The single greatest thing a leader can do is to go as deep into his or her walk with God as he or she can, said Richard Blackaby, author, speaker and president of Blackaby Ministries International.
“If spiritual leadership is about taking your church into a more intimate walk with God, you cannot give what you do not have,” Blackaby told state convention messengers during the Tuesday evening session of the annual meeting. “You can talk about it, you can point in that direction, but you can’t take them there unless you’ve been there yourself.”
He asked if it is possible to have been a pastor for years and have a shallow walk with God?
Yes — some pastors have been using the same truths they’ve known for years “hashed over and over again,” Blackaby said.
“You can just sort of convince yourself … you’re so busy telling people what you know you don’t have any time to learn anything new,” he said. “You’re living on yesterday’s walk with God.”
Because of this, people are coming into churches and leaving in just as much bondage as they came in, Blackaby said. “People live in a post-tsunami, post-9/11, post-Katrina world. They don’t want trite answers; they need to know what God has to say.”
And the only way to get that fresh word from God is to go deeper, he explained.
At our current level, every one of us has a limit to what God will say to us when He speaks through His Word, Blackaby said. We reach that limit when we become satisfied with where we are with God, he noted.
‘Holy dissatisfaction’
“God wants to know, ‘Why did you stall out? Why did you become complacent? We were just getting going,’” Blackaby said.
Ministers — and all other Christians — need to rediscover a “holy dissatisfaction” with where they are in their knowledge of God and stop living on yesterday’s victories, he said.
Prayer is one way to do that, Blackaby said. It takes us to new levels with God and at the same time, is like a “window to our walk with Christ,” showing others what our relationship with Christ is like.
“Remember when the highlight of the service was the pastoral prayer, the pastor lifting up his people to the Lord? Your prayers can draw others to want to go deeper.”
If they see the depth of your relationship with Christ through your prayer, then they may say they want to know God like you do, he said.
Blackaby challenged messengers to get to know God better for that very reason. A number of those present came forward and knelt at the altar, praying together for a renewed commitment to “going deeper.”
“Do you know what would change the state of Alabama? If every Christian, every minister would go to a deeper level with God. God’s people right now are crying out for their leaders to do that themselves so they can go there with them.”
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