Acknowledging the good thing in you
(II)
An authoritarian or coercive leadership
that makes people subservient or docile never using their
initiatives. A leadership always intimidating the followers to
submission, always making them to need the leader will never allow
them to believe that they are good for something. They will never be
able to acknowledge the good things in them. They will always be
looking up to the leader for what they ordinarily should be able to
do. Therefore they will never discover their potentials, develop and
maximize them.
A leader may be doing this owing to insecurity – he feels threatened
by the gifts, abilities and the resources that his followers have
especially the leaders under him. Such a leader is not sure of
himself. It could also be a manifestation of the spirit of control
in a leader which is witchcraft. A leader who is a perfectionist can
also treat his followers like this. Perfectionism is not the same
thing as excellence.
A leader should be positive concerning the abilities of his
followers especially leaders under him. He should practise positive
reinforcement and not be a fault finder. Nobody is hundred percent
good including the leader. If a leader thinks that those under him
will not do it well, they may not disappoint his expectation - he
will have what he says. They may not do it well. Almost always
people will act in line of yousr expectation of them. In Exodus
18:13-25, Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law had to come to his aid and
counseled him on how to lead the people introducing to him the
management principle of delegated authority or power –
decentralization.
What You Should Know
1. God created you good. You are God’s workmanship. That means God
designed you to do good things. Doing good should be the norm rather
than the aberration. It is the fall that brought malfunctioning; you
were meant to function properly. (Ephesians 2:10)
2. There is something good inside you. That does not mean everything
inside you is good because of the fallen nature. Even after we are
born again we are still going through renewal of our minds. As a
child of God, He has blessed you wonderful gifts which you must use
to His glory. “God has given each of you some special abilities, be
sure to use them to help each other, passing on to others God’s many
kinds of blessings” (1Peter 4:10 Living Bible)
3. You have the capacity to do what is good. (James 4:17, 3 John 11)
You have the capacity to do evil also depending on the spirit you
yield yourself to at any time. Use the capacity to do good that is
within you and don’t be influenced to do otherwise.
4. You have the ability to learn and do what is good. (Philippians
4:9) You can learn to do good especially following good examples.
But you can also learn and do what is evil.
5. You are unique. Nobody is like you and vice versa. Therefore how
you do things may be different from how another person does it. You
don’t have to try to be another person though you can learn from so
many people. Just be yourself. (Psalm 139:14-18)
6. Avoid complex – inferiority or superiority. Don’t be intimidated
by what anyone has or does; don’t be envious. Don’t look down on
anybody. Don’t engage in comparison. (2 Corinthians 10:12)
7. Don’t be under pressure to copy anyone or impress anybody. You’ll
lose your uniqueness and individuality if you do so. Don’t live your
life to prove a point to anyone; it is useless and needless.
8. Believe in God and believe in yourself. Don’t let others write
you off, they’re not your maker. God believes in you, that’s why He
created you and gave you your life’s assignment. You can do all
things through Christ who strengthens you. (Philippians 4:13). Don’t
listen to negative and demotivating words of men that seek to make
you not to value the good things in you. Don’t let them cancel your
future.
9. Put your troubles and failures in proper perspective. You’re not
a failure because you failed; your name is not failure. That you
failed does not mean you’ve got nothing to offer. It does not mean
you’re good for nothing.
Failure is not the end of the road; it’s just a bus stop on your
journey to success. Don’t take it to heart; only extract the
necessary lessons. “Failure is not final. Success is never ending”
You will have another chance.
Every trouble has a life span. Don’t surrender to trouble. Let it
bring out the good things inside you. Don’t let trouble change you
negatively. In Genesis 39 and 40, Joseph was in trouble (prison) but
even in trouble, he acknowledged the good things in him and
interpreted dreams for the officers of Pharaoh. He had a perfect
understanding that prison was a temporary place for him on his way
to the realization of his God given dream. The same gift brought him
out of prison to his throne.
Also Paul had a positive perspective of his chains and sufferings;
he saw God using his condition to advance the gospel rather than
holding a pity party. (Philippians 1: 12-19, 2 Corinthians 1:8-10,
11:21-32, Acts 20:22-24)
10. Recognize and accept those different from you. Being different
does not mean that somebody is better than you in all respects.
