Question: "Can a person be saved through general revelation?"
Answer: General revelation can be defined as “the revelation of God to all people, at all times, and in all places, that reveals that God exists and that He is intelligent, powerful, and transcendent.” Scriptures such as Psalm 19:1-4 and Romans 1:20 clearly state that certain things about God can be understood from nature and the universe around us. For more information, please read our article on the differences between general revelation and special revelation. In regards to the question, “Can a person be saved through general revelation?”, this question is usually asked in relation to another question, “What happens to those who have never heard the Gospel?”
Sadly, there are still parts of the world with absolutely no access to the Bible, to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or to any means of learning Christian truth. The question then arises, what happens to these people when they die? Is it fair for God to condemn a person who has never even heard the Gospel, nor heard of Jesus Christ, nor even heard that there is a God? Some propose a solution to this dilemma in the idea that God judges those who have never heard based on how they responded to general revelation. The presumption is that if a person truly believes what can be known about God through general revelation, God will judge the person based on that faith and allow the person entrance into Heaven. Is it possible that such a concept is true?
Before we address that question, a key assumption must be dealt with. Some make the assumption that those who have never heard the Gospel are searching for God, seeking for truth, practically begging for someone to come and deliver the message of salvation. The problem with this assumption is that Scripture declares the exact opposite. Romans 3:10-12 exclaims, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” According to Scripture, people take the knowledge of God available through general revelation and pervert it to their own liking. Romans 1:21-23 states, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” According to Scripture, the “status” of those without God is not one of seeking salvation, but rather one of rebellion, darkness, and idolatry.
Back to the question at hand – can a person be saved through general revelation? The Bible nowhere gives any hope that those who have never heard the Gospel are fully believing the truth about God available through general revelation. Again, the Bible describes the lost as being in rebellion against what they already know about God, not seeking for more truth about God. However, there is always the question, “What if?” IF a person who has never heard the Gospel truly and fully believed what can be known about God through general revelation, would that person be saved? IF such a person did exist, it would seem consistent with the love, mercy, and grace of God that such a person would be saved. Again, please understand, this is a hypothetical that Scripture does not support.
Acts chapter 10 records the story of Cornelius. Cornelius is described as “devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly” (Acts 10:2). Did God save Cornelius because of his devotion to God based on the limited knowledge he had of God? No. God sent an angel to Cornelius with instructions for Cornelius to contact the Apostle Peter and have him come to Cornelius’ home. Cornelius obeyed, and Peter came and presented the Gospel to Cornelius and his family. Cornelius and his family believed and were therefore saved (Acts 10:44-48). Acts chapter 10 is a clear example of how we are not saved by believing certain truths about God, or by obeying God in certain respects. The only way of salvation is the Gospel of Jesus Christ (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).
The fact that the lost reject general revelation is the reason why it is so important for us to proclaim the Gospel throughout the whole world (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). Romans 10:14 declares, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” God commands us to present the Gospel because of the fact that “there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:10-11). Rather than hoping some people are being saved by believing what can be known about God through general revelation, God calls us to go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel. Believing in the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ is the only method of salvation the Bible mentions (John 3:16).
Recommended Resource: What About Those Who Have Never Heard? by Ronald Nash.

Salvation before Christ

Question

How were people saved in the Old Testament? I know it was by faith, but faith in what (e.g. God the Father, a coming savior)? As we are now saved by faith in Jesus, it appears different standards applied in the Old testament since I would think few people in the Old Testament fully understood the coming Savior.

Answer

Salvation in the Old Testament was, of course, according to the same gospel that we know today (cf. Gal. 3:8), though it was revealed less clearly. It was by grace through faith, apart from personal merit. Saving faith in the Old Testament, like saving faith in the New Testament, was faith in God himself. Most basically, it is generally presented as a belief that God exists, in submission to God especially in the form of believing that what God says is true (e.g. Gen. 15:6), and in trust in God as Savior. In the Old Testament, the idea of God as Savior did not appear in the fullness of the revelation we have in the New Testament, where we learn of God the Son as Savior. But this does not detract from the fact that in the Old Testament God is consistently presented as Savior.

