Whence Cometh Prophets?

Any organization big enough has accountants and auditors. But it is worth noting that auditors are actually accountants, only that their work involves evaluating the work of accountants. But do you realize that even with those auditors a company or organization must open those accounts to external auditors?

Why have three groups with the same training going through the same documents? Why get an external auditor to repeat a job the internal one has done?

The simple reason is that it is impossible for one to see his error sufficiently. Like Africans say a monkey does not see his exposed bottom. You will also realize that a child calls any other person younger than his parents ‘toto’ (child) though he may be twice his age.

What am I driving at? Traditions grow so slowly as to be imperceptible. The change may be impossible to notice before a generation is past, sometimes even longer. Someone who is part of the system will therefore have been accommodating the change without noticing. That is why an external eye is needed as it was not around the change and will notice any slight diversion to the rules.

Let me give you an example. Suppose you choose a spot in your compound and decide to pour a tablespoon of soil at an exact same spot every week. The change will be so small that even the grass will be able to cover it. Do it consistently for a few months and it will be noticeable to anybody else except the people who are pouring that spoonful. It will be a mound that has been growing too slowly to be noticed.

Let’s become mathematical. Assuming a spoonful is 50 grams. In one year we will have 50x52 grams of soil. That is 2.6 kilos. In twenty years there will be 52 kg of soil. Now that is quite some soil. But none of the ones who have been faithfully pouring that small bit of soil may have even noticed how big the mound is because they have never been able to look at it ‘differently’. You see it has been growing at an almost 0% weekly growth.

Many people ask me why I am negative concerning many church and ministry operations. They ask me why I am always opposing their most popular preachers through my books and posts. They think I may have been sent to spoil their fun. Interestingly enough I have never even attended some of those churches. There are some I do not even know exist.

I ask them these questions. Is what I write true? Does it agree with the plain teaching of scripture? Are my messages personal? Do they address real issues in the church?

You see a message from God is very accurate. I have preached for quite some time and remember sometimes being confronted because the message I preached struck too close to home that the person felt that I had had ‘leakage’ about what I was preaching about, especially when it touched on personal issues. Yet God had given me a message to preach, many times having been invited to that church by proxy because they had only heard about me. But God who gave me the message has more details of the recipients than the recipients themselves. That is why you preach or write an inspired message and some wonder whether you had been eavesdropping on their breakfast discussions, even thoughts.

The other day God gave me an analogy to help us understand this.

A watchman has to be outside the building to be of any use. Employing a watchman to stay with you in the house would be the height of folly. Having a watchman who sleeps with you defeats the purpose for which he is employed.

Incidentally that is the reason a company or organization must employ external auditors for their accounts to meet the threshold of integrity.

Ezekiel was called a watchman in chapters 3 and 33.

A watchman is a herald who ensures that the city is safe and warns them in advance should danger be approaching. His duty as watchman was prophetic, purely prophetic. An army in the city, however good it is, can never match an invading one if they have no prior knowledge of the enemy’s arrival. And that is the reason they station the watchmen on watchtowers. And that is where I want us to focus.

A ‘domestic’ (for lack of a better term) prophet is the prophet within the gates and therefore gives messages that encourage good relations within the city. In other terms he exists to maintain harmony in the city. He will therefore be concerned with the well being of the city and its inhabitants. An enemy does not feature in his ministry as he has no capacity to see outside the city walls. He is unable to know an enemy who was not seen by the watchman when he broke or jumped through the fence. Any person in the city is a friend who needs to be developed to contribute to the well being of his city.

What am I talking about?

A pastor has very little chance of being prophetic to his congregation, however convinced he may be of his prophetic ability. This is amplified many times if he has pastored that congregation for long. He knows everyone and everyone knows him. His sermons have been dissected, discussed, analyzed and approved over and over. He speaks a word and they prepare to laugh because they know a joke is in the offing. An inflection in his voice and they pick their notebooks because they know he is about to give some memorable truth or ‘hidden’ verse.

A rebuke from such a pastor from the pulpit can never be taken seriously. Many times each will deflect to another person, thinking that the pastor would not surely pick on him with a rebuke. But it is also very difficult for him to speak a rebuke as he knows too many details about the membership and will fear that it could be misconstrued as a breach of trust and confidentiality. Even a message from God will be viewed with those lenses. He therefore has no capacity to give a message radical enough to demand change. The pastor and his flock have become too familiar to be of any spiritual good.

