The Fruitful Leader

Increase your influence by serving others.

 

By Ben Dankaka

Fruit trees are endowed with seeds that produce fruits for the benefit of others. Fruit trees do not eat their own fruit. Instead, they serve others with it. So, fruit trees gain fame by serving others. Like fruit trees, man was created by God to be fruitful. But while we are all gifted, not many of us make it fruitful. That is, we don’t often serve others with it. For example, a person may be gifted in singing, but would never sing for others. When you are the only one who enjoys what your gift produces, then you are not

Get Ready

 

Prepare yourself for the opportunity ahead.

 

By Ben Dankaka

In my leadership training sessions, I encourage people to spend more time on the principle of intelligence. This is the point where you learn all the information relevant to your vision. Without this process, you wouldn’t have the required tools for achieving your goals. I learned this principle from Jesus. When Jesus was 12 years old, His parents temporarily lost Him after they went to Jerusalem for a Feast. After three days, He was found in the temple, sitting among teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Notice that Jesus wasn’t found in a farm. Instead, He was seen in a temple – at the very place where

Follow Him

 

He transformed fishermen to fishers of men.

 

 

By Ben Dankaka

You might have noticed that Jesus used the words, “follow me” while He was selecting His disciples. On one occasion, He said to the crowd, “anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27).  But why does Jesus insists that we follow Him? You see, when we give our lives to Christ He automatically becomes our Lord. Now the word, “Lord” means Master. It also means Owner. As our Master and Owner, we are expected to follow Him. Therefore, to accept Jesus as our Lord, does not only involve a declaration of our faith in Him. True acceptance happens when we follow Jesus. And we do not become the followers of Christ until

Give Him Back

 

God wants to teach you.

 By Ben Dankaka

One day, I closed from work, feeling terribly bad. On my way home, I got some biscuits for my two kids. On reaching home, my kids immediately snatched the biscuits. But just before I relaxed, my daughter (the younger one) returned the biscuits and asked me to open it for her. I quickly did. Meanwhile, I noticed my older child still struggling to open his own biscuits. When he suddenly realized his younger sister had begun to eat hers, he hurried back to me and cried out, “Daddy, help me!” I laughed and opened his biscuits. Suddenly, it dawned on me that I had been acting like my son.

Children in the MarketPlace

  

Leaders stand out because they are driven by a sense of purpose.

By Ben Dankaka

One day, Jesus compared the attitude of the Pharisees to a situation in the marketplace where some children complained because they played a flute but the people did not dance. And when they sang a funeral song, the people also didn’t mourn. When Jesus made that statement, He was concerned with the way the people had responded to both His ministry and that of John the Baptist. That is, when John came, the people ignored him and even called him a “demon”. And when Jesus Himself came and preached the same gospel but through a different technique, the people also insulted Him.

How to Create

 

It takes knowledge to create something.

 By Ben Dankaka

Hardly is there any career leader who doesn’t depend on creativity. It doesn’t matter the field, creativity is required in every business, including retailing. For example, Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart Stores used a creative business formula that most retailers ignore. He bought a wide variety of products in bulk across his network of stores so he could pass savings on to his customers. As a result, people flocked to his stores. Fortunately, everyone is creative. You may not be creative in your current work, but there’s a place you can be creative. And that place is certainly in your area of gifting.

Your Gift Matters!

 

Focus on your gifts!

By Ben Dankaka

One day, Jesus embarked on a journey to the Sea, so He could have a quiet time with His disciples. But a crowd of five thousand people followed Him. Although Jesus didn’t invite any of them, they followed Him, all the way to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee. Clearly, the people took a huge risk. Some of them might have followed Jesus on foot. Why would such a huge crowd of people, leave their villages and follow Jesus to a deserted place? According to the scriptures, the people had followed Jesus “because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick” (John 6:2).

That Hidden Message

 

Inside every person is a hidden gift that God has deposited for the benefit of others.

