Greetings;
Today I want to write concerning our qualifications as leaders. It is not what we know about God that qualifies us to lead. It is what we have become of God that qualifies our leadership abilities. We are all part of the family of God and as leaders in the family of God we are called to inspire others to become all that God has for them to be in Him. We are not merely leading them to do all that they can do; we are called to lead them to become all that they are to become. Each of us is an expression of God in our lives. We were created to reveal the likeness and the image of our heavenly Father to the world. None of us can reveal the fullness of who He is, but each of us can reveal a measure of who He is. When we join together we reveal an even greater measure of who He is. When we live as the family of God we reveal the testimony of God to the world.
Becoming expressions of God involves the process of relationship with God in life. Every revelation from God is an invitation to have an encounter with God, so we will be transformed by God, and become a revelation of God to others. God gives us words so that we will become a testimony of that word. God will always makes us become a testimony of His word, before He sends us to deliver it. We may not be a completed work when He sends us, but we will for sure be the testimony of a work in process. When we talk about what we know about God, we are talking. But when we share the testimonies of what we have become in Him we impart life to others. We inspire faith. We encourage others to hear the voice of God within their own hearts. I believe that our greatest qualification as leaders in leading is what we have become of God in Christ, not what we know about God from the Book.
Leaders often encounter many trials, because those trials cause them to be rooted in God to become who they are meant to be in Christ. I believe that this happens for the sake of those they lead and as an example to others as to how to stay in love, intimacy, faith and life in Christ in all things. I don’t believe that the trials of life are our teachers. I believe that the Holy Spirit is our teacher, and He is teaching us on good days and on bad days. It is the difficult days, however, that we often prove to reveal the true testimony of what Christ is forming in us. He is at work on the good days, but the truth tends to manifest in the times of pressure. This is the process of grace.
Romans 5:1-5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Grace is the power of God at work in our lives. We enter into grace by faith, because we already have peace with God by the blood of Jesus and the mercy given to us each day in Him. In the process of grace we experience tribulations, the pressures of life. Those pressures are not meant to cause us to fail; they are the times that prove the substance of the life of Christ within us. It is in those times that we endure. The Greek word for endure always involves a ‘cheerful endurance’. In the midst of the tests of life we cheerfully endure. We don’t just hold on in pain, we choose to rejoice in Christ! When we cheerfully endure in Christ we see the character of Christ manifest in our lives. This is seen as the hope of the life of Christ revealed in us. From glory to glory He changes us and that change is a testimony to those around us. We give life to others because we have become a testimony of the life of Christ for others.
I believe that people are meant to be a message of God. They are not called to know about Him, but to know Him and to become activators, facilitators, and releasers of God’s grace into the lives of others. As leaders we are to excel in living in the testimony of God’s grace. We must cheerfully endure the pressures of life and testify of the character, nature, way, power, and authority of Christ revealed by His work within us. We must lead, not to show what people are to do, but we must lead by example in becoming so that others can also become who God has made them to be in Christ.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