It becomes very difficult, if not impossible for him to speak against sin or rebellion because those relationships built over time are threatened by such exposé. He fears breaking relationships through such messages. The only person who must be dealt with very harshly is the one appearing to injure the good relationships in the fellowship, however spiritual or scriptural he may be. Like the internal auditor he has slowly accepted and assimilated the state of affairs in his church. And it is no wonder that you have to really search to find that one pastor whose sermons will make the devil tremble because he unflinchingly confronts sin.

That is where the external spiritual auditor comes in. And any study of the scriptures will bring that fact out very clearly. No revival or move of God started with home grown prophets or ministers.

Moses was raised in Egypt and discipled in the desert. Aaron could not handle the pressure of Israel because he was more or less like them and therefore unable to resist their demands.

Samuel did not come from the priesthood. David was not from the army. Elijah and Elisha came from nowhere near the palace. The disciples were not from the spiritual leadership. John the Baptist was revealed in the wilderness. These are a few examples to show us that a domestic prophet has a very hard task, maybe an impossible one to effect change in the location he dwells. In fact I think the reason a prophet is without honor at home is because nothing he does would be inexplicable. There would be enough reasons for anything he does. And that is because his story can be explained from his birth or even earlier. They know his ancestors and can explain the whys and what’s of whatever he does.

An external prophet can use guesswork and achieve more than the domestic prophet using facts. The reason is simple. The external prophet is handled with care. What if God …? guides the response. They will not trash his message because it may just be from God as who knows whether he has been with God anyway? They therefore receive him before questioning him which is the exact opposite of what they do to a domestic prophet.

An external prophet who has heard from God is therefore infinitely more effective than the domestic one. That is why many were killed as their messages struck home with the most excruciating impact that there had to be a decision one way or the other. You see a leakage from heaven gores into the innermost parts of the person, from the soul to the spirit.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

What is said of the word of God is true also of any message originating from the throne room in heaven through a prophet thus connected. But such a message from a domestic prophet can have little or no impact because it will be interpreted as originating from the bearer of the same. That is why you will see someone who has been in an evangelical or charismatic church for twenty years until he gets into the leadership getting saved when a foreign minister is invited to preach and explains the Gospel he had been hearing all those years. Incidentally, everybody in the church, himself included, thought he was saved all the time.

I suspect a false prophet is one who changed from a messenger sent from above to a domestic prophet. They were too accepted until they thought it was an offense to be faithful to one they could not see. Or maybe they thought they were not getting the message accurately as it was driving a wedge between them and their friends and supporters. It is human nature to value friends who stick with you especially during tough times.

But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the LORD from me to speak unto thee? (1Kings 22:24)

It is most probable that Zedekiah started prophesying aright. But he did not see his slight shift into being a domestic prophet. He is therefore offended by another person pretending to hear from the ‘spirit’ he knew spoke to him. What he didn’t know was that the spirit had left him for a more obedient vessel. It is interesting to also note that there was an abundance of such prophets, four hundred of them. And their message from ‘heaven’ was unanimous.

Incidentally you will notice that every prophet sent from God had to deal with domestic prophets, also called false prophets. This is because most courts had prophets who may have slowly become domesticated because of all the goodies they enjoyed from the kings. Remember Isaiah was able to see the Lord after such a king died?

Who is your favorite prophet? Why do you love him? Is it because his messages draw you closer to God or does he make you feel very nice with yourself? Does he threaten your status quo or does he affirm it?

Does his approach inspire fear like Samuel’s to the Bethlehemites or do you run looking for his word for the fun in it? Does his message bring about riots as happened to Paul and the apostles or everybody is always crying for it? Would you rather replace the messenger like was attempted on Moses many times or would you kill to keep him around?

These are a few distinctions between a domestic prophet and an external one. And I need to repeat that the domestic prophet was as much a prophet like the other one. The only difference is that he was domesticated or tamed by the city (you can say church or denomination). Those who refused to be domesticated were rejected by the city and only come when they had a very important message from God. And even then they come at the risk of their lives.

What kind of prophet is your favorite pastor or preacher? What kind of prophet are you on social media? What kinds of prophets are you drawn to when you want to hear from God? Will you run to your favorite ones when you are in a real spiritual crisis or does he exist for the purposes of pampering your ego when things are doing well?

How domesticated is your prophet? How connected to heaven is he? Does he dwell inside the city or is he in the watchtower to spot the approach of the enemy of your soul? Is he more informed about the current affairs and trending topics than about releases from heaven? Does he depend on his earlier releases from heaven to spice his messages or are his messages having the fresh aroma of the heavens? Can you predict his next message or series of messages or are you only sure of his relevance in the courts of God? Is he a superstar here or does he have the kind of glow Moses had from too close proximity to heaven?

