Developing Personal Leadership — Gerhard Du Toit

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold.

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These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. You know, I'm sure you've heard of a little boy who sat in a church and the minister took his watch off and he said to his daddy, what does it mean?

And his daddy said, it doesn't mean anything.

I've had two wonderful experiences in the last five years. My watch stopped in the middle of my message. You say, well, it probably stopped every night here, didn't it? Well, I tell you, the day when we will be in heaven, there won't be any watches.

And the fellows that complain about time would be glad that they made it. Let's pray, shall we? Father in heaven, how we thank you this afternoon for the tremendous way that the Spirit of God has been working in many of our lives.

Thank you for the blessedness of the way that you search us. Thank you for so many of these men that have come to me during today, these few minutes since I've come and last night and yesterday and have shared some of the deep ways in which God has been dealing with them.

And Lord, we are deeply humiliated. God, I believe that eternity alone will reveal what God has done for us this week. And we know tonight that you are going to allow us to be tested in the days to come on very, very deep levels.

And so we pray that you will prepare us, Lord, when we go back tomorrow and next week. God, I pray in Jesus' name that every face that I have seen these days will be deeply imprinted into the depths of my prayer life.

And as we spend a week in prayer and fasting next week, to trust God to settle His workings into our lives like cement. I pray that you will bring face after face after face of these precious brethren back to my heart, my life.

Lord, five times the Apostle Paul said, brethren, pray for us. And we've got an awesome responsibility. And we thank you that you can help us to do that. God, we want you to meet with every one of us.

And I pray if there's anyone of us who are struggling this afternoon with something, God, I pray that the Spirit of God will give complete victory in Jesus' name. Amen. Sorry, I missed that. What time did you say again?

Quarter to four. Okay, you help me when the time is gone.

The Spirit-Filled Life as a Gateway to God

I think I've got too much volume here, so that's great. Thank you. I would like to try and do three or four things with you this afternoon. I would like to take a minute or two to speak to you on what is the consequences of being full to the Spirit of God.

And then if time would allow us, I would like to share with you how do you and I maintain the fullness of God's Spirit in our lives. And then if we can do that, I want us to look at what is God's perspective when it comes to subsequent infillings to the Holy Spirit in our lives as God's people.

I mean, what is the Bible's perspective of that? We know the Word of God is speaking about it, but how can I experience that in my relationship with God? And then I also want us to look at maybe what is the purpose of the anointing of God's Spirit in my life that I never got to on Monday night.

And I don't think we will be able to do this, but my heart has been burning to share with you something on leadership that I call ten transformative characteristics in developing leadership in my life.

You see, a leader is a monomaniac with a mission. You want me to do this? Anyway, you said I only have to call past four. I mean, we are best of friends, you know. I'm staying in his house and we nail each other and then we hug each other and then we pray for each other.

Anyway, so these are the kind of things. And then I've got some material on the subject of temptation that I would have loved to share with you. Maybe if you want copies of this we can do it. The definition of temptation.

The reasons why God allows us to be tempted. The process of temptation. And then the biblical concept of victory over temptation. Anyway, I tell you what we do. Let me just say this. Why don't I go through this material and then what we can do.

This whole concept of what is the result of the infilling of God's Spirit. We make copies of this and then we can give it to you and you can take it home and you can read it. Let me just say this, my brethren.

The Spirit-filled life is not a goal. It is a gateway in your relationship with God. And if you have a difficulty with us, you know, God has given us different convictions and maybe you sit here with an absolute open mind.

And I mean, that's the wonderful thing that we can have. That we can differ with one another and that there is diversity within unity. And I think God wants us to sometimes maybe have different opinions about different things.

And maybe you are here this afternoon and you say, you know, I don't see it like this. I don't see that the infilling of the Spirit of God can be a subsequent experience from being born of the Spirit of God.

Neither do I necessarily see it like that. From God's perspective, I believe that it is possible for God to do it for us if we have a thorough preparation in our hearts. But I don't come across many people like that.

