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Hello friends!
We can tell a good leader from a bad one by the results of his work. Jesus said in Matthew 7: 16, “By the fruit you will recognise them”. When people pay a fee to attend courses to groom themselves as leaders, are they keeping their houses in order? Are they faithful stewards of God’s resources?
An outstanding leader does not just perform and produce results. He empowers others to be effective as well.
A leader’s fruit comes from the core of who he is – his character and the values that he holds. It takes a lifetime to developing his inner being to be outstanding. Hebrews 12: 1 states, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…”
The godly leader nurtures his soul through a close walk with the Lord. He tries hard to remove anything in his life that hinders him from running well. The author of Hebrews instructs us to lay aside two things: “(E)very weight” and “sin which so easily ensnares us”.
Here are two major issues to deal with the inner life of a leader. The first issue with our character is represented by the “sin which so easily ensnares”. The second, dealing with our personal baggage, corresponding with the exhortation to “lay aside every weight”.
What is the difference between sin and sins?
Sin is like a tree which represents our sinful nature. Sins are the fruit of individual acts of wrongdoing. Therefore, sin is our carnal nature that violates the Word of God. For example, telling lies, stealing and committing adultery. They originate from our sinful inner nature.
While there are sins of commission in which we intentionally do wrong, there are also instances where we commit sins by failing to do what we know is right. These are sins of omission. “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4: 17).
We have sinned and fail to reflect God’s character (Romans 3: 23). The author of Hebrews pointed out that in order to achieve our full potential, we must deal with the root issues of our sinful nature. How to do so? Submit that to God and allow Him to form Christ in us (Romans 8: 29).
The Bible says we cannot do this by our natural abilities and strengths because we are inclined to sin from the moment we are conceived (Psalm 51: 5).
1 Corinthians 3: 1-3 clearly described self-life, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere man?”
Our natural life is our sinful nature which is corrupt, worldly and carnal. If believers are still living this way, they are “babes in Christ”, drinking milk instead of eating solid food.
Some expressions of our lives that are rooted in the carnal include:
What are the consequences of leaders living out of their self-lives? Whether in church ministry or in marketplaces, 95% of the problems come from believers who respond according to their sinful nature. What is from God will produce positive outcomes, exhort, encourage and edify. What is from the flesh gains nothing.
A gift or strength is a blessing from God. If it is driven by flesh, one will push others to achieve results thinking that are God’s plans. However, if he surrenders his strength to God and let the Holy Spirit lead, his spiritual life takes on a new dimension. Only then he becomes more God-conscious. If not, his strength can become weaknesses that lead him to disappointment. Romans 8: 7-8 say, “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God”.
The second phrase in Hebrews 12: 1 reminds us that in order to live the way the Spirit wants us to, we need to throw off “every unnecessary weight”. These weights are our personal baggage which stumble us in our race. These can take the form of:
The past can damage us, even if we are not aware of it. The unhealed scar inside us, which remain in our minds and hearts affect the way we see the world and treat those around us.
How will we know if we have an unhealed hurt?
If we are still sensitive about the incident and it continues to affect how we remember the other party, it is a sign that we have not dealt with the pain.
Pastor Foo, the author, says that the signs may be God’s gentle way of pointing out these are areas in our lives not fully resolved and need to be dealt with.
Personal baggage could also be due to the residual consequences of our sins and those of our forefathers. This is a propensity toward negative behaviour traits and a constant pressure to sin against the laws of God. An obvious example is sickness and disease which may be hereditary. Other examples include sexual promiscuity, marital problems, constant failure in our jobs, inability to handle finances and feelings of rejection and abandonment.
Friends, there is solution to deal with unhealed hurts! Get a Bible, a pen and a notebook and go somewhere quiet. Calm down and think through the way you have been hurt by others and the wounds which need to be healed. The process may be painful but we need to find closure to the hurts so that we can forgive, release judgment and cut soul ties as needed.
Then, pray over the list and bring it under the blood of Christ to cover any residual ground, and ask the Spirit of God to breathe His life into you and the situation. And pray for God to deliver and heal you completely.
Do not let the unhealed hurts stumble and affect your life. Deal with them as you become aware of them. Our goal is liberty from the past and head towards the future God wants for us.
DENYING THE SELF-LIFE
If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. (Luke 9: 23-24)
The first step to deal with our sinful nature is to deny our self-life. We are to reckon ourselves dead to the sinful nature and consider our former selves crucified with Him.
When we count ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6: 11a), it means we do not respond according to our sinful nature. Instead, we respond to the life of Christ in us.
Why must the flesh and sin nature be put to death? Because the flesh is hostile to God (Romans 8: 7-8). By ourselves, we cannot please Him. That is why when we believe in Christ, our old self is reckoned as dead and we are made a new creation (2 Corinthians 5: 17).
We are to take up our cross daily. The cross signifies crucifixion and death, and to take up our cross is to consciously deny our self-life. No matter how good our intentions are, the sin nature must be crucified and put to death daily. That is what Christ meant by taking up our cross. We live the way He wants us to. We obey Him, not our own selfish and natural impulses.
Some Christians believe that in order to die to self and take up our cross, they have to punish themselves physically. However, these are not what Jesus intended when He gave that command. Dying to ourselves is an act of surrender of our entire lives.
Another key detail in Luke 9: 23 is the Lord’s command for each of us to take up our own cross. The cross we bear is a personal cross.
What are the instruments of our cross that enable us to die to our self-life daily? They are made up of the people who pass our paths, and the circumstances we find ourselves in, that invoke the sinful nature in us. The people are our spouses, children, colleagues, bosses and neighbours. While this people may support us and love us, sometimes they may disagree and argue with us. Thus, they become the instruments of our cross because they will cause us to react and respond from our self-life.
Whoever they may be, they are used by God to mould us into Christlikeness. Likewise, we are the instruments of somebody else’s cross. We too are used by God to mould the characters of those we interact with.
Once we understand this truth, it becomes harder for us to get upset by others and easier to develop the nine-fold aspects of the fruit of the Spirit. However, whoever the person offends us, we must remain calm, composed and centred in Christ.
Each time we fail to take up our own cross, we will fall into sin. Then we lose our tempers, quarrel with loved ones, get frustrated at someone’s repeated mistakes or become fearful or overly stressed.
If we take up our cross despite our own shortfalls, God will mould us into the people that He wants us to be. The life of Christ in me is increased and manifested to the extent that the I-me-myself mentality is decreased.
How should we respond to human failures? The answer is, we surrender these people and ourselves to the Lord. We give up our self-confidence, self-justification, cleverness, envy and any emotions not in line with love for God and others so that we might display God’s character. And when we respond with grace, patience and forgiveness, we disarm the powers of the evil one (Ephesians 6: 12).
Love does not keep a record of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13: 5), it will cover a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4: 8).
Some people keep hurts and past wrongs for decades. Why let unforgiveness drag us down? We must know that unforgiveness has more fatal consequences than that. Hebrews 12: 14-15 say, “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled…”
Bitterness ruins us, making us more vulnerable to physical ailments such as cancer and heart attacks. When people let go the hurts, their condition improved.
I hope you are inspired by the above sharing as detailed advices and much insight lay down clearly by Pastor Foo, the author.
Please join us again on Denying the Self-Life next week. See you!