Of Gates and Offense II (Obedience)

The first post on this topic dealt with dealing with the devil on our premises (church). My point was that a church dealing with the devil and expelling demons in its premises is simply not the church of Christ but a fabrication of Satan to imprison the world. This he does by keeping our focus on fighting this or that demon to the point that we stop progressing in the truly spiritual direction.

We are supposed to be on the warpath into the devil’s territory, rescuing prisoners from his captivity. It is unimaginable that he would keep his prisoners on our territory. The only people on our territory are either those who escaped from his captivity or those we rescued from the same. How can we then deal with his captives on our property? What are they doing there? How did they get there? Where was he when they came yet they are still his captives even on our altars? For your information this is really not our property, we have just been allowed the use of the same by the King of kings since He is the one who owns everything, even that enemy. Is it conceivable that an enemy would allow his subjects to enter the domain of an enemy stronger than him?

That is the reason I believe that pastors who are dealing with demons on their altars have serious problems with their spirituality. I am convinced they need to search the scriptures to understand the place of the demonic in a Christian’s life.

But I see an even worse problem. These pastors could very easily be operating on the demonic knowingly. They are using the demonic to mislead the gullible. This they do by leading them to believe that the mention of Jesus is a super powerful charm. They will therefore manipulate the same to create appearances of victory over the demonic using demonic means. Then they can confidently fleece them since they seem to have the secret to that charm.

The blood of Jesus covers only one thing, sin. Is it not surprising that we are seeing it being called upon for covering anything from businesses to journeys? Where does that doctrine originate from since it is not the Bible? The blood has simply been turned into a charm like the name. I know some are now really mad at me for touching the blood that has been a cure all for many believers. But I will challenge you to go to the Bible and give me a single instance where Christ’s blood has been used for covering anything other than sins.

These are gimmicks by which these preachers from hell enslave those who are not keen to know what God says through His word. I have just mentioned two to set us off to search the scriptures to know the right doctrine to follow. Just because someone calls himself (again many are women) an anointed servant of God does not mean he is. Remember Bar Jesus in Acts? Even Christ was not the only Jesus we have in the Bible.

The other thing that sticks out with these pastors is the craving of the miraculous. Breakthrough is a word that has severe impact with the followers. The marketing prank for them is the miracle. They will thus create a great craving for the miraculous that will override any other consideration. They will then target the people who are so desperate for those miracles, people who will give anything to access them. Once they start salivating on the prospect of a miracle, they have already become prey for anything the man or woman of God will want from them, from money and things to sexual abuse.

Another indication is that these ‘pastors’ and ‘prophets’ are the stars. Even their churches are called after them. Many will not call their churches by their names, but any mention of the church must have their name and/ or picture. Their crusades are even worse. You might be excused if you thought that Jesus was subject to them as He performed any miracles. The common thread in their advertisements for their meetings is, ‘with God all things are possible ... With so and so’. The preacher becomes more prominent than Christ. Compare that with John 3: 30. It is when Christ is lifted up that He will draw all men to himself. Could it not be that these characters are building their fiefdoms using Christ as the bait?

Sin is an alien doctrine to them. Comfort is the alpha and omega of their Christian lives. They will never touch discipline unless it is on someone who will challenge their doctrine or authority.

And this is where the mega church joins the league. This comes by because they have attracted the ‘big league’ to their membership. Some are very visible leaders of the community and for their continued attendance which means consistent lavish gifts the pastors become scared of the old time gospel. They fear offending those big fish with their hard teaching, reasoning that they are accompanied by people they lead who may not be converted and whose messages on hard stuff, especially against sin and immaturity may be resented.

We therefore have preachers as motivators and life coaches. We have pastors as people we run to when we have esteem issues. They are the people we call on to give us positive news. He becomes the other side of the media empire that is run from hell as he will give us what we are ready to accept without placing any demands on us, except that offering, just like the one we ay to buy that TV and pay for the pay channels and buy newspapers and magazines.

