Christian Leadership

Text: 1 Cor 11: 1
MORE LESSONS: Mark 10: 35-45
Bible Reading in one Year: 2 Chronicles 1-3

Being a leader is a huge responsibility which is given to us and for which we must give account. Christian leadership, contrary to the world system, is not about seeking title, position or power but commanding emulation through positive spiritual influence. Spiritual leadership is about your life being a worthy example to people spiritually and in other aspects of daily life.

Each time you exert positive influence on people's lives, you are leading. This is the reason why when a person gets saved through you, it is said that you led him or her to Christ. A wise man once said, You are a leader if you have ever attempted to get someone to do something right.

Another wise man said, If your actions inspire others to learn more, do more and become more, then you are a leader. This understanding makes leadership accessible, available and possible for all and sundry; you mustn't be president, chairman or head before you lead. You can lead whatever your position in an organisation, group or family. All you have to do is to be a positive influence and add value to that place with or without recognition. Christian leadership is not about having all the privileges and having every one serving you. It is about serving others. It is pouring your life and resources to further God's cause and the welfare of the people.

If there is somewhere or somebody whom you can serve with your God-given ability, you are already progressing in leadership. Christian leadership is about caring, nurturing and raising people; it is both a privilege and a responsibility.

You can exercise leadership as a father or mother in the family, as a person positively impacting your friends, a teacher or coach influencing young people for Christ; you can exercise leadership one-on-one. It is not only when you face a crowd or you are in a big position that you are in leadership. In fact, it is faithfulness to God in little and seemingly unimportant areas of leadership and tasks that you do either in church, at work or at home that determines how God commits bigger things to your hands, He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much: Luke 16:10.

Christians should not lobby, seek or rush into leadership positions, most especially in the Body of Christ. They should allow God to place them according to the measure of grace He has given them, Don't be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends.

Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards: James 3:1 (The Message). f God has made you a leader , His grace is sufficient for you even in your weakness. I pray you will not fail in your assignment, in Jesus’ name.
However, if God has made you a leader, His grace is sufficient for you even in your weakness. I pray you will not fail in your assignment, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Ask that God will make you an example of a true Christian leader.
* Ask God to help you reject any appointment in which He is not involved.
* Pray for believers in any area of leadership to find God’s help to lead righteously .

: God is a Rewarder

Text: Heb 11: 6
MORE LESSONS: Psalm 63: 1-11
Bible Reading in one Year: Romans 12-16

God has never been known to fail anyone that seeks Him. There is a prize in God that He reserves only for seekers who will go after Him with all their heart. The best and the choicest things of God are reserved for those who will seek Him diligently. Many people seek God half-heartedly and then complain that seeking God is not giving them the desired result. The Bible makes it clear that God rewards diligent seekers,

But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him: Heb 11: 6. How diligent are you in the pursuit of God? And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart: Jer 29:13.

A diligent seeker will always want to be in God's presence and in the assembly of God's children. Diligence in seeking God takes spending time with Him and waiting on Him in prayer, fasting and studying God's Word. Fasting and prayer is not something you remember only when you are in trouble, it is an instrument for seeking God. When was the last time you fasted and prayed, just seeking to know God more? God rewards diligence in seeking Him. The priority of a diligent seeker is spending time with God; so in planning his day and programme, he carefully and uncompromisingly creates time for God. Even in the kind of job and appointment he takes, he considers whether he will have time for God.

The secret of grace, wealth, greatness, the anointing and a life of impact is diligently seeking God. Men seek for these blessings but these things keep eluding them because they do not understand that these blessings are rewards that come with a life devoted to a passionate pursuit and diligent seeking of God. Seeking God comes at a price. It will cost you time to wait on God, and resources and money to give to the Kingdom of God. It will cost you your effort and energy to serve God and to work in the church. But the rewards that God has reserved for diligent seekers far outweigh any sacrifice that might come with seeking Him.

