Filled with What?

I want us to look at something many people say flippantly while others compare wrongly.

Ever heard believers say that tea is a Christian’s alcohol?

Is there any similarity between the two apart from both being liquids? Why then do some say this?

I believe it is because they feel Christianity has deprived them of the permission to indulge. They therefore turn to tea for nostalgia. It then means that they are in the faith for the wrong reasons.

Like a friend said, they are in the faith for fear of hell (here or eternal). This means that they will always be on the doorway looking out to see when or whether the danger will abate. They will thus be totally useless in the house since their eyes and hearts are always outside.

There is a favorite chorus for the like. Loosely translated it says I found Jesus and have looked all over but have found nobody else like Him. And they are still seeking.

What can you ever desire after finding Jesus? Isn’t Jesus the culmination of the search? Isn’t He the pearl of great value? How do you continue searching after finding Jesus? How will you seek after Jesus takes ahold of your hand and life?

But today I want us to look at a similar misconception concerning the Holy Spirit.

Have you like me heard believers boasting that they are drunk with the Holy Spirit, some to the point of staggering?

And why do they do that?

Because the Bible says do not be drunk with wine …, be filled with the Holy Spirit. They therefore equate instead of differentiating the two experiences as the Bible teaches.

You see, alcohol numbs our senses, the Holy Spirit awakens them. Alcohol takes control of our bodies; the Holy Spirit empowers our bodies to be in charge.

When a drunkard dirties himself, it is because the urge to empty his bowels overtakes the discipline to wait until he gets to the right place to do it.

It is therefore an insult to the Holy Spirit to equate or compare, however remotely, His filling with drunkenness.

It is no wonder that many in that camp have no issues with immorality since that is what drunkenness produces.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2Timothy 1:7)

The Holy Spirit awakens our senses to their highest because only then can we consciously cede our control of the same to Him. As in any legal transaction, one must demonstrate sobriety and absolute control of our decision making processes to be allowed to sign. We can’t therefore be drunk with the Holy Spirit and retain our bargaining power or personhood.

The Holy Spirit opens all the pores sin had blocked as we walked according to our will. Our body then becomes the closest to the factory settings at creation. Our senses become very sharp. And I will demonstrate using one such sense since it is most troublesome.

The sex drive

Animals mate when they must. God created man to be different as sex serves other purposes than just reproduction.

He thus created a desire for intimacy with the opposite gender as an introduction to those other dimensions but then created boundaries for the same so that we are not destroyed when we behave like animals.

The spiritual man has a most awakened sex drive as he has been cleansed from the corruption that blocks and pollutes that drive. He therefore must be most sober to be able to handle it as he is guided by the Holy Spirit. What I am saying in short is that the Holy Spirit invigorates the sex drive of the believer.

He must therefore be very careful to keep that drive in check and submitted to the Holy Spirit. He must be careful to follow God’s prescription on how he takes care of that drive.

A case in point is Joseph. I hope you realize that he did not run because the woman was too strong as would have raped him. He did not run because he could not have won an argument or convinced her against them having sex. He was a spiritual man who knew himself.

He was a young man with raging hormones as we say. Then comes a very desirable woman that seeks to fulfill all his fantasies. And she does not want to listen to reason.

His body is crying for a release and he knows that the longer he stays with her arguing or fighting her advances the more on fire his body would be becoming. Chances were that he could have gotten to the point of falling into sin since his testosterone could have overridden all his arguments as happened to Samson before Delilah and David before the bathing beauty one evening.

Many young people who thought they were strong to argue their way out of temptation eventually fell into sin for that simple reason. That is why we hear of pastors getting into sexual liaisons in the process of counseling damsels in distress.

I will repeat that the Holy Spirit activates and invigorates our senses and impulses to their highest because He also does the same to our mind. And it is so that we can choose obedience and follow His leading with all our faculties intact.

Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2Timothy 2:22)

We are not instructed to fight or argue with our desires. We are to flee, like Joseph did.

But a drunk person, though he can see what is happening, has not much control of his senses, let alone his body.

That is why it could actually be blasphemy to talk of getting drunk on the Holy Spirit. This is because we are by implication accusing the Holy Spirit of leading us to sin when we sin under His anointing.

The Holy Spirit leads when we give Him control. And that leading is always subject to our continued submission to His leadership. Look at this.

The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. As in all the assemblies of the saints, (1Corinthians 14: 32, 33)

That is the opposite of drunkenness.

But that is what happens when people build their theology on a single verse and seek to justify the same with their experience, some of which is made up.

We have no choice but make a determination to agree with what the Bible says, and only that. Otherwise we will get into very foolish errors.

Nowhere to Hide!

It is interesting that people complain about the invasion of their privacy when they are caught with their pants down, literally.

A case in point is this sadistic whoremonger who came to carry out a survey about loose women.

He feels justified in his quest yet I know he will vehemently protest if his ilk are judged according to his behavior.

