All God is asking from us is for our availability in exchange for his ability.

Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law. (Psalm 119:18)

Which leadership skill below is God leading you to work on?

In yesterday’s devotional, I mentioned how I became aware of Dan Stratton, who founded the Provision Network about ten years ago. Dan was formerly a Wall Street trader and now pastors a church on Wall Street. He is known around the world as the pastor of Wall Street.

After watching the archived TBN interview of Dan online on November 10, I was prompted to listen to two of Dan’s audio messages at the ProVision Network website. Here are some notes I took from his message titled “13 Skills A Leader Needs.”

The ingredients of leadership really can’t be taught – they need to be caught. You need to be around these leaders. None of us have all these skills. All of us need all of these skills. So we need to practice them.

The experiences you have had in your life are very important. You need to enjoy the journey as well as the destination. Your trails are a testing ground. You need to grow from those instead of being afraid they will happen again. Strength will be developed in your life by stress.

You get what you expect. Therefore, you need to set high expectations, high goals. You get what you inspect – what you pay attention to. It doesn’t work to set high goals and have no plan.

1) The first skill you need as a leader is the ability to accept people where they are and be willing to take them higher. Look past their outward appearance and look to their inward potential. As a leader, you’re not going to automatically get great followers. All God is asking from us is for our availability in exchange for his ability.

2) Approach relationships and problems in terms of the present rather than the past. Treat others as equals. Don’t dwell on the past. We’re here. We’re now. All God is asking us to do is to be successful. He has a covenant of success. Whenever you look at a brother or a sister, remember that you’re looking at the potential of Christ – you’re looking at a house of God. We’re after God’s best – an open heaven, a blessing that we can’t even contain.

3)  Learn to treat the people close to you with the same courteous attention that you would extend to strangers. Be nice. Smile. Let the people know you like them. 

4) Trust others even if the risk seems great. You have to give people rope. Trust is not the same as faith. Leadership without mutual trust is a contradiction in terms. You need to command a level of integrity. Your word has to be good. Trust rests squarely between faith and doubt. Doubts come in to any good businessman. Faith is when everything is just clicking. Doubt is when nothing is clicking. A leader has faith in himself, his abilities, his co-workers, and their mutual abilities. A leader must have sufficient doubt to question, challenge, and probe. You have to ask questions.

5) Be able to do without constant approval and recognition from others. You have to learn to encourage yourself. Learn to find good things in your life and other people’s lives. You need to share your vision. Dream again.

6) Communicate clearly with others. Communicating isn’t just talking. You have to listen. Leaders make sure the other person got it. We have to be problem solvers in our business, whatever field God calls us into – “go into all the world.” God knows tomorrow’s paper (newspaper) – He knows the trends that are coming. You should be a trend setter in Him, not a trend follower. Be a good listener and a good speaker. Make sure you are getting your point across.

7) Inspire, encourage, and motivate others to action. The key is if you can’t motivate yourself to action, you’re not going to motivate anyone else.

Prayer Power
Lord Jesus, You are the best leader to ever walk the planet. Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from Your law. Continue to refine me in Your holy fire to make me an instrument of Your peace that passes all understanding. Teach me to accept people where they are and be willing to take them higher. Thank You. Amen.

Link of the Day
Provision Network [www.provisionnetwork.org] – for some great free resources, click on Resources – Free Resources

Blessings to have God open your eyes that you may see wondrous things from His law.