(71)  “GREAT PEOPLE ARE READY TO HELP ME”

I have always lived with the conviction that I was called by God to make an impact for Him and that step by step He would lead me and provide the resources I would need to achieve His great purposes. In the process, the following words of Jesus have been a valuable guide to me:
“My Father is always working and so am I……I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself. He does only what He sees the Father doing.” John 5:17,19
In my years of ministry, I have never applied for any position; I have always walked through God’s open doors that have been provided for me in various forms.
And in the process, I have trusted God to bring people into my life who would serve with me in my places of calling. One day I came across the following words (author unknown) to remind me that “great people are ready to help me” and I positioned these words in a place of prominence on my office wall.
“GREAT PEOPLE ARE READY TO HELP ME……..at the right time in the right way, people I don’t even know yet. I promise I will never give up because I don’t have the help, but I will trust God to provide. God has the resources to help me that I have not even considered. There are thousands of persons with all sorts of talents and skills that God can bring into my life in order to fulfil His plans. I will open my eyes and see the faces of people around me. I will open my ears to hear what they are saying. Today, tomorrow, next week, I will meet someone who is just the right person that I need and that person will come along at just the right time to fulfil that need and I will marvel that God arranged it so beautifully.”
And as I look back I can recall so many people who emerged (see my article)  Leaders EMERGE – They Don’t Just Appear. Identifying the Stages of Leadership Emergence. | Rod Denton (roddentoneng.com.au) at just the right time and have since gone on to follow the father’s purposes for their lives and impact the world in which they have been called to serve.
And I am led to say, “Only God could have done this! Glory to His name.”
Dedicated to all the great people who responded to the call to help at just the right time.

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(72)  “TRUST THE GIVER AND NOT THE GIFT”

In 2008 I resigned my position as Lead Pastor of my church to take a faith step to begin a new ministry I called EQUIPPING THE NEXT GENERATION. It was a defining moment as I realised that I would be walking away from all previous means of financial support. One morning as I was praying about this challenge, a clear word was impressed upon me, “Rod, as you move forward you can trust the gift or you can trust the Giver.”
And in the subsequent years I have learned that God’s work done in God’s way and God’s timing will never lack God’s provision. It has not always been an easy lesson, but it has been a lesson of critical importance to never doubt the faithfulness of the Giver to supply all my needs as I partner with Him in the things HE IS DOING.
One of my mentors in the process was the prophet Elijah who, in a time of famine, was told to camp by a brook where he would drink form the brook and eat bread and meat that would be supernaturally brought to him by ravens. What an amazing provision until……..we read that one day, “the brook dried up.” What a challenge. And Elijah had two choices, to stay at the brook and trust the gift, which usually lasts for a season, or trust the Giver who is eternal and unchanging.
Elijah trusted the Giver who directed him to move on to a town called Zarephath where he was led to a poor widow, of all people, who would be blessed by God to be a source of provision for Elijah (Read the story in 1 Kings 17).
He continued to walk by faith and not by sight and to trust the Giver.
“The education of our faith is incomplete if we have yet to learn that God’s provision works through loss…It is, in fact, the material insecurities in life that cause our lives to be spiritually established. If the Lord had led Elijah directly to Zarephath, he would have missed something that helped to make him a better man – living by faith at Kerith. And whenever our earthly stream or any other outer resource has dried up, it has been allowed so we may learn that our hope and help are in God.”   F.B. Meyer
I have discovered that the way we respond to brooks drying up in our lives is one of the most important lessons we can learn…..if we choose to trust the Giver and not the gift. In the process our faith (more precious than gold) is strengthened, and we are equipped for greater responsibilities. Here in lies a timely message for Christians, for churches and for denominations in these uncertain times.

