Giving and Money

If you will allow me I want to state that you probably should do some press ups before reading this post because I am saying some things off the normal.

Do you realize that money was the reason Ananias and his wife died? That had money been removed from the equation their story could have turned out otherwise?

You see, they had given their parcel of land for God’s use without reservations.

It is possible that the apostles advised them to sell the land as the church then did not have need for the land or the logistics of disposing the same. You realize deacons were chosen later.

The dynamic of greed and deception came in when they held the wads (or whatever their money was held by) of cash after selling the land.

Then the same people who had willingly and freely given their piece of land started seeing opportunities, new opportunities that never existed when they were giving the land.

Of course the devil saw an opportunity to bring in deception that resulted in death.

Who then was at fault here? Could we really wholly blame the couple?

I think the church leadership should take a lot more blame for the death of the couple than the couple did. I am not saying they were guiltless. And I will give a verse to explain what I mean.

And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. (Acts 5:8)

It means that they had had an earlier agreement that the couple would sell the land. Were it not for the revelation of the Holy Spirit Peter would not have known that greed had overtaken them.

What am I saying?

I am saying that were it not for the fact that the couple was asked to sell their land and bring the money to the apostles, there was no way greed could have overtaken their generosity. Money was the catalyst to that greed.

In short, giving and money are not very compatible.

As a farmer will tell you, it is easier to give someone a chicken or goat than the money you get from the sale of the same. It is much easier to give someone a plate of food than give them money for them to buy the same.

Money is sticky to its holder. Things rarely are except to the stingy.

Attaching monetary value to things is therefore is an easier way to make people stingy than asking and expecting the things as they are.

People who would normally not spare a thought for you as far as money is concerned do not have any problem giving you a very expensive piece of furniture when they buy another one. People who think giving a dollar as support to a minister may not have an issue giving everything in their garage when asked for the same. And people who may call a minister a leech when asked for money may very freely give out their very expensive washing machine and cooker after buying new ones.

I believe money is a tool from the enemy just like many other weapons. And it is a tool he has used with the greatest impact over the ages.

Sadly, the church has not seen the need to deal with the same, I think because the leadership benefits greatly from the error manufactured by that tool. The wielder of the purse may have a difficult time knowing the dangers the contents of the purse hold for the rest of the people.

I will not be surprised if I learnt that Judas’ desire to sell Jesus was developed by his control of the purse since his departure to the priests came immediately after Jesus defended the pouring of that very expensive ointment on Him. It is even possible that he started pilfering the contents of the purse after realizing that nobody cared or even noticed.

In short it is possible that Judas was corrupted by the purse, or the money in the purse.

Do you realize that in the Old Testament all giving was in kind? That even in the event the designated place was far someone sold his livestock and went and bought others?

No one in the Bible tithed money. They simply tithed whatever they dealt with.

In short giving is never an issue if we remove money and monetization from the picture.

It is when we monetize food (sugar costs x, milk costs y, flour costs z) that our hospitality develops cold feet.

You also realize even in the social sphere that marriage became difficult when we started monetizing dowry and bride price.

Exchanging or giving livestock was a joy in the past. One side gave and the other side gave and there was joy all around.

But when a price was attached to a cow and a goat and a sheep a girl simply became a commodity that was bought, many times going to the highest bidder.

A cow from the in laws was treated special because it represented a relationship. Where my wife comes from the first cow I gave was given a special name which would always remind them of their son in law. And in many places such livestock was guarded better than the rest because of the ties they represented.

But money does not behave anywhere close to that.

Young people get to love each other and their relationship is monetized when they want to actualize it. Each of them is treated as a commodity and their relationship treated as a liability by one side and an asset by the other.

To add pain to the injury, they are told that even their celebration of marriage (wedding) should also be monetized. 

It is no wonder that marriages are breaking at breakneck speed nowadays. You see they have become a merging of two commodities as opposed to the uniting of two people desirous of making a life together.

I divest. I was talking about money and giving, especially to ministry.

Modern ministers are so foolish as to expect someone would generously give money to ministry when they are not submitted completely to God and will therefore pamper them to hell without realizing that they are increasing the capacity of hell.

However, some know what they are doing and would not mind a hell heading crowd supporting their ‘ministry’ since it also is heading there.

I shared a post recently, showing that there are two causes of generous giving, actual worship or free flowing freedom from the same. But whichever way, money rarely comes easily.

A person totally submitted to the Lordship of Christ has no problem giving money as we see with Barnabas. And a person in a seeker sensitive church has no problem giving as it pampers his ego as we see with the golden calf in the wilderness.

As I always say, people submitted to the Christ I serve will have no problems supporting me even without knowing what I do as Christ will direct them.

Incidentally it is impossible to convince anyone about my orders from Christ as I also have issues understanding some of them since lordship is more about obedience than understanding.

No wonder Paul said we are fools for Christ as some of the orders we receive make us doubt our sanity or even thinking capacity.

That is why it is impossible to convince money to follow Christ’s orders.

If someone who had freely given his piece of land could ‘hide’ some of the proceeds when he sold the land, how do you expect someone give their money just like that? Or have you forgotten Christ’s statement about the camel and the eye of the needle.

Yet it is not all doom. God still has people submitted to Him that their money is completely subject to His Lordship.

Read Job 31 to find one such person.

Allow me to close with this verse

And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. (Luke 16:9)

Money can only serve God’s purpose when the one possessing it is completely submitted to that purpose.

Infidelity

And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. (1Corinthians 14:35)

I have become a farmer, albeit a very ‘small’ one.

Like I have always said, Biblical revelation is easier to understand with a farmer’s perspective.

I am therefore learning, and many things at that, especially as I study animals and birds in my compound.

I recently posted that a cock has a lot more responsibilities than just giving a seed.

Let me today write a bit about ducks. Incidentally this is the first time I am interacting with Donald’s relatives.

I first bought a couple and we had quite a fight making them enter their bedroom. But eventually they settled.

Then I bought two other females and the battle was in the first day when we had to group them with the chicken.

In the next day the first ones comfortably entered their room but the rest rebelled.

When the male saw that they were refusing to enter, he left his room, followed by his partner and slowly led them to the chicken’s room and from that day they always ‘sleep’ there.

Then I thought that the drake may be immature to give seed to the ducks and I bought a mature one.

The two ducks transferred their loyalty immediately, even having a difficult time getting inside because the big drake would not. It was when he agreed to get in that the struggle ended, after a few days.

Then I got to think about marriage.

Do you realize that a similar thing happens when a woman transfers spiritual authority to someone other than her husband?

They might sleep on the same bed and even continue being faithful to each other but in the spirit the marriage snapped.

And it is so whether that other man is a bishop, prophet, pastor or witchdoctor.

You see, marriage starts in the spiritual and is then consummated in the flesh.