The specific content of saving faith was different at different points in time because, as time went on, God said more things. The greater the revelation God had given at any point in time, the more he expected people to believe. But it was not that people had to know and to believe everything God had ever said. Even today we don’t teach that a person must memorize the Bible in order to be saved. The point was that they believed that God was who he said he was (as far as they knew it), that they loved him, and that they trusted him to take care of them (especially by forgiving, saving, blessing, etc.). For example, Abraham believed God when God said he would bless Abraham, and Abraham was justified on this basis. We aren’t told that Abraham understood all the theological arguments regarding the means of salvation, or that he understood the relationship of faith to works, or even that he understood that he was justified on the basis of faith alone. We are told only that he believed God’s promise to bless him.

Ultimately, the Bible never tells us the absolute minimum content of knowledge required for salvation, whether in the New Testament or the Old. Perhaps one reason for this is that faith itself is simply a means by which God saves us — it is not the reason that God saves us. Faith is like a rope that God uses to lift us out of a well. It is not God’s power; it is not God’s motivation. It is simply God’s tool. I imagine that no two people probably have precisely the same faith content: we disagree on many things, and even when we agree we no doubt understand the concepts somewhat differently. Fortunately, our faith does not determine whether or not God saves us — God determines that all by himself. If he wants to save us, he gives us a measure of faith as the means by which he applies grace to us. The content of our faith merely reveals whether or not God has been gracious to us.

In a very important sense, the primary referent of our faith must be the object of our faith, namely God himself, the one in whom we have faith, rather than the content of our faith. This is in no way to depreciate the importance of recognizing all three aspects of faith: knowledge, assent, and trust. It is just to emphasize that we need knowledge of a person, not just of facts; we assent by agreeing with a person; and we trust in the truth of the gospel, but not apart from trusting the God whose gospel it is.

Now, none of this is to suggest that we can be saved apart from faith that includes Christ in its content: the person who has never received Christ will not be saved. (Of course, God can work miracles, and can give faith in the gospel to whom he wishes, even apart from the normal means of preaching.) But it is Christ’s divinity we worship and trust, which was present and revealed in the Old Testament as in the New, even if not with the clearer distinctions between the persons of the Godhead that we find in the New Testament.

Question: "What happens to those who have never heard about Jesus?"
Answer: All people are accountable to God whether or not they have “heard about Him.” The Bible tells us that God has clearly revealed Himself in nature (Romans 1:20) and in the hearts of people (Ecclesiastes 3:11). The problem is that the human race is sinful; we all reject this knowledge of God and rebel against Him (Romans 1:21-23). If it were not for God’s grace, we would be given over to the sinful desires of our hearts, allowing us to discover how useless and miserable life is apart from Him. He does this for those who continually reject Him (Romans 1:24-32).
In reality, it is not that some people have not heard about God. Rather, the problem is that they have rejected what they have heard and what is readily seen in nature. Deuteronomy 4:29 proclaims, “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” This verse teaches an important principle—everyone who truly seeks after God will find Him. If a person truly desires to know God, God will make Himself known.
The problem is “there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:11). People reject the knowledge of God that is present in nature and in their own hearts, and instead decide to worship a “god” of their own creation. It is foolish to debate the fairness of God sending someone to hell who never had the opportunity to hear the gospel of Christ. People are responsible to God for what God has already revealed to them. The Bible says that people reject this knowledge, and therefore God is just in condemning them to hell.
Instead of debating the fate of those who have never heard, we, as Christians, should be doing our best to make sure they do hear. We are called to spread the gospel throughout the nations (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). We know people reject the knowledge of God revealed in nature, and that must motivate us to proclaim the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Only by accepting God’s grace through the Lord Jesus Christ can people be saved from their sins and rescued from an eternity apart from God.
If we assume that those who never hear the gospel are granted mercy from God, we will run into a terrible problem. If people who never hear the gospel are saved, it is logical that we should make sure no one ever hears the gospel. The worst thing we could do would be to share the gospel with a person and have him or her reject it. If that were to happen, he or she would be condemned. People who do not hear the gospel must be condemned, or else there is no motivation for evangelism. Why run the risk of people possibly rejecting the gospel and condemning themselves when they were previously saved because they had never heard the gospel?

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Like it or not God has made us to be emotional beings. He wants us to have emotions – His emotions. He wants us to weep over the lost, be moved with compassion for the oppressed, be outraged by injustice, provoked by idolatry and angry at the hard of heart. He wants us to love the sheep in our charge, be caught up in the agony of intercession and have hearts full of hope. The Christian life, properly lived, is awash in emotion. However it is not merely sentimental, trite or unstable. Truly Christian emotions have a majesty about them. They ring of the Kingdom and participate in and agree with the Truth.

