THE PARADOX OF JESUS’ LEADERSHIP
By: Bruce Witt

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways
and My thoughts than your thoughts”  (Isaiah 55:9).

The Need of the Hour - Jesus’ Leadership:
The world is looking for leaders; but Jesus’ leadership was much different than what they are looking for.  Consider Jesus’ leadership: He split history, changed the world, continues to influence millions today, and gives an eternal destiny to billions. Yet the world is not looking for His type of leadership.  What made Him unique?  Consider the following verses:

The “Do-Nothing on My Own” Leader:
a.   John 5:19:  “The Son can do nothing unless it is something He sees the Father doing.”
b.   John 5:30:  “I can do nothing on my own initiative…I do not seek my will, but the will of Him.”
c.   John 8:28-29:  “I do nothing on my own initiative but I speak these things the Father taught me.”
d.   John 12:49:  “I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.”
e.   John 14:10:  “I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His work.”

What most people look for in leadership is independence, acting on their initiative, not someone else’s.  But what did Jesus do?

1. In the above verses, five times Jesus says he does or says nothing on his own initiative.
2. In each case, the work initiates from the Father.
3. The work through the Son is dependent on the quality of the relationship of the Son and the Father. 

Jesus did nothing on His own; it was the Father who worked through Him.  He was a do-nothing leader totally yielded to the Father who would speak and act through Him to accomplish what He desired.

Application as a Leader:

1. Do nothing on your own initiative.  In other words, die to self.  We need a total humility and surrender so that the work is not about us.  Let’s avoid asking God to rubberstamp our plans.  Let’s become so secure in our relationship with Christ that we will be a beacon or a doormat, whatever He wants us to be.
2. The work and the results come from God.  Let’s go where God is working.
3. The quality of my intimacy with the Father directly affects the flow of Him working through me.  “The Father abiding in me does His work” should be our great desire.  Pursue an intimacy with the Father.  Desire this above all things.

“Many of us are interested only in our own goals, and Jesus cannot help Himself to our lives.
But if we are totally surrendered to Him, we have no goals of our own to serve.  Paul said that he knew how to be a ‘doormat’ without resenting it, because the motivation of his life was devotion to Jesus. We tend to be devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which allow us more spiritual freedom than total surrender to Him would allow.” (My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers, February 24)