Corruption Rides on This

And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages. (Luke 3:14)

God’s servants have no problem speaking to power, or at least they are not supposed to have any.

When you see one, or are one and are scared of speaking to power, it really means that you are serving another lord.

Why do people fear speaking to power?

The answer is simple, they have power. Meaning they can snuff you at will.

But they will not only snuff you when you speak against them. Uriah was killed for his commitment to duty. Fearing to speak to power is therefore not as safe as you think.

John the Baptist died for speaking to power. But his message endures to date. And he is the one I want us to look at today.

People want to associate with the man of God. Even power wants to associate with the man of God.

I suspect that John the Baptist did not ambush Herod. He did not break security protocol to speak to him. The probability is that Herod sought John’s audience. Then John issued the indictment that led to his assassination.

What do we see in this verse?

John is preaching in the wilderness and people are flocking there, all kinds of people. Isn’t it interesting that we think people will join us when we take our crusades where they are or where they are comfortable?

Anyway, power looks for him; publicans and soldiers. They want him to address their plight.

Do you realize that he kills corruption with the last statement he makes?

Be content with your wages.

The harassment and mistreatment and harshness have their source in the heart, a discontent heart.

And it goes all the way from parliamentarians to governors to presidents to kings. It even includes ministers like me.

Being dissatisfied with my lot is what breeds corruption and almost every other vice.

I can’t bet if I am content. I can’t steal or handle stolen property if I am content.

Look at this verse.

But godliness with contentment is great gain. (1Timothey 6:6)

I will not reach out for what is not mine if I am content with what I have.

I won’t look for that side chick (imagine being equated with chicken?) if I am content with my wife. And I won’t be all over looking for greener pastures, from lands to continents to investment opportunities if I am content with what I presently have.

This does not mean the death of ambition. Discontent breeds greed instead of the meeting of needs.

That your wife was beautiful when you married her is certain. That there are more beautiful girls being born and showing up all over is also not in doubt. And that the outward beauty of your wife is fading is also certain.

But knowing that your wife has something all other women combined do not have is the treasure most miss. She has your DNA. She has your children and house. She is part of who you are. Like the Bible says she is the wife of your youth.

You are the one who has aged her, either gracefully or otherwise.

Looking elsewhere is therefore an indictment on yourself. It is akin to growing your garden yet in harvest stretching out to your neighbor’s field.

Discontent is the reason we think that grass is greener the other side. It is the reason the neighbor’s TV has better pictures than yours. And it is the reason you must have a new job all too often.

In short, discontent creates a scenario where you stop looking at what you have as you are concentrating on what everybody else has.

Let me paint contentment using this example.

There are two people doing the same job and earning the same salary or wages and one is content while the other isn’t.

Do you realize that the content will effectively budget for that pittance even as his colleague is wasting his looking all over for a break? He will therefore accomplish infinitely more even as his colleague is wasting his searching.

Of course the content will be a better worker than the discontent since the content is at home even as his friend lives in a transit camp.

Due to that, the content will easily see new opportunities since he is not on the lookout for them. They are the ones looking for the diligence in him.

He will have more available money than the discontent since he uses his wisely due to the fact that he is not preparing for any extra. This means that he is able to invest better. His investments also appreciate faster because he is not in any hurry to dispose them. It means that people will many times be pleading with him to sell as opposed to the discontent who will be pleading with people to buy.

He will also be out of debt since he has no expectation or planning beyond his income.

Of course he will be dependable since he can always be found at his post.

These are a few advantages of being content with your wages. Mark you it doesn’t have a starting or ending point for those wages. It means that someone content with earning the minimum wage could accomplish more than someone earning six figures and is not content with it.

And life demonstrates that. How many people do you know who own property yet earned very little when people who were top of the food chain in terms of employment have nothing, unless it is the reward of corruption which washes away when they leave those offices? How many started very lowly and grew very big yet collapsed when greed took over?

Have you ever seen a content person being conned or scammed like they say nowadays?

Discontent breeds greed. And greed breeds these other vices, and of course folly.

And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. (Luke 12:15)

Jesus is rephrasing what John was saying.

Discontent is equated with chasing a shifty shadow when there are moving clouds overhead. Like Solomon stated in his desperate conclusion it is like chasing or grasping the wind.

Contentment creates a healthy work ethic. It makes someone diligent, the kind the Bible says opens doors with royalty. And it will be because royalty will be looking for them, not the other way round. And it is the same that makes a servant divide the inheritance with sons.

