The Gift of Spiritual Leadership

The spiritual gift of leadership is mentioned in Romans 12:8, urging, "the one who leads, with diligence."

The Christian who is gifted in leadership is to use his or her gift to help people grow in the Lord.

The Greek word used in this verse refers to one who rules or governs others. This could be used also to refer to believers gifted to lead in many other contexts.

What does it mean to be gifted in leadership? A leader is a person God has gifted to inspire and coordinate the actions of others. A godly leader will empower people to work together to achieve godly goals that honor God and help the lives of others. Believers have a variety of gifts. Leaders are those gifted in helping those with other gifts work together to accomplish greater impact.

However, godly leaders will recognize their role is one of serving the Lord. The apostle Paul opened his letters by calling himself a "servant of Christ Jesus." James, the half-brother of Jesus, led the first church in Jerusalem, yet introduced himself as, "a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" (James 1:1).

The Bible often uses the analogy of shepherd to highlight the relationship between a leader and followers. A good shepherd leads his sheep to safety and provides provisions and protections for his flock. The shepherd's goal is to serve and improve the condition of his sheep.

Likewise, a godly leader's goal is to lead followers toward godly goals and actions. The leading positions in the early church were designed to lead to maturity, unity, and love:

Peter taught godly leaders with these words: "Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory" (1 Peter 5:2-4). Leaders are to shepherd, give direction, willingly serve, eagerly serve, and be examples to those in their care.

I found this letter online about what would happen if Jesus hired a consultant to help him select his team of leaders.

“Dear Sir:

Thank you for submitting the résumés of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them and also had each of them fill out a questionaire. The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully.

As part of our service, we make some general comments for your guidance, This is given as a result of staff consultation, and comes without any additional fee.

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in management ability and proven capability.

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper.

Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership.

The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty.

Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.

We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau.

James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious and responsible.

We recommend your treasurer Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely yours, Jordan Management Consultants

Aren’t you glad God doesn’t pick people like people pick people! Now in the Old Testament we see a transition of leadership from Moses to Joshua. Now we see here Joshua who was taken on the leadership role that Moses had. As God commissioned him to carry on the work of Moses who failed to lead God’s people into the promised land.

What that tells us here, is that we can overcome the failures of those who come before us. We are not defined by our mothers, fathers, grandparents, or anyone else who came before us, mistakes and we can rise above it by the power of Christ that is in us.

Joshua had the task of leading God’s people into the promised land and taking possession of it. It was a call to battle. It was a call to fight. We are in a spiritual warfare everyday where Satan is trying to take what God has given us.

There will always be a struggle for it, because our struggle isn’t against flesh and blood but its against the principalities and powers of this dark age.

Let’s read Joshua 1:10-11 and see how God calls Joshua and His people into battle.

Joshua 1:9–11 (NIV)

9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” 10 So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: 11 “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your provisions ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.’ ”

Somewhere between verse 9 and 10 from God saying “Haven’t I commanded you” & Joshua “commanding the people” there was a victory taken place in the mind and heart of Joshua.

The Apostle Paul said in...

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 (NIV)

3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Three things I see Joshua does that

made him a great leader that we can learn from...

3 CHARACTER TRAITS OF LEADERSHIP

A Leader take action

We see now that Joshua makes a command and orders the officers of the people to go through the camp and tell the people that within three days they would be leaving to cross the Jordan to inherit the land God has promised them.Joshua is teaching them complete faith and trust in God. He didn’t have a battle plan or a strategy. He simply knew that God was with him and that was enough. I believe that God has a land that he wants us all to inherit and a promise that God wants us all to claim. Maybe it’s the land of our finances. Maybe it’s the land of your marriage. Whatever it is, it’s something that we struggle with inheriting because we struggle obeying God’s Word in what he say’s about that area…and that can be as easy as just taking every thought captive to the mind of Christ.

A leader takes risks

Joshua had no vast army or infiltry. He was on the first days of his job. He could of took it easy, BUT, he believed in what God said to him. So he put feet to his faith and engaged into war. Nobody but, God told him he needed to do this, so he took initiative to act upon what the Word of God told him to do. He didn’t know how they were going to win this battle. He just knew God was with him.

He was leading people to trust in God even though he didn’t know what would happen next. He just trusted God and walked by faith and not by sight. Too many times we need to know how God is going to do something, instead of just trusting him and believing him at His Word.

To really walk by faith means that we are living in Christ and true faith is this: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

We all have battles that lay a head that we cannot see but, we like Joshua can have faith and confidence in God who knows all, see’s all and has a perfect plan for it.

We need more leaders who will be risk takers, live by faith, and take action to see the Kingdom of God advanced. We have let the gospel become something of comfort instead of conviction and relativism instead of repentance.

A leader will make preparations

We see Joshua make provisions for the officers to tell the people to get their provisions ready. A leader always comes prepared.The food gathered here is that which had been taken as spoils of their conquests through the wilderness. The manna was still available, but it could not be kept overnight without spoiling.

They would be on the march moving from Shittim to the banks of the Jordan which was only about eight miles, but because of the number of people and all that was involved, they evidently would not be able to gather the manna.

The people needed to be prepared and know that they would be well nourished and fed so they would have strength entering into battle So likewise, we need to be nourished on the Word of God so we can continue to enter into our battles as well.

1 Peter 2:9 says...But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Let me tell you what that does not mean. It doesn’t mean everyone who is a christian is called to preach. What it does mean is that as being a part of a royal priesthood , that we all have access to the throne room of God because of our great high priest, Jesus Christ himself.

It does mean that we are all ministering servants in the kingdom of God.

Now you might be asking, what does leadership have to do with me? I am not called to be a leader. I’d beg to differ with that. We are all leaders in some aspect. God’s will for us first and foremost is to be leaders in our homes. Joshua said “As for me and my house we shall serve the Lord”!

The family structure is under attack from Satan. It seems to be his prime target in America today. Just think about it. We have the marriage covenant of God being ripped apart by divorice, adultery, Lbgt lifestyles which have even infiltrated the church. We have children being murdered while still in the mother’s womb. We have our television sets as the centerpiece of our homes rather then the dinner table.

I urge you today to make a stand as Joshua did. Be a leader starting in your home and be someone who takes action, who takes risks, and make preparations. You might not have the spiritual gift of leadership but, God calls us all to choose to serve the Lord

Thought for the week:

Leadership starts in the home