Walk in the ways of insight” (Revised)

 

In Revelation, it speaks of the 12 tribes x 12,000 that are sealed on the foreheads. These seals were to protect the people of God from any harm during the end time tribulation. I can’t help but think that this seal location as being on the forehead has to do with protection of the mind and thinking especially.

This seal on the forehead also speaks of having hope and joy instead of despair, fear and torment. It says in proverbs that “Those who trust in the Lord will be joyful.” It is because we know the goodness of the Lord toward us and our eternal home, that we do not despair in the midst of difficulty.

Our Hope Does Not Disappoint

And we already know that those who are marked on their foreheads come out of the tribulation victoriously because we then see the great multitude in white robes that are surrounding the throne of God. They are worshipping and praising God.

The people of God will come through tribulation being led by wisdom and insight. Wisdom and insight is an important leadership quality. It is through this insight and revelation provided by God that they navigate the difficult waters. We see an example of insight with Peter in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.”

Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughter will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike—and they will prophesy. And I will cause wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below—blood and fire and clouds of smoke. The sun will become dark, and the moon will turn blood red before the great and glorious day of the Lord arrives. But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Acts 2:14-21)

Peter had insight into the time and how God was working in his lifetime. He knew they had entered into the end times and that the Lord had poured out His Spirit. Since this time, people can receive this baptism of the Holy Spirit that is evidenced by praying in tongues by faith. It cannot be received by the rational mind.

Leading by Being Led by the Spirit

Those who are led by the Spirit and have His insight, will not only be able to navigate for themselves but help others to navigate and find peace. They will be able to lead others by this insight.

We see this with Solomon. He asked for wisdom and insight to be King and lead and God gave it to him. As he was seeking the Lord and leaning into his insight, he became a tremendous leader and was well established. His renown was known everywhere because of his great wisdom.

The Queen of Sheba heard about and came to see for herself. When she saw how well he had established things and with what wisdom he had ordered his kingdom, she was astonished. She proclaimed to him, that those who were under his leadership were incredibly blessed.

We are blessed when we have a leader who is righteous and depends upon the Lord because they lead with wisdom and insight. Godly wisdom say in Proverbs 8:14, “Common sense and success belong to me. Insight and strength are mine… Rulers lead with my help, and nobles make righteous judgements.”

A leader who walks in godly wisdom and is dependent upon the Lord will also lead with love. As an example, Solomon, later in his career when he got off course due to pride, lust, and self-sufficiency, not only was led to worship other gods by his multiple foreign wives, but he became a harsh taskmaster. I had a dream some weeks ago now that I was meditating on a scripture verse that said, “Let us lead in love in all things.”

Fear and intimidation happens in worldly leadership, but genuine spiritual leadership only happens when we lead in love. We need to know the condition of those under us and care for them. There is an old saying, “I don’t care how much you know until I know how much you care.” We need to nourish, encourage, serve and love those who God gives us to lead.

Proverbs 10:21 says, “The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of sense.”

A leader from the Bible who encouraged others and built them up was David. He had many men follow him because he valued them and saw their potential. Disgruntled men learned to honor others and value them under his leadership. He made people feel worthwhile even in their shortcomings. He looked deeper to understand them.

An example of this is when the Amalekites took their wives, children and livestock from Ziklag. The men were all exhausted from a long travel trip with the Philistines. Half of his men had to stay behind in seeking to recover what was theirs and watch the bags because they were too exhausted. When David and the men returned with the bounty, they wanted to only return their family and keep the rest, but David asked for it to be shared equally, honoring those who stayed behind.

David saw people and genuinely cared about them in a way that empowered them. He saw their potential. He valued and made room for them alongside him. David was so good at seeing potential and building up his people that they would do anything for him. They valued that he believed in them and saw more in them.

