When serving your leader, there are unwritten protocols that you must adhere to. Even if your leader didn’t sit down and explain this to you, they exist. Most of the leaders’ prayers will be for the armor bearers to learn certain protocols in the School of the Spirit. Allow the Holy Spirit to sharpen you in your service. Consider some of the backroom etiquette rules listed below:
1. Know when to leave your leader’s presence
This practice is crucial. Remember, you are not your leader’s partner. There will be times when you are sewing your leader and he or she gets together. With your colleagues (ie conferences, meetings, roundtables, etc.). Unless your leader’s conversations with your peers tell you otherwise. Leaders often discuss leadership issues. Shepherds often need to discuss with their peers the problems of other sheep in the flock. You don’t need that information. I think, in this case, the less now the better. Why? Once you know something, you are responsible for it. You don’t need to be exposed to certain things, you don’t need to know the weaknesses of another leader. It is not necessary to be exposed to the difficulties that a leader may be facing in ministry. All of these exhibits now create more prayer points in your own life. You can afford to share that information or even judge someone for something you’ve heard about and should never have been exposed to. When you get the chance, run from these opportunities to expose yourself. Unless you are nosy, you should not want to be aware of certain information.
2. Share your opinion only when asked
There will be times when your leader will have discussions with others on a topic that you know well, there will be topics on which he knows much more than your leader. Even when this is true, you should not offer your advice unsolicited. You must defy the temptation that will come when you know a topic or topic that your leader does not know. There is nothing you have to prove to your leader or your leader’s partner. Don’t interrupt your leader’s discussion with your own advice or advice. If requested, proceed. But if your advice or knowledge is not requested, nullify the temptation to speak up.
3. Avoid the gossipy spirit
For whatever reason, there are believers who believe that gossip is a safe form of promotion. Is not true. Gossip is a sign of immaturity. When you have difficulty safeguarding intimate matters that are revealed around you when you listen to them due to the privilege of being close to your leader, you are immature. I’m not talking about unethical things, but about confidential things that leaders deal with in ministry.
What you may be exposed to because you are in the presence of your leader is never sharing it with others. Often a person is confidentially destroyed by a gossipy spirit in the servant.
That is why I suggested earlier that you avoid being in the presence of your leader when you are with your peers. It prevents you from being responsible because you know too much.
4. Avoid self-promotion
As a wearer of armor, you must remember at all times that what you make happen in someone else’s life will take place in your life. You have been called to make your leader great. Do you want to have a successful ministry one day? So make your leader’s ministry a success?
You must flee from the temptation to promote yourself. There will be apple opportunities. When you are with your man or woman of God, you will gain exposure. What you do with that exposure will make or break it.
I will never forget an incident that happened years ago while serving as an armor bearer. I was driving a guest speaker to church for a conference we were organizing. The guest speaker proceeded to ask me who my favorite speaker was. He seemed surprised when I replied: My pastor is. Often times, will a man throw questions at you to expose your heart? An armor bearer with strong soul ambition will always fail. Your heart should be oriented toward the advancement of the person you serve, not yourself.
The exposure you get from serving is not a time to promote yourself, your anointing or your agenda allows your position of service to speak for you. Be known for your service. Elisha, at one point in his life, was known as the one who poured water on Elijah’s hands. The prophet Elisha was anointed and prepared for the ministry. But when he was discussed during the times of his service as a squire, he was known for his service, not his anointing.
I have found some of the following practices to successfully prevent me from walking into self-promotion:
– do not carry your own business cards during ministry
– never give your own contact information (always the church)
– always talk about your leader and never about yourself
– listen twice as much as you speak
– speak when spoken to (don’t fight to show what you know)
– remember, you have nothing to prove to anyone
5. Never discuss your leader’s weaknesses
Throughout the course of your service to your leader, there will be weaknesses that will reveal themselves. Disclosure of these weaknesses is never intended to harm the leader. Many times, your leader’s weakness has been revealed to you so that you join God in interceding on your leader’s behalf and eradicating the various weaknesses.
The most damaging thing you can do is discuss your leader’s weaknesses with others. If you imagine that you could earn brownie points with others by sharing your revelation or some existing weakness in your leader’s life, you have been misled.
This is illustrated in the story of Noah and his two sons. The Bible says that one saw the nakedness (weaknesses) of his father and spoke about it. While the other brother walked back and bent his father’s nakedness, we are called to cover up our leader’s weaknesses and not spread them.
6. Never speak negatively. Talk about your leader.
There will be times when you will have disputes and disagreements with the person you serve. We all make mistakes. Therefore, there will be times when you disagree with the position your leader takes. You have the right to disagree with what your leader has decided for you to do or say. However, you should not express such disagreements to others. The principle says never complain below, always complain above. Most of the time it’s your leader or God
7. Never speak negatively about vision
There will be times in ministry when you may not agree or even understand the decisions your leader makes. You may not agree with the direction in which the ministry chooses to move. There will be times when God will give your leader a directive for the entire ministry and not even explain why. If your leader doesn’t even explain why? What makes you think you would know why?
The point of importance here is that you should not even speak negatively about the vision you work for, never complain about your vision. Fight for your vision. Work hard to achieve the vision. Commit to the vision Give your life to the vision. But never speak negatively about vision.
