Growintheword's Blog

Releasing the Leader in you Part III

Clarification

Synopsis of Bible study 1/27/16

Delivered by Bishop Walker III

Psalm 25:4-5 (NKJV) ⁴ Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. ⁵ Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day. – I am going to be led the way God wants me to go, submitting myself to God’s teachings.

Many of you like me, come to forks in the road. By this we mean, you come to a decision that you are ready, but you don’t know what door to walk through. You wonder what God would want you to do. Know that God will show you where to go.

Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar is quoted as saying, “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” – This simply means that many of us are stuck with a condition called analysis paralysis. This simply means that you start with a great thought, but many days go by without you doing anything, and finally you get tired of thinking about it.

Joshua 1:9 (NKJV) says ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”- Here Joshua has been tasked to take the children of Israel to Promised Land. Note that God tells him not to be afraid. Know that God will never tell you to go anywhere that he won’t go with you.

I.                You must understand how to assess the call

Jeremiah 10:23 (NKJV) says ²³ O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. – One thing this implies is (especially to very opinionated leaders) that you have to learn to submit or accept to the fact that there are some things you just don’t know. When it comes to your destiny, you need God to fulfil it.

II.              Position yourself in places you need direction

Psalm 37:23 (NKJV) says ²³ The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way. – God orders a good person’s steps. When God gives you a directive, it is not a suggestion, it is an order!

When you go where God wants you to go, there is life tied to it. When you go where God tells you to go, you live. If you go your own way, it turns into “live” backwards. Instead of live, you have “evil”!

Jeremiah 6:16 (NKJV) says 16 Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see,

And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’- We want to go and walk in the proven ways which are found in the bible. These are the ways that people have proven over and over work and give God glory.

III.            Accept your course

Proverbs 14:12 (NKJV) says ¹² There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. – You can’t walk a path that has been created for you by others. This leads to destruction. God has to create your path. God needs you to walk in your gift. Many try to walk through other people’s gift and as a result, they don’t live in the fullness of who they are. For example, you may be a preacher or Pastor, but you can’t be T.D. Jakes. You have to be yourself. If I am myself, then God can maximize my gifts.

1. Romans 8:30 (NKJV) says ³⁰ Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. -If he called you, he will prepare you. As a leader you have to be a consistent student. In fact, what type of book are your reading right now? Are you reading anything that will strengthen your gift or enhance what you are leading? Leaders are readers. You have to expand on what you do and broaden your horizons.
2. There was a time a preacher could come to pulpit and say anything and people would respond to it. Now people pay more attention to what’s being said and they look at you crazy when you are not saying anything. You have to stay on top of your game as a leader. You have to also:

IV.            Achieve consistency

Lots of people make New Year’s resolutions and then weeks later; they are doing what they said they weren’t going to do anymore. As a leader you have to be consistence and do what you say you are going to do.

V.              Learn to establish a healthy routine.

1 Corinthians 10:31(NKJV) says ³¹ Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. – You can’t be a good leader if you are in bad health. Watch what you eat, exercise, and take care of your body.

10 things a leader needs to do.

1. Wake up early – Most successful people are morning people. This is one reason military personal get up early. The saying goes, “Early in the morning, will I see thee”.
2. Exercise – You got to wake your body up. You need to exercise. Most people say they don’t have time, but you have to invest in yourself. For some people, if you just clean up your house, your car, or your garage, this would be exercise fin itself.
3. Meditate and pray – Praying is talking to God. Meditating is letting God talk to you. Learn the power of mediation and being still.
4. Commit to self-care – Learn to take care of yourself. Don’t let yourself go. At some point you got to take care of yourself. The person that doesn’t take care of themselves is that person that is so driven they don’t have social skills and is always at the office. There is only one you, so you must take care of yourself.
5. Make a to-do list. If you don’t make a to-do list, people will put themselves or their to-do on your to-do list. This list governs your day.
   1. You are out to have a schedule that lists everything you have to get done in a day. If something or somebody is not on your list, then don’t allow them to disrupt your list. Time is money, money is time. Lots of times, we don’t get what we need to get done as leaders, because we let too many people on our list.
6. Be aware of the local and world news. You can’t have your head in the sand as a leader. You need to know and be able to discuss things that are going on in the world.
7. Prioritize your work. As you make that list, select categories from high level, med level, to low level. You can’t spend all your time on a low level priority when you have high level priorities that haven’t been done.
8. Be proactive about your daily goals. Be proactive and just do it. Don’t procrastinate.
9. Be reflective over your day. Have a moment where you just debrief and reflect on how your day went and how effective you were.
10. Get proper rest. Some of us go to bed, but we don’t rest. Most leaders struggle going to sleep. They are always thinking about what they are going to do next. This is why you need to reflect and wind down.

