‘’Though God desires to use men on earth to accomplish His divine purposes; He does not rush any man into spiritual leadership. He takes time to prepare every vessel before He presents him or her to men as His mouthpiece on earth’’
This is so crucial and of great importance as many are of the opinion and belief that becoming a leader has a great deal to do with the quality of your academic qualifications, the amount of knowledge and information you have, the kind of association and institution you belong and have studied etc. Well, as good and necessary some of those things are, it is never a substitute for yet a training that comes as a result of God Himself sharpening such men and women to fit into what I will call ‘’ an Enduring and Effective Leadership under God’’.
Such kind of training in order to become an effective leader is not something new, it has and will always be the only proven means by which God makes the men and women He uses. For example, looking at the life of John the Baptist, he ‘’was a child born with a prophecy around his neck of what he would accomplish for God, in preparing the way of the Lord. Yet God took him to the wilderness to prepare him for thirty years before the day of his showing unto Israel…’’
God’s credentials of making a leader that would become a mouthpiece for Him only comes to be when such men have only been formed at the Quarry Site. God is never in haste to fill any vacuum in responsible and correct leadership.
He might even permit the enemy to continue to occupy the arena until He can find a man or a woman whose life He can pour Himself into them, then will the purposes of God be revealed to all to see. Oh! Not even my zeal can make Him be in haste. Eloquence and being charismatic is not enough to occupy the seat for God. Even if you want to prove a point, it won’t be Him sending you to the Gates. It is a serious concern that many haven’t been formed by the hand of the Almighty and they are assuming positions of authority in the Church.
‘’No matter how urgent the need for a leader is in God’s work, God does not become nervous and hasty in rushing unprepared, untrained and untrimmed men into the helms of affairs in His Church. Crash programme of Leadership development and placement is alien to the biblical pattern of ministry.’’
What is the Quarry Site?
The quarry site is a place every man being prepared for spiritual leadership must go through. Bible Colleges, Theological Seminaries and training institutes are very useful, but do not replace the quarry in God’s evaluation for making men fit for divine assignments’’
When King Solomon in 1Kings 6 was given an account of the Temple that the Lord had commissioned him to build, it was as it were a graphic illustration and an heavenly mandate by God of any man that wishes to build along-side Him His Church, His people(the Temple). It is important to understand that God has no new method other than the one that has always been, meaning that whatever He does and command has the ability and capability and the potency to transcend generations……God’s word is eternal and ever relevant.
At this point, can we settle it in our hearts that God’s word is eternal and ever relevant…..His position on what He intends to do through us is still the same? In fact when we seem to get it wrong, He reminds us of His promises and the ‘’terms and conditions’’. Hallelujah!!!
When Solomon gave the account of the temple that was built, he said ‘’ And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.’’
It is clear that the living temple God is building in our time is the one where the stones are lives of men and women called out the darkness into His marvellous light. The critical issue in all this is that all the stones that were used in the building of the Temple were stones pre-finished, cut into shape and size, dressed to fit into specific and specified positions in the temple. All chiselling, all hammering, all filing and smoothening had been done at the quarry under the instrumentality of various machines and the supervision of the quarry manager.
There was no cause for noise or trial and error. The stone used for the building was made at the quarry site, not at the point where the building was taken-off. There was no reason to cause disruption, distractions because the building was taking-off. It was a noiseless exercise where every ‘’stone’’ served a specific assignment and there was no jealousy, division as to what ‘’stone’’ is important or not. There was no much sweat, no human effort and human activities, these all fitted in to one purpose, the building of the Temple.
God’s ministry today is experiencing a short-fall in men whose mission is to see the ‘’temple’’ built, several have started well but suddenly at the point of getting them admitted to the quarry site where men are formed, they roll away as undone and uncooked men with no definite assignment. It has led to several “break-aways” we now see on our streets in the guise of ministries with big and bogus names. Men give titles to themselves at will, just to appear to be the greatest. At the quarry site is where God prepares and trims men to fit the specific calling He has placed in their lives. When God calls a man, He also creates a space for him or her in the Body of Christ to operate. It is during the quarry experience that all the issues of life and character, the need for enlargement of capacity in grace and spiritual gifts are perfected.
The Quarry is the first place God calls His choice men into. No one became anything significant in God’s service until deliberately positioned in this challenging place.
Extract from Pathway to Leadership by Bro. Gbile Akanni – Peace House Publications visit www.livingseed.org or www.livingseeduk.org for details.
We are custodians of God’s wealth. We are stewards and not owners. All things come from God – all things are by His grace. There is nothing that we have that did not come from Him. Never get into thinking that it is your money. The more of God you see in your money, the better a steward you will be. We know the parable of the talents in Matthew 25[14]; it states the fact that God gives talents to different people. He gives us talents and He gives us time … an allotted time to use the talents and at the end of that time, He is going to come back and we are going to account for that which He has placed in our hands. Many times we believe God does not measure performance but He does even more so than our institutions with targets and indicators….
Research your company. Write a targeted resume and not a general all-purpose document. Visit the recruiting page/web site of the company and glean useful details about what they may be looking for. Make it obvious that you care enough to spend an hour to understand their hot-buttons. Most companies through their advertising make what they want to be known for very obvious except to the very disinterested. You may be a genius, but you do not want to be perceived as not passionate about your prospective employer.
Egypt represents the best of humanism and worldliness. These are the ways of modern industry in opposition to divine truths.