May we just read two verses from the Gospel according to John, chapter 15.
I am the vine, ye are the branches:
He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit:
For apart from Me ye can do nothing.
Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide:
That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.
Last night, we mentioned that the Lord is looking for men who can be spiritual leaders among His own people. God’s purpose is to gather to Himself a people who will be His bride—the bride of the Lamb.
But in order to arrive at that purpose, in God’s working there is a divine principle: God must have spiritual leadership among His own people.
But spiritual leadership is not something that comes from man. It is not something that is established by name. Spiritual leadership must come from God. It is God’s divine sovereignty; it is a divine act of God.
The Bible says, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.” In the case of spiritual leadership, it is purely God’s choice. But God chooses those whom He has prepared. Or, in other words, God will choose those who have allowed Him to do a certain work in their lives.
And when God is able to do a work in the lives of certain people, then, on the basis of what He has done, God will choose.
So, dear brothers and sisters, as we see God working today on this earth, God is awakening His people everywhere. This is a time when we should inquire of the Lord. We should ask the Lord to raise up spiritual leaders, to give to the church—to His own people—spiritual leadership.
And we should also be before Him, knowing that spiritual leadership is not based upon anything natural. So every one of us should be before Him and allow Him to complete His work in us, if He wants to use us.
Let us be before Him. And I do believe that this is an urgent need among God’s people today.
We mentioned also last night that, in order to have spiritual leadership, we must first be willing to be disciples of our Lord Jesus, because spiritual leadership comes from discipleship. Unless we are willing to follow, we are not fit to lead.
This evening, we would like to go on a little further. First of all, we would like to consider together the qualities that God is looking for in leadership. In other words, what must God do in us in order to obtain the leadership that He wants for His people?
Now, of course, there are a great number of qualities that constitute spiritual leadership. But for our fellowship this evening, we will just mention a few as examples.
Spirituality is a must in spiritual leadership. Of course, it is very evident, because God is not looking for leadership in the things of this world.
If you want to look for leadership in the things of this world, then you have to find leaders who may have a dynamic personality, who may have a very strong will, or who may have a very great mind—highly intellectual—or a person who is very gifted, very talented, a great administrator; people with a good, solid background, good training, good connections, and so on and so forth.
Now, these are the essentials for leadership in the things of this world. But God is not looking for these things.
The one thing that a spiritual leader must have is spirituality—or, if you want to, you may use another term, such as maturity.
What is spirituality? Spirituality is not that you know a lot. You may have a great deal of knowledge—that is to say, mental knowledge. You may have accumulated a great deal of information, religious information.
Spirituality is a matter of the measure of Christ in you. What God is looking for in a leader is a secret, hidden life with Himself.
Spiritual leadership is based upon a history with the Lord. It is not that suddenly someone appears to be a spiritual leader. It is not an instant thing.
As we know in this country, we like everything to be instant. We are so impatient. Not only in the things that we use—we like things such as instant coffee and even instant tea—but you will find that even in spiritual things we are always trying to look for some way by which we can have an instant spiritual person.
“Oh, if only we can get you this thing, then instantly we are fully mature. Instantly, we are spiritual. We are fit to be leaders.”
But, dear brothers and sisters, there must be a history. There must be a secret and hidden life with the Lord.
In secret, God is preparing spiritual leadership. In secret, God is working Himself into that person. And when the time comes, God will reveal and manifest that leadership.
For instance, in the life of David, we all know that David, before he appeared before the children of Israel, was almost unknown. He was the youngest in the family, and his father did not think too much of him. His elder brothers actually looked down upon him and misunderstood him a great deal.
He was sent out to the field to tend a few sheep. Nobody knew about David. But this lad, as he was tending the sheep, was not just tending a few sheep. While he was tending the sheep, he had real experience with God Himself.
And his experience with God was secret and hidden. Nobody knew about it. Not even his father or his brothers knew about it.
In the whole world at that time, there was only another young man who noticed David. You remember the young man who stood before King Saul, and when King Saul had problems and was looking for a man, this young man said, “Well, I have seen a son of Jesse. He is a mighty man, and can play beautiful music.”
Only a young man noticed this David—nobody else. And yet, dear brothers and sisters, he had such a hidden, secret life with the Lord that, if he did not tell the story himself, nobody would know about it.
There he was. His father sent him to see his brothers, who were on the battlefield. He went there, and everybody was afraid. And he offered to go and fight the Philistine.
King Saul inquired after him and tried to find out what his background was. “Now, how do you know that you can go out and fight the Philistine? What training did you have? What background did you have?”
