The greatest test of a leader is not in the area of persecution, though many fall there. I think one of the greatest snares comes in the form of power and success. We must never think we’ve “made it” and begin to dictate our personal power as a result of God-given success. Success brings a multitude of avenues and ventures. If we get caught up in the vast selections that come from success and fail to develop our spiritual tenacity, we can fall victim to the “whirlwind”. We can’t find peace with our past by using the power of the present. With each new height, we must build a new tenacity. That’s why some churches grow to a certain level, than become comfortable, or fall. The leadership become too busy with the “avenues” and lose the time and energy to develop both themselves and their members for higher levels in God.

Whenever we obey God, success should come. So never be afraid of success! But to properly administrate success, we must hold ourselves in the strength of the Spirit and a hunger for God, that we are able to continue in what God has spoken, pioneering into the next level.

… a moral to the message of the failure in his (Dr. John Alexander Dowie) life:

Never sway from what God has commanded you to do in the earth. No matter what your age, your generation has not passed until you exit the earth and enter heaven. So if God has commanded you to fulfill a commission, make it your utmost priority as long as you live.”