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(73)  “ASK GOOD QUESTIONS”

• “Everyone communicates……. Few connect.”  (John Maxwell)
•  “If you want to become a better leader, the KEY is simple: learn to ask better questions.”  (Carey Nieuwhof)
•  “Jesus asked 307 questions. He was asked 183 questions of which He only answered 3.” (Martin Copenhaver)
• A recent study conducted at George Washington University showed that listening can influence up to 40% of a leader’s job performance.

As I have grown to understand that connecting with people is my responsibility, the more I have realised the importance of listening and asking questions instead of just talking to people. Studying the life of Jesus has been a big help as has the influence of mature mentors in my life.

Asking good questions not only reveals that I am listening, but also that I care about people and am interested in them and respect them. It also helps me to find out what people really believe and guards against making unhelpful judgements. To ask good questions I need to:
* develop a healthy curiosity about people.
* focus on what others are saying and not on what I want to say next.
* display attentive body language.
* put my phone away.
* be thinking in advance and preparing for the conversations that are ahead of me as I move through the day.
Effective listening has much to do with the all important issue of emotional intelligence. Everyone communicates but few people connect. Questions are a key to unlocking the door to connecting.

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(74)  “WE ALL HAVE BLIND SPOTS”

An issue of great concern to Jesus was that of blind spots. In His sermon on the mount, He said: “Why would you focus on the flaw in someone else’s life and fail to notice the glaring flaws of your own. How could you say to your friend, ‘Let me show you where you are wrong’, when you’re guilty of even more. You’re being hypocritical and a hypocrite! First acknowledge and deal with your own BLIND SPOTS, and then you’ll be capable of dealing with the BLIND SPOT of your friend.”
Matthew 7:3-5  TPT
On occasions when I have been speaking to groups, I have asked, “Put up your hand if you don’t have any blind spots in your life?” I can’t remember anyone ever putting their hand up. So, I follow with another question, “How many of you are taking positive steps to identify your blind spots and remove them?” Unfortunately, very few put their hand up.
One of the greatest dangers that can prevent us from fulfilling our life’s potential is when our competence outgrows our character because we are blind to our character flaws, our blind spots. A defining moment in my own life came when I gave permission to my mentor to point out any blind spots he might discern in my life. However, when he first mentioned an obvious blind spot in my life, my first reaction was to justify myself. My pride had gotten the better of me and I was to learn a very important lesson about having a teachable spirit.
We all have blind spots! The following steps will help you be free of them.
1. Realise that you have blind spots and that they will compromise your potential as a person.
2. Have a teachable spirit and walk humbly.
3. Invite a trusted friend or a mentor to reveal your blind spots.
4. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you study God’s word and realise that you have been reading the Bible with blind spots.
5. Confess your blind spots to God and ask Him for grace to remove those blind spots from your life.
6. Restore past damages that you have caused through your blind spots.
Many of God’s greatest servants in the Bible had to painfully humble themselves and deal with particular blind spots. And the consequences were profoundly impacting on their ministry to their generation. Why not do likewise and see what God can do in your life when you have been set free from debilitating blind spots?
After all, we all have blind spots.

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(75)  “THE CREAM RISES TO THE TOP”

“Cream always rises to the top…… so do good leaders.” John Paul Warren
Thomas Eddison was told by his teacher he would never amount to anything. He failed almost 10,000 times before inventing the light bulb. Every time when someone asked him about his failure, he replied that he had not failed. He had just found 10,000 ways it would not work. His invention changed the world. The cream ultimately rose to the top.
Florence Nightingale was prevented from taking up nursing by her parents because it was a job that was viewed as lowly menial labour. This did not stop her pursuing a career that would ultimately result in her singlehandedly revolutionising the field of modern nursing, a mission that began when she felt God call her at the age of 17 to a life of service. She gave her life to become a worldwide authority and advocate for healthcare reform, and nursing forevermore would be upheld as a high calling. The cream ultimately rose to the top.
Jesus Christ was born to a yet to be married father who was a carpenter and a teenage mother in Nazareth, a disregarded valley in a despised province of a conquered land of which it was said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” He never owned property, he never went to university, he never wrote a book and he died at the age of 33, and……
“Twenty centuries have come and gone,
And today He is the central figure of the human race
And the leader of humankind’s progress.
All the armies that ever marched,
All the navies that ever sailed
All the parliaments that have ever sat,
All the kings that have ever reigned,
Put together have not affected the life of people on earth
As much as that One Solitary Life.”
One Solitary Life by Dr. James Allen Frances

