A manoeuvre speaks of a series of moves to achieve a required end. It requires great skill and care to guide someone, some people or some activity in order to achieve the required goal. This is an activity that leaders engage in all the time. Can you become a master of manoeuvres? Can you be a skilful leader? It depends on you!
There are some things that never change. Prayer and the truths of the word of God are unchanging but the way we minister these things will change. The snake, for instance, is a very wise creature because it does not maintain one form or shape. It can undergo every kind of manoeuvre to get in or out of a place. Can you undergo a major change in your presentation? Can you make a U-turn, a right turn or a left turn right now? To be a good leader, you must be capable of such manoeuvres. Building a church today is a little different from building a church a decade ago. Conducting a crusade some years ago is different from conducting a crusade today. This is because the nature of the population has even changed. You have to use different strategies and different keys. Many of our cities are filled with aggressive people seeking their fortunes. This is not how these cities were some years ago. Many people have come from the hinterland, having been abandoned by the governments of the day. This has also caused an influx of many people into the different cities. Your inability to manoeuvre and to change will spell your downfall. ‘To survive, you must be able to adapt and innovate. This is a manoeuvre!
The Prodigal Son
I WILL ARISE and go to my father, and will say unto him; Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. AND HE AROSE, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
Luke 15:18-20
The prodigal son gives us the best example of a U-turn. A U-turn is a reversal of your former decisions. He reversed all his former decisions and humbly returned to his proper place. That is what I call a spiritual U-turn. A spiritual U-turn is a manoeuvre in which you reverse and go back on decisions you have made earlier. If you are not capable of U-turns, you are not capable of repenting from your mistakes.
Zacchaeus
Zacchaeus made a U-turn when he met Jesus Christ. He turned away from corruption and from swindling people. A U-turn is true repentance!
And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.
Luke 19:8
We all make many mistakes and when you realise that you have made a mistake you must be able to make a U-turn. I came to realise the importance of those things and that is why I made a U-turn. After our church began, I realised I had made a mistake in the way our church started. I made a U-turn and went back to apologise. There are many things I said I would not do that I do today. I said I did not need a secretary but today I have several secretaries. I said my assistant would be an evangelist whilst I would be a pastor. But I made a U-turn when I realised the Lord wanted me to have crusades. If I did not practise spiritual U-turns, I would not begin Healing Jesus Crusades. I said I would drive certain cars when I became fifty years old, because no one would criticise me then. When I was twenty-five years old, I thought a fifty-year-old man was a very old man. But when I became fifty years old I refused to own any such car. I realised that I had underestimated how quickly I would become fifty years old.
Do you know that nothing is ever going to remain the same? What allowed for success five years ago is not likely to work in the same way today. Make yourself malleable and flexible in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Your inflexibility can cost you your life! How old are you? Why are you inflexible and unchangeable? All huge organisations are in danger of becoming so stiff that they cannot change and move around. Without manoeuverability, you lose the ability to quickly respond to the ever-changing scenes of life. Remember: flexibility and manoeuverability are important for success!
theaol@ymail.com
By Dag Heward-Mills