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Join Jaime Luce as she unpacks the powerful lessons of leadership, obedience, and sacrifice found in the story of Deborah and Barak in Judges 4–5. This episode explores how faith-driven leadership requires personal responsibility, discipline, and a willingness to stand in the gap for others.

Where to Dive In

• (0:00:00) – The Importance of Leadership and Discipline (13 Minutes)
  Explore why leadership requires personal accountability and discipline. Learn how every individual’s contribution matters within the body of Christ and how sacrifice and prayer strengthen your leadership.

• (0:13:22) – The Leadership Test of Courage (12 Minutes)
  Discover how Deborah’s prophetic call to Barak reveals the challenges of stepping into God’s instructions. Reflect on the importance of courage in answering God’s call to lead, even in the face of overwhelming odds.

• (0:25:37) – The Weight of Leadership Responsibility (17 Minutes)
  Delve into the sacrifices and burdens carried by those in authority, from parents to business owners. Understand how embracing guidance from unexpected sources can deepen your impact as a leader.

• (0:42:45) – Leadership Through Diversity and Wisdom (5 Minutes)
  Celebrate how collaboration and unique gifts, like Jael’s victory over Sisera, demonstrate that leadership comes in many forms. Learn how wisdom and encouragement empower others to fulfill their God-given purpose.

• (0:47:22) – Leadership Through Willing Spirits (7 Minutes)
  Reflect on the importance of keeping God first, avoiding distractions, and supporting others in faith. Discover why unity and dynamic encouragement are essential for strong, effective leadership.

Key Topics Covered

The Power of Leadership in the Midst of Spiritual Battles

Discover why leadership is more than just a title—it’s about sacrifice, responsibility, and standing firm in faith, even when challenges arise.

Responsibility and Discipline in Christian Leadership

Explore how personal accountability shapes leaders who inspire and guide others, using Deborah and Barak’s story as a blueprint.

Courage to Obey God’s Call

Learn why stepping into God’s instructions requires bravery and trust, especially when facing overwhelming obstacles.

Wisdom and Encouragement from Unexpected Sources

See how God uses diverse individuals—like Jael—to accomplish His purposes and how encouragement strengthens leadership.

Staying Grounded in Faith and Unity

Understand the importance of prioritizing your relationship with God and supporting fellow believers in their journeys.

Scripture Focus

• Judges 4–5: The story of Deborah, Barak, and Jael

• Additional references to Moses, David, and the importance of prayer and obedience

Application & Reflection

• Are you living a disciplined life that honors God and inspires others?

• Do you have the courage to step into leadership even when it feels overwhelming?

• How can you be a dynamic encourager in your family, workplace, or church?

Additional Resources

• Jaime’s book: You Don’t Need Money, You Just Need God (Available on Amazon)

• More episodes of the Jaime Luce Podcast

  • Conquering Giants: How to Reclaim What the Enemy Stole https://jaimeluce.com/podcast/conquering-giants-how-to-reclaim-what-the-enemy-stole

  • The Call to Intercede: Your Family’s Breakthrough Depends on It https://jaimeluce.com/podcast/the-call-to-intercede-your-familys-breakthrough-depends-on-it

  • Fix Your Gaze to Receive Your Miracle https://jaimeluce.com/podcast/fix-your-gaze-to-receive-your-miracle

Stay Connected

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👉 Like & share this episode to empower others in their spiritual walk.

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

0:00:00 – Jaime Luce
Welcome to the Jaime Lewis Podcast. Thank you for taking some time today to study the Word of God. And if you were with us last week or saw the last broadcast, we were talking about the importance of the test that we are in, of passing from one generation to the next the ability to fight, the ability to win the battles, to get victory over our enemies, and what that means, and that’s really just a teeny snippet of what all that was about. But I’d like to kind of continue that today, reading through the book of Judges, it’s just amazing to see the vacillation of a people group and, of course, when we’re talking about the children of Israel, we’re talking about them as a whole, and there will be individuals in that whole that actually are coming to the forefront because they themselves are different than the rest, and the importance of understanding that each one of us is important. There is the whole of the body of Christ, but we can tend to think that everything kind of falls on somebody else’s shoulders and somebody else’s ministry and somebody else’s ministry and somebody else’s calling and somebody else’s purpose and somebody else’s job, and we just tend to throw off our personal responsibility and when I say responsibility even that most people kind of run at, that they don’t want to hear about that. You might want to click off now just because I said the word responsibility, and maybe if I, because I said the word responsibility, and maybe if I were to change the word responsibility, you might like it better, because there is a huge push in the social media realm, coming from both the secular and the spiritual position is that of leadership Leadership. What people don’t understand is that leadership equals responsibility. Leadership really equals responsibility, and if you are somebody who thinks I want to be a leader, I want to be somebody you know, I want to be an influencer, I want to be you know, which, in and of itself, is that you want to be someone who makes an impact, somebody who has influence. Think that’ll make you rich and famous. Well, you probably aren’t going to be the one who rises to the top because, generally speaking, somebody who just wants something handed to them, who doesn’t understand responsibility, can’t handle the weight of glory, so to speak. You can’t handle the blessing that comes with that. And people who shoot to the top many times fall right back down and you never hear anything more about them. Think I was an 80s kid, so I grew up hearing all the 80s one-hit wonders and you’d hear one hit and you’d never hear of them again.