And what is the one thing that causes the cream to rise to the top?
“People who get things done are people who are driven by something invisible….., there is something inside of them that won’t let them be average. It burns like an eternal flame and pushes them toward a level of excellence in all areas of their lives that most people will only admire from afar. These are the people who are set apart by PERSONAL VISION. Vision is the common motivator of all those who do great things.”   Dave Martin

And people with a personal vision that rise to the top are people who:-
* will willingly give their lives in exchange for their pearl of great price.
* accept responsibility for their destiny.
* see difficulties as opportunities in disguise.
* realise it is not how long they live but how well they live.
* are unstoppable and know it is always too soon to give up or retire.
* get with big people who can enlarge them.
* are intrinsically motivated.
The great preacher of another era, D.L. Moody, on one occasion heard the words, “The world has yet to so see what God can do with a person fully consecrated to Him.” On hearing these words he responded, “By God’s grace I am to be that person.” How about you? What personal vision has God given you that will cause you to give your life to do something great, and like cream, rise to the top?

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(76)  “THE DANGER OF BEING EDUCATED BEYOND OUR EXPERIENCE”

“But anyone who hears My teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against the house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
(Matthew 7:26-27)
I will never forget the time a young man came to me to share a concern that Bible study was becoming a danger to him. He went on to tell me that he was regularly attending 4 Bible studies and that he was struggling to take in all he had been learning and to apply it to his life. As one great leader said, “The Bible was not given for information, but for transformation.” It was not given to increase our knowledge, but to change our lives.
It caused me to think about the importance of balance in our lives and the dangers that can surface when we lose certain balances; like when our competence gets ahead of our character, and we lack the maturity to handle the responsibilities that have been entrusted to us as leaders.
Jesus said, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” (James 1:22)

People who are educated beyond their experience can easily be filled with pride and become sermon tasters, critics and blind guides (Matthew 23:24). One of my greatest fears as a teacher was that people would be hearers of the word and not doers of the word. It was such people who were highly educated in the scriptures that became Jesus’ greatest critics and had him crucified.
It is important to remember that with knowledge comes responsibility. We are not to measure our growth by our increase in knowledge but rather by how much our lives are growing more like Jesus because (unapplied) knowledge puffs up but love (applied knowledge) builds up. (1 Corinthians 8:1)
Bible study is important, but it was never meant to be an end in itself. Beware, or you might end up “Straining your water so that you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel.” (Matthew 23:24)
Now that’s a mouthful!

(77)  “WHEN I SAY ‘YES’, I CAN ALSO BE SAYING ‘NO’ “

It wasn’t long after I first accepted a call to join the ministry team of a large church that I began to feel overwhelmed by the demands that were being made on my time and energy. This was a whole new world for me, one in which I felt vulnerable and conscious of the need to not disappoint people whom I had been called to serve.
Further, my job did not fit into clearly defined set hours and soon I was compromising the time I was meant to share with my wife Sue, and the time I wanted to spend in prayer and Bible study and personal development.
I was learning that when I say “yes”, I can also be saying “no”. I was about to learn one of the most important lessons of my life and my mentor would be Jesus.
As I read the Gospels, I began to see that there was something different about the way Jesus would use His time.
Every call for help was not necessarily a call from God. It would have been impossible for Him to meet the needs of every individual that was drawn to Him. On one occasion one of Jesus’ disciples found Him and said, “Everyone is looking for you,” to which Jesus replied, “We must go on to other towns as well….”
Mark 1:37-38
On another occasion when vast crowds came to Jesus to hear Him preach and to be healed of their diseases we read, “But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.” Luke 5:15-16
When Jesus was told that His friend Lazarus was sick, “He stayed where He was for the next two days.” John 11:6
“Our Lord sets the perfect example of strategic use of time. He moved through life with measured steps, never hurried though always surrounded by demands and crowds. The secret of Jesus’ serenity lay in His assurance that He was working according to the Father’s plan for His life. He was conscious of a divine timing in His life.”
J. Oswald Sanders