And that is why Joseph was told to take Mary his wife though they had never had sex. (I have written on the dangers of dating due to this)

If your husband is the prayer request you take to whoever, please know that you are being unfaithful to him.

You see, a husband is the head of the wife spiritually before these other aspects come into play.

It means that if you are not spiritually submitted to your husband you are an adulterer in the spiritual realm; meaning that your marriage is already broken in the spiritual, however romantic you may be to each other.

The clearest example we can get in the scriptures is Michal, David’s heartthrob.

When she agreed to being married off after David fled the palace, she transferred her spiritual authority to another, effectively dissolving her marriage to her first love.

That is why much later when she comes back to him she is unable to connect to his spiritual pulse as we see when she is commenting on David’s dancing.

Her father had no legal basis or authority to take her to another man because David had paid the requisite dowry. She is the one who transferred the same to him and later to another man.

Or don’t we see Jonathan going to demonstrate his submission to David in the wilderness yet he was the crown prince and in the army that was looking to kill him?

That is what happens when another man (or woman) is given spiritual reins of a woman’s life. She becomes unable to submit spiritually to her husband.

That disconnect is the spirit is not discerned unless in the spiritual. But it can be felt and its impact seen.

A man with a wife who has transferred spiritual submission elsewhere can sense the distance growing though he cannot explain, let alone understand what has happened.

Then, due to that spiritual disparity, they will start growing apart. And many times actual unfaithfulness is the result with the man many times being the culprit. Yet he is the victim of spiritual adultery in the wife, an adultery he may never know exists.

This is why we have enough cases of hyper spiritual ladies complaining about adulterous husbands. And it is the same with very churchy women.

Their spiritual loyalties are elsewhere and the husband has his spiritual authority hanging. And that low hanging fruit is very attractive to temptation.

Now there is no excuse for sin. But I am convinced that wisdom dictates that we use all the means at our disposal to block all entrances of temptation, and for the woman it is complete spiritual submission to your husband, however unspiritual you might deem him to be.

Or haven’t you read this?

Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. (1Peter 3: 1, 2)

What else do you want me to say?

Stretching the Scriptures

There are religious clichés we have used through the ages that they have taken the authority of scriptures. 

Sadly, some of them are as opposed to the scriptures as a statement from hell.

You see, when the serpent told Eve that she would not surely die, he was not entirely false as they did not die immediately (at least physically). But it was dangerous because it twisted God’s words to fuel rebellion. It was thus a lie packaged as a truth.

One such statement has disturbed me for a long time because it appears all true and scriptural, though the scriptures are really contrary to it.

It says that all sins carry the same weight to God. And I know that you may have even quoted that ‘scripture’ in your preaching. In short God treats all sins alike.

But is that scriptural?

Is mass murder the same as a white lie? Is bestiality the same as bending the truth to impress in an interview?

Does the Bible at any time even imply such a thing?

If sins are the same, why then are their sentences different? Why should one give a sin offering while another is stoned yet another is burned?

But you see, we must protect our transgressions, especially against being pointed out. And what better defense than pointing back by showing that all sins are equal.

Do not judge me for sleeping with someone’s wife because last week you lied that you do not have money because you were not ready to lend to someone who never repays debts (and all sins are equal to God).

In short, that statement is a clutch people use to protect themselves from being held accountable for their transgressions.

It is not any different from the stretching of the ‘do not judge’ 

Like I have always posed, have you ever heard anybody quoting the said statements when they are walking right? Have you ever heard someone using them to defend their right living?

Those statements find their validity in sin and the pursuit of sanitizing it.

Do not be a party to distorting scripture to defend sin and lawlessness. God hates it and must judge it.

Between Which Lines?

But 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)

Some believers are so good at reading and explaining things that are not written in the Bible. They seem or want us to believe that they know more about God’s heart and workings than He has said in His word.

Some of us, however, are not that bright. We do not desire or even look between the written lines of the divine writ. We are content with what is there as it is already heavy enough to follow. Reading and understanding between the lines is therefore beyond our capacity. And we are content with what is written anyway.

In any case, what is the need of knowing what lies between the lines when what is on the lines is so clear?

How is it that someone who picks the Bible and reads it is led to Christ yet they do not even know of anything in existence between the lines? Were we taught anything between the lines when we believed?

Let me pick a case to get us understand what I am saying.

God hates divorce. And that in the Bible is clear as day.

Yet have you noticed how many will jump at you if you write that statement somewhere?

Where is there so much argument about such a clear statement?

Hate is not the same as being biased against, or ambivalent, or displeased with. Hate is a strong word.

Has anyone ever said they hated you? Did you read between the lines? Which lines?

The God who will hold us accountable for every idle word we speak can therefore not be expected to issue a word that does not mean what He is saying or means.

Please get that into your foolish head and never try to explain something God hates.

Trying to use homosexuality to make it appear less hateful does not change a thing because God still HATES divorce. Homosexuality is an abomination and not the perfume to cover the stench of divorce that God hates.

The reason I enjoy reading the Bible is because I do not try to understand beyond what is written and so am always given understanding for what is written.

But those who think they are brighter take a peep in the darksome places between the lines to bring in strange doctrines to help explain away their disobedience and lack of pursuit for right revelation. Sadly, pulpits are full of them.

I have been kicked out and punished and banished for questioning leaders who did or taught things opposite to what the Bible clearly says. In short I was punished for refusing to accommodate the between the lines theology, a thing I will never do.

And even on this net there are people who hate me because I punch holes in their between the lines doctrines.

I always ask, why look between the lines when the lines are clear and understandable?

And divorce is not the only thing God hates. But it is a good place to start.

Do not entertain divorce anywhere, not even in your mind, because you will then be doing something God HATES.

It is a good thing to start hating what God hates.

Dynamic of Finishing

Have you realized that the church’s battles with the Pharisees and Sadducees ended with Christ’s crucifixion?

What do I mean? I know someone is asking.

Remember all the battles about Sabbath and ceremonial purification and many other cultural and spiritual sparring themes we read in the Gospels? Which of them do we see in the Acts?

None.

The church did not even once have to battle such things. Of course meaning that Jesus fought and finished all those battles and wars. His church therefore started from a point of victory on those issues. Of course because they had other battles to do.

Never again do we see noise being made because a miracle was performed on the Sabbath because the Lord of the Sabbath took back His day. Never again do we have confrontations on the temple because the Greater than the temple had put the temple in its rightful position.

The apostles were therefore freed from those battles to forge ahead with the Gospel unhindered and unfettered by those little battles.

Remember what the apostles said?

Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. (Acts 6:2)

It was a new challenge but they had to deal with it in such a way that it did not detract them from their focus. Now imagine if they still had to deal with battles on Sabbath and ceremonial demands?

They were able to be focused because Jesus cleared those battles conclusively. In short they started a brand new chapter of ministry.

But you will always realize that they also never left any battles they fought for a later generation as they copied their Commander. They did not deal with a case twice.

