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Jesus was practically unknown by the world for most of his life. When John baptized Him at the age of 30 he launched into ministry. I believe there are important lessons for every leader contained in the first 3 things that Jesus did after he ‘went public’. (These lessons are all taken from Matthew chapter 4).
Testing
The first thing that Jesus had to do as a newly anointed leader was successfully make it through a time of testing in the desert. He was faced with several tests that proved He was ready for the responsibility of leadership. These tests were designed to prove that He had the character to steward the power that He was given responsibly.
I believe as leaders we must pass these tests as well if we are to lead with honour and righteousness:
Test #1: Will you mis-use your power as a leader to benefit yourself? “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.” Mat 4:3b (NLT)
Test #2: Will you mis-use your power and influence to advertise how great you are? “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.'” Mat 4:6 (NLT)
Test #3: Will you compromise your values to accumulate power and possessions? “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.” Mat 4:9 (NLT)
Jesus’ response was No, No, NO! What will our response be? If you cannot pass these tests then you cannot lead honourably.
So what enabled Jesus to pass these tests? It was not solely His knowledge of the scripture. It was 30 years of internal work. 30 years of spiritual formation and character development. 30 years of preparation for 3 years of ministry.
Are you doing the inner work necessary for leadership?
Start With A Succession Plan
After successfully defeating all of the devil’s temptations, Matthew chapter 4 records an interesting turn of events. First, John the Baptist is arrested and Jesus begins to preach John’s message: “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” Then Jesus begins to select the guys who will eventually succeed Him.
Jesus takes over the reins of leadership from John and doesn’t immediately bring some new, cutting-edge message. He continues what John already started. He honours the pioneer who went before Him. How well do we honour those who have gone before us? Do we build upon what has gone before or are we constantly destroying the foundations in a vain attempt to make a name for ourselves?
But equally or even more poignant is the fact that Jesus sets a succession plan in motion at the very start of his ministry. From the inception, Jesus is thinking beyond His time on earth. Do we as leaders think like that? Are we putting off the preparation of the next generation to some time in the future when we are too old to be the top dog? Are we even thinking about what happens after we are gone?
Show & Tell
Finally, Jesus began to travel around the region preaching, teaching, healing and setting people free from demonic bondage. Jesus was not an armchair preacher. He was not even a pulpit preacher. He was out among the people demonstrating the Good News that He announced.
When you met Jesus, you didn’t just get an earful of inspiring talk. He didn’t just cast vision and roll out strategic plans. Jesus stopped for the one – the individual. An encounter with Jesus was unforgettable. He left you better than He met you. You saw the power of God at work, for real, in living colour.
As leaders, do we live what we preach? Do we walk the talk? Are we willing to put our money where our mouth is? Are we willing to lead from alongside instead of from our office or our pulpit? Are we busy managing the organization and forgetting about the individual touch?
The hallmark of a life yielded to God is a commitment to listening and obeying. However, I have found that both listening and obeying are disciplines that require practice.
When I was a babe in Christ I could not hear God very well at all and my life was at the mercy of those whom I allowed to guide me. It was not pretty. As an adolescent (in terms of spiritual maturity), I transitioned into taking responsibility for my decisions. I could hear God but only in a very general sense. I knew the general direction that He wanted me to go but not much more than that. Thankfully, today I can hear God much better. The beautiful thing about that is that when you have a word from God, and you know that you know that you have a word from God, staying the course of obedience is easier (still not easy mind you but at least you KNOW that it will work out in the end for your good and His glory).
At the beginning of this year, God spoke to me and said that 2024 would be a year of victory in every area of my life. Like Joshua, I would be taking territory in my health, finances, career, ministry, sanctification, relationships etc. Now, a decade ago I might have been naively excited about this word but not today. I knew what that word really meant. It meant: Get ready for war! I’m still excited, but it’s more of a sober excitement if you know what I mean.
Again, a decade ago I might also have thought that I had nothing more to do than wait for God to drop this victory in my lap. And, of course, I would have ended the year frustrated and disappointed. But not today! I have learned that God wants me to partner with His word; to partner with Him. So, I made a plan of how I would partner with this word to see it come to pass in my life.
