The Maxwell Leadership Reading PlanSample

A Model for Equipping

By themselves, not even the best accountants or financial advisers can create wealth for their clients. All they can do is give advice concerning the accumulation of financial reserves. The rest is up to the recipients of that advice.

The same is true for leaders who wish to see others access the riches of heaven. The lives and ministries of the apostle Paul and Timothy—the young leader of the church at Ephesus—demonstrate this principle.

On their own, neither Paul nor Timothy could equip the Ephesians to please God. But they knew how to direct their charges to the ultimate source of ultimate power: the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

Paul exhorts the Ephesian Christians to take full advantage of all the resources and power God has made available to them. The apostle knows that all believers have at their disposal immeasurable wealth and power, infinite resources sufficient to equip every believer for the spiritual fight ahead.

Godly leaders have at their disposal the same kind of power Paul describes here. Leaders are responsible to direct other believers to the place where they can be enriched and equipped so they can serve God and do battle for the kingdom.