And there you find David relating his secret and hidden life with the Lord. When he was there tending his father’s sheep, he learned to know God in the most practical way.
When the bears came, when the lions came, by the strength of the Lord he tore the lion apart. He delivered the sheep out of the lion’s mouth. And he said, “If God can deliver me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, certainly God will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine.”
He had a secret, hidden life with the Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters, the Lord is looking for spiritual leaders. It is not a matter of your aspiration. It is not a matter of your ambition. We mentioned last night that people who are ambitious are already disqualified.
But for the sake of the Lord, for the sake of the church, for the sake of God’s purpose being realized—oh, dear brothers and sisters, how we need to be before the Lord, that we may have a secret, hidden life with Him.
In our daily life, in the very small things, these are the things in which we learn to know the Lord. In our daily life, in these small things, God will test us, and God will begin to deal with us until He can get the quality of leadership in us.
How often we are looking for great experiences. How often we think that, if ever God is going to raise up a leader, then He has to lead him through spectacular experiences.
But, dear brothers and sisters, it is in our daily life, in the little things of our life, that God is dealing, God is training, and God is working out His purpose.
What is spirituality? Spirituality is Christ being known, apprehended, and experienced. It is Christ that fills our being. Oh, brothers and sisters, this is true spirituality.
What is true spirituality? True spirituality comes from the Holy Spirit. The very word spiritual connects us with the Spirit of God.
A person who lives in the Spirit is not a person who lives in the flesh. How can a person who lives in the flesh suddenly become a spiritual leader? A person who is to be a spiritual leader has to be one who lives in the Spirit and under the Holy Spirit.
As you read the Book of Acts, you will find that God raised up many leaders—men who were called apostles. And not only the apostles, but you will find God raised up men to serve in the church, even to serve tables or to look after the widows in the church.
And one qualification, one thing that they were looking for in the persons who were to fill any position, to fulfill any responsibility, or to bear any leadership—whether they were apostles or those who were later called deacons—was this: full of the Holy Spirit.
It is true that there are other things that are needed: people who are honest, who live an honest and good life, that they may have testimony before the world; people who are not double-tongued, and so on and so forth.
In other words, there are many other qualifications, but there is one qualification that is an absolute necessity: a Spirit-filled person.
What do you mean by a Spirit-filled person? Brothers and sisters, forgive me for saying this: I often meet people who say, “So-and-so is a Spirit-filled person. So-and-so is a Spirit-filled person.”
Now, what do you mean by a Spirit-filled person? In the mind of most people, when we mention that so-and-so is a Spirit-filled person, it means that once upon a time they had an experience—an experience of the Holy Spirit, maybe ten years ago, maybe five years ago.
Suddenly, when they had that experience, they were all Spirit-filled. No doubt about that. But it was five or ten years ago, and yet they are still called Spirit-filled people.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is the true meaning of Spirit-filled? What do you mean by being filled with the Spirit?
In Ephesians, you find: “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
We have the Holy Spirit. We who are born again are born again by the Holy Spirit. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” And after He has born us, He comes into our new spirit and dwells in our spirit. Therefore, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Every child of God has the Holy Spirit. And you know who the Holy Spirit is? He is the divine Person. He is another Comforter. He is God Himself, who dwells in our spirit to be our Comforter, to be our Strengthener, to be everything to us.
Every child of God has the Holy Spirit. The problem today with God’s people is not whether you have the Holy Spirit. The problem today with God’s children is whether you are filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now, to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to possess the Holy Spirit are very different. You have the Holy Spirit, but you may be using Him. But to be filled with the Holy Spirit is to let Him use you.
What do you mean by being filled with the Holy Spirit? It simply means that you have so surrendered your life to the Lord, you have so given yourself over to the Lord, as to allow the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you, to have full charge of your life.
In other words, you have handed yourself to the Spirit of God and are under His full control. To be controlled in your life by the Holy Spirit is to be filled by Him.
To be full of the Holy Spirit speaks of a state, not just an experience. We may have an experience, but an experience comes and goes. A state is something that continues.
If we have given ourselves to the Lord, if we have committed ourselves to the Lord, abandoned ourselves to the Lord completely, the Holy Spirit will come and take over our life. He is going to take full charge of us. He is going to guide and lead us. He is going to do everything that He deems necessary to incorporate Christ into us.
This is what the Holy Spirit is doing in us. And, dear brothers and sisters, this is a state that needs to be maintained day after day.
