Curing Founder’s Disease

WEEKLY DEVOTIONAL BY PATRICE TSAGUE

Can Founder’s Disease be prevented?  
What if you have already caught it? 
Can it be cured?

Curing Founder’s Disease

“Between my wife and my partner, God is able to keep me from getting a big head.”

This is a statement made by a Biblical Entrepreneur who is fully open to correction, and who has willfully surrounded himself with people who keep him accountable. This is a founder who recognizes his own vulnerabilities, and so he willingly submits to accountability partners. As part of the accountability process, he also diligently sought a church that would challenge him spiritually. He and his partner fast regularly, and they also engage a Kingdom business coach to provide corporate accountability and spiritual guidance, to them and to their management team.

Prevention is better than cure. This founder has established a system that will help him prevent Founder’s’ Disease for himself and for the other leaders within his organization.

How can you do the same?  

Like any disease, prevention requires both an offensive and a defensive strategy. The offensive strategy helps to build your immune system so that if you are exposed to the disease, you are strong enough to resist it. The defensive strategy ensures that if any early symptoms develop, you will know how to quickly administer a cure so that those early symptoms do not turn into a full-blown infection.

How can you prevent yourself from catching the Founder’s Disease?

1. Study the Scriptures
2. Pray and fast consistently
3. Stay active – do not be idle
4. Guard your heart
5. Establish an accountability circle
6. Yield to wise counsel
7. Repent when confronted

As important as prevention is, it is not foolproof. You would think that since David was a victim of the Saul spirit and witnessed Saul being overcome by Founder’s Disease, he would have learned from Saul’s mistakes. Although we can learn much by observing the mistakes of others, sometimes we just have to experience a situation for ourselves to really learn. David was mentored by King Saul, and he was a firsthand witness to the unfortunate consequences of Founder’s Disease in Saul’s life. Although David could not completely prevent himself from becoming a victim of this disease, he was able to tap into a cure.

David had defeated all his enemies and he had built one of the strongest armies in the history of the nation of Israel. However, 2 Samuel 11 tells the story that due to his over-confidence, he chose to stay home during a time when kings should have been in battle. As he walked onto his balcony one evening, he noticed a beautiful woman bathing. Instead of turning away from the temptation, he inquired after her and slept with her. Not only did he sleep with her, but upon finding out that she had become pregnant, he tried to conceal it and eventually orchestrated a scheme that killed her husband. He caught Founder’s Disease.

You would think these dreadful acts would signal the end of King David’s rule on the throne of Israel. However, although David suffered many consequences for his wrong actions, by the grace of God, he was able to be cured of Founder’s Disease.

The cure for Founder’s Disease requires two things:

1. Confrontation
   Founder’s Disease cannot be cured unless it is confronted and acknowledged. You must have people around you who are bold enough to hold you accountable and to whom you have given permission to step in and confront you when they begin to see symptoms of Founder’s Disease in you. You must also be prepared to listen to their counsel. God used the Prophet Nathan to boldly confront David with godly wisdom and discernment
   
   Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
   – 2 Samuel 12:7 (NKJV)
   
   
2. Repentance
   Confrontation must yield to repentance. Repentance is full admittance of guilt with a commitment to tap into the grace of God to turn completely away from wrongdoing.  David yielded to the counsel of Nathan, took full responsibility for his actions, and changed his ways.
   
   Against You, You only, have I sinned,
   And done this evil in Your sight –
   That You may be found just when You speak,
   And blameless when You judge.
   – Psalm 51:4 (NKJV)

My prayer for you is that the Lord will give you the wisdom to establish a system around you to ensure that you never have to deal with Founder’s Disease, and if you do fall victim, you are able to cure it as David did. I also pray that if you work with someone whom you suspect has the disease, may God give you the courage to confront and correct them, so that they may repent and not lose the promises of God for their lives and family.