Spiritual Leadership – Living New Battle

I knew a man who wrestled with smoking cigarettes for many years. When he was young, it was an open habit but later it became a hidden habit. “Hidden” happened as it became less admirable in society and when his beautiful young bride asked him to stop but he could not stop. He tried, he cried and he prayed. He was weak and he felt weaker with each failed battle at quitting. This cycle - hidden, confronted, trying to quit and then losing strength when he found himself incapable – continued for years. He held to his faith and continued to grow in most all but this area until one day when in a simple prayer time, with no forewarning, God made the impression that he was done with this habit. It was either change or be permanently disabled unable to grow more.

He tells of how it was not God who was angry or mean but revealing. It was not God who was disabling but God who was revealing the sad condition of his life. Faced with quitting the impossible or ceasing to be used by God and to grow spiritually, he cried out to God a different way. He agreed that he was weak, confessed that he heard God’s revelation and asked, “Father, there is no way I can do this on my own. You will have to do it. I couldn’t and I can’t and at times I am not sure that my flesh even wants to quit.” Wonderfully, he quit and never smoked again. He is clear though, “It was entirely God, not me, and I needed Him at ever step of the way and still do. But for the grace (the unmerited favor, strength and clarity) of God, I will give into my flesh.”

He also tells of the ensuing battle for years. No, the desire went away pretty quickly – that is in months. The dreams of smoking stopped after several years. The momentary attacks of his flesh or brain became truly far apart. His faith in God increased and his belief that he was worth something to God increased. But he tells of a unique truth, worded in a way that I had never heard.

“I had to win the battle with the smoking in every place that I had ever smoked. It was weird but I would go to a city that I once smoked in or snuck away to smoke in,” he hung his head, “and the spiritual battle would rage. My flesh would remember and my heart and soul would have to claim the truth and beauty of the new life. Once I chose the new life again in the old place, when I followed the new truth versus the old memory, the battle was over. Each individual battle was no less intense than the last. Whether an airport, hotel, city or season of the year – the battle had to be fought and won. It was weird.”

This is a great way to frame and to communicate a single battle that each leader will face throughout his ministry and leadership – the Battle of Living the New in Old Places. It is absolutely true! Every leader is a target of the enemy and will be challenged with the memories and the ways of the past. The Battle of Living the New in the Old Places will not be over until you live the new in all of those places. Be warned. If you think you have arrived, if you have beaten the enemy, if you let your guard down, that one thing that you battled with will find you in an old place when you least expect it.

“I have no more skeletons” you say. Tremendous, however, this truth is not about “sins” but really about everything a leader learns. For example, every leader has a moment when he realizes that he is leading a bit more for himself than for the cause. Every leader faces his pride at some time or another. There is that moment when God reveals the pride and calls the leader to lay it down or to stall in leadership. The leader who faces his pride and with God’s grace makes it through the first battle will fight the battle with pride in all of the old places until the enemy is entirely defeated and the leader is sanctified of the battle. Perhaps he will face it again at his anniversary banquet, at the annual bonus time, at the awards ceremony, in the counseling office or when they offer him an honorary doctorate – but he will fight it again and again in every old place.

No matter the focus of the battle – to lose the battle at any time is to lose the entire battle. Spiritual leadership comes with many prices and many blessings but be certain of this, we will have to win the battle of living the new in all the old places. With each new revelation or lesson of God be prepared and seek his supernatural grace to allow you to win the battle in all of the old places. Be warned, be aware, be ready – win!

To lose is to lose leadership and to leave the people abandoned and the work of God vacant. To win is to show the people the grace of God and to be able to continue to lead by God’s grace.

Jack Hayford once taught, “We do not lead because we are forgiven but because we are called and qualified.” Spiritual leaders are qualified to lead because they win the Battle of Living the New in all the Old Places.