Counterfeit Leadership

Our efforts to control our lives produce undesirable results. But still we attempt to counterfeit God’s design for our lives through our own efforts. With tenacity we persist in demanding that our way must work. And so we continue to counterfeit the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Deceived, we believe the fruit of the Spirit is merely the best side of humanity. If we try hard enough we can manufacture this fruit consistently in our lives. But living a life that is desperately dependent on Christ necessitates yielding to His Spirit’s movement as we cease endeavoring to produce our own fruit. We are incapable of producing His fruit on our own vines; we can only produce His fruit as we are grafted into His vine.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:4–5 NASB)

Leadership is vital for servants and provides the structure necessary to oppose the sin nature in a manner that would facilitate useful ministry fostering effective service to those in bondage to having things their way. Leadership within its Biblical context is interpersonal and in its true essence is stewardship that has been promoted to management. The leader, using the great tool of a divinely enabled influence, builds spiritual maturity (Christ-likeness) into a soul by a course of speaking the truth in love within the confines of a divinely anointed relationship. The great task of leadership then is to oppose the nature of sin within an individual that would seek to graft themselves into their own make shift vine and then seek to counterfeit the fruit of God’s Spirit while calling it divine.

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. (Eph. 4:14-15 NLT)

Leadership gives time and attention to how this truth is applied in order to mentor a follower into finding Christ relevant to every area of life. Godly leadership paves the way for service to thrive by creating structure that ensures truth and time are available within appropriate limits so as to promote healthy ministry. These three: truth, time, and structure being employed by a servant-leader who desperately seeks the enabling of the Holy Spirit, comprise the foundation for all effective serving and offer to us a Biblical formula for developing Christian maturity.

T + T + S = M
Truth + Time + Structure = Maturity

However when leadership promotes a view of servant-ministry as merely doing some work or completing some action, they cease to emphasize the primary nature of ministry where mature servants of God are being moved by the compulsion of Christ’s grace to interact with others in need of Christ, prompted only by the supreme motive of love.

We as servant-leaders must not lose sight of the everyday process of having a ministering heart as a way of life – ministering within the enabling power of God and manifesting the fruit of His Spirit to all in the sphere of our influence. We must draw from the anointed power of God’s call and compulsion within our lives as mature believers being prompted to seek God’s good pleasure.

Mature Christian service being produced is one of the chief evidences of spiritually mature leadership being present. If we as Christians fail to live out our salvation to its full potential with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12-13) then we are merely a people performing good deeds. The great loss is that as a Christian people we will not have followed Christ, nor born much fruit that the Father would have been glorified. "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples" (John 15:8 NASB).

So what is the primary nature of your service?
How would you describe the prime objective for your serving?
How would you define the supreme motive inspiring you to lead and serve?

(excerpts included from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)

Compulsion to Serve

The resolution to oppression, perplexity, and anxiety about which acts of service to assume or not undertake, centers completely around possessing the knowledge of God’s will, and then being completely committed to fulfilling His will. Paul shares this notion with the Colossian saints in the opening portion of his epistle.

"We have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better." (Col. 1:9-10 NLT).

Determining when your “yes” needs to be “yes” and your “no” needs to be “no” can be very awkward and stressful especially when dealing with the solicitation of Christian ministries in need of human resources. Yet it is vital to God’s maturing process that both our "yes" and "no" are founded on being presently and progressively influenced by God’s good pleasure, so that we may have the confidence that what we are doing is indeed from His heart.

Ministries today are much more likely to herd, drive, and corral their membership into a service project than they are to mentor them into a process of serving God’s good pleasure. People of the modern day church serve everything, including their own interest, all the while alleging they are serving God.

Service to God should be compelled from committed hearts being given to God, and hence our strength being utilized by Him to complete His will on earth. Therefore we are to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30 NASB). We must first discern if God possesses our hearts before we can determine if our strength is actually in service to Him. We cannot serve Him in spirit if He has not first conquered our soul.

Borrowing a word from the computer world, Christians today are “hyper-linked” into helping by a server, programming how, when, who, and why they are to serve. Even setting forth the parameters as to when that service is to end and the scope of influence they are to have. Most of this service has not been sought after, much less thought of, by the individual. Nor can the person honestly say God moved upon them to serve in this manner. Most simply assume serving to be something good and something that must be pleasing to God.

Spiritual compulsion, however, appears to be something rare among those given to service. People left to their own devices do not seem to emerge with a passion placed on their souls by God to address the needs of the body of Christ. They seem content to wait to be given some project to do. Such a mind-set is void of acknowledging God’s working in His people through their giftedness, while urging them to put their spiritual hand to His plow in order to plant His kingdom. Christian service seems to be governed more by the desires of the earthly church than by the will our Heavenly Father.

Compulsion in service to the Divine considers the relational connection that exists between God and His children, testifying to the fact of God completing His job in our lives by saving us, sustaining us, and being our benefactor.

