GOD'S RECRUITMENT STRATEGY FOR LEADERS

"Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see
nothing." - Acts 9:8a

When God calls one of His servants into service, there is often much
travail. There are many examples where God makes His presence known
through circumstances that tax the individual to his very soul.
Consider Paul, who was stricken blind on the Damascus road.
Consider Peter; when he denied Jesus after the crucifixion, he was in
total despair.
Consider Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were thrown into the fiery
furnace.
Consider Daniel, who was thrown into the lions' den.
Consider David, who was forced to flee his former employer for many
years and lived as a fugitive.
It may seem strange to us that God uses such incredible adversity to
prepare His servants for greater service, but this is God's way. God
knows that the human heart is incapable of voluntarily stepping into
situations that take us beyond our comfort zone. He intentionally brings
us into hard places to prove us and to drive us deeper into the soil of
His grace.
In arid regions of the world, trees cannot survive unless their roots
grow deeper to where the water table can be found. Once they reach the
water, these trees become stronger than any tree that can be found in
tropical climates. Their root systems ensure that they can withstand any
storm. In the same way, God brings us into extremely difficult
situations in order to prove His power and drive our spiritual roots
deeper.
Friend, God may take you through times when you will question His love
for you. In such times, you must cling to His coattail so that you see
His purposes in it. Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly
rewarded.
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you
will receive what He has promised. For in just a very little while, "He
who is coming will come and will not delay. But My righteous one will
live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him"
(Hebrews 10:36-38).

GOD'S CHOSEN FEW

"But those who suffer He delivers in their suffering; He speaks to them
in their affliction." - Job 36:15

He was born with cerebral palsy in South Africa. He barely survived his
birth. He did not walk until he was four years old. One leg was longer
than the other and he could not speak well. For most of his life, his
hands shook and he had little control over them. Feelings of rejection
and bitterness at his plight were common occurrences during his
growing-up years. During his school years, he was chastised by kids and
generally rejected by society.
At age 17, his father felt led to take his son to a healing service.
That night, the young boy's leg divinely grew two inches. He no longer
walked with a limp. Bradley met the Savior and began to grow in his
intimacy with Him. God began to speak to him and show him things. Prayer
became his source of comfort and strength. God gave him insights about
people and situations, bringing blessing to all who encountered him.
Today, this young man travels around the world as an internationally
known intercessor and founder of a school of intercessory prayer.
Literally hundreds of hours of knowledge about the way God speaks to His
children have been birthed in and through this young man.
One evening Bradley walked forward in a meeting of about 40 workplace
believers and handed a note to the leader during a Christian business
conference. The note was for someone in the room, but Bradley did not
know whom it was for. It was the last day of a 40-day fast for this
writer. The message gave a specific description of what I had been
experiencing the two years leading up to that night. Nobody would have
known such details. I knew it was for me. It was a miraculous "telegram
from God" that provided confirmation and encouragement of where God was
taking me. God used one broken man to speak to another broken man.
God's ways are not our ways. His preparation of His warriors seems cruel
and hurtful at times. His ways are much higher than ours. Trust the God
of the universe that He can orchestrate the events of your life when
they seem the darkest.

THE GOD OF ALL ENCOURAGEMENT

"Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all
our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any
trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For
as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also
aboundeth by Christ." - 2 Corinthians 1:2-5

Do you ever get discouraged? Don't answer that, because I already know
the answer. Of course you do, you're human. Encouragement is something
we all need. Thank God it is something He has promised to everyone of
us. I'd like you to first see that the word, "encouragement", is not
used in the King James Version of the Bible. Instead, you'll see the
word "comfort" which is used 10 times in this passage from 2
Corinthians. It is also translated "consolation" and used to describe
the Holy Spirit who is called the Comforter (John 14 & 15). I want you
to know the sweet encouragement that only our Savior can bring. And once
you receive that gift, to pass it on, thereby allowing the Holy Spirit
to fill you up again and again.