And if you study the history of revivals of religion, and I mean, I'm saying to you this afternoon with a broken heart because if it was possible that God could save everyone and sanctify and fill them with the Holy Spirit, which I believe it is.

But if it would have happened in the lives of people, it would have saved me hours and days and weeks and months of counseling. I mean, I would have spent a lot more time in prayer than I am at the moment.

But I think there is a wonderful distinction and what I would suggest you to do, and I'm sure many of you have an interest in the Greek New Testament. Go to the two concepts of what does it mean to be born of the Spirit in the New Testament and write them down alongside one another.

And then go to all the concepts in the New Testament where the Bible speaks of being full to the Spirit. And you compare those with one another and you see that God does make a possible distinction between those two.

I mean, I've got a great love for New Testament theology and I've got a great love for word studies in the New Testament. I want to find out what the Word of God is saying about something. I remember a fellow a number of years ago came to me and he was very strong on the gifts of the Spirit of God.

And he was trying to convince me about the gifts of God's Spirit and I said to him, Well let me get hold of my Greek New Testament and give me three weeks, or rather three months. And I spent three months studying that subject.

And I went to every place in the New Testament where I came across the Greek word for gift. And I wrote every place down. Then I went to every place in the New Testament where I came across the word gift.

That was connected to the Holy Spirit with a possible implication upon my life as a believer. And I came up with about 500 pages of material. And when I brought it all together and separate everything that I was able to separate, I came to the conclusion that the Bible is speaking to us about probably, possibly between 21 and 24 gifts and graces of the Spirit of God.

And I got him out and I said, Come here, I need to talk to you. And boy was that an eye opener to him. You see, we need to find out what the word of God is saying. Because the word of God is God's word.

And let me just say this to you, that my brethren, from God's perspective, the Spirit-filled life, and if you've got a problem with the Spirit-filled life, I mean, you just need to open your eyes and see the wickedness in the world.

And say to yourself, if I'm going to survive, I need to live a life in the fullness of the Spirit of God. But the Spirit-filled life in the New Testament is not a goal. It's a gateway. It's a place where my will has been given over to God.

And through a life-long process, God is going to work in my relationship with God. But the difference is the struggle from within has ceased. Someone came to me the other day and we talked about temptation and he said, explain to me the difference.

Temptation, Sin, and Victory Through Cleansing

I said, if you struggle with lust, and I mean there are thousands of Christian men that are struggling with lust. And if you struggle with lust, and that is sin in your life, when temptation comes, there is a point of contact.

And there is a civil war going on in your relationship with God. And quite often you don't, and I would almost say probably 90 of the times, you don't have the ability to resist it. But God is able to cleanse you from that.

So that when the temptation, and you say, Gerard, will this temptation still come? Of course it will still come. I mean, you can't avoid the birds flying over your head, but you can stop them from making nests in your head.

And you will not be able to avoid temptations coming to you. I mean, there is a process of temptation. And temptation only becomes sin when my will yields to it. But if my will is in bondage by sin, I am in deep trouble as a Christian, and that is why God needs to cleanse us.

And I want to say to you again this afternoon, my brother, I want to live as close to God as it is possible for a sinner saved by grace to live. Don't you be afraid of the holiness of God. I mean, you try and live as close to God as it is possible for you to live.

Christian Calling and the Meaning of Spiritual Leadership

And I firmly believe that in my heart. Okay, what does it mean to be involved in leadership? Well, you say, maybe I am not involved in leadership. The moment when you gave your life to Jesus Christ, you have become involved in leadership.

And to be involved in leadership means that Jesus Christ said to you, as my Father has sent me, He said, so sent are you. I mean, don't even think of becoming a Christian if you are not going to be involved in leadership.

Because God wants to pour out His Spirit in your life. And as a result of God pouring out His Spirit in your life and your relationship with God, it means that you are going to become a leader. And there is going to be a fragrance about your relationship with God.

And the Bible is saying to us, to some it will become the fragrance of death and to others it will become the fragrance of life. You see, the gospel of Jesus Christ in you and my life as a believer, my brother, never ever neutralized people.

