My Cana Moment

I know there are many ‘believers’ who believe that miracles ended after the Bible was completed; that what we call miracles are explainable incidences and coincidences resulting from normal occurrences.

I do not want to go as far as those who dispute miracles altogether as that must lead to a confrontation, which is not what has God called me to.

Let me therefore give you one of the first and most memorable miracles after I responded to God’s call.

But it will require a background that is not so flowery, or even nice.

I was a troubled teenager and this means I was a really troublesome chap. And the trouble started even before teenage.

What was its cause?

Two things I can clearly remember.

The first was an absent father though I didn’t think it affected me then.

The second was a matter of faith.

I got saved at nine.

And like some children (mine are good samples) I had very many questions about the faith, probably too many according to the ‘fathers of faith’ I was asking.

Sadly (and that is my constant beef with the charismatic movement), I was not directed to scripture for answers, or even given any. I was accused at that young age as lacking faith or even backsliding since a healthy Christian should not have such questions.

That is where my rebellion started.

But God is gracious because He shielded me from rebelling against Him. I rebelled against authority, any other authority.

You will take me to a place without rules and I will find a way to break them. That was me.

I was personally known by every headmaster whose school he headed, and the schools were multi streamed big schools.

Were it not for the fact that I was good in academics, I doubt I could have gone beyond second form. But even then I was in three high schools because there was a provision for transfer in technical schools after form two.

I was expelled from the scouts. I was expelled from a choir. I was trouble.

Prefects feared me because they could never win any case against me. Even teachers had problems because once they allowed me to start talking I would explain myself so convincingly that my crime would appear petty. There was a headmaster who would after a case plead with me to take the cane, which to me would be a pleasure.

My last school, Lodwar High School, was run by the Catholic Church and the headmaster was a missionary father.

The A-level students were almost above school rules but even then I somehow was able to get into trouble with the authorities and of course get into some run-ins with the headmaster.

 Two things happened which will take us to my Cana moment.

He proudly announced to us that his contract (or whatever he served under) had been renewed, meaning he had a few more years to serve as headmaster.

Second, he called me to his office and asked me to choose any other school I want and he will ensure I will get a transfer there to get me out of trouble. Among the schools he mentioned was Mang’u High School (it is recently that I learnt that it is run by the Catholic Church).

But I incredulously refused. But that was me then.

He then ‘swore’ that he will expel me when I report for sixth form. And you can be sure it was not an empty threat, coming from a man of the cloth.

I then go for holidays and encounter Christ, rededicate my life and respond to His call in my life.

Then I get to love scripture, to date.

But I am scared. Why did I refuse such a gracious offer? Why did I invite such wrath? How could I invite such wrath?

But I am enjoying what I am learning from scripture. I am getting answers to so many questions that troubled me since childhood and were the cause of my rebellion.

I do not even know what I prayed, or even whether I prayed about that father. But I was troubled. I was scared.

Then what happens when I report to school?

He has gone. I don’t know how. I don’t know why.

But I know that God has performed a miracle on my behalf.

I get to start on a clean slate with a new headmaster.

That is where my ministry started.

God moved my mountain before I had the faith to command it.

That is my Cana moment for you.

God bless you.

Smart Alec Ministers?

Have you tried to be spiritual and a smart Alec at the same time?

Ever tried to come out with a profound thought on your feet?

Ever tried to create an educative joke on the run?

Chances are that you flopped big time.

Yet do you realize that obscenity rarely has that block? Offense flows out so smoothly that we have to struggle to stop it before it messes a relationship. Even dirty language does not need any effort. In fact what it needs are brakes.

As someone who has been and ministered in many language groups, I can almost guarantee you that should you venture to learn a new language chances are that they will start teaching you dirty language.

What I am trying to say is that sin in man is spontaneous. Nobody struggles to produce the poison that is sin.

On the same vein, righteousness and holiness require work, hard work.

Now imagine this is an introduction on Gospel music?

And why is it?

