Have you ever wanted to be in charge of something?\u00c2\u00a0 Sure you have, not really a fair or realistic question.\u00c2\u00a0 We have all desired to be in charge and we have all made decisions in our lives like we were the king.\u00c2\u00a0 But, what does it mean to be a king?\u00c2\u00a0 What are kings supposed to do?\u00c2\u00a0 Why are some kings good and others bad? Let’s take a moment and study the life of a king we can all learn from and, hopefully, emulate in our lives.<\/p>\n
When I read through the books of 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles, it is littered with kings who were evil, power hungry warlords.\u00c2\u00a0 They cared more about their own comfort and their names being glorified, rather than the name of the Lord being exalted.\u00c2\u00a0 Each chapter the kings seem to get worse and worse, with a few random rays of light found throughout.\u00c2\u00a0 That is until you get to the man who tried to change everything.<\/p>\n
King Hezekiah was one of the greatest kings the Israelite people saw.\u00c2\u00a0 He cared about God’s people, God’s Word and achieving God’s will.\u00c2\u00a0 He was a man we could all learn from and strive to be like.\u00c2\u00a0 Over the next few days, we will learn three truths about how to be a great leader.<\/p>\n
The first truth about King Hezekiah’s leadership was that he was a man of vision.\u00c2\u00a0 We read in 2 Chronicles 29 that the first thing Hezekiah did when he became King was to repair the Temple and to reinstitute worship of the Living God.\u00c2\u00a0 It was in this place that many had sought God and it was in this place where evil kings executed their evil.\u00c2\u00a0 For years the Israelites had not worshipped in this place, but that was all going to change.\u00c2\u00a0 Hezekiah had vision.\u00c2\u00a0 He knew why he had become king and he knew that to fulfill his ultimately calling in life, he needed to be faithful to the vision God had given him.<\/p>\n
How about you?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you know what vision God has given you?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you know why you are in the location you are in, doing the job that you are doing?\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t know the vision God has for you, try a few simple things.\u00c2\u00a0 One, write down your passions.\u00c2\u00a0 What energizes you and excites you?\u00c2\u00a0 Two, write down your giftings and strengths.\u00c2\u00a0 What are you good at?\u00c2\u00a0 Three, write down who your heart breaks for.\u00c2\u00a0 When you see the orphans, the widows, the homeless, the rich, the poor…who breaks your heart?<\/p>\n
Based on your answers to these questions, try to find something in your area, whether in your church or in another organization, where you can allow your passion to flow through your giftings to minister to the people your heart breaks for.\u00c2\u00a0 This ultimately will help you achieve vision in your life and know who God has put you here to serve and minister to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you ever wanted to be in charge of something?\u00c2\u00a0 Sure you have, not really a fair or realistic question.\u00c2\u00a0 We have all desired to be in charge and we have all made decisions in our lives like we were the king.\u00c2\u00a0 But, what does it mean to be a king?\u00c2\u00a0 What are kings supposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}