People and their emotions are like bells. Some people are like alarm bells going off anxiously and loudly. Some are chipped and cracked and when they “ring” the sound seems painful or like the bells on old-fashioned trams noisy, clanging, rattling. Yet others are like shop bells being rung by everyone that enters their life. Some are like a carillon, gentle, and beautiful and silvery; finally there are those that are deep and resonant and summon the countryside to worship.

So we see that the Christian’s mental model greatly influences which aspects of life they pay attention to and which emotions they express or repress. In fact we probably choose our own model partly because we are naturally more comfortable expressing one set of emotions than another. This may be due to, among other factors, our culture, our denomination, or to our natural temperament.

I find God paying a lot of attention to those areas outside my model. He challenges my preconceptions and stretches my view of what I should be like. The gap between my natural comfortable model of the Christian life and the life of Jesus is a gap He wants closed. He wants me to model myself after His Son and does not allow me to invent my own destiny or a ‘better idea’ of how I should be sanctified. For instance I am naturally rational and cognitively orientated and uncomfortable with high levels of emotion, so God in His desire to make me like Jesus, has made emotions a real area of challenge and of study for me.

The Blessed Believer: The ideal Christian is a person of great faith who prays fervently and receives great blessing from God and lives in abundance and happiness free from anxiety and turmoil. Salvation is easily and joyously and often instantly received. Abraham, Isaac, David and Solomon are seen as models Can easily focus on material blessings as a sign of God’s approval. Praise, gratitude, thankfulness, joy and contentment. “Rejoice in the Lord always”. Salvation is from misery to happiness. Happiness is a sign that Jesus is in your heart.
Sorrow, depression, grief, anxiety, genuine doubt, feelings of weakness and inadequacy, disappointment , any sense that life has treated them in an unfair manner. Negative emotions are construed as indicating a “lack of victory”.
Model fails when life appears to be far less than blessed such as when life appears to be unjust or unfair or when pain is overwhelming or during grief and sorrow. Job is the classical example of a blessed believer being challenged by life.

The Penitent Pilgrim: The pilgrim is escaping judgment and heading away from the World which is doomed. The Christian life involves separation from sin and worldliness and the serious pursuit of salvation which only relatively few attain and which is a perilous journey. Pilgrim’s Progress. Lot escaping Sodom. James
Sorrow for sin, seriousness, self-examination, correction of faults, penitence, intense prayer, travail, joy over forgiveness, righteous anger, woe, and pessimism over the world.
Frivolity, laughter, flippancy, playfulness, sensuality, attraction to worldly things, sexuality, pride over achievement, romance. Positive emotions are treated with suspicion.
Can become legalistic and joyless. Fails to give proper place to the goodness of Creation and creates rebellion in people brought up in this system who learn life is not as grim as portrayed.

The Independent Achiever: Emphasis’s being in ministry and achieving things for God. A Christian is measured by the size of his or her ministry and how they achieved it alone as their personal vision. Strategic thinking, business skills and personal success are highly prized. Models include Nehemiah and the apostle Paul.
Faith, hope, vision, optimism, joy, and the emotions of the will and the mind.
Tend not to be artistic and may lack compassion at times. They avoid necessary introspection and reflection. Doubt and fear are repressed rather than faced.
Can lead to burn-out. Works for some people but can destroy others. Their spouses often suffer.

The Sacrificial Servant:. Its what you give up for God that counts. The Christian “has no rights and is there to “spend themselves for God” and “burn out for Jesus”. Spiritual indicators include remoteness of where one serves and the poverty of conditions. David Brainerd is a model example.
Enthusiasm and passion for God and devotion to the cause.
Most emotions are repressed or sublimated including most natural affections.
At times is the stuff of cults. Tends to love God alone and sacrifices self, family and neighbor to the cause.

The Serene Saint: Like Yoda in Star Wars these are the unruffled and wise contemplatives full of peace and deep emotions. Their goal is tranquility of soul and union with God and self-mastery.
Tranquility and peace, gentle emotions, prayerful devotion, saintly emotions, mercy.
Anger and most intense emotions including sexuality are repressed.
Can be weak at critical moments and fail to tackle issues of justice and practical issues of life. Can become very selfish and inward.

