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Good day everyone, my name is Gboyega Adedeji. I welcome you to this week’s edition of Leaderview, how has your week been, I hope your week has been great; we bless God for that. Last week was a great time we had together learning about leadership and today we are moving forward in our Leadership Trip to the book of Genesis. Our focus today is on the book of Genesis chapter 37, and we will be learning some crucial lessons for our effectiveness as leaders. Genesis 37 is our focus and we will be looking at Vision for Progression; we want to discover how you can lead your organization through your own vision.
Listen To MP3: VISION FOR PROGRESSION: HOW TO LEAD YOUR ORGANIZATION THROUGH YOUR OWN VISION
Don’t forget we are looking at Vision for Progression. Let us quickly go to that book of Genesis 37 as I read a few verses there. Genesis 37 from verse 1, the Bible says:
“Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. 2 This is the history of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. 6 So he said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: 7 There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 And his brothers said to him, “Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. 9 Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.” 10 So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?” 11 And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.”
Now, on this Scripture, based on the verses that we have read, from 1—11; Genesis 37:1—11, I realised that a leader is number one, someone, male or female, one who knows before, one who goes before and one who stands before. We will soon see as we continue that story. Now, it does not matter the age of the person, the sex or the gender of the person, you are a leader the moment you start knowing before a people or a group, you start going before a people or a group and you start standing before a group or a people. Now, the Bible began that chapter by talking about Jacob. And then it says “the history of Jacob is like this.” It says Joseph was seventeen years, now that on its own is very symbolic.
Joseph was second to the last child of Jacob. Now the history of Jacob was to be mentioned or described, yet it began with the life of a young boy called Joseph. So even though Joseph was perhaps the youngest, he was a man to lead the organization, the family into their destiny. You see, we are about to talk about the history of Jacob, but it is like the history will not be complete until the life of this young boy is given focus. And so, Joseph was the focus of the history of Jacob. So the history of Jacob wouldn’t have been well written and understood if Joseph is left out of it.
So, Joseph played a vital role in the formation of the history or account of the man called Israel or Jacob. And the Bible says he was young, and even though he was young, the first time his name was mentioned was when he brought bad reports about his brothers to his father. The questions is: Why would a young boy bring bad reports about his brothers if he didn’t know the difference between bad and good? So, at such a very young age, he was a man, a young boy who discerned the good from the bad. He knew what to do, he knew what was correct and incorrect. You see, being able to determine the difference between good and bad could make the difference between a leader and a follower.
You see, the leaders are expected to know better. Now the followers may make mistakes. A leader is expected to know the consequences of his actions and so knowing the consequences of his actions, he is expected to chose the right things and to do the right things. So, Joseph at such a very young age, he knew bad and he knew good. He was able to champion good and he was able to criticize the bad. And that was the first time his name was mentioned and that was the first thing that separated Joseph from the other children of his father.
Then the next time, the next major time his name was mentioned the Bible says Joseph had a dream. And you must understand that when you have correct dreams, you are expected to see things and when you wake up from your dreams; you are expected to know what you have seen. And so, you see pictures, you see events in your dreams and sometimes they are events that will happen in times to come. Therefore, vision and dreams are so well connected that when a man has a dream and he is able to articulate his dream, he is invariably a man who has a vision, perhaps of the time or the moment ahead of him.
For Joseph, he had a dream of his future. He said he saw in verse 7 “There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.” If you see the sequence of his dream, it was something that was to happened and actually something so certain that it would happen but at that moment, it hadn’t happened. Now, the brothers heard the dream and they became envious. And again his name mentioned the third time and it was about another dream. This time around he said he saw the sun, the moon and the eleven stars bowing down to him. These hadn’t happen at the moment, but they were expected to happen.