But probably the saddest part is that he knowingly and proudly infected all those women with HIV in his adventure. How can a person be so wicked?

I want you to realize however that I am not defending the women. They had to be whores for him to be a whoremonger.

I saw the heading of a story about one such woman. She had lied to her husband that she had gone for a job related trip. Then he sees her picture cosying with the guy!

Now people will feel for those women and their marriages. They will feel that they were unjustly and unfairly exposed.

But let me ask another question. Suppose they had not been exposed. Would it have been fair to expose their husbands to HIV? Does it mean that cheating is okay if it is not found out?

Sin never changes and is as destructive when it is hidden as when it is public, probably more.

But the thrust of this post is that sin can never be hidden. The devil who tempts you to sin will expose your sin for his purpose which is to destroy you in due course.

Therefore don't be afraid of them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed; and hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops. (Matthew 10: 26, 27)

In the past, it was one’s commitment to and fear of God that kept believers in the straight and narrow. And the fact that the Bible says that God sees everything and as in these verses has given that reality that nothing is actually hidden. Someone without that revelation changed when they came to a place nobody knew them.

I have been in those far off places where there is an almost nil chance of being caught and seen things. I have gone for those job trips and also seen things. You would see people who were pastors and elders where they came from behaving as if they had never heard of God because ‘who would know?’

Some of us who decided to play fools by following God’s commandments were made fun of for avoiding cheap fun.

Incidentally, I have heard enough about serious church leaders changing their church garb after fruitful ministration to indulge in a pint. I have also heard that in those high end hotels there are corners reserved for senior bishops with girls their daughters’ ages. In fact, some Christian organizations will ‘pair’ workers to maximize on their working retreats as a matter of course. Anyone who decides they are ‘too righteous’ to take another spouse for that period will always be left out. And I am talking about several sources. I have avoided politicians and tycoons because they are in their turf when they do so.

But today that verse does not mean God exposing. We really can’t hide. From CCTV to amateur paparazzi to an accidental phone recording to a social media thread, we are always open to exposure.

But exposure is not the real problem; sin is.

Nobody sins by accident. We can argue most eloquently about being caught in a bad situation or circumstances but you cannot use that to defend your sin. Sin is allowing the devil to arrange the circumstances for you to sin. But it is you who will sin. That lady left home knowing she was going to sin.

And I suspect the rest were like her. That is why she lied to her husband. She committed adultery long before she slept with that man.

What if her marriage breaks? Would it be because of the evidence of her cheating?

The reality was that it was broken before she left home deceitfully. She had already deserted her marriage bed before she went to meet the sampler of loose women. It is only that she had covered her bases well that her husband ‘foolishly’ assumed he had a wife.

The devil just introduced shame to the deception by the exposure. Otherwise she may have thought she was very clever. Imagine leaving a dumb husband, going places to play the harlot and coming back without him suspecting anything! Sadly, there are many spouses who are like that.

What kind of deception is that? How can someone be so foolish as to endanger the marriage they value for the pleasure (or coin) of a moment? Otherwise they should be celebrating the exposure as it then gives them permission to walk out of a torturous union.

It is only those who obey God’s commandments because they are God’s commandments who are safe since the reality of God shields our minds from imagining cutting any corners. And of course grace enables us to obey.

We obey because we have no illusions about God. We are assured that He loves us and has set these bounds for our good. It is those who have issues with God’s love who have no problem cutting corners. You see, they either doubt God’s power or His love, or both. Sadly for them, the consequences for that attitude are exactly as God has stated in His word

So, before you think of cutting corners against God’s commandments, think carefully.

There is never any escape from sin.

And it is not only sexual sin that is exposed. There is so much uproar about endemic corruption and wickedness in high places. And they are so deceived as they think hiding behind those big offices of power they can be immune to God’s exposure, especially because they control the investigative bodies.

As God’s word says, their shame and judgment is coming.

Run away from sin. There is nowhere to hide or escape judgment.

And the best place to run is to Christ as He already paid the penalty for those sins.

Vision Finding Wheels

Five years ago I shared a message ‘Burden Finding Feet’ as I described a burden that had been pressing very heavily in my heart as I was responding to an invitation to minister in the DRC even before knowing what it was.

It was as I ministered there that God opened my eyes to see the burden and as I came back that God gave me the strategy to respond to it. And I am still doing it.

You can read about it on my blog.

Today I want to share with us something else.

In 2013 God gave me the vision of preparing missionaries for the nations. Again I wrote it and posted on the blog as ‘Varsity on the Hill’. He later gave me a vision concerning the enormity of the vision. And it was huge, requiring enormous resources. Of course I continued praying.

About three years ago God showed me what I can call the introduction of that enormous vision. It explained how I should start small. Again I posted on the blog as “Ministry and Mortality’.

Then I had more or less ‘forgotten’ about the land requirement due to the size of the land the vision required and the fact that it is humanly impossible to be able to acquire land that size. But I have no doubt that God has it somewhere and He will release it in His time. I was therefore looking for a van to equip it for missions and related ministry. We had even got the kind of van I required but it was bought before we could raise the money required to buy it though it had been in that yard for over ten years.

