Spirit of Leadership

THE SPIRIT OF LEADERSHIP

To cultivate means to grow, progress, and cause the orderly development of something. This process demands that the right components, resources, and environment be incorporated into the soil of the system. Cultivating the spirit of leadership is a choice, and only you can make it. The most outstanding leaders we can study are bibli cal characters, such as Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David, Daniel, Esther, Deborah, Jeremiah, Mary, Peter, Paul, and John. In every one of the above cases, you will see that they experienced personal encounters with the Creator of mankind and, in these encounters, were chal lenged to believe things about themselves that they found difficult or almost impossible. The Creator challenged their views, images, and conceptions of themselves and made demands on their potential that they did not believe they possessed. Moses, a fugitive, was challenged to become a “union leader,” a “freedom fighter,” and a national political leader destined to build a nation that would change the world. Moses’s fear of others, poor sense of self-worth, and low estimation of his own abilities were challenged by the Creator, and he was commanded to go and deliver the charge of “let my people go” to the most powerful government of his day. His self-concept, self-awareness, and estimation of his abil ity changed almost overnight, and the spirit of leadership was ignited within him. His attitude was changed forever. Joshua, Moses’s assistant, was challenged to take leader ship responsibility for millions of desert people and to settle them in the land of promise, establishing social, cultural, and economic institutions for the new nation. His timidity was challenged by the Creator, and he was commanded to

214