Now That I Am A Leader, What Now?

Having discovered being a leader is a calling of God through obedience to the Great Commission and the compelling spirit of the believer’s new nature in Christ Jesus, the question of whether to be a leader or not passes away. But a new question emerges. What kind of leader will I be?

Truly, if one is a believer in Jesus Christ being a leader is a given. It is a calling and gifting, not equal for everyone but included in the calling and gifting for all. So, the question should be addressed. What kind of leader will I be?

While this topic is being approached exclusively from the perspective of a leader who is also a believer in Jesus Christ, the same principle remains for all leaders who want to become great leaders. The principle is this. The leader must find motivation for his or her leadership outside themselves, a higher purpose. In the episodes of the Sci-Fi thrillers of Star Wars, the famous line that carries through is “The Force be with you”. Hardly enough for a disciple of Jesus Christ, it carries a truth that great accomplishments come from without and from within at the same time. It is necessary to have that higher purpose and resource to avoid burnout and to prevent the leader from returning to impure motives for being a leader in the first place. Self is an impossible taskmaster whose requirements of service will never be met. What kind of leader will you be?

Understanding this question is much easier when one understands the true nature of the believer. Being born again, experiencing passing from death into life, becoming joint heirs with the Only Begotten Son of God, and a soldier of the cross, also means the crucifying of the old nature, that is, the flesh and its motivations. (John 3:1-7; John 5:24; Romans 8:17; Galatians 2:20; 5:24; 2 Timothy 2:3-4; Luke 9:23)

While the following text is speaking of all points of belief and conduct, you are herein being asked to consider it from the perspective of the leader you are.

Romans 13:14, NIV

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

In the discussion on “You Want Me To Be A Leader? Why?”, it was discovered as servants we are literally slaves, bondservants, prisoners of Jesus Christ as it were. However, truly as we are slaves in Jesus Christ, our slavery is not without its tremendously rich blessing. To be a slave in King Jesus is better than being a king in the governments of this world or a prince of Satan. Because, to be a slave in Jesus Christ is to be a child of God in a glorious life eternal while all other offices end with the last breath taken, until judgment that is.

As you consider the following text (1 Corinthians 2:9-13) in the fulness of its meaning, please include in that consideration its understanding from a leader’s perspective, that is, you as a called by God leader to be an influencer of people as an ambassador of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).

1 Corinthians 2:9-13, NIV

However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”– the things God has prepared for those who love him–
these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

2Co 5:17-21, NIV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

What kind of leader will you be? The answer is easier than one might first think. The answer becomes crystal clear when the question is changed slightly. “As a leader, will I lead by the Spirit of God in me? Or, will I lead by the flesh remaining in my body? Will I lead as though I’m alive forever? Or, will I lead to satisfy myself, knowing there is no hope beyond my last breath?”

To become a great leader requires a costly sacrifice.

Galatians 5:24, NIV

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

(Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10-12; Romans 8:12-13; Galatians 5:16-17; Colossians 3:5-8; 1 Peter 2:11; 1 John 2:15-17)

But oh, the glory of being counted as those with Christ is beyond anything found in this world. Neither pain, nor sorrow, nor personal cost can compare with that glory.

What kind of leader are you going to be, by the grace of God?

Amazingly, except for a few like the Apostle Paul, the Prophet Isaiah, etc., the degree to which you allow Jesus to lead through you seems to be, by the grace of God, left up to the saint. To some extent at least, you will decide whether you will be a great leader or not. But becoming a great leader requires high moral character, faithful discipleship, and complete devotion to others in thanksgiving by the will of God.

One final consideration, again this is asking you to let the leader’s perspective direct your point of view as you read Jesus’ instruction to his disciples.