One of the first things I did was to rearrange my schedule to prioritize physical exercise and time with God. I slowed down. I got focused. I disengaged from social media. I’m not running around attending a lot of church events. Instead, I’m focused on quiet alone time with Him. In other words, I prioritized self-care. War takes a toll and I know my victory depends on my ability to stay connected and refreshed in God’s presence as well as physically and emotionally healthy. This is what it takes to persevere. It’s all about the long game.
The second thing I did was to engage the services of a professionally trained Christian therapist. I stress professionally trained because we Christians have this belief that any pastor with bible knowledge makes a good therapist. I can tell you from experience this is not the case! Not only that, but many church leaders do not even have a pastoral gift/calling and are really frustrated by having to deal with people’s problems which is not who you want counseling you! You want someone who, first of all, can hear God, and secondly has been called and trained to facilitate transformation in your life. Someone who enjoys helping people become the best version of themselves. Someone who can deal with all of our mess without shaming us or condemning us and who genuinely finds joy in their work. Someone who is your die-hard advocate and is full of hope for who you can become in Christ. I am blessed to have found a therapist who fits that description to support me in this season. If I am to have victory in my personal life I need to put in the inner work.
Next, in each area of my life, I seek God daily for the details of how to engage the enemy and secure victory. While the word of the Lord for 2024 is my rallying call, my inspiration, and my anchor, experience has taught me that the pathway to victory relies on a daily partnership with God. How do I handle this situation at work, Jesus? How do I deal with this issue with my son, Papa? What do you want to do at our church meeting this morning, Holy Spirit? The Spirit-led life is the only pathway to fulfilling God’s word for my life in 2024.
So has it gone smoothly thus far? Ha! Finances are tighter than ever, one of my sons had his first car accident, my granddaughter had a health challenge, I just strained my hamstring this week, I have a cough that won’t go away, and there are contentious issues brewing at work. Just to name a few of the challenges… But this is what I expected. This is the nature of war. There is no victory without war. It is only in our fantasies that a ‘take the promised land like Joshua’ word means a comfortable stroll around Jericho singing a few songs and then we walk in and take over while the enemy hightails it for the hills. At least that was what it looked like in my head in my more immature days.
I am thankful that He has brought me to the place where I can genuinely rejoice through trials because I hear His voice and I KNOW that I am following the Commander of the Armies of Heaven! “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4) This is my peace in the storm.
Every day I see victory in my circumstances. I see it in the unexpected heart-to-heart conversation when one of my children has an uncharacteristically teachable moment. I see it in an unexpected call from someone I do not know that connects me with purpose in a way I could not have planned. I see it in just-in-time resources to help me navigate difficult relationships. Most of all I feel it in His voice and the nearness of His presence. I know I am victorious because He is with me every day. This was God’s word to Joshua:
Joshua 1:9 (NLT)
This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
There are a few things I want to leave with you:
#2 in my opinion, is what makes all the difference in our experience of this Christian life. I know many people who are stressed, anxious, discouraged, and exhausted by following Jesus. There was a time when I was all of those things. We press on and hold on in the hope that all things work for good… But that is not how God wants us to live! We are designed to live in fellowship with God and His presence is supposed to be the source of our internal atmosphere. Our experience of life should be full of peace, hope, and joy not because circumstances are peaceful, hopeful, or joyful but because He is and He is with us! I am not afraid or discouraged because the Lord my God is with me wherever I go! If as a Christ-follower there isn’t peace and joy on the inside of you that is BIGGER than your circumstances then there is a deeper walk in God available to you. Press into it now!
Last week I was reading through John 8:31-59 and the word ‘word’ jumped out at me. It’s repeated 7 times in the passage. Jesus is speaking to some Jews who believe in Him and He starts off by telling them in verse 13 (ESV),
“If you abide in my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
My immediate question to myself was, “What is His word and how do I know if I’m abiding in it?”. My prayer: “Lord, I desperately want to be Your disciple. I want to know Your truth. How do I abide in Your word, Lord?” I continued reading hoping to find the answer. The Jews begin to contend that they are free because they are the offspring of Abraham. In verse 37 He replies,
“I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
They are still not getting it so they continue with the same argument about Abraham being their father. So Jesus elaborates (verses 39b-41),
“If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did.”