Well it, because it takes more than just you know, the one lucky shot from the middle of the game, where someone has to come up and throw the football, however far and make it into the little hole. Or the person who throws up the basketball and makes it from the other end of the court into the into the basket. Or somebody who hits the hole-in-one in golf, and it’s just that one in a million shot. Well, I can. You know, the cool thing is my husband’s actually hit a hole in one twice in golf. That’s pretty extraordinary.

But he’s also a person of discipline. He’s a person in leadership, he understands responsibility. So that doesn’t surprise me that he’s somebody who’s hit a couple hole in ones, because I don’t think with him that you can equate that to the one in a million chance. It’s somebody who works and lives this constant life of discipleship and discipleship, discipline, leadership they’re all the same thing. Somebody who is a powerful leader is someone who lives a disciplined life. They are somebody who has taken great responsibility for themselves, their attitudes, their actions and those around them. They take a leadership role and a responsibility for those who are in contact with them, underneath them. The same way that a parent, whether that be father or mother, is responsible for the children, you take responsibility for them. That means that you’re going to pay the price. You’re going to be the one who has to come in and clutch.

You know, one of my daughters has well, two of them have them right now. Well, I should mention both A daughter-in-law who is working a job and has three children and one of them is only a year old, and my other daughter, who has two children and the youngest is just a year old. And I was just talking actually a moment ago with a day, just talking actually a moment ago with a day ago, not a moment ago a couple of days ago with my daughter and she had been up in the night for a couple of nights with the one-year-old Not really sure why. She’s waking up and trying to figure that out and console her and take care of her. And she was exhausted, she was just tired, she hadn’t slept in a couple of nights. So she has taken on and lives in the responsibility and that role of sacrifice, where you’re exhausted, you need sleep, but because you are responsible for that child, you are giving up your sleep for their benefit, trying to help them sleep.

That is leadership. Leadership is sacrifice. Leadership is sacrifice. Leadership is stepping into roles and becoming responsible where you may not think that you’re responsible. And this is more of an encouragement today. This is more of the importance of what it means to be in a dynamic encourager. A dynamic encourager, somebody who, no matter what is in front of you, no matter what people are facing, even if it’s not your battle and it’s somebody else’s battle.

If you are someone who makes it your business to be a person of prayer, this really, really pertains to you. It pertains to all of us, but you’re the one who gets it, you’re the one who understands it. You’re the one who has disciplined yourself. You’re a person of prayer. You have disciplined yourself. You’re a leader. If you are a person of prayer, you are a leader. Because it takes discipline to be a person of leader, because it takes discipline to be a person of prayer. It takes discipline to be a person of the word. If you are somebody who spends time in your word regularly, if you are somebody who makes sure you have time in prayer with the Lord regularly, that you are often turning to the Lord and just having conversation with him. If you find through the day that you are talking to the Lord throughout the day, these are your habits, these are your disciplines then you can know you are a leader, you are a person of influence, you are a very you’re a VIP, a very important person, and you, because of your ability to stay connected to the source because a person who is connected to God is a person of power If you are somebody who, let’s say, you are an instructor, an exercise instructor any kind of whether that be lifting weights or an exercise class or something and you’re an instructor, you not only have to have the plan worked out and be in shape yourself, but you have to be somebody who knows how to articulate that and tell that to somebody else, to by example, showing them and sometimes getting in there and helping them do it.

Personal trainers really get this. They’re going to help you. They have to do stuff that’s working them, but they’re doing it for your benefit and they’re working you. There’s self-sacrifice involved and if you are somebody who is a person of prayer, and if you are somebody in your or in your family, you pray over your kids. You are teaching them the ways of God. You are making it your practice to train them up.