 By Ben Dankaka

Jesus once said, “For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought to the open”. What Christ said is exactly what senders of mails do. The senders of mails hide their message inside an envelope and like Jesus said, the hidden message is meant to be disclosed. Whatever they concealed inside the envelope is not intended to remain hidden, but similar to what Jesus said, it is to be brought to the open. Now Jesus was in fact speaking about the messages He had been putting inside His disciples.

Stay on Track

 

Not every solution is right.

By Ben Dankaka

While Paul and Silas were evangelizing, they got into trouble and were imprisoned. Confined in a prison cell, they began to worship God. Suddenly, a violent earthquake broke the prison doors. When the prison officer saw what happened, he tried to end his life, thinking the prisoners had escaped. But Paul stopped him. One interesting thing about this story is the way Paul and Silas stayed faithful to their cause in the midst of a crisis. The normal thing to do after the prison doors opened was to rush out, assuming it was God’s will. Instead, they ignored the break and stayed, taking advantage of the opportunity it gave them to gain new converts.

Good versus Right

 

Knowing the right thing often requires us to make use of our spiritual antennae.

 

By Ben Dankaka

When you have two options that are both good, but you have to determine which of them is right, you will have a hard time. While a good thing can be easily detected with our senses, knowing the right thing often requires us to make use of our spiritual antennae. Remember when David got the chance to kill Saul; his associate suggested they should kill Saul. That seemed like a good thing because Saul had been trying to kill David. But David realized that the right thing to do was not to lay a hand on Saul.

Goal Setting

   

Many people fail in life, not because they didn’t set goals but for the reason that they set the wrong goals.

 By Ben Dankaka

Over the years, I have learned that setting goals do not guarantee success. There are times you may set goals and then succeed in realizing them, but just as you are about to celebrate, you may suddenly discover the goals you achieved shouldn’t have been set in the first place. The scripture says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” This message is repeated twice in the book of Proverbs. The importance of this message cannot be overemphasized.

Forget the Past

 

God is about to do a new thing in your life.

 

 

 By Ben Dankaka

After the Babylonian exile, God said to the people of Judah, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past”. For the people, that was not an easy thing to do. These were people who had been banished from their kingdom. Many of them had lost everything they owned. These were bitter experiences that were unforgettable. Yet, God wanted them to forget the past because that was the only way they could move forward. So after telling the people to forget the past, God went on to say, “See, I am doing a new thing!”

Becoming a Problem Solver

 

The challenges before you aren’t unsolvable.

 

By Ben Dankaka

To become an effective leader, you must be a problem solver. All of the most notable leaders in the Bible were chosen by God to solve problems. God didn’t call anyone unless there was a problem to solve. When God created Adam and Eve, He needed someone like Him to rule the earth. When God called Noah, He needed him to build an ark. When He called Abraham, God wanted to establish a righteous nation. When God called Joseph, He needed a man who could solve an economic crisis. When God met Moses, it was to solve a problem of slavery.

What Lies Within You

 

Get up and activate the greatness within you.

 

By Ben Dankaka

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What lies behind us, and what lies before us are but tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” To put it another way, our circumstances are not as big as the greatness that is hidden within us. When Emerson made that remark he was possibly talking about our ability to triumph in the midst of challenges. Though we are often surrounded by challenges, within us, lays the power to prevail over every negative situation.  Throughout history, we’ve continually seen individuals who did remarkable things in the midst of challenges. But because they are few, we often think they were specially created by God.

Stay Focused

 

To fulfill any leadership task, stay focused on the big picture.

 

By Ben Dankaka

"Master," John said, "we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us”. John was probably trying to protect the integrity of his Master. But Christ had a different opinion. Jesus said, "Do not stop him”. John must have been an overprotective apostle because moments after that incident, he and his brother, James wanted to call fire down from heaven to destroy a Samaritan village because they did not welcome Jesus. Again, Christ rebuked his disciples.