The Radical Revolutionary: Enjoys turning over the tables in the Temple. Seeking after justice they identify with the Old Testament prophets. The ideal Christian is a counter-culture revolutionary who brings transformation to society and justice to the poor.
Righteous anger, passion for justice, indignation , wrath. Vision, hope and even optimism may also be present.
Tend to be overly serious and lose natural playfulness and joy. Gentleness and meekness may also be lacking.
In some contexts this is very much needed in others it is totally inappropriate. Not a whole of life perspective for most people.

The Evangelist: The ideal Christian sees many people saved. They are master communicators who are always witnessing. They have strong personalities are enthusiastic and clear sighted.
Black and white emotions. Enthusiasm, passion for the lost, joy, exuberance.
Reflective quiet emotions are often seen as impractical.
Lacks any understanding of ambiguities and complexity, a very confined and narrow model.

The Aggressive Apologist defends the faith from error at every turn and exposes heresy, cults, witchcraft and deception as well as contending with other belief systems. The ideal Christian is knowledgeable , theologically correct, logical and able to debate others so that they convert to Christianity or correct their ways.
Reason, logic, righteous indignation, anger, forcefulness, suspicion, evaluates and discriminates.
Playfulness, gentleness, creativity, sympathy, mercy, emotions of the heart.
Tends to distrust emotional expression and be overly logical and dry. Can make a person very rigid in their later years.

The Ecstatic Enthusiast: Led by the Spirit they are “on the move for God” and express strong enthusiasm for spiritual things. Spiritual ecstasy is a sign of God’s presence. The day of Pentecost is the ideal Christian moment to be recreated at every opportunity.
Trance states, ecstasy, passion, enthusiasm, joy, exuberance, praise, thanksgiving.
Critical faculties, analysis, contemplation, thinking, reflection and negative emotions such as pain, grief and disappointment.
Tends to spiritual burn-out and can be very unstable and insufficiently critical. Tends to fall for fads and is too simplistic for many of life’s deeper practical issues.

The Reasonable Man: Wisdom and Reason are the voices of the Spirit who leads Christians into a balanced and moderate life that reflects proper priorities and which is well adjusted to the social context the believer lives in. Extremes are interpreted as a sign of a dysfunctional personality. Solomon is a model.
Reason, analysis, ethical reflection, conventions and social mores, well-tempered emotions, kindness, gentleness, reasonableness. “Moderation in all things”
Strong emotion of all kinds is disapproved of as well as any major breach of social standards.
Unless the Bible is taught clearly and strongly this rapidly tends to an insipid worldliness and spiritual skepticism.

The Perfect Man: Like Confucius’ concept the perfect man is without inappropriate emotion or any visible faults. Emotion is carefully guarded and kept under control. The perfect man is upright, ethical, has perfect manners and social perception, and is extremely humble and meek.
Proper behavior, loyalty, humility, meekness, convention, submission, restraint, ethics, duty. “Being without fault in one’s conduct in life”.
Anger, pain, any socially disabling emotion, anything that may cause loss of face.
Because how others perceive the Christian is of ultimate importance it can produce harshness and hypocrisy. Very individualistic and tends to ignore larger social issues.

The Good Samaritan Love of neighbor expressed as social action and deeds of mercy mark the true Christian. Kindness, gentleness, mercy and helpfulness are the premier virtues.
Mercy, gentleness, kindness, hospitality, inclusion, practical deeds of love and compassion.
Exclusion, rejection, unkindness of any sort, tries to develop a very inclusive and non-theological faith.
Has much merit but can become just social work without a true saving gospel being proclaimed.

The Principled Idealist is characterized by seeking the high and noble life lived by principles and virtue and self-renunciation for the Ideal Good. People are valued by their principles, intentions and ideals without reference to actions. There is a pursuit of absolute excellence at the personal level and of a Christian Utopia at the corporate level.
High ideals and aspirations, concepts, ideas, justice, philosophies, ambition, personal striving for high goals, vision, personal principles, ethics, mission statements, nobility, virtue, the Absolute Good, Utopia.
The mundane, earthy, concrete details of daily life are scorned. Attention to detail and diligence are often lacking. Earthiness and pragmatism are perceived to be un-spiritual. Tends not to allow feedback from results.
Frequently disorganized. Also godly ambition and personal ambition can easily be mixed. Often so focused on the external goals that they lose personal insight and can become dishonest and treacherous.

