Called By God: Why True Leadership Begins with Identity

There is no heavier burden in leadership than movement without direction. In an age obsessed with doing, building, launching, and leading, the foundational question is often missed: Who are you before God? The strength and sustainability of your leadership hinge not on how many things you do, but on whether you are clear on who you are and what Heaven has entrusted to you.

2 Peter 1:10 urges us, “Make your calling and election sure…” which is, in essence, an instruction to settle your identity before you settle your initiatives. Many leaders burn out not from opposition, but from being unclear about what they were never sent to do. When you are unsure of your calling, everything looks like your assignment. And when everything is your assignment, you stretch yourself thin, accomplish very little of eternal worth, and slowly become a stranger to your original self.

Leadership that lacks identity becomes performative. You chase applause because you’ve lost your anchor. You copy others because you no longer remember your blueprint. You become successful in the eyes of people but bankrupt before God.

Consider Esther, a young Jewish woman who rose to power in a foreign palace. Her elevation didn’t erase her identity or responsibility. Initially, she concealed her heritage, possibly out of  wisdom but when her people faced extermination, her moment of reckoning arrived. Mordecai’s charge was piercing: “Who knows if you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Her title alone wasn’t her calling but merely the platform for her to make her calling and election sure by acting in alignment with who she truly was and whom she represented.

The tragedy of modern leadership is that we often wear armors that do not fit. We mimic what we admire, then wonder why we are ineffective. But you cannot lead with power if you lead out of someone else’s identity.

Take Jeremiah. Called from the womb, he was consecrated as a prophet to the nations. Yet his first instinct was self-disqualification: “Ah, Sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” Interestingly, God’s response to Him centres Jeremiah’s authority on the Caller, not the vessel.  

We often think of calling as a task, but it is first a name.  This is why and where many leaders lose their way since they build platforms without foundation and seek to gather influence but are uncertain who they are before God. As a result, they lead with insecurity and chase relevance all to no fulfilment. Gideon was hiding when God called him “mighty man of valour.” Abram became Abraham when his assignment shifted and Simon became Peter when Jesus revealed his future.   This identity then became the blue print of their impact for which we know them today.

Look at leaders in history who acknowledged God’s mark upon them. George Washington Carver, the scientist and agricultural innovator, once said, “I asked the Great Creator what the universe was made for. Then I asked Him to tell me what man was made for and what I was made for.  He did tell me this… to take the peanut apart and put it back together.” In that divine mandate, he created over 300 uses for the peanut.

Or take Dr. Ben Carson, renowned neurosurgeon. His gift of steady hands and rare insight didn’t come from brilliance alone, but from an awareness that God had created him for a specific work. He often said, “God gave me my hands; I just do my best to use them for His glory.” He turned down several prestigious administrative roles because he discerned that his influence was most potent where God had placed him –in medicine.

Another profound example is William Wilberforce, the British parliamentarian who led the movement to abolish the transatlantic slave trade. Though Wilberforce had access to wealth, influence, and could have pursued many ambitions within British politics, his heart was burdened by one central divine assignment: to see slavery abolished. After a dramatic conversion to Christianity, he wrestled with whether to leave politics altogether, but through wise counsel, Wilberforce came to understand that his calling was to serve God in Parliament.

He declared, “God Almighty has set before me two great objects: the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners.” For over 20 years, he faced political resistance, personal health struggles, and public ridicule, but he did not veer from his lane. In 1807, just days before his death, the Slave Trade Act was passed.

Their stories remind us that it is not the breadth of our pursuits that defines our success, but the depth of our obedience to the specific ‘name’ by which God calls each one of us in our respective fields of operation.

So, seek to be clear about your meal serving from God at any given point, and eat from just that one plate, no matter how enticing any other food around  you might look. Because a leader without clarity becomes busy but not effective. You are not powerful because you are doing a lot. You are powerful because you are becoming exactly who God said you are. That way, your leadership carries weight, legacy, and divine accuracy. God doesn’t need you to be everything; He only needs you to be exactly what He called you.