Greater Capacity Means Greater Responsibility

What is your potential for growth?

Are you going to read any books in the next year? Are you going to take any seminars? Are you going to grow? Are you going to develop any skills? Are you going to learn any relationship skills? Or are you just going to be the same 10 years from today as you are right now?

Capacity is your potential for growth. It’s important because people who increase in competence are given greater responsibility in their work.

All leaders are learners. The moment you stop learning, you stop leading. Growing businesses requires growing people. The moment the people stop growing, the business can’t grow.

I remember having staff members at Saddleback Church whose number-one characteristic was the ability to keep growing and learning. They didn’t insist on doing the same thing they had always done but instead tried new methods and came up with new ideas.

This is what happened with Joseph. He grew in capacity by stretching himself and learning and growing. Genesis 39:4-5 says, “Potiphar . . . made Joseph his personal attendant. He put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned. From the day Joseph was put in charge of his master’s household and property, the LORD began to bless Potiphar’s household for Joseph’s sake” (NLT).

Is God blessing the business you work for? Is that church, that business, that organization prospering because you’re there? Do you have that kind of capacity?

When Joseph was put in charge, the Lord began to bless Potiphar for Joseph’s sake: “All his household affairs ran smoothly, and his crops and livestock flourished” (Genesis 39:5 NLT). Why? Because Joseph had capacity.

When Joseph was first taken to Egypt as a slave, he wasn’t able to handle all that stuff. He had to learn how to manage livestock and a household. He had to learn and grow as he was given more responsibility.

If you stop learning new skills and say, “That’s all I need to know,” you’re limiting your capacity. But if you keep learning, you’ll keep growing, and God will keep blessing.