You may have been filled with the Holy Spirit yesterday, but that does not mean you are filled today. As the Lord is leading you on, as the Lord begins to shed more light upon your life, as we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
God is light. If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, yesterday’s light may not be today’s light.
God’s light is shining within us, and as His light in us begins to shine, we walk in the light of life. As we walk in the light of life—that is to say, as we walk according to the Spirit—He fills us. We are Spirit-filled.
If tomorrow God’s light in you has grown a little larger, and there is a greater light shining upon your path, and if you are disobedient, if you do not cooperate, then, brothers and sisters, even though you were filled yesterday, you are yet to be filled today.
It is a daily thing with the Lord. And, dear brothers and sisters, true spirituality comes from a life that is completely given to the Lord and governed by the Holy Spirit. This is to grow in us day after day.
The Holy Spirit in us has an important work to do, and that is to form Christ. We have Christ, but Christ has to be formed in us. It is the work of the Holy Spirit.
In the measure of the formation of Christ in us, the measure of Christ grows and increases in us. This is the measure of true spirituality.
True spirituality is measured only by Christ Himself. How much has Christ increased in you? That is maturity. And it is only with that maturity that you will find God using you as leaders for the people of God.
John the Baptist says, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” And this is the way to spiritual maturity.
So, dear brothers and sisters, the first quality that God is looking for, the first quality that must be in a spiritual leader, is spirituality.
Number two: to be a spiritual leader, you must have vision. A spiritual leader is supposed to be one who sees. If a spiritual leader does not have vision, does not see, then it is the blind leading the blind.
Now, brothers and sisters, by vision, first, it does not mean that you have to see something physically. Of course, even today God is able to give people physical visions; no doubt about that. But that is not the point.
By vision, it means that God unveils His mind to you. God unveils His heart to you. God reveals to you the purpose that He has purposed in Christ Jesus. Now, that is vision.
By vision, we do not mean here a little and there a little. In other words, every Christian must have seen something. As you go on with the Lord, suddenly the Lord will show you something.
Now, some people say, “This morning, as I was reading the Bible, I saw something. Oh, I am so happy—I saw something! There is a passage in the Scripture that puzzled me always, but suddenly I had light. I began to see it. I know how to explain that verse.”
We do not mean that. Now, thank God if God gives you some light on some passages. Thank God for that. But, dear brothers and sisters, a spiritual leader needs to have a clear and comprehensive vision.
In other words, not just this little vision or that little vision, but a spiritual leader needs to see a clear and comprehensive vision of God.
To put it in another way, it is the vision that Saul saw on the road to Damascus. At the end of his life, you find that when Paul was being judged, he could stand before his judge, he could stand before the people, and say, “I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.”
In other words, Paul was a person who had caught a vision, and that vision had caught him. Because he had seen, therefore he said, there is one thing: not to be disobedient.
In other words, his whole life afterwards was to obey that vision. Dear brothers and sisters, what God’s people need very much today are leaders who are really given a vision of God.
Does God give you a vision—a vision of what is really in His mind, a vision that controls the working of God from one eternity to another eternity? Do you see what God is really after?
Is it that God is just after you as an individual person? Of course, God is interested in you. How He is interested! But, dear brothers and sisters, have you seen that God has something far greater?
As our brother has been trying to tell us in these few sessions, God has a wonderful, marvelous purpose, and He is going to involve you in that purpose. He is going to show you what that purpose is.
Oh, that Christ today may have a body! He is the Head. God has made Him Head over all things to the body. He needs a body.
And as His body is mature, and His body is built up, and His body is fully grown, then He will come back to claim that very body to be His bride. Brothers and sisters, this is a vision that we must have.
A vision is not something that you just mentally try to grasp. A vision is something that comes from revelation. When God reveals, then it becomes a vision to you.
Are you caught up with that vision?
Brothers and sisters, a person who has a vision has a burden. A person who does not have vision does not have burden.
Oh, how we need to have the burden of the Lord. Now, you look through the prophets, and you will find that oftentimes, in the case of these prophets, it is “the burden of the Lord” that comes upon them. It is a burden.
Now, where does such burden come from? Why is it that some people are burdened and other people are not? In other words, things happen on this earth, and yet some people are burdened before the Lord. Other people may see the same thing, and yet they do not have a burden. Why?
Because those who can see beyond—who can see beyond that which is visible, who can see beyond everything into the very purpose, the very mind of God—when they begin to see that, they get a burden. And when you get a burden, you cannot get away from it.
I mentioned last night that in 1957, when we were together with Brother T. Austin-Sparks, he talked to us on leadership. Now, he said—I will never forget this—he said, “Leadership is not based on ambition. It is based on distress.”