The Source of Encouragement
God has cornered the market on comfort. So if you are discouraged right
now, the devil is hot on your trail. There's a story that illustrates
this point so well.
One day, the devil was auctioning off his tools. That is, all but one
tool. It was such a high price, no one could afford it. When someone
asked why, he said, "That's my favorite tool. It's the tool of
discouragement. I use it to pry open a life and when I get inside, I can
do all kinds of damage with my other tools of hatred, lust, envy,
jealousy, and pride."
When the Bible says, "who comforteth us," I want you to notice that the
word "comforteth" is in the present tense. This encouragement is
ever-present. It flows like a river -never stopping to flow from the
loving bosom of God.

The Subject of Encouragement
That's you and me, and everyone who's gone before us or who will come
after us. You see, one of the consolations of discouragement, is that
we're in good company. We don't have to go around wearing a mask and
pretending to be happy when we're not. There have been three times in my
life when I was really discouraged. And in all three times I went to the
Lord and He met me there. He became the God of all comfort to me.
Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer, was often discouraged. In fact,
his wife thought the only way to help him was to shock him out of it.
She put on a black dress and veil as if she was going to a funeral. When
he asked her who had died, she said, "Martin, haven't your heard? God
has died." He declared, "That is blasphemy!" His wife said, "Aye
Husband, and it is blasphemy for you to be living as if God is dead."
Needless to say, Martin snapped out of it!

The Stewardship of Encouragement
God is the One who encourages us so that we may be able to comfort
others. This is the purpose of encouragement! We are blessed that we
might be a blessing. The word "aboundeth" in 2 Corinthians, verse 5
means that we are to overflow with the life of Jesus Christ. Everywhere
we go, we are to be a source of encouragement.
To some people, tribulation is a prison. For others, tribulation is a
hospital from which they get well. But friend, tribulation is to be a
seminary where we learn to become stewards of the comfort we receive, so
that we can pass on our encouragement to others.

FEARS THAT KEEP US FROM HIS PRESENCE

"Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave
them, because they were overcome with fear. So He got into the boat and
left." - Luke 8:37

Jesus did many miracles when He lived on earth. One of those miracles
involved the deliverance of a demon-possessed man. The people of the
community witnessed this awesome demonstration of God's power when
Jesus commanded the demon spirit to come out of the man and go into the herd
of nearby pigs. The man was healed and sat at Jesus' feet.
You would expect the people who witnessed this to embrace Jesus as one
performing good deeds and to honor Him. The opposite was true. Instead,
they were overcome with fear. Why? Many of us respond the same way to
Jesus when He does an out-of-the-ordinary act among His people. We are
fearful because we have never personally experienced this before. So,
we draw wrong judgments. The result is that Jesus removes Himself from us.
The Lord is able to do far exceeding above what we think. Jesus does
not remain in the places where there is fear of His goodness. It is often
subconscious fears that prevent us from going to a deeper level with
Him. The people in Gerasenes could not benefit from Jesus' presence
because of their fears.
Have you feared Jesus because of what He might require of you? Have you
feared that He might ask of you something you are not prepared to give?
Do not let your fears drive Him from your presence. His motive is
always love for His children. You can trust Him.

EQUIPPED FOR THE WORKPLACE

"May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant
brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the
sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He
work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be
glory for ever and ever. Amen." - Hebrews 13:20

"We've spent too much time equipping our workplace believers to do our
ministries rather than equipping them to do the ministry God has called
them to in the workplace," said a third-world pastor to a large group of
workplace believers.
Over 70 percent of our time is spent in the workplace, yet our training
and teaching focuses on areas where we spend much less time. The
workplace is the greatest mission field of our day, yet we do not train
workplace believers how to effectively integrate their faith into their
workplace. The wall between Sunday and Monday still exists. Most
workplace believers do not understand that all of life is spiritual, not
just life on Sunday.
A recent study found that 50 percent of Christians have never heard a
sermon on work; 70 percent have never been taught a theology of work;
and 70 percent have never heard a sermon on vocation. Why do we focus on
the fringes rather than the center where most people spend most of their
time - the workplace?
God is removing the wall of separation by speaking to pastors and
workplace believers all over the world. A pastor recently shared how his
church ordains their workplace believers for their calling to the
workplace. Another pastor described their church's commitment to
integrating training for their workplace believers on the theology of
work. Another told how they began a workplace ministry within their
church for their workplace believers, and even integrated Sunday school
programs specifically geared to help workplace believers understand
their calling in the workplace.
We are entering a new era in the Church when workplace believers are
seen as a remnant of the Body of Christ who need to be mobilized and
trained for the work of the ministry to their own mission field-the
workplace. Are you one of the men and women God is raising up for this
task? Pray that God will help pastors understand and affirm this
calling, and that they will respond by training the people of their
churches for their own ministry to the workplace. When we reclaim the 70
percent, the remainder will be reclaimed automatically.