Peter Drucker wrote, “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work” – We have to plan and then put in the work.

VI.            Don’t make practical commitments

Matthew 5:37 (NKJV) says ³⁷ But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ be “No.” For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. – Know that “No” is an answer. You got to learn the power of saying no. You can’t say yes to everything. You can’t go to every birthday party and every function that someone has and end up with no time for youself. Learn to say no.

7 steps to consistency

1. Motivation – You got to be self motivated. Leaders are often self-motivated. All they need is their vision to motivate them.
2. Inspiration – Pour into yourself spiritually. Sometimes we pour so much out into others and never get it poured back into ourselves. You have to take the time to be inspired or poured into. You can’t give anything, if you don’t have anything.
3. Activation – Become a planner. Live on a schedule. Ex-Bishop explains his schedule for today. From 5-6am he was at the gym. At 7:16 he had breakfast. At 8am he was dressed and ready to go out door. By 8:30 he gave a devotional message. At 9am, he was in a 1 hr meeting. At 10, he was at a 1hr meeting. At 12 he facilitated a bible study. At 1:20 he was at J Alexanders for lunch. At 2:30 he had a meeting. At 3:30 he had a meeting. At 5pm he facilitated another bible study. At 6 he stood out in front of the church to shake hands with members. At 7, he facilitated yet another bible study. By 8:45, he was sitting home with his family. – No way could he do all of this without a schedule.
4. Acclimation – You must be accountable. Do what you say you are going to do.
5. Collaboration – Help people who know you and appreciate your life. If you let people turn our no into yes, then your no will never be respected again. You can lose your effectiveness at the expense is your yes.
6. Declination – You can’t yes to everything. Learn to say no. Some people have turned down major opportunities after knowing their yes would have a negative effect over the people that they lead.
7. Execution – Execute the plan.

VII.          How you mange change is critical!

You have to be able to manage change. Change is so powerful, we often resist it.

These are stages people go through when they encounter change:

1. Anxiety – Change brings about anxiety – People have a hard time accepting things that won’t be the way they used to be.
2. Acknowledgement –Isaiah 43:19 (NKJV) ¹⁹ Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. -It is a God thing. It is bigger than me! I am only doing what God sent me here to do.
3. Adaptation – They go along with the change just to keep from being left behind.
4. Assimilation – A baby pulls a toy away from you. As a test, you give the child a remote to play with and later, the kid pulls the remote from you when you try to take it, just like the toy. By observing, you see the child is doing the same thing with the remote as she or he did with the toy. This is not strange though. The child is taking something they learned from one situation and applying it another situation. The child adapts without changing their world view. They didn’t change their environment, but they changed their apparatus. Just like this, you have to take what you learned and apply it in new situations.
5. Accommodation – The bible says when I was a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put childish things away. Take a ball to child and the child will put the ball in his mouth. Give him a bigger ball, he will try, but will learn that he can’t but the bill ball in his mouth. As a result they stop trying to put the ball in their mouth. What they have done is shifted their behavior. We think because we give someone a different title, it changes organization. This is why we have coworkers still trying to put toys in their mouth. You have to change your Without changing, people would go around with remotes in their mouths.
   1. The good things you have in you are because God showed you stuff. Good leaders always operate before their time. If you don’t see it coming you do old things in new places. This is why you end up with a new supervisor but nothing changes. This is also why you end up with churches with new pastors every 6 mths. We do the same thing over and over expecting different results. This is what you call insanity.
6. Learn to wait on clarification – Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV) says ³¹ But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. Ecclesiastes 3:11(NKJV) says ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. – Timing is everything. One thing that makes you a good leader is knowing when to move. A good leader doesn’t miss their window! Don’t let your window close. When he says move, move!