Mboroga

I have had a few dreams recently concerning the village I come from.

In all of them I have seen devastation, devastation not of war but of neglect. In the dreams buildings have fallen apart because there is nobody taking care of them (and of course living in them).

As a minister something becomes very clear. God is speaking about our spiritual neglect of our village. The village like the West exported her best spiritual sons and was left spiritually deficient - no wonder theWest is now being called post Christian. That is what I suspect God is saying about our village.

On the material plane the village has progressed, even prospered. Buildings are better and many have electricity as opposed to a few years ago when none had. They are big and well built houses too. They are nothing comparable to our childhood when you could count on the fingers of one hand those that had iron sheet roofing and there was only one brick house in a the whole location.

Even church buildings are magnificent for the most part as they are walking in tandem with the material properity of the children of the village.

What then is my problem? I know someone is asking.

The first issue is that this is really not from me. I feel God is calling us to do something about our beloved village even as we continue flying higher with our own things, even if some are kingdom things. I feel God is challenging us to consider the spiritual status of our village. I feel God wants to place His burden concerning our village on our shoulders too.

Where is our spiritual posterity? How many children do we have in Mboroga? I for one have spiritual children in most parts of the world, people I have impacted with and for the Gospel as I have pursued God’s call in my life. I have discipled, and still disciple people from all over. I have ministered in Kenya and beyond and am recognized in many parts of Kenya and beyond more than I am at my home village.

Through books my ministry (according to human standards) has reached very wide. My blog has taken the message God gives me to all parts of the world. Many of the people I have discipled have gone to and some minister to many parts of the world.

BUT I DO NOT REALLY HAVE A MAJOR DIRECT IMPACT IN MBOROGA.  That is what I feel God is saying to the sons and daughters of Mboroga. And I know I am speaking for many, especially those who are in ministry.

Yet there are others who are as guilty as I am because their participation in churches where they live dwarfs anything they are doing or have done in Mboroga.

And do not talk about building the churches and equipping the choirs or even sponsoring any other church related project. God is talking about a spiritual investment. And building the church is a physical investment. Buying instruments and sound systems is a capital and not spiritual investment.

What can I pray for concerning my village? What challenge can I place on my friends and partners about Mboroga? What kind of spiritual investment can we make to restore or improve and increase the spiritual vitality of our village?

I think we should focus our prayers on spiritual formation as the main thing. Only spiritual formation can counter the rapid spread of the world and its things.

As an example, urbanization is now on the fringes of our village as it is adjacent to an headquarter of sorts. Flats are being put up and shops are coming up all over. Prosperity is being experienced due to the opportunities available due to the strategic position it occupies. And of course due to the media it is safe to say that the world, even the rotten is at anyone’s living room.

The real estate craze has stirred the once quiet village. The scent of big money has started being felt just next door and it is just a matter of days before it becomes a big concern in our village if not already.

I believe only spiritual formation has any capacity to counter these and other challenges our village experiences.

Can you join me in praying for the establishment of a Bible School in Mboroga or at the very least a discipleship centre?

Is there a person, institution or ministry interested in pursuing this vision, relieving this burden from my shoulders? Is there a person out there who connects to this burden?

Let us then connect with the sons and daughters of this village to look for the solution to this burden. Let us establish some sort of network to look for the solution to this dilemma.

But I also feel that this burden is not constrained to Mboroga. It is possible that this is a wake up of sorts to many who like me have spiritually neglected their village or estate for those born in town. The fact that a prophet only lacks recognition at their home is no excuse for the neglect. Jesus never neglected Nazareth even though they tried to kill Him after His first sermon there. That is the reason He was called Jesus of Nazareth. Paul never neglected the Jews even though they severally sought to kill him. We see him even wishing that he would be accursed for their salvation.

Are we like that? Do we operate in that same spirit? Would we be interested in walking in that spirit?

Let us start praying and talking.

When Servant Betters Master

I cringe many times when I hear ministers being introduced to preach. A lot of time is used adding value to his person that it almost appears as if it is he who is doing God a favor to speak about Him.

He has done this and studied that and travelled there and accomplished the other. The profile of the minister clearly overshadows the One whose message he is presumably sharing.

Let me ask you a simple question, you who are comfortable pouring title after title, accomplishment after accomplishment to someone before they preach, which Biblical character would qualify to take that pulpit according to that yardstick?

