Confused Conclusions

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (Psalm 1: 1, 2)

I want us to look briefly at the implications of the so called prosperity gospel though it really should be called a heresy. It is such because it leads its adherents to a lifestyle so removed from reality that it can be called alternate reality. And it is because it takes the Bible and wants it to say what they want to believe.

What is a blessing? What is the evidence of the blessed? How do the blessed behave?

This comes from some conversations you will normally hear from believers with some very interesting conclusions about blessing.

The other day a secular ‘gospel’ artist was asked to explain some of his scandals and his argument was that God couldn’t have blessed him as much if what he was doing was wrong. And his reference was his shows to his earnings to his media exposure.

In the doctrine, a blessing is directly proportional to earthly success. Thus a person driving is more blessed than the one walking, irrespective of their walk with God. It implies that a conman in the name of pastor who drives the latest edition SUV is more blessed than the missionary out in the doldrums preaching to an unresponsive unreached nation making do with the barest of necessities.

The plain teaching of the Bible is that a blessing is more of what we are in God than what we have. Blessing is more of what we do than what we have.

Look at the Beatitudes. Is there any scent of what we call blessing.

For example, ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted to righteousness sake …’, where do we fit it in our rotten doctrine?

Someone is blessed when they are rightly aligned to God and His purposes. They are blessed when they are in a right relationship with God. They are blessed when they are living according to God’s standards. And they are blessed when they are walking with God.

Job was as blessed when undergoing the trials as he was before and after. He was as blessed when he had nothing as he was when he was full.

And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. (Job 1:21)

Whoever deceived us that a car, a degree, a visa, a house, etc. consists a blessing?

And if things define a blessing, what will we say about the wealthy wicked.

There is something else I want to refute.

Many of these superstars (and sadly some are pastors) use an argument when they are challenged about their doctrine or lifestyle.

They use an African saying that only a tree with fruit has stones thrown at it.

The implication is that they are being criticized for the ‘blessing’ they are.

If doing nothing is no big deal, why did Jesus curse the fig tree? It was doing absolutely nothing.

Sewage does nothing but nobody wants to be near it. A dumpsite also does absolutely nothing but everybody is complaining about it.

Could it be that you are a spiritual sewage and that is why everybody is complaining about the stench your songs, sermons, lifestyle is giving?

If you get your prophecy from news items instead of God’s word, you are emitting effluent. If your word of knowledge is got from social media trending topics instead of God’s word, yours is really sewage. If the TV defines your prayer life, you are also emitting effluent.

Do you defend divorce? Do you floss over sexual immorality? Do you have no problems with marital breakages? Are you fine when a wife is not submissive? Is it no issue when a husband is not spiritually responsible?  And do you really know what the Bible says about those things?

God’s word should define your life. It should define your convictions. It should guide you thoughts.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Colossians 3:16)

Is that where we get our songs? Is that where we get our sermons? Is that where we get our convictions?

Are you emitting the stench of death or the aroma of life?

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)

If that is not the source of your blessing, stop deceiving yourself that you are blessed, because you aren’t.

The Closet, Our Solution

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6:6)

I have been praying, and wondering how people on fire for God can forget God, especially as God prospers them.

How could Asa forget how God fought for him against a million-strong army to even start living contrary to His laws? How could Solomon forget God who appeared twice to him and live life completely removed from His word and revelation? How could Jeroboam create alternative worship yet God had delivered the kingdom He had prophesied? And how come David did not go that route?

The only reason I can think of is the disappearance of the closet. We become too full of people, things and events that we slowly delegate that essential aspect of our faith to the periphery, and later forget it altogether.

The sad fact is that due to our earlier spiritual potency we might never be found out, in fact we may be able to deceive ourselves that we are fine. We may forget even about reading the scriptures unless as reference for our sermons and not realize it. I have heard pastors misquote favorite verses they claim to have memorized so consistently that you wonder whether they ever read their Bibles.

