Authority from my ransomed Saviour...

Was talking to a dear friend today and it just popped out so evidently to me that true authority and leadership are never by virtue of having a position, rank, or seniority. Anyone basing their identity on that, is bound to be small-minded and oppressive.

The only way to fashion true spiritual authority is through trusting and enduring the flames of the crucible and the hammer blows of the master blacksmith. This has been the hardest, toughest, most painful, literally heart-breaking season of my life...and yet, i see how by enduring through the confusion and releasing my desires back to God, He has been entrusting me with His heart for people more and more...this is something i could never experience fully in the past because i was holding back, because i loved in only one dimension...

But...the talk today (though totally unrelated to this post!) was illuminating! (I kinda make funny connections all the time and they make sense to me, but i still have to form them into coherent thoughts for the sake of others! so they understand me! ahahah!)

Oh well, i may have to think to form the thoughts into words, but God has this way of always speaking very clearly! =)

Samuel Brengle said this about Spiritual Authority and Leadership,

"It is not won by promotion, but by many prayers and tears. It is attained by confession of sin, and much heartsearching and humbling before God; by self-surrender, a courageous sacrifice of every idol, a bold uncomplaining embrace of the cross, and by an eternal, unfaltering looking unto Jesus crucified.

It is not gained by seeking great things for ourselves, but like Paul, by counting those things that are gain to us as loss for Christ. This is a great price, but it must be paid by the leader who would not be merely a nominal but a real spiritual leader of men, a leader whose power is recognised in heaven, on earth and in hell."

If that is what it takes...i thank you Lord for trusting me enough to put me through this furnace.

Yup...experienced so many of the things mentioned above, had to surrender til i became less than nothing, but counting those things that are gain to me as loss...this has led me to glimpse so much more of the Lord that i didn't know before. And i'm thankful to God, despite the pain. just like the Casting Crowns song...I'll praise Him in this storm...and i truly have and will continue to do so, because i know my Father loves me and will never bring harm to me.

Sometimes, even what we see as the best things in our lives become our chains, chains that bind us down and hold us back from where we should be. But that's why God gave his son, Jesus Christ, who paid the ransom, broke those chains, secured our hope, became our shield and our portion...so we trust in just one thing, and once our focus changes and shifts back to Him, then...maybe then, He begins to answer those questions we've always been asking, or maybe...those questions lose their importance...and HE continues to make all things beautiful.

There is such a paradox, that even in suffering, we can have joy! Even in hurt, there can be such concern! Even in pain, there can be unselfish love! How unfathomable are God's ways! How wonderful! No wonder He is the Saviour! =)