It just never happens. So what does it mean? A leader is a person who knows where he is going. And he has got clear cut objectives. He is a conceptual thinker. He is a person who is able to persuade others to go along with him.

He is a motivator. And he is a relational individual. He is a man who has got a compass in his head and he has got a magnet in his heart. That is what leadership is about. He is a relational individual.

If you sit here today and you think of the pastorate and you want to go out into full time ministry, I would suggest to you that if God has not given you the ability to relate to people, that you should really rethink your position.

And if you think of full time ministry, if you can do anything else before going into full time ministry, I would suggest that you go and do that. You see, there are sometimes people that say to me, Well, you know, full time ministry is a wonderful thing to be involved in.

If God has not called you, don't even think of it. I think of the fellow that once said to me, What are you doing? And I said, Well, I am preaching and all kinds of things. And he said, Well, is that all that you are doing?

And I was tempted to say to him, like a friend of mine who said to someone who asked him the same question, and he said, Just come with me for a weekend of ministry. And this man went with him and he preached about 7 or 9 or 10 times over the weekend and the man sat there all the time.

And at the end of the time they came back and he saw him two weeks later and he said, How are you doing? And he said, Well, I am just recovering from that weekend. And my friend said to him, Well, you were just there.

You were just doing, I was doing all the preaching. And the man said, Well, I was doing the listening. And I know about you that the ministry takes everything from me. And I am going to be pretty absolutely honest with you.

My brother, if you think of full time ministry, you need to think of committing at least 3 hours a day to God on a daily basis. I mean, I am absolutely adamant about it. And I am almost kind of a belief, you know, that when God is speaking to us about tithing, I believe maybe God is speaking to us about giving a tithe of our time, which is almost 3 hours a day.

Can I say that to you again? If you are going to spend 3 hours of God on a daily basis, you are almost going to spend 46 days of 1996 in the presence of God. It is powerful stuff, you know. He is a motivator.

He is a relational individual. He has got a compass in his head and he has got a magnet in his heart. Now, my involvement with people who are involved in leadership is quite significant because leaders differ so much.

I mean, some of them are small and some of them are tall. But I have found that as I study leaders and as I look at leadership in the way of God, that there are what we would consider 10 transformative characteristics in developing leadership.

A Strong Sense of Purpose and Mission

And the first thing that I have discovered, if I want to allow the Spirit of God to develop leadership in my relationship with God, is that the Spirit of God comes to my life and the Spirit of God brings me to a place where God gives me a very strong sense of purpose.

So you and I come to the place where we find out the reason for our existence. And a leader is a person who knows exactly what they want to achieve and how they want to see that being accomplished. I mean, you look at the life of the Apostle Paul and as you study the life of the Apostle Paul, you discover that here was a man, I mean, he knew why he was existing.

Here was a man that was able to say, for me to exist or for me to live as Christ. In other words, if you and I see God developing leadership in our lives, my brethren, what has happened to us, God brings us to a place where we focus all our strength and our energy to accomplish our objectives.

You see, the Apostle Paul didn't say, these 10 things do I try to accomplish. He said, this one thing I do. And if God is developing leadership in our lives, He gives us a strong sense of purpose. I mean, if you ask any person who is involved in leadership, what is your aim and your purpose, they will not give you some vain and uncertain answer.

There will be a sense of determination and the answers that that person will give you will be specific. Someone has said that the leader is a monomaniac with a mission. There is a difference between someone who is involved in managing something and a leader because a manager is concerned about the details and a leader is concerned about the big picture.

A manager is someone that does things right and a leader is only concerned about doing the right thing. Someone once said that a leader spends 15 of his time thinking. I love sometimes in my office, if I have time to spare in the afternoon, and I mean, maybe you say, you know, it is highly un-Christian to do that, but I love just to sit back and to put my feet on the desk and I just dream.

And I dream about the possibilities of what God is able to do. And my personal interpretation of Acts chapter 2, you remember when the Bible is saying to us, in the last days I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your old men shall dream dreams.