Let me give a few scenarios.

Look at two C students with ambition to excel.

The content will work his way to improve his grades, meaning he will improve slowly. His colleague simply buys the A grade. And that trend will go on throughout life.

Or two people are working at the same place. The content will work hard while the other will look for shortcuts at promotion using whatever means they can. The content will grow slowly through the ranks due to his hard work while his colleague will simply catapult through promotions.

Life is the one that will distinguish them as it has no such shortcuts. I can’t buy shortcuts in life.

This is why you will see insanely successful professionals falling into depression, getting into drugs and even committing suicide, many because they hijacked the process.

Contentment gives me the drive to improve on my lot, not move away from it.

If my marriage has issues, I will aim at improving the relationship with my wife instead of looking for another relationship or escape routes like alcohol.

Our children will be the evidence of how we live our life as they will amplify our values.

Ruth did not get married to Boaz because she positioned herself to be noticed. She simply became the best in gathering scraps that she simply couldn’t be ignored. It was her diligence and not her ambition that elevated her.

David did not become king because he was super ambitious. He was simply the best at worshiping God alone with the sheep that someone in the palace knew of an excellent player of the harp who could heal a rejected king.

The long and short of what I mean is that the secret to true success is being content with what we have and where we are. Then, and only then do we have any capacity to improve on it.

Let me close with the verse for us ministers

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2Timothy 2:15)

If you are content and are wondering why you appear to be always last, please read Psalm 73 for the sober dose from heaven.

Corona and Other Killer Diseases

As always I will throw a few stones on the narrative.

Before corona, Cancer was being pushed to be declared a national disaster.

Has corona killed cancer? Or what has happened that nowadays nobody is dying of cancer? 

What about diabetes, TB, hypertension and the many other diseases that were decimating our populace? 

What has happened to the abundance of information about what we need to do to manage those diseases? 

Just asking.

Prosperity Folly

 Ever wondered what would have happened had Christ been a prosperity preacher?

He meets Peter and his team and performs the mega miracle of bringing the fish from all over to fill their boats to overflowing. Then Peter falls before Him asking Him to go away since he was a sinner.

Jesus could have simply asked him to just go ahead and sell the fish and bring a worthy offering.

What about Matthew?

Since he must have been earning a good salary, he could have been reminded to invest in the kingdom. There was no need of leaving employment since the kingdom had more need for that offering. He could simply increase his worth in the kingdom by increasing his giving.

And the rich young ruler would not have gone back sad since he could have been allowed to use his wealth to pamper the kingdom in preparation for his later joining it. Or isn’t investing into the kingdom better than wasting all on the poor who may not even appreciate it?

Zacchaeus could have been rebuked for giving the poor instead of the kingdom. You see, he would not even need to compensate those he had defrauded since giving into the kingdom would sanitise the rest.

And since Judas was their first pope, the lady who wasted expensive perfume on Jesus could have been guided into better usage of that perfume.

The only problem is that Jesus as the King does not need investments into His kingdom. His kingdom is sufficient and lacks nothing.

The only thing a king needs is unfettered obedience

Sex is Spiritual

How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. (Isaiah 1:21)

Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. (Nahum 3:4)

Sex is not a simple physical or biological function.

From the scriptures, we see great focus on the spiritual aspect of sex than on the physical one.

Among some of the indicators was the prohibition of marriage to people of other faiths and priests being forbidden to marry someone who had had sex. That was unless they were previously married to a priest.

You also see that adultery is always associated with witchcraft and their sentences were also similar. I don’t know whether you realize that apart from idolatry, Jezebel was also full of whoredoms. Why would a queen sleep around?

It is thus safe to assume that she got her power to run Ahab and his kingdom through sleeping around since there was no money she needed to earn from her prostitution.

Again, look at Baal Peor. Nobody was invited to that god directly. Moab just paraded slay queens to tempt Israeli men. Once they decided to fall for them, the deal was complete. They then automatically started worshiping the Moabite gods. Sex was the introduction they needed. In short, sex was the gateway to idolatry.

Remember Michal? She was completely devoted to David to the point of defying her father to save his life. But then after David fled she was given to another man.

Then after his coronation he had her brought back. But she had changed.

How can someone who was dedicated to an outlaw turn her back on his God when he becomes king? It goes without say that it was due to her interaction with other spirits in that other marriage.

Does it surprise you that the Bible’s commandments on sex appear too stringent? Why do you think they are like that?

