Righteous Governance, Righteous Leaders

Welcome to Running With Horses, a podcast devoted to inspire you concerning a relationship with Almighty God that empowers you to accomplish things you never thought possible.

Surely Weaver wants to take you there. And now here's today's episode. Hey everyone, welcome to today's show.

We are talking government rulers, leaders, God's righteous plan, the way that he calls and sets in place, puts in place those whom he has chosen for those positions, and we will talk about how obvious it is to observe when God's hand is on a leader, and by contrast, when God's hand is absent either from the leader or from the individual in a leadership role. My name is Shirley Weaver. I'm glad you're here for the show today. I was just checking out the stats for the show since the beginning of July, and I want to say, first of all, welcome all our new listeners in the Middle East. That's really important to me. I love that part of the world, especially the nation of Israel, the nation state of Israel to be exact, but also listen, the United States remains a stronghold for the Running With Horses podcast.

Also, our neighbor Canada, shout out to Canada, Belgium, Philippines, India, Spain, Kenya, Nicaragua, Australia, you know down under, and of course the United Kingdom. There are others. That is the main concentration of regular listeners of our show. I thank you. I know you're there, and I'm so glad.

I'm so glad. We are talking about the power of discipleship, and you know the mandate that Jesus left, go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. See, that's why I care about these nations. It's not just my nation. It is the family of nations that is in God's heart.

It is a family that he has planted for his purposes. So righteous governance and righteous leaders. Governance, leaders, righteous, that's what we want. I don't know if you are familiar with this word governance. It means the system by which something or an entity is directed and controlled. It includes the structure and the processes for decision making.

I mean, think about your nation, your locality, and then the accountability that must come with that. The control because of, get this, behavior at the top. We're talking about righteous governance and righteous leaders, so we're talking about the behavior at the top. And just bottom line, this is what I believe. I believe that a leader is called, just like God puts men and women together in a marriage, just like God calls pastors in the same way that God calls someone into business or into the ministry. Whatever happens, whatever the function is, there is a calling of God and today in this show we are looking at the calling on leaders, on those who govern, or you might say rule, because I don't mean that in a heavy handed way, but those who govern do have the rule. I believe they're called and I believe that all believers are called to lead at some level in some way because we are put here to establish the influence that communicates the story. We're messengers, we're evangelists, we're storytellers. What is the story we tell? It is the story of the gospel. And I know it seems odd to think that that would occur in government, but believe me, throughout history, the history of mankind and in our current, present, modern day history, there are those who are leading and their message is clear that they are established on the rock of Jesus Christ and from that source they lead, they govern. There's an interesting feature, I love this, it just so happens, I'm recording October 4, this podcast, and today's edition of our Daily Devotion is titled Fit to Rule. If you have our Daily Devotion book, go to October 4, the title Fit to Rule. Just some specifics from that Daily Devotion. First of all, a righteous leader is not double-minded.

Why? Because the double-minded man can't receive very well. His instability isolates him, for one thing, and if allowed to govern, that instability becomes contagious. It actually reproduces after its own kind, resulting in poor leadership and muted creativity down the line across the board. So practically and spiritually, the most destructive consequence of a double-minded leader is that God-given authority is sacrificed for convenience. That 's bottom line in a clear as a bell message that weakness is okay in leaders.

But here's my point, it is not. Weakness is not okay in leaders. That version of leadership is selfish, bottom line basically, spiritually immature, and I say, as I've written in our book, unfit, I'll say it again, unfit to rule, to lead. And if I say one thing, and then I do another, others see the inconsistency and when something promised is different from what in fact takes place, others know that my integrity is lacking, it's absent.

And by the way, you lose respect at that point, or you should, you should, depends on where the bar is, where the standard is. Well listen, we need to raise that bar to a righteous level and for this weakness instead of a firm stand and a commitment to what is right, then my leadership causes those who follow me to conform to my leadership example. They become like me. Weak leaders produce weak followers. So listen, a God-given, God-called leader is not double-minded, nor is that leader weak in the way that they administer, in the way that they lead. Instead, and you can compare here, righteousness exalts. Weakness diminishes, double-mindedness isolates, but righteousness exalts. So when a godly ruler is chosen, then righteousness will result and exalt the entity, whether it's a home, congregation, nation, people group, whatever, and then the Lord sends his support to those who insist upon righteous rule, something we especially value in difficult times. Like these, we're living in those times when righteousness exalts and weakness defames, diminishes, calls into question. And all of that is the reason why our prayer is for right leaders, those that have positioned, been positioned in the heart of God ahead of time. Like before now, they've been in the heart of God in a position of leadership before the foundation of the worlds. That is the way God does it. I can't explain it.

That is the way it is. And he does that ahead of the destruction that comes with unrighteous governance. See, he's looking out for us. His plan is positions right people in the right place for the right time. If we can just see it and sort of lean into it, you know, cooperate with it, these are leaders that are equipped to take the heat when the stakes are high and they can resist the influence of others who are willing to compromise for personal gain, for selfish. Remember I said earlier, weak leadership is basically selfish and personal gain is an attribute of selfish, unrighteous leadership.

You need to write that down. Personal benefit and personal gain is a fruit of, a consequence of, selfish, unrighteous governance, those who govern that way. And then that brings us to the point that a righteous leader who is not compromised and is not distracted by personal convenience, personal gain, they have this ability to basically shepherd, to basically pastor the flock, their charge, those that they are called to watch over, watch for. See, they're graced with a single eye. They're chosen to rule as a watcher for the welfare of the people under their authority. I mean, it's not, this is not hard. It's not a stretch to grasp the whole process. The principle, a righteous leader with a single eye is positioned to watch.

And that is a great setup to avoid the interloper who tries to work their way in to do something different. Again, for selfish gain, you know, that kind of interloper, one who's come to take over, they're no match for the discernment of the watchful eye of the one that God has placed in righteous governance, righteous leadership, because under their watchful eye, the righteous leader occupies. He is assigned, he or she is assigned by God to right wrongs and lead right down the middle, even through valleys that are shadowed by death. I mean, seasons of war automatically come to mind, but then there are other times that are just as threatening. I think we are living in one of those times.

We're not in a physical war necessarily, but wow, are we in a spiritual contest. Among those that are sent by the Lord to rule, yes means yes, no means no, and actions bear fruit consistent with the words that they speak. Here's the principle. Purity comes from wisdom. You know, in Proverbs we read, wisdom builds her house, and we know from God's word that wisdom, the wisdom of the Lord, is first of all pure. So again, what does governance mean? Governance is the system by which something is directed and controlled, whether that is your home, congregation, local community, your region, your nation, and go on from there, and it includes the structure and the process for decision-making, righteous decision-making.

It includes accountability, those who lead are held to a higher standard, and then also the control and the behavior at the top. We discern it, we see it, we understand and recognize, and visually we can see whether God's hand is on someone who's positioned to take a leadership position or not. We can visibly see it. It's tangible, because God's anointing is tangible.

You can visually observe it. It's the ability, the equipping. There's a grace to do even impossible tasks. We all are familiar with impossible tasks, so it takes us to a place where we can pray for this precious gift of righteous governance.

That includes righteous leadership, which automatically includes righteous leaders, those who govern and behave from the top as those called by God, positioned by Him, and set in office by Him. We'll see you next time. Thank you.