Not because you aspire, not because you are ambitious, not because you want to be in that position, not because you seek after that—therefore, you get leadership. Quite the contrary: leadership comes by distress.
You are deeply distressed. And because you are so distressed, you are so burdened before the Lord, you lay yourself before the Lord and seek and inquire after Him. Then you find God saying, “Go.”
Look at Nehemiah. Nehemiah, at that time, was the king’s cupbearer. Even though he was actually a captive in the Persian court, he was the king’s cupbearer.
At that time, a king’s cupbearer was a very high official in the court. He was not just a waiter in the modern sense. The king’s cupbearer was the king’s most intimate friend.
Why? Because in those days the kings were despots. And because they were despots, they were always fearful that somebody would like to take their life. They were always fearful that somebody wanted to murder them.
Therefore, you find that even when they drank, even when they ate, they wanted to make sure that there was no poison there. But whom could he trust? The king’s cupbearer was one who was closest to the king. He was his friend, intimate friend, confidant.
The king trusted his life to the cupbearer. Before the cupbearer handed the king the cup, he would drink it first and then hand the cup to the king to drink. In other words, the king trusted his life to the cupbearer, and the cupbearer was willing to sacrifice his life for the king. If there was poison, he would die.
And Nehemiah was the king’s cupbearer. Certainly, in such a position, he was trusted by the king. Certainly, he lived a life of comfort, a life of luxury—everything that you could desire.
And yet, dear brothers and sisters, he was concerned for his brethren who were in Jerusalem. When his own brother and some others came back from Jerusalem, they brought news to him and said, “The people in Jerusalem, oh, they are in great affliction. They are under grave reproach.”
Why? Because the wall was broken and there were no gates. They were exposed to the enemy, and they had absolutely no protection, no defense. They were just trodden down. They were in such a state that, if nothing was done, they might be completely annihilated, and many might return to captivity.
But, dear brothers and sisters, when Nehemiah heard that, the Bible says he wept before the Lord. He fasted before the Lord. He fell down before the Lord. He was a person in distress. He was deeply distressed by what he heard.
Because of that distress, he looked to the Lord to open a way for him. And there you find God sending him back to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem—a man in distress.
Dear brothers and sisters, are you ever in distress? Oh, yes, we are in distress for ourselves all the time. A little discomfort, a little thing that may not satisfy us, and we immediately complain and murmur.
Look at the children of Israel in the wilderness. If God was a little bit slow in doing what they wanted, they murmured.
But, dear brothers and sisters, who are the people who are distressed? Why are they distressed? Because they saw that what God desired to have among His people, He did not have.
Because they saw that God’s people were far, far short of the glory of God. They were so jealous for God. They desired so much that God would have what He desires, and yet they saw that God did not have it. They saw that the people of God did not care.
And, brothers and sisters, because of these things, they were indeed distressed. How do they solve this problem? Not just shaking their heads and saying, “It is just too bad. What can we do?” Being passive.
But when a person is deeply distressed because of the vision that God has given to him, there is no way out but to go to the Lord and inquire of Him.
Oh, brothers and sisters, what the church needs today are leaders—people who are distressed because of the vision that God has given to them. They cannot help it.
Some people say, “Why are you so dissatisfied? Isn’t everything all right?” The church in Laodicea, you remember, said, “Why, we are fine. Oh, we are so rich. We lack nothing. Why is it you always say something is wrong? Why are you always in distress?”
Oh, brothers and sisters, if you catch a vision of the Lord, if you see what God wants to have among His people for His own beloved Son, if you see what Christ gave Himself for, you cannot help it.
Not that you just have a disagreeable, murmuring character, just as you complain and are never satisfied. On the one hand, we should be contented in the Lord—that is true.
But, dear brothers and sisters, on the other hand, if God has given you a vision, there is no way out. You have to be before the Lord until that burden is discharged.
Do not think that those who have vision of the Lord have a good time. If you want to have a good time, close your eyes.
If the Lord should open your eyes and you see His heart, His mind, you cannot rest anymore. Even though you do rest in the Lord, in another sense you cannot rest.
Just like David said, he could not allow his eyelids to close upon him. Why? Because there was a burden in his heart to build God a house, to find a place for the ark. Oh, God!
Dear brothers and sisters, do we have a vision from the Lord?
When the Lord has apprehended a person by showing him what God desires, he will have a very difficult time.