This year God impressed on me that I should start running with the vision on a piece of land and opened the door for that to happen.

As I write, I have bought a piece of land in the Kabati area where I intend to put that vision on the ground.

I therefore want you to thank God with me for that even as you pray that I will continue walking in tandem with God’s revelation.

But I also want you to join me in this venture.

How? You may be wondering.

I believe as you pray God will give you a specific item to adopt and run with.

However there are a few things I need to place on your desk for consideration.

I will need a house big enough to host the missionaries God brings me to raise.

I will need a library and shelves. I already have books though I won’t mind an addition after the library becomes operational (of course after being built and equipped with shelves).

I will need a workshop, probably a few for different skills with requisite tools.

I will also need a basic studio for recording the Audio Bible in the vernaculars I can get people to read as well as record songs the ‘students’ will be producing as they worship and grow.

I am sharing this as a prayer request. God will fit you in His program as to what you should do, or even whether you should do. Please look for the posts for the vision’s details.

I am open for your partnership and support.

God bless you

Roots and Soil

He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, "Behold, a farmer went out to sow (Matthew 13:3)

I want to challenge us to look at this parable in a slightly different way to help us appreciate the times we are in.

The first thing we will notice is what that seed is. Jesus said that it was the word of the Kingdom.

It is not stories about the Kingdom or even about the King.

What then do we understand by the word of the Kingdom? You may be wondering.

The closest we may equate it is a release from the King or what in ‘demoncrazies’ is called the state of the nation/union address.

The King is simply addressing his subjects about his kingdom and laying the ground rules about how that kingdom should be operating. He is also giving guidelines about how his subjects should be operating in his kingdom.

Joseph was elevated in such an address, as was Haman and later Mordecai.

We are therefore talking about knowing how the king operates and how we also should live to fit in the kingdom. It talks about rewards and punishments expected as we respond to the address.

In short, it is the king talking and us listening. We are not questioning Him or even discussing issues with Him. He is speaking as we are listening with the view of obeying if we are subjects in the kingdom.

Weeping and gnashing of teeth is the reward of not obeying that address. And it does not matter whether we understand it or not, provided we are subjects.

How we receive and react to that address is the focus of this parable.

That is why motivational preaching is such a dangerous diversion to the church. Jeremiah the prophet was given ‘teachers of rebellion’ as a description for such people. And it is because it shifts the focus from the King to us, the subjects. Meaning we become the owners of the kingdom since the king then starts playing our tune.

The setting is the seed and soils. What is required for soil to produce a harvest?

There is need for the seed to have space to develop a root system without any hindrance and disturbance. That was the problem the first two soils had. In the first, the seed was too exposed that it became food for opportunists before it could germinate. The second was too shallow to develop a root structure. It is interesting that it sprouted faster than even the productive soil. I am sure that had it had depth it could have produced the most bountiful harvest. Sadly the roots had nowhere to anchor.

The second thing a seed needs is space to grow. It must access sunlight and have space to expand its branch system.

The third soil failed in that. It was too occupied with feeding so many that it forgot the king’s assignment; the only assignment that counted.

It is the fourth soil that provided the right environment for growth and production.

There are a few constants for all the soils.

The first is that seed was sown on all soils. The second was that the weather was constant for all the soils. It meant that the rain was not discriminating on any. And the third is that there was an expectation of the harvest on all the soils.

The sower sows the word. How we react to it determines the kind of word harvest we will have.

The first soil is a pathway. It means that this person has interacted with words from all over. As such, the word of the Kingdom is treated just like the other words. It means that it has a zero chance of even sprouting since the soil is a philosopher full of other words as he treats all words as the same or at least similar.

He is at home with all dogmas and religions and can effortlessly quote their books. He can even find common ground between theists and atheists.

If all roads lead to heaven as he believes and lives, he would be spoilt for choice.

But that is not the truth. It is a highway to hell as the seed of the Gospel has no chance of getting through. He has been blinded by the glare of darkness.

The second soil describes a person who has seen the light somehow.

Many times though he is responding to a crisis; death to close family, a health scare or even things falling apart that he realizes the futility of life. Or probably a sermon has painted hell so graphically that he jumps into the solution without much thought.

He will therefore respond to the word to ward off the crisis and will be faithful as long as the threat remains.

An old man was sent to me for ministry (they say prayer). Everything about him was falling apart; from health to marriage to business.

I offered to pray for him but told him that it was even better if he made his own connection to Christ. And he quickly did it.

In a very short while everything was sorted and he became his old jovial self.

Then I asked him about baptism as we had agreed when he was in the crisis and he became a joker. He turned everything we said to him into a joke.

I was sad to hear of his death not long after he turned his faith into a joke.

Though most conversions are the products of a crisis, it is very important to divorce the crisis from faith and the Lordship of Christ.