Pastors become more zealous about filling their churches and building monuments without looking at who is filling those churches or contributing to the building of that monument. Sin becomes an alien concept because the money must be kept flowing, and the ones connected to God are not falling for out pranks and are rebuking us instead for our worldliness. In any case their money is at the command of their boss, Christ Himself and cannot be as accessible as that of all these generous ones who have no spiritual discernment.

Prophets are no different. It will take one correct ‘prophecy’ for them to declare themselves prophets. What they fail to know is that a correct pronouncement does not make a prophet. Even soothsayers have a few correct pronouncements though they are fed from hell. When I read the scriptures I see one thing, that only one incorrect prophecy is evidence that a prophet is false. A prophet of God must be 100% accurate because he will only speak what God has told him. I am sure I am bursting enough bubbles.

The second thing about a prophet is the purpose of the message. A prophet speaks for God to men. Therefore the main purpose of his prophecy is God’s purposes and not the accuracy of his predictions. His main purpose is God’s agenda. There is another post on prophets and prophecy on the blog that I have dealt with this more,

Like the pastor, this prophet is more self serving than God lifting. He is his own marketer and so will use this or the other accurate prediction to ‘prove’ he is a prophet. Then his meetings can be massively attended and of course offerings generously given. This is the same as the pastor, only that this one targets different fish.

‘You shall know them by their fruit’ is what Christ gave as our responsibility as believers. We are to examine the fruit these conmen produce before we call them anything.

I normally do not give names of these swindlers because some may be licensed to do so and am not interested in lengthy court cases when I can just show us how to know them through the scriptures. In any case that is what God has called me to and not splitting hairs over shameful things.

I will give a clear indicator that the pastor you love may be someone like this. How many spiritual children are they producing and how do they look like? How easy is it for them to give up their spiritual position to someone else? What are the kinds of people they are mentoring? How clear are their indications that they will leave what they are doing for someone else to run with it? are they preparing for it or are they just mouthing the words because they know that it is what the Bible says?

Go to these superstars and you will be shocked that they have nothing in process about raising someone else to do what they are doing. The other day an international evangelist presented his successor who should be called his grandson, yet this guy has preached for decades. Do you have to be on your death bed to identify a successor? Is that what the scriptures advocate? In ministry someone should start preparing his succession when he starts ministering. That is what Christ doing. That is also how ministers whose impact outlived their memory operated.

Examine their churches or churches following their doctrine. How much scripture do they apply in their lives? Do they know scripture beyond what the pastor preached? Is God’s word limited to their prophet? Do they question what their pastor or prophet teaches or are they scared using ‘touch not my anointed’ instead? Will they stop attending church when their pastor is not preaching?

Is their church the only church with the right doctrine? How far do they go in defending their leader against accusations even before seeking to find out the truth?

These are some of the indicators that the church is not Christ’s. It only uses the name to defraud the ignorant. And that is the reason they will stop at nothing to ensure that we identify them with God’s agenda though they couldn’t be farther from it.

Someone was telling me this time an article appeared on TV showing demonstrators. They were demonstrating against a pastor for delaying to pay them. What were they being paid for? They were being paid for being healed. Apparently this preacher, who is on TV brings people who are ‘crippled’ and prays for them to be healed. Of course they will on cue jump out of their wheelchairs or throw away their crutches after being ‘healed’. Then they are paid for the performance.

Everybody who saw the news called anybody they knew to watch the full bulletin for this sensational news but they were disappointed. Having trained and worked in the media I can suspect what happened. The guy called or even went to the station and gave them ‘something’ to kill the story before it spread. Of course we know there are preachers who pay people to be healed so that more money can come to the healer (who is not Christ).

Now this does not mean that Christ does not heal or that miracles stopped long ago. It just means that Christ as Lord is not subject to man. HE ONLY DOES WHAT HE WANTS. Our advertisements for miracles will therefore not force Him to go against His nature just to meet the greed of one person. The character will have to look for other means to draw in the crowds, even if it means deception as the crowds are his livelihood through their offerings and lately through the seed they plant as they buy this or that or through M-Pesa.

I hope you also know that there may be some even with genuine miracles and prophecy who are not pursuing God’s agenda. Just read Matthew 7: 21 – 23.

