Texts: 2 Chronicles 14:2-7 ; 2 Chronicles 17:6-11; 2 Chronicles 26:1-8; Numbers 7:1-9
On Day 8, our leader Brother Theodore Andoseh began by providing a recap of the last seven days of the fast and the teachings on leadership, including our need for a large army of spiritually gifted leaders to enable us to consolidate the growth we already have and to continue on a trajectory of growth into the future. Other aspects include the vectors of growth, leadership as responsibility, and leadership as resources. He thereafter proceeded to elaborate on the spirituality of leadership and God’s sovereignty in the supply of leadership resources and leadership results or outcomes.
Spiritual Leadership requires Spiritual Wealth
Leadership Wealth is Spiritual; it is a function of seeking God, finding God, knowing Him, possessing Him, and serving Him out of that knowledge, in order to give God to others. Therein lies true wealth and stability in God for the spiritual leader.
Unlike in the world, Spiritual Leadership is not a matter of social status or class; it is simply a matter of seeking and finding God, and as a result of that quality of leadership, God makes provisions available for His people through the Leader.
Thus, the motivation is not seeking wealth, it is seeking God. Those who think that spiritual leadership is a position for material wealth are worldly leaders; they are covetous.
From a life of walking faithfully with God, all the wealth that is needed for one’s spiritual leadership will be provided by God to enable the leader to do what God demands. When understood in this way, there will be no room for jealousy, rivalries, wrong motives, and covetousness. If your desire is to seek God, in order to lead God’s people, you will not covet the results of others.
In the seeking of God, the results/outcomes are different for each one, according to God’s sovereignty; what is constant for each one is THE SEEKING OF GOD! Be satisfied with the blessing that God gives you without being distracted by the blessings He is giving to others.
God’s Sovereignty in the Provision of Leadership Resources
For the spiritual leader, what matters is seeking God. God then responds by giving to each leader what he needs, depending on his circumstances and on what God demands of him. In other words, God gives resources to the spiritual leader in accordance with His call on the leader’s life, and according to the needs and/or responsibilities of the leader.
God is Sovereign! He is Lord! Each must honestly seek God and relate with Him at a personal level without comparisons with others or being in competition with others. Simply walk with God and seek Him genuinely in order to build your relationship with Him, and live and do according to His leading and direction for you.
The leadership wealth each one needs to discharge his leadership responsibility comes from God as each one faithfully seeks Him. Seeking God is the priority call of spiritual leadership. Spiritual leadership is a call to be seekers of God! It is a call to find satisfaction and fulfillment in seeking God and to grow in it increasingly – no matter what the visible/physical results may be.
To grasp this truth is to be delivered from the covetousness that produces a desire for the results of others based on their walk with God and the response of God to them.
Biblical Exemplars
In 2 Chronicles 14:1-7, King Asa of Judah walked with God and God responded by granting him peace and rest from war on all sides for 35 years. Subsequently, his son, King Jehoshaphat succeeded him as King. He also walked with God and God responded by blessing him with wealth at a personal level. He proceeded to lead the entire nation to seek God and God responded by causing nations to bring gifts to Israel (2 Chronicles 17:1-11). In 2 Chronicles 26:1-8, we see that King Uzziah sought God and God blessed him with success and wealth.
In the distribution of resources to the tribal leaders of Israel, including the Levites, God instructed Moses to give them as “each man’s work requires.” Therefore, some received four ‘chariots’, some two, and others none, because their responsibility did not require ‘chariots’ (Numbers 7:1-9).
The common denominator is simply the seeking of God, and God’s response is different depending on each one’s need and assigned task – who he is before God and what he is called to do by God. All may do the same things, but the result will be different according to God’s purpose for each one. The leader’s responsibility is to seek God and leave the outcome/result, in terms of resources, to God’s sovereignty.
All Leadership Wealth is Spiritual
The wealth that spiritual leadership requires is not necessarily financial or material. However, even when the wealth received is financial or material, it is a divine provision from God depending on the task to be carried out. It comes by spiritual dynamics.
Thus, even the material things that God gives to different people for their service are given according to their tasks. Therefore, if you covet what is not required by God for your ministry or service, you have left your ministry – you have dismissed yourself from spiritual leadership and the service of God. The core question for each one is: What is your function?
The Bertoua Message: Our Call to Seek God and Acquire Spiritual Wealth
For our community (CMFI), the Bertoua Message is our blueprint for seeking God. It is God’s pathway for us to be spiritual leaders, to acquire spiritual wealth, and to be people who attract the blessings of God to enable us to accomplish His demands on us.
Based on the Bertoua Message, we are to be leaders full of spiritual wealth through our seeking of God, so that what comes out of each one of us flows from God. Our Call as Spiritual Leaders is to Seek God; the rest is up to His sovereignty, according to His plans and purposes for each one and for the body collectively.
Covetousness: A Revelation of a Lack of Belonging
God begins to supply divine provision when the need for them arises. To desire/seek/demand resources otherwise is the manifestation of a covetous heart. When it comes to God’s blessings, you will get it when you need it.
While Abraham was alive, Isaac benefited from the blessings of God on his father Abraham without seeking his own individual blessings. But,
After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac (Genesis 25:11).
When you belong to somebody (a leader), like a son belongs to a father, you are content and satisfied with God’s provisions for him, and you joyfully and peacefully enjoy what comes to you while participating fully in the work/goal. In family blessing, the anointing falls on the head and then goes down to the body. If you (as a part of the body) want the anointing (blessing) to fall on your own head, it means that you have killed the head or you want him dead.
Those who seek their own personal things are simply manifesting ‘Lot-arian covetousness’ (Genesis 13 – the example of Lot). Abraham was not looking for land, God sent him to the land for God’s purpose. Therein lies the difference between Abraham and Lot; between spiritual leaders and covetous worldly leaders. Unknown to the covetous however, the covetousness of today is the judgment of tomorrow, with dire consequences, not only for themselves but also for all those connected to them, as was the case with Lot and his entire family. (Remember Lot’s wife – and daughters).
In your covetousness, beware! You may be choosing and planning judgment for you and your family. Covetousness and the desire to have ‘your own’ is simply a testimony that you do not belong. Covetousness is a revelation of not belonging!
- Pray that God opens your heart, that you’ll correct your heart, that you’ll know peace, and that you’ll stop useless covetous fights.
- Pray and break the evil spirit that has come into our midst to justify covetousness; destroy the evil spirit that has taken a grip on hearts – by which many have damaged their souls.