Being a Servant Leader , Not a Serpent Leader

UV 1215/10,000 Being A Servant Leader not a Serpent Leader
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 1 v 28

This uni-verse speaks of what God had in mind when He created mankind. It speaks of six phenomena that together constitute the purpose of human life: “blessing”, being “ fruitful”, multiplication, replenishment, subduing and having dominion. It is not success that we should seek in life but to be blessed by God. Success could be one of the blessings of the Lord. We are called to be fruitful not just physically like other creatures but intellectually and spiritually. The ultimate fruit of life that we need to abound in are the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control. Wisdom is the eclectic quality that binds and balances all these fruit together in one person. We are called to multiply our talents, by using known abilities and gifts and discovering new ones that we never suspected we ever had.

We are called to replenish the earth, implying that we are not just to be consumers but people who make a contribution to making the world a better place in small or big ways. We are to be a blessing to others by sharing their burdens and trying to lighten it. We got to subdue what needs to be subdued. We need to subdue the evil within us and around us. We are given the spiritual authority to subdue, rebuke, command every wickedness in high places.

Finally, we are given the authority to dominate, to lead, to influence, to teach, to be an example. Adam and Eve forfeited their right to lead and dominate by allowing the serpent to lead and dominate them. Most of the time through history we have had “serpent leadership” or leadership that attempts to influence through a mixture of good and evil, through subtlety, suggestion, cunning, deceit and duplicity. A serpent leader misleads, misguides and leads people into curses and evil. But Jesus restored the power to lead, dominate, influence people for the Kingdom of God. He replaced ‘serpent leadership’ with servant leadership. A servant leader will fulfil the six purposes that God had set before mankind: being blessed and being a blessing, fruitfulness, multiplication, replenishment, subduing and leading. Like Moses, he will use the staff of leadership to release larger serpents to swallow the smaller serpents of the enemy of our souls. His influence and legacy will outshine and outlive the influence of the serpent leader.

Prateep V Philip