Sleeping Watchmen 5

As I seek to close this message, I want to go back to where I started by asking and talking about the solemn assembly.

Who convenes the solemn assembly?

The prophet hears the order from above. Then he orders the king to summon it.

Of course the king must have been desperate enough to realize that something must give. All his strategies have become hopelessly ineffective and useless.

Let us look at Elijah at Carmel.

Elijah has promised a drought of monumental proportions.

It must be that the idols that had been institutionalized represented the provision of rain. Israel had prayed and prayed to those gods for a reversal of that prophecy in vain, for three and a half years. Everybody was desperate for a solution.

Ahab had sought for what he thought was the source of the problem (Elijah the prophet) in vain as God had hidden him. Yet he was the problem.

As things stood, everybody was ready for God’s solution as all other options had hopelessly flopped.

That was the context under which the solemn assembly was convened.

It was a confrontation of the gods. The only good thing was that for the populace there was nothing to lose.

And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. (1Kings 18: 21 – 24)

Why am I comparing this to our situation?

Corona looks like a plague on the leadership. I bet (I do not bet, this is just a statement) that had it been visited on the ordinary citizens nothing much could have been done. Even now I suspect that if an outbreak was to happen in a slum or an ordinary estate, it would simply be blocked for them to die in isolation as there are not enough resources to treat them. (You see, before the virus were the locusts I suspect are still ravaging the land and the memorable thing they did was teargas them as they did to those who were desperate to get into the ferries to escape the curfew. They have not responded as a father would do to the genuine cry of his children)

But it affects the high and mighty and so we must bear the brunt of making sure that they do not die. We must be protected because we are the ones who slave for them and so could be carriers as we interact with our type in our shacks after leaving their palatial abodes. This especially because they have no abroad to fly to and must therefore sanitize the ghetto hospitals they had all along neglected and exploited since they were too low standard for them.

That is why they close parliament at a time it should be operating at full steam being the voice of the citizenry. They are the ones who should be protecting us from the battery of the police when we lack transport to beat the curfew and defend the right of the vulnerable and unemployed to also eat.

But they fear infection. They therefore would not mind if we died for them to live. Our rights are irrelevant. They only matter when superceded by theirs.

How did it come to us? Corona is for the most part airplane borne. It is initially imported. It means that only those who fly can ferry it to others. And we knew this for a long time.

Why then did we not close our airspace? You see they are the ones who fly with their friends and business partners. And their businesses do not have the luxury of waiting. And as usual the virus seemed so far removed to their immediate circumstances as they are not used to caution. You see, for the longest time their money could buy them anything so they thought it could buy them insurance from the virus.

Remember the guy who alerted us concerning a plane from China, the then source of the virus?

He was sacked. And even after a court reinstated him due to public uproar, he was refused from accessing his work station.

You see, the common man’s concerns are irrelevant unless and until they touch captains of industry and politics.

But the virus decided to play by a different set of rules by attaching to those who facilitated its spread.

I was surprised to learn that even in Europe the places most affected are the ones with the best healthcare and facilities.

And this is what will move the king as it has come too close to home, sometimes even entered the bedroom.

But even then they do not change. Following the saga of compulsory quarantine we are able to see that nothing has really changed in the leadership. The bosses have their own being picked from the airport whereas the rest are taken round and round in buses until places are got that are so squalid and at the same expensive that you wonder whether the leadership wants to make sure they either contract the virus or other bacteria even as they fleece them.

They must reach the point at which Ahab reached where he had to physically look for pasture for the remaining animals. He was throwing in the towel when the prophet showed up.

Has our leadership got there? Of course not. But I think they are not very far.

They are still grandstanding and pouring scorn on us for not protecting us (of course meaning them), yet they are not doing anything to ensure that the discomforts protecting them occasions us are even a little compensated. People could die of hunger because they are losing jobs because capitalists like them will not pay for the reduced hours the curfew entails.

