Is It In You?

Have you ever felt completely incompetent?  I certainly have..often.  Many times as a CEO and as a professor at a major university, I am expected to be competent.  Kind of goes along with the territory.  I have found over the course of my career that there are days where I just feel completely incapable of rendering a rational thought let alone make a solid decision. 

I know there is an absolute difference between my ability to lead according to my own merits and when I am operating out of the overflow of a spirit-filled life.  Those of us know the difference when we are acting out of confidence that God gives us.  I believe the Holy Spirit puts in us a spirit of abject dependence on God.  I know if I act out of the flesh, what you will get is at best pure gibberish.  I can’t explain it, but I live it.  There are other days where I know I have given wise counsel and acted as a leader and I know that it is coming as if God were using me as a mouthpiece.  It is not as if I lack confidence in myself, but I recognize it for what it is.  I know true leadership is an ongoing dependence upon God that I could never have on my own. 

I am reminded of the Gatorade commercial.  This one is particularly appropriate.  The runner is about at the finish line but he lacks the fluids to finish.  It takes the presence of those fluids to allow him to finish.  Along the way, he may look good, maybe even strong, but in the long run, he must have those fluids to compete and finish.  The presence of the Spirit in the life of the Christian is the essential body fluid needed. 

In Genesis 41, Joseph is summoned before Pharoah as an interpreter of his dream.  Pharoah says “I have heard that you are the ultimate dream interpreter” (my paraphrase). What a great opportunity for Joseph to puff up his chest and say, “Why yes, I am quite good at dream interpretation”.  But what Joseph says causes me a second glance.  He says “It is not in me, God will give Pharoah a favorable answer”.  By me, Joseph is saying in his flesh, there is no talent to solve the problem.  But God in him could provide the answer.  Context is important – Joseph has had more ups and downs than a roller coaster.  Yet, his confidence in God is unwavering.  He recognized that God was the source.  It came from Him.  God would provide the answer – through Joseph! 

God provides the necessary wisdom we need each and every day.  Yet so many of us lead out of our own resources not recognizing the power that lives in us each and every day.  Is it in you?