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This study was prepared by:- COPYRIGHT
Pastor Ralph MORLEY (Ph 079 971 478) ~~~~~~~~~
P O Box 158 MOURA Qld 4718 You may COPY and DISTRIBUTE.
This Program is FREE.
It MUST be distributed ONLY in
Distributed by - Alphon Edugames COMPLETE FORM. It must NOT be
221 Ridley Road altered in any way. It may be
Bridgeman Downs 4035 AUSTRALIA packed in your choice of
format (Arc Pak Zip ? ? )
TO THE GLORY OF GOD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Study No 1.
THE CALL TO LEADERSHIP
"I have also called My mighty ones..."(Isaiah 13:3b, King James).
"I the Lord have called thee..."(42:6a, King James).
"The Lord hath called me from the womb..."(49:1c, King James).
"And going on from thence, He saw two brethren, James...and
John...in a ship with...their father, mending their nets; and He
called them"(Matthew 4:21, King James).
The Necessity for a Call
The subject of the call of God is one that has been pondered,
discussed and taught by many theologians throughout the years.
Many testimonies about the necessity of God's call have been
published, and many people have written numerous articles on the
subject. Unfortunately, however, many Christians over the years
have still entered the ministry without ever receiving a divine
call from the Lord. As these people have most probably
discovered through their failures, victory in the ministry hinges
upon this initial call from God. Some have entered the ministry
in presumption. Some have entered with innocent and noble
motives, and others have entered as they would otherwise the
profession of a doctor or a lawyer. In the Old Testament, there
are several scriptures that state how men went forth on their own
initiative and without the Lord sending them, which always
resulted in failure. The following list will illustrate this:
1. "I sent them not, neither commanded them, therefore
they shall not prosper this people at all" (Jeremiah
23:21, 32).
2. "I have not sent them', saith the Lord (27:15).
3. Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the
prophet, 'Hear now, the Lord hath not sent thee, but
thou makest this people to trust in a lie'(28:15).
4. "They prophesy falsely, I have not sent them", saith
the Lord. (29:9, 31).
5. "They have seen lying and vain divination', saith the
Lord, 'and the Lord hath not sent them, they have
made others to hope that they would confirm the
word'" (Ezek. 13:6).
There are three ways that a man be appointed to an office.
First, God can appoint him; second, man may appoint him; third, a
person may appoint himself. In the world today there are many
self and man-appointed leaders, and few appointed by God. It
would be advantageous to look separately at each one of these
sources of calling.
Self-appointed Leadership
To be a self-appointed leader means to take upon oneself the
authority and responsibility of a spiritual office into which one
has not been divinely called. An example of self-appointed
leadership is found in the Old Testament in the man Korah. In
Numbers 16 and 17 we have the background and history to this
story. Korah rebelled against the divinely-appointed leadership
in Moses and tried to set himself up as a leader. The following
list will give the progression of a self-appointed leader, as
seen in Korah; someone desiring a position to which God has not
called him.
1. He caused others to rise up against the existing
spiritual leadership (Numbers 16:2).
2. He publicly criticized and questioned the existing
leadership (16:3):
"Ye take too much upon you seeing the congregation are
holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them,
wherefore lift ye up yourselves above the congregation
of the Lord?"
3. He accused leadership of what he himself was guilty of
(16:3).
4. He was not satisfied with the position that he had been
given. He continually wanted more authority and a higher
position (16:10).
5. He continued to murmur against the existing leadership
(16:11).
Man-appointed Leadership
Man-appointed leadership are people who claim to receive a
call from God, but the call is by the authority of human vessels
who are not speaking by the unction of the Lord.
An example of a man-appointed leader is found in the first
king of Israel. The background to this story is found in 1
Samuel 8-10. In 1 Samuel 8:1-4 we have Samuel making his sons
the judges over Israel.Samuel's sons, however, had not walked in
the steps of their father or in the ways of the Lord. The
people, therefore, rejected them from being their leaders. The
people of Israel asked Samuel to give them a king like all the
other nations. Up until that time, Israel had no king but
Jehovah. Israel had had a theocracy, but now they wanted a man
to rule over them. Samuel was very displeased with this request
and thus went to God about it. The Lord told Samuel to give the
people of Israel what they wanted i.e., a man to rule over them.
