Nameless, Faceless Generation

Nameless, Faceless Generation

Gareth Lowe

 

Have often heard that God wants to raise up a “nameless, faceless generation”. What is meant by this is that the time of the famous leaders, preachers, and miracle-workers is over and now God will use unknown people to do great exploits. Is this true?

My personal opinion is that it is half true.

Every soldier can do great exploits

What I definitely believe is that God wants to anoint the whole body of Christ to do great exploits. I believe that the army of the Lord is rising and God will use unknown soldiers in this army to do remarkable deeds.  Consider the following scriptures:

Daniel 11:32
The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out GREAT EXPLOITS.

John 14:12
I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do EVEN GREATER THINGS than these, because I am going to the Father.

Mark 16:17-18
And these SIGNS will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.

Great exploits. Greater works than Jesus. Miraculous signs. And these are not promised to apostles and prophets but rather to those who know God, people who have faith in Jesus, and those who believe. These are phenomenal promises and we need to equip and release the army of God so that every soldier can do this.

And it’s important that these great exploits can be done in secret without having to be trumpeted to the whole world. Nameless and faceless implies a deep humility and willingness to do be great in obscurity and hiddenness.

Famous nameless and faceless preachers

However there is another side. I have noticed that those who promote a nameless and faceless generation tend to be famous! Their names are well known and through media their faces are everywhere.  This is actually inevitable and simply an outworking of the principle of leadership. In the Bible we don’t have:

• The veiled man who delivered Israel from Egypt.
• The anonymous King of Israel who had a heart after God. 
• The mystery man who rebuilt the city of Jerusalem after the exile.
• The unknown preacher on the day of Pentecost.
• The unidentified serial church planter and author of most of the New Testament.
• The unheard of beloved disciple who wrote the book of Revelation.

No, we know exactly who these people are: Moses, David, Nehemiah, Peter, Paul and John. They are named and famous.

 
God makes people famous

God is so secure as a leader that He has no problem allowing other leaders to be famous. In fact He deliberately makes them famous!

Joshua 4:14
That day the LORD EXALTED JOSHUA in the sight of all Israel; and they REVERED him all the days of his life, just as they had REVERED MOSES.

So here we see that God made the people revere Moses and then he exalted Joshua so that the people would revere him too. And we see the same with David:

1 Chronicles 14:17
So DAVID’S FAME SPREAD throughout every land, and the Lord made all the nations fear him.

1 Chronicles 17:8
Now I will make your name like the NAMES OF THE GREATEST MEN of the earth.

What is interesting to note is that behind all this “naming and facing” is God Himself exalting people.

Highly exalted for the sake of His people

Now of course we can take this too far – and many have. We end up with the “man of God syndrome” and whole ministries built around one person. And soon entitlement, accruing privileges and power, and arrogance and ostentatiousness follow. We want to avoid this at all costs. But at the same time let us not be afraid when leaders get a name and a face – it could be that God is promoting them because He wants to help His people:

1 Chronicles 14:2
And David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and that his kingdom had been HIGHLY EXALTED FOR THE SAKE OF HIS PEOPLE ISRAEL.

When God gives His favour to a leader it is because He is releasing favour to His people.