The Legacy of Leadership

UV 1422/10,000 Leadership and Legacy
For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
Genesis 18 v 19

God knew Abraham personally. It is the first example of a personal relationship based on commitment and mutual trust. God tested Abraham’s faith in a variety of ways. Abraham passed every test. He was greatly blessed and was a channel of blessings to others. Can God speak of each of us with such confidence as He spoke of Abraham? Are we esteemed of God like Abraham and Daniel? Do we trust God with the same magnitude and manner of faith? We too are not to dam up our blessings but circulate it to others that they too increase in faith and be blessed. God gave Abraham incredible promises. He fulfilled them in impossible conditions. Faith makes it possible to imagine it is possible. Nothing is impossible or too difficult for God. Likewise as we are made in the image of God and restored after the fall of man again by Jesus with a double portion of blessings, by our faith in Him nothing is impossible or difficult for us. The image of God is not imaginary but real. It is the character or the essence of who God is. An essence contains the quality, taste and smell of that from which it is extracted, for example the universally loved vanilla essence for ice creams is extracted from the vanilla plant. Our lives and our character should be tinged with the essence or the quality and character of God.

God was disappointed with Israel when they asked for a king like other nations. He knew the leadership of men would be fallible and prone to error as proved by the leadership of Saul and even the one commended as being after God’s own heart- David. He wanted Israel to be led by His law. Today, He wants us to follow the leadership of His Word. His Word and not another human being or human teaching is to lead us all our days on earth. His Word is interpreted and recalled by the power of the Holy Spirit. We should keep the way of the Lord as revealed in His Word. His ways are just and good. His judgement is wise. Justice, goodness and wisdom should be the hallmark of our lives. We should turn the great teachings of the Lord into principles, the principles into habits and the habits into legacy and then we experience the glory of God and manifest the greatness of God.

Like Joshua, we and our children after us are called and committed to serve the Lord. We are to share, exemplify and teach our children to diligently study the Word, to obey the precepts, to allow their inner being to be taught and shaped by the Lord through His Word. We are to talk about it when we rise, when we lie down, when we walk with them, when we dine with them, when things are going good and when it is not so good. By doing so we pass on the baton of faith to the next generation and inspire them to do it with their next. The uni-verse ends with a promise. Everything in life is a promise to live by. Every currency note is just a promise of the state or government to pay the bearer a certain sum of money. It has value because of who is making the promise for the state has the wherewithal it is assumed to make good its promise. Likewise, knowing personally and not just formally or impersonally who God is, we are assured that He always makes good His promise, however impossible or difficult it might seem. The Lord will cause to bring upon us as He did with Abraham that which He promised or spoke into and upon our lives and that of our children.

Prateep V Philip