Fight Till You Drop

Being a leader is not an easy job. In today’s leadership podcast, Pastor Priji talks about the 5 most important things that a leader can focus on and be stress-free and not give up and lead the people of God in the right way.

This podcast is a repost, originally posted on 1st June, 2019.

Transcript:

Sometimes we equate leadership to people who have a lot of power, wealth, money, degrees etc. but that’s not what leadership is truly all about. If we have a voice-over somebody and is able to impart knowledge, lifestyle, information or if we are a father, mother, boss or have a voice over the people we are meeting with, then we are already a leader. When we redirect somebody’s thoughts, we redirect their meditation, sooner or later we will start changing their decision making and the thoughts they are thinking about, and soon their thoughts start changing in a particular direction.

Leadership is what we do with the influence God has given us.

Here are the important characteristics for a leader to not give up is:

Fight till you drop

If we are a leader and if we are bearing fruit then invariably we will receive our fair share of attacks. If we are not going through any problems, then I have serious doubt about our leadership because then we are not necessarily leading. But if we don’t have any resistance then we’re just going with the flow.

If we are a leader then we have to stand up for something, set up a tent in the storm, stand up for people, and that is where you will have attacks and problems. So how will we respond to it?

When 10 people in a crowd are faced with a problem, 5 choose to give up, 3 choose to fight a little then give up, remaining 2 stand up and fight till their last breath even if it costs them everything. The characteristics of the last 2 people that do not give up is what makes us a leader.

Bible talks about 12 spies who went to Canaan to check out the land, 10 returned with the flow, no resistance, they gave up as soon as they saw problems and giants in their way. But 2 said they have faith, that they can turn the place upside down, and conquer. They didn’t give up even when the circumstances were against them. Those were the only 2 who conquered the land, the remaining 10 and the rest of Israel perished. But the 2 conquered their battles.

Why is it that Joshua and Caleb did not give up?

The key:The 10 that gave the negative report said ‘we are like grasshoppers in front of the giants’,whereas Joshua and Caleb did not focus on themselves, they knew they did not have what it takes to fight the giants so they didn’t focus on themselves but focused on God. They changed their perspective and looked at the problem solver, the source of all strength, looked at God. The remaining 10 looked at themselves and found it to be empty.

Our perspectives and how we look at our problems matter so much. It is necessary to consider how we look at our giants, we cannot look at them with our own eyes. When we look at our problems with the eyes of God, how we talk about our giants changes, in fact we would all together stop talking about our problems, and find peace enough to sleep in the middle of the storm.
So how can we win these battles and continue to not give up?

Be watchful and be alert

This is what sets us up as leaders. Whereas a casual guy just goes with life as it comes. Being alert and watchful should be natural for a leader, to be aware of our struggles and weaknesses that the devil would try to use against us. If we know our real enemy and be aware, then it would be easy to identify and build the right environment around us, to build a protection system. It’s necessary to put these defense systems in place to be effective.

Don’t allow the world to dictate your decisions

So often this is a struggle, where a leader is forced into conforming to the patterns of this world. As a leader we must stand up and declare ‘just because everyone is doing it, doesn’t mean I do it too’, if we follow their ways, then we would fall into the same pit they fall into. Before long, we would lose the battle. Most people who have made it to the top are successful because they did not go along with the crowd. Don’t let the world dictate your ways of functioning.

Being in the leadership position is sometime stressful where anxious decisions are to be made, stretching out to days, months, years etc. how would one manage the stress?

Build a stress management system

This is how we’ll tackle and overcome stress. Bible talks about Moses having to give counsel to 2 million people. Jethro met him and arranged a system for him where Moses wouldn’t have to listen to all 2 million people and be stressed out. He set up a system where multiple leaders are appointed and only the most serious problems would be handled by Moses, rather than getting stressed out by 2 million people.

So we must set up a schedule and lifestyle where our work does not overtake our personal life. Bring about a balance which will be a key to the way we deal with the stress. Will we break under the stress or work the stress for our growth where we can reach to new heights.

Read books, learn stories of other leaders who have high stress schedules and work commitments. Learn how they have overcome and build your own stress management system.

Surround ourselves with encouragers

We have to surround ourselves with encouragers, not with discouragers. The world is full of discouragers, sometimes even the church, the family, friends circles etc. can discourage you.

The encouragers don’t necessarily have to be experts or understand what we need or what needs to be done but they have their way of encouraging and uplifting us when we’re about to give up, when we’re feeling weak, they are helpful and important.

Encouragers are not YES-men, or people who always just say YES to everything we want to do, but people who have the right perspectives. For example like the right counselors David had in the old testament.

Having good friendships and relationships around us is such a blessing, because this will determine if we have a safe place to run to or have a safe place to lean to, this will help in days of battle.

Even Jesus needed the comfort of Peter, James and John. Bible says He separated those 3 from the remaining 12 and brought them aside and began to become anguished, vulnerable in front of them. He wanted encouragement from His disciples, somebody to stand by Him and pray with Him. Finally, because the disciples couldn’t do it, God had to send angels to stand by Jesus. Same way, we need encouragement too just as Jesus did.

So do not give up, the genetic makeup in us is not to give up but we have what it takes to create constructive solutions, of coming out with the right understandings and perspectives, to build right defence mechanism around us, to not let the world dictate our actions and decisions, to build right stress management system, to have the right kind of people and angels to surround us.