Or take this young man who was sent to me to help him out of drugs.

I am a friend of a rehab that leads people to Christ as the solution. He agreed to accompany me there and did not even want to go back for anything for the urgency of his situation. That is what I did. We looked for clothes for him as he was in the centre.

In a week he was clean. In a month he was so dependable and useful to the whole centre; hard working, sacrificial, innovative. He became the pride of the centre.

Of course things became better for him from all fronts. He got a phone and some friends started sending him money and in a short while he had to leave the centre.

After a short while we meet and he almost kneels before me confessing his error and pleading that I get a second chance for him. I do and the cycle repeats.

When he repeated it the third time I realized that inasmuch as he wanted to be delivered from drugs, he was not really prepared to do it for the long haul.

To date he pleads with me to take him to the centre. But I always remind him that the same Jesus who is preached at the centre is everywhere. That when he becomes desperate enough to leave drugs, he should just ask Jesus to sort him out.

This soil describes such a person. Their reception of the Gospel, though genuine, is only surface deep. And we know roots need more than surface to grow.

The third soil is good and able to produce fruit. But it has allowed many other plants to grow side by side with the word. Due to all those plants, the seed of the Gospel lacks enough sunlight and space to bear fruit as it has to compete for everything.

In the first soil, it was the heart that was cluttered. In this soil, it is life itself that is cluttered. There are friends and hustles and hobbies that are competing with the word for attention. It thus means that the King is unable to interact with His subject since the subject is full to overflowing with his issues.

The fourth soil of course describes this person who takes the word as the absolute determinant of his life and decides that nothing else is comparable to that word from the King. No wonder he bears that much fruit.

I believe a good teacher of the word should teach his congregation in such a way as to help them identify the kind of soil they are. This is so that they can wisely choose to be productive soil for the kingdom. And it is because the wrong soil will never produce food acceptable to the king however and whatever is invested in it.

Maximizing your potential in the wrong soil will still take you to hell.

The right soil takes God’s word seriously, so seriously that food pales in significance. Remember man does not live by bread alone. This soil therefore is always feeding on God’s word which is the word of the King and therefore kingdom.

As a result of that, it has no problems with obedience since it made the decision early enough.

That word determines all of his life; from the friends he keeps to the jobs he can work in. That is why he consistently bears fruit.

Blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in Yahweh's law. On his law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper. The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish. (Psalm 1)

Spend some time reading and rereading Psalm 119 as it will make things clearer.

Remember Moses spent close to three months on the mount listening to God without eating or drinking anything yet came out with his face glowing!

That is why in Matthew 6 we are commanded to practice our inner faith in private but will have the results of the same displayed publicly (my paraphrase).

God’s word should be so prominent in our hearts that it will start seeping out when we are under pressure. I think that is what bearing fruit means in this context.

But seek first God's Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

That is the right soil for the word of God to grow and bear fruit.

Sacrifice

Ever wondered how two people can sing the same song and one moves the crowd whereas the other appears completely ‘flat’ and ‘dry’?

 

Ever wondered how two people are teaching on the same topic and one is like a sleeping tablet while the other keeps you on the edge of your seat? Or you read two similar books and enjoy one yet can barely read a chapter on the other?

 

Ever wondered how some people have songs without content that are so popular while some have solid instruction but fail to hit the market?

 

I want us to realize that many times the difference is very simple; one offered a bigger or better sacrifice than the other. One invested more than the other. To one it was a hobby yet to the other it was life itself. One must do it but the other is so passionate about it that they will lose sleep, and many other things, over it.

 

But there is another aspect of this sacrifice I want to let us know; the spiritual sacrifice.

 

We hear of people who keep jinns to make and keep wealth and we know that keeping them is not an easy feat. We know that there are people who visit shrines and witches to get into elective positions and are sure that it is never a casual visit.

 

How badly you desire what you seek will determine the kind of sacrifice you are willing to offer.

 

We see flip plops in politics because a politician discovers that the sacrifice they offered is not sufficient to maintain or advance the position they sacrificed for. They must therefore look for someplace and something else to sacrifice, many times sacrificing who they are in desperation.

 

But it is not only in politics that it happens. It is only that the politician is most visible.

 

Look at entertainment for example. Remember the ‘Me Too’ movement? How many can honestly say that they attained stardom because they were good at their jobs, and only that? And you still see people wondering why marriage for many is such a tall order.

 

Yet it is in the spiritual I want us to look at. By the way even those other fields are spiritual. It is only that their performance is in the secular realm. Values come from the spiritual. I must therefore be spiritually corrupted before I give that bribe or give in to that sexual advance.

 

Your sacrifice determines your breakthrough.

 

Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land. (2Kings 3:27)

 

In this instance we have a king who has tried everything, every trick in the book, and became unsuccessful, completely unable to rescue himself or his city. He was practically between death and death whichever way he looked.