The Perceptive Pragmatist is able to sum up life quickly and fix problems on the spot. A Christian is measured by their capacity to be useful and by their skills in judgment, analysis and implementation. Analysis, evaluation, enthusiasm, practical knowledge, authority, wisdom, toughness, shrewdness, energy.
Empathy, kindness, compassion, mercy. Most emotions are not felt deeply and they tend to be deemed as irrelevant.
Tend to come unstuck in mid-life and feel a deep sense of meaninglessness. May neglect relationships. May see virtue as impractical.

The Intelligent Instructor is a learned Christian who teaches well and can exegete the difficult verses of Scripture. The goal is knowledge of God and wisdom and knowledge are equated with progress in the Christian life. Academic prowess is prized and church is often made into a classroom. Ezra is a model. Thoughtfulness, balance, evaluation, discipline, kindness, gentleness, logic, intelligence, knowledge, reasoning, debating, humor, moderate emotions suitable for the classroom.
Strong passions are suspect and practicality may be lacking. The subjective and non-cognitive areas of the Christian life tend to be deeply distrusted. Lack of celebration and praise.
Can become dry, dull and overly rational. Praise and worship tend to be seen as only teaching tools. The central idea that knowledge of theology is progress in God is deeply flawed.

The Child of Nature is still living in the Garden of Eden and feels free to express all kinds of emotion. Spontaneity, freedom, expressiveness, artistic skill and creativity are high on the agenda. Nearly all emotions are freely expressed. Creativity, joy, freedom. The inner child is given freedom to play.
Discernment, wisdom, truth and responsibility. Can be undisciplined and immature emotionally.
Can become overly sensual and fall into moral disorder. There is a tendency to anarchy and irresponsibility. Lacks power and authority.

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Transactional leadership, in which an exchange takes place between leader and follower, represents the traditional influence model found within most human groups.

Transactional leadership approaches followers with an eye to exchanging one thing for another … Burns

Transactional leadership Pursues a cost benefit, economic exchange to met subordinates current material and psychic needs in return for “contracted” services rendered by the subordinate …. Bass

Transforming leadership now called transformational leadership, which was ennobling, “lifting people into their better selves.” “The result of transforming leadership is a relationship of mutual stimulation and elevation that converts followers into leaders and may convert leaders into moral agents of change.” Transformational Leaders work toward a common goal with followers in the process of collaboration; put followers in front and develop them; take followers’ to next level; inspire followers to transcend their own self-interests . Collaboration is the act of working together in United Labor with others to serve our City! This is the kind of Leadership has the ability to to bring change to the consciousness of people and help them think  what is  God is calling them personally and uniquely to be personally involved in, through, with and by passionately with not only on the surface level because that king of commitment is just skin deep and is really will run when the pressure builds or it gets uncomfortable.

What is leadership?

Why are people prepared to follow certain people? What makes them a leader?

Early studies of leadership examined the leadership  traits of the so-called great men.. their attention focused on the situations in which leaders operated and on the question, what do people called leaders do to change those situations?

To things Leaders take the lead! That is why they initiate the plans, goals, and ideas. and that second, leaders move people to follow them by showing them consideration.

Not all leaders act or behave the same, it is was clear in the study that bass did that no one style of leading, that leadership is contingent on circumstances, and what works in one situations may not work in another similar circumstances. Most leadership is exercised through leadership provided through position.

Transforming leadership “recognizes and encourages an existing need or demand of a potential follower… (and) looks for potential motives in followers, seeks to satisfy higher needs, and engages the full person of the follower” … Burns

Bass continues to state:

Transactional leaders work within the given situation; Transformational leaders change the situation.

Transactional leaders accept what can be talked about; Transformational leaders change what can be talked about.

Transactional leaders accept the existing  rules and values; Transformational leaders change them.

Transactional leaders talk about payoff ; Transformational leaders talk about (visionary) goals and (ideas).

Transactional leaders bargain ;Transformational leaders symbolize

Transforming leadership The leader who recognizes the transactional needs in potential followers “but tends to go further, seeking to arouse and satisfy higher needs, to engage the full person of the follower … to a higher level of need according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs” … Bass

Transformational and transactional leadership as distinct but not mutually exclusive processes, and he recognizes that the same leader may use both types of leadership at different times in different situations.” It is as if situational leadership, which called for different responses under different circumstances, was proving to be the integrating construct of the status quo – merging the behaviors of transactional and transformational leadership into the best combination for specific situations.

As exactly said by Bass – “the transactional leaders work within the organizational culture as it exists; the transformational leader changes the organizational culture”.

