Spirit-Empowered Leaders: From Ambition to Affection

This is an excerpt from Jeff Vanderstelt’s newest book One-Eighty: A Return to Disciple-Making © Exponential. Download the free e-book here or order a physical copy from Amazon.

To hear Jeff expound upon this topic, check out Season 6, Episode 10 of the Saturate Podcast Spirit-Empowered Ministry.

Working in Our Own Strength

When we first started to form a core for the church that would be known as Soma in Tacoma, Washington, I called people to follow Jesus and walk in His ways, doing what He did and commanded. People were inspired and motivated and eager to practice and implement all that I was teaching. But it didn’t take long before people started to express being overwhelmed or worn out. We had made a fatal mistake. We had called them to do the work of Jesus without the power and presence of Jesus by the Spirit.

Jesus was very clear about this. He told His disciples that apart from Him they could do nothing (John 15). When He gave them the commission to make disciples of all nations, He promised them His power and presence to be with them as they journeyed on His mission (Matthew 28:18-20). In fact, He told them before He ascended to wait for power from on high, referring to the Spirit anointing, filling, and empowering them to be His witnesses (Acts 1:4-8).

I wonder how many of us are calling people to do the work of Jesus without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. How many of us are trying to lead without His presence and power?

Empowered by Love

When Jesus started His public ministry, He began in the waters of baptism with John the Baptist. Jesus didn’t need to be baptized for repentance and the removal of sin. Jesus was baptized to identify with us and our common need for the empowering of God’s Spirit. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, the same river God had dried up for the Israelites to pass into the Promised Land. They had witnessed God’s power repeatedly, and even here, they could see and remember that it was by God’s power that they entered into their new life. And yet, they quickly slipped back into self-sufficiency mode. Jesus entered His ministry not just setting an example of full submission and dependency on God, but also doing for God’s people what they failed to do themselves. And when Jesus came out of the waters of baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and Jesus heard the Father say, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:21-22).

Jesus began His ministry in a place of dependency so that He could receive the anointing of the Spirit. He also did not engage in ministry to gain the Father’s approval. He started with a full tank of affection. He had all the power and all the love to go forward in ministry.

Do the people you lead know the voice of God speaking to them by the Spirit, affirming that they are unbelievably loved by the Father? (See Romans 5:5, 8; 8:12-17, 31-39.) If not, they will believe they have to earn God’s love by doing all that Jesus did. But remember, the Father expressed His love for the Son before His ministry even began. We need to teach and remind disciples that they are doing the work of Jesus not to gain love but from a place of the fullness of God’s love. 

I went through a season where God called me to cease from all ministry in the form of a sabbatical. My spiritual director showed me that getting off the horse of ministry wouldn’t be enough. He informed me that my temptation would be to get on a different horse of accomplishment. He helped me to identify every horse of accomplishment that might be a temptation for me. I began to make a list: losing weight, putting on more muscle, improving my golf game, reading more books, doing some writing, etc.  He gently admonished me to not get on any horses until I could stay on the horse of rest and know I was still deeply loved by God regardless of any accomplishment (or lack thereof). 

I must admit, it was one of the hardest seasons of my life. I had become so accustomed to my sense of approval and love coming from what I did (even though I regularly taught that we were loved apart from works) that I began to realize that I didn’t love myself apart from what I accomplished. This revealed that I didn’t fully embrace God’s love for me without my works. I sat in this for many weeks. One day I took a walk for five hours, and while I sat on a bench looking out on the Puget Sound, I sensed the Father’s love for me so deeply that I was brought to the same place that I imagine Jesus was at in that river. I knew, I really knew, that God really loved me, even if I never did another thing for Him again.

When I recount this experience, I often say that it was that day that I made a shift from ambition to affection. I had been operating from a place of ambition, which seeks to gain what one doesn’t yet have. Now I am learning to operate from a place of affection, which recognizes I already have everything I need in the love of God. I am working from fullness of love not an attempt to gain it. As I write these words, my heart is overwhelmed, and my eyes are full of tears as I remember that moment when God poured fresh fountains of love into my being. This is the place we all need to be working from—the overflow of God’s love.

Are we leading from that place? Are we leading others to continually be filled with the Holy Spirit, and are we experiencing the never-ending flow of God’s love into our hearts? In Ephesians 5:18, Paul exhorts us to not be drunk with wine but to be filled (continually) with the Holy Spirit. I don’t think Paul’s main concern is drinking here (though we are wise to heed his exhortation about not getting drunk). I believe Paul is saying, “Don’t depend on anything else for healing, for filling, for empowering than the Holy Spirit. And just like you know how to drink liquid, drink in the Holy Spirit continually.”

This is an excerpt from Jeff Vanderstelt’s newest book One-Eighty: A Return to Disciple-Making © Exponential. Download the free e-book here or order a physical copy from Amazon.

To hear Jeff expound upon this topic, check out Season 6, Episode 10 of the Saturate Podcast Spirit-Empowered Ministry.