Let us go back to God and His word to be delivered from this wicked generation.

God bless you

Seed and Sowing (updated)

And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. (Luke 16:8)

I want us to look at this verse to help us really understand the doctrine of the seed and sowing.  It is interesting that people in the other world are living and prospering using the spiritual principles we are teaching unsuccessfully. 

You see spiritual principles are applicable and will bear fruit whichever side of the cross you are at. They are existent and will bear fruit whether one knows Christ or not because they are spiritual principles.

Christians are the best placed to practice them because we are in possession of them in the Bible we are supposed to be meditating on day and night. We are also better because we have the living Christ resident in us through His Spirit. It is therefore sad that I have to borrow a lesson from the ones who should be learning these principles from us.

The Quran tells Muslims to ask the people of the book (Christians and Jews) if they do not understand their religion. Isn’t it a rebuke to us that we should be the reason they hate Christianity due to our lack of seriousness?

One big problem we have with the world is a church that is discordant. We say people are being conned because we are not displaying genuine concern. We can’t blame someone who has never seen genuine love being conned by someone showing some fake love. It always takes the genuine to identify the fake. When our faith is put under fire and is proven genuine our witness will automatically flourish.

Back to the seed and sowing. In the parable of the seed, we have four types of soil, only one which was able to produce fruit. That is the reality about sowing. Let me now explain how the other side does it.

I will first look at a drug peddler. Let us take heroin for instance. Heroin costs about 2 million shillings (about $ 25 000) a kilo. That is a lot of money. Yet how do they get people into the habit? They do not sell the drug to beginners. Assuming a dose is 10 grams, this interprets as 20 000/- ($ 250). One does not get addicted by taking one dose. Most times it takes at least five consistent doses to be addicted. Yet the peddler will spend all that money to get someone hooked. Incidentally only a small percentage will be addicted (three unfruitful soils). So how much does the peddler invest in getting a person addicted? Just do your maths.

He does this because he knows that the single addict will pay way above all the ‘wasted’ heroin he gave out as he will kill to ensure he gets a shot. You can be sure that there are more who opt out any time between the first sniff and addiction.

The same happens with other drugs. I have seen tobacco companies invest so much not only to advertise but to offer free samples of their products. In fact they target the children who have no money to buy them because they know it is the most fertile season to sow the seed of addiction.

Free alcohol is easy to get before you become a drunkard. They will buy you for as long as you are not hooked. A brewer is sponsoring a talent search program that pointedly looks for Christians for every part of the program from the searched to the judges to the instrumentalists to the trainers. Why support people whose success will mean certain death for their business? They are sowing the seed. They know there is no way you will be exposed to all that business without being affected. They know you cannot feed from hell and talk badly about it. And of course they know out of all those millions they have a chance of hooking a few people to drunkenness. It saddens me that I even see pastors who are hooked to that program because they may in due time get hooked to the real deal, alcoholism.

That is what sowing the seed means in the scriptures. It simply means looking far ahead and making a worthy investment in the direction knowing that chances of success are not very easy to plan for yet taking the ‘risk’ anyway.

Do we see that in the church? How many of us are willing to spend our money on a vision God has given us when the chances of success are not guaranteed? How many churches are willing to invest their money on hostile territories to get one convert? Will we learn from the drug peddlers how to sow into the kingdom?

Ever seen a man or woman wanting to have sex with someone who is simply unreachable? To what extent will they go? They will change their behavior and bury any appearance that may make their real motive seen. I have seen people literally stop smoking and drinking for a month or more to make the prey convinced. Some even get ‘saved’ for the duration of the pursuit. They will even take a loan to portray themselves in a way that will make them irresistible. Yet that will go as far as the prey getting caught.

How do people get married to unbelievers against the plain teaching of scripture? Many times the unbeliever will package themselves in a way that will make believers look phony and plain stupid. I have dealt with young people leaning in that direction who think that scripture did not consider that brethren are too plain, that the unbelievers are too ‘cool’ to let go. But this also goes as far as the wedding, whether in church or in the bush. I have even seen Muslims and Hindus being so accommodating to the church to be able to hook a Christian youth in marriage. That is the investment I am talking about.

