helps in this in this church situation. Um we talked about you know the competition and stuff, because I you know you see it all the time. Right. You see it all the time, and the branding and all that kind of stuff. But the key is it's the the the DNA of both of our churches is the DNA of Christ. Yes, it's that's and that's what we're striving for. And that doesn't mean we're better than the churches, any of that stuff. That's just that's just honestly for me. I'll be real. I mean, I know you've gone through stuff too, but I know that I've been in the I've been in the game a lot longer. Yes. And sometimes I look, I'm like, man, why did I have to go through all that stuff? But the reality is, is here's the reason because I need help. Well, that's what I'm saying. And and and the reality is is there's a lot of let's put it this way, what God has done in our lives, the the what he's built inside, you know, DNA is built up of things that have you know take place on a molecular level, all these things. Well, that's how our lives are built. And the things that you've gone through are things that I never experienced. Sure. And so God uses all that stuff, but when when when the the the center of all that is Christ and Christ crucified, and then the gospel, then he uses all those things, and it doesn't matter where we come from, what we do, how we are, what we look like, our DNA is just clumped together, yes, and then we become Christ to the world, and that's that's our goal.

SPEAKER_00

You said something a little ago, and I I say this in a very uh redneckish way, but it's just true. You know, I can walk up to a group of individuals on the street today, you and I can do it, and I can say, tell me about yourself, and the first thing comes out of their mouth is what they do. I don't care who they are. You it's an oddity that I hear somebody say, I'm a son of the most high. No, it's I do the XYZ. I don't care what you do or what's in your bank account, it's irrelevant to me. Who are you? And that is that's the thing, you know, in every circle that we read about in the Bible, you know, Jesus had 12 disciples, one betrayed him. David had mighty men, one betrayed him. It you see this picture, and and so when you're in this circle, you don't have to fear people, but you better learn how to discern people. Sure. Our our DNA, like I like you said, yes, pastoring church is a title, not a fan of titles, but you it it did draw us together. And the weird thing about you and I, we may go all week and not talk. Yeah, don't miss a beat.

SPEAKER_01

Well it's about two weeks back. We've been traveling a lot about the week.

SPEAKER_00

Right, yeah, but we don't miss a beat. We pick up right where we left off and take off, and that's when you know that you're in a kindred spirit in that glump of DNA is together. Yeah, because we don't, hey, we can we can give each other cliff notes real quick, we're what happened over the last two weeks and move forward.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But you know, I God has put you, I know this, and I say this all the time to other people. God put Lonnie in my life because he is he has seen it. And he understands what I'm going through. You know, I tell people that all the time. There they ask me, you know, how are you and I, how does this work? What do you mean? How does it work? That's what I always want to ask them because it's not about the shirt symbols that are on the front of our shirts or or hats or whatever, what's on the front door. That's irrelevant. You know, we've done this. We we walk into each other's church and throw the other mic, the other one, the mic, and say go. Because it's not about I'm not going to city church and preach freedom fire. Yeah, I'm going to preach Jesus because city church and freedom fire, take this the way I'm saying it, is irrelevant. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Jesus and Him crucified is what is important. And you see these pictures in the Bible, you know, uh Apollos and Paul, and you see all this. Well, that's what we're having to walk out.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You know, um, but I go on that and I and I no you go to wartime. I just, it's just because that's what we're in. I can't help it. Yep. But you look at any any major war, any major battle, and you know what you know, the the pinnacle of most of these things are you have you have you know battalions, you have platoons, you have units, you have this, all in different places. Eventually, they're all going to be together at ground zero. Yep. So that's that's just the way that I see the body of Christ. Um, I you know, we are you you can go into the different parts of the body, you know, you can't you can't walk, you know, a a knee can't walk without it with an ankle, you know, elbow can't work without a shoulder. All those things. I mean, it's it but we have made the we have made those things so complicated. And it's not. So and it's not. This is it. Like we just live, we live life we do. How can how can I be of assistance to what God is giving the assignment that God has given you? Your assignment is different than mine. Our callings are the same. That's right. Our calling is the same, but the assignment is different.