The closet is the place we see ourselves as God sees us since we are in His presence. We are unable to act up anything since we are speaking to God one on one.

We are in no position to impress anyone as we stand naked before God. As opposed to when we are praying before people or with them, we have no backward glance when we are in the closet. We have nobody to divert any message we receive in the closet to. We cannot tell Him how much we love Him in the closet since He knows it from the depths we can’t even approach. We can never try to demonstrate how much we are committed to Him in the closet.

We see blunders in judgment when the closet is neglected or forgotten.

Uzzah died because David and His team had assumed what God had wanted instead of reading His word concerning the same. King Saul went to a witch because he had neglected the closet for so long that he forgot its direction. Aaron and Miriam became jealous of their brother because they had neglected the closet. Joshua gave a promise to preserve the Gibeonites because he looked at external evidence instead of going to the closet. And the disciples panicked severally because they had forgotten that the closet was present with them.

What am I saying?

The closet is my interaction with God. It is the point at which I fellowship with the King of kings.

And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. (Mark 1:35)

Jesus taught us by example.

My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. (Psalm 5:3)

David also knew the power of the closet. Moses exemplified the closet because we see him asking directions for the most obvious of questions.

If we mess by neglecting the closet in our decisions, what will happen when we make it a habit? What will happen when we do not even realize that we have lost the closet for our busyness, especially in ministry?

The most dangerous thing is assuming that God values us for our performance instead of a relationship with him. We therefore celebrate our actions even as we neglect the small room that we meet with the God we are pouring all our energies to please.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 22, 23)

Then we are shocked that He does not seem to appreciate all our effort. Like Saul we wonder why He does not speak to us when we need it most desperately. Saul had forgotten to seek God’s voice for so long that He did not realize that He had ran off His agenda for the longest time.

Ministry is the most dangerous venture in this as we are enjoying His power and manifestation as we follow the motions of what we know He wants us to do even as we neglect getting deeper in our relationship with Him. We are enjoying seeing His power at work in us as we do things that we confuse it with His approval. And we can become so busy in ministry that we forget our personal responsibilities, especially the responsibility to grow our spiritual muscle through a rich relationship with God grown in the closet.

We can read the Bible as a text book we need to perform and teach instead of the word of the King and Lord of our lives. That is why you see preachers who are very eloquent on ancient texts who are unable to deal with sin, probably the first thing the closet draws our attention to. It does that because fallible and sinful man has the audience of a holy God. No one came to God and failed to see His sinfulness.

Psalm 32 tells us of David running away from the closet because of sin.

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. (Psalm 32: 3, 4)

He had missed the closet because he had feared the confrontation his sin would have introduced. For the time he was hiding from the confrontation, his physical body was wasting away.

I think it is due to his craving for the closet that God confronted him. Once the barrier for the closet was removed, he gets restored immediately.

His psalms are clear indicators of a man who really enjoyed the closet. Many, if not all of them were direct products of the closet. That explains why they are so rich and illuminating. It is because they were coming out of the throne room of God through a servant enjoying His presence.

Do we have a closet? How often do we visit it? Are we still in the closet or are we making noise in God’s presence? Are we listening or we are treating our voice as the most valuable there?

Be still and know I am God is exemplified in the closet. We are giving Him the chance to show Himself to us as He wills instead of giving Him conditions about our situation.

I will build up on what else is needed in the closet later.

But in closing let me say that we quote ministers (even if it is me) instead of God because we do not spend enough time with God. We are listening to them more than we listen to God, especially in the closet. That we can fight for the statements and doctrines of our super star preachers and prophets is a clear indicator that we really do not know God or spend time with Him.

Devil’s Advocate 2

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. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time. (2Chronicles 16: 9 – 10)

I want us to look at the possibility of us falling from our potency in spiritual things. But it is not so that we give up but to be warned, alert and on our defensive against that possibility.

Why is it that small churches for the most part are allergic to sin, any sin, however flimsy, and compromise yet the very large churches seem completely blind to sin? Why do we have barely dressed ladies only in big churches, many times sitting at the front pews?