Let me take us through a few of them. Enoch walked with God would be too brief and ‘vague’ for an introduction. Noah was a fool and clearly unfortunate. He either married too late or his wife was barren for too long for him to get children at 500 years. Jacob was a conman by name and conduct. David was unrecognized even by his own parents.

The New Testament is worse. Imagine if Peter had decided to make is introduction at Pentecost. His selling point would be that he had betrayed his master not many days previously. Most of Christ’s disciples had no rosy pasts to boast of.

Even Jesus would be disqualified from our pulpits very easily. You see His CV is too brief to justify any message He may have for us.

We give them status because we have their stories from their conclusion. Enoch was translated, Noah saved the world, Jacob became Israel, Peter led 3000 people to Christ with a single sermon and of course Jesus is the pivotal character of history.

The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? (Matthew 10: 24, 25)

If that is the reception He received, how do we expect a better reception? Why do we strive to get a better reception? Who are we serving if our introduction far surpasses that of our Master? Can we really be His servants if we must become more visible so as to be effective? Is what we parade essential or even important for the message we are preaching?

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. (1Corinthians 2: 1 – 5)

I am afraid that our packaging (call it introduction) may actually be pointing people away from the Christ we are pretending to preach. And we could be deceived if we are still thinking of ourselves as servants of our meek Savior.  And it could easily be another master that we are serving using Christ as a front to gain leverage.

The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. (Luke 6:40)

Why are we comfortable surpassing our Master? Is it really true that we are serving Him? Or are we serving ourselves in His name?

I am very uncomfortable with some introductions about me before being called on to speak. There was one time I almost cancelled an invitation to teach discipleship because they were insisting on me painting a rosy CV that they could use to introduce me. God stepped in because they probably became so caught up with planning the conference that they forgot to follow up on my achievements.

You see being a disciplemaker is enough as an introduction for me. Saying I am Christ’s servant more than makes up for anything else I may achieve.

I am Christ’s servant. Anything else I may do is swallowed in that reality. Anything else I may become is also swallowed by that reality.

Let me give a secular example. Suppose you are employed by a water providing company and are therefore involved in providing water in places in dire need of the same. Will you go on boasting of the water you provided outside the company employing you? Will you put us a sign with your name as the provider of that water?

We have a home for persons with disabilities and at one time needed water and did not have enough money to complete the project. A company stood up and completed the project and of course needed us to launch that project.

We thanked them of course for their contribution before asking them to speak. None of them spoke in their private capacity, even the one most closely involved in it. All they said was that we did, the company did, etc.

Why do we think it is different with God’s affairs? Why do we behave differently when we are in ministry?

The reality is that if you are more visible than the master you serve it is very possible that you are serving a different master, a master whose standards are different, a master whose victory consists of pampering of the flesh. He is really the one in control when you become the main act.

It is not only preaching that falls for that error. Singers are way ahead in that aspect. Many a musician would be scandalized if their name is absent from an event they would be performing. Some would even cancel that performance if they would be blocked from selling their productions after performing. I have seen many getting into the church just before they are called to sing as if nothing else in the service is worth their presence. Many walk out after their performance, leaving the boring sermons to others.

Do not be surprised if you learnt that the bulk of musicians (called worship leaders) do not have time to read God’s word or pray (of course unless for the sales of this or the other product in their name). And the evidence is out there as very few sing sound scriptural based songs, some clearly heretical and even blasphemous though socially very appealing. Their lives are too full of their performances that they have no time left for God. And I write this as one who sang and played instruments for quite some time, though I did not record any of my compositions.

Writing is not much different for the same reason. We are more fulfilled when we outshine the message we write as opposed to John the Baptist who craved diminishing even as Christ grew in prominence (John 3:30)

Let me ask some application questions in closing. Can you imagine life and ministry without that gift or title? How would you operate in a scenario where that gift and talent is not being noticed? How would you feel if people trashed that gift? What would you do if God asked you to stop operating in that gift? How would you introduce yourself if that gift is excluded from that introduction?

Do the same thing with your CV (training, experience, expertise, etc). Do they define you? Would you operate if God takes you to a place they will never be noticed or even required?

Read Matthew 6 and Philippians 3. Then close with Matthew 23.

And finally, does that gift help you minister to the least of the brethren or does it limit you to the high and mighty? Does it make you accessible to all or does it block some undesirables from your ministry?

The False Prophet’s Fount

And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deuteronomy 6: 5 – 7)

Today I want us to look the false prophet from a different angle. This angle also includes the falsely prophesied because that is what makes them loyal to false prophets.

