God’s people have always and will always in public service, live and serve underneath the canopy of intimidation - from citizens, constituents, rivals, bosses, even colleagues. Especially if there are at stake influence, money or positions of power. Count on it.  But don’t be fooled, don’t be fearful, don’t give in to it and certainly don’t run from it. They can't touch you...

What has God put in your spirit and on your heart to do, yet you won’t because you fear the opinions of people more than you trust the plan and will of God? Our past is preparation for our future prepared by God in time past. And many of us will die having missed it.

Do your words accurately portray who you say you are Christ? Self-portraits are painted by our words and every social media post, text and e-mail is a stroke of the brush.  As a public servant leader, you can bank on having two things - private enemies and fake friends. And both will not hesitate to use against you, words you thought were being spoken and exchanged between friends.  

For good or for bad, given time, we will become most like the ones we stick with the closest. It's time to re-evaluate every relationship. We don't have time anymore to waste on people who subtract and not add to us.

The great tragedy today among God’s people and leaders is we have become such an individualistic, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps society that it is easy to overlook the fact that we need others in order to reach our goals.

Persevering through the pain of betrayal is perhaps the most difficult because betrayal comes from the heart and hand of someone we trust and would least suspect. We expect an enemy to harm us because that’s what enemies do. But those closest to us not only can harm but hurt us because it is the last thing we expect them to do.

We can never allow jealous people to stop us. Nor as followers of Jesus Christ allow jealousy to prompt us to try and hinder others. We each have our own unique purpose.  If you can’t help, don’t hinder and no matter how hard anyone else tries to hinder you, they won’t succeed.

As public servants and public servant leaders, we've all been on the receiving end of false accusations, hurtful, unfair, insulting and hateful verbal attacks. If you haven't YET, you will. This episode teaches you in less than 5 minutes how to handle in such a way whereby you will always come out on top. There is never a need to retaliate - it's bait. Don't take it!

Those who argue with a fool will themselves become a fool. You don't HAVE to have the last word.

It's not how well we handle the big things - but how well we handle the small. As a public servant and public servant leader, someone's always watching you.  What they see you do or don't do when you should or could, could one day come back and harm you or be a source of blessing. Someone's always watching.