Not God

Church leaders should actually be good spiritual leaders.  They are men who Christians look up to, seek guidance and respect their God given authority over the church.  But, we also need to understand and be reminded that it is not necessarily that whatever they want or say is already equivalent to God's will or what God wants.  Spiritual leaders are only human leaders and not God Himself. 

As believers of God, it is our personal responsibility to discern the will of God in our lives, and not just rely on counsel of godly men. Knowing the will of God is the result of our relationship with Him.  

Therefore, church leaders can affirm or confirm God's will through their counsel, but to solely seek God's will through counsel of spiritual leaders is definitely a NO!  We cannot put such important responsibility of seeking God's will in the hands of people, especially if it involves personal decisions, directions in life and our service for the Lord.  

When we looked at the Bible, there were times when God allowed lying spirits to be on the mouths of Israel's prophets to deceive and punish disobedient leaders.  In the same way in our generation, there would be times our discerning of God's will might not conform with the opinion of godly spiritual leaders.  

Therefore, it is better to put our relationship with God first, and discern the will of God rather just being lazy and just rely on the council of our spiritual leaders.  These leaders can be good spiritual leaders but still, they are not God.