God created sex as a spiritual activity. The physical aspect is the doorway to that spiritual covenant making whether you know it or not.

For example, have you ever wondered why harlots are for the most part beautiful and well formed? Why don’t they get married? And why is it that the average and below average beauty girls rarely, if ever, fail to get husbands?

I suspect beautiful girls, due to their beauty and appeal, get tricked into the sex covenant, many times by men much older than them (many have no place for their age mates anyway). The spirits entered into (since it is a sinful intercourse) will then start controlling the girl, getting into deeper and deeper sin. That until sex becomes her profession.

Don’t tell me about her fending for her children unless you can tell me where those children came from.

Another telling situation that explains this is infidelity.

Someone can swindle one of all their earnings and that will leave a temporary impact. Someone can mistreat, even torture someone and the damage, though it might last long, will somehow wear out.

Why then is it impossible to completely forgive or even forget infidelity?

Mandela was known for his forgiveness, even forgiving those who tortured him in the 27 years he was in prison. Yet he was unable to extend the same grace to his wife who had endured as much adversity for being his wife as he had endured in prison.

And I am sure that was the reason David killed Uriah when he refused to fall for his ploy of covering up their affair. He simply could not have looked the other way once he realized that his wife was pregnant with another man’s child. And that was the Bible’s prescription.

And of course you remember Joseph trying to divorce Mary secretly when he realized that she was pregnant.

That does not happen when a spouse wastes common resources. Even drunkenness can be tolerated. But sex outside marriage is on another plane altogether.

It is because sex is spiritual. Adultery therefore means transferring spiritual devotion to another, something that is irreversible as it has already nullified the first union.

When a man takes a wife, and marries her, then it shall be, if she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's [wife]. If the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife; her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Yahweh: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance. (Deuteronomy 24: 1 – 4 WEB)

Though divorce was allowed due to the hardness of hearts, remarriage was not. Doing so is on the same plain with incest, bestiality and homosexuality.

Sex is a serious matter. Trivializing it has very harsh consequences, starting with the spiritual realm.

It can be compared to witchcraft. You can trash it all you want and will be as safe as the distance between you and spiritual compromise. You see, living right and with the right relationship with God actually trumps witchcraft.

Witchcraft is a heightened activation of demons into the physical (if I may call it that). This means that they can access anybody walking according to their standard, which is sin. They simply cannot access anybody outside their realm unless as with Job God allows them and gives limitations to how far they should go.

But I can never be safe if I am interacting with their realm because they do not need permission to deal with me.

Sadly, that is what compromise in sex does. It allows demons a field day in our lives and bodies.

But it goes farther. It introduces demons into someone’s life since it is a spiritual intercourse. It means there is an interaction and interchange of demons. Meaning that they can now legally start running one’s life.

It explains why sex (what some think is a simple physical or biological function like eating) can be so destructive. How such an activity can wreck a marriage and cause depression and many other ills. How it can become compulsive and illogical.

Or do you not wonder who impregnates those ‘despicable’ and dirty mad women in the markets and where and how they do it. You will be shocked to realize that it could be the people being held high in society. And I have a few who have witnessed some of that.

Illicit sex invites demon possession because it is a spiritual exercise, an exercise fighting against God and His standards.

It is therefore for our profit that the Bible places so many caveats on sex outside its God ordained boundaries. And we will be wise and safe following them.

 

God’s Display

I think we all can remember the adage ‘It is when God is the Only one you are left with that you realize that God is all you need’, or something like that.

Many times we see God more as an accessory than the bedrock of our faith. Of course we dare not confess that as we fear offending Him. We will therefore pray even as we look elsewhere for more predictable solutions for our crises. Like I like to say we pray with one eye open.

But sometimes everything blocks.

Then we are left with no option but praying, and waiting for God.

Then He will show up as God, the ultimate in everything because He has nobody and nothing to be compared with.

Remember Gideon in hiding?

His options had narrowed until he had actually no option.

Then God stepped in and the whole narrative changed.

Remember David facing Goliath? Again his confession was not optional. It was that God stepped in or the war was lost. But then He stepped in.

Remember the three Hebrew boys? The case was the same; a lost cause unless God stepped in. But of course we know the outcome.

But faith does not operate on desperation. It requires us to create those options for God to step in. It requires us blocking other options to allow God to shine on His own without us feeling as if we need to confess Him to just avoid offending Him.