 

That is when he considered a sacrifice, and not a simple sacrifice. He gave the promise of the continuity of his kingdom to his gods for a burnt sacrifice. And even Israel could not counter that because the sacrifice inflamed everybody, from friend to foe.

 

An offering is not a sacrifice. Even the so touted tithe is nowhere close to a sacrifice.

 

In a sacrifice we are talking about a life and not a portion of the same.

 

Giving your earnings (e.g. a salary) is sacrificial. Giving your livelihood is close to what a sacrifice is.

 

In short, a sacrifice involves offering you and what makes you, you. It is giving all the security you have to the one you believe is in charge of your life because He does not need that security to keep you.

 

In any religion you look, a sacrifice involves the shedding and not the letting of blood. In short something must die for a sacrifice to occur, not just bleed.

 

Many times that is how the devil is able to get to us. He convinces us that our sacrifice is not much by blocking our eyes from seeing the extent of our sacrifice. Like he told Eve the promise of sin is better than the pain of judgment.

 

He even argues that you can repent later and grace will cover that sin.

 

Let us have some examples.

 

A girl needs good grades and the professor is a tyrant, an expert at failing students. But then she realizes that there are some other girls who always pass very well though they are not as bright or hardworking as she is.

 

On seeking to know why, she realizes that they offer extra services to the professor so that he can look at their papers favorably.

 

Now she has a choice. She is on the verge of repeating a class due to that (or those) lecturer(s).

 

What does she do between losing a year (or more for being stubborn) or become like the other girls?

 

In short, which sacrifice does she offer? Are there long-term repercussions for that decision?

 

Suppose she does what many are wont to do and pleases the professor for the grades? What will she have sacrificed apart from the few or many minutes she offers the professor?

 

She will have sacrificed who she was – her character and spiritual values. She will have sacrificed her marriage for those grades. She will have punctured her stamina to stand for what she believes. She has sacrificed her posterity.

 

In short, she has sacrificed herself. It will therefore be impossible for her to stand for anything properly since she had so ably demonstrated that she was for sale and that the difference was in how cheap or expensive she was.

 

Will she excel? Of course she will; but as a sellout. It will become easier and easier to get her to compromise this or the other for a reward. That is why we see very successful women playing the harlot with small boys even when they appear to have very solid marriages. That is why we see successful women killing or attempting to kill their husband of decades for one or the other reason. It is possible that they sold out early in life and so are subject to the sacrifice they offered.

 

And it is not only women who sacrifice. I have just picked one among very many examples.

 

Ever noticed that most ‘successful’ single mothers are bitter against men? Have you ever wondered why someone could hate all men to the point of calling them dogs?

 

Let me explain what I think happens.

 

A lady thinks that the marriage (since that is what sex spiritually means even when no legal marriage occurs) is encumbering. In other words, the marriage (they may call it a relationship) is clipping their wings.

 

They therefore sacrifice it for success, whatever excuse they use.

 

Then they discover much later in life that life has passed them by. Sadly enough, we are never able to easily admit that we goofed since someone else must be to blame. Remember the case in Eden? They in ignorance sacrificed the wrong thing.

 

Incidentally, because they sacrificed something of great value, they ended up becoming extremely successful in what they sacrificed for.

 

Or look at this man who decided to sacrifice his family, especially children (time wise), to make a coin. They will lose what they sacrificed (since that is what a sacrifice is anyway) and get that coin in abundance. And like the woman they will realize too late that they sacrificed the wrong thing since the children were the driving force for that sacrifice. He therefore ends up living in regret when he realizes that with all that he made he has no children to take over as he had purposed. Or do you think it is an accident that many children on the streets, rehabs and asylums are from well to do families?

 

And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous. (Exodus 23:8)

 

A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth. (Proverbs 17:8)

 

Think of this as another sacrifice.

 

Another observation about sacrifice is that sacrifice is progressive as no one sacrifice is enough.

 

Christ is the only One who gave one sacrifice once for all. And it was because He gave the ultimate sacrifice, Himself, and so had nothing else to give above that.

 

And we see that very clearly with the father of faith, Abraham.

 

He starts by sacrificing his security when he responded to God’s call. Then we see him sacrificing his advantage and privilege when he releases Lot. Later he sacrifices his right to the spoils when he rescued Sodom. But we later see him sacrificing the promise, Isaac.

 

The progressive nature of sacrifice is not constrained to God. It is even more dramatic with the evil one (call it the world, ambition or advantage if you fear those tough descriptions).

 

It means that small sacrifice you made to pass that exam introduced you to a life of sacrifice that grows in demand. Probably you just paid a small amount or bedded the teacher. Probably you went with your notes into the exam room, etc.

 

The sacrifices required will grow in demand until you will be required to give what you value most which is what made you compromise at the beginning.

 

That is why I pity ministers whose only defense for their calling is that they left employment or business. That was just the introduction. If the demands for your calling are not increasing, it is possible you are a toddler as far as ministry is concerned. You stop growing when no more sacrifice is being required of you. Or you probably heard the call from another lord.

