We've all met leaders who seem bent on drawing attention to themselves and building their own kingdoms. A typical response from the body of Christ to such leaders is to point out their errors and to accuse them of being prideful and self-seeking. Even though our accusations may be true, this kind of response will never help them. I don’t believe it is God’s strategy to have us engage in gossip and slander against people who could be helped by our prayers. In order for us to help these leaders, we must take a look at what is causing their problem.
Many of these leaders have suffered repeated rejection throughout their lives. The cause of their self-seeking behavior is that they have an unmet need for affirmation and approval.
Most people who draw attention to themselves suffer from feelings of inadequacy. They believe they are just not good enough. Although they point others to their many accomplishments to gain approval, their inner self-talk is full of negativity. The need they have to hear people say good things about them is an attempt to drown out the voices of criticism they hear internally. Drawing attention to themselves is the only way they know of to receive affirmation and validation. (Trust me on this one. I have plenty of personal experience to speak from.) What they really need is to receive affirmation and validation from Jesus himself.
Some people can read the Bible and accept the fact that Jesus approves of them and affirms them, but for many people, approval and affirmation must come from a personal experience they have with Jesus.
If we want to be effective in helping our leaders to be overcomers, we might pray for them to have personal encounters with Jesus where he validates and affirms them personally. Once they receive his stamp of approval, the unmet need they have for validation is removed and generally, they no longer need to be validated by others. The validation they receive from Jesus crushes the lie from the enemy that says they are not good enough. This usually ends their attempts to build their own kingdom.
So instead of speaking bad about leaders who build their own kingdoms out of a need for validation, we might consider praying for them to be touched and affirmed by Jesus in person.
