Principles for Christian Leaders

Alert to Satan’s attacks

No man is so high in power and authority but that Satan will assail him with temptation. And the more responsible the position a man occupies, the fiercer and more determined are the assaults of the enemy. Let God’s servants in every place study His Word, looking constantly to Jesus, that they may be changed into His image. The inexhaustible fullness and the all-sufficiency of Christ are at our command if we walk before God in humility and contrition.—MS 140, 1902 (November 6) PCL 99.3

Those that are in the most responsible positions feel the darts of the enemy stronger, because if they make a mistake and swerve from the right position, the devil makes a point of that: “Here is your representative man, here is the one you trust; now you can see how much he believes in God and acts after God.”—MS 50, 1894 (November 10) PCL 100.1

Men in positions of responsibility are in danger of changing leaders. This I know; for it has been plainly revealed to me. . . . PCL 100.2

I have been instructed that Satan seeks to link up with men bearing large responsibilities in the Lord’s work, in order that he may fill their minds with evil devisings. Under his influence, men will suggest many things that are contrary to the mind of God.—Letter 257, 1904 (July 27) PCL 100.3

Satan devises, through his masterly deceiving power, to make evil appear as righteousness, to keep men working in his line, that those whom God has entrusted with great responsibilities shall be perverted from His allegiance and serve his purposes. “Thou hast defiled thy sanctuary by the multitude of thine iniquities.” This represents a corrupt spiritual administration. The influence that is gained through positions of trust is used for selfish purposes instead of for the good of others who stand approved before God more than they, for their dependence is in God, and they are seeking His glory and not their own. Even now Satan is continuing and advancing in the same line in which he began. He rules by the same laws. In heaven he lost his self-sacrificing principle and unselfish care for his associates, and little by little he introduced a new order of things, consulting his own hand. —MS 59, 1900 (August 16) PCL 100.4