On a recent "This Is Your day" TV show with Benny Hinn, he talked about how the church falters without proper leadership. I thought his teaching made a lot of sense, and would like to share it with you. Some of the following came from that show.
The Lord often tests leaders. God gave Joseph a dream in Gen. 37 in which his mother, father and eleven brothers are bowing before him, meaning that someday he would be a great leader. But instead of immediately becoming a leader he was sold into slavery, and ended up in an Egyptian prison. It was there that God put Joseph through the test, a test of time, to strengthen his spirituality. It was in prison that God developed the character, wisdom, and humility within Joseph. And after this time of training - in one day - Joseph was taken out of prison and became one of the most powerful men in Egypt. He passed the test and became the leader God wanted him to be, and through Joseph, the Israelites survived the drought to later become a nation.
Moses was raised as a leader by the Egyptians, but God wanted him as a different kind of leader, to bring His people out of Egypt. After Moses killed an Egyptian for beating an Israelite, he fled to the desert, married, raised children, and spent the next 40 years of his life living in the desert. It was there God developed the character, wisdom and humility within Moses. He had passed the test and God called him back to Egypt, to lead the Israelites, and to become one of the greatest leaders in Jewish history.
After the Israelites took over Canaan under Joshua, they experienced a few years of peace, but later got into idol worship, and from time to time God called in a leader to get His people out of paganism. Why did the people get into idol worship so soon after entering Canaan? Because all the old leaders that were under Moses and Joshua died off, and there was nobody left to properly lead the people.
The presence of leadership can be helpful to encourage people to worship God.
There is a great need in the church for proper leadership. As the Bible states "Many are called but few are chosen". God will call a certain number out of the general population and put them through a test of time and trials. But only a few of these will choose to answer the call, and become leaders of His church.
If you feel that God wants to work through you, and if you feel the willingness to pursue this journey to God and to His people, expect the Divine Physician to be within you spiritually, cleaning house of such personality traits as lust, greed, avarice, jealousy, pride, sloth, anger, self pity, etc.
Are you willing to clean house and be the person that God would have you be? If you are then hit your knees now, and pray to God that you are willing to surrender yourself to the will and care of Him. Pray for the guidance to better serve the Lord.
This will show God that you are willing to become the person He wants you to be, so you serve Him in the capacity as a leader in His church.
By George Konig
Christian Internet Forum
www.georgekonig.org
December 21, 2003
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