Essential Steps to Leading 05 Stay in Your Lane!

God has designed us all to be unique. And I believe that God has given each of us a lane that when we stay in it, we seem almost super-human to others. A super-power. You have certain skills and abilities that come easier to you than others, that you can handle more efficiently, that produce maximum fruit for minimum effort.

We have to find our lane and stay in our lane, and that is how we win at life. If you are an evangelist, don’t try and be a pastor. If you are a pastor, don’t try and be a prophet. If you are in the ministry of helps, don’t try and preach! When we spend effort developing a weakness – I am talking about weaknesses of skill here not weaknesses of character, they should always be worked on – then we are wasting time that could make us better at our strengths.

When I invite a guest speaker, I invite them for their strengths. Imagine I invited Andrew Wommack and he didn’t speak on grace, or I invited Jerry Savelle and he didn’t teach on favour! We celebrate people’s strengths, it is your strengths that will make you money and open doors for you. Work on your strengths. This week in Tree of Life, Christopher Alam is coming to teach on the power gifts of the Holy Spirit. I’ve never asked Riley Stephenson to do an end-times conference.

Weaknesses should be farmed out – delegated to others, or avoided completely. You do not have to be well-rounded in the tasks you can do. You do not have to drive in every lane, find your lane and stay in it. Do not become a jack of all trades, you will end up a master of none. Be narrow in your focus – develop your strengths.

When I talk on this to leaders, a question you might ask would be: how can I find my strengths or lane. Firstly, what do you love. What your passion is – that’s a huge clue to your destiny, your lane, your strengths. When you do what you love, you will see your strengths over time. You will be drawn to what you are good at. Another way is to ask your good friends, they will tell you and give you wisdom from an objective point of view.

Once you know your lane, you have to spend time and energy developing your strengths. I spend a lot of time working on what I am good at, which surprises some people, but that’s the way forward. Develop your strengths!

What are you doing right now to develop your strengths? Are you:

• Reading a book right now about one of your strengths? Just opening my Kindle, I am currently reading a book on the theology of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, a book on prayer, and a book on honour. These are all strengths of mine. I am working on making my strengths stronger.
• Listening to sermons on your strengths. I am currently listening to a series by Andrew Wommack on imagination (again). It’s a strength of mine, but it is going to be stronger.
• Who is mentoring you in your strengths? Who is stronger than you in your strengths and can make you stronger?
• What is the last conference you went to that will help you in your strengths? I am off to a prayer conference in two weeks to develop my prayer life. Praying is part of my strengths, and I am developing a strength. Every pastor should be in a pastor’s conference every year, every evangelist should go to an evangelist’s conference, every worship leader should go to a worship leader’s conference, every apostle should go to an apostle’s conference. It’s vital you develop on your level of strength and calling and in your lane.

You need to do this, and you to need to be pro-active in developing your strengths. You need a routine and you need to put things down on paper. Set a goal to listen to a sermon every day this week on one of your strengths, and write down the name of the sermon you listen to every day. Set a goal of going to a specific to your strengths conference every year, and find one now if you haven’t already got one in mind. Pray about a mentor. And be disciplined and deliberate and work on your strengths.

Working on your strengths and staying in your lane – will make you more productive, more successful, and get you greater fruit and greater results in your life and in the kingdom of God. This is why it’s very important for every leader to do this. Now when you are pioneering, starting a new church for instance, you have to do everything, and it will take time for you to find your lane and delegate the rest out, but once that happens – stay in your lane.

Maybe you are working for a ministry or even at your workplace this advice will work – speak to your boss and talk about shifting your role to focus on your strengths and doing more that is in your lane.

Some of you reading this right now need to stop working on your weaknesses and doing things you are not designed or called to do! Some of you need to become a lot more aggressive about working in your strengths and staying in your lane. Find out what you are called to do, find out what you are good at and develop it! You do not have time to do everything so find out what you do well and work on that!