Kingdom At Work
In our last blog, we talked about the posture of spiritual leadership, how it often begins in weakness, humility, honesty, dependence, and surrender rather than polish. Today we go deeper on what that commitment entails:
What does my yes to spiritual leadership actually mean?
Unfortunately, we can’t share a blueprint, predictable plan or process, or even a framework. But what we can point to is the source of Truth and testimony.
Your yes to spiritual leadership is not a one-time dramatic moment, but a quiet yes, given again and again. Spiritual leadership is not vague. It is not a mood. It is not an add on to leadership. It is surrender with substance. So let’s ground this in Scripture.
The end of striving and the beginning of abiding
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me bears much fruit… apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
In business, we are trained to produce. In the Kingdom, we are trained to abide.
A branch does not strain. It stays connected long enough for fruit to emerge. The connection matters. The life source matters.
That is why so many leaders feel exhausted when they try to lead spiritually while still operating on a performance system. They are trying to produce what was meant to be borne.
We were never meant to be fruit makers. We were meant to be fruit bearers.
This is one of the first things your yes to spiritual leadership implies. You are agreeing to lead from union with Christ, not merely from competence.
A purpose Jesus prayed out loud
One of the clearest windows into spiritual leadership is not a leadership book. It is the night before the cross.
Jesus had washed feet. Judas had left the room. The last supper had passed, and the air had shifted. Most leaders would have pulled away to think, to plan, and to prepare. Instead, Jesus stayed with His disciples and began to pray out loud. Then He said something that reframes what leadership is for:
“I have revealed Your name to the men whom You gave Me.” (John 17:6)
Jesus measured His leadership by revelation. He had made the Father known.
That is sobering and also freeing, because it clarifies the point. Spiritual leadership is not simply leading with Christian values. It is leading in a way that makes God more visible.
But if that is the purpose, it raises the honest question most CEOs feel.
How do we do that? Our name is not Jehovah. We cannot manufacture holiness. We cannot force fruit.
The choice that costs you control
Spiritual leadership becomes a choice the moment you realize your yes means you are no longer in control.
CEOs like clarity. We like certainty. We like to see the full road map before we commit. We want to understand, anticipate, and limit risk. But the Kingdom rarely works that way.
Even the disciples learned through an unfolding process. They were often confused. They misunderstood. They asked the wrong questions. They moved slowly, and sometimes they failed loudly. Yet Jesus did not disqualify them for learning in real time. He kept leading them.
Which means the question is not, “Do I understand everything about spiritual leadership?” The question is, “Will I keep yielding?”
Yielding is humility in motion. It is agreement with God even when you do not have perfect clarity. Jesus modeled it with a simple phrase that still defines spiritual commitment:
Not my will, but Yours be done. (Luke 22:42)
That is what spiritual leadership is. Not perfection, not performance, but continual yielding.
The spirit you lead from is the spirit your company feels
All leadership is spiritual, so here is the honest question: what spirit is leading you?
It is impossible to not be led by a spirit. There is no neutral. Most leaders are not intentionally yielding to darkness. But many are snagged by something that looks acceptable and even holy: the religious spirit.
It convinces leaders that God is pleased when the boxes are checked. It teaches you to clean up the outside and hide the inside. It rewards appearance. It feeds comparison and judgment. It keeps you performing spiritually while privately striving. It robs leaders of joy because performance leadership is exhausting.
Holy Spirit leads differently. He leads to abundance, not scarcity. He leads to truth and grace. He leads to real relationship. He leads to repentance, not shame.
Repentance is not a shame spiral. It is a turn. It is changing direction and letting action follow. Jesus began His public ministry with repentance because it is the entrance to the Kingdom. It is how leaders come back to center.
That is why spiritual leadership cannot run on assumption. A CEO cannot assume they are led by the Spirit simply because they prayed in the morning.
We leak. We drift. We get pulled into self protection. Sometimes asking Holy Spirit to fill us is daily. Sometimes it is meeting by meeting. Spiritual commitment means we keep choosing alignment.
Holy Spirit is not an idea. He is a Person who partners.
Scripture presents Holy Spirit as the essential partner in a believer’s life and leadership. Jesus promised He would not leave His disciples alone. He promised to send the Helper. (John 14)
That means Holy Spirit is present, active, and available in the places CEOs often feel most alone. But partnership requires invitation.
Holy Spirit does not force the head of the table. He waits to be welcomed.
This changes the texture of leadership. Faith moves from something you believe to Someone you follow. Leadership decisions become moments of dependence rather than moments of isolation.
What spiritual commitment looks like in practice
If your yes to spiritual leadership is real, it will become visible. Not as religious behavior, but as habits that shape culture. Over time, spiritual commitment often looks like this.
Time with God becomes protected, not accidental
Most leaders assume time with God will happen between meetings, but CEOs schedule what matters. Abiding becomes a priority because you eventually realize you cannot lead spiritually on fumes.
People become an entrusted assignment, not a resource
The way you see people changes. They are not interruptions or assets. They are people God loves, and leadership becomes stewardship. You begin praying in conversations, “Holy Spirit, show me what the Father sees in them.”
God becomes your source in a real and experiential way
Scripture says, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5–6) This is more than giving God a nod. It is knowing Him, encountering Him, and letting Him shape your decisions. Over time, your people sense where your steadiness comes from, and they begin to believe they can have it too.
You name what God is doing instead of hiding it
Testimony stops being rare. You begin highlighting the ways God is working in the middle of operations and relationships because it builds faith in the room. Revelation says the testimony of Jesus carries prophetic power. When you share what God has done, it awakens hope in others. It quietly tells the listener, “What if that is possible for me too?”
Prayer becomes normal, not performative
Most leaders pray for their people. Fewer pray with them. But spiritual commitment makes prayer practical. It becomes a realignment tool. It does not need to be dramatic. It needs to be sincere. If it feels awkward, that is fine. Awkward is human.
The closing question every CEO has to answer
Spiritual commitment eventually becomes personal because a CEO cannot delegate surrender.
So here is the question that brings it home: What faith filled action do you need to take in order to demonstrate the power of God’s Kingdom and His love to His people?
Write it down. Then practice it. Not as a performance, but as a partnership.
Spiritual leadership does not begin when a CEO has it all together. It begins when a CEO keeps offering a quiet yes.
And that yes is often the first place the anointing rests.
Invitation
If you are ready to go deeper, join us for our upcoming Kingdom Leadership Workshop, April 28-30, where leaders share real testimonies of what spiritual commitment looks like inside everyday business decisions. Come learn alongside other CEOs who are choosing to lead with the Lord, not just in principle, but in practice.