I just wanted to explain how it is that I appear so opposed to your favorite spiritual leaders. I am a watchman. You can also call me an external spiritual auditor and so will continue doing my best to connect the city to an accurate assessment of their spiritual status. I will point out the enemies I see even if they happen to have taken over the leadership of some churches as the prophets responsible for the gates were enjoying all that status and support.

I need to add that over the years I have been invited to be a pastor by many churches and God has always refused me that ‘privilege’. Probably God wants me to speak His messages from outside the pastorate and congregational context though He has never given me the reason why He would not allow me to be a pastor. And I am not writing this as a complaint. I am content to be where God has placed me and would not choose anywhere else.

Use the scriptures to judge me. I have nothing against your superstars except that they should not be superstars in the first place. In fact that is the point at which they probably became domesticated.

El Nino or Not

And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. (Amos 4: 6 – 12)

I have been looking at the whole issue of El Nino with more than casual interest. But it is not the interest others are looking at it with. I believe as the people of God we are completely off God’s radar even as we address this issue.

But do not think I am disinterested. The other El Nino swept all my savings away in my first attempt at serious farming.

I just feel we are looking at the direction God is not interested in.

Why do we have calamities? What brings about such acts of God? Is it that God is unable to take care of the earth and people He created? Is He so sadistic as to throw whole communities into desperation? Does He need our help to keep His world in good order?

I believe we have completely lost the plot. We are completely disconnected from God’s revelation.

Why do I say so? We are trying to divert attention from what God intends to achieve through those acts. Trying to mitigate the damage may be heroic and practical; but I think the same is abominable when led by people who want to be associated with God.

Why does God allow or send calamities? The Bible is very clear that calamities and other acts of God are meant to lead people back to God. They are acts that are meant to show man the futility of his ways so that he may turn back to God.

It is sad that the people of God are speaking the language the politicians are using concerning this phenomenon, urging mitigation and physical and other preparation to counter God’s act of judgment on a rebellious populace.

I believe we should be preaching messages that will draw people back to God in repentance and rededication to a committed faith. We should be pointing people to God whose wrath we have attracted to bring devastation on our land. Physical preparation that overlooks the spiritual element is an insult to God. And we will be judged for it as we are the ones entrusted to the message of reconciliation.

What do we expect when we divert God’s judgment? What happens when we interpret a spiritual message in a physical manner? What happens when we behave as if God has lost control of His world and we must give him a hand?

He simply shifts that calamity until He knows that it will achieve its purpose. But come it will. But it will come when we least expect it so that the only mitigation we can achieve is calling on the Name of God to help us as we repent the sins that have necessitated that judgment.

It is very possible that God has already moved that calamity and that it will not occur this year. And the main reason is that His people have lost any contact with Him to prepare the world to return to Him. But it is important to know that the people who are called by His name are the ones who have opened themselves up for judgment. In other words the judgment that was meant for the world will be diverted to God’s people for sleeping on the job of warning people of the impact of their sins.

The church has for the most part lost the awe for God and His ways. We have lost a detestation of sin which is abominable in the sight of God. We have accommodated compromise to appear relevant to a godless society. In fact that may be the reason we would rather speak about mitigating the effects of judgment instead of addressing the causes of that judgment. We are afraid to appear or be called extremist as far as our faith is concerned.

We really do not care to know what God expects of us.

Reminds me of an incident I heard about. A church happened to be next to a bar, meaning each was a pain in the other’s neck with no hope of any compromise or agreement. The church of course prayed for God to intervene. One day lightning hit the bar and completely wrecked it.

The bar owner took the church to church for destroying his property (of course through their prayers). When the judge asked the church leadership to take a plea, it pleaded not guilty. The judge said something that cuts so sharply even today.

‘It appears that the bar owner has more faith in your God then you have’.

Kenyan politicians are seeing electoral storm clouds on the horizon and have resorted to consistent prayer rallies. There is no Muslim or animist or idolater or atheist. All are united under the banner of Jesus for their political future, forget the pretext. People who would never be associated with Christ now openly confess Him because they know that they will need Him for their political survival.

Do they know more about Jesus than we do? Of course they do not. But like the bar owner the little they know is enough to convince them that publicly confessing Him can have political benefits, even salvage dwindling political fortunes.

