Luke 24:45,49 “Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures……..And behold, I am sending the promise (Holy Spirit) of my Father upon you.”    

 These two verses that Jesus shared with his disciple leaders confirm that a spiritual leader has two authorities and resources in their lives.  One is the Word of God and the second is the indwelling Holy Spirit.  A leader is a person who leads and makes decisions.  All of our decisions must be based on the two authorities and resources in our lives.  The equipping of Christian leaders from the beginning by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit are the hallmarks of Christian discipleship.  The Spirit lives within us and gives us passion, gifts, abilities, character traits and a calling to the ministry of Christ.  The Bible clearly teaches us in the book of Romans that the Holy Spirit witnesses to our spirit to be obedient to what He tells. 

In II Timothy 3:16-17 we find these words “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good word.”  God’s Word teaches us, challenges us, corrects us and trains us so that we may be complete and equipped for every good work God calls us to do.  If we live our lives under these two authorities and obey them as God’s personal resources to us, our leadership will be right and serve to honor God in all that we do.  It was once said that our lives will be mostly impacted by books and people.  For the Christian leader, the book is God’s Word and the person is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit living in us all the time.  We don’t have to look for other authorities and resources when we have the two given by Jesus in our hearts and minds every minute, day and night.