Week 5: Discerning and Doing the Will of God

At this point in our exploration of the spiritual rhythms in the life of the leader you might be wondering, how does the work of ministry get done?  The work of ministry gets done as we experience deeper levels of spiritual transformation which enables us to discern and do the will of God.

Beyond the chaos that is created by facing ourselves more honestly in God’s presence and letting that which is false within us fall away, a quietness descends that is pregnant with the presence of God. Over time, as we cultivate disciplines of rest, solitude, silence and self-examination, we find we are brought back from the brink of dangerous exhaustion to a state of quiet alertness that is able and ready to receive guidance from God. A knowing comes, a still, small voice whispers, a gentle blowing of the Spirit can be felt and we are awake and alert enough to recognize it. And we actually have enough energy to do what the still, small voice tells us to do! (See Elijah’s story in I Kings 19)

Beyond our normal patterns of trying to wrestle from God the wisdom we think we need, discernment is given as pure gift. We find that the transformation we are experiencing in God’s presence really is leading us quite naturally to a greater capacity to discern the will of God, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Through the gentle but persistent nudging of the Spirit we begin to know what is called for in those places where we need wisdom. We discover that that wisdom is often very different from the solutions we normally think our way into. And when the wisdom is just not there yet, we are restrained enough to wait until discernment is given.

The Heart of Spiritual Leadership

The transforming leader is growing in awareness that the things most needing to be fixed, solved, and figured out in our lives will not be fixed, solved, and figured out at the thinking level anyway. They will be solved at the listening level where God’s Spirit witnesses with our spirit about things that are true (Romans 8:16).  This is the level at which God speaks to us about those things that cannot be taught by human wisdom but can only be taught by the Spirit. It is the level at which spiritual discernment is given as pure gift.  (I Corinthians 2:12, 13).  It is the level at which perfect love casts out fear so that we are free to respond to the risky invitations of God.  (I John 4:18)  The leader who listens on these levels and leads from that place is a different kind of leader indeed!

The choice to lead from the place where we are growing and changing, listening and responding to God in risky ways is a vulnerable approach to leadership because it is a very tender place.  It is a place where we don’t have all the answers, where we are not always in control. However, if we are willing to lead from this place, we finally have something real to offer to others—something that actually corresponds to what people around us are seeking. A way of life that works.  Peace that comes from learning how to wait on God.  Awareness of God’s unconditional love and presence as the bedrock of our identity. Real change in the areas of our lives where we need it most.  Wisdom and guidance that leads in far more satisfying directions than our own human wisdom. A heart that is compassionate towards others because that is what we have experienced in God’s presence.

Furthermore, the quality of our leadership is decidedly different. Rather than leading from a place of being frenetically busy, we are leading from a place of rest in God. Rather than running on empty, we are being energized by the strength of soul that comes from being replenished in God’s presence. Rather than being driven by the inner compulsions of the false self and the external demands of other people’s expectation, we are learning to respond to God’s call upon our lives in ways that are congruent with the self he knew and brought lovingly into being.

While it may seem counter-intuitive and even a bit dangerous to lead from this tender part of ourselves which we may be accustomed to keeping hidden in leadership settings, true spiritual leadership hinges upon the capacity to lead from our own “transforming center”—the true self that is hidden with Christ in God and is cultivated in the spiritual rhythms that keep us open and available to God.  In short, the transforming leader who is committed to the rhythm of discerning and doing the will of God is the kind of leader that gets the real work of ministry done.