Folks, we have to understand how vital our role is, no matter what job you have in the world, if you are a stay-at-home mom or if you are the CEO of a company. If you are the president of the United States, it’s really wise right now that the president has many people of prayer around him and that he has many Christians working closely around him. They are in prayer every day. People are upholding him in prayer every day. That’s vitally important and we’re going to go over a couple examples in Scripture today and you’ll be familiar with them. But I want you to see how important it is that, if we remain in a place where we can hear God being a responsible leader, being somebody who is an influencer, that we are somebody who is not influencing from a dry well, but that we are those who are close to the Lord and our well is deep and full, and that we are in constant contact with him and we, and the spirit of God reaches deep down into that well and pulls up the treasures for us, the things to remember, the things to know, the hidden things, the mysteries of God, the blessing of the knowledge of God that comes forth from the Spirit of God because of time in prayer and time in his word. You need that, and if you are somebody like that, not only are you a very important person, but it will be incumbent upon you to be a person who is an encourager.

We are battling from every side. Our culture as Christians is battling right now from every side. Our culture as Christians is battling right now on every side, and we see what’s happening even to those who aren’t Christians. We see what’s happening to our culture, to our country. We recognize what’s going on and it is important that we encourage one another, that we come alongside one another another, that we come alongside one another, that we, like personal trainers, go into the trenches with one another. We’ve been talking over the past several weeks about intercession, what it means to be an intercessor, that Jesus was our intercessor. We talked about the vital importance of making sure that we not only hear the voice of God, but that we are lifting up and training those behind us to know how to do this, to know how to fight battles, to know how to gain victories. This is important and the only way that you win a battle is that you are a person of obedience, a person of discipline, a person who knows what it is to obey what God instructs you to do, and that you fight until you win. You don’t stop, you don’t give up, you believe, by faith, the promise of God and you stand on that, in faith, until it happens.

Now, I’m not saying that we don’t have our moments where we, like Peter, begin to sink. You can be a person of faith. You can get out of the boat. You can actually be the only one who gets out of the boat, full of faith. One day you can be like the of faith. You can get out of the boat. You can actually be the only one who gets out of the boat, full of faith. One day, you can be like the prophet, so full of faith. One day You’re killing all the prophets of baal and then the next day you’re running from jezebel’s threat. We can have moments that we just start to sink and yet we are those who understand. We get back up.

King david, he would be crying himself to sleep, just crying out to God, soaking his bed with tears, saying God, I need you. How long? This is horrible. I can’t do this another day and turn around and encourage himself in the Lord to get back up and fight. That’s the battle we live, that’s the trenches we live in, and we need to encourage one another. We need to stand with one another and say I will help you.

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We’re looking in Judges, chapter 4. This is Deborah. I’m sure you’ve heard of Deborah. If you’ve ever been to a women’s conference, they’ve probably talked about Deborah. And we’re going to mention Deborah today. We’re going to talk about Barak, who was. So it’s not just the women today Barak we’re going to talk about. He was the commander of the army. And we’re going to talk about Jael just a housewife, just a housewife. So let’s, let’s dig in. Let’s go to chapter four, verse one. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died. Now, ehud was the judge, right before Deborah, and he did a really amazing sniper act. He would be your. What do they call those guys? The army group that went in. I don’t know if they were, oh, seal Team 6. They were, I don’t know, seals. Are the SEALs? I don’t know which group they are. They’re not Army, those are the Rangers. They’re the Marines, seal Team 6.

Anyway, he goes in and he makes a very, very sharp knife, attaches it to his thigh. And he didn’t just judge the people, he didn’t just give good judgment, he also was a man of war. He was a man of war, he was a man of war. And he went in and secretly spoke to the king, who was the enemy, but he was acting and bringing a tribute to him. They were in submission to him and had to bring forth the money and the tribute to give to him. And then he was very sly and he said oh, king, I have a secret to tell you. And that caused the king to think okay, this is inside information, nobody else can hear this, everybody out. And he cleared the room and Ehud goes in there and he gets close to the king. So the king has got his face in it and he can’t see. And he reaches down and takes the knife that was hidden down inside of his thigh and he stabs the king in his belly, pushes even the handle all the way through and because the man was very overweight, his belly fell over the knife. You couldn’t even see the knife. And he leaves and locks the door behind him and it was quite a while before anybody found him because they thought that he was relieving himself and giving him privacy. And when they were embarrassed for how long that they had had to wait, they finally broke in and saw that he was dead.