As an example look at the Judaizers in Acts 15. They have a conference and clear that issue. It is later only mentioned as a reference.

I hope you realize as you read the Bible and live this faith that it is the way Christ programmed His church to operate. We are different from swine and dogs that return to their vomit.

My experience as I have grown in faith and ministry is that God does not purpose for us to repeat lessons, unless we missed them or chose to flunk them.

Incidentally, even temptations operate like that. You will not fight a temptation, overcome it and later have to face it. I have never seen it like that. God’s victory is complete and does not need revisiting.

That like was with Jesus the devil departed to look for an opportune moment simply means that he goes to craft a different temptation and not repeat what was won.

What am I saying?

If you have a recurring temptation or a series of them, it means you have a serious problem with your faith. Either you are not in the faith or you refused to grow and so do not challenge the devil to package temptations as a single one brings you down time and again.

Again, if we have to be dealing with a similar fall or sin on a person all the time, we really are not dealing with a brother.

For example, a sister is always coming for prayer and repentance after sleeping with this or the other brother. That is a harlot. And it is the same if it was a brother. No deliverance (whatever that is) can help them because they have refused to walk in or toward victory.

Let me get to this bishop to get you angry a bit.

The bishop walked in adultery. But let me dirty the water even further by introducing a conspiracy.

He was angry that the girl did not tell him she was pregnant. How does a grownup have sex and be surprised when a pregnancy occurs?

My theory is that our guy is a serial adulterer. But not only that. Once a girl gets pregnant, he has a way of procuring abortion since he has all the offerings to fund it. I won’t be surprised to know that there are more girls he has slept with and made pregnant but cleared those pregnancies ‘conveniently’.

When he got to this girl, she knew (women and girls talk) that so and so was here and got pregnant and somehow the pregnancy disappeared. Of course because there is no way to fix a man (especially a man of God) with adultery without a child because the whole structure will kill you for seeking to spoil their darling’s reputation.

She therefore hid that pregnancy, either because she really loved him or did not want to add the sin of murder to that of fornication. She therefore refused to be smitten to stupidity like the rest.

Then of course when she informed him that she had borne his child he became wild and forgot to reduce his pride and arrogance, giving a lawyer quick cash.

But why are we even dealing with adultery in a bishop? We gave a toddler the spiritual responsibility of a parent. Those base drives ought to have been dealt with in his youth even before he got married.

Chances are that he flossed over them because he was gifted. The church tapped into the gift instead of working on the body carrying it.

And for some time it worked because he was protected from temptation by the busyness of ministry.

Until he rested when he became the head of his own denomination. He had the time to see those figures and shapes and contours and bosoms of all those sisters who were always at his service.

That is when he realizes that he did not grow through overcoming temptation. In short he did not deal with temptation as he was growing. He is therefore unable to defeat temptation because he doesn’t know what temptation is. I will not be surprised to learn he also has issues with finances and tempers

The saddest part is that the bishops defending him are just like him, dealing with temptation just like he does because they were given pastoral roles in their spiritual kindergarten because they were gifted. They therefore understand him perfectly and some are just like him only that their sin has not exploded.

Look at these verses.

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. (Ephesians 5: 3, 4)

To imagine that we are talking about these things with respect to spiritual leaders is an insult to our faith. Those are the very basic temptations we overcome when we believe.

Yet it is so because we trashed discipleship and magnified the gifts. It is the greatest error the Pentecostal movement introduced to the church of Christ. It became even worse because the other denominations who ought to know better have started copying the error since mushrooms grow faster than cedars and we love fast growing.

It saddens me when I see a whole denomination parading a child as a reverend and even bishop, even giving him airtime on radio stations because he is so gifted. Others are paraded in churches because they have excellent voices or good grasp of an instrument.

Giving a child responsibility before growing their faith to maturity will eventually kill them. And I suspect this is the case with this bishop and his defenders.

When will we get back to what Christ commanded us? When will we get back to discipleship?

For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. (Ephesians 5: 5 – 7)

Stupidity

There are words I very rarely use because they are very strong. One such word is stupid.

But allow me to use it today on ministers, because I am one

Have you heard ministers defending their anointing and calling?

How many times do we hear them saying, ‘touch not mine anointed’?

What about, ‘believe the prophet’?

Many ministers love being treated special and very different from ‘sheep’.

They love special seats. They love special garb. They love special greetings and giftings.

In short there is nothing ordinary with them when they are accessing privileges.

But let them be caught in sin.

I am a man like you. I have feeling just like yours. I am not special because I can sin just like you.

Incidentally, if some sinner was brought to them prior to his sin being found out, the condemnation that issued from their office was without mercy, especially if it was of some little loss to him or his. Patmos could have been the destination of the banishment if he knew where it is and it could have been affordable.

Choose what you want. It is stupidity to change rules when they stop favoring you.

You need to realize that Moses’ was one small infraction. But because of his anointing that simple sin meant that he would not cross over. David’s sin meant judgment for his posterity because of his anointing.

Never in the scriptures do you see a prophet, or leader for that nature, claim commonality to defend himself. The only thing we see is the example of the incarnation when Christ took our nature.

And that is simply for the purposes of identifying with us and understanding us. And that is the same with us as concerns our anointing.

We do not share any yardstick. Understanding the ones we minister to is not the same as being like them. The standard for our judgment is way higher than theirs like I have mentioned with Moses and David. And James 3:1 says the same thing.

It is thus stupidity to tell people not to touch the anointed and at the same time infer the anointing makes no difference in your life. It could actually be blasphemy.

And for you being led, stop also the stupidity of allowing the ‘anointed’ conveniently leave his anointing when he wants to wallow in the comforts of this temporal life. Call him to the Biblical standard of that anointing and leave him if he doesn’t exemplify a holy life, a life worthy of emulation.

Let me leave it here hoping someone has learnt something.

God bless you. 

Simple English

Sometimes we just need to go back to simple language to get out of the maze of theological or doctrinal complexities.

I write this in response to concerns about a bishop who can’t seem to keep his trouser zipped and his fellow bishops coming to his defense and asking believers to leave him alone.

It pains that people entrusted with the guidance of God’s people can be so casual with sin.

I have been off the loop and so am only commenting on what I was asked.

What do we think when we hear the name Holy Spirit? What do we think when we hear the word spirits? Can those two terms or words be spoken together?

One stands for holiness whereas the other rides on debauchery. One stands for sobriety while the other stands for inebriety. In short they can’t be together in one room (person). Yet both are spirits. It therefore means they are contrary spirits.

And the same applies to sin. The Holy Spirit and sin are opposites. It is impossible to talk about the Holy Spirit in us when we have not denounced sin. Let me give us a verse.

And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: (John 16:8)

Talking about being filled with the Holy Spirit and at the same time being neutral about sin is a contradiction in terms. It is an impossibility.