The Jews really get on the defensive now, digging in their heels and going further to affirm that they are children of God. Jesus goes deeper (verses 42b-47),
“If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
If we are to believe what Jesus says here, these Jews, who believed in Jesus, have somehow found themselves in the position of being sons of the devil. So in our present-day context, is it possible to belong to a church and believe in God but to be serving the devil and not God? Yes. Jesus also says that these men, who have been reading the Torah since their youth cannot hear the words of God. So is it possible to read the Bible and not hear the word? Also yes.
As I read this passage, I felt God speaking to me – I heard His word. I had become complacent. I had become satisfied with merely doing church. I had become satisfied with just reading the bible. I was in a rut; a stagnant pond with no fresh water coming in. How did I lose my hunger? When did the fire become an ember? And how do I get back to that place of hunger; that place where there is this uncertainty of what happens next; that place where God is so in control that every outcome is not predictable?
There is something about living in the place of ‘hearing and obeying’. It is uncomfortable but it is full of life! There is something about living daily from what God would speak. The place of ‘my food is to do His will’. It’s a place beyond being moral, or biblical, or doctrinally accurate. Those are often intellectual assessments to comfort our flesh that we are doing His will or to be accepted by our denominational tribe. I’m talking about something much more relational, real, and wild – being led by the Spirit. When we are led by the Spirit we are always a bit unpredictable (John 3:8).
“The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”
Walking by the Spirit looks like the disciples walking with Jesus. When Jesus was getting ready to leave them He did not say that He would send an Advocate, He said He would send another Advocate. In other words, One who would walk with them as He had (John 14:16).
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. “
David Yonghi Cho was a South Korean minister who led the largest church in history of 700,000 members. In one of his famous sermons on prayer, he talked about living in this relational place of hearing and obeying. He recalled different times when God told him to go to places or step out and do things in faith and others who tried to emulate him and failed. He explained why he succeeded and others failed by contrasting the logos and the rhema. He explains that everything in the bible is potentially ours but it’s not actually ours until you get a rhema word from God. Peter, for example, had to wait on Jesus to instruct him to walk on water before stepping out of the boat. You don’t move until God speaks.
Toward the end of Jesus’ interaction with the believing Jews in John 8, He says, “if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death” and again, “‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death”. Are we Jesus’ disciples or just church-going believers? Are we keeping His word? Am I keeping His word? Am I daily listening for His direction and being quick to obey what He is saying? I find myself lacking. I find my ears dull and my feet slow. Eternal life is found in keeping the words that He speaks to us. His word is personal and specific to each one of us. What He asks of me, may not be what He asks of you.
Holy Spirit, give us keen ears to hear Your voice. Give us tender hearts that are sensitive to Your stirrings. Give us swift feet that run to do Your will.
I am super excited to announce my new plan on YouVersion!
I believe it is my best plan yet! I took the key concepts and principles from our leadership workshop and put them into a 15-day devotional format. I am confident that it will add tremendous value to your leadership!
Here’s a sample from Day2:
How Do We Become Kingdom Leaders?
…people rise to leadership in our society based on extroversion, which means they have a tendency to ignore what is going on inside themselves. These leaders rise to power by operating very competently and effectively in the external world, sometimes at the cost of internal awareness…In the preparation and selection of leaders, we need to look for those who are growing in self-awareness, who are willing to take responsibility for themselves and what drives their behaviours, and who have the courage to bring that self-knowledge into the leadership setting.
Ruth Haley Barton
There was a time when people thought that leaders were born not made. You either had the gift of leadership or you didn’t. This paradigm is less popular now. The new way of thinking (at least in the business world) is that leaders can be trained. Anyone can learn leadership skills and become a proficient leader. In religious circles, we have a similar type of thinking when we think that going to seminary qualifies you to become the leader of a congregation.
However, in the kingdom leaders are neither born nor trained, they are incarnated. Incarnation is the process of embodying God in the flesh. Christ embodied the Father in the flesh and we must embody Him. That’s why we are His body. You see, in the kingdom, there is only one leader, one head of the body – Christ. We are all followers. We only become leaders/influencers insomuch as Christ lives in us and works through us. Hebrews 2:10 says in the NLT translation that God made Jesus the perfect leader through His suffering. I describe the process of becoming a kingdom leader as the Three C’s of Incarnation:
First, we must discern our unique calling in the kingdom. There is some sphere that we were designed to influence. We must make it our business to find out what we were created for! Secondly, we must go through the refining process of crucifixion so that our influence is untainted by our own agenda. Finally, we must learn to lead in partnership with the Holy Spirit (which I have titled co-creation mainly because I wanted another C word). We were not designed to lead alone! This process is actually more like a cycle. We discover more of who we are called to be, go through one level of refinement, and learn to partner with God to a certain degree, and then He takes us to another level and then another, and so on.
