Matthew 23.8-10 warns, don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and he’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ. 

We are to follow God first and foremost and not men. Too many Christians look to men to lead them rather than for God to lead them. It is easy to explain why we do this. We can see, hear and feel men but we struggle with God over these things.

The Scripture makes clear however that we have only one life-leader, Jesus the Master and Lord of all. We reflect man centered leading when all we learn about God comes from a sermon or a devotional where we read only the words of men. When all of our understanding about God comes from the opinion of men we have made men our life-leaders rather than God.

God has provided us His living word so that we can know His will and His ways. God has provided His presence in us, His Holy Spirit to make practical His word in our lives so that we can daily obey His commands. It is the word of God directed by the Spirit of God that He uses to lead us into the good works we are predestined to accomplish. Our first priority, yea, our first responsibility, is to spend time with God in the Word of God praying for the Spirit of God to make clear to us the will of God for our lives.

This does not mean we ignore the Church or God’s provision of pastors and teachers. They are His chosen instruments for helping us apply His word, keeping us from wandering far from its real meaning and helping us better apply its true teachings. We need God’s people, particularly His chosen leaders, to help us stay on course. Cults and all kinds of bad decisions have occurred by men who ‘heard from God’ but failed to listen to other ‘hearers’ whose understanding was infinitely more accurate.

Notwithstanding these rogue occurrences, we are first and most to pursue daily the word of life given to us from God and we are to pursue first and most the Spirit of God for wisdom and understanding of His word, so that we glorify God the Son in all our ways.