Leadership can sometimes feel like navigating without a clear sense of direction.
We may know where we believe God has called us, but circumstances change. Opportunities disappear. Expectations do not become reality. Life introduces responsibilities we did not anticipate, and suddenly the path toward our calling looks different from the one we originally imagined.
The question then becomes: How do we remain faithful when the direction of our lives requires recalibration?
As I reflected on the leadership of the Judean kings, two ideas stood out to me: our dependence on the Holy Spirit and our willingness to recalibrate when necessary. Together, they have challenged me to think about leadership not simply as what I accomplish, but as what God is doing within me.
Leading From the Inside Out
Hezekiah’s leadership provides an interesting picture of restoration.
His reign involved repairing what had been neglected and restoring what had been lost. One fascinating part of his leadership was the development of Jerusalem’s water system. Water needed to be brought into the city and protected from outside threats.
That physical reality caused me to think about something spiritual.
What sustains us must come from the inside out.
For Christian leaders, our greatest resource cannot simply be our education, experience, personality, talents, or expertise. Those things can certainly be valuable, but they cannot become substitutes for dependence upon God.
As a Pentecostal Christian, this makes me think particularly about dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
Spirit-empowered leadership is not limited to what happens behind a pulpit, during worship, or at an altar. Dependence upon the Spirit should influence our lifestyle, decisions, relationships, priorities, and direction.
It requires continually seeking God and allowing Him to work within us.
The more experience we gain, however, the easier it can become to trust ourselves.
We begin recognizing patterns. We know how to solve certain problems. Education gives us frameworks. Experience gives us confidence. Leadership gives us instincts.
None of those things are inherently wrong.
The danger comes when competence begins replacing dependence.
I want my lifestyle, decision-making, seeking of God, and continued infilling of the Spirit to keep my own strength and expertise from becoming the foundation of everything I do.
Because leadership that begins internally with God will eventually become visible externally through the leader.
When Leadership Loses Its Orientation
The leaders who followed Josiah provide another sobering picture.
A kingdom that had experienced reform eventually entered instability. Leadership deteriorated, circumstances changed rapidly, and Judah moved toward destruction and exile.
Their stories made me think about recalibration.
There is a phenomenon pilots can experience called spatial disorientation. Under certain conditions, their senses can give them an inaccurate perception of the aircraft’s position and movement. What feels correct may not actually correspond with reality.
Life can sometimes feel similar.
We develop expectations about where we should be, what our calling should look like, or how quickly certain things should happen. Then circumstances change.
Suddenly, what we expected and what we are experiencing no longer match.
That is where recalibration becomes necessary.
When Calling Doesn’t Look Like You Expected
I’ve experienced this personally.
At 25, circumstances caused me to question aspects of my calling because my life did not look like what I believed ministry was supposed to look like.
There can be an unspoken assumption in ministry that fulfilling your calling means eventually obtaining a particular position.
Become the pastor.
Get the ministry opportunity.
Receive the title.
Step onto the platform.
When those opportunities don’t materialize according to our expected timeline, it can become easy to wonder whether we misunderstood God.
But as I’ve grown, my understanding of calling has expanded.
Now, at 30, I’m increasingly recognizing that ministry does not begin when someone gives me a ministry position.
Calling can be lived wherever God has presently entrusted influence to me.
That includes the church, but it can also include the workplace.
It includes conversations.
It includes relationships.
It includes how we serve people who may never enter our churches.
Sometimes being missional means recognizing that our current environment isn’t merely something we’re enduring until the “real ministry” arrives.
It may actually be part of the mission field God has entrusted to us right now.
Recalibration Is Not Abandonment
This has changed how I think about redirection.
Recalibrating does not necessarily mean abandoning what God originally placed within us.
Sometimes recalibration is precisely how God brings us back into alignment with the calling.
There is a difference between abandoning a destination and adjusting how we navigate toward it.
That distinction matters because calling can easily become intertwined with personal ambition. We can begin with sincere obedience to God and gradually develop such a specific picture of what obedience is supposed to look like that we struggle when God doesn’t follow our blueprint.
Dependence upon the Holy Spirit challenges that mentality.
If the Spirit is genuinely leading my life, then I must remain willing for God to adjust my expectations, methods, timing, and even opportunities.
The calling belongs to Him before it belongs to me.
Approaching the Next Transition
This becomes especially meaningful as I approach another transition in my life.
Finishing my master’s degree naturally raises questions about what comes next.
Where should I serve?
What opportunities should I pursue?
What should the next stage of ministry and education look like?
Those are important questions, but I am realizing there is an even more important one:
What does God want?
There are things I desire for my future. There are ministry opportunities I would welcome. There are educational and vocational goals I continue to pursue.
But I don’t want desire alone determining direction.
I want prayer to precede movement.
I want dependence upon the Holy Spirit to precede strategy.
And I want enough humility to recalibrate when God’s direction differs from my expectations.
Leadership Begins Within
This connects with something I continue learning about leadership.
We often measure leadership externally: influence, effectiveness, accomplishments, positions, organizations, or the number of people following us.
Scripture continually brings us back inward.
What are we trusting?
Who are we becoming?
What is driving our decisions?
Are we still listening?
Are we still dependent upon God?
Are we willing to change direction when necessary?
Hezekiah’s story reminds me that restoration begins internally before its effects become visible externally. The instability that followed Josiah reminds me how quickly leadership can lose its orientation when its foundation disappears.
Both lead me toward the same conclusion:
Healthy Christian leadership requires both dependence and recalibration.
Dependence keeps God as the source of our strength.
Recalibration keeps us responsive when He adjusts our direction.
Perhaps faithfulness is not always about walking the exact path we imagined when God first called us.
Sometimes faithfulness means trusting Him enough to let Him redraw the route.
And as I continue navigating ministry, education, work, relationships, and whatever comes next, that is the kind of leader I want to become:
Spirit-dependent enough to follow and humble enough to recalibrate.
My Faith Journey 