So Ehud brought deliverance from this king who was oppressing the people, and they had freedom from that oppression and lived in the blessing of God for 80 years because of this man’s zeal and tenacity. And this is the kind of judges that God would raise up to deliver his people. But he had to raise up a judge because the people would fall away from him. They would go into some kind of slavery all over again, some kind of non-freedom. They weren’t in control of their own lives. Some other king would come and oppress them and demand from them and exact from them and put restrictions on them. They weren’t living in the freedom that God had promised them and had purchased for them in their deliverance, because they hadn’t stayed true to the Lord God. But let’s go to verse 2. So Ehud had died and the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor.

The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Herosheth Hagoyim, and I’m butchering that, I’m sure. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for 20 years. So they, ehud, has died, and for 20 years they have been oppressed with cruelty from this king, and from Sisera, the commander of the army, and obviously with their chariots of iron. They had chariots that the kind of chariots that could not be defeated regularly or easily by the children of Israel, and the children of Israel did not have iron chariots. So let’s go to verse three. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for 20 years Now.

Deborah, a prophetess and the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment. So this is a very prominent woman. She is the judge now in Israel and she’s a prophetess. So they know that she hears from God and delivers his word to the people. So they go to her knowing they’re going to get a word from the Lord on what is right and how to judge righteously. Let’s go to verse six.

She sent and summoned Barak, the son of Abinoam, from Kadesh Neftali, and said to him has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you go gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the general of Jabin’s army to meet you by the river Kishon, with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand. So the prophetic word is you know, we like our prophetic words to be God’s going to bless you. The problem’s going away. We like hearing what you’ve been waiting on is about to happen, to be God’s going to bless you. The problem’s going away. We like hearing what you’ve been waiting on is about to happen. You know we like all of those kinds of things, but this was a word of encouragement.

The word that Deborah had for Barack was the Lord is commanding you to go fight this battle. You are a commander. You’re the commander of God’s army. Why are you not doing this? You need to take and gather the troops. He tells them exactly how many to get and who to get them from, and he says you’re going to go up and I’m going to bring the enemy down to you with all of his chariots, all of his might, all of his mighty men. They’re all going to be down there, but I’m doing it and I’m going to give them into your hand.

A test. If you listened, last week you heard about the test. Here’s the test Will Barak be a person of obedience? Will he submit to the word of God? Will he trust a word? Oh boy, how about this? Will he trust a word that he hears from a woman? A prophetess, no less. I mean, you got two things going on here A prophet are you going to listen to the prophet’s word, and then are you going to listen to that prophet, and that prophet’s a woman?

So let me say it to you this way what if God speaks a true word to you? That’s an encouragement to do something you’re afraid to do, and it comes from somebody you don’t like, or it comes from somebody that, um, you wouldn’t pick that person. You wouldn’t pick that person. Now she’s somebody I’d pick because I know that she’s in the bible and she’s a prophetess, and she’s the one that god has chosen, and that she’s wise, and she’s a prophetess, and she’s the one that God has chosen, and that she’s wise and she’s a judge. I mean, I would pick her, but that’s because I know everything. What if you don’t know? What if you don’t know everything? We know that the children of Israel win this battle, but Barak doesn’t know that he has to take this word by faith.

He’s going to have to fight a battle by faith. He’s going to have to believe that God’s going to bring the victory and he has to fight in this battle to gain that victory. I would venture to say that that is like most of us. God is saying you’re going to have to fight, you’re going to have to fight in prayer. You may actually have a lawsuit and you actually going to have to fight. You’re going to have to fight in prayer. You may actually have a lawsuit and you actually have to go to court. You may have an issue right now because of what’s going on in our culture. There are parents who have to go to school council meetings and show up and verbally stand their ground, make an argument Right. You may actually have to fight in the natural. You might be someone who serves in the military and you’re getting sent off somewhere and you may actually have to fight. My son was in the military. He actually had to fight. He was in the infantry, actually had to fight.

Sometimes your battles are physical and sometimes they are spiritual and sometimes they are both. Sometimes they are both, sometimes they are both, and you will be faced with an opportunity to choose your leadership. You get the opportunity to choose your leadership, and what do I mean by that? There is consequence to leadership. There is consequence to leadership, consequence to being the leader, because your decisions affect lives, they affect circumstance, they affect position. If you are in leadership, it will affect more than you. And this man, barack, was in a position of leadership. If he goes into this battle and he loses this battle, the men that he has taken with him, he is in responsibility for and them living or dying is on his shoulders. If you own a company and you make a bad financial decision or a bad hire decision, that affects the employees that work underneath you, who serve you, so to speak. That affects their families. If it’s a bad financial decision and it badly affects the company, that can adversely affect employees and their families. And I guarantee you, the person in leadership thinks about that. They carry that weight on their shoulders. They think about the weight of responsibility and the decisions they have to make, because decisions have consequences. So leadership has consequences and you have to choose the consequence of your leadership.