Yet a few world leaders have taken their citizenry and their needs properly. Between subsidies to actual food rations they are showing that they value those they lead. But others are looking at the needy as a necessary evil instead of the drivers of industry.

The prophet must thunder what God is saying. He must give the leadership the options God has for them before He can conclusively deal with this virus. And I believe God also wants the led to get rid of the gods they worship and have worshiped for the longest time.

Among the gods is Mammon. He is represented by the greed that drives us. Though we call it ambition the reality is that it is a god we worship in not so subtle ways.

For example, how many people take a course because of how much difference it will have on society? Don’t we take even the noblest ones for the self-gratification and emoluments it will offer?

That is why you see a pastor becoming a sales executive and a doctor an entrepreneur or manager in a job unrelated to his field of training. That is why a businessman starts a church because it has a better income stream. And that is why searching for greener pastures has taken interesting turns. That is why a parent will neglect his children for a promotion or salary raise. That is why someone won’t mind his marriage breaking if it gives him a classier car.

These lockdowns will give us a chance to examine these gods.

The other god is the leadership. You see, it is not only Caesar who was worshipped as God. It is only that our leaders are craftier in asking for worship from their followers.

You just need to make a post critical to a leader to know how deep that worship is. From insults to a reminder that you are as a minister is supposed to be apolitical, they will leave no doubt who their god is. All this as the worshippers of an opposing god will applaud you for how spiritual your post is. But none will agree to worshiping the leader.

Again that is something God is challenging us to examine.

A more dangerous idol is our spiritual leadership. Far too many believers have more faith in their leaders than they have in God. The leader’s word carries more weight than God’s word just because the leader appears to be quoting from it.

I pass over many messages when I notice they are forwarded, especially consistently. And the reason is because I wonder when the people forwarding will ever get their own word to share. I love a fresh word from God, however unpolished it is. I prefer a word from a stuttering child than a secondary one from the expert because God’s word is always fresh.

I laughed when the pope recently gave his worshipers permission to confess their sins directly to God. Imagine all these years these people have been depending on a secondary mediator when Christ Himself said He is the ONLY mediator between God and man. And that because of the virus!

There are many believers (and I am especially talking about those who boast of their spirituality) who will rarely move before ‘papa’ has sanctioned it. They will not start a business before he has anointed it. Even their understanding of the Bible is dependent on how he sees it. The only Bible or Bible Study or book they can take is the one he has written or sanctioned. They will only give to causes he sanctions. In short even his prayers depend on what ‘papa’ says.

That is an idolatry more destructive that all the others because it takes the place only God should occupy. And that is the point His jealousy hits at. It pretends to point people to God by blocking them from Him. And this draws in His judgment.

Like was in Egypt during the exodus, God is about judging the gods we worship.

Like Elijah, the prophet must be consistently listening and obeying God’s orders to be able to know what he should be saying and when.

But that confrontation is a must.

And I believe that is the point at which God will deal conclusively with this ravaging virus as He dealt with that drought. And I will say again that it could be so sudden that we will be left reeling with shock to realize that there is not the smallest trace of this microorganism that has literally brought the world to a standstill in this digital age.

May I be found like John the Baptist, not only speaking and praying, but living in such a way that Jesus increases and I decrease.

Wicked Leadership

Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory? (Isaiah 10: 1 – 3)

I want to write about recent declarations and laws that have been activated in Kenya in view of the new virus.

Do you realize that it borders on wickedness the manner in which many of them are being carried out?

One problem with our leadership is that it is so completely out of touch with the vulnerable in society, if not with the society outside their fortresses and palaces. No manner most of them dare not dream of leaving politics and positions.

The other day many people were castigating a mother who said that she would rather die from corona than stay home and watch her children starve. Have you ever been in her position?

How do you feel being in a house and your children are crying of hunger? It is only a person who understands that helplessness who should be allowed to make some of these laws. Someone who has never gone helplessly hungry understands hunger academically. Making laws without taking such a mother into consideration is wickedness, however justified you may feel you are. No crisis will justify the cry of a parent who is unable to feed his children.