Somebody will always be better than you in certain things just as
you will always be better than others in certain areas. That’s what
obtains among nations of the world too - comparative advantage. It
is nothing strange. You should not because somebody is better than
you in certain areas hinder yourself from giving your best in that
same area or in other areas. There are some people that it is
exactly your person that they are looking for. If you are
discouraged and become passive, you deny them of the good things in
you which are just good enough for them.
We must learn to accept one another, release what is in us and also
enjoy what is in others that they are releasing. That is wisdom.
Please read Romans 12:4-21,1 Peter 1:22, 5:5, 1 John 3:11, 23, 4:11
- 12, 2 John 5.
What To Acknowledge
1. Your spiritual gifts and anointing. Don’t feign ignorance of the
spiritual gifts and anointing God has given you. Don’t despise them.
Identify them and use them maximally no matter the level which you
are operating now. Others may be operating at a higher level, leave
them to operate there. God will not ask you to account for the gifts
and the anointing He has not given you or the level He has not put
you. That does not mean you should be complacent. But it also does
not mean that you should be comparing yourself with others or be
demotivated by the operation of their own gifts and anointing. (1
Corinthians 12, 14, 2 Timothy 1:6-7)
2. The grace of God upon your life. As a child of God, you have been
graced by God for certain things. God is the one that gives grace,
and to the humble. (1 Peter 5:5) No man chooses for himself.
Identify and acknowledge the grace God has given you and let your
labour be in the area of your grace. Grace will make you if you
deploy labour to the grace God has given you. Paul did not become
what he became outside of grace. (1 Corinthians 15:10)
There is the saving grace which is for all and there is the grace
which God gives us each for the performance of certain assignments..
Grace is unmerited favour but grace is also the help of God that
causes a man to do more than his natural ability. (Romans 12:3,
15:15-16, Galatians 2:9) Don’t frustrate the grace God has given
you.
3. Your innate abilities and talents. These are abilities and
talents you were born with. It is not your fault; God endowed you
with them not because of what you have done or what you have not
done. Whether people like you or not, you have been given. God did
not ask for their permission before giving you. It is not because
you were qualified or better than others that God gave you the
abilities; it is by divine choice.
Education does not give you these abilities and talents but
education can refine and harness them. What God expects of you is
humility in using these abilities. If you use them well they can
actually give you an edge in life; they can reveal you to the world.
There are people that are known today not because of their education
but because they’ve focused on their divine abilities and talents.
And good enough there is no one without divine abilities and talents
whether you are born again or not. If you are not born again, the
devil will pervert them. The problem is that a lot of people die
without discovering them or abuse them owing to not being reconciled
with their Maker. Don’t focus on what God has given to others and
neglect what He has given to you. Stop studying others while you
fail to discover yourself.
4. What you have been taught or you have learnt in the Word of God.
(Philippians 4:9) There are things you have been taught in the Word
of God either by somebody standing before you or through personal
study. These are resources inside you that God expects you to profit
with. Don’t live your life as if you have learnt nothing.
The Bible says you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you
free. Don’t waste the investment of God in you by His Word. Anytime
you hear the Word of God in church or through reading or listening
to tapes, something good is being put on the inside of you, and you
are supposed to be changed to become the Word of God you are
hearing. Your life can not rise above the quality of the word you
are hearing.
Paul was disappointed at the Jewish Christians because at the time
they were supposed to be teachers of the Word they had been hearing,
they needed somebody to be teaching them. (Hebrews 5:12) That means
they wasted their learning years. The Word of God in you is a wealth
of resources, acknowledge it. Don’t act below your knowledge.
5. What the Holy Spirit has revealed to you and God’s dealings.
These are like pearls to you. And the Bible says do not cast your
pearls before swine. They will not value it. (Matthew 7:6) What the
Holy Spirit has revealed to you and the dealings of God in your life
should not be trivialized or neglected. You are to profit from them.
You can not deny what the Holy Spirit has told you and what God has
dealt with you over. Others may not have had the same experience;
they could be excused but you will have no excuse. You can not
compare yourself with them by the reason of what has been delivered
to you.
6. The knowledge you have acquired by training and discipline
through formal and informal education and in the school of life –
what life has taught you. There is nothing hidden from God about
your life including your mistakes. He knew you were going to make
those mistakes. The school you attended, the course you read, the
organizations you worked for, the crises you went through – God knew
about everything and He allowed them and He is working all of them
together to achieve His purpose for your life. (Romans 8:28)
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