How come people who are newly saved and/or called to ministry are so clear on what God wants of them though they may not have adequate scriptural knowledge and training yet when they get all the theology, Greek and Hebrew they become fuzzy about very basic and simple things concerning the faith?

Why is it that it is almost impossible to see a member of a small church (even a poor one) starving or going through deprivation yet in those very big and wealthy churches people starve even to death and are thrown out of their houses for lack of rent?

How come small churches raise their ministers yet the big ones outsource theirs?

Again we will look at a few Bible characters, hoping that we will place ourselves there to learn.

The background to the verses above is the king Asa. At one time in the past, an army of a million strong came to fight him. Of course he had no capacity to fight them and therefore turned to God for intervention. And God overcame that enemy. That is how deep his faith was.

Of course he grows rich and influential.

Then a smaller army brings war his way. By now he has an army and money and allies. He therefore does not see the need for prayer. He does not need to ask God for direction or intervention. He therefore takes money to one such ally and bribes him to break his league with this enemy so that he does not need to fight the battle.

That is when God confronts him. And he gets mad instead of repenting.

Asa had started living by this verse that everybody who does not read the Bible quotes, ‘God helps those who help themselves’. And that is how he fell.

And Elisha said, As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. (2Kings 3:14)

Jehoshaphat is the king who sent the choir in front of the army to the battlefront. Yet do you realize that he died with the wicked?

Again we see God lifting him up and prospering him. Then he starts making alliances with his contemporaries and peers, some of who are on the wrong side of God like Ahab. Of course his faith gets watered down by those new friends.

Is it not interesting that even after God disowning Ahab in his presence, it was not enough to shock Jehoshaphat to reconsider that alliance that he had even to get a wife for his son from the same Ahab? This daughter from hell was to later almost clear David’s line to reign in their stead.

Company and logic are very strong persuasion agents.

What happens to Hezekiah after his famous prayer is answered? He backslides. No wonder the product of that season was the most wicked king Judah ever had, Manasseh.

What happened to Uzziah at the peak of his reign? He became more important than God’s word and like Saul sought to usurp the priests’ office.

Remember that Gideon put up an ephod that became a snare after being the undisputed leader? Remember Joshua was deceived by the Gibeonites when he was secure enough that he forgot he needed to know God’s take on the decision? Remember Noah became drunk after finishing his huge assignment?

None of us is immune to falling, especially after overcoming great odds. That is the point I want us to get. Because then we will be more careful with our devotional life and stop assuming that all is well just because the outward looks fine, especially when people are applauding our effort.

We can fall. In fact our makeup is that we will definitely fall. That is our default position.

We do not plan to fall. We do not scheme to fall. We are wired to fall as it is what the natural man does best.

The upward look is the fruit of God’s seed in us being nurtured. And that requires effort, consistent effort.

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. (Luke 9: 23, 24)

It also requires constant self-examination.

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? (2Corinthians 13:5)

And the extreme of discipline

but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected. (1Corinthians 9:27)  (WEB)

How experienced as a Christian and minister? Do you ever feel that you have enough experience and knowledge of the things of God to cruise along without needing a day by day, moment by moment promptings from God?

That is a clear danger signal. A cruising Christian is not the kind of worshipper God defines, and forget about those songs you call worship because they are doubtful as the leaders are also cruising in their worship.

But there is hope for us when we are willing to be on God’s side. There is great hope when we want to flow in the richness of God’s grace. And there is hope when we give God complete control of our lives, allowing Him to run it in accord to His purpose and revelation.

We will next be looking at people who crossed over from being God’s enemies to His friends.

Devil’s Advocate

For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10: 26 – 31)

I want us to look at some reasons that make a sober minister become an entertainer or motivator as opposed to being a herald of releases from heaven. This is because we many times are very quick to pass judgment on people we deem to have abandoned the faith without caring to understand that it is very possible to fall in the pit they are in if we are not careful with our faith.

