We are considering something important and I want you to be very attentive. We are looking at The Covering of Grace in Spiritual Leadership, and I want us to look at the book of Psalms 105 from verse 12-15. The Bible says:
Listen To Podcast: THE COVERING OF GRACE IN SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP
When they were few in number,
Indeed very few, and strangers in it.13 When they went from one nation to another,
From one kingdom to another people,
14 He permitted no one to do them wrong;
Yes, He rebuked kings for their sakes,
15 Saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones,
And do My prophets no harm.”
From here we are going to be starting this day, considering The Covering of Grace in Spiritual Leadership. It says "when they were few in number, indeed very few." So the number is not the most important thing. Now what is important and we must consider is what is written in verse 15. It says saying to those people, the kings. It says "He rebuked kings for their sakes, saying do not touch my anointed ones." It did not say "do not touch the anointed one." That is to show us that those who are anointed or the anointing is not peculiar to one person. And we are not talking about the point man of a ministry or the point man of an organization or the point man of a family. We are not looking at one particular person today.
We are considering a people who are anointed, a people who are chosen, a people who have been set apart and therefore, are exempted from every evil that could be prevailing in their time. It says "do not touch my anointed ones and do my prophets no harm." The question we should consider is: what is the difference between the anointed ones and my prophets? One thing that I noted is that the anointed ones represent those who have been appointed by God for a responsibility on the earth. Those that have been chosen and appointed. The prophets are not just anointed, or appointed; they are not just a chosen people. They are a people who have begun to do what they have been appointed to do.
So, I see two categories of people here, a people who have been appointed, and a people who are functioning in their appointment. And God says those I have appointed, do them no harm, don't touch them. Those that are fulfilling my purpose, those that are moving from places to places, those that are actually functioning in the responsibility that I have given to them, don't do them any harm. And that is important for us to consider here. Has the Lord chosen you, has the Lord appointed you, the Bible says you should not be touched. Now has the Lord appointed you, and have you started doing what the Lord appointed you to do on the earth, the Bible says you must not be harmed. So there are people that must not be touched, they are exempted, there are people that must not be harmed, and they are also exempted from every harm. There are a people that must be harmed; there are a people that must not be touched. Those that the Lord has appointed and those that are fulfilling the purpose of their appointment, and that is important for us to start with.
I want us to go very quickly to the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and I will begin my reading from verse 7. The Bible says:
"And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
This also shows us, from the life of a spiritual leader, the covering of grace in spiritual leadership. Now, he was not just appointed, he had begun to function in the appointment. He had begun to fulfill the responsibility of his calling. He was not just made a leader, he had started leading. Now the Bible now says, lest he should be exalted or puffed up or become arrogant; a thorn in the flesh was given unto him, a messenger of Satan to buffet him. So, he was having issues in his body. Now because of that, he asked God to help him. Add God said "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Now what does the grace do? Just as we saw it in Psalms chapter 105, when we were reading, it is also what it is here. It says "Do not touch my anointed ones and do my prophets no harm." Do not touch! Now, the Bible is now showing us what is the covering of the anointed ones, what is the covering over those who are functioning in the anointing, and the Bible reveals that to be grace. Grace was that defining, or the differentiating factor that separates a people who are serving God, a people who are leading on earth under the authority of God, who are spiritual leaders, from the rest. While others are living, some are living under grace. Those who are living under grace are under the covering of grace in their spiritual leadership. And because of that, they are exempted from evil. Bible says "do not touch them, do not do them harm."
Apostle Paul who was an apostle, who was functioning in his anointing, said "Lord, take this thing from me" and God said "My grace is sufficient for you." As long as you are covered, you don't have to worry. Each time you remember or are aware of your covering, you should rather rejoice. So Apostle Paul said something very important in verse 10. It says: Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities."
So, from what we just read in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, we could see very clearly the relevance of grace in spiritual leadership. It is a covering. Irrespective of what goes on around you, you understand that you are not alone, that God is with you in that responsibility that He has committed into your hands, and He is holding you by your right hand. It looks like what David said that even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. While fulfilling the task that God has committed into my hands, even though I move around dangerous things or I touch dangerous things, I will fear no evil for you are with me. That is what grace does. Grace is a presence that covers you in your responsibility in leadership. It is a covering over you.
"Now I want us to consider something that really makes that very clear. In the book of Job chapter 1, and I will read from verse 6. The Bible says: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” 8 Then the Lord said to Satan, (and this is where we must focus on) “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil."
Now let us see the response of Satan in verse 10: "Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land." Now, God said to Satan in verse 8 and says "have you considered my servant, Job?" And that name Job could just represent or could just be changed or replaced with your own name. So, the same way God could boast about Job, God could boast about Gboyega Adedeji or about you. Now, if God decides to boast about you, would Satan be able to say to God that there is an hedge around your own life?
You remember what we saw about grace, that grace is a covering. Now when Satan wanted to talk to God about Job, he said God has made a hedge around him. Satan did not use the word grace, but that was what grace does. It becomes a hedge around you. It surrounds your life, it surrounds your investment, and it surrounds your family. As you continue in the calling upon your life, as you go about doing your business, as you go about executing the will of God in your organization; in your office, as you go about influencing positively your generation, grace protects you. Grace covers you. And you must not forget that. Now, perhaps somebody is wondering; what is even the definition of a spiritual leader, since we are looking at the covering of grace in spiritual leadership.
Job 1:8 gives us a definition of spiritual leadership and I want us to see it again. But let me read what I have here. It says a spiritual leader is a servant of God or you could say a spiritual leader is a servant of the Lord on earth. A person who is blameless and upright, one who fears God and shuns evil. Because it is important we consider what God said in Job 1:8. It say: "Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job?" So, Job was a servant of God, so, that qualifies him for spiritual leadership. But he was not just a servant of God; he had a life that actually represents that service that he is in. He said “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” And that gives us a definition of spiritual leadership.
You must also understand that that definition has nothing to do with religion and has nothing to do with vocation. When God said that concerning Job, he did not call him all those religious names and he did not refer to anything he was doing. It says he shuns evil, a blameless and upright man, have you considered him? And that is important for us to note each time we are thinking about spiritual leadership. If we even look at Job chapter 1 from 1-3, when the Bible began introducing Job, the Bible did not refer to him as a religious person or as somebody who was an expert in one field. See what the Bible says.
"There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. 2 And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. 3 Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East."
He was nor the only person in the east, but he was the greatest of all of them. So perhaps we could refer to him as the richest guy or the richest man on earth. Even though he was the richest, God still referred to him as a servant. He was a spiritual leader on the earth, and he was serving the interest of God on the earth. He was a man who was blameless, a man who became an example for others to follow. You see, you can't be a man who is blamed all the time and become an effective leader. Spiritual leadership is for blameless people, people without faults, people who don't go about making daily mistakes. People who are led by the Lord, who are led by the Spirit of the Lord, who make right choices in their daily living, people like that are those who we must understand and refer to as spiritual leaders.
Spiritual leadership therefore, because of the sensitivity of it, because of the dangers that are associated with spiritual leadership, God makes a provision. That is why God said to Apostle Paul, that my grace is sufficient for you. I understand the terrain of your work, the place you work, you could be working in an hospital, and there is Covid-19, you could be working in different places where there are dangers; you could be working in places where there are temptations, where people steal money and you are being confronted with the challenge of integrity and honesty; I understand your challenge and that is why my grace is sufficient for you. My grace is available and it is sufficient for you.
Without grace, I have come to understand that spiritual leadership is dangerous and hardly can anyone survive in it without the grace of God. But one thing is important for us to note. While the grace of God is effective in providing protection and covering for anyone in spiritual leadership; the grace of God has terms and conditions that must not be violated or broken, otherwise, the grace will be lifted and the man of God, the woman of God, the servant of God, the spiritual leader, will be exposed to danger. Let us quickly read something in Judges 16:18-20.
