Principle of Increase

What Every Leader Needs to Succeed

It’s one thing to lead people or a team. It’s another thing to lead leaders. What do you do if you’re in charge of an organization and have developing leaders who answer to you? It’s the difference between leading people directly and leading through others. And often those leaders have great potential and are in the process of development.

One thing that is helpful to me is to see examples of this in scripture. Jesus, for example, did more than lead disciples. He developed them to lead others as He prepared them to advance His kingdom.

Another great example is the way the Lord prepared Joshua to advance into the Promised Land. After 40-plus years of floundering and wandering, it was time for a new day. But before the Lord prepared the nation, He prepared the leader!

In the Lord’s instructions to Joshua, He addressed issues every leader needs to succeed. Some of those issues are personal; others are organizational. Take a look:

[click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still confined in the court of the guard, saying, “Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it, the Lord is His name, ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ (Jeremiah 33:1-3).

God doesn’t stop being God just because I stop feeling strong.

He doesn’t stop being creative when I run out of ideas.

[click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

You awake?

That’s what the text read at 11:00 one night last week. My son-in-law, Curtis.

Yes, I replied, and soon the phone was vibrating.

What do your kids or in-laws or whoever call you about at 11:00 pm? This one got interesting very quickly.

“Hey man, I was sharing this with Cassie about this and she said I should call you.”

Cassie also said later I should blog about it. So there. You’re welcome.

“This” was an insight into something that dates all the way back to Eden. It’s been rocking my world ever since. The implications of this idea are poignant and tragic, yet dripping with possibilities. [click to continue…]








{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The only time anybody ever accepted responsibility for their lives and future is NOW.

Responsibility isn’t planned; no one ever scheduled responsibility or added it to their to-do list.

Nor is it calculated. You don’t sequence responsibility with a series of other steps.

Responsibility doesn’t look backwards. [click to continue…]








{ Comments on this entry are closed }

It is the nature of a roaring fire to eventually consume the fuel and exhaust the energy produced by the process.

So the fire recedes.

The heat subsides.

And unless the fire is rekindled, it eventually dies.

To rekindle is to throw smaller, simpler fuel – the easy-to-ignite stuff – onto an already existing fire. It is to blow new air onto the embers. [click to continue…]








{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Growth invites The Resistance.

The Resistance calls for perseverance. [click to continue…]








{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Jillian is a successful realtor with a proven track record and dozens of happy clients. She has been with the same national franchise for seven years, but lately is rethinking that relationship. She has received an offer from a competitor and, at the same time, has endured some unwelcome changes in her firm.  Is it time for Jillian to jump ship?

Billy is a young pastor. A firebrand communicator who has led his first church to significant growth in the 18 months he’s been there. But he’s beginning to encounter some resistance there. And at the same time other larger churches are bombarding him for his resume. Is it time for Billy to bail?

Steven works for the local chapter of a national non-profit who boldly advertises the degree to which they care for suffering humanity. But Steven sees a different side – one driven by ruthless management, questionable financial decisions, and huge employee turnover. At what point does he decide there must be a better way to change the world? And how does he know that the next organization won’t just be more of the same? [click to continue…]








{ Comments on this entry are closed }

…for we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

You and I are flex-fueled vehicles.

We are equipped to move forward,

powered either by confidence in the living God

or by what makes sense to us logically, emotionally, or sensually at the time.

There is a difference…  A massive difference.

What’s in your tank?

Here’s how you can know… [click to continue…]








{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Behold a sower went forth again to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the well-worn path. Knowing the vulnerability of the seed to the birds, the sower broke the hardened ground to enable the seed to grow.  The birds came to search for food and found nothing there.

Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil. Knowing the vulnerability of the plant to the scorching sun, the sower dug out the rocks to deepen the roots.  The seeds sprang up, but only when the roots went down. And when the sun had risen, the deep roots nourished the plant with life and strength.

Others fell among the thorns. Knowing the vulnerability of the plant to be choked and fruitless because of the thorns, the sower diligently weeded the field.

And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. Knowing the potential of the seed to multiply, the sower ruthlessly pruned the plant to make it even more fruitful.

He who has ears, let him hear. [click to continue…]








{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Archer Aiming

In the world of archery, comfortable bows never launch arrows.

Until the bow is stretched to near-breaking, the arrow never fulfills its purpose or reaches its target.

I fear that our craving for comfort may be slowly killing us all because we’ve redefined the term. [click to continue…]








{ Comments on this entry are closed }