The idolatry of ministry has to come down; the idolatry of ministry must be toppled from the high place because every one of us has the Holy Spirit. We have been called of God seven times in the New Testament. It uses that phrase: you have been called of God, called to be holy, called to be saints, called to be faithful. God has called us, and He will keep us. So, seven times it says we are called. John 15:16 (TPT) says, “You didn’t choose me, but I’ve chosen and commissioned you to go into the world to bear fruit.”
The model we now have is men ordaining people. I suppose there is a validity to this, my friend, but we have super emphasized what God minimizes, and we have minimized what God super emphasizes—that is for every believer to go preach the gospel, heal the sick, cast out devils, love your neighbor, care for the poor, and rebuild your broken cities and broken families. Every one of us has that leadership call and leadership mantle. If you are leading a group of people, realize the next time you stand before them, you are standing before God’s elite warriors.
You’re standing before some of God’s great last day champions and the bride of Christ. They’re not our bride. They don’t belong to us. People will ask what church you belong to. I go to church. I pastor churches, and I plant churches. I’m totally pro-church, friends. But this leadership mantle of the old models has to yield to the Jesus style of leadership.
Let me get into what I mean by that. To lead like Jesus requires one thing: love. That has to be the supreme. It’s the highest of virtues. Everything else will fail. Even faith and hope will be subservient to love. It’s the fulfillment of the law. You’re never more like Jesus when you lead with love, when you show love to the hurting, the poor, the broken, the disenfranchised, those that have suffered prejudice, those that have been rejected or abused; you are being like Jesus and leading like Jesus.
And, of course, the response is, “You have to be strong. How about strong love then? How about having love that is strong?”
It’s not weak, and it won’t fail when people reject you or criticize you. A love that is consistent and persistent, that doesn’t stop loving, keeps believing the best for others—that’s the leadership model of Jesus Christ. There’s never going to be a leader that is as great as he is. So, why don’t we follow in his steps?
No matter what level of authority we have, whether it’s in business, the corporate world, or in church, whatever level of authority we think we have, it’s nothing compared to the leadership authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. The more we absorb his love, the more we can lead like Jesus. And that implies a few things.
If we’re going to love and lead with love, it implies that we’re going to be healed. And some of us lead out of woundings, from a place of needing something from people. Jesus, whether he was applauded or whether he was crucified, still loved.
He wasn’t moved by men’s praise, it says in John 1, because he knew what was in man and knew the praise was fickle. And believe me it is. But love is consistent and it’s eternal. It bears eternal fruit. To lead like Jesus is to be reduced to love. It’s to come to the place where that’s the only thing that we have going for us.
