“And the three brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but David would not drink of it, but poured it out to the Lord” I Chronicles 11:18 (KJV).
True leaders empower others and reproduce other leaders. The led are made to imbibe the spirit of the leader. When leaders lead by example; the followers see a model to emulate, this buttress the fact that true leadership is first caught from the leader’s life by the personal example of the leader.
David was a leader who led by example, he laid the pattern for the followers to emulate. He was ready to sacrifice his time, his comfort and his very life for the people. Even as a subject, as a follower of King Saul; David risked his life to deliver Israel from the threat of Goliath and the captivity of the Philistines. As a shepherd boy, David risked his life to deliver the flocks of Jesse from the lion and the bear. These are the early seeds of leadership.
Life itself is a seed, sow commitment and you will reap commitment. Show loyalty and you will reap loyalty “Be not deceived, God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” Galatians 6:7 (KJV).
Notice that David started off with crude, unrefined men. They were not ready made. They were product of his good leadership. They were a bunch of liabilities but he turned them to real assets through great leadership. Look at his starting human – capitals, they were more of liabilities with a lot of negative tendencies. “And everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him, and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men” 1 Samuel 22:2 (KJV). Observe that he transformed these men from liabilities to assets.
In our earlier study “Transformational Leadership” we stressed that no one is a write off in God’s kingdom. God can make a plus out of a minus, a strong man out of a weakling. This is the result of true leadership.
Our emphasis here is that true leaders lay the path for others to follow. They do not lead by just laying down rules for others to follow but they lay down their lives as example for others to follow. Little wonder that these three men took the risk to break through the garrison of the Philistines to fetch water for David. It was a path of service, a path of sacrifice, a path of loyalty and commitment.
David did not command them to do so, he did not even instruct anyone to fetch him water from the well of Bethlehem. He simply expressed a desire but that provoked a positive response. When leaders lead by example, the followers see a pattern and a pathway to follow
PRAYER: Lord, help me to lead by example.
Rev. Vincent Diolu