Yet we know that their act is as selfish as selfishness could be. They are not interested in having Christ taking charge of their lives; only in making association with Him bring them the required votes from the gullible believers.

But we fear exposing that hypocrisy for fear of an offering flight. We love all the money they bring as they seek to associate with the Christ we serve, irrespective of where they got it from.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2Chronicles 7:14)

It is instructive to know that it is God’s people who have the key to restoration. But they must be willing to turn back from evil as they pray for healing to occur. And it saddens me that even when publicans and sinners come in panic to the church, the church is more interested in the offerings than their lost souls.

How effective would the church be if they took advantage of the panic in the politicians to preach the unadulterated Gospel? How effective would the church be if any time a rich man came he knew that he would not be pampered for the moneys he would bring to the church if he was not ready to be transformed by Christ? How strategic would the church be when anyone knew that the only thing he would expect from the church would be salvation and spiritual instruction?

But is that what we are offering for the thirst the sinners are expressing? Why is it that it is the people who are desirous of God who are finding the church more uncomfortable for all the accommodation it affords the sinners who are not even willing to be helped to change their ways?

What kind of salt are we? Does it have any savor or is it about to be cast out to be trodden underfoot by men? Do people fear God when they relate with us or are they content and have no desire to join Christ by looking at us because we accommodate their sinful lifestyles?

And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee. (Exodus 15:26)

If that is the mitigation we are pursuing as God’s people, then we are on the right track. If however we are thinking in terms consistent with the world, we are the problem instead of the solution and will be punished as God indicates in His word.

Once again I will state that God may have to postpone the floods because we have made them an occasion to show our expertise and make vast amounts of money in the process. The only mitigation for God’s people would be to call the world to repentance.

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. (Isaiah 1: 18 – 20)

But storms are coming; huge storms. But they are spiritual storms. God is soon bringing judgment on the pretenders to His holiness and privy to His revelation. You had better start preparing mitigation against this storm as it is certainly coming.

Are you a minister more interested in where the money is coming from as opposed to where the ministry is? The storm is coming.

I have heard one too many cries of people who went to a pastor discouraged and left him completely broken because their appointment was diverted to a more worthy person. I have heard one too many cries of people who waited for a long time to see a pastor yet when they got the appointment the pastor gave them divided attention because a bigger person had arrived so that the appointment time was reduced to a minimum.

Do you receive support from churches and ministries for a ministry that is more fictitious than factual? Do you flower your reports to convince your supporters to continue pouring money into a dead ministry instead of preparing for its burial because then it could be revived? Do you arrange and even create nonexistent teams when your sponsors visit to convince them that their money is doing great things when you know there is nothing you are doing or planning to do? The storm is coming.

Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 23: 1, 2)

Do you strangle people who are passionate for ministry? Or do you drain every last ounce of ministry when someone asks for an opportunity to serve. Do people backslide when they serve under you because you do not care for their spiritual nurture? Judgment is coming.

My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace. (Jeremiah 50:6)

Are you the centre of focus in your congregation? Does everything and everybody revolve around you? Are your needs the only needs in the congregation? Judgment is coming.

Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them. (Ezekiel 34: 2 – 7, 10)

Like the first passage ends, prepare to meet thy God.

Anointed Sin?

And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. (John 2: 15, 15)

What do you call business carried out in a holy place? What do you call ministry focused on financial returns? What do you call a minister who must be appreciated to minister? What do you call a minister who is paid to pray for people? What do you call a prophet who will only ‘see’ after inducement?

I want us to go to the Bible to understand this.

Many people assume what was happening at the temple was outright sin and thus the reason Christ ran the traders out.  

And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the LORD thy God hath blessed thee: Then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household, (Deuteronomy 14: 24 – 26)

People far from Jerusalem were ordered to carry money and purchase everything; from sacrifices to food. And since the sacrifices had to be vetted by the Levites, the temple courts were the ideal place for that to happen, keeping in mind that those were pilgrims and of course very green concerning where they would do anything as any stranger in a city will tell you. And that was the reason God made the provision for that.

Another thing you will realize as you study scriptures is that there was only one currency that was allowed in worship. It was called the shekel of the sanctuary. Of course people from all over would have currencies of where they came from. They would therefore need to exchange it with the sanctioned currency. Once again the temple area would be the ideal place for those transactions as it was managed by the called out people; Levites. Any other place would be risky as conmen, brokers and opportunists would cash in on the flood of pilgrims coming to Jerusalem.

