God's Leadership and Godly Leadership

UV 1474/10,000 God’s Leadership and Godly Leadership
So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
Psalm 78 v 72

The only person capable of providing perfect leadership is God. This is the reason it is said that without God our life is like a pencil that is pointless. Any life and leadership without God is a spiritually blind life and leadership. He enables us to be sharpened and useful. Only the Lord is truthful, completely honest and faithful. The integrity of His heart is absolute. Hence, we can rely upon Him. He is the good shepherd who feeds His sheep. He knows the terrain and the territory through which He leads and guides us. He leads us by still waters where we will find refreshing. He leads us to green pastures where we can feed. He defends us against the wild beast and predators. He leads, guides and protects us with skilfulness. Leadership without factoring in God and His Word is like surgery without a surgeon. It can be disastrous, dangerous, risky, costly, foolish and has a remote chance of success or efficacy.

This uni-verse shows that leadership consists of beliefs, attitudes, skills and knowledge. Beliefs cannot be proved but can be experienced. Once we have tasted the goodness of the Lord and His instructions, we will not depart from these. Our attitudes that are evidenced in our conduct, words and actions flow from our core beliefs. Our skills develop as we use our abilities, gifts and talents and practice these over a long period. The natural skills the Lord implants in us at birth, the skills we learn and develop during our lives, the gifts of anointing that we receive as supernatural gifts at the time of our being born again are to be honed and used to the fullest potential and for His glory. Our knowledge involves an element of paying attention to certain facts, remembering these facts, understanding its implications and applying it to our lives. God’s knowledge of us is complete and total. Hence, even to know ourselves the best way is to know God better. He focuses His light on the dark areas of our lives, our hearts and our leadership. Leaders who do not have faith in God and hence, do not have a personal relationship with Him are not able to be victorious in their dark areas. Their greatest defeat and humiliation arise in these dark areas. This aspect underlines the importance of godly leadership in this world. Thinking and writing about life and leadership necessarily centres around godly leadership.

To maintain the integrity of our hearts, we should make ourselves fully accountable to the Lord. We need to invite the Lord to examine our hearts constantly and show us where we have gone wrong or are going wrong. We should measure ourselves against the yardstick of God’s Word and not use man’s relative standards of comparison. When we voluntarily submit our hearts to the Lord, He will set right our attitudes and help us align it with our beliefs, values and principles. David the shepherd tuned his heart like a harp to resonate with the heart of the Lord as evidenced in the Psalms he wrote and sang. But David the successful king began to rest on his oars and reduced his dependence on the Lord. He was distracted and strayed into adultery and wanton killing of one of his soldiers, Uriah in order to marry his wife. But the Lord guided him back to righteousness by sending Samuel with a word of reproach and correction. David repented and humbled himself. He was restored to integrity of heart, fellowship with the Lord and salvation though he had to pay a heavy price even during his lifetime on earth. The Lord recognizes that we change with each stage in our lives and He sends different types of guidance and correction our way. Each command of God is a pointer or pathway that leads up to a pasture or promise or blessing, temporal, spiritual and eternal. Under the old covenant leadership, the kingly, priestly and prophetic office were kept separate but now under the new covenant leadership, the kingly, priestly and prophetic offices are combined. The new life and leadership is holistic, comprehensive, powerful and effective. It is a combination or blend of power and grace, privilege and purpose, humility and firmness, gentleness and effectiveness.


Prateep V Philip