Saturday, January 28, 2016

TITLE : Passion - Catalyst For Leadership 3

Psalms 119 : 139 "My zeal (passion) has consumed me..." Emphasis added mine

Revelation 3:19 "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent"

Vision without passion is a picture without possibilities. What capturing a vision does is simply to give you a direction, vision is like a compass, it reveals your destination ( destiny in a nation) but passion is the fuel or energy that keeps the vision alive. Vision inspires you but passion drives you. Passion helps you enjoy the journey as much as reaching the destination.
Without passion your work becomes laborious and wearisome. Leaders are passionate about their purpose and vision. One major sign that you have come to understand your true purpose is that you possess a passion that motivates. Here is another indication of whether or not you ate pursuing your true purpose: if you're able to get rid of what you love to do and still be happy, then you're not passionate about it. The clues to our deeper purpose lies in our passions. Passion is so powerful. It is the pointer to the problem you were created to solve. The power of passion in leadership is something I have spoken and written about before, but over the next few episodes I want to delve deeper into the issue.

Life’s fulfillment emanates from passion, thus passion must be exercised and kept alive. You will be remembered in life only for your passions. Let’s dig a bit deeper. What is this thing that I call passion in leadership? It’s really about connecting the deepest feelings or desire in your heart with your work. The more you believe in what you’re doing, the easier it is to have passion. The less you love what you do, the more it shows on the outside to followers. Nothing trumps passion. If you light yourself on fire, people will come to watch you burn. People always follow people of passion. Conversely, when the fire goes out of our hearts, nothing will make people wander away faster and find someone else to follow.

You will never find a great leader in history or present both in the church or secular world that is not passionate about their purpose or vision.

Leaders have a strong passion to fulfill their vision. A great leader's courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position. It was passion that motivated Mother Teresa to abandon his teaching job and devote her life to helping the downtrodden. Today, she is remembered for the lives of those she has inspired. The greatest example of a passionate leader is Jesus Christ. John 15:13 "Greater passion has no one than this, that he gave his life for his friends. Passion identifies leaders.
The great stories of positive leadership seem always to be characterized by passion. Who comes to your mind when you think of great passionate leaders past and present? In addition to the list I already mentioned, I would include people like Myles Munroe, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, Indira Gandhi, Ronald Reagan and Martin Luther. For each of these, passion characterized their leadership. And if you look in the Bible, it is a story from cover to cover of men and women of passion. People like Abraham, Moses, Daniel, Ruth, Esther and the Apostle Paul—who followed God with passion and created the redemption story.

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