The only difference is that we are the ones with the real deal. We are the ones who have Christ in charge of our lives. We are the ones with the scriptures to give us the accurate description of reality. Why is the world getting results through spiritual pretense against the church that should be showing the world how to live?

Some time ago I was reading about the Silicon Valley with fascination. They were saying that a young man will go to a bank with passion and a design and they will be able to get a bank loan without any other collateral. And no wonder IT is growing so fast!

The church is supposed to be in tune with God. Is it not a shame that a church looks for ministers who are all made up? Where is the church when a person is being called? Should it not be involved from even before then? Why does it need a Masters degree for one to prove that they are called by God who is supposedly running the church?

Should the church not be in the business of raising ministers? Shouldn’t we be like Christ who sought potential that was almost nonexistent when He chose the twelve? Why choose unschooled fishermen from an obscure village? What did He see in a corrupt tax collector? What about the extremist? Like I always say the only person who had any visible talent was Judas because he knew accounts. Yet it was the same character that was farthest from the vision.

It does not stop riling me when I see churches looking for pastors to hire when their business is to raise ministers to change the world. At least that is what I see when I read the Bible.

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Ephesians 4: 11 – 13)

I am sure that God sees farther and deeper than our eyes can see. It is therefore plain that I will not need to see potential in the visible if I am in tune with Him. Most likely I will see what others are calling a waste of time, something I have seen as I have been in ministry. I have severally been warned against characters because they are hopeless cases, some dismissed as being beyond God’s reach. Yet God has kept me focused on continued involvement. A few years later the ministers who were warning me are scrambling to benefit from the ministry.

I see the same everywhere I look in scripture. David was not even considered a son by his father but that was God’s choice. Jacob was the wrong kind of man for God to use, yet he was the one chosen. You go through the scripture and that is what you will find with so much regularity.

God did not look for the visible to choose His servants. Is it in order when we are not moving in His direction? Yet you will find the other world spotting potential before people who have the eyes of God have any idea it exists! Surely the devil cannot see better than God! Which I may say is a demonstration that probably we are not being led by God as we like to boast!

But that is not a new thing. Remember when Paul got saved. Even the apostles who had been with Jesus for 3 ½ years could not believe his conversion. It took one Barnabas to see what God had done.

Yet that is not an excuse. I will demonstrate that I am in tune with God’s spirit by operating beyond the sight dimension. Any time I live by sight I am actually demonstrating that I have no real connection with the living Christ.

The same goes for ministry and its support. Very few Christians will think twice about supporting a flourishing ministry without asking whether or not it is serving God’s agenda. There are ministers and ministries that are dens of wickedness yet never fail to get support because they are ‘successful’. Yet this success is just material. Many will not even care to ask whether God requires them to support such. Success in ministry is not judged by material success.

But let us think along the seed/ sowing direction. Suppose you are a parent with children of varying ages. Which child between the toddler and the successful professional needs more support from you? Now translate that into ministry and tell me what God would have you support. Again suppose you want to improve the life of a village. What would you do between promoting the employed by taking them from their employers and employing those with education but without jobs if you are thinking along God’s ways?

Let me wind up all this by asking this question. Have you ever wanted to know what God wants to do with the money and resources you call yours? Have you ever asked Him for direction as to where you should be sowing that seed? Do you know which ministry you should be involved in support wise? Will you pray for clear direction concerning the seed He has placed in your hands?

This is because you will soon be giving an account about that resource God has placed in your hands.

God bless you

Of Gates and Offense

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)

It is sad, very sad that we are these days hearing of this and that influential Christian leader receiving his (many are women) orders from the other kingdom. What is even more disquieting is the fact that in as much as we may want to defend our fellow ministers, we are seeing a lot of the fruit they are producing showing that there are high chances that the accusations are not totally unfounded. The way they carry themselves makes even outsiders (non believers) question their faith.