GOD'S PREPARATION FOR MOVING OUT

"In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large
flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys."- Genesis 30:43

Jacob left his homeland after suffering a broken relationship with Esau
for stealing the family blessing. He went to work for his uncle Laban
where he stayed for 20 years. It came time for him to leave, but he had
no physical assets to show for those years under Laban. Laban had taken
advantage of his nephew in every way. (In some ways, Jacob was reaping
the seed he had sown his entire life as a manipulator and controller.)
Nevertheless, God's hand was on Jacob, and He had plans to prosper him.
However, Jacob had one problem - he had no resources of his own. For
Jacob to launch out on his own, he would need resources. In those days,
resources often meant large flocks of animals. God gave Jacob a dream
that resulted in a strategy for creating wealth by multiplying his
sheep. Even though Laban sought to thwart Jacob's efforts, God overcame
the evil in Laban to allow Jacob to prosper.
There are many important lessons for us in this story. First, when God
decides it is time to move you into a larger place of His calling, He
has the ability to provide the resources you need to support the call.
God gave Jacob a dream that resulted in a strategy never used before to
build wealth. It was totally from God's hand. It was creative and new.
God called Jacob to move out after he had demonstrated his faithfulness
in 20 years of serving Laban. He learned to live under authority and
served Laban faithfully, even though he knew he was being taken
advantage of.
God will do the same for you and me. However, a word of caution: Be
sure the strategy is born from above, and not from self-effort. The
difficulty for most of us workplace believers is to learn the
difference between the strategies born of God versus the strategy of self-effort.

GENTLY LEADING

"So let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I move along slowly at
the pace of the droves before me and that of the children, until I come
to my lord in Seir." - Genesis 33:14

Work often determines that we move at a pace that can put incredible
stresses upon people and relationships. Jacob was a man who learned to
manipulate and control outcomes. He even stole the birthright of his
brother, Esau, through trickery. The Bible speaks of Jacob as a man who
strived with God. He knew how to force situations to his advantage. It
took years for God to break down all the rough edges of Jacob so that he
could be worthy of becoming the patriarch of the 12 tribes of Israel.
God saw something in Jacob that He could use.
Robert Hicks, in his book Masculine Journey, describes five biblical
stages of manhood that must be passed through before a man becomes a
mature man of God. One of those early stages is known as the "warrior
stage." In this stage of manhood, the man is known by what he does, what
he accomplishes, and he is totally defined by his performance. It can be
a tumultuous time for the man and those close to him. It is often
signified by broken relationships because the goal is often more
important than the way the goal is accomplished. When I meet with a man,
I can easily determine what stage of life he is in by hearing him talk.
Jacob had successfully passed through these five stages based on the
verse above. It takes someone mature to be able to "move along slowly at
the pace of the droves before me and that of the children." Leaders who
never come to understand this may be successful materially but fail at
the most important aspect of leadership-leading at a pace that his
followers can maintain. The roads are full of wives, children, and
workers who cannot keep up with the pace of leaders and are left behind
with broken dreams, broken hearts, and unfulfilled promises.
Are you a person who is more concerned with outcome than how you achieve
the outcome? Can the people around you describe you as someone who leads
at a pace that ensures respect and admiration? Ask the Lord for the
ability to be a godly leader who understands the condition of his flock
and the pace in which you can lead without alienating.