Maxwell says – “The true measure of leadership is Influence nothing more, nothing less.”

No matter whoever it is, as a Transformational Leader, you have the capability to become the role model for them. You are respected & admired by your followers. They have a separate place for you in their heart. You have absolute trust on your followers and they also have it for you. Your followers understand that you have great potential and determination which will take them to higher levels. You are having the willingness to take risks and be consistent. In any situation, you show high standards of conduct.

Inspiration and Motivation are always part of leadership. We know about Inspiration and motivation separately and they are used interchangeably. Let us see their connection in the below highlighted text before we get into Inspirational Motivation.

Motivation really comes down to inspiration. Since motivation comes from within, it is a form of self-inspiration. This process is nurtured by watching others achieve their goals. Most often it is developed by following the example of leaders who do the right thing for people, communicate frequently, empower vigorously, coach regularly, and sacrifice for others.[2]

As a Transformational Leader, you have a vision. You communicate expectations with followers and show optimism in reaching the goal. By your vision, activities and behavior, your followers get motivated and inspired. They all feel team spirit and work enthusiastic as a group. They start demonstrating their commitments towards the goal. Motivation can occur only if two-way communications happen.

“People respond to a challenge because it taps their inner desire to succeed.”[2]

“The goal of transformational leadership is to “transform” people and organizations in a literal sense – to change them in mind and heart; enlarge vision, insight, and understanding; clarify purposes; make behavior congruent with beliefs, principles, or values; and bring about changes that are permanent, self-perpetuating, and momentum building.”

A new leadership frame, Transcendent Leadership, has emerged with greater focus during the past several years. The word “transcendent leadership” to describe a special leadership observed among leaders who transcended self into compassionate being and action. If we add that man must learn to face himself as he faces others. It is this ability to lead from a consciousness of Grace wholeness, modeled and practiced by Christ, that most distinguishes the transcendent servant leader. It is all about an ability to lead from a place of wholeness, from a consciousness of service above self. Philippians 2:4

Transcendent Leadership, is empowering leadership which have four common elements:

Transcendent Leaders: Get attention through vision the “commodity of leaders” Managers concentrate  on doing things right and managing workers and not leading leaders. To empower means to living the vision not just talking about the vision.

Transcendent Leaders: catch  the followers attention through communication, although communication is primarily through living a life that inspires ,which models by example not only words of vision. Life to life is based upon our ability to communicate life with a variety ways  to modeling to emerging leaders emerge that will leads leaders. Sometimes we think our vision and words is what leads people. It is the life behind the words which creates passionate emerging leaders because it is do what I show you and  do, not just do what I tell you. A pastor said when you take position of a visionary pastor you are literally photocopying your life in to the lives of the people who are following you.

Transcendent Leaders: Trust is built through taking a clear committed stance, trust is the primary lubrication that helps relationships and families. If an individual or a family trust you then through Christ we can lead them to where God is guiding us as the visionary. Leadership is when we are heading into the wind…..to move others to wish to follow.. The angle into the wind is less important that choosing one and reasonably sticking to it. ” Believability over the long haul is vital.

Transcendent Leaders: know how to deploy themselves through a positive self-regard which is not as narcissistic as it sounds or self-centered. It is very simple that leaders know their worth to their families, friends, and co-laborers, therefore their keenly have grown to know personal strengths and weaknesses, where they fit and where they don’t, because of this inner-security built upon the security of who they are with God and what and how God thinks of them. Freed individuals will always bring freedom to others because it will naturally overflow outward.  They uniquely are able to free others through the inner freedom they have experienced personally internally which change their own self-regard. They lead others to live not the reflection of who or what they see in the mirror now as they emerge or who or what they were  in the past that is branded into people’s self-consciousness. We have as human beings have the ability to believe lies abut our selves that will eventually wound others unless we are freed.  To have a untrue  personal self-regard will never bring transformation it will bring death and wounds to others with will intentions. To have a poor self regard is really the farthest thing from humility, it honestly really is pride. To live in humility is to not have a higher or lower regard for yourself or others that is deprecating which root is pride. Humility knows who they are and who everyone are according to a balanced view that is what God say we are are not to have a lesser one, to have a proper estimation of self is to look through the lens of Grace alone.  To be able to estimate anything about ourselves or others through our the lens of Grace will distort and lead to pride.