You see, it is funny when I confess that God gave me a job when I actually know that it was my connections that did it. It is funny when I say that God gave me a wife when I know it was my ingenuity that won her over.

What am I implying?

We are supposed to confess Him when we are walking in obedience to His revelation, even if you get bored with my repeating this fact again and again.

That God uses people is not in doubt. But there is a difference between Him moving them and when I have done it. And at the back of my mind I could actually know the difference.

When I do what He asks of me (which is usually contrary to common or even popular opinion and sense), I am opening myself to God showing up in my situation.

And sometimes it is so bad that like Gideon we have to use a fleece to confirm that the command is from Him because it looks way off. And God is not scared of those fleeces. I once laid such a ‘fleece’ because I really did not want to do what I felt He was asking of me and He outperformed my doubt.

But we lay fleeces when we are ready to follow through with what He is commanding, not to satisfy our curiosity.

Following Him opens us to the supernatural.

In closing let me ask this.

What command has God issued you with?

Are you sure it is from Him? If not, laying a fleece won’t hurt.

Will you then follow through with what you are now sure He has told you? Then step aside (by obeying) and give Him the chance to show off because you will have locked out other seekers of glory, even yourself

God Uses People

… to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. (Isaiah 66:2b)

God showed me one person whose disability has opened tremendous doors and influence.

Then He asked me to tell them that, NO, disability was not the main thing. It was only a vehicle God used to expand their ministry, though it might not even look like ministry. He can make use of any other vehicle to use them. He can even heal them of that disability and use them even better if they continue being submitted to His Lordship.

In short, God uses people, people who are submitted to Him.

It is at that point that everything else falls in place to make us perform His commission.

But we love things. And our eyes only see things. We therefore apportion them more credit than the important things, our obedience, our growth, our faith, our character.

You see, God as creator owns everything and doesn’t require permission to use it. It is us He needs to allow Him. Them He can release everything we will require to be used as He wills.

It reminds me of the time I was a musician. I could tie my ministry to music, to singing, to instruments since they opened almost every door of ministry then. I then thought that Gituma without music as a nonstarter in anything ministry.

Then God ordered me to put that all down. Of course I couldn’t hear. Then He stopped it. My guitar got lost, I lost interest in the accordion I had just bought. Then He started opening other doors with no attachment at all to my musical gift, or talent if it makes you feel better.

Many times we think it is the abilities He has given us that make us ministers.

The reality is that those abilities are vehicles to us ministering. He uses us then gifts us with tools to make us more effective ministers.

That is the reality in the spiritual realm.

And that is why God judges us for faithfulness instead of impact.

Like the set of verses I most quote it explains why we see very powerful ministers heading to hell in Matthew 7.

God is interested in you and not what He has given you. It is you He will hold accountable to the way you use those vehicles He gives you to perform His orders.

Remember God created a fish to carry Jonah from rebellion to obedience? Remember that even a talking donkey was not enough to swamp the greed of a prophet? Remember Philip did not need to walk or even a chariot to move from the desert once his commission was complete? Remember when the prison was not enough to hold Peter because he had a few things he needed done?

But it is important to realize that it is God’s commission that dictates the vehicles we get.

Or you do not remember Stephen praising even as he was being stoned to death? Or Paul being stoned to ‘death’? Or the heroes of faith we see in Hebrews 11? It is not surprising to believers that Elisha who raised the dead died of illness.

The short and long of what I am saying is that God is the only One holding the reins of our lives.

He therefore determines the vehicles He apportions us to enable to obey Him.

You limitation could be you vehicle as your strength could be. Your lack could be your vehicle as could your abundance.

What this means is that we will need to be completely submitted to God and sold out to His revelation.

Otherwise we could use what I have just explained as a pretext for spiritual lethargy.

We must seek God and His will. Only then can we effectively make use of whatever vehicles He gives us and especially to distinguish those vehicles from the snares the enemy clones as vehicles to entrap us.

Or haven’t you seen ministers whose breakthroughs completely emasculated the cutting edge of their ministry? Remember Solomon and King Saul and Hezekiah among many others whose beginning and faith and ministry was great yet they ended up in regret.

And pray for me. God is opening the door for such a vehicle for me, a vehicle He spoke and I wrote about in 2013 as ‘Varsity on the Hill’. In fact it is the reason I have not been able to post as consistently as before since I am engaged in laying things on the ground. I am trusting that by the end of this month God will have completed the provision of the chapter. But please pray.