We know that some very prominent Christian musicians are signed with record labels who also manage the most rotten and morally bankrupt secular musicians. Some of those record labels are known to be openly satanic yet we feel it is okay if they used their money and visibility to promote the Gospel their whole existence is set against. Back home we have the most successful brewer in the region sponsoring a talent search program whose focus is worship leaders. In fact the whole setup is Christian leaders from the judges to the trainers. Yet you will even find pastors going to celebrate with the winner of that money from the pit of hell.

It is said that we have even have a Bible translation whose copyright holder owns the copyright for the satanic bible and the lesbianism manual. He also owns of some of the most morally rotten media houses even from a worldly viewpoint. That translation has watered down and obliterated any mention of homosexuality because I have heard that among its translators was a homosexual, probably more than one.

Yet that is not my main concern. Infiltration is a key game plan for any nation. Any army worth its salt commits some of its most intelligent brains to infiltration. We are always hearing of double agents all over the world. Why should the devil not do the same?

Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. (1Thesalonians 5: 5, 6)

But for me the tragedy is that he was able to infiltrate the church to the extent of controlling the leadership. How was darkness able to penetrate the light without being seen? How does a thief get to the living room and steal a big item when the family is all seated without any of the members noticing?

Where was the watchman when this was happening? Was there a watchman anyway? Or was the watchman a hiring who was bribed by the enemy to keep quiet instead of alerting the ones he was responsible to sound an alarm to?

We are having pastors whose specialty is the demonic. They are adept at chasing this or the other devil out of people. Many have started deliverance ministries to deal with the devil one way or the other. They are the ones with the secret formulae to deal with the demons. The sad part is that many of them use the demonic to deal with demons. I have heard of instances where these prophets have actually confessed to using witchcraft to get their powers. Others have killed people who discovered the sources of their ‘anointing’. Some actually take the anointing oil for ‘treatment’ by witches and wizards, some crossing borders for better results.

Yet for me that is not the problem. My main problem is that we are dealing with the devil on our territory.  The verse talks about the gates of hell. Gates are not offensive weapons. Are they?

What does the verse mean when it says the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church? Surely gates are not mobile. The only instance when we have a gate moving is when Samson carried them. What is the devil doing in the church? Is it really the church? Let me give us some other verses.

Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (Jude 21 - 23)

We are pulling some people from hell. Now that is what I think of when I read about the gates of hell. We break the gates of hell, capture the strong man in his territory and rescue captives from him. Again look at this other verse.

No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. (Mark 3:27)

What on earth are we doing binding the strong man in our house? What were we doing when he was getting into our house? Could we be deceived to imagine that we are binding him when all the time he rules our house? That the ‘victories’ he allows us to experience are his way of keeping us in the deception? Could it actually be his house that he is giving us the freedom to experience victory after victory to make us comfortable that we are victorious when we are in his prison?

You see the devil is a liar and the father not only of liars but also of lies. It is in his interest when we feel so victorious in his prison as we will never see the need to venture out as we are experiencing so much victory.

The sphere of spiritual warfare is not the church. I believe we should be using the church to sharpen the saints to be breaking through the gates of hell. Once we stop doing that we can be sure that the devil will slowly encroach on our territory. In fact he will want to take over our house. That is his specialty. In fact that is the reason he was thrown down from heaven when he wanted to take over God’s throne.

If the church examines herself especially as it concerns her mandate it will be impossible to have the dramatics we continue experiencing from church to church. This is as we realize that what we think pleases God is an insult to Him from all fronts. Which army wants to fight the enemy on its land? When your land is the place a war is fought, you will lose whether you win or lose. Collateral damage will be on your land. And that is why many strong armies take the battle to the enemies’ lands to minimize the damage on their lands. Then if they lost it will be a few people and equipment that will be lost.

Why are we excited to fight the devil in church? Why are we so excited to give testimonies of the routing we gave him in church? What was he doing in the church anyway? How did he get to the church? Where were we when he entered?

The only things we should be fighting in the church are sin and hypocrisy. That is what Christ did. For the most part He encountered demons out there. Dealing with demons in church is a shame on the leadership, even worse when the same leadership prides itself on that fact. I will repeat that you will lose even if you win when you are fighting the enemy on your territory. Therefore it is a very sad fact that we even have radio and TV programs existing for that purpose.