Leaders and Leverage

As a spiritual leader, it is likely that you have leverage beyond your awareness or appreciation.

If you cannot identify it, you can only use it by accident.

Let us examine a snippet of the life and ministry of a man who knew how to access his leverage and dedicate it to a purpose beyond his own self-interests.

Paul knew how to leverage his advantages and privileges for the good of the gospel, for the redemption of people, and for the higher good of the God Movement in his resent circumstances. He understood that those advantages required the stewardship of responsibility and generosity and were not privileges he deserved, earned, or possessed simply for himself.

“And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born.” – Acts 22:28

He knew the value of his Roman citizenship.

It meant that he was a free man. It meant that he was entitled to due process. It meant that he had a certain status wherever the banners of Rome flew.

Most of all, it meant that he had he had the right to appeal to emperor in Rome and thus advance the cause of the goo news.

He understood this when, “the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.”

Nothing meant more to Paul.

He could have been released had he not appealed to Caesar, but his life was all about spreading the good news of Jesus Christ in as many places as possible. It was about a stewardship of his influence.

For that, he was willing to sacrifice his freedom and his life. To apply it here, perhaps that is the greatest blessing of being American, whether free born or immigrant.

From our station on this planet, we can be emissaries of God's love and mercy. We have a platform to speak words justice and grace and to participate in the work of reconciliation, peace, and righteousness.

Freedom is a gift from God and all those who fought and labored to preserve it. It is not ours merely to be enjoyed, but to be used for the cause of Christ.

I shudder to think what we might become if we become any more selfish than we are and forget that we did not earn the right to be born in this country and that God has placed us here for His purposes.

Our very place and circumstance of birth, accidental as it may seem, wherever it may be, is a calling from God to exercise for the good of others.

The questions for us those that were suggested at the beginning:

What will an inventory of my privileges, advantages, cultural inheritance, citizenship, and other benefits of birth and circumstance reveal about the leverage I have to command an audience for truth or influence?

How can I dedicate these to higher purposes beyond my own advantages?

How will I do so starting today?

Acts 22:17-29

“After I had returned to Jerusalem and while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw Jesus saying to me, 'Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.'

And I said, 'Lord, they themselves know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. And while the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing by, approving and keeping the coats of those who killed him.'

Then he said to me, 'Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'"

Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, "Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live."

And while they were shouting, throwing off their cloaks, and tossing dust into the air, the tribune directed that he was to be brought into the barracks, and ordered him to be examined by flogging, to find out the reason for this outcry against him. But when they had tied him up with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned?"

When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and said to him, "What are you about to do? This man is a Roman citizen."

The tribune came and asked Paul, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?"

And he said, "Yes."

The tribune answered, "It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship."

Paul said, "But I was born a citizen."

Immediately those who were about to examine him drew back from him; and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.