Sunday, April 29, 2018

Revealing A lifestyle of Excellence - The Benefits of Godly Counsel



There are life transforming benefits in godly advice (counsel). This can be seen in the life of Jethro as he counseled Moses. Jethro observed a situation Moses was encountering and these can be seen in Exodus 18:13-27.
In summary, when each person whom Moses was leading had a problem (s), they will come to him for judgment. Moses led thousands, so were the problems he judged in order to make known the statutes of God. Jethro observed Moses’ leadership style and identified a problem with it, then decided to intervene with a word of counsel.

Now, let’s pick up from Exodus 18:19-22 (NKJV) as Jethro gives counsel to Moses. It reads...

Exodus 18:19-22 (NKJV)
Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God.  And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. Moreover, you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you.
Emphasis Mine

Jethro’s counsel was simple – Teach these people the way of God, select from amongst them godly men and set them as leaders over groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens and let them judge and address the smaller issues and only bring to you the bigger issues. Jethro was simply saying that Moses should delegate. Amen.

So much can be learned from these scriptures about the benefits of Godly counsel.
-        Godly counsel will cause you to see in yourself hidden potentials and cause you to tap into those potentials. Until this point, Moses shouldered all the judgment responsibilities. After the counsel from Jethro, he found in himself a teacher; one who could communicate God’s word to the people and build them up to a place where they too could lead.

Exodus 18:20 (NKJV)
And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do.
Emphasis Mine

-        Godly counsel will cause you to see the strength of others.
Exodus 18:25-26 (NKJV)
And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. So they judged the people at all times; the hard cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves.
-        Godly counsel will cause you steward resources efficiently.
In this case, human resources were being wasted. However, after counsel was received, the resources were better managed.

Moses did as advised and the outcome of his leadership was effective.

In conclusion, the godly give good advice to their friends; the wicked lead them astray 
(Proverbs 12:26 (NLT)).

No comments:

Post a Comment

Conclusion

There is an endless list of individuals in scriptures who served as instruments of change in the lives of others. The frequency of th...