Revolution

Two Ways God Grows Leaders

I'm sure there are lists like this all over the place, but I think there are two general ways that God can really put your growth as a disciple & as a leader on steroids, without the nasty side effects.

1. Obedience

Nothing accelerates our growth spiritually like obedience. Jesus says that obedience is the way that we express our love for Him, & when you look at the life of David, you find that obedience was the springboard for God growing David & advancing him as a leader. Go check out the first few scenes from Scripture featuring David in I Samuel 16-17. In I Samuel 16 we find the prophet Samuel looking for the man God had chosen to be the next king of Israel. God leads him to the house of Jesse in Bethlehem. Samuel knows the future king is from this family, but the one God had chosen was the last person that any of us would have picked. In fact, David is practically an afterthought. Everyone assumes that one of David's big strong, good looking older brothers is God's chosen king, but no, God wasn't looking for another man, like Saul, that looked like a king. He was looking for a man who had the heart of a king. The thing that catapulted David to the forefront of the nation was his heart for God which was rooted in an obedient, faithful heart.

When you read the first episodes in David's story, you realize that he was obedient no matter how small the situation seemed. The reason David was even on the same battlefield with Goliath was because he obediently served his father & brothers by delivering a bunch of breads & cheeses. I wouldn't call that a glamorous assignment, yet his obedience put him in a place where he could be used like no one else in the nation. Though David was obviously imperfect, his life is characterized as one of obedience & David as a man with a heart after God.

What unsurrendered parts of your life might be holding you back from becoming the disciple of Christ & leader that you could be? If you want to know Christ more deeply & to be used more mightily, you must first be obedient, & obedient even in the little, seemingly insignificant stuff.