Spirit of Leadership

THE SPIRIT OF LEADERSHIP Why would God, therefore, want to cause a person to be rich? In order to give him influence. Moses, in his book of Deuteronomy, stated these words to the people of Israel: “Remember the L ORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.” It is important to note that the biblical exhortations concerning money and wealth (for example, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil”) do not warn against possessing money or wealth but rather against allowing money and wealth to possess us. Loving money at the expense of the dignity, value, and welfare of others is an abuse of our power to get wealth. The desire for power to control circumstances is one of the most potent motivating factors of human behavior. Again, when the young Jewish rabbi Jesus began train ing his leadership team, one of the first things he did was to give them power—power to exorcise demons, heal the sick, raise the dead, and so forth. He sent them out, and they went and started using that power. When they returned, they told him everything they had done, and they started celebrating. The biblical account says, “In that hour Jesus rejoiced.” Why would Jesus give a group of men, which included fishermen, a tax collector, and a zealot, that much power? He gave them power so that they could taste how it felt to put their inherent leadership nature to use in a positive way, and they came back excited about it. Then he got T HE DESIRE FOR POWER , IN ITSELF , ISN ’ T WRONG .

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