Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.
--Joshua 1:7
Nehemiah was one of the great leaders of the Bible even though he wasn’t a prophet, a priest, or a preacher!
Nehemiah described himself as a cupbearer to the king. He was just a guy who worked hard and had risen to some prominence in his day and time. Nehemiah was just a man… but he was a man whom God raised up!
As we look at his life, there are some steps that Nehemiah took that insured his success… steps that made him a very effective leader. They’re the same steps you can take as a follower of Christ to ensure you’re an effective leader in your sphere of influence as well.
Step number one is to pray fervently. We see this trait over and over again in the life of Nehemiah. He was a man of prayer. Real leaders understand that opportunity swings on the hinges of prayer.
Step number two is to proceed confidently and courageously. You accomplish this by living what Proverbs 3:5-6 says: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
Step number three to being an effective leader is to plan wisely. Too often we have an idea… we have a dream… and we just go at it arms flailing, rather than taking time to plan. But there’s a beautiful balance here. There’s the divine side of praying and then there’s the human side of planning. There is agonizing and then there is organizing.
This is why Nehemiah was such a great leader. He not only prayed, he not only proceeded with confidence and trust in the Lord, he planned effectively.
These same steps… when applied to your life as a Christian… will help you become the effective leader God intends for you to be!
Become the effective leader Ggod wants you to be by praying fervently, proceeding confidently, and planning wisely.
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.”
Luke 18:31
The Bible is filled with declarative prophetic statements. These are not vague generalities designed to conceal failure through a lack of precision. There’s a saying that goes like this: “If they ask for a date, don’t give a number. If they ask for a number, don’t give a date. If they insist on both, mumble softly.” That is not a prophetic declaration. God foretold specific incidents and details of the life of Jesus hundreds or even thousands of years in advance. And every one of those declarative statements was proved true down to every tiny detail.
These prophecies of the Old Testament were given to validate the claim of Jesus to be the Messiah. The Gospel writers frequently talk about events as fulfilling particular prophetic declarations, citing the prophets who made them so that everyone would know that Jesus was the promised Saviour. The fact that He was born when and where the Bible said He would be, that He lived and ministered as the Bible said He would, and that He died, was buried, and resurrected exactly as foretold is evidence that He is the promised Son of God.
But these fulfilled promises also offer us confidence for our lives. The same God who spoke those events that came to pass also makes promises to us in His Word—and every one is just as certain and sure as those that have already been fulfilled. Peter tells us that the Bible is given to us to believe. “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4).
Today’s Growth Principle:
Because God has never broken a promise in the past, we can place full confidence in every promise for the future.
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