March 2024
In The Heart of Leadership, Mark Miller lists five character traits of “great” leaders: think of others first, expect the best, respond with courage, hunger for wisdom and accept responsibility. The desire to be wise in a culture that has become increasingly foolish is highly prized among leaders in God’s kingdom.
Keeping one’s mind open to new information, being willing to listen to opposing views and opinions and processing these in the presence of the Father is the path to growing as a leader. He gives us the “wisdom that is from above” which can filter through the false positives produced by the world system and teach us to hold on to the knowledge we need to lead well.
The wisdom that comes from the Father is not oblivious to the knowledge of the world around us; it just maintains its purity, its clarity, its certainty in the spiraling and ever-changing philosophical mayhem of the times. The Father’s wisdom is described by James as “peaceful,” meaning it produces a calm spirit to offset the anxiety of the people around us. It is a “gentle” wisdom, not crass or mean-spirited. It is not threatened by “yielding” in an argument, not because we are wrong, but because we value the relationship more than being right.
Our Father’s wisdom displays an abundance of mercy to those who offend us or oppose us; we are, after all, merely receivers of His mercy ourselves! It passes when given the opportunity to be destructively judgmental of people who are different than us, and it seeks to be authentically genuine in every setting.
Leadership in God’s kingdom means resourcing His wisdom when we are confronted with new information, conflicting opinions or corruptive ideas and adjusting our will to His Spirit’s instructions.
Lynn Hardaway