Text: 1 Samuel 12:1-5
Memory verse:
“For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you;”
II Thessalonians 3:7 NKJV
The idea of focusing on the leader rather than leadership has created more problems than it intends to solve. This concept focuses on the position a person occupies and the role one plays rather than the life one leads. That is why we hear of leaders committing sexual atrocities and all forms of financial recklessness with impunity and with no iota of shame. Just recently, I read of a minister of education in an African country who impregnated his deputy minister. Yet the man shamelessly defended this shameful act as “accidental sex” while the woman twitted that the public should “respect her privacy” by not commenting on it! What a shame! Some leaders abuse and misuse their authority and position in order to take advantage of those they were entrusted to protect.
True leaders do not separate their personal lives from their public responsibilities nor their personal standards from their public lives. True leaders do not say, “Do what I say and not what I do”.
“You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe;” (I Thes 2:10)
“For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.” (Eph 5:12)
According to our text also, prophet Samuel proved what to expect in true leadership. He was bold enough to bring himself to be examined by the people he was leading. Integrity defines true leadership. A true leader has no fear opening up his private life to be examined and studied by his followers.
Leadership is not an act but a calling. True leadership is not a skill or the acquisition of a degree but the manifestation of a life. The Spirit of God is the source of true leadership. Until a person is connected to the Spirit of God, he or she cannot manifest the true spirit of leadership.
Prayer points
1. Father, please, as I connect to You, let Your leadership Spirit be manifest in me in Jesus name.
2. Father, please, help me to uphold integrity in leadership in Jesus name.
Today’s declarations
1. Leadership is not the position I occupy or the role I play but the life I manifest.
2. A true leader has no fear opening up his private life to be examined and studied by his followers.
Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng