Leadership and obedience

These 2 things are actually inseparable.

I think I've touched on this topic long time ago, but let me elaborate a little bit more right now. Before one can be a leader, one must be a follower. If one doesn't know how to follow, then one will find it very challenging to lead. Following and leading are 2 different things, but they are interconnected and can't be separated, because without follower, once can not be a leader, and without a leader, one can not be a follower.

Now you might ask where obedience is?
Well, it lies in the period when on learn how to follow (that period is all our life, because we will always have a leader above us, and maybe a follower under us). It takes a lot of humility, energy and effort to obey fully and wholeheartedly. Especially to men, to obey can actually very difficult or challenging.

This is the reason why God delights more in obedience than sacrifice. Starting from Adam right through to the story of all the apostles till John who wrote the final book of the bible (Revelation), obedience is one of the key attitude that God is trying to teach His people.

I learned that many mighty men and women in the bible became such great leaders because of their amazing servant-hood heart and obedience to God's Word. Noah obeyed God wholeheartedly when God asked him to build an ark for himself, his family and all chosen animals (Gen 7). Abraham obeyed God when He asked him to leave his house and family to a place God did not even revealed to him in the first place (Gen 12). Isaac obeyed God when He asked him to stay at the place where he was living (Gen 26). Jacob through his colourful life story did obey God when He asked him to settle in Bethel. Joseph's obedience must be drawn from a somewhat different perspective as he continued to walk righteously before God and men, and serve his father, his brothers and others faitfully despite the circumstances (Gen 37-41). In the book of Exodus, Moses and Aaron taught Israel how obeying God's Word can bring blessing to their life as God showed them His mighty power over all creation during their escape from Egypt. And I haven't even reached half of the bible here.

So you can see how important obedience is to God.
But guess what, this is one area in my life where I really need to grow more, otherwise I'll just get stuck at the level where I'm at now. Over time I learned that actually there's more to obedience that just actioning what my leader has asked me to do, there's unity to keep, there's the flow with the whole leadership team, there's a flow with the move of Holy Spirit as God moves through His leaders, and there's the learning of how to lead properly through the success and failure of the leaders.

If I can't obey my leader, how can I expect my follower to obey me. So if I am to lead by example, then I must learn to obey my leader before I expect my follower to obey me. Hence, if one wants to lead, one must first learn to follow (and obedience is key factor in a follower's life).