What was happening in the temple grounds was therefore sanctioned by scripture and been going on for centuries.

Why then was Christ chastening people for doing what was spiritually and traditionally right? Why did He overturn their desks and free the animals? I will get us one simple verse.

No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Luke 16:13)

What was meant as an accessory to worship had slowly evolved into a business enterprise. Mammon had slowly and subtly taken control of a good thing, even a thing whose purpose was to facilitate the worship of God’s people. It had become the driver of the activity, meaning that the goal of the activity had shifted from God to profit. At the end Mammon had overthrown God and His purposes and taken centre stage in the God sanctioned thing.

Jesus was not therefore whipping them for the exchange but for the merchandising of the same. They had transformed the temple area into a mega mall and livestock market.

That meant that people who had come from far to be lead through that exchange to real worship were many times left thoroughly frustrated by seeing the goings on in the temple area. They would go back home exploited instead of spiritually refreshed. This reminds me of another passage.

Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the LORD is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible. Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts (Malachi 1: 10 – 13a)

Chances are that the enterprise was not as developed in Malachi’s time. By the time Christ came it was fully functional and its structures were solid, very strong. But worse is the fact that it had become normal and accepted as the standard in worship.

No wonder Jesus came at it that strongly. No sermon could have been strong enough. No prophecy could have been powerful enough to challenge that status quo. It required that whipping and overturning of the empire for its perversion to be even considered as wrong.

Fast forward two millennia later; what is happening is much worse that what Jesus was dealing with. In fact some churches have become so steeped in Mammon that they are marketplace churches proudly. We have gone even beyond the temple courtyard to the temple proper, even the altar itself. Most pulpits spew only marketplace sermons. Some have all but forgotten why Christ came and died because we must have this and the other.

We have gone beyond abusing accessories to worship to turning those accessories to objects to be worshipped or at least bring in some money. We have made worship impossible in our assemblies by redefining worship to mean what fits us as opposed to what the Bible teaches.

Assume with me that Jesus appears in your church like He did to the Emmaus couple. Would He be allowed to preach? Would He qualify to occupy that pulpit even for a fleeting moment with the qualifications we know He had when He walked amongst us? Would He have the high qualifications required to fill that pulpit?

You see, the Jesus of the movies is not the Jesus of the Bible. He would appear as just another person who is exceptional in nothing outwardly.

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53: 2, 3)

Can we allow such a character to occupy our pulpit? You see He has no degree, even the most basic. He does not have the connections to big names. He does not quote Aristotle and Shakespeare. He will not quote trending topics in His introduction. In other words He would be too plain.

If He had issues with those who knew Him (Matthew 13:54; Mark 6:3), imagine our most progressive society?

When God gave me the ministry to empower Christian writers, one of the very first books I helped publish was titled ‘Why Jesus would not make it to be Senior Pastor Today’. In it the author was using scripture to demonstrate the fact that Jesus would be totally and hopelessly unqualified to be made a pastor in our churches today because His methods are so different, many times opposite to what is done in most churches today.

Yet I believe the problem did not start with a corruption of doctrine. Like in Jesus’ time Mammon slowly crept in and corrupted a good thing. What the church fathers may have started as an accessory to worship and ministry was slowly and surely converted to an end in itself.

Healthcare and education were started by the church. Look at where they have ended?

Yet that can be equated with an introduction to the commerce nowadays prevalent in places of worship.

Consider this media advert that is all over that it appears normal. I am Rev. A, the chairman of B company selling C, D and E. By implication he is saying that the goods and services they provide are the best and most trustworthy because they are headed by a man of God, whatever that means. Rev. therefore is a marketing edge/ advantage to beat competitors.

Was he called by God to sell bananas? Was he ordained to sell plots? Did he become a pastor to market cleaning and security services?

Ministry F and church G have gone into real estate. Again you get the same feel when you see or hear their advertisements. They will buy time on radio or TV but the bigger share of that air time would be spent marketing those plots and houses. I know of one that retrenched dozens of pastors yet their real estate is booming according to their adverts.

Many churches are not content with the offerings they receive. They are investing them in rental and commercial buildings to be more relevant to the marketplace. Some will convert church plots for those purposes.

There are pastors who buy airtime to preach yet spend most of that time marketing their businesses. There is one whose sermons are (at least when I last heard them) very rich but he will preach for a very short time as an appetizer for the books he will be giving for a prescribed (but expensive) gift.