Jesus demonstrated all of these stages throughout His life. He demonstrated that He understood His calling when He read from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue and announced that He was the fulfillment of that prophecy. When He gave all of His “I am..” statements (I am the Bread of Life for example) He also demonstrated that He knew who He was. Scripture says that Jesus learned obedience through His suffering. Even Jesus had to go through processing and learn to choose God’s will over His will right up until the point of His crucifixion. And finally, we see many examples of Jesus partnering with the Father; doing and saying nothing out of step with Him.
The key point to note here is that we do not become kingdom leaders primarily by focusing on the external skill and practice of influencing others but by the internal work of incarnating Christ on the inside of us. What manifests outside of us is what exists inside of us. The greatest leader will be the one who has done the most inner work!
Journal with Holy Spirit: When you think about how Calling, Crucifixion, and Co-creation have played out in your life, what comes up for you?
I turned 50 in 2023! That brought a mixed bag of goodies and booby prizes.
Emotionally and mentally 2023 felt like my healthiest year ever! No exaggeration. A decade of steady self-work coupled with 4 years of work that my wife and I put into our marriage began to bear massive fruit last year. Covid was an accelerator in that it afforded me unforeseen levels of quality time with God that boosted my relationship with Him 10fold. It also accelerated (forced) the bonding between me, wifey, and our children as we spent months together working and learning from home. While I am saying that Covid helped and we put in the work, I cannot overstate the fact that God was the heavy-lifter here. Only He could do the amazing things in the hearts of our family members that caused us to knit together and only He could use a pandemic for our good! Mind you, it did not feel so rosy when these two families from St. Joseph and Paramin first moved in together! It was pressure but in 2023 the diamonds began to emerge.
Added to that, after being in one department for the past 18 years, a switch to a new area in late 2022, brought a breath of fresh air into my career as well. So with my wife and I being in a good place, the children excelling, the career taking on renewed life, and being involved in the fulfilling work with my wife of creating communities of love and belonging for Christians to grow, 2023 just felt like I was thriving.
While it’s nice to share celebratory reports, that’s not the main purpose of today’s blog. There were two key lessons that I learned in 2023 that I felt led to share with you.
Physical Health
2023 was my worst year ever for my physical health! Here the pandemic was not helpful at all! In 2023 I felt feeble (there I said it). Weight gained during the lockdown seemed to refuse to come off. In fact, I gained more! Injuries seemed to be taking forever to heal and for the first time, I considered that I may never be able to play football (soccer) or surf again. I had a fatty liver, high cholesterol, some kind of mystery dizziness, and shortness of breath. Things just seemed to be going from bad to worse. “Is this 50?” I asked myself.
BUT I discovered something coming down to the end…. I will never lose weight or stay fit doing activities that I do not like to do. I tried for the whole of 2023 to stay fit by walking and home workouts. I can get more out of group workouts but inevitably people workout to music that I don’t want in my head. So that’s a no-go. But last month I played football for the second time since before Covid and while I almost died, by the next day I literally felt my whole body become stronger. Overnight! Then I played again twice last week and the dizziness and shortness of breath are gone. So what I realized is that I need to do intense cardio activities and that’s only going to happen by doing things I love to do.
So in 2024, I will be making time for football and mountain biking. I realize that it is imperative that I have intense cardio workouts. Walking and home workouts are not enough for me to stay fit. I will be prioritizing this over work and ministry.
Folks, I know we always talk about prioritizing our health but I’m encouraging you again, especially my fellow pastors and professionals, the work is not more important… the seminar, church service, or feeding the poor programme is not more important. Also, take the time to know your own body and what works for you. Do what you love, it’s far more sustainable!
Relationships
God had me focusing on relationship-building for all of 2023. Mainly with my close and extended family and I learned something invaluable: God’s grace flows through our connections with people. The word that was the icon of what God was after in my life was CONNECTION.
