What is the foundation of spiritual leadership?
The foundation is: who or what is the spiritual authority in your life? Some may wish that what I say here isn’t true, but unfortunately history shows it to be so. It seems to work for a while to build growing churches by manipulating, scaring, and indoctrinating faithful Christian brothers and sisters. Christian history is full of examples of leaders who began right but ended wrong. Paul spoke of the savage wolves that would not spare God’s church, and revealed that they would go forth from our own number (see Acts 20:28-30). The reward of being a leader wasn’t enough for these ”savage wolves” and instead, out of love for this world, they sold their position in order to distort the truth. These are Christian leaders who let themselves be deceived and gave themselves over to the authority of the darkness. Remember that Satan is a deceiver and he knows humans and human weaknesses. Men like Samson, David and Solomon fell because of their weaknesses, and their wrong steps brought with them extreme collective consequences.
Of course the examples above are drastic, but whose authority is it that we serve under? Have we given ourselves to the only true authority there is, and if we have, do we bear the signs that His authority flows and works through our ministry? Personally, I must always keep myself in check and ask myself these questions:
1.Why am I doing what I’m doing? Is it for money, glory, and self-exaltation, or is it because I love Jesus?
2.What means am I using to reach my goals? Is it manipulation, control, and threats, or is it humility and faith in God Almighty?
In a world where morals are constantly changing, there are so many people who get lost. There is a cry for leaders who don’t cheat, lie, exploit, and manipulate for the sake of their own gain. It is just such a leader that you are called to be.
The world needs you today! You are important. But before you step out into your place and function, test your motives and above all scrutinize the actual authority in your life. Is it Satan, or is it in every aspect and area of your life Jesus?
The answer to the question ”what is the foundation of spiritual leadership?” is ”spiritual authority.” Without spiritual authority we just become a bunch of administrators. With the wrong spiritual authority we become evil’s henchmen. But with the right spiritual authority we can do the impossible and build the church that is Jesus’ church; a church that exercises God’s full authority here and now; a church that embodies Jesus’ vision of a kingdom of priests of the living God who reign on the earth (see Rev. 5:9-11); a church that can be shepherds for the lost and badly mistreated.