Why would I follow someone who gives prophesies that rarely, if ever get fulfilled? How do I continue faithfully following someone whose lifestyle destroys what they preach? How do I become a faithful supporter of a pastor and church whose practice and doctrine I disagree with? And why do I continue calling myself a prophet yet the bulk of my many or few prophesies never see the light of day?

I want us to get to the source. And it is really very simple.

How committed am I to God, the source of all true prophecy?

You see, I can be hearing very clearly but hearing from another god. I can be very committed to the prophetic and be feeding from the wrong sources. This is because the spiritual is not constrained to God. The devil and his demons are also spiritual with a capacity to give spiritual revelation for their own purposes.

Only a definite and unwavering commitment to God can break through all the deception the evil one is sure to introduce as a virus to any message from God.

I am asked many times to teach about God’s voice and how to know it. And I normally start from this point. Are you ready to go all the way with whatever God tells you?

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27)

You see, once obedience becomes optional, God’s voice becomes unnecessary to our experience. And you can be sure that God will never speak just for information. He speaks for us to obey as opposed to satisfying our curiosity.

With the avalanche of information, much that require filtering to be useful to us, could it be that we have started treating God like one other source of information? Have we started dealing with His revelation the same way we deal with research findings?

Lordship is the key to knowing when or whether God is speaking or not. Some time ago I posted a message on lordship (on the blog) that I suggest you read to make this message clearer. This is because I am convinced that the main problem with the church of our time has to do with Christ’s Lordship as opposed to many other issues.

And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? (Numbers 12:  6 – 8)

How does one distinguish between a vision or dream from God and one from elsewhere?

The point here is not that the false prophet is creating things. It is that he is accessing revelation from another source; a source whose validity can only be tested by an unwavering love and submission to God and the revelation we already have, the Bible. You remember that even the witch of Endor was able to access accurate prophecy from Samuel the prophet.

I won’t be surprised to hear the false prophets completely convinced that they are hearing from God because the revelations they received did not have horns and tails. They have valid visions and valid dreams that some record meticulously so that they do not miss a single detail. But they are not receiving them from God though they are convinced of it. They will never receive from God if they are not completely committed to God’s agenda.

I am never scared of someone who is sold out to Christ being swept away by false doctrines or prophets simply because God will never allow anyone sold out to Him to be sidetracked by anything or anyone from their pursuit of God. The only time it can happen is when a spiritual leader lost his connection with God and became a spiritual shell of his past spirituality. But even that is short lived because God will certainly protect someone solidly committed to walk in obedience.

You realize that even with the false religions God is able to get through to those sincere pursuers of the truth and connect them with their Savior.

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. (2Chronicles 16:9a)

The source of the false prophet’s prophecy is humanistic as it seeks to offer humanistic solutions to spiritual dilemmas. And it is no wonder that they are very popular with the masses and the structures they lead. A true prophet offends because his message is not content with keeping people comfortable but seeks to have them aligned with God’s scheme of things.

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (James 4:4)

There is one very short step towards the false once the masses become the focal point of our ministry. This is because we will slowly but surely find true revelation at odds with popular expectation. That is when alternative sources slowly and surely start seeping through the revelation we search. And since we started by hearing from God we will very easily confuse them with God’s clear voice.

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)

That is what we see with this prophet who had incidentally become the royal prophet. He was wondering how someone could claim to hear from the source he thought he was feeding from yet giving a contrary prophecy.

Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. (Jeremiah 28:2)

This is another royal prophet who was so convinced God was speaking to him when He wasn’t. And it was so bad that God Himself had to intervene so that not only did He promise to judge him, He killed him within two months because he was misleading people in the name of the Lord.

Relevance is many times the beginning of false prophecy because a minister seeks the approval of men until they forget that it is the favor of God they should be continually seeking. And one clear product of that is the desire to be the expert. I am the best person at prayer. I am the best at worship. I am the best at preaching. I am best at anything I put my hand at. It makes me more desirable. But it also puts me in the path of danger.

Let me use one illustration to put my point across. We have heard of pastors who sleep with their parishioners. Do you know that many do not start purposefully?

A pastor appears to the congregation as the one with the most powerful prayers, probably because of his sermons. As a result he is called everywhere a prayer intervention is needed. Now imagine a lady who is so sick that she is unable to get out of bed! She calls the pastor. Of course the prayer expert will go to the place prayer is needed. Then he will lay a hand. Then the lady will get up, dressed to kill - someone’s spiritual heritage. How do you expect a woman to sleep in a suit when she is ‘sick’?