It involved me having discussions with my mother about things that happened in the family when I was a child and not dismissing her perspectives so quickly. It involved me apologizing to my boss about the way I gave him some feedback, taking the time to explain my heart’s motive, and assuring him that I was for him not against him. It involved me building bridges with coworkers by genuinely finding and celebrating their strengths and offering tangible assistance in achieving their goals. It involved trying to understand my sister better and building bridges instead of taking offense. It involved being quicker to remove any distance between my wife and me. It involved taking a softer tone with my ex-wife. It involved walking in my children’s shoes a little more.
The result was that I saw God’s grace at work in my family and workplace more than ever. It crystallized something very clearly for me. God is not doing something over here and we are doing relationships over there. The vehicle for God’s grace to flow is the love connections between each other. The stronger the connection, the more of God’s grace can flow in our lives. If I want to see revival in my family, I have to build stronger bonds with my family members. If I want to see revival in my workplace, I have to build deeper relationships with my coworkers.
There is a depth of relationship with each other, a purity of love and affection, that God has intended for us that I do not think we fully grasp as Christians. I don’t think we have any grid for just how amazing and glorious it will look to live in unity. Nor do we understand just how much work it will take to get there. I am fully convinced that God is not interested in our programmes, seminars, conferences, and meetings apart from a foundation of building deeper relationships. So this year less is more. I’m cutting back even further on the ‘conversations’ that are just empty intellectual foreplay without any heart communion. I’m ditching even more of the online groups and social media where people share a whole lot of opinions and so little of themselves. I’m going deeper with fewer.
Here’s an added epiphany that I had: God does not need my help to fix people. I saw two people in my life begin to change and address things that I saw they needed to address for years. I dropped hints, I gave gentle advice, I shared relevant information and I obsessed about whether I was doing enough. But in His own timing, God showed them what they needed to see. Neither said that I had any role in their epiphanies. God was doing something in their lives. I laughed at myself. God doesn’t need my help. Well, I’m sure He uses my love and my prayers but beyond that…
So my second encouragement to you is to prioritize a few significant relationships this year and really work on them. Don’t try to be a better person in a general sense. Try to be a better mother to a specific child, a better friend to X, a better husband to your wife… But most importantly, do it from the point of view of just trying to build a stronger connection between you and them. Seek to understand them better and help them to understand you. Seek to provide any support you can to their growth and success (as they define it, not you) without expecting anything in return. Petition God for blessings on their life in your private prayer time. Love them.
Happy New Year!
DATE:
Wednesdays from 10th January to 20th March 2024
TIME:
7:30 pm – 9:30 pm AST
VENUE:
Online Zoom Event (Cameras On)
DESCRIPTION:
As a participant you will be taken on an 11-week journey that begins with deeper discernment of your unique identity and calling in Christ, moves through building self-awareness of mindsets that may be hindering your leadership, and ends with exploring practices of deeper partnership with God. We will explore a kingdom model of leadership and partner with Holy Spirit to discover hidden barriers that may be keeping us from reaching our full leadership potential. Participants will realize a marked improvement in their ability to partner with God to lead with authenticity and authority in their spheres of influence.
FORMAT:
The focus of this workshop is developing your tangible leadership capability, not just theoretical insights about leadership. Therefore, this workshop has been carefully designed to take participants on an interactive journey that facilitates a growth process that results in a tangible shift in their effectiveness as leaders. Expect to be challenged and stretched. You will come away with tangible work products and tools that will allow you to continue growing as a leader long after you have completed the workshop. We have deliberately designed this as a series of sessions over a long period (compared to a seminar or conference for a couple of days) to allow for ample group discussion, personal reflection, and putting what you have learned into practice. This methodology has been proven to deliver superior results for our clients.
TARGET AUDIENCE:
Our understanding of leadership does not limit it to only those who hold formal organizational positions, hence this workshop is for anyone who wants to increase their capacity to influence the sphere of life that they have been called to. Business professionals, pastors, and ministry leaders will all richly benefit from this course. All faith traditions are warmly welcomed.
FACILITATORS:
Matik Nicholls and Tricia Celestin-Nicholls share a burning passion for Jesus and for empowering people. They live in the beautiful Caribbean twin islands of Trinidad & Tobago with their five children and one granddaughter. Together they lead a small non-denominational faith community.
