6 Habits of Purposeful LeadersSample

Habit #4: Seeking

God is the one who designed you and appointed you as a leader. He knows better than anyone else what He created you to do. Believe God’s promise that if you seek Him on behalf of others, He will answer.

Scripture highlights God’s heart for His most beloved creation, humans, and the removal of obstacles so they can thrive. When we align our heart with His and ask Him how to help, He always answers. We just need to keep practising how to listen.

When we look to Jesus, not only do we see him retreat to pray regularly, but He also explained to His disciples why: “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own but only what he sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise” (John 5:19). He also told His disciples, “He goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice” (John 10:4).

In the book of Acts we see the fulfilment of Jesus’s promise that in His physical absence, His followers would be filled with His Holy Spirit which would teach, empower, and guide them to be His witnesses of hope and healing. Philip was led to reach new cultures (Acts 8). Jesus’s Messiahship was revealed to Paul and Paul’s purpose revealed (Acts 9). Peter learned about his Jewish nationalism and how it was keeping people from experiencing Jesus (Acts 10). And even where the church thought they were promoting God’s law, the Holy Spirit revealed how their legalism was placing undue yokes on people and revealed God’s heart for everyone to be able to know Him (Acts 15). We see repeatedly, God revealing His heart for others and revealing to each person their role.

For this habit, we will be praying to God, asking Him to give us His wisdom and show us how He designed us to love others. We can trust Him to answer us just as He has promised. We do this by prayerfully engaging in targeted questions, specific to our leadership, and writing down the answers that come to us. We can also prayerfully allow our imagination to see pictures or situations from God’s perspective in a way that feels tangible, real, and applicable. Rather than rushing through what we want, we will enquire what God wants.

This might be a structured prayer to start your day in your role as a leader, intentional prayer before every interaction/meeting, or putting ten minutes in your calendar after every meeting to have a specific debrief prayer with God. For some it may be the prayerful act of journalling, songwriting, or engaging in a creative activity. Some people find that they can have more focused prayers when they are on a walk. Choose something that adds to something you already do. If you can’t motivate yourself to go for a walk or have never written a song, those shouldn’t be ones you choose.

Remember, prayer isn’t one-sided. It includes both speaking words and listening to the words God is using.