That is what dream, a dream is all about. It is about the vision, it is about the picture of time to come. If you are going to be a leader who has the capacity to lead other people, perhaps older than you or younger than you or your peers; then you are going to be a man or woman who is able to lead other people into the future that you have seen, a future that is glorious and enviable, then you must be a man or a woman with great vision. Now, for Joseph, he saw the picture. He saw the vision of the time to come and he was able to articulate it to his people. Even though they hated him for it, and sold him out into slavery eventually, but the moment he had those two dreams, he got into a position, a posture of leadership and he began from that moment to lead his people, lead his organization, even though they didn’t know about it.
He began to lead from that time henceforth. Now the point I am making is this, that your leadership will come when you have a dream, when you have a vision of a better day, a better time, of a better you, of a better family, of a better organization. You see, you could be at the same level with other persons but the moment you are able to see what others couldn’t see, the moment you are able to see a better day ahead of your team, of your organization, the moment you are able to see a better day ahead of your marriage and your family, a better day ahead of yourself, a better you; then from that moment, you step into your leadership.
I am sure some of us have read the book — the Spirit of Leadership and we understand the story that Dr. Myles Munroe gave about a lion who was detached from the other pride and was kept with the sheep. He began to behave and respond as a sheep simply because he was separated from his identity. But the moment he decided who he really was, the lion decided to enter into the jungle even though it look unsafe, but that was his true place for the lion. You are able or comfortable at a lower level, doing little or nothing, you are able to be contented with nothing or mediocrity simply because you have not yet seen a better you, you have not yet see a better thing that can be done by you.
You see, the moment you see something better about your future, nobody will beg you to wake up. Nobody will beg you to commit yourself to something that is able to grow your capacity or that will develop you. The moment you are able to see the responsibility ahead of you, and you are very clear that it is bigger and better than the responsibility that you are currently committed to, you will be self motivated and self led to doing the right thing and to sacrificing toward getting there. With the right vision, you are able to gather and you are able to lead a people to a glorious future.
If there is no vision in view, then you do not have the commitment, the will and the capacity to lead yourself or your people to a time to come. It is by your vision that you are to lead and it is by your correct vision that you are able to progress with your team. A better you is possible, a better organization is possible under your leadership. However, you must see it. There is a story I want us to quickly see in the book of Genesis chapter 13, it is the story of Abraham the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob. Don’t forget Jacob was the father of Joseph. Genesis 13, very quickly I will read verse 14 and verse 15. The Bible says:
“And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; 15 for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.”
And I want you to note that phrase “for all the land which you see.” The size, the scope of what you see notwithstanding, as far as you are able to see it, I give to you. If the key thing to us that vision is not one of those things, vision is essential, if you are to progress, and to progress with your organization into a glorious future. Where you are now is not where you are expected to remain. There could be a better you, a better organization. But you must first see it. You see, even though you are one of the team now, if you can see a better organization, if you can see a better team, you will soon become a leader over that team or the organization.
Your Leadership is not about your age or your gender, it is not about your education, but it is about your vision. If you can see very well, then you can progress and anyone would love to go with a man that is moving forward. If you want your life and your organization to move forward, then you must commit yourself to the right vision. Ask God to help you, to open your eyes to see things. It was God who said to Abraham, He said to him “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; 15 for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.”
God is willing and ready to give everything to you, but you must begin by seeing things. Don’t forget our focus is Vision for progression. We have seen from the story of Joseph in Genesis 37 how you can lead your organization through your own vision. If you have no vision, then you do not have the opportunity to lead. If you have no vision, then you are not yet prepared for leadership. Your leadership begins with your vision. See well so that you can progress well. Progress well so that you can have more people to follow you. Thank you for the gift of your time, my name is Gboyega Adedeji. I hope to connect with you again next week in this same program Leaderview, learning about leadership.
I want you to do something now, I want you to subscribe to our channel on YouTube: Centre for New Dimension Leadership and I want you to click the bell so that each time we release videos, you can be the first to be notified and you can be blessed by them. Thank you for the gift of your time, I hope to connect with you again next week Wednesday. Till then, stay blessed, stay leading, stay progressing with your vision, stay connected and communicating with your vision, to your team and to your people, and stay leading.
God bless you!
Source: Centre for New Dimension Leadership