I have left out those who ‘lead worship’ to sell their music videos and CDs, and those who preach to sell their books because I have talked about it in another post. But I need to state that the pulpit has become the most powerful advertisement medium and the congregation the easiest market to sell anything. This is because most come to church for their spiritual nurture and will open their spirits wide for anything the pulpit will offer. Very few have any spiritual life unless it is guided by their spiritual conman, sorry, superstar, sorry, pastor. To most the Bible says only what their spiritual broker says. And I am not afraid of offending.

No wonder then that the pulpit, even church has become the greatest marketplace, a thousand times bigger and worse than the one Christ confronted in the Gospels.

A magazine will just need to write the story of one of the main guys of the church for the same to sell out in the church.

Again I have not talked about the other vendors because most of you can recognize them. The seed, handkerchief, oil, prayer, counseling, the list is endless.

One question I will ask is this. Did Jesus die to enrich us or to make us like Him? Did He die to give us real estate or eternal life?

In the same vein does the church exist to build earthly empires or to break through the gates of hell and rescue captives from Mammon among other prisons? Do we serve the interests of this earth or of the Kingdom of heaven?

I am not saying commerce is sin. What I am saying is that it is sin for a minister to use his calling (assuming he has any) and title for a marketing advantage. It is sin for a church to leave the narrow path and take the wide commercial road and think it still should be called church.

God’s church is holy. In other words it is called out from the world and therefore should live in a way that exemplifies that calling.

Again I am not saying a Christian should not be in the marketplace. It is the church and the minister whose calling forbid them from that involvement. Their work is to empower their membership to be effective in the kind of marketplace God is sending them to. Those millions being invested in church enterprises should be dispersed to members God has raised for that purpose. Then the leader’s prophetic mandate will not be compromised and soiled by their pursuit of that elusive coin.

Remember the Levitical calling? That is what I believe should guide the church and her ministers. And God knows better than the best of us that combining His calling with any other engagement is detrimental to that calling.

Let us not deceive ourselves.

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26)

Sadly, the offenders are not the only guilty parties. Those who fund them are as guilty because they have relegated the direction their giving should go to the said fraudsters and spiritual brokers. We are very fluent when arguing about the priesthood of every believer yet relegate the responsibility about the resources He has entrusted to others. Why do we listen to God about our occupations yet relegate the administration of the resources that proceed from that occupation to others. How does God direct my hands to make wealth yet not direct them to where I should give? How does He guide me to a profit making enterprise yet leave the responsibility of my thanksgiving and other offerings and sacrifices to others?

You are responsible for your gifts and the way they are administered. Ask God to direct you to the ministry or person you should give them to. Otherwise you could easily fall into judgment by giving to empires whose only connection they have with your master is their name and probable appearance of success.

For a moment stop listening to the pitch the pastor or whoever else is pitching to convince you that investing in them is investing in heaven. ASK GOD HIMSELF. Then you will know with certainty where He would have you give. I would prefer that you even ask for signs if you are not very clear about the guidance. But listen to God. Your eternal destination could depend on that single decision.

You could be directing all your giving to the Matthew 7: 21 – 23 crowd. Do you think God approves of it? All the time when there are people doing the Matthew 25: 32 – 40 who are starved of support and have to toil when that support could have made them achieve a hundred fold.

A look at some churches will make you wonder where caste systems started from. How do you organize a retreat where people are required to pay the equivalent a month’s salary of the average member and insist that everyone must pay their way? How does a church organize a dinner or breakfast that costs more than a week’s wage of the average member? How do you organize a missions training conference that costs money that can only be afforded by the rich yet they will rarely if ever get any time to go for any mission? Thus we have the most unavailable for ministry being so thoroughly equipped for the same when the people who are called and available to minister are left out because they are unable to fund that equipping. Again reminds me of this.

When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What? Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. (1Corinthians 11: 20 – 22)

Compare this with the church of Acts. There was an equalization that glorified God. And that not because there were no rich and poor people as there could have been no need for deacons. The reality was that the rich had their wealth at the disposal of the King they had submitted to; the risen Christ. They did what He wanted with it, even disposing of it to meet the needs of the church. And Jesus did not need to speak through the apostles; all believers were required to be hearing from the King directly.

This is the reason the whole world was reached in a short time as resources were accurately directed to places needing them. One just needed to know his specific command and do it because the others will also do their part. They did not need to convince any board about their calling because the board could not stand in for the Lord of the harvest like our days. The church also did not have anything as a structure. It had no buildings or lands. It had no business enterprises. It was as rich as the obedience of its members.

Which structure represents you?