What can we learn from Jesus about our use of time?
1. Time is a gift from God, and we are to be good stewards of our use of the time He has entrusted to us.
2. There is always time to do God’s will. At the end of His life, Jesus gave an account of the use of His time, I brought glory to You (Father) here on earth by completing the work YOU gave me to do.” John 17:4
3. He chose to be a pleaser of God rather than a pleaser of people.
4. Jesus, like Paul, could say “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”
Ephesians 2:10
5. He never said, “I don’t have time.”
6. Time cannot be hoarded or retrieved; it must be spent as we receive it.
7. The need is not always the call.
8. “….to Jesus, there were no such things as interruptions. ‘Unexpected’ events were always foreseen in the Father’s planning, and Jesus was therefore undisturbed by them.” J. Oswald Sanders

Jesus has been a wonderful mentor to me in regard to my use of time. I commend Him to you. I am glad to say with the passing of time that when I say “yes”, I am more often saying yes to my Father so I can say at the end of my life,
“Father, I have brought You glory here on earth by completing the work YOU gave me to do.”

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(78)  “BURNING ON WITHOUT BURNING OUT”

I remember the time a doctor took Sue and me into his office to ask us a very personal question; “Tell me, Rod and Sue, after all you have been through with extended family sicknesses that have brought you much stress, how is it that your marriage is still holding together? I haven’t come across many couples who have endured all that you have, and stayed together in a loving relationship.”
We were quite surprised to hear the doctor’s comments and to realise he had been observing us in our painful journey.
It brought to mind a science experiment that I had observed in a chemistry class where the teacher had heated an empty kerosene can and then placed the lid back on the can and started to cool it down. In the process the can imploded as the outside atmospheric pressure became greater than the pressure inside the can.
And that is the challenge in times of trial. To make sure that the power inside of us is greater than the pressure outside of us. To be assured that no matter what comes our way, we can burn on without burning out.
This was the lesson that Moses had to learn if he was going to successfully lead the Israelites out of Egypt toward the Promised Land. His first attempt at rescuing his people was somewhat of a failure. He thought he could do it in his own strength, only to escape with his life and live in a desert for forty years.
And finally, he came to realise his inability to live resiliently, and God encountered him in the desert by way of a burning bush. Moses was amazed that although the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. What an object lesson for him!
Ang God after forty years, told Moses that He was sending him to bring His people out of Egypt and He would be with Moses. And just as the bush was burning on without burning out, so it would be with Moses as he trusted God that His sustaining grace would be sufficient for him.
Just as Paul would learn many years later that God’s (sustaining) grace would be sufficient for him, for God’s power is made perfect in weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:9
Rod and Sue, “Why aren’t you divorced?” “Doctor, we are burning on without burning out because the power inside of us is greater than the pressure outside of us.”
And so it has been for Sue and me in the ensuing years. So, how is it with you? Are you burning on without burning out? Have you learnt the secret of God’s sustaining grace that is tailor made just for you and is available just when you need it?

