“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

Matthew 7:24

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus teaches that, when building houses, there are two types of people, the wise builder and the foolish one. The wise man looks for a good foundation, but the foolish man builds on the sand. The strong foundation is based on rock, which provide solid ground for building upon. On the other hand, the sand represents the weak, shifting and unstable. We can choose either of these two elements to build our lives and our ministries on. In order to build His church, Jesus had to have a spirit of discernment as well as faith to to see what His disciples could achieve. One of the first disciples to come to Jesus was Simon, whose name means “reed.” This implied that he was weak or inconsistent.

The first thing Jesus did was to change his name to Cephas, or Peter, which means, “rock.” Due to the big responsibility ahead, Jesus did not want to have someone weak on His team. He needed firm people, with consistent character, those sure and confident in their decisions.

At the beginning of His ministry Jesus focused on winning His team of twelve. Although He also kept some contact with the multitudes, He never forced them to follow Him. He knew that large groups of people tend to be inconsistent. One day they bless and the next day they curse; one day they follow you and the next day they abandon you. Jesus knew that if He wanted to build a solid church, strong enough to endure the severity of the weather, He should do it with rocks. That is why He changed Simon, His disciple’s name, implying that He would do the same with every one of the twelve men in His team. The Lord decided to make up a team that would last, so that when He was no longer with them, they could continue with His work. In this way, Jesus set a precedent, an example for all of us to follow, and do the same, continuing with His great vision to efficiently take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth. During the three and a half years that Jesus shared with His disciples, He reproduced His character in each one of them, so that the vision of redemption would not just stay within that small group. History tells us how each one of them put every effort for the vision to pass from generation to generation, until every place was filled with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If you want a leadership team that remains for many generations, follow the Master’s steps. If you believe God called you to develop this kind of leadership, He will give you the grace you need to do it. God can also use your consecrated life to awaken the spirit of those around you and to reproduce in each one of them, so that they may become the effective and committed leaders that will influence the following generations.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
My daughter Johanna and her husband Eliemerson had to assume the leadership of a team of twelve from some leaders that left the church. Johanna wondered how to work with them. They were very valuable people, but all of them were very discouraged. The grace of God and diligent work was needed to cheer them up. They started to meet with them separately, couple by couple, in order to get to know them better. They began to create an atmosphere of fellowship and friendship where everybody could integrate and they could be encouraged. A few months later the results were evident. Every person on that team is an extraordinary leader. This is a result of understanding that those people were not to be treated as mere sand, but as solid rocks. Those men and women, although they were asleep, had to be awakened. They needed help to believe in themselves. Now, I can tell you they are one of the most solid groups in the church.

TODAY’S DECLARATION
“I am steady as a stone and nothing will ever move me, because I’m rooted in Jesus Christ, the eternal Rock.”

Today’s post is an excerpt from Pastor Cesar Castellanos’ book, Declarations of Power for 365 Days of the Year: Volume Three.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING

• Old Testament: Isaiah 9-10; Proverbs 20:1-15
• New Testament: Luke 21:20-28; Hebrews 2:10-18