The Holy Spirit and sin are allergic one to the other. And that is the main problem I have with the charismatic movement. They have shifted the focus elsewhere. We can’t be natural and spiritual at the same time.

You see, the clearest evidence of the presence of something is in its defining traits.

You do not need to smell a drunk to know the presence of those other spirits. The evidence can be got from a very long distance.

Tongues are like that smell that you must get close to notice.

Holiness is what you will notice from a distance, sometimes even before you know someone is a believer.

Holiness is the defining trait of the Spirit of Christ.

Remember the four Hebrew boys? Everybody knew and confessed that the spirit of the holy gods was in them. And I am sure they did not speak in tongues. Their lives were such that everybody saw a difference, holiness in their lives. And it was the same with Joseph.

Remember Daniel’s adversaries’ challenge? His life was so holy that they knew without a doubt that they could not corrupt him.

When you therefore see bishops cozying with sin in their contemporary yet boasting of being filled with the Spirit because they speak in tongues you can be certain that that spirit filling them is not the Spirit of Christ. Incidentally most contrary spirits confer their adherents a gift of tongues.

I remember one day as a child when a mad neighbor came into a fellowship I was in and spoke for a very long time in tongues and I got confused because he was an enemy to our church yet possessed the evidence of the filling the fellowship fronted. In fact he twice threw rocks to the roof, so huge that they tore through the iron sheets. He had some extra endowment to even lift those rocks, of course because he was controlled by other spirits. Yet he spoke in tongues!

The Holy Spirit without a sanctified life is a lie.

But there is something we need to realize was the purpose of the filling; witness.

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

And display that is the tongues has nothing to do with witness. In fact Paul treated it as a selfish manifestation when he wrote about it.

Read through Acts and see that any time filling of the Spirit is mentioned Christian witness explodes.

But my point is this, we cannot confess the Holy Spirit leading or filling our lives if our lives are not holy.

I do not care how many you are leading but if holiness is not the defining aspect of your life, from the bedroom to the banquet room, you do not serve Christ or lead anybody to Him. And even the world knows that.

This man preaches like an angel but drinks like the devil. His songs are so inspirational but his life is rotten. His pulpit delivery is so good but his life is full of falsehood.

These are some statements the world makes of us ministers when our lives are not sanctified. We know (though choose to ignore) that with such lives we can only expect Christ ordering us, ‘Depart from Me …’ because we really are not serving Him. And this has given me an excuse to put verses I love quoting.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 21 – 23)

I recently did a post on why our generation is doomed. You can read it on the blog.

Isn’t what these bishops doing clearest evidence of that damnation?

A Message to Parents

In these difficult times where the government has become the cause of oppression, I feel it is important to give out an encouraging message God recently gave me.

After the lockdowns and curfews, it appears as if our leaders have decided to take all their frustrations out on parents. Either that or they are dumber than asses in their leadership. Or maybe they do not care how the country is getting as long as they are earning those fat salaries.

Let me give us one context.

We have a two month term to cover for their lack of foresight, something I wrote about at that time.

But that is not my main problem. (Please note that I am not writing about the student or the amount of work they must do to cover three months in two)

We have a ten day holiday between terms and a compulsory five day mid-term break.

For some students, that mid-term may not be adequate to travel home and get back even if they had the resources especially because night travel was banned. But think also of the monies required.

Now think of the parent who has to get fare for two or three such students for a nonsensical mid-term.

Let me break this down.

In the beginning of the month he has to have fees and fare to take the children to school. As the month ends he has to produce fare for the compulsory mid-term. At the end of the second month he has to produce fare to bring them back home. Then before the middle of the third month he has to have fees and fare to take them back to school. And the cycle resumes.

Not to forget that the same parent has to attend a meeting, sometimes two per school per year and some other ‘soft’ monies required for enhancement of the children’s education.

How much money does that parent need?

Why does the government not combine those two brief breaks to at least save the parent on the fare? Or they think everybody is being fed on taxes like they are?

Let me now get to us parents.

Am I a parent?

I have two children in high school, both of them schooling far from home. Next year I will have three.

God took me back decades and showed me how a majority of us went through school.

Do you realize that very few had working or able parents?

Many wore their first shoe when they joined high school. I know some wore their first short when they were joining high school, among other firsts. And it was not by choice.

I have shared this message to two parents and they both commented the same thing, MIRACLE.

The vast majority of the educated had no resources; no money, no cows to sell, no lands to sell, no tall relatives to assist, no foundations to sponsor, no CDF.

But we made it through school, somehow, and successfully.

If God was able to make our illiterate and poor parents educate us; if God could produce something out of that desperation and despondency, then we are safe to believe that our children’s education will not kill us. That they will come out fine and educated.

We will educate our children successfully.

Take that from God and do not give up.

As for those oppressors, they should know that God will be on their case, soon.

God bless you

Nature is Interesting

I thought I knew quite some about domestic animals since I was raised on the farms (small ones).

But I recently came to learn that I do not know as much as I thought I did.

Let us go to chicken.

Whoever thought that the cock had any other responsibility beyond planting seeds?

I was surprised when I observed my few chicken.

The cock offers so much more.

For one, before I got one, a neighbor’s chicken were all over my place, sometimes even before we woke up.

That stopped immediately somebody lent me his cock. No other chicken have come to my place since then.

The cock also looks for food for his wives, which I found very interesting. He does what a hen does with her chicks, even calling them when he sees some bounty somewhere. And they are very attentive and responsive to any call he makes.

He also protects them. A scream from one of them brings him full speed to the sight. There was time an animal (I suspect) tried to invade and it made so much noise as the hens went hiding.

The most interesting thing I found however is the fact that it is the one that looks for the place where the hens will lay their eggs and nothing you do can change that.

The only difference with man is that a cock has many wives. The plus is that it loves and treats them equally. And of course it doesn’t disturb a pregnant (hatching) wife.

So, before you lump irresponsible men with cocks, please know that you are staining the cock’s sterling record.

Unequal Death

Listening to the Bible is exciting because it gets me to know things that I seem to miss when I am reading. Some truths seem to be so hidden (of course that is not true) that even reading through them a hundred times you will slip through some key truths.

Of course I know that God also reserves the time to bring to life whatever truth He needs to transform me at any one time.

But I find the Audio Bible such a useful tool in my spiritual workshop.

Of course I listen to it differently than most because I put it on when I go to bed and it speaks to me the whole night. When I wake up, when I lose sleep, when I’m asleep and of course the time I am relaxing in bed after waking up.

I know you know that the brain does not die when one is asleep and so the Audio Bible is a good addition to a healthy sleep pattern.

Now to my topic.

I do not know whether you have followed Israel’s complaints since leaving Egypt.

Do you realize that the only time they did not prefer death was the first time they faced it at the Red Sea? They preferred slavery because that is what they had been facing.

Since that time, they were always saying that it would have been better if they had died the death they had been dreading the previous time.

What is so special about yesterday’s death that I want to celebrate it when I face death today?

I dare say that that is the conversation of people who would rather not progress. It is the cry of a people who have a problem with being led to a better place. In simple terms it is the language of the faithless; the diet of the perennial complainers.

Why would having died yesterday be preferable to dying today yet death is simply that, death?

I am not ready for growth. I am not ready for responsibility.

Why did I not embrace that death yesterday? I am not ready to die.

Facing death and dealing with the same is my problem. And it is so because I am not ready to live the present. I am not ready for the challenges today will bring.

Let me illustrate with the spies.

 They had gone to see the land God promised their fathers. And the land was there alright. And it was just as God had described it.

However, it required work before occupation. It required a breakthrough, them breaking through some obstacles and barriers.

We are not ready to fight to occupy. God ought to have cleared the Anakims before taking them there.

They chose to forget that the same God had told them that He would clear the inhabitants slowly by slowly so that they do not find a land overrun with wild animals, and of course bushes and forests. This would have required more work, more resources for the same and longer time before feeding off the land.

In short, the promise had included subduing the giants.

But they were not ready to work.

That is why they preferred the previous day’s death to facing the giants.

But look at Caleb.

And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. (Numbers 13:30)

The problem was not the giants. It was an Israel unwilling to work.

That is why God agreed with them and killed them in the desert.

Does this speak to our generation?

Let us look at a few things.

What do you think when people talk about working smart and working hard?

Those two are treated as opposites.

Working smart means using your brain to make others work hard on your behalf. Simply said people work and you are paid.

The flip side of this is that those who are working do not deserve to earn because they are not smart. They are like asses or mules who just need food to survive, and of course work for the smart.

In short it means that the one who can get the most out of people and situations after putting in the least is the smartest.

And you will never hear even the most spiritual of these spiritual papas or mamas calling that wickedness and exploitation.

Or look at the political narratives in our country.

We did not educate our children to push wheelbarrows.

Now, since wheelbarrows will have to be pushed, who will push them?

The same mindset. We will exploit the poor and uneducated by paying them close to nothing to push our wheelbarrows.

But it is in the spiritual where it gets amplified.

Why do people look for miracles? Why do they run to prophets? Why do they give everything to the man of God (whatever that means)? Why are Prayer Mountains always occupied?

They are looking for short cuts. They want a breakthrough that does not require breaking through. They want to get to Canaan without passing through the wilderness for training. They want to occupy without dealing with the giants.

I want to experience peace without squaring it out with my pesky neighbor. I want to have great children without using the cane on them. I want to get the best job without being the best at my present one. I want to have a great marriage without working on my immaturity. And I want to have a vibrant ministry without putting in the labor, the sweat, the perseverance, the longsuffering it requires.

I will therefore use the least investment (money) on the least demanding (man of God, witch, lottery) to jump the queue because I am smarter than most (at least I think so).

Giving therefore becomes the short cut to God’s intervention because I think He fits the bill (at least that is what men of God have taught).

That is the greatest error and danger of the prosperity ungospel. It teaches people short cuts to things without short cuts. And the broker (man of God) is the ultimate reaper.

If we taught people to grow in the things of God, I doubt we will have as much drama as we continue to witness in the world today.

But there is something benefitting from those short cuts, the person occupying a spiritual position.

Do you know that most pyramid schemes thrive in church, many times being fronted by the main guys?

Some time ago I spoke to some friends and told them that it was a pyramid scheme.

One of them was very bold in challenging me, of course showing me a cheque in the name of a big pastor.

How can God speak to you and not to the denominational head and senior pastor? And of course I kept quiet.

It is when they lost their savings that they came to me with bowed heads.

The enticement of short cuts is because they appear too sweet and fleeting to think through. Losing through not thinking through appears wiser than delaying until you think and pray through. Very few such schemes will come back to you if you tell them to give you time to think about it. Thinking is not part of their modus operandi. Yet believers flock them.

And pastors have led many to everything from divorce to suicide when they endorse such short cuts.

Yet as much as pastors are complicit in most of these affairs, they are not the only culprits.

The believer who puts his brain in his pocket and uses someone else’s brain has no right to blame somebody else when they are fleeced.

But that is the problem we see with Israel in this instance. No wonder they prefer yesterday’s death to today’s challenge.

What would you?

Spiritual Display is Dangerous

Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. (2Kings 6: 11, 12)

Let us continue looking at our Lord’s instructions on Matthew 6.

In summary Jesus is saying that your spirituality should strictly be between you and God. Anything beyond that is unspiritual, unfruitful and without reward.

I want us to look at it from the point of war.

Do you realize that in a war very few people know the details of the same? Ever known that many times the maximum number of people with the complete strategy may be two or at the most three? And that for an army of several thousands and much munition?

Why is that important?

The opposing side would pay anything to get that strategy because it would then mean the war would be a walk over. Ambushes happen because one side gets some leakage of the other’s strategy and basically leads them to slaughter by leaving no escape route. The team that can access its enemy’s strategy sets the pace of the war and its conclusion. And that is why spies are loved and loathed, depending on which side they are serving.

That is why hackers are dreaded as they can effortlessly get into those fortresses and fish out whatever they want.

That is what we see with Elisha here. He was able through revelation to ‘hack’ into the enemy’s files and leak them to Israel’s king.

What does this have to do with spiritual display? Everything, I may say.

We have an enemy. And that enemy is most devious and enormously experienced.

Letting him into our plans gives him an upper hand over our lives.

Why do many popular ministers have issues with sin? Why is it that many Christian singers sink into sin? What makes many popular pastors greedy for gain?

I dare say that the devil gets a sneak preview of their life and uses it to lay enough traps and snares for them.

You see, you can’t lay an ambush on me unless you have my itinerary.

Let me get us back to some recent happenings where some people would come back from holiday to find ransacked houses. And the thieves simply followed their social media posts to know that they would be away for some time. And of course we have some who have lost jobs and sponsorship opportunities when the benefactor got to visit their pages.

Do you get my drift?

Why do you post what you post?

Many people find their validity in likes and follows and all those other reactions.

Sadly, it is not only your friends who follow you. Your arch enemy is among those who are very keen on what you post. And he is not there to build your faith or ministry but to destroy you. He will therefore use your posts to lay traps on your spiritual life, many times through knowing what you are doing and thinking. Is it not surprising that Facebook welcomes you by asking what’s on your mind?

That is why it is important to listen to God about the media, especially our interactions with it.

Let me offend some friends here and go to prayer.

The charismatic movement brought a deformation on prayer by trashing what Christ said.

You go to a prayer meeting and the noise is deafening. Many even do that in their private prayer times, speaking as loud as possible for their prayers to be heard.

In my youth I used to wonder why such prayer warriors fell into stupid sins but now I understand. Their prayer times were the reason of their downfall.

When the enemy is able to eavesdrop on your communication with God, is it surprising that he would package temptation as the answer you were seeking for in prayer?

Let me give an example with what has felled many.

Let us say I am praying for a wife (nowadays people pray for girlfriends).

Of course in prayer I will describe the kind of girl I want God to give me because God requires us to give specifics (or so we think). I will also suggest signs to show me that my prayer is being answered.

Is it far-fetched to think that the devil will package his daughter perfectly for my prayer? And how will I distinguish between God’s and the enemy’s if the enemy can access all my communication?

That is why men have married harlots and other men’s discarded wives because their private prayer became public. The enemy was thus able to package an answer in the shape of the prayer. And God will not interfere because He is the one who gave instructions about the prayer closet, instructions you trashed by your doctrine.

But suppose I had gone to the prayer closet as per Matthew 6. All my specifications will be between me and God because my mouth is as shut as my heart is open. The signs I require are known only to God.

The master strategist is in the dark because he has no clue about what I prayed, let alone my prayer for a wife. He just saw me get in and get out in power.

His temptations will be generic, the type 2 Corinthians 2:11 is talking about. Victory will thus not require much, a simple walking with God will suffice

A temptation packaged according to my prayers will be totally different.

You see, many girls qualify for what you want. Dimples, tick; skin texture, tick; body shape, tick; type of job, tick, etc. Many cars will meet my requirements. Many houses will perfectly meet my demands.

I am therefore at a disadvantage when the enemy can access my heart’s desires through my audible prayers or social media interactions because the devil is not learning temptation from the net. He is actually the one running the same.

The devil will so package that man or woman that you will wonder how perfectly God answered your prayer after you ended it. But in a short while that answer kills you spiritually.

And it is the same with support for some of us depending on God to raise support for us.

If the devil can access my heart’s desire through prayer or social media interactions, he is then able to package my temptations to appear like answers to prayer. And that is a sure way to fall.

It is the same with jobs and business opportunities.

Do not for one moment think I am saying that the devil is more powerful than he is. He isn’t.

But a weak army can vanquish a bigger and better equipped army if they can trap them to a place where their superior armory is of no use.

The USA was not chased from Vietnam or recently Afghanistan because they were weaker. Far from it.

And we have our own valley where our police always fall to a ragtag band of bandits because it is their valley. They lead (allow) them to a place where they are unable to maneuver. Then they are able to kill them as they wish.

We are therefore not talking about who binds and who looses who.

We are talking about information, especially information that can be useful to the enemy. And this especially because you are the one in charge of the information you post. You are in charge of how you pray.

Do not allow anybody to hack into your spiritual life and leak out information to third parties that are opposed to your spiritual progress by getting him close to your pass words.

Allow the Holy Spirit to be the one to manage, not only what you post, but also how you post it.

Only then are we safe from the prying eyes of the enemy of our souls.

What does Matthew 6 tell you?

 

Insecurity Parades

God is interesting.

I wrote two posts that God brought independently. Then He caused me to look at them and they fit like a hand in glove.

Matthew 6 and Wounded Wounders are the posts I am talking about.

Ever noticed that some of the most boisterous and noisy characters have some insecurity they are trying to cover? Ever realized that many drunkards got into the vice to escape something? Ever realized that most of the arrogant and proud characters always have something to prove? You will realize that even some of the most successful people achieved to prove something.

Someone was called a cow, an idiot, or any other insult as a child and all his life will fight very hard to prove to the world that he isn’t one.

Sadly, the person who insulted forgot all about it. But the insulted will never forget. In fact he may think what they were called is what everybody looking at them thinks they are.

Take that to ministry and it explodes. This becomes worse if the person injuring you occupied a position of influence, especially if it was a person you respected very much. Some may have been the reason you joined the faith.

Remember some time ago when another bishop responded to her former husband’s request for reconciliation by saying he should die they will bury him? And of course he died.

Their abuse or sin hits very deep. Getting out of the same may be akin to redefining your faith.

It is also very painful. The first thing you want to do is run as far away from the character and structure as possible.

Then you want to show them how useless they are, especially if their cause of injury was ministry related.

That is where the devil steps in.

He knows a healed wound leaves a scar but a festering wound eats at the rest of the body. Or is that not what gangrene is?

That is why he will want you to continue ministering instead of hiding to receive healing. And nothing does that better than the limelight as he will want you to display your success so that he can postpone your healing forever. Who goes for a retreat when their ministry in trays are overflowing?

And social media has become a very useful tool in that direction as it never leaves you even when you go to asleep.

Yet the wound continues festering, infecting many other parts of life and ministry.

Let me give my own example.

One time I broke my ankle but I thought it was a normal sprain.

I didn’t seek any medical attention however much the pain became (our initiation is another thing for those who know). Until I went to the bathroom and collapsed, three days later.

By then the leg was three times its size. And it was a fracture combined with a dislocation. I had to be taken to the theatre and the plaster had to be changed when the leg shrunk.

That is what trying to overlook an injury does. And for spiritual injuries it is not visible as only someone with discernment or revelation can be able to identify them.

Many times they will produce a lot more effort from the injured and produce more result on the outside. Yet it is only on the outside as the spirit is bleeding.

That is why very many injured start very successful ministries and very few are able to see beyond the bravado to the injury.

Sadly, they are able to get very good supporters, some who are in the employ of the enemy of souls to ensure they do not see the need to seek for healing or even identify their injury.

We will notice the injuries when the injuries they cause to others cannot be hidden, or when the devil decides it is time for payback for all that ‘support’.

He will start piercing that armor the wounded minister insecurity had woven around himself by exposing the injuries he has caused to others.

Like this bishop battling child support. Or the other one whose husband wanted her back.

Slowly the pattern of injuries caused will surface to destroy or emasculate him. He could even renegotiate for a cover up so that he could continue ministering, but under his watchful eye.

I suspect one reason ministers will go to hell as per Matthew 7: 21 – 23 is serving with injuries instead of allowing healing first. And I also believe it is amplified by the publicity of such ministry as it conceals a lot of chaff beneath that veneer of publicity.

I believe that is why Jesus in Matthew 6 instructed us to nurture and amplify the closet.

You see it is impossible to hide anything from yourself when you are alone and quiet in God’s presence. It is impossible to hide injury when you are serving in anonymity.

Publicity is an enemy of healing. And it is especially so because the wound continues to grow and eat into greater portions of the affected body part, all the while appearing to be in the best health. It may later require the amputation of the body part, even cause death.

When you receive a spiritual injury, please run to the closet and allow God to heal you. Ministering with injury is ministering in rebellion, however useful you may be feeling about it.

Only the devil and his agents want you to minister before God heals you.

Stop posting anything on the internet when you are injured or hurting. You are inviting the devil to finish you by making you feel useful instead of sick.

God will heal you when you allow Him. He will judge you when you insist on ministering instead of giving Him time to heal you.

  

Wounded Wounders

I have elsewhere written about hibernating ministers. These are ministers who were so wounded that they literally said goodbye to ministry.

Today I want us to look at another category of wounded ministers. And they are the ones who decided to fight back or at the least prove that they were called.

Let me take us to a case on the media and courts of a bishop who is fighting a mistress over child upkeep by asking a question.

Why is he fighting instead of simply repenting? Why is he behaving in the whole thing as the victim? Why does he not address ‘his’ churches and family on the same? Why are the elders and pastors in his ministry not confronting him about his adultery?

I suspect that ‘his’ ministry was the product of a hurt in another ministry. In other words he started that ministry to break from another ministry that he thought was either exploiting or mishandling his calling, if I may call it thus.

He must have sworn never to be subject to anybody else when he establishes any ministry. He therefore ring-fenced himself from any challenge to his leadership. Like another one of his kind said, his church became his kiosk that he runs the way he wants.

I am certain that there is no comparison between what he earns and what his assistant earns since the church is his enterprise.

And that is where problems explode.

Since accountability reminds him of his past injuries in ministry, he is unable to accept or even entertain it. This makes him the absolute authority in whatever he leads. And as always that power corrupts.

That is why a bishop can sleep around and not feel guilty or even under conviction, I guess because in his position he thinks he will be inviting other injuries. He would rather inflict harm than have any directed his way. And nothing opens those doors than saying I am sorry.

What am I saying?

Such characters experience hurt as many of us have. But instead of giving God time to heal them from those injuries, they run off to start ministries to prove to those who hurt or sacked them that they could still minister.

The bishop should repent. Like David said when confronted about his sin,

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. (Psalm 51:4)

He should then step aside and allow God time to heal him, especially from those injuries of long ago.

Only then can he be restored to minister God’s grace.

He is not the victim and can never be the victim. It is possible that there are many other sheep that have been eaten by him and his kind who feel entitled to revenge the injuries they got in ministry. All because they have refused to allow God to heal them.

Are you injured? Please give God time to heal you.

You have nothing to prove to God. And nobody else matters anyway.

Will you allow God to heal you? Then stop struggling to prove anything to anybody.

It is God you are serving. And it is to Him you will give an account.

God bless you

The Prison that is Education

Today I want to ask us to look at education.

Let me start with a few questions.

Why are most entrepreneurs not very educated, some barely having any education at all?

Why is it that most innovators and inventors are outside those silver towers we call pinnacles of higher learning?

Why do professors take their expensive autos to those backstreet mechanics who do not even know the right names for the parts of the vehicle since they barely went to school?

I have of course made very general observations to get us thinking.

Do you realize that the more learned someone gets the more desperate they are to get a job?

What is the purpose of education?

I believe the primary purpose is to expand someone’s mind. And it does that by exposing that mind to possibilities beyond what it had experienced before. No wonder it can be said that through a book one can travel the whole world from their bedroom.

I am talking about any education, whether formal or otherwise.

In our past, a child started their education immediately they knew who they were. And the bulk of that education was to make them maximize on everything nature provides in a healthy way.

As an example they learnt of a lion as a dangerous enemy.

But not only that. They learnt that a lion can be a very useful ally when you get to understand it.

That is why we started talking about extinction when we trashed that education.

When my father and his brother were in the forest during the Mau Mau rebellion, one thing the white man and his home guards were perplexed with is how they disappeared into herds of elephants.

The rebels (you wonder who ought to have been called that) understood animals and their peculiarities and therefore took advantage of that to merge into them when the enemy came around.

Their understanding of nature was such that they made use of the same.

The same way Maasai warriors can comfortably take the prey from a whole pride of lions and leave unscathed.

Understanding nature was key to our past education.

A child would learn which plants were food and medicine and which were poison, which animals were better food or could lead to better food, which plants indicate the presence of water and which animals lead to water in a desert, etc.

Then came modern education.

The first thing it did is trash all past education, calling itself superior.

But it did even worse. Instead of expanding the brain of the one who chose to follow it, it completely narrowed it beyond reason.

One must pursue the arts or sciences; then they must choose between one among many branches they chose to pursue.

Incidentally, the more learned they become the narrower their mind becomes. Talk about straightjacketing the mind.

That is the reason someone becomes less and less useful, wholistically speaking.

That is why a whole engineer must look for a technician to change their light bulb since they learnt all about electricity but not about changing fixtures. Only the uneducated are exposed enough to handle all those jobs.

Education makes someone less educated about life and how to live it.

But for me the saddest part is that it makes someone crave being someone’s employee the more educated they get.

You sack someone with one certificate and they start thinking outside employment. You sack someone with multiple degrees and they immediately start looking for another employer.

You leave someone without a degree for some time without a job for some time and they will cook something else to do. Do the same to the most educated and they become depressed since they think God has deserted them.

That for me is not education. It is indoctrination. It is imprisonment.

Education should make someone create, not support some uneducated creator.

The big break should not be that job you get with a multinational. It should be the villages you have transformed with your expanded thinking capacity. It should be in the many lives you have transformed by easing their work load.

Education and salary are not synonymous. As we already know, some of the most successful people we know started with a passion to make a difference and money followed that passion.

I feel sad when I see PhD holders yapping political drivel in support of some uneducated idiots instead of using their education for some good. You wonder why some went to medical school if the only thing they can do is make noise.

Let me close here. I hope I have got someone thinking 

Matthew 6

Our generation is in love with flashing cameras. So much that we imagine that life that is not on the spotlight is non-existent.

Sadly, we have exported the error to spiritual things.

We even think and treat piety in the same way.

What about sharing every small thing they do on their page? What about sharing that worship moments with the nations? What about sharing that song and getting a vote on the net?

And what about those who are paid by the media owners as influencers?

It is no wonder that the filth of our altars has been pouring out ceaselessly and the people of faith have started walking in the shame of their exposed papas and mamas.

You see, if you feed on the limelight, you have no right to demand privacy on any aspect of your life.

If you want the good side of your life broadcast to the world, do not be surprised when the lurid side is also broadcast.

You see, you are the one who brings the publicist close to you. They are therefore at liberty to decide on what to make public according to the kind of purses opened to them. Just as you ‘paid’ them to paint you nicely, you gave them access to contacts and information your enemy can use against you.

That is their job, you know.

But there is another danger.

Living for the limelight is many times like wooing a suitor (do you call it dating?). You will sweep all the unpleasant aspects of your life under the bed until at times you might forget they exist.

The suitor becomes your spouse and will in a very short time look under the bed and see all that ‘dirt’.

And that is what happens with ministry on the spotlight, especially one feeding on the same.

I have interacted with people who work in those high end hotels and resorts. I have also done the same with some VIP drivers and bodyguards.

The sad reality is that some of these people we love and wish to emulate are moral sewers.

