Short Discussion on Leadership: Hebrews 13:17
“17) Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.” Hebrews 13:17
God calls us to obey our spiritual leaders and submit to them. They have been called and entrusted with the responsibility of watching over our souls. They should do this with joy and not grief. Purpose to be a blessing and not a pain to your spiritual leaders.
This verse is a great launching pad for a discussion about leadership. No book talks more about leadership than the Bible. No book has more examples of both good and bad leaders than the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible is a text book on leadership.
We can conclude from reading the Bible that good leadership is the outgrowth of a close walk with God. This characteristic often separated good from bad leaders. Good leaders were conscious about obeying and serving God. They sincerely served people. Bad leaders often went on an ego trip and became self serving. They used and exploited people for their own selfish agenda.
I maintain that great leadership has as much to do with calling and gifting as it does learning and grooming. Every leader has the capacity to grow and become better, but they must process the ability to motivate and inspire people. The ability to influence people is tied to gifting and not academics. You can send a duck to eagle school, but it will always be a duck.
Jesus had a knack at finding and recruiting good leaders. Some were fishermen. One was a tax collector. One was a hard core Pharisee and persecutor of the church. They all had different personalities and leadership styles, but the filling and empowering of the Holy Spirit put them on track to be effective leaders for the glory of God.
I highly encourage you to devote serious time to the study of leadership. Read every book you can acquire written by John Maxwell. Build a section of your personal library on leadership. If you don’t have a personal library, fix that problem immediately! Invest in yourself by acquiring some quality books and get moving with your self education.
Great leaders learn how to discipline, educate and lead themselves before they try to lead others. There’s few things worse than blind leaders of the blind. They may have followers, but don’t know where they are going! Beware of following the wrong leaders. Also beware of reading the wrong authors. It’s worse than a waste of time! In the end you have to unlearn false philosophies and false assumptions.
Spend your premium time reading the Bible. Let it measure all else. It’s the one book you can read for a life time and never exhaust its truth, wisdom, knowledge and understanding. It’s Divine author is God!
If you aspire to be a leader, expect God to put you through some personal fires. Aptitude is learned from books, character is developed through trials. Joseph was called at age seventeen but spent the next 13 years building his character as a slave and serving in a dungeon. Moses was called as a baby, but it took 80 years for him to take his sandals off before the burning bush and finally yield to God. The next 40 years he became a leader of destiny. I am convinced that many great leaders are like Moses and running from God’s calling.
God always works in before He works through human leaders. Don’t try to take a short cut to leadership. Learn everything you can from every trial, mentor and critic. Bow before the throne of God rather than trying to sit on the throne yourself. He who is greatest leader must be the servant of all.
Daily Bible Commentary By Terry Baxter: Cofounder of GoServ Global