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. (Galatians 6:1)

We must understand why and how people sold out to God can all of a sudden seem to forget the God who meant everything to them not long before.

I want us to look at some of the causes for a believer to abandon the faith yet be convinced he is still a person of faith.

The first is promotion in earthly terms. Effective ministry attracts favor from many corners. Sadly, we do not determine the kind of favor we will receive or the kind of people we will receive it from. This means that we could slowly become elevated by that favor.

What do I mean? It will become normal for people to sacrifice things they do not have for us to have them. A person who cannot afford a TV will mobilize friends to get you one. People who can never afford meat will pay a butcher to deliver a kilo a week to you. People who do not have a vehicle in their wildest dreams will gladly sacrifice to buy you one. And those who live in the slums or shacks will pay dearly to have you live with the decency a minister requires. All this so that your ministry continues being vibrant and relevant.

What follows is that you acquire a new status from those sacrifices they have made for you. But this status brings in new friends, friends who are consistent with it. The only problem is that these friends connect with you purely on the neighborhood or hangout joints as opposed to ministry. This means you will rarely have any substantial spiritual fellowship in your new status.

But it becomes worse because your new location becomes inaccessible to those who have funded your move there. In their desire to elevate you, they have locked themselves out of your life. They may even have done that on purpose, to make sure you do not waste much time on people to get quality time to develop yourself for them.

Without a spiritually sound fellowship and accountability, anything you do will be right. Those around you have no spiritual capacity to help you spiritually and those spiritual enough are too far to be of any good.

And it gets worse. Soon you start thinking in terms of your new status. Your neighbors emasculate any little spirituality you have by their worldliness. Mark you I am not talking about sin. You become so withdrawn from your congregation to the point that you become a complete stranger to them outside the pulpit or ministry point.

You slowly start isolating yourself from the poverty you came from. You disconnect with people without vehicles as there is very little you have in common. Their offerings start being too little for your new status especially because people in your new status start giving toward your new status – so that you become their pastor at the expense of the masses that lifted you.

That is when a pastor starts operating like an executive, seeing people only on appointment, an appointment that can be cancelled at no notice because a more worthy person has arrived. I remember a person who had waited for three months to see a pastor having the appointment cancelled as he was waiting for it at the reception. It is impossible to describe the pain he went through. Yet someone with a big car will cut through that waiting crowd and see that pastor without requiring an appointment. So the argument of the pastor being busy holds no water.

Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his! (Numbers 23: 10b)

This is Balaam responding to the call to curse Israel.

Is it surprising that he died the death he had confessed he hated?

And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword. (Numbers 31: 8)

How did he die the death of the wicked contrary to his desire in his prophecy?

The pull of the favors from a king was irresistible. He was unable to be sober in the presence of such favor and promise. As I said in my blog post ‘Balaam and Politically Correct Answers’, leaving the presence of a king, especially when your prophecies have rubbed him the wrong way can be a very dangerous proposition.

It was thus easier to lower his standards, especially because lowering those standards was being rewarded very handsomely.

That is how come he was not able to know when his death was coming, especially as he had prophesied about it.

Another example is Lot. How did his wife become a pillar of salt yet she had lived in close proximity with the father of faith for enough time? How did he find comfort in Sodom yet he had followed his uncle on his own volition? How did his daughters rape him yet they had seen kings being rebuked for having ideas about Sarah?

He had simply chosen a great land. The Bible says that it was like the garden of God. Its appeal was therefore irresistible. The rest was a matter of course. The decision simply activated the course of events.

And that is what many times happens to many a minister, however anointed they may be or think they are.

The saddest part is that God may never indicate that He has disqualified you from His team. Like Balaam you may continue prophesying. Like Saul you may continue reigning. Like Judas you may continue handling His money. Like Diotrephes you may continue exercising the bishopric.

One verse that scares me is Romans 11: 29

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

God will continue using you even when you leave His team.

Does that speak to you?