God said, Let us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth…. Genesis 1:26 (AMPC)
Many believers get hung up on a false sense of humility.
Growing up, I remember hearing teaching about how a church shouldn’t grow beyond a couple of hundred people lest the church become too arrogant, or the pastor become too prideful. It was all centred around staying humble.
Now, humility is a great quality to have. But that word has been misunderstood by many people to mean staying small, average or insignificant. If my wife and I had followed that line of thinking, our church would not have grown to impact thousands of lives. Countless souls around the world would have remained untouched by the Gospel.
Imagine hiring a manager to run your multi-million-dollar processing plant. Months later, you visit the plant and discover employees strolling in late, creating slipshod work and barely producing anything. When confronted, the manager explains, “Well, I didn’t want to appear arrogant or act like I’m something special. I just wanted to walk in love.”
Now that business is spiralling toward bankruptcy and laying off hundreds of employees because that manager misunderstood humility. Unfortunately, he or she placed appearing “humble” ahead of using the authority given to him or her.
The truth is, God has given us a responsibility to increase His kingdom—to prosper so that we can give, and to influence so that we can touch a city or nation. God gave us authority. Let’s not be afraid to use it wisely!