Having trained leaders in the Body of Christ is critical to the success of our mission in God's kingdom.
God has given each of us a purpose and once he has reveled this to you, He will begin a process of spiritual training and development.
I like to call this, "purging and cleansing" of your Christian Character.
Every person, situation and test you encounter is designed to strengthen you in your purpose.
These things are key to your development as a leader.
Your church, your pastor, church leaders and even those who are just regular members will all play a vital role.
These individuals will question you, give instruction and direction to you.
This will sometimes be challenging because you may be given instruction that is wrong or just doesn't make sense and ultimately can cause you to be reprimanded.
This happened to me on several occasions.
When this happens you may or may not know the reason, however, you will need to pray and ask God for understanding and wisdom.
Understanding and Wisdom are two of the most important characteristics of being a great leader.
What do I mean by this? Well, sometimes I wanted to defend myself, I even wanted to walk away from my calling, but instead I prayed and asked God for clarity.
God would always tell me why I was experiencing the challenge and how to move forward spiritually.
Being in God's will was more important than being in mine.
In God's will you have protection, guidance, wisdom and total clarity.
Remember, to continue to pray so that God's ultimate plan for my life can be revealed.
God's plan for me was to show me how to submit to authority.
I had to learn how to seek His approval in every area of my life.
He also explained that as I submitted to Him and the natural authority, I would learn how to be sensitive to the needs of the people in my ministry.
Before speaking ill against my fellow brothers and sisters who I felt mistreated by, I would learn to pray for them instead.
There are times when we want to point the finger at what others should have done instead of looking at our own actions.
Taking ownership and doing spiritual self examinations will be an important process that you will have to do continuously in your walk as a leader.
Here are some tips to help you hear clearly from God while he is developing your character: • Make sure that you have a consistent daily prayer life.
• Make sure you understand how to pray according to the challenge you are experiencing • Make sure you know your purpose.
If not, begin to seek it in prayer.
• Understand that God will place people in your life that will spiritually develop you in the various aspects of your character, such as boldness, spiritual knowledge, patience, faith, obedience, submission and more.
• Each time someone comes into your life, pray and ask God what their assignment is as it pertains to your purpose.
• Pray and ask God to show you your weaknesses so that your able to understand His correction.
• Before reacting to the people or the challenges that upset you, pray and ask God what the lesson is He wants you to learn.
Remember God loves you more than you could ever understand.
Therefore, he is careful to watch over and protect you.
It is important that you yield even when you don't understand.
Even when it makes you uncomfortable because He is stretching you.
God is the master of the plan He has for your life, your job is not to tell Him what you are going to do but to trust, follow and obey.
This was the only way I was able to begin a ministry designed for the community.
Stay strong and you to will do things spiritually that you never imagined.