2 Samuel 23:15-17 says, “David remarked longingly to his men, ‘Oh, how I would love some of that good water from the well by the gate in Bethlehem.’ So the Three broke through the Philistine lines, drew some water from the well by the gate in Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out as an offering to the Lord. ‘The Lord forbid that I should drink this!’ he exclaimed. ‘This water is as precious as the blood of these men who risked their lives to bring it to me.’ So David did not drink it.”

These were David’s “Three” who were his mightiest of men. He raised up warriors. He took them from a place of lawlessness and deceit to a place of being seen and recognized as a great warrior. He had incredible faith in God and also in them and who they were called to be. He believed and led them into life.

Some people, in their helping others, hold them back. They don’t see the potential in them or are so focused on where they are going, they forget to take others along with them. Jesus tells us, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Leading by Sacrificial Giving

Leading in love, involves sacrifice. It is a place of not only having vision and insight to lead, believing in others and speaking this over them, but a place of humble sacrifice. It involves continually giving to others and serving them in a way that brings them to life. There is no room for selfish ambition in leadership.

Leaders are continual givers. They love to give to others and serve them in a way that causes them to grow and flourish. They love to make room for others. Good leaders are always on your side, making room for you, encouraging you and then also holding you accountable.

Leadership involves holding people accountable in a way that causes them to grow. It is grace filled but also does not ignore what is damaging or harming. For instance, since we started working from home, I had an instance where one of my leaders’ staff struggled. They began to get distracted and not do their work. As soon as this was noticed, we called them into the office full time and they were provided written and verbal expectations.

Because this leader of mine is so good at leading their staff, they were able to help this employee become successful again. The employee not only adjusted by coming back into the office but also took much more responsibility for their work. Now when they are not busy, they ask for more to do. And over time, they have gained back trust. Their boss, my staff leader, did an excellent job of not only holding them accountable, but building the relationship back up to where they are soaring.

Like David’s men who struggled along in life, sometimes people need a fresh start. They need to understand where they have messed up and the consequences for this, but they also need grace when they try again. As Jesus depicts a picture of a shepherd as His leadership style, He cares for them even at their worst. He is continually bringing them to places where they have the opportunity to flourish.

Leading by Living for God over Approval

Leadership comes from the inside out. As Proverbs 21:1-2 says, when the Lord’s hand is upon a leader, their heart is like a stream of water bringing refreshing. When a leader follows their own ways and thinks they are right, they can totally miss the mark. It is through having the right heart, first towards God and then towards others, that we lead effectively.

We see a glimpse of this with David handing the leadership baton to Solomon. While David was leading as King, he gave Shimei his life and did not cause him any harm because he was living for God first, above his own desires. Then on his deathbed, he tells Solomon not to let Shimei’s head go down to the grave by a natural death. While this reflects some lingering resentment on David’s part, it also reflects his heart to always put the Lord’s will above his own.

Ever been in a situation like this? Someone has been so difficult and painful in your life, but for the Lord’s sake, you are kind. You are not quite there but you step into it with sheer will. I had a few times like this. With the last one, God spoke to me to bless them with $500 gift card for their birthday to get a time of rest. It was sheer will as this person has done things like swearing profusely at my husband for no reason when we were caring for my mother and refusing to talk to my mother for a year, causing her tremendous pain.

God showed me that this person who has done such things has been in tremendous pain over the years as her child struggles with a drug addiction. My heart goes out to this and her child and I pray for her and her family daily. Since I have been praying for this person daily, I saw some substantial changes over time of wanting to help rather than cause harm with caring for my mother. She has never apologized to my husband, but I loved to see the change of heart. Underneath it all, I believe most likely this person has some struggles with demonic spirits they need freedom from related to anger and rage.

In another case, years ago, there was a woman at my work that hated me. It didn’t help that she had been demoted from her position as a leader right before I came. I walked into a situation of taking her position and not knowing it. What made it worse was that they didn’t want to change her office on her so she sat right next to me. She used to pick on me any chance she got and try to make things hard. It felt like high school.

