I was watching one of my favorite movies a few months ago. One that had a big impact on me years ago, but this time felt like a 2.0 version of it. It’s the story of the racehorse Secretariat. I remember watching it with my spiritual father, Jack Taylor, years ago. And we actually wept when we watched it together. 

Secretariat is still the greatest horse that has ever lived. His whole journey looked like an underdog story. There were more gifted and more powerful horses. So how did he become the world’s fastest and the world’s best?

I learned the secret. When Secretariat died, they did an autopsy. The average horse’s heart weighs about nine pounds. Secretariat’s heart weighed twenty-two pounds. The secret of his greatness was his heart.

That’s why we guard our hearts above everything else. Because all the issues of life flow from it. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. And Jesus himself is our example for living and loving in every aspect of life.

I was reading my friend Heidi Baker’s foreword to my new book, The Heart of Roaring Lambs. She brought up something closely tied to this: the idea of kenosis and theosis. You don’t have to be a theologian to get it. Kenosis is self-emptying – the choice Jesus willingly made to lay down His heavenly privileges, His divine wealth, His royal glory, in order to be born into the humblest circumstances and live a life of total service and obedience. So much of His glory was hidden that many didn’t even recognize Him as the Son of God. Just as He submitted even to the cross, we have to pick up our cross and follow Him if we want theosis.

Theosis is being united to our infinite, glorious God forever through the grace of His Son. 2 Peter 1:3-4 tells us His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through the knowledge of Him who called us by His glory and goodness, and through these He’s given us very great and precious promises, so that we may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption caused by evil desire.

I have to be honest with you. We’re living in a culture of cover-ups, where one superstar after another is falling. And I’ve realized something about our own training in the School of Supernatural Ministry: we’ve celebrated the lion. We’ve celebrated theosis. And we’ve helped people get theosis without kenosis. That is very, very dangerous.

Kenosis is the lamb aspect of Jesus. Without it, you can train someone to be a powerful lion—bold, courageous, gifted, anointed—but without humility, without vulnerability, without meekness, without purity. And that’s when the messes start in marriages, in families, and behind the pulpit.

I desire for all of us to develop the heart of Jesus and live and love from that heart. Something has to happen first in us, then to us, then through us,  so that when we speak, we carry authority, not just power. A lot of powerful people are falling right now. But God is raising up people with authority. People who will be listened to because it comes from the heart of the Lamb.

I’m looking for some lay-down lovers who would wash the feet of their enemies, just like Jesus did.

Want to learn more about this topic? Read or listen to my newest book, The Heart of Roaring Lambs, HERE.