Matik has held leadership positions at various levels in the business sector for over two decades and is currently employed as the Vice President Innovation & Corporate Agility at a local natural gas processing company. Over the same period, Matik has also held various leadership positions in the church sphere such as worship leader, children’s ministry teacher, and youth leader. He is also a Covey 7 Habits practitioner and trained John Maxwell facilitator. In both the secular and religious spaces, Matik has been avidly learning and putting kingdom leadership principles into practice since he was twenty-one. He loves to read, hike, surf, and mountain bike. Matik also brings to the workshop a high-functioning teaching gift.
Tricia started leading in her local church at the age of fourteen as Vice-President of the Youth Group and went on to serve in various capacities such as Common Sense Parenting Facilitator, Hospitality Ministry Leader, and Parish Coordinator. She is a certified coach with the International Coaching Association and is trained in Story Informed Trauma Therapy and Trauma Counselling. She loves running, hiking, and coordinating events in her community. She is passionate about supporting leaders. Tricia also brings to the workshop a high-functioning prophetic gift that sharpens her deeply insightful coaching and facilitating ability.
COST:
$85 USD or $580 TT
Note: If you feel that God is leading you to take this course but you cannot afford this price, please reach out to us.
TESTIMONIALS:
This has to be the greatest leadership course I have ever taken because of the emphasis on allowing the Lord to reveal the specific issue that has hindered the emergence of our authentic, powerful self and the only way we will ever be the leaders we have been created to be is by co-partnering with Jesus.
Patricia Fletcher – Canada
Thank you Matik and Tricia for leading this life-changing course on personal leadership. As we’re moving into a season of knowing God in new and intimate ways, this course was timely. You have created a community grounded on love, allowing us to be Open, Vulnerable, and Humble.
Jacqueline Edwards – United States
The weekly sessions and discussions helped me better understand my identity in Christ. Our conversations revealed deeply rooted issues that have prevented me from experiencing God in Glorious ways.
I recommend this course to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of self, community, and how to live life abundantly that points to the heart of God.
Again, thank you!!! Our time together is always appreciated, I look forward to more courses in the future.
Are you like me? Knowing that you are called to be a leader, but not feeling it? Not yet believing it?
Gillian Ellis – Jamaica
So, when I heard about this “Building Personal Kingdom Leadership Capacity” course I was determined to be there and committed to stay throughout. Matik and Tricia Nicholls offered a fresh caring environment for new and not so new leaders, to explore and accept God’s unique call for them as a leader in His Kingdom. It was a journey of discovery and connection. The 11 weeks went by quickly, but the knowledge gained and habits learnt to further seek, find and centre in God’s eternal purpose were well worth it.
Now, trusting God, I’ll be impacting and influencing those He has placed around me. Thank God for the Nicholls, may He continue to guide and give them His wisdom in providing this well needed course and the many others to come.
PAYMENT INSTRUCTIONS:
To do a direct bank transfer use the following information:
Name: Matik Nicholls
Bank Name: Republic Bank Limited
Account No.: 260086069031
Account Type: Savings
Swift Code (international transfers): RBNKTTPX
For more info on international direct transfers click here. When the transfer is completed, please email the receipt or a screenshot to matik.nicholls@authenticjoy.org together with your name.
To pay via credit card click Buy now below:
I liken the pathway of our walk with Christ to a spiral because we often revisit places we have been but from a higher perspective. If we do not recognize our upward growth we may feel like we are going around in circles but we usually aren’t (unless we are not growing of course).
An easy illustration from my life is secular music. I love music. In my teen years, I had a collection of over 100 cassettes. (I know some of you may not know what this is and even fewer have ever seen one but it was how we stored music back in the day. A cassette held 60-90min of music.) I had a song for every mood and listened to everything from heavy metal to reggae. Music comforted me through romantic breakups. Music helped me study in college. Music formed the soundtrack of my life to such a degree that to this day particular songs bring back the emotions of particular seasons like it was yesterday. Then, at 21, I got saved and one day God showed me that my music was an idol in my life and I packed up all my cassettes and threw them out.
Fast-forward a decade and I am struggling in my faith. It has become clear that I may have thrown the cassettes out of my room but not out of my heart. Internally, I still crave secular songs especially since (at this time) gospel music SUCKS in variety and quality. Eventually, I left the church and re-united with many of my old secular habits including music.
