Along with the costs of leadership come many opportunities. Some of these opportunities will be positive and some will be negative. Many leaders have access to information or financial resources that they could use to their personal advantage. Other leaders travel widely and somewhat anonymously and have opportunity to compromise purity without anyone knowing. Others could use the power of their position for their own benefit. Whether the temptation is money, sex or power there will always be temptation for leaders to sell themselves out for less than God’s best. Read 1 Samuel 15:1-23.

The Lord could not have been more specific. Speaking through the prophet Samuel, God commanded Saul to destroy the Amalekites and everything they owned; no one and no thing was to be spared.

Joshua left no doubt about his commitment to the Lord. Joshua told the people that even if they chose not to serve the Lord, they would still not be exempt from service. If we do not serve the Creator, we will unavoidably serve some part of the creation. But the gods of success, position and possessions are cruel taskmasters and never deliver the satisfaction they promise. Read Joshua 24:14-27.

Joshua consistently told the Israelites that God alone was worthy of their total commitment. The same is true today; leaders who direct their highest commitment to anything else commit idolatry. We were designed to serve God and to find our deepest satisfaction in Him, but we will be half-hearted at best if we try to play by two sets of rules and serve two masters.

Several leadership books talk about establishing momentum. Jim Collins’ book Good to Great helps us picture business momentum as a very heavy flywheel that is very difficult to move at all for the first few turns but as one success stacks on top of another the weight of the flywheel begins to assist the forward motion and the movement of the flywheel is almost self sustaining. In fact in the physical world, it now takes work to stop a flywheel that is in motion. Read Joshua 10:16-43.

As God gives Joshua one military success after another, the Israelite army begins to experience a momentum they could not have described just months before. In the notes in The Maxwell Leadership Bible, John Maxwell calls this The Law of the Big MO. Maxwell states:

As Israel approached the Jordan River, Moses sent out 12 spies to investigate the land God had promised to give to His people. Moses appointed one leader from each tribe to represent them in this fact finding mission. All 12 had the same external experience but upon return the report from 10 was significantly different from the other 2. Read Numbers 13:1-14:4.

After the return, 10 of the leaders reported the land was indeed wonderful but would be impossible to conquer. While the other 2 also saw the problems, they believed the Hebrews should enter the land and receive the promise. The difference boiled down to the attitude created by core beliefs of each group. Two leaders believed (had “accepted” as truth that) God was controlling the fate of the people and the other 10 believed God was there but that the results were up to them.

God always keeps His promises but in His time and in His way. Leaders who have prayed about an issue and received a promise from God need to trust and not doubt. Leaders tend to doubt when they look only at circumstances rather than trusting in God. Read Genesis 18:9-15 and Genesis 21:1-7.

Sarah was 89 and Abraham was 99 and they were still childless. Sarah, ease dropping at the door of their tent, heard a visitor tell Abraham that within a year he and Sarah would have a child. When Sarah heard this she laughed to herself. Who wouldn’t have? Their circumstances were impossible. At just the moment of fulfillment to a life of clinging to God’s promise, Sarah doubted. Every leader needs to hear what God said to Sarah in Genesis 18:14 “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”