Many people want spontaneity to define their music. They feel very nice when the crowds clap for them for producing those lines effortlessly. And it gives them great fulfilment if they can sing an unrehearsed and unplanned song.

Incidentally it is the same with many preachers, which is so sad.

Godliness has no smart Alecs. Holiness is never spontaneous.

And that explains why what is nowadays called Gospel Music has very little, if any Gospel in it. It is the reason much of what we call preaching has nothing to do with the kingdom of God.

Songs of the past, songs that we love singing centuries later were not composed to please an audience.

Sermons that we love sharing of people who lived hundreds of years ago were not preached to adoring followers.

Those took sweat. They required real sacrifice.

That they rhymed was not the main thing. The theology behind the rhymes was the backbone of the song.

If like me you like going behind the hymn composition you will realize that no song was composed on the stage. And many had a very rich source. Many were actually testimonies of sorts.

But there is something you also will note. And that is many times songs were made from team work.

One wrote the lyrics. One wrote the music and another sang.

There were no streetwise composers. Many were theologians and well versed in the scriptures and ministry.

Nowadays someone thinks that because they can rhyme high and sigh and buy they are competent to compose Gospel. And no wonder they get high and end up touching a thigh because they are unprepared to shy from anointing dry.

Just because someone can produce instant comedy does not mean they can consistently deliver effective ministry.

I know people who made you laugh to tears as the Gospel was penetrating. Hordes were getting transformed by their rich humor.

Years later you listen to them and discover that the ministry died and only the humor remained. The cutting edge that was their delivery in their earlier years became entertainment so that even harlots flock to listen to them, of course because they know it will not challenge their sin.

There are objects and there are tools.

Music is a tool as humor is a tool. And it is the object that wields the tool.

Turning a tool into an object obliterates or invalidates the original object.

That we can use music or humor to share the Gospel is not in doubt. But music can never be the Gospel. The closest it can be is become a carrier of the same (which is what being a tool means anyway).

Focusing on building music therefore kills the Gospel.

However, focusing on growing our faith and enriching our obedience increases the power of the Gospel.

Then, humor and music can become useful carriers for that Gospel.

Forget those rhymes. Forget those beats. Forget those humor libraries you bury yourself under. Forget those recordings.

You are the wielder of the tools that will minister the Gospel to the nations.

You will never produce Gospel if your life is not daily being transformed by the Gospel.

I hope I am understood.

Any questions?

When Your Theology Becomes Your Prison

We all know the verse that says that the mouth has the power of life and death.

But did you also know that your proclamations have a direct relationship with how your life comes out?

I want us to look at just one aspect of this because it has been popularized by the prosperity ungospel over generations.

It says, many times by implication that all sickness is of the devil and that Christ is there to heal all sicknesses and afflictions a believer has.

As such, seeking medication is treated as a demonstration of lack of faith or even sin.

But it becomes even worse to some who become miracle peddlers because it leashes them to miracle healings since all must be walking in healing.

What then happens when their prayers refuse to heal them?

How do they tell them that they sought medical attention?

I know you are aware of many of them who use gimmicks to demonstrate the fact that they are able to heal all sicknesses, from healing whole ‘cripples’ to chasing demons from actors. Remember the one who the other day ‘raised’ the dead who was later proved to be a member of his team. Sadly he not much later actually died.

Otherwise what does one do to prove to the audience that they really are channels of healing? How do they prove that all sicknesses must be healed in their meetings especially as they ask people to bring all their sick to their meetings?

But that is not the real problem. The problem is assuming that God must bend to their theology; that Jesus is subject to their anointing.

Jesus never called out anybody to come to Him for healing. Jesus never called a meeting to drive out devils.

Jesus intervened in the situations that He came across in the course of His ministry. He responded to the cries made to Him as He was about His Father’s business.

Do you think Jesus never passed through the gate beautiful where the cripple that Peter and James healed was positioned? Why then did He not heal him?