Fast-forward another decade more or less, and I’m making my way back to God but this time it’s from a place of heartfelt repentance. I’m falling in love with a God so merciful that He would still accept me, forgive me, and welcome me into His arms. Now I realize that the genre of music is not important, it’s about my heart. I love Jesus and I don’t care about all that religious external stuff. Once it’s good clean lyrics, it’s all good.
Here I am today and what’s my position on music? You guessed it, I only listen to worship music. Not just Christian music but only music that leads me to worship God more. But this time, it’s what I delight to do. I can listen to anything but I only want to worship God.
This is what the upward spiral of growth looks like (at least in my experience). This will happen in many areas of our lives. Take past traumas for example. We may at one point be in a season where God is healing us from childhood trauma. Then we may think we are all good only to revisit the same trauma again years later and receive a deeper healing. Then we may revisit again but this time God may call us to become a facilitator of healing for others. And so the spiral goes. In fact, don’t be surprised if while helping others to heal you are again faced with open wounds that are still festering in your soul and have to lay on God’s doctor’s table again, all the while battling feelings of being unqualified to help others.
Paul dealt with this in 1 Co 8 when addressing the issue of foods sacrificed to idols. He recognized that some people lower on the spiral would be convinced that it would be a sin against God if they ate foods sacrificed to idols. while others higher on the spiral would understand that the idol is nothing and they can eat freely. This clash of Christians at different levels of growth with different perspectives on the same issue is very common in our social media landscape today. In fact, I would say if you ever look at one of the many videos ‘calling out’ leaders on blasphemous or heretic behaviour, 9 out of 10 times it’s just a matter of people being on different levels of the spiral.
Paul gives us the way to handle it. The person higher on the spiral actually has the responsibility to meet the other person where they are at. It’s the only possible way. Those looking at their brothers and sisters up above cannot possibly understand their perspective but those above can understand and accommodate those below. When I was in my ‘listening to secular music’ phase I remember a brother suggesting that I only listen to worship music and I was like, “This guy is religious.” Yet, look at me now! lol I’ve learned not to be so fully convinced that I have THE true perspective. If I am growing my perspective will change over time, and the more open I am to seeing things differently, the faster I will grow. I’ve also learned that my perspectives will sound like heresy to some and that argument as a means to influence is usually futile. Some things you have to experience for yourself.
So my exhortation to you my beloved sisters and brothers is to keep this concept of the spiral in mind as you grow in your faith. Do not be dismayed when old issues come back around, instead see it as an opportunity to face it from a higher perspective and learn something new. And let’s not be so quick to call our brothers and sisters heretics and blasphemers ok? We all see the world differently based on where we are on our journey. Let’s support and encourage each other and leave the Holy Spirit to do his work in each other’s lives as only he can.
Love and blessings,
If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?
1 John 4:20 (NLT)
I want to draw your attention to one little word in this verse. The word can. Can is not about the will or the choice to do something. Can is about the ability to do something. The word in Greek means to be able to or to have the power or capability to. And if this is the case then what this verse is saying is that if we do not practice loving our fellow believers then we will not have the capability to love God and that is profound!
Often we think, and I have thought at one point, that we can live in isolation in a ‘just me and God’ sort of reality. And by isolation, I don’t mean that we necessarily become a hermit but just that we withhold our hearts from everyone or at least most people. We think we can hold everyone at a distance but be intimate with God. This verse is saying that that is a delusion. The same relational muscles that we must build to be vulnerable with others and to connect across the things that divide us (race, theology, personality, class, education) are the same muscles needed to connect to an invisible God.
I did not come about this understanding by studying 1 John. That is rarely how God teaches me. It was revealed to me in my daily struggles as I processed life with God. Since I married the one and only Tricia Celestin-Nicholls I have been working on trying to remain relational and connected with her through life’s ups and downs. As with all of us, I have suffered my fair share of trauma and I have learned coping mechanisms to keep myself safe. My go-to is shutting down, meaning that I become emotionally numb and withdraw into my own inner world. There are any number of triggers that can cause me to shut down but any form of criticism or vexation pointed in my direction is top of the list. I can also shut down if I am under a lot of emotional stress. And when I shut down it’s with everybody not just the person who may have triggered it. So you see how my poor wife may suffer the brunt of my disconnection even if she didn’t cause it.
