Leadership by disobedience (LBD) – Part 2

This beneficiary of God’s immeasurable and gracious blessing did not understand that there is nothing like partial obedience. It is either you lead through obedience for greater glory, or lead through disobedience and face the unfathomable consequences.

This is the real reason our hearts need not have a different thing, whilst being given the position of authority. We cannot be living under pretext, with the mind that when we get to that position, we would do away with elders’ advices, which we never rejected, when we were being anointed for leadership positions.

God is not God of confusion, but God of order.

This strange leadership style, which King Saul brought into the kingship of Israel, was what made him lose position of authority.

He forgot that he came from the smallest tribe (Benjamite) of Israel, and he also could no longer remember how the people who saw him prophesying, asked if Saul was among the prophets (1 Samuel 10).

Wanting to do things his own way, which brought about pride and self-glorification, became the albatross of Saul’s kingship.

It is equally imperative for us to know that anyone who discards elders’ instructions and God’s firm commandment will instantly become a leader of disobedience and will no doubt, fail.

Also, we need to learn, in this contemporary world, that we were nobody, when God decided to honour us with both secular and spiritual leadership.

God surely saw millions of people, who could do better than us, but in His infinite mercies, He chose us from the unknown to become the cynosure of all eyes. Therefore, we cannot afford to be disobedient to Him.

Gehazi’s Instrument Of Self-destruction

Gehazi, the servant of Prophet Elisha, could be said to be greedy and materialistic, preferring worldly things to heavenly things. But the truth of the matter was that he lost his position due to following Saul’s created Leadership By Disobedience.

This was a man, who naturally could have succeeded Elisha, the way Elisha succeeded Elijah.

He heard his master saying he was not going to accept any gift from Naaman, whom God had used him to heal (2 Kings 5).

But he was of the opinion that his master was on his own, and as for him, he would go ahead to ‘assist’ his master, to help him, from ‘his lack of wisdom.’ Gehazi did not only lose the prophetic leadership, but ‘gained’ leprosy.

So, either as a pastor under a ministry or as servants under leaders, when we do things without recourse to authority that brought us up, we are in the world of delusion, and we will soon realise that God has no place for disobedience, or “I must do it my own way” attitude.

1 Timothy 6: 1 says, “Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.”

What this means is that we should not do things, which will dishonour our masters, leaders and elders. When King Saul disobeyed God, it amounted to dishonouring his Creator, and when Gehazi disobeyed Elisha, it came to dishonouring his master. Therefore, in order not to dishonour our God, we must never do things contrary to His expectations.

Finally, and according to Edwin Louis Cole, obedience is an act of faith; disobedience is the result of unbelief. This quote is telling us that if truly we believe in God, we will always obey Him, and in all circumstances. However, when we disobey Him, it means we only pretend to have faith in Him, but never do. Therefore, those who practise Leadership By Disobedience will not only fail, but will fail woefully beyond redemption, except they repent. May our lives never be like that of King Saul and Gehazi, in Jesus name.

Remain permanently under God’s banner!

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