Spiritual Leadership Kills

Have you ever wondered why David was so aged before turning seventy?

How was it that he was unable to keep warm that they had to look for a girl to lie by his side? How come he was unable to rise to the occasion with the girl yet I suspect that may have been the primary reason she was sought, to increase his temperature?

Leadership, more so spiritual leadership, is especially draining on mortal flesh.

On the same plane why are witches and wizards wizened and withered?

The spiritual dimension is not your normal playing field that depends on your muscle tone and exercise regimen. It is a field that opens you to interact with the spiritual and do business with it for the mortal realm.

David was such a leader. The Bible talks of him as someone beloved of God and the people. In other words his testimony was good whether you consulted heaven or earth.

And that takes immense effort, effort that places a heavy weight on mortal flesh.

It could be the reason priests were commanded to retire at fifty. Twenty years of priestly ministry is enough to take a priest to retirement.

Again look at what happened to Daniel when he interacted with revelation

Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. (Daniel 10:8)

What happens when you are interacting with such consistently as your ‘profession’? And how many of us have felt completely drained after some intensity of seeking God’s face concerning something or dealing with a spiritual situation?

As I write I remember one time I made a particular prayer and thought I was going to die. I was very sick and recovered when the answer manifested.

Yet that is the normal fare of spiritual leaders. Always praying, seeking God’s face concerning this or the other, receiving this or the other revelation, and so on.

I do not want to mention doing battle with the enemy of souls because our job is to follow our Commander.

But for me the sad fact is not that spiritual leadership ages the minister. It is that some ministers refuse to acknowledge what is obvious to everybody else.

Think about Hezekiah. He was so effective in his ministry as king.

God is satisfied with his job and seeks to rest him in death. I am convinced that the king had exhausted his spiritual potency.

But the king protests, using the reason God was resting him as the reason he should go on. And God gives in to his cry.

What then happens? He has already become too soft to spiritually serve right. His spiritual muscle is gone. His spiritual sensibility is done.

The only thing left is to produce Manasseh, the wickedest king Judah had.

This brings out another observation. A drained spiritual potency is dangerous for raising posterity. One has become too soft to handle discipline right.

We see the same with Eli who was unable to handle the indiscipline of his sons though we know he tried to do what his age is good at, reasoning with them. Again look at how David deals with situations, leaving Solomon with the assignment of closing cases that he could have easily and quickly dealt with in his youth.

You see, age rounds off the sharp edges of indignation. And it happens as we grow old, especially in ministry as grace makes a greater impact in our lives.  We will therefore go slower when in our youth we exploded, sometimes to the point of being thought to have backslidden or compromised. That is why it is not normal to hear an old minister preaching those fire and brimstone sermons even when the sin in their congregation is evident.

But it is not all negative.

As a common proverb in most of Africa says, an old man can see farther while seated than a young man can on top of a tree.

It thus means that an old man is able to see better through his experience beyond the physical or empirical. This is spiritual insight that is the product of walking with God as we serve Him. That is where that ‘unreasonable’ grace proceeds from because he can see beyond the immediate.

But we are dealing with spiritual leadership and how it drains the minister. I just thought to highlight some other things it does.

Spiritual responsibility hastens the aging of a minister. And it is not only physically.

It therefore means that I should slow down earlier than the person who is in the secular realm.

Refusing to do so will severely limit my effectiveness and impact as it will negatively impact my judgment. Again have you ever after some intense prayer or ministration felt so tired as if a truck was lying on you?

What am I saying?

A minister should at the earliest moment start preparing for his retirement from active ministry. And that is what discipleship is.

But many ministers resist that with everything they have because they feel that they will become useless. It is sad that some even attempt to deny aging by dressing young and dyeing their greying hair.

But nothing could be farther from the truth.

Getting away from active ministry opens greater doors to minister according to your strength levels. It will in fact maximize your impact and range because you will then be ministering to ministers as an elder. (I am avoiding to say overseer because of the abuse associated with the word).

Like it was in the African culture he will be available for ministry consultation any time as he is not being held back by timelines and deadlines. And he will be doing it at his own pace.

Lack of this could be the reason many senior ministers die in their prime while yet others are getting compromised by everything from the world to politicians. They overstretch their capacity to be the best they can be for Christ because they refuse to hear the command to relax and allow and facilitate others to minister.

Another outcome is the lack of accountability in ministry because every minister is active in his field and so unable to know what another minister is doing unless they read the doctored reports their junior ministers bring, and even then to just flip through.

Is God saying anything to you?