How do you place a curfew without making adequate preparations for the same? I suspect it is because you do not understand how public transport operates. Then you unleash the police to punish people because there were no vehicles to take them home! You maim your people because you assumed that they were like you and will simply drive home when the time comes.

Nobody leaves home under these circumstances for fun. The vast majority of them have no option. They take the risk or starve. But you only understand the law.

I have used the ferry and wondered how someone in his right mind could make some of the laws as were announced. I knew it was impossible to enforce them. Simply because the ferry is not used for tourism. People use it to look for food and not money to invest.

Then you order over 300 000 to self-distance and be home before 6. If they are always packed full when they run almost 24 hours, how will they be able to have cleared ferrying people by 6, keeping in mind that they are supposed to carry less than a quarter of their normal capacity due to the distancing?

Then you order your policemen to teargas them!

Most of these people must work or they will starve. There is no luxury involved in their labor. They also earn a pittance and so have no capacity to save even a little for a rainy day. It rains and they will simply die, unless their kind will stretch their hand of help like they always do. But it will be within their ability to do so.

I minister to the vulnerable and am speaking as someone who understands their plight from very close proximity. I also have gone through some of that privation and so understand from personal experience.

Provide a solution to the poor before giving them laws as I suspect there could be mothers who had to prostitute themselves to get a place to spend the night when the curfew came and there were no vehicles and even those who came decided to charge them beyond their capacity to pay. And the cry of their children sleeping hungry without knowing where their mother was will be charged on you. You see, you can’t pay 300/- for fare when you earn 200/- in a day. And that must include fare for tomorrow and food. Nobody was luxuriously waiting for the curfew. I am sure you heard on the news of some who were in stages for up to four hours without getting transport.

Again it is important to give you some information I got as I was trying to understand the people I minister to.

Just go to a stage and you will find people that are perennially there. Do you realize (and I have talked with some, even waited with them) that they are there to wait until the fares drop to their lowest as that is what they can afford. They are not scared of going home as many are women, especially mothers. Their budget will not allow them to pay 50/- and so they will wait until it gets to 20/-

When you said matatus lower their capacity you automatically implied they double their fares.

What will such a mother do? If 50 was too high, what about 100? Yet they would still need to go home to their children.

They would wait until the policemen get off the roads because only then would the law be suspended for them to pay what they can afford. This means they will get home after midnight. And they are expected to leave home before 4 to get a vehicle that can charge ‘their’ fare. What do you decide when the choice is between spacing and paying what you can afford?

Then you introduce the curfew! What will they do?

Make a provision for those as you pass those laws. Otherwise you will be on the wrong side of God.

I do not want to compare you with others but it is instructive to mention that when public transport became a pain in the neck of the populace Moi introduced the Nyayo Bus and it was able to bring balance and sanity in the transport sector.

In fact reducing the capacity of PSVs without adding the fleets could very easily be self-defeating, unless you do not want people to work, and of course eat. People who have money do not use public transport and so will not be affected.

Even spacing is troublesome. Have you visited some rental premises?

I had a friend who in his small room had over ten people, at least three families. In fact a couple gave birth in that small room. And that was not by choice.

You will realize that many ‘estates’ have many such tenants. Incidentally these are the same people who work in markets due to the kind of money they earn.

Have you taken them into consideration when you talk about spacing?

Countries are providing places for the homeless to stay to limit the virus. What are we doing about ours, and of course the congested in estates and slums?

You see, if you do not protect the vulnerable, God will protect them. He could even make sure that the virus becomes the preserve of the able.

I will repeat. God will never overlook the cry of the vulnerable. The poor, the orphan, the widow, the refugee, all fall under that category.

You are as safe as you make them before God.

Do not fight against God as you try to make the world a safer place.

Too Familiar with God?

