1 Thess5:12-13 Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other. NLT
RESPECT THEM
When I was in the university, I met some people who told me they couldn't worship in a fellowship where their fellow student presided as the pastor. I tried to know why they made such decision and the feelers I got was that they weren't ready to accept a colleague as their spiritual leader regardless of the grace upon him/her. Also, one of the things such people found hard to do was to respect their school mate in a position of spiritual authority. I'm so sure that outside the campus environment, those who had that mentality while in school may not be able to submit and respect spiritual authorities placed over them by God if by chance they discover that such people are younger in age or are their contemporaries. I want to believe that would be their stand in such situation except that mindset changes.
You have a duty to respect your spiritual leaders not because of their age or years of experience in the ministry. Some are always looking for pastors/ preachers that are older in age or those with years of ministerial experience before showing respect. While experience is good, it is not equal to the call of God on a man's life and the wisdom of Holy Spirit. We respect our spiritual leaders because it is a scriptural command. It is not debatable. The Jews didn't respect Jesus when he came, little wonder why they missed their time of visitation. "Then they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family.” And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them." (Mark 6:3-5 NLT).
As the saying goes, "the anointing you don't respect, you will never attract." You wonder why new comers in living churches get miracles easily and old timers struggle to get answers? Lack of respect for the anointing upon the anointed of God and familiarity may just be the reason. It happened to the Jews when Christ was on earth and it is happening today. Stop treating your pastor like a foot mat. Most of us respect the governor of our state or the president of our country but we fail to realize that anyone anointed by God to function in the ministry occupies a greater office than the President of any country in the world regardless of the size of their congregation. Some call some preachers abusive names and even tag them as "fraudsters" even when there is no proof. This is the bane of social media in this generation. Apostle Paul advised we show our spiritual leaders "great" respect. I may not be able to describe the extent of that "great" respect but as you open your heart to the Spirit of God, you'll begin to see how to respect your spiritual leaders.
Father, I receive the grace to show great respect to my spiritual leaders in Jesus name.