 

God demands more from us when we respond to Him. But we are enabled by Christ’s sacrifice to follow those increasing demands.

 

Let nobody deceive you that Christ does not require a sacrifice from us.

 

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)

 

And this

 

Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God. (Romans 12: 1, 2)

 

What will your sacrifice be? To whom will you direct that sacrifice?

 

Spiritual Opposition

Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity were building a temple to Yahweh, the God of Israel; then they drew near to Zerubbabel, and to the heads of fathers' [houses], and said to them, Let us build with you; for we seek your God, as you do; and we sacrifice to him since the days of Esar Haddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here. (Ezra 4: 1, 2)

 

I want us to appreciate the fact that spiritual opposition does not normally appear with guns. In fact it will many times appear as a useful ally of the cause.

 

This is what we see here.

 

It is of essence, then, to have a very discriminating faculty to be able to distinguish between ally and adversary.

 

It is important to note as you read the book of Ezra that there were Jews who were also forbidden from participating in the building, and that not because they were adversaries. They had simply been careless in preserving their genealogies.  They therefore could not be found when the ministers were being sought.

 

Now let me ask this question

 

If an Israelite who was undeniably Israelite could be stopped from participating in the spiritual pursuit that was the building of the temple, why do we think support should be accepted from people just because they seem to be interested with the ministry we are performing?

 

 Why should we assume that anyone who seems to be interested in what we are doing in God’s name is doing the same because he has our commitment and values?

 

Do you realize that the most portent spiritual powerhouses were emasculated by the woman who attached to them in marriage? Do you not know that Samson was invincible to the Philistines until his heart was ensnared to Delilah when she became his heartbeat like we say?

 

And Samson’s story is repeated in folk stories all over the world to prove that your invincibility is open to a very close friend, someone who can get in and out of your heart at will.

 

The long and short of what I am saying is that we are very poor judges of who is a friend or enemy if we just look on the outside appearances. We must look beyond ourselves to do it.

 

We need God’s standards (Bible) and Spirit to determine between ally and adversary.

 

Passion is a very poor standard to use to judge fidelity to the cause. I dare say that even commitment and loyalty do not rate very high because they are subject to external forces.

 

For example, Samson’s ‘wife’ was fully committed to him and marriage until her people threatened to burn her and her family unless … . The choices then became blurred (the state did the same anyway.) Even Delilah did not just betray him. The external forces became impossible to resist as I suspect that more than money was used to convince her. Or do you not remember that there were men concealed in her house in their intimate moments to ensure she asked the questions right?

 

David went out to meet them, and answered them, If you be come peaceably to me to help me, my heart shall be knit to you; but if [you be come] to betray me to my adversaries, seeing there is no wrong in my hands, the God of our fathers look thereon, and rebuke it. (1Chronicles 12:17)

 

David knew that secret. When people were falling to him from Saul, some even from Saul’s close family, he knew that there was a capacity of some being sent to betray him to the king who was seeking his life. He also knew that it was possible for him to be paranoid and chase people who were genuinely following him. He therefore took the case to God, the Only One who knows the hearts of men, to deal with them.

 

That requires immense faith. But it is the best thing as we allow the One who can see the depths of the heart to sift through our circles. This means another thing.

 

I am completely open to God in all my dealings with Him and the people around me. In other words I am defenseless before God even as I handle whoever seems to be joining my team.

 

But secondly is the fact that I must be submitted enough to God to only depend on Him to set the standards for whoever and whatever would want to join my team. That was the reason some priests and Levites were discontinued from ministry because their status had become compromised by the lack of their names in the genealogy of Israel. As such, being willing or even available is not the standard the spiritual person should use to engage partners.

 

What then happens when the offer for support or partnership is rejected on God’s terms?

 

Many times, the erstwhile friend becomes embittered for that rejection without caring to know the reasons for the same. And it becomes even worse if like the case we have seen in Nehemiah it had some strings attached. How do you feel if after extending your hand for a greeting someone pockets theirs? Or you are rushing to embrace a long lost friend (before the virus) and they shunned you?

 

That is how many times enemies in ministry are made. Sadly, many are pretenders of friendship like the team Nehemiah was dealing with. They will then take up the office of official opposition to everything we may want to do for God or in God’s name.

 

Whatever the case, allowing them to join you in serving God is worse than the active opposition they will offer when you choose to obey God and refuse their ‘assistance’.

 

But do we really have any choice? We must obey God and what He reveals to us through His word.

 

And that is why I will never tire to tell believers that they must be constantly reading their Bibles. It is the only way to be serving God God’s way.

 

In closing I will ask this; are you approved by God to serve Him and His people?

  

Media Closures

Why do media houses close shop?

The main reason is that they become unable to conceal their loyalties. In short, they make their audience know the workings of their editorial policy.

What do I mean? I know someone is asking.

When a media house shows bias in their reporting of issues, they leave no doubt as to their position in the issues they are covering.

