Disturbed by all the injustice in virtually every sphere of society and something in you says, “someone’s got to do something about it,” Yes? I believe it’s a sign, God’s whispering these precious words in your ear “that person’s you.” But, developing the qualities that set leaders apart, is essential for crafting the “heart of the leader” that God can use.
Think about this for a moment; there’s no one that does not have an opportunity to make a positive difference in society. Tragically, there are many times when a leader does not rise to that hour.
For instance, consider our political, religious landscapes, and I wonder, “why is it that when circumstances call for it, leaders do not rise up to the occasion?” How long will you allow evil to reign, when God has chosen you, to lose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? (Ish 58:6).
I would like to suggest the reason why I believe evil continue to triumph while good men continue to do nothing. I believe it is because many leaders have not prepared their hearts to SERVE!
Every great leader in history that’s heroized, was a servant leader, not a dictator – Think about it.
One of history’s most influential visionary, pragmatic, subduer, and humanitarian leader of all time, was the apostle Paul. Formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, before his radical encounter with Jesus (Acts 9:1-22). Paul conveys the essence of the kind of heart God operates through in a leader, to dismantle principalities and power and rulers of wickedness operating in our world. In Acts 9:3-6 Paul is traveling to Damascus when he meets Jesus face to face.
His two questions are the right questions asked in the right order.
First, he asks, “Who are you, Lord?” Then he asks, “What would you have me to do?”
Who are you, Lord?
Perhaps you know an “achiever.” Someone who owns a yacht, drive an expensive car and live in a super large house, yet has a pantheistic (doubter) relationship with God. On the contrary, you may also know someone who does not have such prosperity, yet has a platonic (distant) relationship with God.
Saul of Tarsus, the religious intellect, was compelled by his worldview and spiritual persuasion, right to the point of being unpersuaded, as he dogmatically advanced his sanctimoniousness views of God and suggested ideologies to solve the evils of his day.
Such was also a man, by the name of, Lee Strobel, an atheist who undertook the task to prove Jesus Christ to be a fraud. Ha! Remarkably, after compiling and critically examining the evidence for himself, Strobel became a Christian. Stunned by his findings, he organized the evidence into a book he entitled, The Case for Christ, which has won the Gold Medallion Book Award for excellence.
“Who are you, Lord?” and “What would you have me to do?” are two of the most powerful reflective questions every world changes refused to be satisfied until God spoke to them.
See, I thought I knew God.
However, if I am completely honest, I really didn’t. He’s is much more different than I imagined or was told. I gave my life to the Lord and became a lifelong student of His Word, 23 years later, I got to know God a bit better, but I still don’t know Him.
Paul in Philippians 3:4-7, explains that he met all the religious qualifications of the day, and he was at the apex of Jewish leadership. Yet Paul knew all about God, but Paul did not know God until he met Jesus face to face on the road to Damascus.
Paul’s life changed because God revealed Himself to Paul, not because Paul had all the right answers or the intellectual understanding of God. No, not all!
Have you met God?
Did you have your own “Damascus” experience?
Outside of this, it’s not possible for any man to know God. Our human accomplishments stand as one of the greatest barriers to knowing about God versus knowing God.
In order to truly know God, Paul says: “Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (v. 7).
Paul had to be willing to turn his back on his human accomplishments in order to gain knowledge of Christ.
He continues: “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (v. 8).
Unless Christ becomes a Christian’s greatest passion; and knowing Him as their number one priority – I doubt if they are truly saved. I question the authenticity of their salvation experience.
After Paul encounter Jesus, please understand something, he was no longer Saul of Tarsus, but the apostle Paul, a champion for Christianity. This is every born again’s believers destiny in God. Paul from that moment fort continued to put the things of the world far below his priority of knowing Jesus Christ.
Ask yourself, “Do I really know God?” Let the question rest on your mind for a moment. Let it penetrate your heart.
What would you have me to do?
Experiencing salvation is one of those unexplainable moments of divine bliss. However, a true salvation experience always produces in us a divine dissatisfaction about our former way of life. One of them being -living aimlessly.
There are few things more painful, confusing, perhaps frustrating than waiting for God to reveal our purpose—especially if we wait without hope. Without hope, waiting for God to act can feel like torture. (Been there done that!) But with confidence in Him, waiting can feel like joyful anticipation.
Isaiah 30:18 says, “Blessed are all who wait for Him.” Part of the definition of “wait,” which is the word chakah in the original Old Testament Hebrew, means to wait “in ambush.”
Just thinking about this definition makes me smile.
Imagine it.Waiting upon the Lord, waiting God’s way, for Him to show us where we belong serving Him, means we have hope because we know that something good is going to happen–in God’s time, in God’s way. When faith replaces distrust, the agony of waiting can turn into hopeful anticipation.
Waiting in ambush for God to reveal your destiny means, I’m fully convinced that He is working behind the scenes.
Waiting in ambush for God to reveal your destiny means, I choose to trust Him, to unfolds more and more of His plan for my life.
I ask myself, “Shan, what do you believe? Do you believe that God is working behind the scenes? Will you choose to trust that He will reveal the totality of His perfect plan? If so, lift up your head, son! God is on His way!”