But you do not know the same because they keep their lives outside their jobs (and sadly for some, ministries) completely out of the public eye.

Though the truth eventually comes out, they had no active part in it since their private life was private, with their drivers and hotel staff being sworn to secrecy, many time by the perks thrown their way.

Now suppose they invite a journalist to walk with them for a week, a week they have decided to live an exemplary life to paint a picture of the perfect leader.

They will go to the hotels he goes to and interview those staff who have been paid to say the right things.

But as he compiles the story, his journalistic nose smells something else, a hidden bombshell of a story.

He will do the perfect story but later come back to the same people with some inducement from his bosses. He will look for the watchmen and house girls. He will look for the driver and bodyguard.

He will simply dig the story the guy was trying to cover up and like the devil keep it for the opportune time. And that story many times could be the last nail on this guy’s coffin.

Who is to blame?

The guy invited the limelight to his life. And light does not bend over obstacles. It reflects and illuminates everything it comes across. His love for publicity is what exposed the unpleasant aspects of his life.

Publicity feeds on itself.

What am I aiming at? I know someone is wondering.

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 6:1)

Our piety should simply be directed at God. Our prayer should be directed at God. Our generosity should be directed at God.

Never should we seek for approval from men when we do things that are a response to our relationship to God. Never should we invite the world to look at how we respond to God. Because Jesus said that that is the reward we will receive, meaning that we should expect nothing from God in that case.

With the corona narrative, one statement took centre stage. The church is not a building.

Some people were annoyed when I countered and said that the church is also not a media link.

And it is not because there is something inherently wrong with a zoom link.

But we can’t fellowship properly in a zoom meeting. Communicate we can, but not fellowship.

We cannot break bread and share the Lord’s Table on a media link. We cannot know who is in need on a media link, especially because he won’t be able to afford the link. We can’t anoint the sick on a media link.

And most importantly, the miracle that is the touch is absent in a media link.

The greatest danger I feel is produced by moving worship from the building to the media is trashing Matthew 6 instructions altogether.

You see, I must then have a camera to lead in prayer. And giving on the media means that my giving must be known, among many other infractions.

That breeds other problems. I must be pimped to appear for the camera. I must be make-upped to appear to the camera. I must be voice trained to sing on camera.

In short, spontaneity and simplicity dies when the camera appears. And it is worsened by the fact that we believe the media really expands our reach and so I must impress those new ‘customers’.

Another problem with publicity is that it is addictive.

We love those cameras. We love those likes from Philippines and Australia and Croatia and Afghanistan. We love it when our peers are directing their congregations to our link. We love it when all the bedside worshippers are on our channel. And we can do anything to make them remain.

All those response and replies really feed our ego.

Let me stop here for now

When The Devil Quotes Scripture 2

I want to continue on my last discourse briefly by expanding on something I mentioned.

One key purpose of marriage is a godly offspring. In fact the gauge for any marriage is always generational.

That is why any generation that minimizes on that aspect always disappears because they have nobody to take after them. And it is the same with any generation that treats children as a burden to be avoided at all cost, even killing them (abortion).

Sadly, in our days, most of them pretend to be followers of Christ.

Let me continue with the topic.

What is a godly offspring? It is simply new generation that connects with the God we serve, a generation that comes from our loins.

Spiritual children are nowhere close to a godly offspring.

Let me give my mother’s example.

She was raised by a step mother as her mother left my grandfather (long story).

When my father brought in another woman and things became almost unbearable for her and her children, she made a decision that she would not allow her children to be raised by another woman. She therefore chose to endure everything and anything to protect her children from the kind of torture she went through growing up.

But she also did something else. She raised us to respect this abusive and absent man that was our father by respecting and obeying him however abusive and biased against her he was.

She later connected to Christ.

Do you know the outcome?

All her children (eight of them) are serving God. Some like me were told to leave everything for ministry while others occupy senior positions in the churches they attend.

That her decision had God’s approval is that when my late father decided to follow Christ, he confessed that he had realized that mistreating my mother was fighting God.

Godly offspring will make us see the weight of raising those God has given us as many times we give them anything else but God. We fill their lives with toys that ensure that they will never get any close to God. Think about it.

Godly offspring requires time to rub off our faith onto them. There is no Bluetooth or Wi-Fi link for doing so. Forget about godly offspring with remote parenting.

Godly offspring requires team work and hard work.

And that is why we see some uncomfortable commands in scripture.

Like in Ezra and Nehemiah where those who had married from the nations chased the wives and their children. Many wonder why God was that cruel to children who made no decision to be in that makeup.

A disconnected mother is antithetical to a godly offspring.

Again the scriptures give enough examples.

Remember Athaliah? What was so bad with the royal line that she had to clear it when her son who had been king died?

Jezebel was her mother. Her agenda was therefore contrary to the God of Israel and everything He stood for.

That is why wickedness was dealt with conclusively. Look at this verse.

But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. (Genesis 15:16)

Once that cup got full, it then became sin to allow them to live as the influence of their rottenness could not be contained.

Jeroboam, Baasha, Ahab had God clearing from their lineage anyone that pisseth on the wall. Why?

The generation had become irretrievably anti God.

What am I saying?

Marriage is not simply about two people of the opposite sex dwelling together.

Though that is important, it is not the end of the story.

Pursuing God’s agenda as a team and reproducing the same is the yardstick God has for each marriage. And nothing speaks that language better than a godly offspring.

And that must be very deliberate as it never is produced by accident or chance.

A series of irresponsible dare devil risks can land you into the millionaire club like we see in betting and even new businesses.

You can never do anything close with a godly seed.

The devil gets us when he can convince us that simply remaining together we are fine and everybody who has opted out of marriage for whatever reason is in sin because God hates divorce.

A marriage without clear spiritual objectives, especially about the offspring may release more stench to God’s nostrils than the person who opted out of a marriage because they realized the marriage was accelerating them and their children to hell the more they stayed.

That is why the Bible talks of the husband as the spiritual head of the wife.

Any marital structure different from that is faulty. I have dealt with that in many past posts and so will not repeat.

The husband first offers spiritual leadership before he offers anything else. And that is where many marriages start floundering because many a modern woman thinks God overlooked women empowerment when He offered those instructions everywhere we look in the Bible.

Sadly, that is the number one cause of the lack of a godly offspring because they are leaning on a tottering structure.

Debate with Numbers 30 before responding to me. The New Testament is even more radical in addressing the marital structure.

Does your marriage consider a godly offspring as pivotal to what God calls a good marriage?

Are you thinking about a godly offspring as you are considering that heartthrob for marriage?

I am not shaming those without children as I know that God is the One who gives them and therefore knows why He has yet to give you some.

But I also believe you can start considering and praying for a godly offspring even as you are praying for those children that you have longed for so long to come.

I hope we understanding each other

God bless you as you pray and consider these things