So, I’ve been working on remaining open and relational even when I am stressed or feel hurt or threatened. To tell you the truth, it seems like every time I heal one layer there’s a deeper layer that God reveals that needs a deeper healing. The word trauma means soul-wound according to Gabor Mate. In order for me to love my wife better, Jesus needs to heal my soul. This doesn’t just affect my wife of course. It means that I can love everyone better. My kids. My parents. My sister. My friends. My co-workers. My church group. My neighbours. Everyone.
But back to the opening verse, do you see that it also means that I can love God better? What I discovered that led me to this verse is that as I healed, I was able to stay connected to Holy Spirit better. I hid less when I sinned. I was able to hear Holy Spirit better even when I was stressed. I was better able to leave my heart open to receive the love that I so desperately needed and God so desperately wanted to pour on me.
God showed me that I only have one heart. The same heart that loves my wife is the same heart that loves Him. Wholeheartedness is not an option. Healing is not an option. If we are to obey the greatest commandment to love God with all our hearts then we must work on our relationships. It is in that pursuit that traumas are unearthed, wounds healed and hearts made whole.
Working on loving others is working on loving God because you’ve only got one heart!
Often, when we talk about developing leaders in the workplace and in the church, we focus on developing a set of skills and competencies. However, most of the time what hampers our leadership capability is not those external skills and competencies that are readily observable. Sure we can improve our administrative competence, or our speaking ability, or learn to use our talents and strengths more effectively. All of that is good. It will make us better managers but leadership requires something more.
Ruth Haley Barton says it this way, “…people rise to leadership in our society based on extroversion, which means they have a tendency to ignore what is going on inside themselves. These leaders rise to power by operating very competently and effectively in the external world, sometimes at the cost of internal awareness…In the preparation and selection of leaders, we need to look for those who are growing in self-awareness, who are willing to take responsibility for themselves and what drives their behaviours, and who have the courage to bring that self-knowledge into the leadership setting.”
Parker Palmer teaches, “A leader is a person who must take responsibility for what’s going on inside his or her consciousness, lest the act of leadership create more harm than good.”
Finally, listen to Jesus, “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First, wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.” (Matthew 23:25-26 NLT)
We manifest around us, the reality that lives inside of us. All of us are walking around with internal worlds tainted by insecurities, unhealed traumas, distorted identities, impure motives, and the like. In other words, we are broken. All of us. To varying degrees and in diverse ways but we all carry the scars of this common fallen humanity. Unless we heal this internal landscape, even with the noblest of intentions and most fervent of faiths, we will do more harm than good. We must first wash the inside.
If you look closely around you, you can observe this neglect of internal work everywhere. Parents burden their children with expectations too heavy for them to bear in a vain attempt to live their unrealized dreams through their offspring, or crush their children’s dreams to “spare them” the disappointment that still haunts them. Managers still try to make daddy proud by piling up accomplishments while their staff suffer in service of their ruthless ambitions. Preachers scrape for significance by bullying their congregation and sucking up to those who could elevate them while quoting scriptures to back up their soul-disease.
True leaders are actively engaged in inner work. If we want to build a community filled with love, peace and joy, it first has to live inside of us. We can teach what we know and people will become more informed but we can only transform lives by imparting what lives on the inside of us. Leadership development is an upward spiral of Calling, Crucifixion and Co-Creation. First, we are called up higher in an encounter with God where He reveals our identity to us. Like King David when he was anointed king by Samuel. Then we must be refined and tested (also like David whose character was shaped for many many years before he ever sat on the throne). Finally, we learn to exercise authority in partnership with God. Again, David was a good example of this, constantly guided by God as he led the people. As long as we remain humble and teachable the cycle never stops. We are constantly being called to a truer version of ourselves, to engage in a process of transformation that enables us to be trusted with greater kingdom responsibilities and to partner more closely with God to expand His kingdom. God only entrusts His authority to those who carry His character.
The moment we stop growing is the moment we begin to lose real influence in the realm of the spirit. How many times have we met men of God who talk about the power and presence of God that used to characterize their ministry? What happened? I believe they stopped the inner work. They thought they had arrived and forfeited their leadership position. They may still have big ministries and many followers but in the spirit, they have lost their position.
I pray that that would never be said of you beloved. I declare that your life will go from glory to glory! I pray that we will be diligent in pursuing our inner work together! Let us encourage each other in this most holy work that when Christ returns He may find a Bride without spot or wrinkle ready to meet her Bridegroom!