The Lord said that they had not rejected Samuel from being their
leader, but that they had rejected Him from being their leader.
Samuel returned to the people and gave them their request, a man-
appointed leader named Saul.
In the following verses of the chapter, Samuel describes to
them the kind of leader that they were going to have. The
following description of this man-appointed leader is very
applicable to the man-appointed leader in the Church world today.
The following list will give some of his characteristics:
1. He will take your sons and appoint them for himself
(1 Sam. 8:11).
2. He will appoint many men to work his ground, to harvest
his crops, to make his instruments of war, and his
chariots (8:12).
3. He will take your daughters to be confectionaries, cooks
and bakers (8:13).
4. He will take the best of your fields, vineyards and
oliveyards and give them to his servants (8:14).
5. He will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards
and give it to his officers and servants (8:15).
6. He will put to work your servants, maid-servants,
godliest young men and your asses (8:16).
7. He will take a tenth of your sheep, and you shall be his
servant (8:17).
The key phrase to those portions of Scripture is, "He will
take". The man-appointed leader is destined to rob and spoil the
people of the Lord. He is out to obtain what he wants and what
he needs at the expense of the sheep. He is not concerned with
the needs of the sheep. This is a picture of the hireling, who
is the opposite of the true shepherd.
In 1 Samuel 10 we have the account of Saul's anointing by the
prophet Samuel. Samuel anointed Saul with the oil poured out
from a vial. But, all other kings were anointed by the oil
poured forth from the horn of an animal - not a vial. The vial
was a man-made bowl containing drinking water. The horn was
taken from an animal that had given its life to produce it.
Saul, a man-made ministry, was anointed with a man-made
instrument, the vial. David, on the other hand, being God's
choice, was anointed with the divine oil poured forth from the
horn of an animal. God's leaders are anointed with a horn and
not a vial; by God's Spirit and not by man's.
God-appointed Leadership
After looking at two of the most common errors concerning the
call of God upon a person, we will now look at the Biblical
pattern. The Bible is still the handbook for the believer. The
Word of the Lord has all the guidelines needed to answer such a
misunderstood area. God-appointed leadership are people who are
appointed and placed in ministries. The following words
(appoint, separate, call, sent) will give scriptural insight into
God Himself calling His leaders.
1. The word "appoint" means in the Hebrew to oversee, to care
for, to watch over. The following are some examples of
those whom God appointed.
(a) Numbers 1:50, Thou shalt appoint the Levites;
(b) Numbers 3:10, Thou shalt appoint Aaron to his
office;
(c) II Samuel 6:21, God chose and appointed me
David ruler over the people;
(d) 1 Chronicles 15:16, The Levites were to appoint
their brethren;
(e) 1 Chronicles 15:17-19, The Levites appointed Heman;
(f) 1 Chronicles 15:17-19, The Levites appointed Ethan to
sound;
(g) Numbers 27:16,19,22 Joshua was set or appointed man
over the people;
(h) Acts 6:3 The Apostles appointed deacons
over the business of serving
the tables.
2. The word "separated" means in the Hebrew to set off by
boundaries, to appoint, to set aside. The following are
some examples of those whom God separated.
(a) Deuteronomy 10:8, The Lord separated the tribe
of Levi;
(b) Deuteronomy 32:8, The Lord separated the sons of
Adam;
(c) 1 Chronicles 23:13, Aaron was separated to sanctify
the holy things;
(d) Romans 1:1, Paul, an apostle, was separated
unto the Gospel of God;
(e) Galatians 1:15, Paul had been separated from
his mother's womb;
(f) Acts 13:2, The Holy Ghost said, "Separate
me Barnabas and Paul".
It is the Lord that does the calling and the separating.
Many may partially help to develop ministry through the
preparation process, but the Lord is the one who must initially
call people to His work. There must be a setting aside of a
person's life for God's service through the dealings of God and
the hand of the Lord. All of the priests, kings, prophets, and
apostles, as chosen vessels of God, experienced a divine
separation.
3. The word "called" means in the Hebrew to accost a person
to call out by name. The following are some references
in which this word is used.
