The Redemptive Gift of Ruler Stronghold and Natural Strength
Rulers instinctively see what’s right as clearly as prophets see into what makes things work.
Rulers are motivated by what is right, just, or normal. Jer.23:6 gives us the compound name Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness. The verse says, “Judah shall be saved, Israel will dwell safely.” Rulers can easily bring people to safety under their leadership. This can be in military battle situations or in something as small as organizing a youth soccer team. They can “take the bull by the horns” and make something happen.
It’s natural for rulers to see the right way to do things. They have no problems leading companies, committees, or organizations because they have a boldness to accomplish tasks in life. There’s an inborn “knowing” how to move from point A to point B, however, if they are not careful they can run over others with this gift.
The Stronghold
The stronghold occurs from a wrong relationship with leading rightly. In a word, it is bossiness.
There are 3 vulnerabilities common to man:
- To promote ourselves
- To protect ourselves
- To provide for ourselves
If the ruler is feeling vulnerable and needing to protect his heart, he will gravitate to relying on his natural strength. Rulers can easily take over and lead in any situation. However, God doesn’t always call a ruler to lead every situation in life.
In Ecclesiastes 2:4 Solomon says, “I made my works great…,” but rulers cannot live on their ability to accomplish. It ends up feeling meaningless, as Ecclesiastes so eloquently explains. Loving others and giving them leadership is great, but also nurture and freedom to develop are foundational too. A ruler cannot find their identity in their accomplishments, they must know their identity in being a child of God and that it’s by His grace and enablement that they are able to complete and organize things.
A ruler at times can look like a giver, however, the drive and motivation are different. A giver may control for the need of personal security and safety, whereas a ruler will do so simply to get the task accomplished.
We All Battle
We can all battle bossiness at times, at the very least in raising our children. There are times when we know the right thing to do, yet in our administration of getting them done and leading people in accomplishing that task, we plow over others’ emotions and opinions and push towards the goal not realizing we have left many wounded behind us. It is one thing to lead, it is another thing to lead rightly. Leading is not controlling.
Keeping relationships more important than finishing the job can be a struggle to us all sometimes. But we have misplaced our identity if we put it in what we’ve achieved and not in who we are. We don’t want to lose ourselves in all our “doing;” we need our “being” to rest in knowing we’re a child of God.
Overcoming
Rulers, just like all the gifts, have to put their gifting on the altar and lead only as God directs. They cannot use their gift to dominate others. Whether they are leading themselves, or being on a team, they need to give other people freedom to express their thoughts and gifts whether they seem right or not.
Next week I’ll cover the final Redemptive Gift Stronghold for Mercies.
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