What God Looks For In A Leader | Daniel Bentley

Now your giftedness, that can elevate you. It can give you a platform, and it can usher you into positions of influence. However, it is only your character that will enable you to sustain that position over a period of time. The problem with a lot of people is that their giftedness carries them to places and positions that their character can't sustain, and so they eventually end up falling. Think of the leaning tower in Pisa. They're in Italy. And soon after its completion, inconsistencies in the soil beneath the foundation of the building were discovered, and it started to lean. [00:21:10] (40 seconds)  #CharacterOverTalent

But if your reputation deals with your public persona and peep who people think you are, then your character reflects who you really are in private. It's who you are on the inside, and it gets revealed by who you become when you come in at night and close the door. Now a person with godly character will be the same regardless of whether or not anybody's watching. When someone is consistent and they're going out and they're coming in, they're just consistent in that way. They're said to have moral integrity. [00:20:19] (36 seconds)  #HiddenIntegrity

Without the anointing, the church is just a country club. Worship is just a concert. Pastors are just motivational speakers, and sermons are nothing more than self help talks. What is needed in the church today, what is needed in the community today are leaders who are filled and anointed and are dominated by the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. He makes all the difference. Can you say amen? Now here's what's beautiful. Just like Joshua, you are a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit. [00:35:49] (41 seconds)  #AnointedLeadership

I mean, it's relatively easy to fool people. You can pull the wool over their eyes and get them to believe you're something that you're not. But you can never fool God. The Bible says it like this. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of whom whom we must give account. God sees it all. What that means is while you can fool some of the people all the time and all of the people some of the time, you're never gonna fool God. So stop trying. Just be honest with him and seek to develop your character. [00:22:33] (32 seconds)  #YouCantFoolGod

And so he pictures the law. Now while the law is righteous and pure and perfect and good, it's incapable of bringing us as God's children into the life of promises, the life of abundance, the life of victory. All it can do is point out all the ways that we fall short. So the law can never bring you in to that abundant life that the New Testament talks about. Only Jesus can do that. It is his spirit within us that brings us not only the the desire to perform what's right, but the ability to carry through on that. [00:15:16] (32 seconds)  #SpiritOverLaw

I mean, that's a sobering thought, and it should make any of us think twice before we jump into a position of leadership. Now now let me tell you why the Lord deals more strictly with leaders. It's because the potential for damage is far greater. Right? When a a leader misrepresents the Lord, there is the potential for him to drag a lot of people down with him, and so that's why leaders are held to a higher standard, and that's part of what's going on here and and what we see at play. [00:12:54] (28 seconds)  #LeadershipAccountability

What does that mean? Well, this was Moses' way of saying whoever got the job should be someone with a proven track record. They developed a history of going out before the people. This refers to a person's outward facing or public life. They had a good standing within the community. The coming in refers to their inward facing or private life. And and note this, that both aspects are important components of leadership. Moses is essentially saying whoever Israel's next leader is going to be needs to be the same person in private that they are in public. [00:18:43] (36 seconds)  #IntegrityInBoth

And because of what happened in the way that miss that Moses mischaracterized the heart of God in that instance, he says, I'm keeping you out of the promised land, which I don't know about you, but to me that seems kinda harsh. Seems a little heavy handed of the Lord to say, you can't go in because of what appears to us to be a relatively small infraction. What gives? Well, are a couple of reasons why the Lord dealt with Moses in this way. I'll point them out to you. First, it's not a small thing for a leader to mischaracterize or misrepresent the Lord. [00:11:44] (36 seconds)  #DontMisrepresentGod

So when it was struck a second time, the analogy was ruined. Why? Well, Jesus was only struck one time. When he hung on the cross, the Roman soldier took a spear and thrust it into his side, and what came out? Water. And who all for all who come under the waters that flow from his side, they find life and they find salvation. But he didn't need to be crucified twice. He wasn't struck twice, only once. So when Moses struck the rock a second time, the picture was ruined, which is unfortunate. [00:14:15] (31 seconds)  #JesusStruckOnce

He says, Lord, the choice is yours. And God always reserves his best for those who leave the choice with him. However, while Moses may have left the final decision in the Lord's hands, he still had a few thoughts of his own about who God should select. And so he shared some of his opinions with the Lord here, and he proceeds to outline the the kinds of qualities that God should be looking for in a candidate. He kinda gives God a job description. Lord, here you go. [00:18:08] (28 seconds)  #TrustGodsChoice

We bless you, Lord. And it's a high and holy calling. It's not anything that we feel qualified for. If you feel unqualified, welcome to the club. Who is sufficient for these things? Not us. But there is a God in heaven who qualifies the unqualified. And God doesn't call the equipped. He equips the called. You have been called, called by God. You are a leader. Embrace that identity. Instead of shrinking back in fear, instead of pulling back in timidity, it's time to step into your God given mantle of authority, to lead the way in righteousness, to be examples of those who walk in the power of the spirit and not according to the flesh. [00:43:49] (64 seconds)  #StepIntoYourCalling

God wasn't angry with his people. He wanted to provide water for them, but Moses gave the people that impression. And so James addresses this, the importance that that the the weight that leaders have on them to really accurately carry the heart of the Lord. And he says this in James three one. I'd love it if we could read it out loud. He says, not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. This is where all of you get to breathe a sigh of relief, and I get to go, ugh. [00:12:20] (33 seconds)  #WeightOfLeadership