This of course means that their audience will need to openly take sides with their reporting of issues; some becoming loyal because their issues are always given prominence and others shutting them out because they see nothing representative in their reporting.

The reality is that the media does not make money through reporting (except the brown envelopes some reporters and editors are given for favorable coverage). They make money through advertisements.

Cutting your audience in half means your audience reduces. It therefore means that an advertiser will know that his advert is reaching less people since response to his advertisement has reduced. He will of course stop or drastically reduce his advertising in your media house.

With the exodus of those opposed to the bias (or on the opposing side of the bias), there will remain the supporters of your agenda. But since nobody chest thumps in the dark, even those supporters will tire of that discourse since it serves no purpose apart from telling them what they already know because it was meant to ‘educate’ the opponents. They will therefore grudgingly leave the station or whoever was regurgitating their propaganda.

With a reduction in advertisement, the media house will be unable to employ enough or quality reporters, editors and anchors, meaning that the quality of their reporting will also go down, making a bad situation worse. All because of visibly biased reporting.

A wise media owner must keep his biases submerged to remain in business.

Sadly, of late the media has become an appendage of agendas. Some have sold out to a narrative from big pharma yet others have sold their objectivity to government and political leadership. Others have become lazy and stopped looking for news, regurgitating whatever news they are given without bothering to verify them.

This has meant that news has become boring. Even children know what to expect from a news bulleting; figures and more figures about corona and other related news.

When was the last time you heard someone rushing home to catch the seven o’clock news?

The virus has exposed the media’s underbelly. Almost everybody can now see that they are a gun for hire and that they will promote the agenda that pays them well without caring for objectivity. You cannot be able to get objective and balanced news from most of our news outlets.

For example, do you ask why there are no positive news about this virus? Why does a virus that kills less than 1% of those it infects appear so destructive, almost spelling doom to the entire world unless we take a vaccine some people are touting?

For example, researchers have found out that in a slum in India, 57% of those infected have developed antibodies for the virus. Why is that not being reported on mainstream media?

In fact as I was checking on that story, I saw the headline CNN had given it was so negative I didn’t even open to read. The only accurate thing in that headline was 57%. And then they are perplexed depression is becoming so prevalent!

I will say again, most of these media houses will close shop for bending too low for an agenda.

You see, when people become tired with your bad news (depressive agenda reporting), they will look for news that will uplift them. And when you block objective news, people will simply stop following you. And your advertisers will follow the people. And it will become even worse for you because even your sponsors need those people and so will desert you when the people leave.

You can delete videos and flag information. But the media is liberalized. Meaning people will look for those videos and stories that you have blocked and get them. In fact you have weaned them off your biased reporting by showing them you do not care for what they want.

In short you are on your way to the dustbin. Very soon you will not be there or will have to sell yourself to other owners.

I can authoritatively say that.

The Overtakers

I want us to consider a common trend we see when we read the Bible; the fact that frontrunners are many times replaced from the race.

Let me give us the example I want to use.

From the Bible, you realize that Esau and Jacob had fifteen years with their grandfather Abraham. It therefore meant that they had some quality times interacting. They therefore must have talked endlessly about Abraham’s call and the experiences pursuing it brought.

It is certain that Abraham deliberately focused on passing that spiritual DNA to the youngsters.

For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him. (Genesis 18:19)

He may have thought that only one grandson will carry the promise, the first born.

I suspect he talked a lot to the young boys, but looking at Esau more.

It therefore made Jacob a bystander, an onlooker of the promise grail.

You see, from the narrative, it appears that only Rebecca knew the promise that Jacob was the chosen one since we also see Isaac focusing all his blessings on the first born.

That must have created a great craving in Jacob to be included.

Just imagine being in a place that all things are equal but a few seconds apart mean you are left out of all those promises! But of course he was the less muscled one and must also have felt disadvantaged in every way.

His craving for inclusion was therefore very great. And that is why he started to scheme. Probably that is what created and drove that scheming.

On the other hand we have Esau, the natural leader, the positional leader, the entrepreneurial leader probably listening to all those stories by this ancient man and wondering why all the fuss. Why do they not focus on how to manage and increase that wealth so that even his younger brother can get his share without making him feel left out of whatever promise the old man was talking about?

We have one craving to get in while the one inside does not understand what that inside involves.

That is why he was easily tricked into selling his birthright. He simply did not see it as that valuable. Another thing that shows that Abraham and his discourses were simply stories was that he married wrong. Yet I am sure he must have known the pains Abraham went to to ensure that Isaac married right.

I am sure he realized too late when Jacob conned into his blessing what the promise was about because we can then see him weeping bitterly yet he didn’t seem to notice the same when he sold his birthright.

Jacob was an outsider who craved to be included in the promise. That desire is what God used to make him part of Abraham’s promise by allowing him to overtake his elder brother.

Let me illustrate with my own observation.

My first and second born are separated by almost seven years.