(I was given this message sometimes in 2013 or 14. I have decided to post as there is a video doing the rounds talking about something similar)

A prophetess friend of mine told me that God has revealed to her severe judgment on Kenya, reason being God’s people have become too familiar with Him. The aroma that used to come from Kenya through prayer and intercession has all but disappeared. She saw so many deaths all over the country, so much that people will be buried in mass graves for all the deaths occurring. God will even bring back those who have gone to other nations and neglected their responsibility of praying for this nation so that they also partake of that judgment. It will be a terrible time for all, especially for nursing mothers and children.

That is the way I was told it unless I have forgotten something.

Why am I posting it? Have I verified the source? Am I not sensationalizing these things?

I probably will have her post that prophecy in her own words later. She did not tell me for the purposes of my posting it anywhere. I just felt the burden of that message to let it rest as I feel the weight of the same since I heard it.

For those of you familiar with my blog you must have noticed my very urgent concern about the state of the church at this time. I have not used those terms but I am sure you have consistently heard me talk about our lack of awe before God, our being comfortable with sin and complacency, our self focused and recycled worship, our laziness in searching the word of God.

I have said again and again that the church urgently needs persecution to purify it. But I realize that even persecution may not achieve much because only a church that knows her Lord can benefit from persecution as she will then agree with the discipline persecution brings. The church of our day has been presented with a different gospel, a man centred gospel. It is a gospel that presents God who is so loving that He does not mind our sin. It presents a Christ who went to sleep after He died for our sins. Like a Swahili chorus says, ‘pale Kalvari yote yamekwisha’. Meaning at Calvary all is finished. Guilt is finished, holiness is finished and spiritual growth is finished. Of course I might be stretching that chorus but the lives of many believers of our day demonstrate that from day to day.

I ask many people this question and am really saddened. When was the last time sin was preached against in your church? Many have never heard the mention of sin from their pulpits since they got saved. And that is just an introduction to the Christian life. A friend told me that he felt very guilty after playing with a girl though they did not have sex. He was really troubled as new Christians normally are. He then went to the guy who led him to Christ to get counsel and can you believe what he was told? You ought to have finished the process as that was what the girl wanted. Young people cohabit with their pastors’ full knowledge without being told it is wrong. We are celebrating the single mothers without addressing the cause of their plight. Known thieves and corrupt characters are able to get any leadership position in churches by using their money to buy their way around.

Is there a way out of this judgment? She was told that it has been determined and that it is a matter of time. Prayer has no capacity to alter it. In fact she was told that praying for God to cancel that judgment will cause it to be multiplied.

But I remember Ahab, Manasseh, Josiah, people whose change of heart altered God’s judgment so that it moved to a later generation. I am sure that had that later generation connected to God it could have removed the judgment altogether. You see God does not delight in our pain. But we ought also to acknowledge that God’s holiness is such that He hates sin, and it is worse when we use the death of His Son as an excuse to sin. We therefore have no capacity of deferring judgment unless we will crucify our sins as the three characters I have mentioned did.

It is presumptuous to think that prayer alone can defer judgment. It is a complete change of heart that has that capacity. It is an about turn that can cause God to give us another chance.

Will we preach holiness? Will we tell our congregation what took Christ to the cross? Will we paint sin as badly as God sees it? Will we give our flock the right dosage of the scriptures instead of letting them enjoy a life without holiness? The Bible says that without holiness no one will see God. Do we really think anyone will attain that holiness with the kind of sermons we preach?

Judgment begins in the house of the Lord. That is what the Bible teaches. That judgment is also directed at those who call themselves God’s people as I was told. The result of that judgment is that the church in Kenya will be so powerful that it will connect to her destiny of taking the Gospel to the nations. Many ministers will disappear as God raises others for that season.

Am I scaring you? If I can scare you enough to pursue holiness instead of self interest I will be grateful to God. If I will scare you out of complacency I will also be grateful.

But I will reiterate that this is not my message. I was given it by a friend. I have just given it a context. Take what you will.

God bless you