Are you going to be a person who walks by faith? Are you going to be a person who is willing to hear a word of instruction? Do you have ears to hear? Are you tuned in? Are you the kind of person who rejects input or are you the kind of person who receives input? Do you receive criticism? Ouch, so many times. We hate criticism. I don’t like it, do you? I mean, nobody likes to invite criticism, right. But if we’re wise, we’ll stop and we’ll consider Is this something I need to listen to? They may not be fully right, but maybe they’re 50% right. Maybe they’re only 30% right, but maybe that 30% is a big deal. I mean, what if they’re 90% right? If we’re so worried about defending ourselves, we will never have the faith to act on the behalf of others.

Christ’s actual sacrifice.

It’s a lesson for us on so many levels.

But we have to be like our Savior. He sacrificed himself for others. If you are a parent, you sacrifice for your children. If you are a spouse, you sacrifice for your children. If you are a spouse, you sacrifice for your spouse. If you are a business owner, many times you are sacrificing and the people will never know it. It will go unknown, it will go unpraised.

People will not be grateful. In fact, most of the time they think ill of their boss or they think that they are owed something and by their boss that they didn’t get, or whether that be promotions or acknowledgement, and so many times, instead of being grateful that God has chosen this person in their life as the person who a substance will come through and a blessing will come through, and that God has chosen that person to be a source in your life, instead of receiving that with joy, we tend to look at that with criticism. We tend to pick apart the very blessing that God is giving us. We tend to be backbiters and those who are critical, and we’re easily critical of others without being critical of ourselves, and we don’t like people being critical of us. That’s why the word teaches we have to be told you better learn how to take out the plank in your own eye before you go.

Worry about the speck in your brother’s. There are things you don’t know, especially if it’s people in authority over you. There are responsibilities and burdens they carry that you have no knowledge about. There used to be a funny country song. I think Tim McGraw sang it and I want to be careful. It’s one of his early songs, but anyway, he uses initials and he oh, maybe I shouldn’t say it. Anyway, the song talks about being a boss and all of a sudden you’re excited because you used to hate your old boss and you end up getting promoted and now you’re the boss. So now, guess what? Everybody hates you because you’re the new boss and everyone else is right where you used to be. People don’t get it, and I’m encouraging you today to be a person of true leadership and influence, somebody who understands carrying responsibility and encouragement for those around you, being somebody who understands that there are those in authority over us for our blessing if we will come under that leadership and that authority.

And that’s what Barak is having to face right here in this scripture. He has somebody who’s in a place of authority over him because of God, because of God’s doing. God has put this person in authority over Barak’s life and he is speaking an instruction through somebody else. I mean, we don’t mind following instructions that we feel like the Lord is giving us, but will we follow them when it comes through a pastor? If you go to church on Sunday and your pastor gives a word and it brings a correction into your spirit and you think who’s he? He doesn’t have a right to tell me Will you dismiss the instruction and the encouragement to obey God from another person, or will you receive it and do the battle? Will you go into the battle? Will you do the thing and make the correction and get the victory where you’re being encouraged to do so, even if the encouragement means you’ve got to fight, you got to do some work? Well, let’s look what does Barak say.

And Barak said to her if you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go. And she said I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory. And at first it sounds like she means herself, like I’ll get the glory for it, not you. That’s not what she’s saying, it’s not her, it’s going to be JL. But what is Barak’s response Now? Thank God, it was a yes, and I don’t want to bash Barak because he’s afraid. I’ve been afraid too. I’m sure you’ve been afraid. I mean, look at the disciples. They had Jesus in the boat with them and yet when the storm arose, they were terrified. So I’m not here to bash Barak. He’s saying I need some help. Yes, I’ll go, but I need some help. I need the encouragement. I need to know that if you heard the word of God, that you’re with me, that you’re helping me through to see this through. And can I encourage you?

If you’re somebody who tends to get a lot of words for people, if you are serious about your responsibility in that role, then you see it through. You see it through with them, you stay in prayer about that with them, you stay in accountability with them about that. Don’t be someone who thinks you can just throw words all around and not have responsibility. Leadership is responsibility, and if you’re not in a place of responsibility, then I challenge your leadership. I challenge your leadership. You need to be responsible. You need to be responsible to somebody. You need to be responsible for the words that come out of your mouth. You need to be responsible for the instructions and the things you say.

