WISE, INTENTIONAL

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

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Volume 3, Number 2 – February, 2009

It is very encouraging to hear from many of you and what God is doing in your lives plus sharing prayer requests. Please keep making contact. Enjoy this month’s teachings. Mike

HEADING TO MACEDONIA, PART 2

Last month we began looking at Paul discerning God’s will. We will pick up on that theme and look at some tools or disciplines available to us to discern God’s will.

One is prayer, both in talking, asking for direction and listening, being still to be able to hear God’s leading through the prompting of the Holy Spirit with your spirit. Pray for God to open doors and also to close them as He desires. The Holy Spirit will guide us to the right places and also from the wrong places. God’s will is not only knowing what to do and where to go but also what not to do and where not to go. Christians do not put enough emphasis on listening. We need to have periodic (and if need be, established times set aside in our daily planners) times where we intentionally become quiet before God, away from distractions, listening to Him.

Secondly, spending time in the Word, making sure your plans are in harmony with the whole counsel of God’s Word. Many passages show and discuss God’s will for us already (examples include 1 Thessalonians 4:3 (sexual purity), think on whatever is pure, right, true (Philippians 4:8), do not be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever (1 Corinthians 6:15), Ten Commandments, etc.).

Be careful not to pick out one verse and say, “This must be God’s will for my life!”. Put that verse up against other verses and passages in Scripture to make sure you are not taking a verse out of context. It is easy to justify your actions when you want the verse to say what you want it to say.

Another guideline is to ask other mature Christians for advice and counsel. Be open to what they say and do not keep asking Christians their advice until you find the one who will agree with you. Vision is from God and plans are man made, so be open to constructive criticism as to what you feel is God’s will.

Be extremely careful of feelings. Do not totally rule them out but be very careful about the amount of weight you place on feeling right. The peace of God will enter in but that is in conjunction with prayer, the Word and the sensing of the Holy Spirit in your life. There have been times when I have stepped out in faith, not feeling 100% confident but in time realizing I was following God’s will.

Circumstances can help but also do not rely on circumstances completely because like feelings, they can be deceiving. When different routes become blocked, not allowing you to move forward, be sensitive to God for He may not want you to abandon your plan but rather change them slightly, or simply it is not the time for such to occur. Perseverance may be part of the process for if everything occurred with ease, we would quickly forget to rely on God.

Check your motives to make sure you are really seeking what God wants you to do or is it something you really love to do and feel good about it, knowing you are very gifted in that area. Motives can give a person false security about God’s will. Recall Peter who was adamant about Jesus not dying. He wanted Jesus to set up an earthly kingdom to over throw the Romans and also be the Savior of the world. Jesus’ response to him was to “get behind me Satan”.

Results are also not clear cut indicators of God’s will. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. In Numbers 20, Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it and water did still come out so the Israelites could drink again, but that disobedience to God did not allow Moses to enter the promised land.

Involving the tools mentioned in the earlier paragraphs will significantly aid in our determination to follow God’s will for our lives. Keep pressing on.

YOUTH MINISTRY INSIGHT

JOSHUA’S ATTITUDE

Joshua served under the command of Moses for about 40 years as his young aide and a number of other capacities including commander of the army (Exodus 17:8-14). Joshua was one of the twelve spies sent to check out the Promise Land.

Joshua was passionate about taking that Land. Both Calab and he tore their clothes when everyone else did not want to go into the Promise Land. Tearing clothes was symbolic of great grief and sorrow. Moses did not take the advice of Joshua. Instead, Israel paid a 40 year price for not trusting God. Joshua and Calab’s reward was getting to go into the Promise Land because of their faithfulness to God. Yet it was a 40 year reminder of what his boss failed to do what was right.

Joshua probably seriously thought about quitting his position in Moses’ administration. He would have had excellent reasons for stepping down. It is very demoralizing when your superiors do not take your well, thought - through advice. How often could Joshua have thought, “If Calab and I grab the young people who will enter the Promise Land, we can split off and get to the Promise Land sooner. Then we do not have to deal with the grief and burying of the people dying.”

He faithfully served Moses for the next 40 years, allowing Moses to mentor and develop him into the next leader of Israel. Again, think about the time factor, 40 years. For many of us, that is the length of time we are employed. It is half of our life span. Never once did Joshua grumble, complain, create doubt nor dissension in the ranks.

What sustained Joshua? The bottom line was his relationship with God. In Exodus 33:7-11 we read about Moses having the Tabernacle tent pitched and then he would go in while Joshua would wait at the entrance of the Tabernacle. When Moses would leave to return to the camp, Joshua would stay, wanting to be as close to the presence of God as he was able. This occurred frequently. Joshua knew God was sovereign and in control of all things. For those 40 years, Joshua banked on the promises he was given by God. What does that say about the character of Joshua? Volumes!

It is much easier to complain and not deal with the source of conflict than to get things right. Most definitely there are times to talk to the head person and express your thoughts and feelings. What is said in that meeting needs to stay there and not become a public display. There are also times when one needs to move on, leave when all other avenues have been exhausted. One of the hardest things to do in life is to move on well. Far too often, we try to blow up, sabotage whomever and whatever we can as we are moving on. That is not Biblical.

Joshua got ripped off by Moses in the decision over heading into the Promised Land. Yet he kept the right attitude and faithfully served his leader until he was given the leadership responsibility. Instead of bad mouthing those in authority over us, let us as Christians try to figure out what God is doing in tough situations and how God wants to develop our character.

ILLUSTRATION

Before the start of the school year, Dr. Prescott Lecky told a group of teachers that they were being given the brightest students in the school to teach. Actually the students were chosen randomly from the school population. By the end of the year every student was doing brilliant work and the teachers were saying how wonderful those “bright” students were to teach.

Because the teachers believed the students were exceptional, they treated them as exceptionally. Because of the way the students were being treated, they believed they were gifted. As a result the students performed like exceptionally gifted children. This double-blind experiment has been duplicated many times. It has proved the tremendous power of attitude over actual performance. Dr. Denis Waitley

QUOTES ON ATTITUDE

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitude of mind.” William James, psychologist

“The one thing you cannot take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance. “ Viktor Frankl in a Nazi concentration camp

“I may not be able to change the world I see around me, but I can change the way I see the world within me.” John Maxwell

“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little “extra”.

“Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.” Goethe