The Redemptive Gift of Leadership

A  person with the spiritual gift of leadership is one who can implement a vision and is also a person who loves being under a great deal of pressure.  In fact they thrive on pressure and indeed crave it!  They also like to have people around them who also feel the pressure as well.

The gift of leadership really works well in a short term situation.

Biblical examples of the gift of leadership include Nehemiah who displayed strong abilities in bring the children of Israel together in 52 days to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and we are going to come back to look at his life in greater detail.

In Solomon we see a sad story.  Here was a man who built everything – commerce, mastered the art of making money, construction, mastered the sciences, but then wasted his life in sensuality.  What was God’s call on his life?  He only asked the question once that we can find.  He asked for wisdom, but never sought God after that.  The continual challenge of a leader is to constantly seek to honor God because they can often revert back to their natural senses and abilities.

Joseph had great knowledge and wisdom to direct affairs in Egypt through the time of feast and famine.

Those with leadership gifting have the ability to push people beyond where they normally thought they could go, however they can abuse the time and resources of others.

A leader is usually not too focused on details.  They are the type of people who don’t blame others and they will own the problems.  They are great at using imperfect people in a way to not let their woundedness or brokenness keep them on the sidelines.

A little background on Nehemiah

In 538BC, the Persians conquered Babylon. Cyrus, the Persian Emperor, issued an edict which permitted 50,000 Jews to return to Judah under the leadership of Zerubbabel, and a Jewish state was established under the Persian government (recorded in the book of Ezra). The prophets Zechariah and Haggai motivated the people to rebuild the temple in 516BC. In 458BC, Ezra, a great spiritual leader, led 2,000 more Jews back to Jerusalem, but the walls were still in ruins.

The design of a leader

Nehemiah 1,2

1.       A holy discontent for the status quo.

Nehemiah was a leader who not only built the walls of the children of God physically, he also did it spiritually.  In fact it happened spiritually first as we see here in chapter 1.

We see weeping, mourning, fasting and a powerful prayer presented to us.

Nehemiah 1:5-11

2.       Leads by example – He includes himself in the prayer

3.     Knows how to share the vision

His vision started in his own heart and quietly he shared his vision with a few good men…ok, it was a few men.  He shared what God laid on his heart and after bringing them on board they shared a joint vision and began to rebuild.  The leader looks and searches for people with a heart of loyalty.  He looks for loyalty first before competence.

The ministry of a leader

1.       They lead with conviction, strength in the face of attacks  Nehemiah 2:19,20

2.       They build their leadership from within.   Nehemiah 3 can be seen just as a catalogue of all the people who were involved  and we can skim right through or we can realize the intentionality of a great leader to recognize his team.  The way Nehemiah worked with the people is a good example. He took the time to learn their names; he learned their strengths, weaknesses and interests. He assigned the work so they would be challenged and successful. Without this kind of leadership there is discontent and a lack of interest, purpose and unity.

The leader’s battlefield

1.       The leader must maintain stability in the face of opposition and stay the course.

Nehemiah 4:6-15

Too often we can get impatient with the seeming lack of results and not realize how important it is to build up one another spiritually.

God wanted Jerusalem to be a strong city, one that could defend itself against the enemy. Similarly, God wants us to be strong Christians, having strong spiritual walls. We need to inspect our lives to see where our walls are broken down as individuals, as families, and in our churches. What needs repairing?  To station a person on the lowest parts of the wall, the exposed places in many ways is what we are called to do in our families, in our church to stand in the gap, to pray, to see the needs and address it.

The leader’s character

1.        A strong leader sees the project to completion.  He doesn’t abandon ship so to speak.

Nehemiah 6:15,16 – We see the completion of the wall, but more importantly their God-sized confidence and the loss of self-confidence of those who sought to destroy them.

2.        A strong leader knows how important it is to celebrate the victory that God gives.

Nehemiah 8:9-12

The Feast of Tabernacles was an event to remind the people of God of the time when the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and as they read the Scriptures for the first time in a long time, conviction fell over all of them.  Yet in the midst of all this, Nehemiah insists that they rejoice in the strength of the Lord.

3.       A strong leader calls the people to repentance.   Nehemiah 9

4.       A strong leader doesn’t let conflict or sin go underground.

Nehemiah 13:25 – After all that took place and the supernatural work of God among the children of Israel, they started worshipping and running after not only the women of other nations, but their gods to their own destruction.  Nehemiah had a way of getting people’s attention….he pulled out their hair among other things!  He just couldn’t imagine them falling again into the same traps that led them into the mess of exile in the first place.

Finally I want to reflect on Jesus, our Ultimate Leader

Jesus’ last words on the cross – It Is Finished

There are two applications to the phrase “it is finished.”

Freedom from Sin

First, the penalty for sin is finished. Jesus paid the incredible price for every sin of all time. He was our One who stood in the gap, stood in the exposed place of our sin and shame and redeemed us to become the children of God!

Doing the best thing

There is a second application. Jesus finished the work of which He was called. He got the main thing done. Realize Jesus could have done a lot of good things. He could have spent 70 years healing the sick. He said no to the good things to do the best things.  In Mark 1, people came from miles for ministry. Jesus had got up early and went out to pray. The disciples finally found Him saying the people are waiting and He said, I am moving on down the road.

Because He knew His job was leadership development and that He had three years to prepare 11 world changers, He walked away from the crowds. Certainly, some were were angry, having walked all night to get healed and He was gone.

Jesus knew His temple needed to be built up and He was the Cornerstone and we are living stones being built into that temple, not built by human hands, but by the life giving presence of Jesus through the power of His Holy Spirit.

The Takeaway

When a leader learns to partner with God the results of their work will be so disproportionate to their resources.  

The question for the leader is not whether he is productive, but whether he is doing what he has been called to do.