I believe that what God maybe is trying to say to us, by your old men shall dream dreams, that God is speaking to us about men who have been in ministry for maybe 30 or 40 or sometimes almost 50 years.

And I look for those people and I try to find those people and I go and sit at the feet of those people and I ask them to dream. And I sat at their feet and I listened to them. I love to pray with people like this because I mean, when these people pray, I tell you sometimes it is just theology that is flowing from their souls because they have had years of experience and they have been involved in some of the deep things of God and you discover the tremendous blessing by the lives of those people.

So there is a strong sense of purpose in my life. And I wonder this afternoon if you would allow me to ask you, my brother, have you found the reason for your existence? I mean, why did you come to this week?

I am so much looking forward to this time of prayer this evening because every one of us individually are going to pray for ourselves and we are going to ask God that whatever we heard this week, during the sessions, during the day and the evenings as we came together, we are going to ask God that he will help us to pray those things through.

So that there would be this wonderful balance in our relationships with God so that your relationship with God when you go back next week and you settle back into your normal circumstances, you need to remember, my brother, maybe God has touched your life in a very deep way this week but your circumstances has not changed one bit.

We are going to trust God that it would settle in. And I believe the spirit of God has done tremendous things. I mean, the few minutes that I have had the privilege of listening to brother Mos and to Denny and others that were here, I mean, I just sensed the awareness of the presence of God and I felt as I listened to them and I am taking all these cassettes home and going to listen to them in the days to come and I probably will feel like as I listen to them in the days to come I will feel my worth, I wasn't worthy to stand up in the evenings and to try and share the word of God after I heard what I heard from these men.

And God has done some tremendous things in our lives, you know. He has done a work in our lives and we need to find out, I mean, what was the purpose of my coming here? And we need to pray those things through.

And if God hasn't given you victory yet, there is still an afternoon and an evening left for you to persevere and to seek God and to say, God, I really want to get through to you about some of these issues of my life.

Persistence and Endurance Under Spiritual Opposition

The second aspect about leadership and developing it in my life is simply this, to be involved in leadership will mean that God gives me a strong sense of persistence. If you and I are going to allow the Spirit of God to bring leadership into our lives, my brethren, one of the great things that is going to happen into our lives is simply this, we are going to become long term individuals.

And I trust that as you look at your own life, as you look at commitments that you've made to God, maybe on Tuesday night when God dealt with you in your life about prayer, and when God dealt with you in your life about cleansing, and these kind of commitments that you and I have made to God, that these are going to be long term commitments in our relationship with God.

You remember in Hebrews chapter 12, the Bible is saying to us, let us run the race with patience or with endurance. And the word endurance in the Greek New Testament is a military term, if I can say that.

And if I need to describe that Greek word to you, it really means to hold courageously under consistent fire. And I mean we are out in a battlefield and I mean the bullets are flying and the casualties are high.

And there is a war going out there in the realm of spiritual things. And when God is speaking to us about commitments, God is speaking to us about long term commitments. He said Gerard, how will I be able to hold myself accountable?

I will take that list that we gave you the other day and I will find someone to whom I can become accountable. And say listen, I want you to help me. I came back from a conference where God really turned my life around.

And I made commitments to God. And many of you have come and said, you know, God spoke to me by His word. Why are we so strong that God needs to witness from His word to us? Because my brethren, when the son of God was in the wilderness of temptation and he faced the onslaughts of the evil one, that he relied upon his relationship with his father.

He didn't necessarily rely upon it but he relied upon the word of God. He said again and again to the enemy, he said, it is written. He said, it is written. He said, it is written. And your defense and your foundation and your strength and the thing that is going to carry you through and I really would like you to get hold of this.

The thing that is going to carry you through in the days to come. As you leave this conference and you go back to your home. It's not necessarily the things that you have trust God for. Precious as they are experiences and moments when you have sought your heart out.

But my brethren, the thing that is going to carry you through when we are speaking about long term commitments is going to be the word of God. In fact, I am so serious about this that I would say to you that I would challenge every one of you.