Text: Matthew 20:25-28; Matthew 23:11; Mark 9:35; Mark 10:43; Luke 22:26

Leaders are immediately accountable to the people they serve, to the leaders they serve with and to the leaders they are raising up. And ultimately they are accountable to God. Simply put, it’s called servant leadership and it finds its genesis in Jesus’ statement here:

Jesus called them together and said, “He said, "You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage."

Unfortunately, the opposite of a servant leader is an Unaccountable leader who live down to the cliché that absolute power corrupts absolutely – even the very best of people can be corrupted by it. Strong leaders surround themselves with strong people who are unafraid to confront the leader with truth. Weak leaders surround themselves with “yes-people” who live in fear for their jobs and the personal value they receive from the leader’s affirmation.

Strong servant leaders create a culture of high-trust leadership where all people are valued equally – and where creativity flourishes at all levels. In a genuine leadership culture, people are viewed as equals even if they are in different roles. Roles are based on the development of individuals’ callings, passions, gifting, maturity, capabilities and are not a reflection of the complete value of the person. As a result, people at all levels are acknowledged and appreciated as individual members and contributors — even those who sometimes break the rules in order to deliver value to the organization as a whole. The culture of leadership can tolerate its occasional “mavericks” because it can see the innovative power of nonconventional views of the world with their work complements the overall mission and vision of the organization.

Debunking the Myths of Leadership Development:

Myth: Developing leaders is about having the right program to run people through.

Reality: Developing leaders is primarily a relational process, centered on the individual, not the system. The most effective starting point is the person, not the program. Programs are based upon the old model of leadership development that is based upon the transfer of knowledge and is transactional leadership. Transactional leadership is based in contingency, in that reward or punishment is contingent upon performance.

Myth: Developing leaders is a synonym for training.

Reality: Training constitutes one small piece of leadership development, and it doesn’t always look like classroom training.

Myth: Developing leaders correctly means treating them all exactly the same and expecting that they will all turn out exactly the same.

Reality: Everyone has different God-given gifts, passions, capacities, and callings. Developing a quiet intercessor will look very different than developing an entrepreneurial church planter. And it should. Leaders do not all look the same.

Myth: Leadership development begins with mature Christians.

Reality: Because we are holistic beings, developing leaders is a holistic process. Evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development are all part of one whole…they’re all integrated. Leadership development actually begins with pre-Christians. Looking at how God is already using individuals God-given gifts, passions, capacities, and callings even as pre-Christians.

Myth: Leadership development focuses on skills.

Reality: Skills are one piece of the whole pie. Effective development takes into account the individual as a personal, social, emotional, spiritual being. Any compartmentalization of these areas of our lives is artificial and will never transform it will cause the opposite stagnation. Stagnation is the process where the flow of the Spirit is inwardly restricted and may outwardly for a short time develop an individual’s with certain skill sets or externally modify the individual temporarily. The focus on the skill or behavior externally lacks the holistic process is never transformational. This therefore which creates an environment for novice traits and blindspots in emerging leaders to be never addressed effectively. Transformation is the result of inside out work. A marked change internally is metamorphosis the word transformation. Transformational leadership development is a life to life process of developing an emerging leader from the inside out in a holistic process that is whole.

In His Grace Forever,

Pastor Teddy Awad           

Email: teddyawad@gracecompasschurch.org

Church WebSite: http://www.gracecompasschurch.org/

Church Blog: http://www.gracecompasschurch.org/blog/

Office: 727-399-7159

Toll-free: 1-877-702-2GOD

Mobile: 410-808-6483

Please watch our Welcome Video: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIvt4d7pEtY

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"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked me to sift
you as wheat. But I have prayed for you,
Simon, that your faith may not fail"
(Luke 22:31,32, NIV).

Place your name, where Simon name is! 

Sifting wheat involved placing grain in a
sieve and shaking it hard to remove the chaff
from the kernels, separating the usable part
from the unusable. In human terms, sifting
means "to agitate and prove by trials and
afflictions". You could say that the process
separates that in us which is usable to God
from that which isn’t.

The King James Version of this verse reads:
"Satan hath desired to have you, that he may
sift you as wheat."

So the question is, who’s doing the sifting
here, God or the devil? The answer is both.
God is Sovereign. The devil can’t do anything
without His permission. But the purpose for
sifting us is different for each. Satan’s goal
is to prove our faith weak and lead us to abandon
Jesus. God uses trials to increase our faith and
to draw us nearer to Him.