"When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all his heart.” So the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand. 19 Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then [c]she began to torment him, and his strength left him. 20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him."
Before that time, every time he was under attack, every time he was in danger, because of his spiritual leadership responsibility, the presence of the Lord upon him always protect him and provide covering for him. But because he violated the term of his grace, the term of his preservation, he decided to reveal the secret of his strength to a woman who was a deceiver around him to trap him, and because he exposed himself to such, the grace was lifted. The presence of God left him. The presence of God upon you is the grace that we are talking about. As a spiritual leader, you are a servant of the Lord and God is not such who leads His people to walk alone, exposed, No!
Wherever He sends you to, whatever He asks you to do; He is there with you, He provides a covering for you, and that covering is what protects you, preventing you from exposure to evil, to danger and infection in your generation. So I have come to realize that whenever grace is removed from any spiritual leadership, the man, the woman who is formally under the focus, then becomes exposed and infected.
Now, if somebody is wondering; how can I as a spiritual leader prevents grace from leaving my life? How can I stop myself from getting outside of grace? I found a Scripture in Titus 2:11-12, very instructive. The Bible says: "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age." So, the grace of God teaches us. And what does it teach us? What the grace of God teaches us shows us the terms and conditions of grace. The things that are taught by grace are the things that grace wants you as a spiritual leader to live on and to live by. If you are without these things, then you become a man or a woman in spiritual leadership outside grace, and then you become a victim of infection, a victim of attack, a victim of the opposition.
If you must be preserved, then you must remain under grace. And to remain under grace, you must remain under the teachings of grace. You cannot be a man in spiritual leadership, a woman in spiritual leadership and you are always playing around sin. You are always playing around things that will expose you. If you do that, then the presence of the Lord will depart from you and you will be naked in your spiritual leadership. There is a place that I want to read as we conclude right now. In Isaiah chapter 4:5-6. It says:
"Then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering. 6 And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain."
That is a prophetic word that really guarantees our preservation in a time as this. Irrespective of what is going on in your office, irrespective of what is going on in your community or nation, you can be exempted. It says "He suffers no man to do them wrong, He reproves kings for their sake." So all their elites, all the leaders, all the elements of this world, whether spirit or physical beings that have the tendency to harm you, the Bible says God reprove them for your sake. He rebukes them, and He says "touch not those that I have chosen, and those who are fulfilling the purpose of their being chose, do them no harm." Why? For over them the glory, there is a covering. And it is a shade in the heat time, and a refuge from storm.
So, they are not exposed, they are not infected. Irrespective of the fact that they move in the valley of the shadow of death, they will fear no evil. For over them the glory, there shall be a covering. The grace of God is a covering in spiritual leadership. As long as you are a man who shun evil; you are a servant of God in your responsibility, you shun evil, you are a blameless person, you are covered by grace and then you are exempted from every evil. You will not be exposed, you will not be endangered, and the Lord will be glorified in your life. Don't forget, when the glory of the Lord covers a man, such a man, such a woman is man, is a woman in glory.
The Lord will be glorified in your life. Over this circumstance that is going on across the world today, the covid-19 pandemic; over this you will have a testimony; not just you, but your entire household. Satan said to God that God has made a hedge around Job and around his household and around all his possessions. That is what will happen to you. In your spiritual leadership, there is a hedge around you, in your spiritual leadership there is a hedge around your household. In your spiritual leadership, there is a hedge around all your possessions, no evil will befall you, no evil will come near your dwelling place and the Lord will be glorified over your life.
Thank you for the gift of your time, my name is Gboyega Adedeji and you have been listening to Leaderview this week. God bless you, I hope to connect with you again next week, stay leading, stay under the covering of grace in your leadership and you will not be exposed.
Amen!
