PHOTO: Grant was "tapped" by Lincoln himself.
America’s fight for independence and The Civil War can teach us a lot about local and greater-church leadership.
While The Bible is replete with examples of how unlikely men and women were raised up as influencers, prophets and kings, the very inner sanctum of Lincoln’s mind and heart has a few lessons on the subject as well.
While Lincoln was stewing and brewing over General McClellan and the other Union generals’ defeats and standoffs, General Grant was winning in a more confident style in his campaigns.
When Lincoln’s advisors snitched on Grant for his love of alcohol, The President quickly inquired, “Where does Mr. Grant get this whiskey?”
The counselors declared that they didn’t know.
“But why do you want to know?” they asked.
“Because, if I can only find out, I will send a barrel of this wonderful whiskey to every general in the army,” Lincoln only half-quipped.
Lincoln himself was an unlikely victor in the 1860 presidential election.
God does not pick those He will sovereignly use in the same manner as mankind.
In fact, certain leaders of two centuries ago were so certain of their discernment that they missed the very face of God right in front of them.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: The opening to heaven may very well be figuratively and literally “in your face.” Let us be careful not to shut down such portals to heaven.
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.’ But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’ ...You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life…‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’
1 Samuel 16:7, John 5:39,40