For awhile, it looked like the devil was winning
with Simon. When Christ was arrested, he cowardly
denied three times that he knew Jesus (Luke 22:54-62).
But God always wins out in the end. Simon, as the
renamed apostle Peter, was a mighty voice for the
LORD in the face of persecution. Eventually, he
was martyred for spreading the Gospel.
Friends, you and are being sifted just like Simon
was. The devil would like our chronic health
problems to pull us away from God. But just as
Jesus prayed for Simon to stand in faith and
resist the devil, so, too, is He praying for us
to draw near to God in the midst of difficulties
and stand firm in Him.

Simon Peter gained the ability to be strong in the
LORD when he was filled with the Holy Spirit
(Acts 2:4). When Jesus anoints us with the Holy
Spirit, we, too, are given the power of God to
overcome the attacks of the devil. We don’t have
to fear the sifting process because Jesus is on
our side.

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A culture is the system of beliefs, disciplines, practices, and relational boundaries that reveal how life is lived among a particular group of people. Movements of any kind succeed when they have created a culture that can sustain it. Revivals have failed at this point in times past. Instead the great moves of God have been measured by how many meetings we have, and how many people we bring into our buildings. While this is good, it is incomplete. Building a kingdom culture begins with us shifting out mindsets to a kingdom mindset. Mindset is our fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines our responses to and interpretations. This will develop into inclinations and habits. That is why I strongly believe it must begin with shifting our mindset.

Having a kingdom mindset each day and in every situation means having God’s heart and mind for His world at all times. No part of our lives can remain untouched and protected from this. Finally, at long last, God’s plan is revealed and unfolded, that through Christ. We will see ourselves a part of that kingdom mission, we begin to interpret each aspect of our lives accordingly. We have been trained to think and live counter-kingdom lives .

Two thousand years later the call to follow Christ has been repackaged to be smooth and trouble-free, filled with opportunity and promise but lacking risk, passion, and sacrifice. Is this really what Jesus died for? If He chose the way of the cross, where would He hesitate leading us?

Jesus never made a pristine call to a proper or safe religion. Jesus beckons His followers to a path that is far from the easy road. It is a path filled with adventure, uncertainty, and unlimited possibilities – the only path that can fulfill the deepest longings and desires of your heart.

This is the barbarian way: to give your heart to the only One who can make you fully alive. To love Him with simplicity and intensity. To be consumed by the presence of a passionate and compassionate God. To go where He sends you no matter the cost."

Too often there is a history of unpleasant experiences with authority:

• some, because the leaders we were under were unnecessarily harsh

• others out of sheer frustration have come to view authority figures as hindrances to

their enjoyment or to what they believe best for themselves

• others in reality have been fine leaders and authorities but have established things that

are contrary to biblical beliefs’

But out of these distasteful experiences we develop a subtle attitude: I just don’t believe in authority, or to put it in other words, I’m just not going to submit to authority unless I agree with it

‘Rediscovering the Kingdom’ by Dr. Myles Munroe:

“Over the centuries we have watched the creation of a variety of governmental systems

including demi-gods, dictatorships, monarchies and tyrannies; as well as the theories and practices of socialism, democracy, communism and imperialism. Each of them has had an opportunity to try to make life better and more ‘humane’ on our great planet. However, wars have increased rather than decreased, weapons of mass destruction are more available than ever before and fear for safety and security is greater than ever before in history. All governments – even the best form we have developed, democracy – have failed to realize the world we keep searching for.

The Idea of the Kingdom of God is one that cannot be improved by seven thousand years of human intelligence; and it is just as relevant today as it was at its birth.”

It is hard to understand Kingdom principles with a democratic mindset. The Kingdom of

God is just that – a Kingdom. It is ruled by a King and there are rank and order and

authority.

Matthew 28:18

“And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, “All authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on Earth.”

He is El-Shaddai, God Almighty, the Ruler who sets all the standards in Heaven and Earth. He lives in and rules the unseen realm and is the Creator and Owner of the seen realm where He also created human beings to rule under His authority as Vice Regents of the Earth. As King of Everything God is the Standard Setter, the Rule Establisher and the Judge of all things. That’s what it means to be King.

The Laws of the Kingdom are not superseded by, or subject to popular opinion, voting or

polls. The Laws are not swayed by what we believe to be good for us.

If we attempt to live as believers with a cultural mind set towards authority we will at best be ineffective and at worst be positioned for danger.

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.