Leadership Begins with Serving

[Crosslight]

We're not going to get around this class without passing it with flying colors. The Church is built on the Corner Stone of Jesus Christ, with the foundation of the five fold ministries.

The five fold are listed in Ephesians by Paul, one who knew best the order established by the Lord. We won't go into the study of the five fold at this time as I am sure that most already know about the offices. What I feel impressed to discuss is our schooling on a very personal level in each of our lives.

Who is the authority you are placed under at this time? Is it your pastor? Your husband? Your parents (as some might be lead to remain at home during this time of training), maybe it is your boss at work? It might be a combination of the above, or some that I have not mentioned. We don't want to limit the work of the Holy Spirit in our training. He can use anyone He desires.

Not only can He use anyone, but He will limit whom He chooses. He will not confuse the issue.

As I mentioned above, this is an area where the Lord will not allow any passing grade short of an A+. When we locate our God ordained authority over us, count yourself as blessed. You are in His school.

Be careful to whom you submit yourselves. Every minister out there is not God ordained for you. We should always respect the office, and give honor to the one God has placed in the position of leadership, no matter the degree or calling. Great humility to the ways of God must be held to. Understand what is going on and then stand firm. What do I mean?

There are different types of authority. For example, maybe across the street there is a little momma with three children who are truants. So, you begin chatting to your other neighbor about how terrible the little brats behave. Nope.. wrong way to go. Remember, this is your training, your schooling and we have to grasp the depths of the importance of this thing.

Maybe the children are little nightmares, but your position is to pray and perhaps be sent to address the mother about the problem, seek to assist, or spend time in intercession for the whole family.

See, the mother is a leader in her home. (We are assuming there is no husband in this family.) We have no right to impose ourselves over her position. We can come along side if that is where we are led. Critism should never come out of our mouths. We should never gather at the 'mother's coffee chat' and discuss the matter unless all involved are at the point that something must be done due to neglect or other legal issues. Then, we should lead the group in prayer and in the Biblical way of handling the situation.

But, I don't want to go too far in this example. Let me bring up another example.. how about our employers? In their domain, they are the authority. We must hold them high in esteem and support them unless they overtly oppose the Lord. (Never do we disobey the Lord to obey man.) Look, the higher your call, and the higher your potential authority, the more damage you can do in someone's life if we don't heed these things firmly. Rebellion to the authority we are placed under opens the door to witchcraft. I am sure most have heard about this, or experienced it. But, again, this could and should be a whole new topic. I want to stay as focused as I can to the topic.. our training and the authority we are place under for our training.

So, if you are not sure, take a minute and locate the authority the Lord has placed you under. Now, tell me if I am correct. Is that person just a bit less than perfect? Maybe enough to iritate you? How about just right enough to keep your prayers for situations neutral. By that I mean you don't have to pray that the person is caught and convicted of a murder, that would to clear cut. But, rather, a lot of the time, you have to seek some deeper understanding to find out what you are senseing as being wrong. But, the wrong will never be a wrong-wrong. "What is a wrong-wrong?" you ask. Okay, let me go a little specific.

I work for a wonderful christian man, but he is a businessman. He is 76 and has been self supporting, self employeed, and sucessful for over 50 years. On the other hand, I am not a business person. I don't think the way he does about many things. It is not that the things he thinks are 'wrong," but rather sometimes, I feel that he is not quite on the mark in doing something the best way.

Let me stop right here and explain another thing. I know that I do not have the business mind he does, nor the experience, but I do know that the Lord has me in the place to learn more of God's ways. I put in my time in the prayer closet and seek the Lord on issues that we have at work. Without doing this, I know I have no right to even have a different opinion. We are not talking about being trained by the Lord to have a personal opinion, but to have the heart of the Lord in matters. So, when I say that I feel that my boss is not exactly on the mark, I am saying that I heard the Lord in prayer say that this or that is a better way of doing something. This allows me to test my hearing and understanding of what the Lord is saying. But, never does the Lord allow me to assert myself and tell my boss that he is doing it wrong. This is the submission I am talking about. We are going to have to pass this type of training with an A+. This type of training hits every part of your soul and assists us in being renewed into the ways and methods of our Lord.

