It is easy to stand in a small church, or a struggling field, and say what everyone else says: there's just no one here who could lead. I have said that sentence myself more than once, usually right before God showed me I hadn't actually asked Him yet.

Scripture does not tell us to keep scanning the room hoping a ready-made leader appears. It tells us to ask God for one, watch for one, and walk with that person patiently while God shapes him. Let's look at six pictures Scripture gives us for how this actually works.

Ask God for a Band of Men

And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God had touched. I Samuel 10:26

Notice where this band of men came from. It was not Saul's recruiting strategy. It was not a leadership pipeline he built. Scripture says plainly: God had touched their hearts. The men who stood with Saul in his early days were men God had already been working in, before Saul ever met them.

This is the first and simplest step, and the one we skip most often. Before you draw up a training plan or a list of qualifications, ask God to touch the hearts of the people who will stand with you. He is already working in people around you that you have not noticed yet. Ask Him to show you who they are.

Watch for Them

And there was sore war against the Philistines all the days of Saul: and when Saul saw any strong man, or any valiant man, he took him unto him. I Samuel 14:52

Saul made a habit of this. Whenever he saw a strong or valiant man, he brought him close. It became a pattern of his life, not a one-time search. He was always watching.

Leaders rarely announce themselves. They are usually found in the middle of ordinary faithfulness, showing up early, serving without being asked, asking good questions after a lesson. If you are only looking for someone who already carries a title, you will walk past the very people God is preparing. Make it a habit, the way Saul did, to watch for faithfulness in small things, and draw those people close.

More Caught Than Taught

For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ. I Corinthians 4:17; see also I Corinthians 16:10-11

Paul did not send Timothy with a letter of instructions alone. He sent Timothy as a living reminder of Paul's own ways in Christ, because Timothy had spent enough time near Paul to carry Paul's example in his own life. In 1 Corinthians 16:10-11, Paul instructs the church to receive Timothy without fear and to give him the respect his work deserved, because Timothy was doing the Lord's work just as Paul was.

Much of what you want to pass on cannot be written on a whiteboard. It is caught by someone watching how you pray, how you handle conflict, how you treat people who cannot do anything for you. Give people enough nearness to catch it.

Take Them Forward at the Speed They Can Go

And he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord Seir. Genesis 33:13-14

Jacob knew something Esau, riding ahead with four hundred men, did not have to think about. He was leading tender children and nursing animals, and if he pushed them to keep pace with someone stronger, they would die along the way. So he made a decision: he would lead on softly, at the pace the weakest ones in his care could endure.

This is a hard lesson for driven leaders. We tend to train people at our own pace, forgetting we have had years, sometimes decades, of head start. Someone new to leadership needs the freedom to go slower than you did, without being made to feel like a disappointment for it. Overdrive them, and you will lose them. Lead on softly, and they will arrive.

See Them As They Are, and As God Sees Them

And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. Judges 6:13-18

Look at the gap between how the angel addressed Gideon, a mighty man of valor, and how Gideon described himself, the least in his family, from the weakest clan in his tribe. Two completely different pictures of the same man.

God wasn't confused about who Gideon was. He simply refused to stop there. He saw Gideon exactly as he was, hiding in a winepress, afraid and doubting, and He also saw the man Gideon would become. Both were true at the same time.

This is exactly how you have to see the people you are training. See them honestly, with all their inexperience and rough edges. And see them the way God sees them, further down the road than they can currently imagine for themselves. Lead from that second picture, not only the first one.

You Cannot Lead Someone Where You Have Not Been

Every leader has built-in limits, and it is worth naming honestly. You cannot lead people into a depth of prayer you do not practice yourself. You cannot lead them into a level of surrender you have not walked through. You cannot hand someone a torch you have never lit.

This is not meant to discourage you. It is meant to point you back to your own walk with God. The most important thing you can do for the people you are training is not a better curriculum. It is your own continued growth. Lead from where you actually are, keep moving forward, and they will have somewhere real to follow you.

Ask, Don't Just Complain

None of this happens by accident, and none of it happens through complaining about who is missing. It happens through asking, watching, walking closely enough to be imitated, going at a pace people can sustain, seeing them the way God sees them, and staying ahead in your own walk with Him.

If you have spent more energy naming the leaders you do not have than asking God for the ones He is preparing, let this be the week that changes. Ask Him today, specifically, for the people He wants to give you.

In the final article of this series, we will look at what Scripture calls mighty men, and the five marks of a leader worth the time it takes to train them. Subscribe to Ministry by Mercy to walk through it with us.