A Leader Expects To Fight On Different Levels

A leader will have to have to fight on different levels and about different things. A leader must not be surprised at the outbreak of trouble. Remember Jesus; what evil did Jesus do? So why did the Pharisees attack Him? And why did Pontius Pilate have Him crucified?

1. A leader may have to fight against a father. David was a good man but he had to fight with Saul. Many fathers provoke their spiritual sons into conflict.

Be careful when you find yourself fighting a father.

And SAUL SPAKE TO JONATHAN HIS SON, AND TO ALL HIS SERVANTS, THAT THEY SHOULD KILL DAVID. But Jonathan, Saul's son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself: And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and I will commune with my father of thee; and what I see, that I will tell thee. And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David; because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to thee-ward very good: For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: WHEREFORE THEN WILT THOU SIN AGAINST INNOCENT BLOOD, TO SLAY DAVID WITHOUT A CAUSE?

1 Samuel 19:1-5

2. A leader may have to fight against a son. David had to fight his son Absalom. There are many sons who fight the fathers who raise them up.

And David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Behold, MY SON, WHICH CAME FORTH OF MY BOWELS, SEEKETH MY LIFE: how much more now may this Benjamite do it? Let him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD hath bidden him.

2 Samuel 16:11

3. A leader may have to fight the people he had been kind to. Jehoshaphat had to fight the ungrateful Ammonites. There are many ungrateful people who will stir up battles in your life. And now, BEHOLD, THE CHILDREN OF AMMON and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not; Behold, I say, HOW THEY REWARD US, TO COME TO CAST US OUT OF THY POSSESSION, which thou hast given us to inherit. O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.

2 Chronicles 20:10-12

4. Leaders will have to fight troublemakers. Ahab the king of Israel had to fight Benhadad of Syria.

And Benhadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Benhadad,

Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have. And the messengers came again, and said, thus speaketh Benhadad, saying, Although I have sent unto thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children; Yet I will send my servants unto thee tomorrow about this time, and they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy servants; and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away.

THEN THE KING OF ISRAEL CALLED ALL THE ELDERS OF THE LAND, AND SAID, MARK, I PRAY YOU, AND SEE HOW THIS MAN SEEKETH MISCHIEF: FOR HE SENT UNTO ME FOR MY WIVES, AND FOR MY CHILDREN, AND FOR MY SILVER, AND FOR MY GOLD; and I denied him not.

1 Kings 20:1-7
Indeed, a leader must be prepared to fight on different levels. May you be endowed with wisdom to engage the different people at different levels!

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By Dag Heward-Mills