Within the next one or two or three or four months or so. To get hold of the New Testament concept and listen through it. Every single month you say, Gerard, why should I do that? So that the word of God would be able to settle in my relationship with God.

And while I am saying this, let me bring something in about one of the points that I wanted to mention. You see, the Bible is speaking to us about these subsequent infillings of the Holy Spirit of God.

In Acts chapter 2, they were full to the Spirit of God. And in Acts chapter 4, the Bible is saying to us that they were full to the Spirit of God again. And in Acts chapter 11, which chapter is it? The Bible says, Peter was full to the Spirit of God.

And he stood up. So there are these subsequent infillings of the Spirit of God. And you say, what is God's perspective of it? Now, let me take you into Ephesians chapter 5, because you remember in Ephesians chapter 5, the Bible is saying to us, be not drunk with wine, wherefore there is an excess.

But he said, be full to the Spirit. In his present imperative mood, he is saying to us, be being full to the Spirit of God. What is the consequences of being full to the Spirit of God? In Ephesians chapter 5, he is saying unto us, sing unto yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

What is that? That is spiritual worship. But he is saying to us, he said, why submit yourselves to your husband? What is that? That is spiritual submission. Then Paul is going on and he is saying to us, husband, love your wives even as Christ loved a church.

What is that? That is spiritual sacrifice. And if you and I are going to be consistently full to the Spirit of God, and we are speaking about this, the sense of persistence in our relationship to God, my brethren, what we are referring to is that the consequences or these consistent infillings of the Spirit of God is speaking to us about spiritual worship.

It is speaking to us about spiritual submission. And it is speaking to us about spiritual sacrifice. And spiritual worship is time. Now, if you want to know my philosophy of worship and the New Testament, you know, there is so much talk these days about worship in churches.

It is not worship, it is the style of music. I mean, if you want to understand New Testament worship, you need to come to grips of Acts chapter 2. Because when God poured out His Spirit upon those early disciples, what did the Bible say to us?

That in Acts chapter 2 the Bible says, and they came together for what? For the apostles' doctrine, for fellowship, for breaking of bread and for prayer. Those are the four pillars of New Testament worship.

And out of those pillars of New Testament worship, the apostles' doctrine, what is it? It is the Word of God. And out of those four pillars of New Testament worship, is coming this concept, he said, singing to yourselves in psalms, in hymns and spiritual songs.

Worship, Psalms, and the Word of Christ

You know, this morning at the house, at the Kenniston house, I was talking to the young people and, oh, there is a great, precious bunch of them. And, you know, for a few spare minutes, I mean, you are just there and investing time in their lives.

And I was telling them about the Highlands of Scotland. And in the Highlands of Scotland, they never ever make invitations. I mean, there was a man that went up and he preached the first night, and there were 800 people in Stornow at the meeting.

And he made a public invitation, and the next night three people came back. I mean, they feel that you are doing the work of the Holy Spirit if you make an invitation. He said, Gerard, do you agree with that?

I am not necessarily saying that I am agree with that, but I think today we are living in a time where we are making invitations just for about every possible reason that we can get of. But they don't make invitations.

But the other thing about the Highlands and the Highlands of Scotland is simply this, that they don't have music as we hear. In fact, last night, let me tell you something. Last night when you were singing, I phoned my wife and I opened the door.

I said, my darling, just listen to this. Isn't this power? Isn't that powerful stuff? But when I was there, they don't make invitations. And when they sing, they only sing the Psalms. I mean, they don't sing anything else.

They simply just sing the Psalms. And when I asked him, I said, you know, why do you just sing the Psalms? I mean, if you say to an islander, you are not in line. I mean, if you say to a Calvinist, if you say the word of God, I mean, you are in for deep trouble.

But I turned to them and I said to them, listen folks, I want to ask you a question. Why don't you sing Psalms? And they said, oh well, why don't you sing hymns and spiritual songs and all those wonderful things.

