Faithfulness, The Methods of Your Messages, Hope Dictates Effort
The Disciple-Leader Newsletter #69
Discipleship
“Many of us profess to be Christians, yet we … do not take Him seriously. … We respect Him, but we don’t follow Him. … We quote His sayings, but we don’t live by them. We admire Him, but we don’t worship Him.”1
Dr. James Clarke
One of the greatest misconceptions is that there is power in merely respecting or admiring Christ. While the sentiment is satisfying, it is not scriptural.2 Sure, respecting Christ (if it implies not actively rebelling against Him) will keep you safe from the consequences of more serious sin. But power comes from faith in Christ. The Book of Mormon does an excellent job at expounding on what power-inducing faith looks like.
“And this was their faith, that by so doing God would prosper them in the land, or in other words, if they were faithful in keeping the commandments of God that he would prosper them in the land;”
There is no power without faith. And there is no faith without faithfulness.3
Leadership
“What you win them with is what you win them to. Our methods are not just important for our message, they are part of the message.”4
Gavin Ortlund
Christ was very serious about this principle of leadership. Think of all the times Jesus used the method to teach the message.5 One example would be when He washed the feet of His disciples. Think also of all the times Jesus refrained from doing something self-advantageous or delivering a strong message because the method would betray what He was really trying to teach. One example would be when Peter cut off the ear of Malchus.6 Jesus responded, saying, “Put up again thy sword into his place … Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?”7
What you win them with is what you win them to.
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”8
In other words, you can do everything right. But without love, it is wrong.
And if you win someone to your cause with anything other than love, you are winning them to the wrong thing. With absolute assurance, you can know that is not how Christ would lead. The first and last law of Christlike leadership is and will always be love.9
Mental Performance
“The highest levels of performance require the deepest levels of belief.”10
Robin Sharma
There is a direct correlation between how hard you work and how deeply you believe. Someone put it this way: “Hope dictates effort.”11
But hope in what, exactly?
That you can be the greatest—or at minimum, successful—at what you are setting out to do.
That what you are doing matters.
Your effort and hope will always be synonymous. You will never outwork your belief. You’ll never out-effort your hope. One of the three components of Jim Collins’ Hedgehog Concept12 is “What Can You Be The Best In The World At?” You have to find that thing and work harder than anyone else at it. This is the biggest reason you hear so much about self-belief. Yes, your thoughts are powerful.13 Yes, simply changing your thoughts can change many things in your life. But separation comes from preparation. It comes from work. Reps. Practice.
Working in a way that allows you to reach the highest levels of your potential has to be preceded by soul-deep self-belief. It is the only way.
As quoted in Jeffrey R. Holland's talk As a Little Child.
“And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.” - Moroni 7:33. The inverse is also true: If ye will not have faith in me, ye shall not have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.
“Faith, then, is the first great governing principle …without it, there is no power.” - Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith.
I have written previously on this subject. See below for more of my writing.
Don’t Just Believe. Have Faith. Article on May 7, 2022.
Vivified Belief. Article on March 9, 2025. Below is an excerpt from it.
“This is the doctrine of Christ: we exercise faith in Him and in return, He gives us access to His power.
“The keyword being exercise.
“Mere belief in Christ, devoid of exercising faith in Him, yields no power. Belief without faith is dead, or as James put it, “Faith without works is dead.”
“Even if you’re a believer, without the exercise of faith, you will go through life as if Christ hadn’t atoned for you.4 Why? Because you won’t have access to His atoning power. You will live, essentially, without God in the world. Your access to His power, love, and influence are readily available to you, but exercising faith is the process by which you gain that access, not through intellectual, passive belief.
“Exercising faith isn’t necessarily easy, but it is very simple. It’s a choice. It’s a choice between being left to your own strength or living in the strength of God. This is the same God who created the world, the planets, and the galaxy. The same God who rose from the grave. The same God who knows all, has all power, and is eager to “give away the secrets of the universe”, including the secret of how you can live in His power. Except He didn’t keep that much of a secret. He was very overt: “And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."
“Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.”
St. Francis of Assisi, in William Fay and Linda Evans Shepherd, Share Jesus without Fear (1999), 22.
By the way, the potential conversion of Malchus is exhibit 1A for illuminating how what you win them with is what you win them to.
“At that point Peter came forward and cut off Malchus’s ear. Ironically, only one person came to Malchus’s defense that night; it was the person Malchus had come to arrest. After telling Peter to put his sword away (see John 18:11), Jesus turned to the injured man. The Lord would have been completely justified in saying something like, ‘Do you really think that hurts?’ Malchus was in infinitesimally less pain than that which the Savior had just endured in the garden. Rather than chiding, mocking, or ignoring Malchus’s struggles, Jesus showed us what it looks like to ‘love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you’ (Matthew 5:44). Jesus healed Malchus’s ear (see Luke 22:50–51).
“Many biblical scholars believe that the Gospels were written many years after the events transpired. This could explain why most of the miracles involve unnamed individuals; their names were likely forgotten in the ensuing years. The fact that John gives us Malchus’s name gives me hope that Jesus healed more than an ear that night. There are other possible explanations for why we know his name, but I have hope that something deep in Malchus’s heart was also touched and healed. My hope is that he was later known as ‘Brother Malchus’ by John and those who first received John’s Gospel. Even if that didn’t happen, I know that my Redeemer lived for us in showing us a perfect example in the face of betrayal, arrest, and evil opposition.”
Tyler J. Griffin, "I Know That My Redeemer Lived," in The Power of Christ's Deliverance, ed. Jan J. Martin and Alonzo L. Gaskill (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 45‒66.
Matthew 26:52-53 & John 18:10
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Decided against putting this in the main section but thought it was worthy of a footnote. An excerpt from The Daily Dad by Ryan Holiday.
“As a young man, the champion boxer and civil rights activist Floyd Patterson was all trouble. He stole. He skipped school. He got into fights. He once, tragically, took a picture of himself and scratched out the eyes looking back at him—because he didn’t like himself. So finally the authorities sent him away.
“It could have been another sad chapter in a sad life. Instead, Patterson was lucky enough to be sent away to a boys’ commune in upstate New York. There, under the guidance of a kind and unconventional psychologist, Dr. Papanek, Patterson’s world was changed. For the first time, he was seen. He was more than ‘reformed,’ in the language of the American prison system; he was loved. As Dr. Papanek explained his philosophy:
‘Punishment teaches the child only how to punish. Scolding teaches him how to scold. By showing him that we understand, we teach him to understand. By helping him, we teach him to help. He learns cooperation by cooperating.’
“Most likely, your children have not found themselves in such serious trouble. Hopefully, they are not as far gone as most of the people around Floyd felt he was. Regardless, the lesson is the same: In everything we do with, to, and around our kids, we are teaching them. Even when we mean well, even when they are screwing up, just as Dr. Papenek explained, we are teaching … often the very opposite of what we’d like to show them.”
The 5 AM Club. Book by Robin Sharma.
Michael Irvin on The Herd with Colin Cowherd.
The Hedgehog Concept by Jim Collins.
I am the biggest proponent of this. I’ve written repeatedly about this. Check out The Disciple-Leader archives to read more.