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The road to God’s blessing..

May 7, 2012 in Leadership, Life, Ministry with 11 Comments

How do I obtain the blessings of God? How can I know the road that I walk it a path he has set before me? How can I know the Lord will bless what I do? I would say these questions are great questions and worth pondering. In following Jesus I have been able to learn four critical lessons to obtaining his blessings or favor, such as joy, peace, love, prosperity, understanding and rest. Blessings of finance and health, yes this too can be added after we seek first his kingdom but they aren’t eternal, prosperity is a sign of his blessings, he promises prosperity, not to be confused with financial gain. (many people living the “American dream” can get confused financial gain with prosperity-just wanted to clarify)

Here are four roads that will lead to God’s blessing over our lives from what his word tells us.

1. Forgiveness- If you are carrying around bitterness or a grudge, you gotta let that stuff go, you gotta trust God with those things. I know people hurt, I know, I’ve been hurt plenty but too often, we never ask God to address these things and before you know it, they grow within us like bacteria deep in the soul and our spirit and attitude can become really gross. It is not God’s desire for us to walk around with bitterness, jealousy and unforgiveness towards others, ask God to reveal it, for God to deal with it so you can heal from it.

2. Humility- If you think you aren’t prideful…sorry to break it to you, you are prideful. In fact, unless you are asking God to help you with this, pride has likely blinded you to it. Christ came to serve not to be served, he assumed what ever task was necessary to demonstrate love, even on his last day with those closest to him, after a long walk down a dusty and dirty road, when they had all entered in to eat and feast, with filthy feet and no servants around…Jesus, placing others first, wrapped his waist, got a bowl of water and a cloth and kneeled down to clean the feet of his disciples. There should be no task “too low” for you because Jesus demonstrated this while on earth.

3. Submission- I struggled with this for some time because of how badly my father was treated in ministry, I felt I had to constantly stand up and defend myself, until God revealed the problem, I gave it to the Lord and he healed me from it. Here is the truth, Biblically, ALL authority is from God, yes, in his mysterious and sovereign power he has placed everyone in power, even the really bad leaders you know. God uses all of it. We don’t see the whole picture, sometimes he allows bad leaders to be in power to demonstrate what evil within them sometimes he allows them to be humbled. Never the less, ALL authority is from God and you must have a heart of submission to your leaders and to others who can help you remain accountable. No one is good or good enough to be outside of a submission, God uses this to keep us close to his heart and plan.

4. Purity- A life called to serve God must be consecrated and  separated from sinful activity. Not only that, the desire to be pure before God must exist. Although we cannot separate from our bodies and it’s sinful “nature” too often, we have leaders and ministers that aren’t repentant or practice repentance daily. Holiness, although humanly speaking is impossible, can be something we practice, something we seek with all our heart, God’s word says “be Holy for I am Holy”…What God is saying is, desire Holiness because Holiness comes from him and in all fairness, uh, we won’t get to practice this in Heaven, we get to start this process while here on earth to prepare us for Heaven.

If we can ask God, openly to reveal these areas in our lives so that these roads, these areas, a life that forgives, that walks humbly, a life submitted to authority and a life of purity can become part of us, we will remain under the mighty hand of God, in safety, with his blessing and favor over everything we do and everything we are.

Elevating leaders

May 2, 2012 in Leadership, Life with 7 Comments

Leadership is one of those things I enjoy talking about and what really get’s me excited is helping others become better leaders. I am a firm believer of leading with humility, you have to have a heart to serve others and also vision, a great leader has clarity, communicates clearly and has confidence in the direction that they are going in. In combination for the books, podcasts and mission statements and strategies I have read and learned I think these four steps ultimately help elevate leaders.

1. Support- Going beyond delegation and definitely not choosing to direct, support the leaders around you. Support them with as much instruction as you can, be accessible to them. If they are missing something, allow them to try it but support where needed. The key difference for me here is that direction just tells them what to do, delegation allows them to do it, but support helps them rebound faster and find what works for them.

2. Coach- Give honest feedback that builds them up, stick to the facts here, be practical, show them how they missed it but also make them aware of the standard that is to be held and help them measure how far they are from reaching it.

3. Invest- Taking a leader out for lunch is a great way to invest in them, that personal time, those conversations, wow, I am so thankful for leaders that did this with me. Also, buy them a book that has impacted you personally. I love reading books and when someone makes a strong personal suggestion that could elevate my understanding of leadership it is greatly appreciated.

4. Risk- This is the biggie, ready? Take a chance on someone already! How can anyone learn unless someone takes the risk of letting them try. You gotta pull the trigger and let a person lead, give it a shot. Someone eventually has to believe in someone enough to give them a chance. If they fail, go back to the three listed above and repeat.

These are proven principles for me personally, I had support, coaching, someone invested in me and finally someone gave me chance. I continue seek these four principles in leaders around me and apply what they help me understand. I hope they can help you elevate other leaders too.

 

Feedback

April 30, 2012 in Leadership with 4 Comments

Feedback is common in leadership development, the general workplace and should be common in ministry as well. However, not everyone responds to feedback positively. Sometimes people can take it in extremes, getting frustrated, even getting angry and some just feel deflated upon hearing it. I understand that sometimes people don’t normally know how to convey feedback properly, sometimes they struggle with their words or may not pass on something positive, sometimes it’s just pure bad timing but feedback  ultimately has value. I’m mostly focusing on feedback from your peers, your leaders and those who really know you, but I would not limit it to those groups only. You might think this is crazy but let me explain why I feel this way. Humility. Humility to me is the key factor for a leader who is going to serve his team, honor others and not be selfish by putting themselves first.

• The first benefit of receiving feedback, it helps us stay teachable, in order to remain teachable you must get feedback and get it often. Seek it if you aren’t getting it right now, go out of your way to sit with different leaders around you and ask them what are three things you are doing really well, what are three things you need to improve on. Ask them how, would they be willing to help you mature in this area. Again, feedback is how we get outside of our own perception of the truth, to get a more broad perception you need coaching and support to help give you an honest evaluation of where you are in the process.

• The second benefit of getting feedback is that it helps us manage our pride. A def ear is the first sign of pride. A person not willing to listen to others or embrace feedback may be in the early stages of blinding pride. I say embrace feedback because to tolerate it wouldn’t give it any real intrinsic value, you have to embrace the idea, internalize and apply what other people share with you so you can really add truth and validity to your progress. Here are some valid questions to ask if you are going to allow feedback to help you improve on your journey.

Do you get defensive and bitter when someone gives you feedback?

Do you normally get disappointed and feel beaten when receiving feedback?

or

Do you become determined and focus on getting better when getting feedback?

Remember, ultimately most people give feedback…because they really do care.

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