Leadership, friendship with God, privilege, responsibility, dignity, significance and training

And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing” (Genesis 18:17)?  There are several verses that come to mind:  “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him” (Psalm 25:14);  “Surely the  LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7); and two from the lips of Jesus  “I do only those things I see the Father doing;  You are my friends if you do what I command you (John 5:19; 15:14). Abraham was a friend of God (James 2:23).

While the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,  and the kind of relationship with God being spoken of here requires faith and obedience, these are but the elements that make it work. They are not the imposition and invasion of an arbitrary and cruel power, they are the boundaries in which we find freedom, dignify, significance,  and love and peace,  and all the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22,23).

Being part of a ministry in which we see people coming out of a lifetime of sin,  indulgence and addiction, we see over and over the desire to be leaders. Somehow we know instinctively that friendship with God, which is what conversion is all about, is a huge privilege and that it  gives us purpose and destiny. The desire to lead and be an influence for the Lord is surely God given. God would not hide from Abraham what He was doing was “since  surely all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him” (verse 19).

It's important to note all the years of training, testing, making mistakes nd lessons learned that Abraham had to go through before the Lord opened up to him in this way.  Likewise in terms of the qualification for leaders,  the Scripture tells that a leader “must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same condemnation as the devil (1 Timothy 3:6). Jesus was thirty before He began His ministry, and without a lifetime of sin, He still had to learn obedience by the things that He suffered (Hebrews 5:8).

I don't know where you are in your journey with God, but I have a ways to go before I “do only those things I see the Father doing,” and I have been on this Christian journey for nearly fifty years! Admittedly there have been periods where the learning curves were steeper than others. What comes to mind is a saying that God does not use a person greatly, until He has hurt them deeply. You see if Jesus had to learn obedience by the things that He suffered, can we expect God to take shortcuts with us? Our progress depends on how we respond to the character building that comes through the shaping,  crushing, squeezing trials and difficulties He brings (Romans 5:1- 5; James 1:2). 

 I wanted to immediately be a leader too, but the Lord had other ideas. The question was (is) was I (am I) willing to submit to all that He allows, the good the bad and the ugly?  Will I submit, or will I be offended?  I mean if we are going to take offence, the possibilities are endless! People are not perfect, but then neither am I!
 

Father, I have the sense that the faster and more perfectly we submit to You, to each other (Ephesians 5:21),  and to the circumstances You allow, the faster the track to promotion up the ranks in the Spirit. But we have need of endurance, so that after we have done the will of God, we may receive the promise (Hebrews 10:36). We need Your help Lord, please give us Grace to do our part, and we will give You the glory in Jesus Name Amen