Leadership by Promise

UV 619/10,000 Leadership by Promise “ The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.” Deuteronomy 28 v 13 This uni-verse is a fantastic promise of the Lord. It pays to pay attention to the Word. He promises to make us the head or the commander, the leader, the chief, the Numero Uno, the pioneer, the premier, the trend-setter, the pace setter. Some become leaders owing to situations, some others owing to birth, some other due to their talents and skills. These are market leaders while we are “marked leaders.” For we are leaders by fulfillment of this promise. The conditions, of course, apply: We need to pay attention to the commands of the Lord our God. In other words, we need to pay attention to the Word of God. Paying attention means to be absorbed in, to incline our ears to hearing the Word, to applying our minds to understanding it, to use our hearts to store it, to employ our spirits to pray or breathe it in and to focus our wills to decide on the basis of the Word. The Lord gives us commands this day and every day. There are commands specific to this particular day that we need to carefully follow. We need to diligently study these commands and walk carefully in the path indicated. To follow carefully implies we need to obey in letter and spirit the Word of God, taking care not to violate the Will of God in the matter indicated to us this day. We must do it not out of a sense of duty or obligation but with a sense of delight. We must not obey His commands grudgingly or unwillingly but wholeheartedly and with pleasure. We will be leaders in due time and in the manner decided by the Lord. We need to not only pay attention but also pray for the ability and grace to be attentive and obedient to the Word. Only those who are led by the Spirit of God can and should lead. Or else we will be like the blind leading the blind. We will not know where we are and where we are heading. The first sign or symptom of a head or leader is that he or she has a sense of direction, a vision for himself or herself and the ones who follow him or her. The second mark of leadership is that he or she cares enough for God to pay attention to His Word or commands. The values that are contained in the Word will get impregnated in the leader’s character. He takes us through a process to make this happen. Now,we are ready for leadership. We will always be at the top and never at the bottom. The world or even our family or colleagues may not recognize that we are at the top but the Lord recognizes our leadership brand. Joseph was not recognized as a leader by his father and brothers, by his fellow slaves or fellow prisoners. Yet all through he was the one marked to be leader. He was the one with the multi-coloured coat. He was the one whom God chose to visit with dreams or a vision for his life. He was the one Potiphar relied upon. He was the one whom the prison head trusted. He was the one in whom his fellow prisoners confided their dreams. He was the one who interpreted Pharaoh’s dream. He was the one who led Egypt through years of plenty and years of famine. Like Joseph, we are given a dream or vision for our lives. We are given a multi-coloured coat or multi-talented or multi-gifted personalities. Even when we are at the bottom of a pit on a particular day or phase in our lives, we are in God’s eyes always at the top. Prateep V Philip