HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div
3. Intense
The great quality I want in my associates is one of intensity. Romans 12:8 says that if your gift is leadership, “Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.”
Romans 12:11 says, “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;”
When the disciples remembered the way Jesus had behaved in relation to the temple of God they characterized it with words from the Old Testament like this, “And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” (John 2:17).
The leader follows the advice of Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”
When Jonathan Edwards was a young man he wrote a list of about seventy resolutions. The one that has inspired me the most goes like this: “To live with all my might while I live.” Count Zinzendorf of the Moravians said, “I have one passion. It is He and He alone.” Jesus warns us in Revelation 3:16 that he does not have any taste for people who are lukewarm: “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
- Spiritual leaders must go out alone somewhere and ponder what unutterable and stupendous things they know about God. If their life is one extended yawn they are simply blind.
- Spiritual Leaders must give evidence that the things of the Spirit are intensely real.
They cannot do that unless they are intense themselves.
