To Lead Or Be Led

To Lead or to Be Led?

I remember everybody's story

Just as I have deliberately refused to forget mine

Because people forget, the unmindful assume their current reality is the standard for everybody

They try to do that religious thing which I have learnt to spot several years ago

The religious thing that encourages people to do the right thing they are theorising but not the right thing they are doing

I never encourage anyone to do the right thing

Nobody truly knows what the right thing is

I only ever encourage people to walk with the Holy Spirit and produce the fruit of that walk for the whole world to see

Christianity is seriously unique in its offerings and quest to get believers to become like God

It does not follow the pattern of the law of Moses in which people look at a slate or a stone or a rule book or a chalkboard or a blackboard or a constitution or a law or a Dos and Donts book before acting so that they don't offend their fellow men and God

Christianity follows a unique pattern of the Spirit, a pattern that can easily be missed by those who have not learnt to keep their eyes solely on Jesus, as Apostle Paul wrote about himself and other ministers of the Gospel in 2 Corinthians 3

You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

To become an able minister of the Gospel, you don't need the training of any man (If you have such a man, a model that you can pattern your life after, like Apostle Paul or Peter or John, please take advantage of that unique gift. Imitate that gift as he or she imitates Christ) but if you don't have such a gift to imitate, you don't really need one

The best teacher of all when it comes to learning how to live the divine life is the divine spirit Himself

The Holy Spirit

I know many who read the Bible daily and yet have never met the Holy Spirit

I know some who have met the Holy Spirit but are too obtuse to yield to His leading and true manifestations

I know many who are so focused on "The Right thing" being done instead of "The Spirit-led thing" being done.

It makes a whole lot of difference to be able to do what the Spirit says all the time.

It is wrong to be right and not do what the Spirit says

It is right to be wrong and do what the Spirit says

Living a spirit-led life and doing the right thing are not the same

Proverbs 14:12-16 KJV

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, But the end thereof are the ways of death. Even in laughter, the heart is sorrowful; And the end of that mirth is heaviness. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: And a good man shall be satisfied from himself. The simple believeth every word: But the prudent man looketh well to his going. A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: But the fool rageth, and is confident.

Sooner or later, you will sit down and learn that your moral codes are just for a religious show before men

God is not pleased or impressed by them.

God is pleased and delighted only in His Son, Jesus Christ, and those who are led by the same Spirit that raised His Son from the dead

Let me give you an example

John Mark wanted to preach the gospel as a disciple of Jesus

In ranking, he was a senior to Apostle Paul because he knew Jesus in the flesh and was a member of the disciples of Jesus from the very beginning.

According to History, he was the man described below in the Bible

Mark 14: 51 A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, 52 he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.

This event occurred in the Garden of Gethsemane the night Jesus was betrayed and captured. Mark 14:51–52 describes a young man who, wearing only a linen cloth, followed Jesus. When the Roman soldiers seized him, he escaped capture and ran, leaving the garment behind. The man's identity is unknown, but since the Gospel of Mark is the only gospel that mentions the incident, many Bible scholars speculate that the young man was John Mark himself, the author of the Gospel of Mark.

On their first missionary journey, John Mark abandoned Paul and Barnabas and returned home to Jerusalem because he was homesick.

Apostle Paul was disappointed that John Mark let the team down, but he kept quiet and continued preaching the gospel

When Paul and Barnabas returned to Jerusalem and set out for their second missionary journey, guess who packed his bags and told them he wanted to follow them on their second missionary journey?

Yeah, you guessed right!

It was John Mark

John Mark was full of the Holy Spirit

Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit

Apostle Paul was full of the Holy Spirit

The moral thing will be to forgive the young man and take him along

The Holy Spirit, however, had another idea entirely

John Mark was meant to preach the gospel and take it to nations like Paul and Barnabas, but he was not meant to do this as part of Paul's team.

He was meant to man up and do this with his own team

So John Mark knew he was supposed to preach the gospel and take the good news all over the world, but he was wrong to assume he must follow Paul and Barnabas

If the Spirit had not led Paul, he would just have followed the moral code of forgiveness and taken the young man along on his trip, and this would have grieved the Holy Spirit

Instead, Paul said John Mark could not follow him

Barnabas begged and pleaded

Paul said NO

Eventually, Barnabas took time out to pray because he was the older minister and guide of the two younger ministers.

The Holy Spirit then told him what to do.

"Go with John Mark into another territory and allow Paul to choose another partner to continue the work with."

Acts 15 Some time later, Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.”

Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.

They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord.

He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

As you can see from the example above, being led by the Spirit is superior to being led by common sense, reasoning or a moral code.

We must always leave room for the leading of the Holy Spirit

We must also know when we are being led by the flesh, and we should not mask it as being led by the Holy Spirit

A minister of the gospel once led a very vibrant fellowship with a leadership structure that was well-evolved and given by the Holy Spirit; then he met a beautiful lady and fell in love with her

The lady told him she wanted to become a part of the ministry as a leader because that was where she belonged

She wanted it documented so that everybody could respect her and not see her as the appendage of the Man of God

He consented and asked for a review of the constitution of the church

As they began to work on it, the Holy Spirit said, You are doing this for her and not by my leading

You are mixing the bones of the old prophet and that of the new together in the same grave

You are doing what you believe is right because you are in love, not what I have told you to do by my spirit

Do you know this?

The young man immediately realised his error and let go of the relationship.

He then returned to the Holy Spirit and was led to rebuild what he had tainted by mixing the Spirit and the flesh together.

I honour God's people, I do right by them, and I consider them the most valuable possession of the Kingdom on the earth.

But I do this as one who is led by the Spirit only

No believer would treat the body of Christ with levity, but the body is not the head

Christ is the head of the church

The head must lead, and the body must follow

This is the right order.

I was once in a church which revolted against its pastors and demanded that they leave because they were not deemed worthy to lead.

The church had a conference, and the consensus was that the two pastors must resign.

The pastors resigned, and new pastors came in to continue the work

It was seamless, and in no time, church activities resumed without any hitch

Why did they let them go?

They did some things that were deemed "not moral enough."

Years later, I was in another church, and the church members tried the same thing.

The pastor resigned, and the church members began to experience all sorts of unrest in their lives and their spirits

After two weeks, they had another meeting, called back the pastor, apologised and submitted themselves to His leadership.

Why did they let him go?

He did some things they deemed "not moral enough."

Why, then, were there two different results for two different congregations

The first congregation was a gathering of religious men

They do things according to what is right, what is proper and what is good

They were led by sight

This was the accepted code of leadership and constitution of that congregation.

The second congregation was a gathering of spiritual men

They do things according to what the Holy Spirit leads them to do

They were led by the Spirit

This was the accepted code of leadership and constitution of that congregation

As a believer, you must choose where you stand and be convinced of this without a doubt.

PS: Christ is my credential

My reference and testimony

I have never desired that men vouch for me in any season or at any time

I have never tried to please men so that they can say good things about me

I have never taken my eyes off Christ to court the accolades and the compliments of men

I would rather be with Christ than be with men

I am neither endearing nor comely in anyway

I know the gutter I was brought out of

I would rather hear men talk of my flaws than praise me

If the Lord will be my portion, I have all I want

Jesus is the One I have set before me

Like Him, I am daily, and like Him, I will be forever

Jesus is my credential

He is my reference and Testimony

-GSW-