SPEAKER_00

It's different. And it's like, you know, in my previous life, uh, you know more uh uh about it than most, but being in a Very uh high-level military experience of life. You see this branches, and you know, it's so funny. I I I talk to Tony and to other people about, you know, armies, they're always picking on Marines or Navy and Air Force and blah blah blah. But you have to understand we got this military wisdom, human wisdom from God. There is a reason there is multiple branches. There is because their calling is the same, their assignments are different, and it's the same thing in the body of Christ. Our calling is to point people to Jesus, but he has strategic ways that we do it.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

Doesn't make our way better than your way or your way better than ours or yours more important. It's how we move. And that's that's what I think so many bodies miss, the church miss, is they get so. I I don't even know if I've told you. We went to um we went to a revival this past week. It was in it was in a little town, hurt down the road. Um, and yeah, that's a name of a real town. I know, I know, blew my mind too. I decided I will never live there. Um anyway, um, but this was a Baptist church that God's He just chose to send in for. Man, I was there supporting the heck out of this thing. And people ask me, why are you going? What do you mean? I don't I said this the other night. I don't care if God sits down in a car lot, you know where I'm gonna be? Because if I know that's God, sure, I'm going to support it. And it and part of it is for selfish reasons, and I'm just being honest. Because I can say this and you you won't take offense. If God is going to a meeting and he wants to touch Lonnie, but Lonnie's heart's not ready, if mine's ready, ooh, he might just reach him.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I want to be here. Yeah. I don't want to miss it. But you know, going and supporting these other bodies is what we're called to do. You know, in the military, you'll see installations of set up the the Marines are with the Navy, the Army are with the Air Force, or they're with the Marines. The Rangers are with the SEALs and they're attached. It's called an attachment. And you will see this. Why? Because they need the giftings of all of them to do that assignment. And that's what we're doing as bodies uh in our churches. We understand, hey, we're we do things different than you do. Yeah. And and we don't even, you and I never we don't even discuss that weird stuff.

SPEAKER_01

No, it's like, no, because the I mean the the it's it's the ministry that that brought us together, is what it is. It's the people in this town, it's the people that need Jesus. That's what you focus on. Yes. You know, and and and honestly, the good the cool thing about this, and it started for me, it started early on. Uh, I was a uh it was just circumstances in life, and and um I was in youth group, I was playing drums in a Christian band, I was doing all these things, and it took a a teacher, my English teacher, my freshman year of high school, who knew my family well, um, and knew my you know, knew my parents as as their pastors at one point, um, basically just called me out to my mom saying, Hey, you know, he you he might say he's a Christian, but it sure doesn't look like the way he acts at school. Oh my. And it changed my English teacher.

SPEAKER_00

My English teacher, yeah. Thank God for great teachers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And it it it shifted my perspective on everything. And I was like, all right, so at 15 I decided I'm I'm done with public school. Like, I want I want to serve God, this is what I want to do. And this isn't toot my own horn. I did it because I knew I was too weak. I knew that I was too weak on my own strength to stay in public school because that was my freshman year. And where did that wisdom come from? It had to come from God. Yeah, I wasn't smart enough at 15 to know that. Yeah, no. I mean, I was actually, yeah. So and so from there, I I got the opportunity to become an intern at Bay Area Youth for Christ. Um, under um one of my one of my spiritual fathers, really. He was one of the biggest influences, Jeffy L. He's he's he's gone, he's passed on. But um being being in Youth for Christ, what we did it was it was it wasn't a church, it was it was it was a ministry. So we had this outreach program, but we had we had probably I would say at least 15 youth pastors from the area that would come in and do things together all the time. All the time.

SPEAKER_00

You made the body working together, like joint supplier joint?

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. Oh and I mean God took this thing, it it it exploded because like you're talking about Hudson, Florida, okay? No one's ever heard of that. No, I don't know what that's Hudson, Florida. Uh we had we were a part of at the time they used to do things called um uh uh see at the party. See you at the party? See at the party, and what it was, it was a it was a nationwide youth event that was televised from they had they had cameras in in Washington DC, they had cameras in LA, and all these different things. Well, guess where else they had a camera? Hudson. Hudson, Florida. Why? Because God had brought this body together. There was there was men, we were we were getting together every week with these youth pastors having breakfast every week, saying, How can we do this? We would get together and do things like instead of instead of coming our at our youth revivals at the beginning of the school year, uh the um it was called um battle battle stations. What we did is we we all these youth groups came together, but instead of sitting together as a youth group, we they had we had basically flags with the names of the schools in the city, and you had to sit with your school. Wow. So you have all these kids from different youth groups that didn't even know each other, were Christians in in their school, and now they've got oh, look at this. So what does that do? That that molds their identity together. Now you know you've got somebody that's you lean on school. Yep. You have people to surround you with. Yep. And so so that that's to me that's key. Key key is going going back to all these everything that we've talked about, is is it it's key to know who you're who who's around you.

SPEAKER_00

My goodness. Well, listen, we've got a couple minutes. Um, and then we're gonna have part two. So all of you listeners, tune in because we're not done. Uh, this conversation is going too well. Uh the anointing is flowing and God is moving. Um, so I want to pray us out, and then we're just gonna tune in next week and catch part two. Father, we love you. We thank you, we praise you so much for just holy conversations that will help people. That's what we're called to do. Love people. What a weird concept the Bible put out there. Love people. We love them. So, Father, we thank you for all of our listeners in Jesus' name. Amen.