(a) Exodus 3:4, God called Moses out of the
bush;
(b) Exodus 31:2,35:30,36:2, I have called by name Bezalel;
(c) 1 Samuel 3:4,18, The Lord called Samuel;
(d) Romans 1:1, Paul, called to be an Apostle;
(e) 1 Corinthians 1:1, Paul, called to be an Apostle
of Jesus Christ;
(f) Acts 13:2, Separate them unto the work
wherein I have called them;
(g) Mark 1:20, Jesus straightway called the
disciples.
4. The word "sent" means in the Hebrew to send away for a
specific reason. The following are some references in
which the word is used.
(a) Genesis 45:7, God sent me before you to
preserve you;
(b) Exodus 3:12-18, The God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob hath sent you;
(c) Jeremiah 1:7c, God told Jeremiah that every
where he would serve him, he
would go;
(d) Zechariah 2:8, The Lord hath sent me unto the
nations;
(e) Luke 4:18, He hath sent me to heal the
broken hearted;
(f) John 1:6, There was a man sent from God;
(g) John 4:34, My meat is to do the will of
Him who hath sent me.
Each one of these words was chosen to illustrate the divine
power of God in choosing and calling His leaders. Moses was set
aside for the building of a tabernacle for God. No other man at
that time was given that responsibility. God gave him a special
call with a specific job. David was marked as a man that would
be the king of Israel. He was not man's choice, but God's. Man
would not have chosen a young sheep herder to represent the
nation as king. But, God put his hand upon David and called him
to fulfill a divine destiny. All of the servants of Jehovah
received a specific call from the Lord for their work. The Lord
has never lowered His standards concerning this area of the call
of God. God still must be the one to appoint leaders of His own
choice. If the Church settles for the choice of man's leaders,
the will of God will not be accomplished in this generation.
The Call To A Specific Function
The subject of the call of God has two sides that make a
perfectly balanced whole. The necessity of a divine call cannot
be stressed enough in these days when we have many presuming upon
the offices of governmental ministries (Eph. 4:11). In the past,
however, the Church has been known to teach so strongly
concerning the five gifted ministries that these ministries were
considered almost the only ministries that the Body of Christ
had. The Bible does not teach that the Apostle, Prophet,
Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher are the only ministries in the Body
of Christ. There are many more ministries listed in the New
Testament, but sometimes the Church over-reacts to certain
prevalent doctrines and practices and goes to an extreme.
One contemporary example of the Church going to an extreme
with a truth is the truth on every believer having a ministry in
the Body. There has been an extreme reaction against the idea
that the Ephesian 4:11 ministries are the only functioning
ministries in the Body. The Church today is hearing much
concerning the priesthood of all believers and the whole Body
functioning in some realm of responsibility. This is a Bible
truth but so is the fact of the Ephesian 4:11 ministries. All
members in the Body of Christ are functioning members and should
be active. But, when we say that all members have a ministry and
a responsibility, we should make it very clear that all members
do not have governmental ministries given to the Body of Christ
for oversight.
Principles...A call without a vision is drudgery...
A vision without a call is fantasy...
A vision with a call is the hope of the world.
A job to do without having a vision can be a hard way to go
and cause you to lose sight of God's will as is was for Jonah
Jonah 1:1-2 God gave him a job to do
1:3 He didn't have a vision so he went
the other way
Jonah 1:4-17 Hardship he went through
2:1-10 Cried out to God
3:1-3 Jonah the second time began to get
a vision
To just have a vision and not a job to do will cause people
to just be dreamers and all the time wanting, but never really
attaining, as it was for the Rich Young Ruler
Luke 18:18 He had a vision of eternal life
18:19-23 When told what to do, it was too
hard so he just went on dreaming.
To have a vision and a job to do truly is the hope of the
world as it will keep you on the track all the time.
A good example of this was Paul
Acts 26:14-18 He saw a vision and was given a job
to do.
We all have been given a job to do but most people don't
understand what that job is.
Mark 16:15-20 He said "to go into all the world
and preach..."
Matt. 28:19-20 "Teach them to observe all things
whatsoever I commanded you."
ASSIGNMENT - Read "Profiles of a Leader", pages 1 - 64.
Judson Cornwall.
END of STUDY ONE
