16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.
John 14:16-18
7Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.
John 16:7
Physical presence does not scale.
You can’t handle every training.
You can’t handle every chaos.
You can’t handle every single thing by yourself.
So you need other people who think and act as you would act to help make you scale.
Jesus, though he was God, walked on earth with 12 men downloading into them everything they needed to know to think and act like he would think and act. He transferred to them everything they needed so they would advance the Kingdom to the ends of the earth.
Then he left them. They would go on this impossible mission without their Leader being physically present. And according to Jesus they were better off because he would be gone.
Once Jesus left, the Father would send the Spirit. The Spirit would be Jesus’ presence among his people, but the Spirit by no means is physical.
You cannot be physically present for everything. So you must have Presence without always being physically present.
How can you be present without always being physically present?
- You train others on how you would act and think.
God put something inside of you…no matter if it is a marketplace or church vision. What God put inside you is not reason to “come down from on high.” We’ve discussed this. But this does mean God put this in you for a reason. Download what he has given to you into others.
- Practice Presence without being present.
Frank Blake, former CEO of The Home Depot, would write handwritten notes every Sunday afternoon to hourly employees. He couldn’t be physically present with any of them. But he could be present with some of them through writing. What can you do to have Presence with those you cannot be physically present with?
- Prepare people for your leaving.
Jesus prepared his disciples for his leaving. They had no clue what it meant. But he prepared them anyway. Because once they did get it…they would need it. Maybe this is a succession plan. Maybe this is a vacation. Maybe this is an afternoon. But prepare your people for a day you will be gone and they will need to call the shots.
The time in which I write this is a difficult time to be able to make this happen. All the more reason to be even more intentional about downloading into your team what they need for your organization to scale.
Your physical presence cannot always be with your people. But this does not mean the work stops. Be intentional about how you use your Presence so that you scale the mission God has given to you.
The goal is to lead you to engage with God’s Word so you can Hear & Follow Jesus in the everyday…especially in your leadership. Sign up for daily emails at the button below to receive the content in your inbox. You’ll receive a 1-minute email read with a link to a 5-minute blog read each day.