He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead. —Mark 9:9

Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense: people, life, and even God at times, seems confusing and difficult to figure out. As a leader the pressure can be to always “know everything and have it all figured out”. This is not your task! Your task is to be honest and real and when you don’t know or have all the answers, then to go to the one who does, namely God! People can place high demands on leaders and the stress of “not making mistakes” is high naturally, but it is impossible for a leader to know everything or to be able to see into the future with exact precision. Spiritual discernment and wisdom does not operate like a Magic 8 Ball. In fact, discernment and wisdom can take years to develop and even come at the expense of costly mistakes.

Walking with God each and everyday will assist us as leaders in growing in depth and understanding of the role and life God has called us to. The more we learn, the more we are able to learn. It’s a natural snowball effect: once the movement begins, it naturally accumulates more and more. Wisdom doesn’t come in a day or week but over the course of a lifetime.

Christ commanded His disciples to tell no one of certain experiences because it was important for them to assimilate those experiences into their daily lives, not to isolate them as a one-time-event. Jesus doesn’t want our lives as leaders to be compartmentalized into “work” and “social” and “family”. No. He wants our lives as leaders to be as “leaders”, holistically complete in work, home, family, and all areas of life. Christ matters in all of life, not just as “leaders” or areas of leadership or work/church. Christ does not intend us to be continually seeking spiritual moments of ecstasy but rather to learn how to walk with Him through the mundane and monotonous into the glorious ah-ha!

There are moments in life when nothing makes sense: all pieces are there, the mixture seems right but it’s just not clicking. And then it happens, like a brilliant light bulb exploding with electricity the “Ah-Ha” happens. Everything comes into clear focus. Perspective. Understanding. Paradigm shift. Now it all makes sense. The Holy Spirit has taught you something that you thought you already knew…and maybe you did “know” it but you just didn’t “get it”. There is a vast expanse between what we know and what we live. As Paul said “knowledge puffs up”. Christ doesn’t want us to walk around talking about what we know and have experienced. He wants those things to change the way we live and how we treat others. When those things begin to collide in our lives, then others will begin to say: ah-ha!  Oswald Chambers puts it this way:

“…tell no one….” But so many people do tell what they saw on the Mount of Transfiguration— their mountaintop experience. They have seen a vision and they testify to it, but there is no connection between what they say and how they live. Their lives don’t add up because the Son of Man has not yet risen in them.

Final thought: Don’t try to figure everything out or be a know-it-all. Simply take what you know and live it out. Then Christ will build upon it.