Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 22 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; 1Co 2:9-3:4.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 22 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; 1Co 2:9-3:4.

 

Announcements / opening prayer:  

 

 

I. Patience: Victorious endurance and constancy under trial. Patience is not simply doing nothing.

 

William Barclay taught about patience: "The word never means the spirit which sits with folded hands and simply bears things. It is victorious endurance and constancy under trial. It is Christian steadfastness, the brave and courageous acceptance of everything life can do to us, and the transmuting of even the worst into another step on the upward way. It is the courageous and triumphant ability to bear things, which enables a man to pass breaking point and not to break, and always to greet the unseen with a cheer."

 

The patient leader bears with the weaker followers and doesn't discourage them, but always he is showing them the way to strength.

 

Rom 15:1 Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves.

 

Rom 15:2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.

 

Rom 15:3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached Thee fell upon Me.

 

An impatient leader will be of no help to the weak, and let's face it, we all start out weak. Any believer who has been promoted by God to a position of leadership has grown up spiritually, but he must never forget what he was like when he was weak. Where would any of us be if the more mature believers did not instruct us or reveal to us the way of Christ when we were spiritual babies.

 

A leader may have a hard time persuading his followers that his chosen course of action is correct. He may have to patiently wait for them to see the goodness in his way.

 

He could choose to be heavy handed when his followers are not convinced, but it is optimal in an organization for the subordinates to not only know the objective, but to agree with it and agree with the tactics used to achieve it. The leader will have to be hard in forcing others at times to step in line, but all the while he is teaching them and training them so that they may see the truth of that line, and in all this it is imperative that he maintain patience.

 

So often he has to persuade rather than just command. Yet sometimes the command is in order when there is no time to wait. It is far better for the followers to understand why the command is good, and this is just what the scriptures show to us.

 

J. Filled with the Spirit: he must be led, taught, and empowered by the Spirit filling his soul.

 

There is an obvious difference in the quality and character of life that Christians experience. The New Testament is clear on the reasons for the difference. Believers can be either spiritual (filled with the Spirit) or carnal (under the control of the flesh).

 

Paul divides the human race into three categories - the natural man, the spiritual man, and the carnal man.

 

1Co 2:9 but just as it is written,

"Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,

And which have not entered the heart of man,

All that God has prepared for those who love Him."

 

He has prepared the magnificent, divine things for all believers, but it is those who love Him that actually see them in time.

 

1Co 2:10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

 

A distinction is made between the general subjects of human knowledge that enter through the eye and the ear and enter into the heart and the deep things of God which are revealed only through the Spirit.

 

Never do we encounter any divine revelation that is not contained in the scriptures. There is no room for added revelation from God that is not contained within the scriptures.

 

However, the revelation of what is in the Bible is boundless - being described as the deep things of God. Certainly there is a limit to the scriptures; from Gen 1:1 to Rev 22:21, but the word of God is eternal and boundless, hence we can study the same scriptures throughout our lifetime and likely throughout all eternity and the Spirit will reveal more and more of their meaning and truth. No human faculty could possibly come to know such truths, but the Spirit of God knows them well.

 

So then, men are classified as to their ability to understand these things.

 

1Co 2:11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.

 

An unaided man may enter freely into the things of his fellow man because of the spirit of man that is within him, through his eyes and ears and into his heart.

 

He cannot know the things of the animal world, although there are countless scientists and documentaries that claim to know what they're thinking. In his book That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis attempts to describe the thinking of a bear name Mr. Bultitude and he does an amazing job, although no one can cross reference it with the real thinking of a bear. Man cannot understand the thinking of an angel either. Like we tend to do with animals we tend to think of angels thinking as we do, and although we see them conversing with men in the scriptures, it is a presumptuously huge leap to assume the course of their thinking.

 

1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God,