Here’s What I Want You To Know…

…About a Call to Leadership

Our faith walk is often accurately described as “being born again.” Newborns are fresh, new, alive and growing. They have left the confines of a dark womb and are born into light and an entirely new way of living. As yet they are immature, but they are on their way to becoming more than they could imagine. In many ways they are helpless and dependent. In this newborn state they have intense needs for sleep, good food, and the protection and care of a loving family.

And so is the newly minted Christian. The old ways are crucified and we are learning new ways. We are a new creation and we are hungry for the milk of God’s Word. We are trusting God for all our needs and resting in His amazing grace. We are learning and growing and changing day by day. Old things are passing away, and behold, all things are new.

But at some point, we need to put away childish things. We need to grow up. There comes a time and place when we are the ones to shoulder the responsibility, do the work of prayer, and teach those coming along behind us the truths of scripture. This call to leadership and ministry will come from the Lord.

Initially I did not recognize His calling, but He was at work in me. I had just been through a trial that made me question everything I knew of God. Out of that dark night of the soul He began to piece together circumstances that required a deeper faith, a trust that had no guarantee of a happy ending, and flesh-denying personal sacrifices. What had looked to me like defeat and loss slowly, yet surely, turned into the richest of blessings. This was the beginning of my call to ministry.

During these years I learned to serve. I learned to respond to the voice of God as He led and directed. I began to seek His will and not my own. After a time I began to settle into a comfortable place of peace and assurance. And then came more and more specific calls to serve not just in ministry, but in leadership. And that is where I faltered.

I did not see myself as a leader. I was content to be a sheep in the midst of the flock. I declined, I rationalized, and I denied the invitation to step up numerous times. I was slow of heart and lacking understanding. But the Holy Spirit persisted and thankfully God was patient with me.

I felt completely unqualified. I felt utterly inadequate. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power might be of God and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). I thought of Moses and his reaction to his call, voicing the same lame excuses and empty arguments. Our inadequacy is the very thing that qualifies us for leadership. We cannot lead, but He is more than enough. Our very weakness highlights His glory.

At some point God asked me what I was afraid of. Well, failure and humiliation came to mind. The Spirit spoke, “Would you dare to be a fool for Christ? Would you willingly suffer humiliation for My name?” And there the battle of my will or His will ended in surrender. He took on a torturous cross for me. He was rejected and humiliated. None of it stopped Him from doing the Father’s will. Would I willingly follow my Lord, no matter the outcome?

I am happy to tell you my fears were all in my own mind for as I stepped out in faith, believing He had not only called, but equipped and empowered me, I found that I was not only able to do the thing He had called me to do, but I enjoyed it.

This is what I want you to know about leadership. For a good many of you, you are already leaders, you just don’t recognize it. I didn’t. I had to be told by several women I highly respected that I was a leader. People in your sphere of influence are watching you and you are already an influence in their lives. Acknowledge your calling.

Do not fear. The enemy will raise a plethora of reasons (excuses) for why you cannot do this thing. The past will tell you of every failure you ever experienced. You don’t live in the past. Be willing to do what He asks, trusting that His purposes will be accomplished through you.

If you feel inadequate or unqualified, you are right. It is not you who will make this work, but the Holy Spirit and His power working in you and through you. Get out of His way. And for those very reasons you cannot glory in the outcome, nor do you need to take on any judgment or criticism. The results are in His hands alone. Your part is to simply be His instrument and act in obedience to your calling. This is His work and He is inviting you into it. To God be the glory.

“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling by which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond on peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3).

“For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things that are despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).