The first disciples Jesus called were business partners that had just closed the greatest sales day of their career and afterwards, gave up everything for the ministry.

 

God wants to amaze you with results in your business.  He loves to prove He can do stuff other than ministry (i.e., construct an ark, rebuild a city, win a war, prevent a death sentence for adultery, catch fish, etc.)

 

Peter and his partners had never seen so many fish caught in a single catch in their entire lives.  They had so many sales, they couldn't sustain it and began to sink (Herein, lies a great principle, "Make sure you can sustain what you launch into.") In one moment, Jesus erased all concerns of if He could take care of them financially for the rest of their lives.

 

So they left everything and followed Him.

 

But I can't help wonder though what happened to the fish?  You know, on several occasions, Jesus had thousands following Him with only a few fish to feed them. It would seem like a great opportunity to use the catch to feed the multitudes He had just preached to, or sell the fish and put the proceeds in ministry.

 

But God has a sense of humor about that.  Sometimes He has another agenda in mind to accomplish a particular goal with less than more.  Consider this: He had public crusades or seminars with attendance in the tens of thousands and had only 12 people on staff.

 

Why?  To get more credit and recognition?  To have less personality clashes and arguments?  Maybe, He wanted to work with high-capacity people in a smaller setting to effectively engage them to touch masses.

 

All we know is that these 12 were such high-energy, high capacity and anointed leaders, that after He died and rose, they had to only fill one (more) position to turn the world upside down.

 

If you employ thousands of people, you will have thousands of problems.  Build leaders to deal with them.

 

God proves He can do more with less. 

 

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth.  After Pareto made his observation and created his formula, many others observed similar phenomena in their own areas of expertise and found that:

 

• 20 percent of the work (the first 10 percent and the last 10 percent) consume 80 percent of our time and resources.
• 20 percent of the church membership provides 80 percent of the work and giving.  
• 20 percent of your stock takes up 80 percent of your warehouse space.
• 20 percent of your staff will provide 80 percent of your production.
• 20 percent of your sales staff will produce 80 percent of your sales.

It's crazy, but sometimes God calls us to do more with less (Gideon, Jonathan and his Armorbearer;)  You may not understand God's rationale for launching, but if you will become apart of the 20% that act irrevocably on the authority of His Word, you may be in for the single greatest catch you have ever seen.

 

Jesus left only 12 people to evangelize the entire world and boldly declared: "Greater things shall you do because I go to the Father."  We must build the NEXT 12 to see greater things accomplished in the next generation.

 

• Who will comprise your NEXT 12?
• How many of your top 12 mentoring slots have you filled?
• Are you spending time building values, knowledge, dreams and strategy for them to take your city, league and industry by storm?

It's possible to have 30 employees and still not have identified your top 12.

 

A top leader in any organization must be able to get the job done or produce results with maximum productivity and minimum confusion.  The 12 people Jesus built were high caliber people that had the ability to:

 

• Act on the authority of instruction.
• Do wonderful, strange, incredible, unthinkable and remarkable things and
• Turn the world upside down.

Jesus has called us to be as He was in the world.

 

Today, who are your:

 

• Top 12 leaders (by organization or department)
• Top 12 volunteers or
• Top 12 clients?

12 is the number of government. 

 

Find and build the top 12 leaders in everything you do by pouring yourself into 12 people at a time.  If you discover that a few don't qualify for the top 12, it doesn't mean that you can't use them; they just may not be fit for the government of the organization as "titled" leaders.

 

The disciples had all kind of problems working together, the main one was fighting over who will be next in line for promotion.  People that get emotional after being overlooked for a promotion, is normal.  It is an indication that you have people that care about advancement in the organization; they are goal setters and refuse to remain in the place they are at.

 

But watch what they do next.

 

Has their commitment and excitement dwindled?  Did they stop trying to be qualified for the job?  Be careful with those that see someone get promoted over them and get bitter rather than better; who stop trying to shine, be noticed, or go the extra mile. 

 

These are dangerous people. 

 

They become jealous, rebellious and sabotage your mission and organization.  They will sell you out over something minuscule and betray you for personal gain.

 

Thirty pieces of silver was the price on the head of the Son of God.

 

Pay no cost to deceive leadership.  Trust and loyalty is the glue of all relationships.  Make sure you LAUNCH out on the authority of Someone you trust.

 

When we let Christ use our boat, trade, skill, employment or business dollars to reach nations, He always come through with a result that breaks the net of our expectation and overflows this vessel (or place) we are in.