How The Holy Spirit Helps You Pay the Price to be a Great Leader (Psa. 32:8)
Illustration;Matthew Henry went to London, met a young lady of the nobility, who was also wealthy, and they fell in love. She went to ask her father if she could marry him and he said, "He’s got no background, you don’t know where he’s come from." She said, "Yes, I know, but I know where he’s going and I want to go with him."
Source Unknown.
1. The Holy Spirit knows the exact requirements necessary to help you become a great leader. Jesus said, "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave." (Matt. 20; 26,27)
Application: Ask the Lord to reveal more of the qualities, concepts and duties required of a servant leader through the Spirit’s illumination.
2. The Holy Spirit guides you to Godly leaders who will serve as great examples for you. David wrote, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you." (Psa. 32:8)
Application: Ask the Lord to guide you to the best Pastors who can model the character qualities, skills and thinking of a great leader for your instruction.
3. The Holy Spirit transforms you into a great leader as you endure hardships for Christ’s sake. Paul wrote, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." (Phil. 3:8)
Application: Ask the Lord to help you endure the hardships, sufferings and setbacks involved with learning to become a great leader.
4. The Holy Spirit refines you into Christlikeness as you practice what is preached in the Bible. Paul wrote, "To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit." (Rom. 15:16)
Ask the Lord to use the Spirit in whatever way He chooses to free you from all impurities.
5. The Holy Spirit helps you not take criticism personally or become bitter from it. The Spirit of God helps us develop a greater emotional maturity so that we are able to let criticism bounce off our spiritual armor of faith, truth, and righteousness. Paul wrote, "Take put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground." (Eph. 6:13)
Application: Ask the Lord to help you turn negative criticisms into positive motivations to trust God as your shield and defender.
6. The Holy Spirit strengthens you when you are fatigued. Isaiah wrote, "They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will run and not be weary. They will walk and not faint." (Isa. 40:31) Ask the Lord to give you the emotional, physical, mental and spiritual strength to accomplish all He desires in your personal life, relationships and ministries.
Illustration: Sometime back the Associated Press carried this dispatch: "Glasgow, Ky.--Leslie Puckett, after struggling to start his car, lifted the hood and discovered that someone had stolen the motor." Without the Holy Spirit’s power we are like that car without its engine. Associated Press.
7. The Holy Spirit gives you the knowledge, wisdom and understanding to deal with any problem. Paul prayed, "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better." (Eph. 1:17) Ask the Lord to give you all the wisdom, knowledge and understanding that you need to make the best decisions to solve a whole range of problems in your organization.
8. The Holy Spirit gives you a special sense of His reassuring companionship when you are feeling lonely and depressed. David wrote, "You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." (Psa. 16:11)Ask the Lord to be your ever present friend
9. The Holy Spirit fills you with His confidence when you or your ideas are rejected. David wrote, "You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the confidence of all the ends of the earth." (Psa. 65:5) Ask the Lord to fill you with His confidence whenever you are feeling rejected.
10. The Holy Spirit gives you assurance of future rewards when you wonder if your efforts are worth it. Paul wrote, "Be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing your labor is not in vain in the Lord." (I Cor. 15:58) Ask the Lord to give you special assurance that everything done for Christ and His kingdom will reap a huge result for God’s glory.
11. The Holy Spirit helps you identify, associate and relate well with the key people in your organization. Paul knew something about how the Holy Spirit gave Him supernatural ability to identify with a wide range of people. Paul wrote, "To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some." (I Cor. 9:22) Ask the Lord to give you greater abilities to relate well with all kinds of key people in your organization for God’s purposes.
12. The Holy Spirit helps you to make difficult decisions when it seems everyone is against you. Paul wrote, "We pray to God that you will not do anything wrong. Not that people will see that we have stood the test but that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth - the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down." (2 Cor. 13:7-10) Ask the Lord for the courage, grace and love to make difficult decisions.
13. The Holy Spirit keeps you from falling into many temptations of leadership. Paul wrote, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But, He will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." (I Cor. 10:13)
Application: Ask God for the grace to keep you from giving into the temptations of pride, lust or any type of abuses of your power.
Conclusion:A leader is a person with a magnet in his heart and a compass in his head.
Vance Havner.