John 15:1-27, NIV

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

3 . You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command.
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit–fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
This is my command: Love each other.
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.
If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.
But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father–the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father–he will testify about me.
And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

The Greatest Leader to ever live is teaching his disciples to become fruitful leaders. Yes, of course, he is also speaking of their spiritual maturity in bearing the fruit of the spirit and being great evangelists and mentors in discipleship. May I suggest to you, that is nothing short of being a leader, an influencer of people? An amazing thing is also going to be disclosed to the disciples of Jesus in this text, they are no longer going to be considered as slaves by their King. The King now will call those leaders, disciples, friends. How blessed is that, to be a friend of the King of kings and Lord of lords? I hope this inspires you to become a great leader, willing to do whatever it takes, education, time, pain, and sacrifice, to be all you can be in Jesus Christ.

When the born-again slave of Jesus Christ reaches the place where he or she willingly chooses to remain a slave forever, their whole experience in the Kingdom of Heaven changes for the good. They move from the safety of a slave in the Good Master’s household to a family member in the Royal Family forever. Consider these texts using your role as a leader for the microscope on the scriptures.

Exodus 21:5-6, NIV

“But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’
then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

Deuteronomy 15:16-17, NIV

But if your servant says to you, “I do not want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and is well off with you,
then take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life. Do the same for your female servant.

Ephesians 2:19-22, NIV

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

What the leader has in Jesus Christ is something beyond even the wildest science fiction films. “Use the Force, Luke”, a misquote from the Sky Wars line variations of “the Force be with you”, as the Death Star closes in on the Rebel base, Luke Skywalker trusts his feelings and uses the Force to fire the shot heard ’round the galaxy.

The “force” within the leader who is a believer in Jesus Christ is not the created universe wherein the leader lives as in the science fiction thriller Star Wars, it is a reality and nothing less than the very Creator of the universe, the Lord God Almighty, Savior, Redeemer, and Creator of all in the believer. We know him as Jesus Christ.

Colossians 2:6-10, NIV

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,
rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

Now That YOU Are A Leader, What Now?

I can hardly wait to see it. In faith, I believe it will grow beyond anything I could imagine of you. And I only imagine great things for you. Go with God. Do what the leaders before you only imagined. Set new visions and goals that only God can bring to pass, then let him accomplish them through your leadership and those you disciple.

Having discovered being a leader is a calling of God through obedience to the Great Commission and the compelling spirit of the believer’s new nature in Christ Jesus, the question of whether to be a leader or not passes away. But a new question emerges. What kind of leader will I be?

Truly, if one is a believer in Jesus Christ being a leader is a given. It is a calling and gifting, not equal for everyone but included in the calling and gifting for all. So, the question should be addressed. What kind of leader will I be?

While the following text is speaking of all points of belief and conduct, you are herein being asked to consider it from the perspective of the leader you are.

Romans 13:14, NIV

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

1 Corinthians 2:9-13, NIV

However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”– the things God has prepared for those who love him–

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

2Co 5:17-21, NIV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

To become a great leader requires a costly sacrifice.

Galatians 5:24, NIV

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

(Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10-12; Romans 8:12-13; Galatians 5:16-17; Colossians 3:5-8; 1 Peter 2:11; 1 John 2:15-17)

But oh, the glory of being counted as those with Christ is beyond anything found in this world. Neither pain, nor sorrow, nor personal cost can compare with that glory.

What kind of leader are you going to be, by the grace of God?

One final consideration, again this is asking you to let the leader’s perspective direct your point of view as you read Jesus’ instruction to his disciples.

John 15:1-27, NIV

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

3 . You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.

If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command.

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit–fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

This is my command: Love each other.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.

If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.

If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.

But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father–the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father–he will testify about me.

And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

Exodus 21:5-6, NIV

“But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’

then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

Deuteronomy 15:16-17, NIV

But if your servant says to you, “I do not want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family and is well off with you,

then take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life. Do the same for your female servant.

Ephesians 2:19-22, NIV

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Colossians 2:6-10, NIV

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,

rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,

and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

Now That YOU Are A Leader, What Now?