When I decided to teach my first born instruments (starting with guitar), I thought his brother was too young to hold it.

But he loved the guitar and so would watch as I taught his brother to hold chords etc. Then as we left he would take the guitar and relive my classes.

By the time I realized what was happening he was playing the guitar with his small fingers as well as his brother. And his drive to play instruments remains because of his drive. Today he does things with instruments that I can only imagine. It is only that I did not train them to compete and so have never wanted to know who plays better but the younger certainly has greater drive to learn. And of course each has his own guitar.

But I am talking about spiritual things. And there are some key verses you notice very few preachers ever touch on. And they are verses that describe the Jacob’s of any generation.

You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 42: 1, 2)

We are here dealing with a craving that goes beyond a simple desire. The hunger Jesus spoke of in Matthew 5 is not a simple hunger. It is the hunger of the famished; the one who must eat or they will die.

Again, as I have been involved in discipleship, I have seen some people who were disadvantaged in all ways growing in leaps and bounds when the one I thought would thrive falling by the wayside.

You see, a deep hunger creates a determined and persistent pursuit. Where a normal seeker is content with a gift, the hungry will stop at nothing short of the prize.

And that is why we see Jacob risking his brother’s wrath to go back to his father since he was the link to the promise as opposed to Esau who didn’t mind establishing himself where he thrived. Success to Jacob was nothing outside the promise when to Esau the promise was not worth as much as success.

That is why we have people who will stop praying once their prayer is answered while others pray much more when the answer comes. Some become deep until they access the breakthrough whereas others are activated into greater depth by the breakthrough.

Some who had almost become church furniture as they seek the answer to prayer find more pressing things to do outside church once their prayer is answered while others find more reasons and resources to become more involved in church when their prayer is answered.

A pastor who was very involved in ministering to his congregation to the point of visiting them in their hovels and slums becomes an executive pastor when he is bought a nice car or phone so that people now have to book lengthy appointments to see him.

That is Esau and Jacob for you.

And I am not talking about backsliding or falling into sin. I am talking about a normal believer like me and you.

Only our consumption of God’s word can show us the person we are in these things.

In summary, Esau was content with what the promise could deliver while Jacob cared little with nothing other than the promise itself. It can be compared with many believers who are content with God’s gifts and the others who are desperate for God Himself. It is like the Israelites preferring Moses to listen for them versus Moses who had no issues being in the darkness of the mount for forty days without eating or drinking.

To one, the stretched out hand of God is their satisfaction and to the other nothing short of His face will satisfy them.

Are you a Jacob or an Esau?

Government 2

Last time we looked at secular government, specifically elected government.

I was hard on those representatives because they say words when they are campaigning. And there are words they say when being sworn in office, none of which is about their interests and pursuits. And no wonder they are paid so well and given so many other privileges to enable them keep their vows with distinction.

It is therefore sad that they use their positions for personal gain.

Is there a spiritual corollary? I am sure some are wondering, especially because I am a spiritual leader and minister.

Incidentally, there is not much different. It is only that in the spiritual many have been able to hide under spiritual sounding smog to do what many in the secular are doing without caring as they do not know any better.

It means that in the spiritual judgment is way higher than the one in the secular.

Let me get us a verse we all love quoting.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (Luke 4: 18, 19)

Do you realize that it is not much different from that of secular rulers?

The only difference is that in the spiritual we are supposed to be actively involved in the rescue of the vulnerable as opposed to the secular leaders who are supposed to watch out so that they do not take advantage of the vulnerabilities for gain.

This of course means that we as God’s people will always be standing up against leaders when they are not serving the vulnerable aright since we can’t be rescuing people even as we see others being sunk where we are rescuing others from. And that is why for most the church appears to be preaching a social Gospel without knowing that any gospel that has no social bearing is not Christ’s.

Some will argue that I am quoting from Christ’s discourse. But doesn’t the Bible clearly say that we have the spirit of Christ? Did He not say that we are supposed to continue His work where He left when He ascended?

This means that a ministry that has no place for the weak, marginalized, rejected, etc may actually be anything but Christ’s ministry.

It is alright to have the golf buddies ministry, the executives ministry, the high table ministry, the billionaires ministry, etc.

But if those ministries have no impact on those groups our anointing should focus on, I might say something I said concerning some pastors who were defending their anointing; they probably are anointed with paraffin.

I am not saying that those high end groups don’t need ministry or the Gospel. I am simply saying what the Bible says; very few of them feel any need for the Gospel. It therefore means that the bulk of our ministry to them is wasted effort. But if God calls you there, just go ahead. Because then He will give you the openings, the strategy, the breakthroughs and endurance that ministry will certainly require.

Again I do not mean the rich cannot submit to Christ’s call since I have several very rich dear brethren. It just means it is hard, though not impossible as Jesus Himself said.

Let me close with Jesus’ own words on judgment day.

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?  When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matthew 25: 31 – 46)

Read Job 31 to acknowledge that the rich can also do it.