Did I lose you? Let's try an example. I will use one from work. I use my work because I know that this is a place that the Lord is teaching me to submit to. I will use a very neutral situation (in the world's eyes, but not neutral in our Lord's eyes.)

To get an overall message to the tenants here in the park where I co-manage, we often type up little notices and give them to the tenants when they pay rent. Everyone pays rent, so everyone gets a notice. So, when the city officials send out a notice about pick up days for the trash or something like that, we type it up and pass the word along. Usually, we try to be very very simple in the instructions so that their is less confusion. You wouldn't know it by this long post, but I like to be very simple and to the point.

So, I sit down and type up a note just as simple as I can. It would read just the days and the hours. I know that the tenants read very little english and most barely read the notices anyway. But... the boss, he will sit down and write a whole thesis on the matter. He describes to them what trash is and what it consists of. Then he will go on and describe to them in a long letter what the city has said, what he expects them to do, how he wants them to do it, ect. And, yes, we are talking about taking your trash out.

So, after I have typed up a short little notice, the boss reads it and then begins to add to it. He pulls out his black pen and adds about 500 or more words. What do I do?

The first time I bit my tongue. I was insulted. I felt that I should be able to at least write a note well enough for him. I felt that the tenants would not understand what he was talking about, nor even read it all. My heart erred.

What the Lord wanted from me was for me to support him. Clear and simple. Well, it took a little time, but I finally got on board with the Lord in the matter. And... the Lord wanted me to do it with a good heart. At first it was hard. All I could do was accept his letter over mine without complaining or without causing problems, or trying to correct him. I was not smiling, but I was at least working with him (with the Lord's heart in the matter to submit to him). Later, I learned the pleasure of the whole matter. What does it matter if the letter is a million words or just ten? To God, it matters. In the ways of the world and in a hundred years it does not matter. The thing is ... I changed. I can see now how I have gained by being humbleized. <--- new word.

Here is another way the Lord has used my boss, the one whom the Lord has me submitted to. How about a simple question being put to you? Anyone can answer, but when we enter school, remember, we give up our rights to have our own opinions, we must secure the Lord's opinion.. that is the only answer.

So, your boss asks you a simple question, like how much should you charge for this or that. With me, this seems to happen all the time. Again, humility is offered to me to accept and learn by.

So, the boss says, "how much do we charge for this thing?" First off, I have no clue. I have no experience in pricing this item. So, quickly, I rush to the Lord and say, "Lord, how much is the right price?" I hear nothing. The Lord is right there just as silent as can be. The boss is there sitting across from me, eyes glued to my eyes, (and my eyes are reading, "lost, no answer, no clue." )

Then I start the bidding with the Lord. "Lord, is it one. Give me one Lord. Is is one? How about two Lord, maybe it is two. Are you going for two Lord? Okay Lord, going up.. lets go four, is it four Lord.. are we going for four? "

The boss is still staring at me. The Lord is quiet. Then the boss smiles cause he already had the answer in mind. He says, "15."

And I start the bidding again, sounding just like an auctioneer. "Is it 15 Lord, have we got a go on 15. Going once Lord, going twice Lord, is it a go? Is this okay with you? Should I say "No" Lord, or "it is too much" ?

So, there I sat, nothing to say. No word from the Lord. And no answer for the boss. At first and for a long time, I felt like a big dummy. At times, I even thought the devil was hitting me with 'dumbness' and cast before work each day. But, that was not the case. The Lord is having me submit and support my boss. And, time after time, the Lord has blessed these types of situations. And, I have been blessed to. Little miss me has learned that I know all things.. In Christ.. and in Him only. Not only that, but that there is a peace in it. The Lord works through my boss all the time to find those little prides, little controlling elements of my personality, and on and on.

You see, if we can not submit to those the Lord puts us under for training, then how will we submit to HIm in our own Kingdom business that we are being trained for.

What you think?

Shalom

stacie