Our Lord compares His people to sheep, not to cattle.

It is especially important that Christian leaders know the law of the leader–that he can lead others only as far as he himself has gone….

The leader must experience what he would teach or he will find himself in the impossible position of trying to drive sheep. For this reason he should seek to cultivate his own heart before he attempts to preach to the hearts of others….

If he tries to bring them into a heart knowledge of truth which he has not actually experienced he will surely fail. In his frustration he may attempt to drive them; and scarcely anything is so disheartening as the sight of a vexed and confused shepherd using the lash on his bewildered flock in a vain attempt to persuade them
to go on beyond the point to which he himself has attained….

The law of the leader tells us that it is better to cultivate our souls than our voices. We cannot take our people beyond where we ourselves have been, and it thus becomes vitally important that we be men and women of God in the last and highest sense of that term.

“Lord, today let me stop, step off the busy treadmill, and look to the condition of my soul. Help me to listen to You and be spiritually nurtured, to have my soul cultivated by You in silence and solitude. Amen.”

LMI