The work of the cross enables us to inherit the riches of Christ if we accept His work on our behalf. “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3 NASB). His coffers overflow with abundant provision sufficient for every need, as we are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. A divine treasure spills over with inexhaustible wealth awaiting acquisition, and as God’s children we are heirs to His vast treasure. A closer look at 2 Peter 1 gives a definitive outline of the work that has already been done and the treasures that await those who diligently seek Him. Truly God is our Savior, sustainer, and benefactor.

Service is a treasure to God when we are returning to Him that which has been smelted from the precious ore of His grace forged by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Service is a precious offering of worship to God only if it is a living out of the life of Jesus Christ living within us.

Come now, let us then ask the disturbing questions that should trouble our hearts with the trauma of truth. What is the real reason we serve? Do we give from the compulsion of a soul in love with our Lord that cannot be squelched? Can we say that our service is, in essence, living out the good pleasure of our Lord, in a life well lived for Jesus?

(excerpts included from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)

Finding Christ in the Storm Damage

It is said that a tornado is one of the most powerful meteorological forces on the earth. Communities in their entirety have been decimated by the incomprehensible power of tornados’ winds. Most recently, such a force encroached upon our very own city. Lives have been unalterably changed, never to be the same again this side of eternity’s veil.

Storm damage, such as experienced in Harrison, Tennessee last week, cannot be completely calculated in dollars and cents or even in tallying the loss of property and possessions. The loss of real estate cannot be compared to how lives have been affected by the collateral influence of a storm-touched life.

Damage such as this moves beyond that of the storm and touches us in places that the eye cannot witness, and in many ways that the mind cannot fully comprehend. The soul can be injured in a manner that can never be addressed in the physical realm. Injury such as this may manifest with feelings of powerlessness abounding, pervasive unrelenting guilt, and an ever-looming sense of despair. Solomon cites, "hope deferred makes the heart sick" (Prov. 13:12 NLT). So why does God allow us to be touched by evil?

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? . . . No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Rom. 8:35–39 NLT)

God allows people to be touched by evil because He is capable of redeeming us from it. God’s sovereignty promises that when we encounter the evil of this world we will be encompassed by the love, mercy, and grace of God to the perfecting of our souls, the performing of God’s will, and the proclaiming of His faithfulness. Therefore, it is imperative for us to believe “ . . . that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28 NASB).

God is real, God is love, and God is sovereign; therefore, He is relevant, He is compassionate, and He is worthy of our trust. All who have given themselves to Him in brokenness, repentance, submission, and obedience benefit from His transforming power that is conforming us to His image. The fruit of His Spirit emerges as our own personal attributes reflect the fact that Jesus Christ is at work, faithfully keeping His promises.

His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
(2 Peter 1:3–4 NASB)

All He is accomplishing in our lives is for the purpose of establishing a deeper relationship with Him so that we may evidence Christ’s work in our lives.

Will we allow our calamities to be the window through which others may look upon the redemptive grace of Jesus Christ and thereby glorify God?

(excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis)

Are You a Servant?

What does it really mean to be a servant? Servitude is truly one of the profound experiences of being desperately dependent on Christ, and is antithetical to what commonly comprises our human nature. Does the thought of being completely controlled by someone or something create anxiety, motivating you to seek refuge in a place of safety by your own design? Do you seek a place that provides you with security only because it allows you to exercise control?

The American mentality seems to be more like that of the ancient Greeks who had a strong sense of individualism and an aversion to bondage, yet what happens to freedom when our souls have been conquered by the love of Jesus? Paul asserted, "If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ’s love controls us” (2 Cor. 5:13-14 NLT). Paul saw himself as a captive to love for God and thus considered himself "a slave of Christ Jesus" (Rom. 1:1 NLT).

The heart of a servant is one whose soul has been claimed by the desire of another. While the heart of a tyrant forces one to capitulate, Christ lays claim only to what has been willfully and freely given to Him.

Christian servitude then reflects who, not what, is most important to us. The One we serve is the very One we worship. There should be no schism between how we live and who we love. They should be one in the same. The fruit of our lives should express what God has planted into our hearts and the yield of our lives should be that which He now harvests—our loyalty and adoration.

What then is the significance of finding Christ relevant to every area of our lives if we do not seek to live in homage to Him throughout our lives? The relevance of Christ is not given to serve our interest but rather is given so that we may serve His will. Is His relevance not found in our servitude to His will and there do we not find all that we have longed for? As we explore the richness of our relationship with Him, do we not encounter His good pleasure and there find our joy? Are we not given purpose when He is given preeminence?

Christian servitude is embraced through deep relational loyalty whereby one's heart is seized with love for Christ. The compulsion of the servant's heart is the desire of their beloved Lord. Commitment of this sort may not be measured in a carnal balance of good deeds but can only be realized in the surrender of the full sum of one's soul to the full magnification of Christ's glory.

How sad it is that within our modern Christian culture we have lost the wonder and the beauty of this relational sonnet of master-servant love, to relegate all that servitude is into a notion that can be accomplished through mere service. The issue of servitude must never be equated with much doing of anything in general. The reality of such is that service apart from servitude is work that has lost its soul to selfish-ambition.

“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws’” (Matt. 7:21-23 NLT).

Why do you serve?