And if we’re mishandling God’s word I talked about this in a previous broadcast as well but that’s misrepresenting God, that’s taking his name in vain. You need to be careful. If you’re giving words to people, you better know for sure that was God, because people, if they’re going to believe that word, will make decisions based off of that word. Guess who is actually going to be responsible for that word Before God you are. We are all going to be responsible for that word before God you are. We are all going to give account for every word that has come out of our mouths. We will all give an account for that.

We tend to think that we can just do things and take the weight of responsibility, the weight of glory, lightly. We cannot folks responsibility the weight of glory lightly. We cannot folks. We have got to be so diligent to take seriously and carry the weight that comes with whatever it is that God has called us to do, whether you are at home with your children or you are at work or leading those at work, whether you’re in school as a student or you are teaching those, whether you hold a position in ministry and you are because if you are a pastor oh, I saw a quote yesterday.

I wish I had it to repeat to you because I’ll botch it up, but it basically said there is a huge difference between being a pastor and being a uh, someone who, uh, who speaks. Maybe I can find it for you real quick. Let me see if I can find it, and if I can’t, we’ll just move on, but I just want to see. If I nope, I don’t see it there, okay, never mind. But basically, if you’re somebody who is a shepherd, you’re a pastor, then you are somebody who has actual skin in the game with the people that you are pastoring.

I think it’s a travesty. I think it’s a huge mistake to be a pastor of a large congregation and you aren’t actually. You don’t actually know, have touch points with your people. You don’t know your people. You don’t know if they’re growing, you don’t know how the word’s affecting them. A shepherd actually cared for his sheep personally. So there’s a danger. There’s a real danger with larger churches.

Now, if you have people who are under shepherds, who are handling that, you need to make sure that you are shepherding your under shepherds and those under shepherds are truly shepherding those sheep. There is a weight of responsibility and we have got to take that responsibility very seriously. We have to heed the warnings that are found in Scripture. They’re real. The warnings are real. The reason the people of Israel had judges who had to be put in place was because there was a warning that the Lord gave. God gave the warning. If you don’t stay in the right place with me and you don’t follow the instructions I’m giving you, your enemies are going to overtake you, and he had Moses and Joshua repeat these same warnings, and now these judges are having to come up and remind the people. We have got to do this right, folks. There will be consequences.

Leadership is understanding consequence and decisions and encouraging people to make the right choice, and it is a hands-on game where you are. If you are in leadership and you are in some capacity to whoever, to people in your world, you are In that leadership. We have to encourage one another, not just in the good, happy stuff. We have to encourage them by our presence. We have to see things through with certain people. They need help. You will need help, I promise you. There will come a day when you need people to stand with you. So we need to be intercessors in that way that we we stand with one another. We not only encourage them to do what’s right, but we stand in it with them. So let’s read that Verse 9,. And she said I will go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman, and that was simply to say you could have done this on your own. You could have, and there would have been even more glory for you, but it’s not gonna happen that way. But she says I’ll go with you. So she’s not walking away. She’s not walking away from what she knows the Lord wants. She knows the Lord wants to bring deliverance. She knows that God wants the deliverance to be run through the hands of Barak and his 10,000 troops, and so she knows what’s supposed to happen and she’s willing to go and do what Barak has asked.

Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kadesh and Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kadesh and 10,000 men went up at his heels and Deborah went up with him. Now Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites the descendants of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, and he pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zananim, which is near Kadesh. When Sisera was told that Barak, the son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor, sisera called out all his chariots 900 chariots of iron and all the men who were with him, from Horesheth Hagoyim to the river Kishon. And Deborah said to Barak up, for this is the day in which the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. So we can see that Deborah was still necessary and needed, her leadership was still needed. She goes with Barak and yet here comes the army and Barak’s not rallying the troops. So Deborah says get up, get everybody up. This is it. This is the day. He’s saying now go fight the enemy. And she said and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot.

And Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Herosheth Hagayim and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword. Not a man was left. But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin, the king of Hazor, and the house of Heber the Kenite. Again, we wouldn’t pick these people. We would think if they’re at peace with them, I wouldn’t suspect anything either. Now Sisera understands that this house, because he’s so far away from his kinsmen, he understands that the distance he thinks he, he thinks the distance in land. And because he’s so far away that he’s not a part of all these battles, he’s not a part of any of this dissension and this, what would you call that? The oppressiveness that was happening to Israel kind of wasn’t happening to him because he’s off, so far away from them, he’s not involved in all of this. And Sisera thinks that because of that, in all of this, and Sisera thinks that because of that it’s safe to go there, the enemy thinks it’s safe to go somewhere. I sure hope I’m like JL. I sure hope that if the enemy dare thinks that, he can come up like, for instance okay, I live in a city that is probably 40 minutes away from my family members, so there’s some distance between me and my family. But if an enemy attacks my family and is doing something over there that I’m not aware of and then comes to me for help, this is the way the family of God should work that just because there’s distance, I’m with you in spirit. I’m with you in spirit and even if you can’t be, if maybe you’re like a Deborah and you are in it with somebody and you can’t be there physically with them, you’re cut off, you’re a little bit far away you can still be there with them in spirit. You can still be there with them in spirit. You can be fighting the battle from your home, even though you’re away. That’s intercession too. There’s intercession all over the Word of God. But anyway, I don’t want to get back off on that. We taught on that last time. So let’s go to verse 17. But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin, the king of Hazor, and the house of Heber the Kenite. And Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him turn aside my lord, turn aside to me, do not be afraid. So he turned aside to her into the tent and she covered him with a rug, meaning he was getting sleepy and she was going to protect him and cover him and hide him. And he said to her please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. And he said to her Stand at the opening of the tent and if any man comes and asks you, is anyone here? Say no. But Jael, the wife of Heber, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. And behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera. Jael went out to meet him and said to him Come, I will show you the man whom you are seeking. So he went to her tent and there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg in his temple.

So on that day, god subdued Jabin, the king of Canaan, before the people of Israel. A couple things about this. God is going to bring the victory and it may take a group effort. It took Barak, it took 10,000 of his men to fight that battle. It took the prophetess Deborah to say okay, I’ll go with you, I’m with you, I’m your reminder. God’s with you. It’s time to fight. She was his constant encourager. We need to be those who are divine encouragers. We need to be dynamic encouragers, dynamic enough that people will follow in that encouragement. But look at Jael. I love this.

Jael is doing what she always does. She’s a housewife, she cares for her home and when Sisera comes in, she fights the battle by doing what she knows. You don’t have to fight and be somebody that you’re not. You don’t have to become something you’re not. God isn’t expecting you to be your favorite preacher. God’s not expecting you to be your favorite prayer warrior. God’s not expecting you to be your favorite preacher. God’s not expecting you to be your favorite prayer warrior. God’s not expecting you to be you know anybody else but you. He created you the way he wants you to be. And Jael won this battle.

Being a housewife and showing hospitality, she welcomed this man into her home. He’s thirsty. She covers him up, she pretends she’s hiding him, she’s comforting him. He asks for water. She goes and gives him milk. Help him sleep better. It’s, it was more. That’s a more hospitable thing to do. And then, if you read in the song of Deborah, she actually also gave him curds, she fed him, she gave him something to eat.

But she was wise, she knew how to do what she does with wisdom. She wants him to fall fast asleep, wise woman. And when she does, she softly defeats and annihilates her enemy. Just like that. She still considered him her enemy. Though there was distance between her and her kinsmen, she was still in a part of that tribe, still in her heart and in her mind, still willing to do what it took. This woman brought victory. The commander of the army was defeated because of her. God said she’d get the glory. She’ll get the glory for this battle. The housewife, not the one who got the glory wasn’t Deborah. The one who got the glory wasn’t Barack. The one who got the glory was JL, the housewife.

None of us are disqualified. You don’t have to be in a position of ministry, you don’t have to be the head and the leader. That’s the top leader. Your leadership can be in your home. Your leadership can be doing what God has called you to do, and you do it with discipline, you do it with excellence, you do it with all of your might, you do it with wisdom.

I wanted to read just a quick little portion of chapter five, which is the song of Deborah and Barak. I thought this was so good Look at verse two that the leaders took the lead in Israel. The leaders took the lead. We are all leaders and I am encouraging you in the best way. I know how to be a leader Lead, lead your home, be a leader, lead, lead your home, lead your families, lead your business, lead in friendship, lead spiritually, lead in church, lead, and by lead, that means take up the responsibility, be a lead, be responsible, think about the consequences of your decisions and how that affects everyone. And lead, be the coach, be the leader, be the encourager that the leaders took the lead in Israel and then look at this and that the people offered themselves willingly. Bless the Lord, those 10,000 willing to go and fight. They were willing to do it.

