Did you feel the shift that happened this year? Try to weed through all of the clutter and distractions. Step back from it all and ask yourself the question the prophets of old would ask, “what do you see?”
The ripple effects of the pandemic are the first thing that come to mind. The quarantines imposed a separation of church leaders from their members and church members from their leaders.
A question many of us were left to consider asked, “who am I really following?” Members didn’t have their leaders to lean on during this season and leaders had to struggle with what their lives mean in a world where they temporarily had no one to teach.
Is it possible to still be a leader when you’re not allowed to use your gifts to teach your members? Can leaders trust that God is capable of leading His people even if they can’t preach their weekly sermons? Will God actually lead Me, the individual member, during this season of history where access to spiritual leaders, advisers and others has been disrupted?
The question of who we’re following is quite rhetorical. The response comes in the form of each individual grappling with how we can lean on the Spirit of Truth to guide us and grant us understanding.
“But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said.”
John 16:13
Read that again with a little more emphasis from me, “…HE will [personally] take YOU by the hand and guide YOU into all the truth there is…[HE] will make sense out of what is about to happen…”
What are we grappling with? We’re grappling with how an authentic life can be lived where God is the one who teaches us, guides us and makes sense out of life when we don’t have a surrogate spiritual leader to fill in the gaps for us. A life where He calms us down, fills us with courage / peace / love or whatever we’re needing.
God stands ready to take you by the hand and personally lead YOU through all that is happening. Revealing to YOU the ways you can make sense of what is happening. Dare we believe that God is fully capable of leading each of us without the help of a pastor or any other spiritual leaders?
Don’t get me wrong, God instituted certain types of leadership and the regular gathering of God’s people is one such context. Yet, as leaders we have to make sure we do as the Holy Spirit models in the passage above by not drawing the attention to ourselves.
The noble leader wisely understands that their role is not to gather followers of Them but rather to inspire people to be followers of Him.
Think about it for a moment, Jesus was THE perfect spiritual leader. He is the ONLY man in history worthy of a mega-church following. Yet, he understood His father’s plan was to use His life as a means of inviting people into relationship with the Father. He understood that even He had to step out of the picture so the Holy Spirit could come and the individuals following Him could begin to discover what it means to walk in this life with the Holy Spirit’s help…just as He modeled.
Jesus left this earth so we could have access to the the Holy Spirit. Again, remember what John said in this portion of John 16:13, “…when the Friend comes, the Spirit of Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is…”
Jesus desperately wanted us to have the same Helper that helped Him. His departure, painful as it was, granted us access to the Holy Spirit and many other glorious things essential to knowing God. One such thing was, “Christ’s anointing teaches you the truth on everything you need to know about yourself and him, uncontaminated by a single lie. Live deeply in what you were taught.” 1 John 2:27
He is jealous to lead his people, directly, in relationship with each of us…not just the spiritual superstars. He is jealous to speak His heart and His mysteries to you and me. Yet, if we are always defer to our leaders we miss out on the exhilaration that comes from knowing God for ourselves.
He created this world we walk around in, He is fully capable to lead even the most simple-minded or misguided among us. The opportunity 2020 gifted each of us is the opportunity to draw close to him and learn what it means to live life fully trusting His generous capacity to guide us, keep us, train us, heal us, love us, teach us and speak with us in true authentic relationship every single moment of every single day.
Even the most eloquent of men or women pales in comparison to the genius and graciousness of the one who gave everything on the cross just so we could know him and His amazing Father. Learning His ways may take a lifetime fraught with baby steps, missteps, failures and mistakes but I’d rather learn from Him any day than relegating myself to a life of codependent second-hand stories others have lived.
As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.
1 John 2:27 NASB
All things considered, I’m the first to recognize this shift was for me. I’ve been guilty of thinking I need a following or that I need someone to follow. Truth be told there will be both followers and leaders in our lives. Yet, the prayer of my heart going into 2021 is this, “Father, teach me to need only you so that when I help others they’ll only need you too.”
Would love to keep up with these blogs….so rich!
Thanks, Christine!