The Duty Of A Spiritual Leader

Recently, in my time with God, I have been studying the books of the Kings and Chronicles. God spoke to me personally concerning my role as a spiritual leader. Amid volumes of leadership books these days, God's Word gives us refreshing insight in this area. God is very clear about what kind of spiritual leader He has called us to be.

"My sons, do not neglect your duties any longer! The Lord has chosen you to stand in His presence, to minister to Him, and to lead the people in worship and present offerings to Him." 2 Chronicles 29:11 (NLT)

Stand In His Presence

The first calling of spiritual leader is NOT to stand before people. My calling is to stand before God. The New Living Translation reads, "Stand in His presence." I cannot stand before men if I have not stood before God. I must spend time in His presence. I must be continually filled with His Spirit. I must be able to stand blameless before Him in His righteousness, but also in my own practical and personal holiness. I must stand before God on behalf of the people as well. Someone has said, "You have no right to stand before a people for whom you have not labored in prayer." 

Minister To Him

The calling of the spiritual leader is NOT to minister to people. It is to minister to The Lord Himself. My fear should be of Him, not men. When My focus on ministering to Him is replaced by meeting the needs of people, I will become quickly discouraged when people don't approve of me. This is the root of burnout in ministry. All my service and love should go to Him alone, not the people He has placed in my life to touch. In fact, it is impossible to truly minister to people if it does not flow out of my ministering to God. Jesus said, "If you love Me, feed My sheep." He did not say, "If you love people, feed them." I cannot "feed" anyone if I am not loving Jesus above all.


Lead The People In Worship

The calling of a spiritual leader is to lead people to Jesus - to point people to Him. This takes place primarily off the platform. It is the duty of a spiritual leader to lead by example; to live in such a way that brings glory to Jesus, and thus, pointing people to Him. So, to be able to lead people to worship God, I must first be "standing in His presence" and "ministering to Him."

 

 

Present Offerings To Him

 

The calling of a spiritual leader is to present all His work and fruit in ministry to God as an offering. Think of it as burning all your good works on the altar as an act of worship to Him. I must remember that any work done in my power is not pleasing to Him. Only the work done by Him through me is pleasing to Him. Only ministry done in the power of the Spirit is a sweet-smelling aroma to God. My efforts just stink! I must count all my accomplishments as "dung" (Philippians 3:8). Even the good things that God has used me to do must be considered as garbage to me. If not, I will begin to hang the trophies that rightfully belong to God, on my own walls.  

 

 

These simple truths have transformed my thinking and my walk. My ministry will never be the same. In fact, my ministry will cease. The only fruit this "branch" can bear is that which flows from the Vine (John 15:5). Let's stop "trying" and just start "abiding."

  

 

 

Revival Myth #3

3. Revival is for the lost.

If you grew up in the same church culture I did, you know that a typical “revival” meeting lasted about a week (sometimes two), with a fiery evangelist calling sinners to repent every night. You have probably been encouraged to “pack a pew” or at least bring all your lost family members and friends. Oh, and make sure you put in the newspaper so you'll have a crowd! (If real revival ever broke out the newspaper reporters would be knocking our doors down.) Leonard Ravenhill used to say, "You never have to advertise a fire." When God sets a church on fire, people will come for miles to watch the blaze! 

I’m not condemning these types of meetings. They have proven to be fruitful over the years. Many have come to saving faith through meeting just like this. But my question is why do we call this “revival”?

To be “revived” you have to be alive to begin with. The Bible says before Christ we are “dead in our trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). So, revival is not for the spiritually dead. It is for those of us who have been made alive in Christ through salvation but don’t love Him like we once did.

Revival is the stirring of God in the hearts of His sleeping Church.  

We tend to forget that the Church in Laodicea that Jesus rebuked was in fact a CHURCH (Revelation 3). These were people who had been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, had been set free from sin, and were made alive in Christ. But over time this group of people became self-sufficient and they left their first love – just walked away from Jesus. Churches are filled with people like you and me who act like they don’t need God. Of course we would never say that, but we live that way. So, it is the Church – you and me – that really needs revival.

Here’s the cool part. When God revives the hearts of His people there are always lost souls saved as a result. Why? When God breathes His life back into His people, then the Church rediscovers its purpose – to make disciples.

So, what we've done is put the cart before the horse. We want the lost to be saved without us having to repent of our sin. It's as if we say, "I love to see a sinner gloriously saved, but don't confront me about my sin of prayerlessness, or covetousness!" (The list goes on.) Our nation is headed to hell fire because the Church has lost Holy Ghost fire. A mighty sweeping harvest will never take place in our land until we have the fire of God again. We'll never have the fire of God again if we, the Church, don't get on our faces, repent, and return to the Lord.  

During genuine revival, the lost are convicted of their own sin because of the confession and repentance of Christians. Often the difference in Christians’ lives is so dramatic that the lost are drawn to Christ through the witness of God’s work in His people.

It’s also interesting to note that every work of God in revival has resulted in an influx of people into the mission field.

God wants His praises to be sung in every nation, so He extends His mercy to a lost and dying world through the message of the gospel. But when His messengers would rather sleep than go and tell, sometimes He just has to wake us up! That’s revival.

Another Myth About Revival

2. Revival is just emotional hype.

Some people have formed a negative opinion on revival based on excesses they have seen in so-called “revivals.” There have been serious abuses in the name of the Holy Spirit during these “movements.” There have been practices associated with “revival” that are thoroughly unbiblical and damaging to the Church of Jesus Christ. With that said, we cannot base our opinions or expectations of revival on others’ excesses.

On the other hand, some people have an opinion that unless there is an extreme outward display of emotion, revival has not come. We also must be careful not to package revival as what we want it to look like.

Revival is when God moves in the hearts of His people, producing repentance and life-change, first and foremost. All manifestation of His working in His peoples’ lives is to point people to Jesus. Therefore, the focus should never be on the physical manifestation, but the person of Jesus Christ.

This does not mean, however, that emotion has no place in a true move of God. God created us to be emotional. Our emotions were given to us for the same reason as every other part of us – to bring glory to God.

Outward expression of emotion is often a natural response to the work of God in revival, but it is not revival, in and of itself.

When Jonathan Edwards preached during the 1^st Great Awakening, the people fainted under the conviction of sin. Some even fell to the floor, crying out in terror at the thought of God’s righteous judgment.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, would calmly preach and people would cry out or “fall down as dead.” Often the sound of those repenting and receiving assurance of forgiveness almost drowned out his voice.

Duncan Campbell speaks of having to stop preaching during the Hebrides Revival because the people were crying so loudly, he couldn’t be heard. When the people would began to grow quiet, he would start again.

When God bursts on the scene and displays His glory there is most certainly going to be an emotional response, but emotion alone doesn’t characterize revival. However, deep conviction with repentance and confession following are always trademarks of genuine revival. 

I think the church could stand a little emotional stirring as the Spirit of God blows out the dust from our hearts.

Stay tuned. There is more to come.