Remember the prophet Jeremiah? How often he said to the Lord, “I am going to give up. I am not going to continue anymore. I have not chosen this. It is something that is put on me by You. I cannot bear it anymore.”
“I do not want to see it anymore. I am going to close my ears and shut my eyes. I do not want to see anything, do not want to hear anything. I am going to close my mouth. I am not going to say anything, as if I had not seen.”
But Jeremiah said, “When I shut my mouth, when I just refuse to speak for God, it just burns in my bones. I cannot help it.”
That is leadership. He got a mandate from God.
Oh, brothers and sisters, we need vision, because through vision we get burden, and with burden we get distress. And this is the quality of leadership.
Certainly, our brother has already mentioned brokenness. Brokenness is another quality that God is looking for in a spiritual leader. Or, if you like, you can say humility.
Why? Because humility comes from brokenness. There is no other way.
Naturally speaking, we are not humble. The most humble person can be the proudest person.
You know why this country seems always to rub other nations the wrong way? When they supply all their food and give them all these aids, and yet they always rub them the wrong way. Why? Because the poorest nation can be the proudest nation. You touch their pride.
Brothers and sisters, naturally we are all proud. Do not say that you are naturally humble. When you say you are humble, that is the proudest sign you can ever have.
But look at Christ. The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of humility. But humility is not natural. Humility comes from brokenness.
Dear brothers and sisters, God does not need a perfect vessel. God does not need a person who is so perfect in himself. God cannot use that person.
The only vessel that God can use is a broken vessel. We have the treasure in earthen vessels. The treasure is Christ, and we are but earthen vessels.
But, you know, earthen vessels do not allow the radiance of the treasure to come forth and shine. Earthen vessels are such in nature that, when you put the treasure in an earthen vessel, the brilliance of the treasure is hidden.
And if you desire to have the radiance, the brilliance of the treasure, to shine, there is only one way: that vessel must be broken.
Dear brothers and sisters, how do you help people? How do you lead people? When people come in touch with you, whom are they in touch with?
When people come to you, do they notice you? Is it your cleverness? Is it your knowledge? Is it your ability? Is it your energy? Is it you?
Now, when people come to you, or you come to people, if all that you can impress upon others, or all that you can impart to others, is nothing but the earthen vessel—that is to say, only you—how can people be helped and built up spiritually?
But for people to meet Christ in you, for you to be able to minister life to other people, there is only one way: this vessel must be broken.
Self-preservation is a human instinct. We all like to preserve ourselves. We all like to keep ourselves intact.
My dear brothers and sisters, unless we are willing to lay down our lives—the Lord said, “If you want to follow Me, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me”—otherwise, there is no way.
And what does it come to? It simply means: be broken before Him.
Dear brothers and sisters, are we broken vessels? Do people see us, or do they see Christ? Are we imparting Christ to others, or are we imparting ourselves to others?
Brokenness is the quality.
A very clear illustration is found in the case of Moses, which our brother mentioned time and again. Here you find Moses in the palace in Egypt.
He was trained, educated, and brought up in the Egyptian palace—the greatest nation in the world at that time. He was mighty in word and deed. Here you find Moses, a great man in the Egyptian court: talented, perfect, complete in himself.
And he did have a sense of his destiny. He felt that God had raised him up to deliver His people. On the basis of that, when he was forty years old, he went out to see his brethren, the Hebrews, who were slaves at that time.
When he went out and saw what happened to them, he did something. An Egyptian was evilly treating a Hebrew, so he beat the Egyptian to death and buried him under the sand.
The next day he went out and saw two Hebrew brothers fighting against each other. So he intervened and said, “You are brothers. Why do you fight?”
And they pushed him aside and said, “Who are you? Who made you our leader? Who do you think you are?”
Now, Moses fully thought that certainly they knew that God would raise him up as their leader. But they did not know. It was a surprise to Moses.
Why was it that God could not use him at that moment? Because he was too perfect. He was too educated. He was too complete. He was far too much in himself. He was too capable, mighty in word and deed.
And because of this, God had to break him.
Oh, brothers and sisters, when Moses was rejected by his own brethren and had to flee for his life, there in the wilderness, forty years—forty years were not a short period.
But during those forty years, he must have gone over that scene again a million times and tried to find out where it went wrong, until he discovered that it went wrong right in him—right here.
God used forty years to undo him, to finish him, to break him, to shatter him. He lost his ambition. He lost his eloquence. He lost his life. He lost everything. He came to the end of himself. He did not even ask that God would ever use him.
This message continues in “SK 6018: Qualifications for Spiritual Leadership, Part 2.”