And they said, oh well, we just sing Psalms. And so then I took them to Ephesians chapter 5 and I said, you know, how do you explain that? And they said, what do you mean? I said, the Bible says, sing to yourself in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

And I couldn't think of Greek words there. So I turned to my Reformed friends up there in the highlands, in the islands of Scotland, and I said, you know, how can you fellows do that? And they said, well, you know, Gerard, what it really means is that God said, sing unto yourselves in Psalms and Psalms and Psalms.

So I turned to them and I said to them in a sanctified way, rubbish. But what does it mean? I mean, they don't make invitations. Because they are scared to death. And I was in a place where it was a whole week, every night with 1 ,700 people.

It was like preaching in Spurgeon's Tabernacle. Oh, it was tremendous. I mean, the downstairs was full and the balcony was full. And the balcony was about four or five feet from me and people just sat.

And I love preaching without notes, you know. And they couldn't understand where my notes are. And I mean, I would love to just stretch and grab a hand there and say, how are you doing, buddy? And I said to them, individual.

Now let me share with you this concept of the other aspect of being full to the Spirit. Sing to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Which is the sister epistle of the epistle to the Ephesians?

Can you tell me? Colossians. I mean, I sometimes read Ephesians and I read Colossians and I sometimes wonder, am I in Ephesians or in Colossians? You see, because in the laws of Biblical interpretation, there is a law that we speak of as the law of Biblical parallels.

It speaks of Biblical truths and principles that goes hand in hand together. You can't separate the one from the other. Now listen. Ephesians 5 said to us, be full to the Spirit. What is the result? Singing to yourself, Psalms and hymns, spiritual sacrifice, spiritual submission and spiritual worship.

Colossians 3 is saying to us, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. What's the result? Exactly the same. Spiritual worship, spiritual submission and spiritual sacrifice. You say, how does God fill you with His Spirit on a consistent basis?

I mean, we talk about long term involvement here. My brother, I want to say to you that Acts chapter 4 was a crisis in the early church. I mean, persecution and opposition broke loose about them and they were going to keep their mouth shut if God didn't fill them with His Spirit again.

You say, how does God fill me consistently with His Spirit? He does it in two ways. He does it through His Word and He does it through His Spirit. You say, when does God do it? When I commit myself to the word of God.

When I worship God in His Word. When I submit myself to the word of God. When God speaks to me out of His Word and He brings me to the place where I make sacrifices in the presence of God. And I become a long term individual.

Regeneration and the Necessity of Spiritual Conversion

I'm sometimes amazed, you know, when you come across pastors and, you know, I don't know, it's a shocking thing in what is so called the evangelical church today and I sometimes wonder and you say, well, you know, isn't this a destructive criticism?

No, I think it's an assessment. I think it is possible that 60 to 70 percent of people that are sitting today in the evangelical churches it's quite possible that they've never been born of the Spirit of God.

You say, well, where did you get that from? A .W. Tozer. I think he was probably right. I shared with the young people this morning that the very last day in my church, I pastored in a church in Canada for close to two years and I don't think you can be a proper evangelist if you have not been in the pastorate.

I mean, you need to see it from a pastorate perspective. The very last Sunday morning in that congregation I preach in the doctrine of regeneration. I mean, in the great doctrines of salvation you deal with repentance, the doctrine of repentance, of regeneration, of adoption, of justification, of assurance and I spent one whole Sunday morning in the doctrine of regeneration and Sunday night after the service there was a farewell for me by the church and after the service my Sunday school superintendent's husband she was involved with the children he came to me and he said when I listened to you this morning he said my life just absolutely disintegrated in front of me.

I said, what do you mean? He said, I don't know if I've been born of the Spirit of God. And I said, Paul we need to talk about this. And I went to his house and at night nine o 'clock and we sat down from nine o 'clock to twelve o 'clock I systematically shared with him God's plan of salvation.

He said, why do you share so many scriptures with him? Isn't it going to confuse him? Not in your life. I mean, the more you can give him the Word of God the better for him. And we got to about twelve o 'clock and we've gone through the whole plan of God's salvation from Genesis to Revelation.

And I turned to him and I said, Paul this is all a revelation that you've never been born of the Spirit of God or this is being this is being a confirmation that you are experienced and that you've got the true experience.