The Power of Leadership
James Holland

Leadership:
•	Whatever level of ministry you are involved in or may be feeling a calling into, it is vital to know:
•	1. Individual must recognize there is a calling there.
•	2. You will grow through teaching, prayer, direction, mentoring, and those God will put into your life to help you.  
•	It won’t happen automatically, it has to be developed.  
•	For a seed to germinate and to grow, it has to be watered, cared for, and then the end result happens.
•	Mark 10:45 – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.”
•	If you want to develop the ministry within you, you have to understand that if leadership and ministry could be summed up in one word; it would be “service.”
•	Leaders do not just react when something happens, that’s not leadership that’s reaction.  
•	Real leaders have a vision; they are planning ahead of those of whom they are leading.
•	The Christian community is looking for real saints and real leaders.  
•	Leaders that know how to do the right things under pressure, leaders that are real leaders that hear from God. 
•	God is calling the church to a higher level of commitment.  
•	It’s not your ministry, program, or your plan, it is God’s plan. 
•	We need to stay away from the personal pronouns of me, mine, and my opinion. 
•	It needs to be thus saith the Lord and this is what the word says, and this is what God would have us do. 
•	We cannot do the work of ministry, the effective work of teaching and leadership without the ability and the anointing of God.  
•	We need the 5-fold ministry. 
•	How do we develop this ministry within us?  
•	1. We have to understand that it’s God’s ministry and not ours.  
•	2. It’s never ours, nor my ministry, it’s never my church, and it’s never my class.
•	When people think like this, they become territorial.  
•	Paul made reference to this by saying, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.”  
•	The treasure is salvation and the gifts of ministering and teaching. 
•	 Paul directs the church that if we will take care of the treasure, then God will take care of the vessel.
•	It is God’s gift working in us, we don’t have the right to lay personal claim to it, it is only energized by God’s power, anointing and His will.  
•	Every leader needs to be prepared to function in that capacity. 
•	Preparation is vital. 
•	We are the only link they have to the spiritual realm and to God.  

Proper Preparation:
•	Proper Preparation Is the Only Assurance Of a Leader Functioning Effectively For God! 
•	Many greatly desire to be effective but far fewer are willing to pay the price of being made ready for the task.
•	We live in a no deposit no return society and that spirit and that attitude seems to permeate the mind and the spirit of many in the kingdom of God from the pew to the leadership.  
•	I’ll just walk in, praise God and say all the right things and we’ll have a good move of God, everything will be great and I’ll go on about my business.  
•	What we call a good service sometimes, is nothing more than a shallow, getting together, shouting a few hallelujahs and amen’s, and telling each other how well we’re doing.  
•	Then we bash the world we’re supposed to be ministering to.

Preparation Is Vital: 
•	We must be prepared.  
•	Many are good teachers and preachers. 
•	Yet they are not effective because they do not spend enough time in God’s presence.
•	You cannot be a leader until first you have followed someone. 
•	Anointing flows from the head down and not from the feet up!
•	Whether you are an aspiring teacher or minister as you are ministering to the multitudes, you will have to find someone to pour yourself into and that’s who you’re going to minister to and make disciples out of.  
•	Jesus ministered to the multitudes but He poured Himself into 12 men. 
•	That’s what leadership and ministry is all about.  
•	The Greek word for preparation in the New Testament is to make one suitable, to be ready, adaptable or to be trained.  
•	You must have personal discipline in your life.  
•	That is the first priority.   
•	We earn respect when we are faithful in our commitment to God and our service to God at whatever level we are at currently.  
•	Character must be developed, it’s not automatic.  
•	Character is displayed in the action of an individual under pressure.  
•	It’s not how well you perform when everyone agrees with you, when everyone is shouting and praising God.  
•	It’s how you react and respond when you’re under pressure.  
•	Titus 1:9 “Hold fast to the faithful word of God.” 
•	Never be willing to compromise truth. 
•	Truth is not given to destroy but to set free and to bring light to a dark situation.  
•	We should not be double tongued.  
•	Psalms 116:16 :as a leader, you are one of God’s main instruments to deliver the spiritual prisoner.  
•	Part of understanding how to minister to people is being able to discern why people are in prisons.  
•	Where are people at, what is their problem? 
•	God wants us to develop the ministry with in us. 
•	You will face the time test. 
•	The time test helps us find our particular position in the kingdom.
•	Habakkuk 2:3 “Though it tarries, wait on it.”
•	Having the vision of God is the source of patience.  
•	We should be faithful in season and out.  
•	 Moses endured as seeing Him who was invisible according to Hebrews 11:27. 
•	You must be careful not to live in the past, but build from the past.  
•	“Be not weary in well doing, for you shall reap in due season if you faint not.”  
•	Our reach must exceed our grasp.  
•	If we have nothing more than that which we have already experienced, then we have lost out vision.  
•	A vision is always in front of you.
•	Beware of spiritual relaxation.  
•	We must pass the test the motivation test as well.  
•	Minimize your weaknesses.  
•	Capitalize your strengths.  
•	Do what you can and let God make up the difference. 
•	Do not get discouraged.  
•	Don’t let others destroy your visions and your goals.
•	 Remember we are here to lead and serve people.  
•	There are 3 attitudes of the heart that are essential for ministry:
•	1. You must have a passion for God’s word – Neither the church, pastor, or teacher can make you spiritual, they can help direct you and put things before you that can help you develop spiritually.  
•	Becoming spiritual is our responsibility.
•	There is a difference between a spiritual experience and being spiritual. 
•	 You can have a spiritual experience without becoming spiritual.  
•	Living for God daily makes you spiritual.  
•	You must have a good diet of the word of God. 
•	2. Spend time in the presence of God. 
•	Humility in the spirit produces an anointing in your life.  
•	Develop a prayer life. 
•	Just because you are anointed to do certain things does not mean that God puts His approval upon every act of your life.  
•	3. We want an abiding anointing.  
•	We want that mantel of anointing to be on us every waking moment in our lives.  
•	This comes from having a passion for the Word of God.

The Leader Who Looses and Redeems the Prisoner
•	Psalms 116:16 “O Lord, truly thou hast loosed my bonds.”
•	A Christian leader is one of God’s main instruments to deliver the spiritual prisoner.  
•	God delivers through the church.  
•	We must realize that everyone can be saved and delivered.  
•	God has called us to loose the bonds, to set at liberty those who are in prison, and bring them out of darkness into the light.
•	In this hour we have to get back to Bible basics in order to have apostolic leadership. 
•	Our world is waiting on you and me right now.

The article “The Power of Leadership” written by James Holland was excerpted from Developing the Ministry within You,  2005. It may be used for study and research purposes only.