I have heard enough of these stories to dismiss all of them as propaganda. I have also interacted with women enough to know that it is not only possible, but highly desirable for some women and girls to sleep with men of God.  I remember a girl once telling me that God had told her that sleeping with me was the solution to her problems, whatever they were I did not care to know as I promised her a thorough beating if she repeated that ever again.

The other danger with stardom is the attraction of all the giving to your person. And it becomes a danger because we are prone to specialize with the people offering bigger offerings and neglect the ones  without, operating in a spirit opposite Christ’s who was sent to the needy.

But even more dangerous could be our desire (which is natural) to offer greater gratitude to those with larger offering packages. We will many times respond to them without considering other aspects of our ministry because, truth be told, who wants to offend the goose that lays the golden egg? That will automatically disconnect us from God and His purpose as He does not look at the size of those offerings, or even the potential of the same. Many times He will send us to those farthest from our support base. I my experience God will many times lead to people who will deplete those meager offerings because of the need you will see. No wonder Christ said His anointing sent Him to preach the Gospel to the poor and all other dimensions of human need and desperation.

There are ministers who camp at large churches and will never hear any other call if it does not originate from that church because the church has enough money to support them. They will block other ministry invitations and employment because they are waiting for their big break when they become employed or sent by the rich church. Many have wasted their calling due to that single fact. Sadly, they become so emasculated in that waiting that even that break makes them eunuchs as they will never consider ministry outside the narrow confines of their employer. They become more loyal to the boss (church leadership) than to the Christ they presume to preach. These are things I have seen many times so do not think I am theorizing. You see, waiting several years for the church of your choice to employ you will automatically kill your spiritual fervor, and with that the connection to the voice of God.

Sin is another thing that opens a door to hear voices other than God’s and confuse them with God’s voice. I am talking about the sin that we excuse instead of repenting of. I am also talking of unconfessed sin, hidden sin, addictive sin and in short anything that we initially knew was wrong but are now confused or battered by it to the extent that you really do not know where to classify it.

But lack of commitment to the Bible is probably the single greatest cause of confusion concerning God’s voice.

The Bible is the standard by which we measure anything and everything to know whether it is consistent with God’s revelation. It is sad that many prophets treat the Bible as a simple accessory instead of the absolute standard for their prophecy. As opposed to the Bible verifying their prophecy as they use it for, it should be the standard by which they should measure their prophecy by. You see the Bible is the complete prophecy not a complement to prophecy.

Many prophets will quote the scriptures to justify their prophecy instead of using them to examine their lives and prophecy. I believe that only someone saturated with God’s word can be able to accurately access God’s revelation in terms of prophecy. This is because the Bible defines who God is and how He operates.

I am an example of such ignorance. I once had a very difficult experience with God as I was seeking a deeper experience with the Holy Spirit. I went through an experience that was so painful, an experience whose resultant spiritual lesson was permanently etched in my spirit. Of course I came out with a spiritually understandable conclusion and explanation.

A few friends we were growing with challenged that conclusion in the light of the scriptures. And I studied the scriptures. And I had to agree that my experience, valid as I was, could not be explained the way I had. In short, the doctrine or theology I had developed through that experience was inconsistent with God’s word.

I therefore had to trash my explanation of that experience.

I wonder how many prophets are willing to examine their revelations against the light of the scriptures. This is because any prophecy not baptized in the scriptures is spurious. And it is not because it is not a revelation or that its validity is questionable. It is because scripture is the complete prophecy released by God for our instruction.

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. (John 5:39)

How come Jesus used the scriptures to prove the fact that He is the Christ when we are using our arguments to justify whatever imagination we call revelation or prophecy?

To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. (Isaiah 8:20)

This is where I want us to close. If the scriptures do not describe or determine your prophecy, I think it is safe to assume that the fountain you are feeding from is not the Holy Spirit as He will never operate outside the word He inspired.

This takes us full circle, that we cannot claim to be prophetic if the Bible is not our standard. And the Bible cannot be our standard unless we have undying love for God, the source of that Bible. Like the Bible says we cannot say we love God if we do not love His Son. In the same way we can really not be able to love God if we do not value and love His word.

How committed are you to God? How sold out are you to His cause? How easily do you trash something if He shows you that He doesn’t like it? How do you rate the world and everything it has? What about friendships and their relationships to God’s word?

If you have issues with such commitment issues, then it is possible that your prophecy or prophets are feeding from false fountains.

But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. (Jeremiah 23:22)