Then when I asked Jesus what He wanted for His birthday, He said to write her a note and apologize for anything I could have done wrong then pray and fast for her over the Christmas break. At the time, even the thought made me want to vomit. But in sheer will, I wrote her a note, left it on her chair and prayed and fasted for her over the break. When I returned the following week, she was like a totally different person. Then when my pastor at the time, who I was very close with, died from cancer some months later, she was the one to put a bouquet of bright yellow daffodils on my table with a sympathy note. Not too long after, she also had an opportunity to step back into a leadership role and was successful at it. I was so proud of her; I was beaming when it was announced.

In an example from the Bible of making difficult choices to align oneself with God, when David was running from Saul who wanted to murder him, David thanked Abigail for coming to him and reminding him of his calling; he had been overtaken with anger because of the foolish things Nabal said to him and his men by calling them criminals when they had done so much for him and his men. He was grateful that Abigail, in her wisdom, stopped him from reacting out of anger. Instead, David made room for God to vindicate him by not taking things into his own hands.

David also lived for the audience of One when he was running from Saul. He cared more about what God thought than being comfortable, gaining power or pleasing those who followed him. He had more than one opportunity to take Saul’s life and take the position of king. The people who followed him pressed him to take the opportunity. But he refused to do it. He would not touch the Lord’s anointed, Saul.

Saul, on the other hand, lived first to please the people and not God. He got led astray time and time again by creating his own path of significance rather than establishing greater trust for himself and those who followed after him. He also led by fear, intimidation, and manipulation in trying to guilt people to do what he wanted. It not only led him to try to kill David, but to kill all the priests and eventually take his own life as they fought the Philistines. If David had been with them fighting on their side, it would have most likely ended different. Saul failed in leadership because He failed to genuinely follow God.

While David cared most about following after the Lord. David cries out to the Lord when he sinned and slept with Bathsheba, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:10). David knew that with the Lord there was forgiveness and right standing even when he failed.

David also cared deeply about this place of having the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and knew that unforgiven sin could keep him from this place. It was his first priority to be right with God. Now, through believing in Jesus, we all have this place of fellowship, being right with God through Jesus. If it wasn’t enough, we are also given the Holy Spirit when we receive salvation.

It says in 1 Thessalonians 5:10 that the Lord “died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.“ We have this position of grace filled privilege where we are forgiven and He is available to be with us every moment. When we sin, we only need to ask for forgiveness.

“There is no space between us, through the blood and water, I am born again, I am falling in” sings in the background.

Leading by Fellowship with the Holy Spirit

Coming back to leading from a place of insight, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom, insight and counsel. It is through Him that we lead wisely. While we have this position of privilege and fellowship with the Holy Spirit as a sheer gift by receiving Christ in our lives, as a leader, we can still quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). I have heard people say, on some occasions, “Don’t quench the Spirit.”

So how do we know we are quenching the Spirit? When I invited a few close friends of mine, one from a Pentecostal denomination and another from Assemblies of God denomination to speak with me at an engagement at a Christian Evangelical college, this topic came up. My one friend who is very zealous and outgoing Pentecostal, I asked not to focus on speaking in tongues, being aware that some do and others are uncomfortable with it. I explained that with Evangelical Christians, it was not often brought up. She said I was “quenching the Spirit.” She did talk about it and asked people to come up and see her if they wanted the baptism of the Holy Spirit or praying in tongues but no one took her up on it so she let it go.

Had the Spirit been “quenched” by me? In the context of the verse about the Spirit being quenched, Paul is talking about paying back wrong for wrong in the verse before, and after, he is talking about treating prophesies with contempt and treating them as evil. They are not to be received without question either, he says, but tested and held to what is good and what is not, weeded out.

Quenched is the Greek word sbennumi, Strongs# 4570, and it means to extinguish, suppress or thwart. In other verses, it is used in relation to fire. A smoldering wick, he will not quench (Matthew 12:20). A smoldering wick would be someone who is struggling with faith to believe.

Quench is to stop the movement of the Holy Spirit all together. It would seem that to put the fire out is to reject the Holy Spirit and put Him out of your life or to sin in a way that one is unrepentant due to an unbelieving heart. It really seems to come down to unbelief.