A believer that is devoted to the things of God and another that is lackadaisical about God will never end up on the same platform, spiritually and physically. It is just a matter of time before the difference becomes clear and glaring. Today, I want you to choose to be a seeker of God because He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to help you renew your commitment to Him more than ever before.
* Ask for the spirit that thirsts and hungers for God beyond needs.
* Ask God to reveal Himself to you today.

Concerning Spiritual Gifts

Text: 1 Cor 12: 7
MORE LESSONS: 1 Cor 12: 1-12
Bible Reading in one Year: Romans 5-8

God doesn't want us to be ignorant of spiritual gifts. Ignorance of spiritual gifts has caused a lot of havoc in the body of Christ as people are carried away by every manifestation they see. Every believer has to take the responsibility to grow by the Word of God, ...that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive: Eph 4:14.
There are nine gifts of the Spirit: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gift of healing, working of miracles, discerning of spirits, prophecy, diverse types of tongues, and interpretation of tongues.

The purpose of these gifts is to glorify the person of Jesus and confirm the Word of God; it is not to show how powerful a man of God is or to promote his ministry. Any operation that doesn't seek to exalt Jesus is not of the Holy Spirit. So anyone that will safely operate in the Spirit must be well grounded in the Word of God.

A person that is not established in the Word of God and all he does is to operate in the manifestation of the Spirit is dubious. Also the manifestation of the gifts is as the Holy Spirit wills and not as man chooses, But all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will, 1 Cor 12:11. A man that operates the gifts of the Spirit like a personal ability that He could use at will without dependence on the Holy Spirit is fake. For example, the fact that a man has the gift of prophecy or word of knowledge doesn’t mean t hat he must know everything about everyone and have a word about everything all the time. Any man operating as such is going into error. The gifts are as the Spirit wills.

Finally, the gifts of the Spirit are to be operated in love. The gifts are not to expose, embarrass, dominate or intimidate people but to help, edify and build them. The manifestation of gifts of the Spirit in a member should also build the body of Christ as a whole. No man should operate the gifts in isolation claiming self sufficiency, For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ: 1 Cor 12:12. The body of Christ is one and every member is dependent on others. Anybody that claims that he is so gifted that he doesn't associate with others in the body of Christ is in error .May you be grounded in God and not be led astray by the sleighs of men. I pray also that God will anoint you with His gifts, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God for the gifts one by one.
* Pray that the gift of God in your life will glorify only Jesus.
* Ask God for deeper understanding in the things of the Spirit.

From Egypt to Canaan

Text: Heb 4: 1-3
MORE LESSONS: Heb 3: 7-19
Bible Reading in one Year: Romans 9-11

God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt to lead them to the promised land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey . They were to pass through the wilderness as a test of their faith in God before they would enter into the Promised Land, And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no: Deut 8:2.

The Israelites complained and murmured against God each time a challenge arose. Thus they sinned and rebelled against God again and again; because of this many of them could not enter into the rest that God had prepared for them.

This is an illustration of the Christian journey in life. God has brought us out of the world of sin (Egypt) and He is leading us into the promised land of all our inheritance in Christ and to Heaven where we will be with Him forever. As we pass through the wilderness of this life, many times we face challenges that are to test and prove us. We should not be like the children of Israel that doubted God and fell in the wilderness. Rather we should hold on to Him to the end. Do not be like the children of Israel that kept longing for the fish, melon, garlic and cucumber of Egypt.

Those are believers that keep longing for the things of the world and the sinful pleasures of the past. Rather keep your eyes fixed on the glorious inheritance that God has reserved for you both in this life and in that which is to come. Do not cast away your confidence in God and do not disobey Him.

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draws back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul: Heb 10:38-39. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief: Heb 4: 11.

The Bible tells us to labour to enter into the rest that God has prepared for us. In other words, with determination avoid anything that could prevent you from entering into your Promised Land and diligently pursue the things that are needed for you to enter into your inheritance. You will not fall in the wilderness of life; you will enter into the Promised Land, in Jesus' name.

Prayer/Action
* Pray that you will not miss heavenly Jerusalem.
* Pray that no challenge will take Heaven from you.
* Declare that your spiritual pilgrimage will not end in disaster.