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(79)  “WE ARE ALL GIFTED”

“Every person is a genius in some direction.”  William Booth
Ministry is full of challenges and one of them is to make sure that all activities remain fully staffed. At times this can be easier said than done. Like the time my leader of Children’s Ministries came to me one day to tell me that a shortage of leaders existed in our Children’s Church (Sunday School). In fact, it was difficult to see how Children’s Church could operate the following Sunday. What to do?
I did something I hadn’t done before. I felt led to announce in our church service;
“There will be no Children’s Church today. Children will have to remain in the adult’s worship service while there exists a shortage of leaders. Two options exist. Either we discontinue Children’s Church or there are gifted people in this church who are yet to volunteer to serve in this department.”
I made this announcement because I believe that:
* Jesus is the head of the church and that He is building the church and is a good builder.
* each person in the church has been given special gifts to use and that the church can only function properly when each person discovers their spiritual gifts and uses them. We are all ministers. “He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. (Ephesians 4:16)
* we are stewards and if we do not open our gift box and use our gift/s we will lose them, and the church will suffer.
* when we all use our particular gifts (when we are a round peg in a round hole) we get great fulfillment, and we bless other people, and the church grows.
* the life of Jesus is still being lived out on the earth today, no longer through one body in one place, but through an amazing body called the church which is made up of many members who share the one life, the life of Jesus.
* the leader of the church is responsible for helping each member to discover their spiritual gifts and put them into practice.
* we are to focus on developing the spiritual gifts we do have, not the ones we don’t have.
“The church is primarily and fundamentally a body designed to express through each individual member the life of an indwelling Lord and is equipped by the Holy Spirit with gifts designed to express that life. It follows that there could hardly be anything more abortive or pathetic than a church which fails to understand this and substitutes instead the business methods, organisational proceedings and pressure politics of the world to accomplish its work. This is a certain recipe for frustration and ultimate death.”   Ray Steadman BODY LIFE
You may be asking what happened to the Children’s Church at my church. The following Sunday I made this announcement; “I am pleased to announce that Children’s Church will resume this week with a full complement of gifted leaders. I thank the Lord of our church for the way He continues to build His church and for the gifts He is giving each person to make this possible.”
We are all gifted! Do you know your spiritual gift/s and are you using them for the glory of God? Do you have a spiritual gift discovery course in your church? Remember, “Every person is a genius in some direction.”

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(80)  “STRENGTHS TAKEN TO EXTREME CAN BECOME WEAKNESSES”

It took me a while to understand that my strengths could be valuable assets, or they could be destructive liabilities. Like a wild horse, my strengths needed to be brought under control (broken in) if they were going to be of any use to me. Consequently, I learned that meekness, strength under control, would be an important lesson to learn if I was going to maximise my potential as a leader. My strengths needed to become servants that were sensitively used to add value to people around me and the world in which I lived and not masters to use indiscriminately and thoughtlessly.
Examples of leaders using their strengths to extreme include:
* decisive leaders who over control
* relational leaders who lose sight of the job at hand
* detailed leaders who shut out creativity and enterprise
* perfectionistic leaders who make impossible demands and compromise team spirit
As I studied the life of Jesus, I found in Him a person of great strengths, but also a person who meekly submitted His strengths to the will of His Father in heaven. He was the powerful majestic Lion of Judah but He was also the submissive sacrificial Lamb of God. He was the strong revolutionary who overturned the money changers’ tables in the temple and He was the one who would not break a bruised reed or snuff out a smouldering wick.
So how do we keep our strengths under control so that they are not taken to extremes, and become weaknesses?
* Give trusted people permission to point out your blind spots (see WORDS no. 74 “We All Have Blind Spots”)
WORDS THAT HAVE SHAPED MY LIFE 68 – 75 | Rod Denton (roddentoneng.com.au)
* Bring your gifts of the Spirit under the control of the fruits of the Spirit.
* Relate to people according to their personalities. I can think of three people in my leadership team with different personalities that I needed to relate to in different ways so that I might effectively connect with each one of them.
* Engage a good mentor to help you.
* Study the life of Jesus.
* Grow in meekness , strength under control
* Finally, remember the words of Jesus, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”  Matthew 5:5