But then, at I church I attended at one time, it seemed for a period of time that the Spirit was quenched. We had fasted and prayed, seeking a revival for some time. Then the Spirit was moving in power and bringing His presence in ways that was deeply transformational and meaningful. In the midst of it, worship was lasting 2-3 hours and everyone just wanted to linger a little longer in the amazing presence of the Lord that weighed so heavy on the people. People were being healed and set free in His presence and the place was filled to overflowing with people coming.

Then one day after some weeks of this, the pastor stopped after 30 minutes of worship and made announcements that shut down the worship. It felt painful and a little heart wrenching. As I understand, there were a few people who really struggled to enter into the presence of the Lord and as folks lingered, these few were miserable. After this, we kept to a schedule of 30-minute worship and announcements. While we set standards that helped these few (which is loving and looked out for the one), it just felt dry after that. People who had come during the revival left in droves and we lost about 50% of the congregation. However, the women’s conference still had a huge attendance and the Holy Spirit was still very powerfully present at these.

While I am not sure what the right decision was in this case or fully about how one quenches’ the Spirit, I do know that the Spirit is an incredible treasure that we cannot be effective in leading without Him. We want to consider Him in all our choices so we don’t quench Him or grieve Him.

It appears that quenching the Spirit is something that primarily comes from a leader. In 1 Samuel 19, Saul had sent men after David to capture him so he could kill him. When the men came to Ramah, where Samuel was, they were overtaken by the Spirit and prophesied. Then Saul sent more men and the same thing happened to them. Finally he came himself and stripped naked as he lay prophesying all day and night. In these cases, rather than sin or trying to stop the work of God quenching the Spirit, the Spirit overtook all of them.

Grieving the Holy Spirit is different than quenching the Spirit. Ephesians 4:30 says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Grieve is the Greek word lupeó, Strongs# 3076 and it means to have distress with sadness and pain.

Paul tells us in these verses how not to grieve the Holy Spirit. He says to get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, outcry and slander, along with every form of malice (Ephesians 4:31). Instead we are to be kind and tenderhearted, forgiving one another as Christ forgave us (vs. 32).

When we sin, are bitter or full of anger, outcry against someone to God, slander them or have malice towards them, we not only sin but we grieve the Holy Spirit. It causes Him sadness and pain. He desires us to love Jesus with all our heart’s, mind, soul and spirit. While He remains with us and loves us at our worst, we may not sense His presence the same when we grieve Him. Like the Dove of the Spirit coming down and landing on Jesus when He was baptized, we need to walk ever so gently, aware of Him, if we want the Spirit’s presence to rest upon us while we live in a place of an open heaven.

“And under His eyes I have found true peace.” (Song 8:10, Catholic Bible)

Another step down from grieving the Spirit is shrinking back. In Hebrews 10:37-39 about shrinking back in persecution. It says, “In just a little while, He who is coming will come and not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back. But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”

Pulling back is the Greek word hupostelló, Strongs# 5288 and it means is to back off under pressure or compromise. It is rooted in timidity. It means to retreat or withdraw and choose an easier path of going along or staying out of it. At its very definition is to let the Holy Spirit down for our lack of faith.

Leading and shrinking back, giving in to pressure and compromise do not go together. We cannot lead effectively from a place of pressure, compromise or timidity. Going along with the easiest path of resistance will only take us downstream with others and not upstream to lead others.

Shrinking back means that we are choosing comfort and approval of man over approval of God. We hear what the Holy Spirit is speaking to us, but we resist it out of fear and a desire to be accepted by man. When we do this, God has no pleasure in this. In other words, He loves us but is disappointed in our choices. He has more for us than we are willing to step into.

Lord, there is no better leaders than You. Thank You for all that you have done in our lives and the ways You lead us into places of flourishing. Provide us with Your insight in all that we do. Give us the courage to lead by following You first and foremost. And, grow us to lead in love in all things.