By 
Godly leaders need at least three key traits to do God’s missions: patience, humility, dependence (doctorate of God). Without these, Moses would not have been able to carry out God’s mission of leading the Israelites out of Egypt (Exodus 3:10). He would often have felt frustrated, dazed, and anguished with himself, with the children of Israel, and with Pharaoh; perhaps even with God. We will miss the mark when God calls us, unless we apply his Ph.D.
Patience
Ten plagues were needed before God delivered the Israelites. I probably would have given up after the third plague. When would you have packed? With a clear vision of God’s call and a firm understanding that when God calls us, He will equip us to get the job done, we still need patience—patience in dealing with subordinates and colleagues, and patience in waiting for God’s perfect timing. . .
Patience is one of the three plans that the spiritual leader needs to build a solid foundation of leadership. Impatience trips up many people primarily because they don’t know how to actively wait on God. Many people think that waiting on the Lord means doing nothing. Each of us, especially godly leaders, must learn to actively wait on the Lord. Here are three ingredients for active waiting:
- While we wait, we should do whatever we know is relevant to God’s mission. Also, we must remember and do the promises of Jesus, and his general ‘will’ as presented in the Bible. Moses knew that God would deliver the children of Israel (Exodus 3:12), and so, with each setback, he kept going, doing what God told him to do next.
- While we wait, we must make sure that the conditions exist to listen to God. Are we seeking first his Kingdom and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33)? Do we have unconfessed sin in our lives? We must keep examining our lives and asking God to reveal them (Psalm 139:23). Unconfessed sin will prevent us from hearing God. We need to ask God to show us what prevents us from hearing Him. What is our god with a small “g”? Men, look at 1 Peter 3:7 to see if we have been inconsiderate of our wives. If we have been, our prayers will not be answered.
- We must continually pray and, as directed by the Lord, fast, while doing points one and two repeatedly.
King Saul did not wait for Samuel and lost his kingdom (1 Samuel 13:9-12). King David waited on God to become king of Israel (1 Samuel 26:8-11).
Isaiah 30:18 (NIV) says:
However, the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he stands up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who hope in him!
Modesty
The second leg is humility. We must understand that alone, we have no answers. Surely, we don’t have any relevant questions to begin with! We need people. People who help us, people who work with us and people through whom to work. We must encourage, guide, advise people so that they always give their best. Above all, we must let them challenge us. To grow and let Jesus shine in us, we must be teachable, ready to be wrong, and open to accepting God’s truth.
One of Peter 5:6 tells us that we must humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God so that He will lift us up, in due time.
The godly leader is a servant leader like Jesus the Messiah, who condescended to come to earth and take our sins so that we can inherit eternal life. As he dealt with the people, Jesus listened, asked questions, encouraged, and displayed the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22). Shouldn’t we do the same?
Dependence
Do you have an image of dependence on God? I like what God said to Joshua 3:13:
And it shall come to pass that as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that descend from the stream, and They’ll stop like a bunch.”
Did you get it? When the soles of the feet rest in the water, the weight of the body has shifted forward and there is no going back. We must go forward not knowing if God’s next action will work as we think. We must understand that God knows the future, we do not.
After accomplishing God’s mission, the godly leader must move on, even when he can’t see the next step and when it seems impossible. With God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). The focus of the spiritual leader, therefore, is to lean on Jesus and do what God shows him, always remembering that it is God’s mission, not hers.
God’s mission, His goal, will be clear; it is his “what to make” of him. His “how to” is his plan that will not always be clear. We need to depend on Jesus to show us how to do his mission.
Summary
Like Moses, we will encounter obstacles along the way as we carry out God’s missions. These assignments are part of our sanctification journey designed to bring us closer to Jesus. The obstacles in the way are important learning stations that we must embrace so that we can flourish and let Jesus shine through us. Reject them and we will fail to learn, ‘shine’ and grow, we will stagnate or even regress.
Where are you today? Are you working with God’s mission or your own? Have you experienced plague numbers one through five and are you ready to give up? Remember Moses. He stood his ground, was patient, showed humility, and depended on God.
Will you ask God to help you start working on your doctorate today?
Copyright (c) 2012, Michel A. Bell