We need a willing spirit To be a leader. You need to have a willing spirit. You need leaders to lead and people who are willing, willing, willing to obey God, willing to fight the enemy, willing to help one another, willing to encourage each other. In doing so, we will win our battles, we will take territory, we will defeat the enemy and not allow him to exact upon us or take from us, rob us of our freedom. In Jesus’ name, we have that ability to do that. Them. In Jesus’ name, we have that ability to do that.

And here is the warning. Here is the warning. This was a wow to me. I literally wrote wow in my Bible. This is the warning we face If we are not leaders who serve God with all of our heart, who keep the first thing first. The most important thing is first Jesus, our relationship with him. Not the business of Jesus, especially if you’re in ministry not the business of Jesus, but the relationship first. That’s first. The ministry comes after the relationship. Jesus modeled that he had relationship with the Father, then he did the ministry, modeled that he had relationship with the Father. Then he did the ministry. The disciples were told to go wait in the upper room in Acts, chapter 2. They have to wait in the upper room until that culmination of that relationship is matched with the power of the Holy Spirit before they could go out and do the ministry.

The verses in verse eight this is a clue for us, this is our warning, this is our heads up time to fight, heads up when we see these things happening. And we have to be leaders to recognize it. You have to be a leader over yourself to govern yourself, to recognize when this happens, because this is subtle, when this happens, when new gods were chosen, when new gods were chosen, when something takes the place in your time, your talents, your finances, your strength, when something else replaces the Lord, as first, when new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates. There’s going to be a war. There’s going to be battles. There’s going to be new fights. There’s going to be new things. You’re going to be battles. There’s going to be new fights. There’s going to be new things. You’re going to have to fight enemies you don’t want to fight. Peace came when they would defeat their enemies and they would listen to that judge and they would obey God and they would have freedom for the life of that judge and blessing for the lifetime of that judge. But when that judge died, if they didn’t keep God first, they would slip into this pattern. When new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates.

Folks, we’ve got to take this leadership, this self-leadership, seriously. Make sure you’re keeping first things first. Seek ye, first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, seek the relationship first. I said this last week, I’ll say it again the first commandment was you shall have no other gods before me. If we replace him with something else in that first place, then you are guaranteed battles first place. Then you are guaranteed battles.

Because the minute you get out of alignment, the minute he’s not first, then your decision-making is compromised. Your ability to hear a word like Barak needed to hear is compromised. The ability to willingly follow after God’s call is compromised because something else has your ear above God. When something else takes his place, your ear, your heart, those things go to that place first. And we’ve got to be those who command, who command our lives to live in a place of leadership, our lives to live in a place of leadership. Let’s live in dynamic encouragement to follow after God, with one another, for one another, in the endeavors that we fight, so that we don’t have these battles constantly waiting at the gates.

There are consequences to leadership. They’re either a good consequence or they’re a bad consequence, and we get to choose. I encourage you today choose wisely, listen to the instructions of the Lord, listen to his instructions. He will give you the victory if you do, and blessing will follow All those around you who are touched by you, and those decisions will be also affected in a positive way, not an adverse way. It’s our decision to make.

Let me pray for you, father. We just thank you today. We thank you for your constant encouragement, the encouragement of your word. Spend time with you when we engage with you, when we give our time, our talents to you, when we give our ear to you, when we wait on you. We give our presence, time to just hear you, when we stop and we make time and room for you. It’s in those times that you are so faithful to encourage us, to strengthen us, to empower us, to give us the strategies that we need, to show us the way we should go and to bless the work of our hands.

Father, I pray today that the encouragement of the Lord rests on your people, that they would hear the encouragement and the word that they need. That they would not give up. That they would fight battles. That they would fight willingly and that they would help their brethren. That we would not be so far away that we don’t engage with our brothers to help them. That we would remain connected in our spirits. That we would fight the battles that we need to fight so we can win. That your church is lifted up.

Let’s not fight against the church that we win. That we fight for your church. We are the bride of Christ. We are one. We care about the body, each part supplies. We care that we are not critical of one another, that we are encouragers of one another, and we ask that you would bless our efforts, lord. Bless the work of our hands. Bring us victory, O God, and we will be so careful to turn and give you the glory. In Jesus’ name. We pray, Amen. Thank you so much for taking this time today. I do pray it was an encouragement to you If it was. My encouragement to you is to hit that little like button thumbs up. Give us a like and maybe subscribe if you’d like to hear when another episode is made available You’ll get notified for that and maybe share this with someone that you think needs some encouragement today. I thank you again for spending some time with me. It was my pleasure to be with you and we’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.