You see, Jesus came to heal people from the sickness that is sin. Physical healing is a secondary aspect of that healing, an overflow of that healing. That is the reason He did not concentrate His effort on it. And that is why He at times forgave some their sins of those who had come for physical healing.

It goes without say that concentrating on physical healing is actually diluting the Gospel. Placing it at par with salvation is demeaning the work Christ came to do. Using it as the bait to draw people to attend your meetings or church is spiritual harlotry.

God will not be bound to protect or even justify your false theology since He is only bound to what He has said (Psalm 138:2).

I am writing this as someone who was deep in that theology earlier (after responding to God’s call) until God had mercy and refused to cooperate.

After the heartbreak and discouragement, I went into the scriptures to understand ‘everything’ the Bible talks about healing. And I got healed of spiritual error.

That is not to say that I gave up on miracles.

By no means. I still walk in the miraculous.

But now miracles are the consequence and not object of my spiritual life. Miracles simply follow my obedience, whether it is healing or provision.

Sadly, most of the people who taught me, especially through books, still walk in that error. That is one reason I am writing this.

What happens when a miracle refuses to respond to your prayer of faith? What happens when God refuses to heal you of something he has always used you to heal others? And what happens if that is your selling point?

You may realize that is the reason such ministers become completely removed from their followers. You may never be able to get close to him (or her) apart from when and where they are ministering. You see it might expose their medicine chest. How will they explain all those drugs if they are teaching their flock to walk in divine healing?

But coughs and colds and headaches are easy to conceal as they are easily concealable.

How about terminal illnesses?

Sadly, for their clout they try their best to conceal them.

Then they will become very prophetic about their death since reality is not easy to conceal.

Then they will die as they prophesied.

But that is because they are riding on a false theology.

Had they been humble or obwdient enough, they could have asked for prayer even for the healing of that terminal illness. But they are the only ones with guaranteed prayers according to the narrative they peddle.

But an even greater fear is suppose God does not heal them? What will the flock think of their theology?

They will therefore suffer silently and alone to protect their theology since it cannot protect them.

Yet the Bible is liberating. But it does not answer to our theology. It only points us to God.

I like this verse

But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. (John 20:31)

I repeat, and will do as emphatically as I can that God heals, and heals even incurable and terminal sicknesses. He even raises the dead.

But it is His prerogative as to who and when and how and whether He does the healing.

We walk in divine healing when we are walking in obedience because we will then be surrendered to His revelation and will. We will be utterly surrendered to that will.

As an example did you know that Elisha who healed all sorts of illnesses and even raised the dead died from sickness?

Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. (2Kings 13:14a)

But that theology will never want to even look at a verse with such revelation.

They would rather live in denial outwardly than confront the errors of their theology. Yet that is the reality.

When will you break out of your theological prison?

Whose Sake?

Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. (Job 42:8)

I want us to realize that God’s focus is always on His servants whatever He does.

In this instance Job needed to learn surrender and forgiveness. It was the culmination of the training God had been giving him when He challenged Satan to a duel of sorts.

Then the devil sent those friends to add, nay, amplify the pain by turning them against him, imputing God’s training school to Job’s wickedness.

How does it feel being accused and condemned for something you know you are not guilty of, having piles of evidence to prove the same? Yet you do not even understand where the initial problem originated?

Imagine being lost in the wilderness? Then when you notice a landmark to get you back to sanity a storm begins obliterating even the little sense of direction you had been trying to establish.

I believe that was the place Job was at when God stepped in.

How was he feeling about being read for (literal translation of kusomewa [Kiswahili]) he had to endure from his friends? Were they really his friends?

God needed to right Job’s heart before He could get him into another level. He had to eliminate the bitterness pain has the capacity of building in a heart. And it required a deliberate action.

That is why God required Job to pray for his torturers.  Because in his praying he would open the door for healing.

I remember one time I was knocked by a robber and left for dead. I am sure he left confident I was dead once he realized I knew him (I came to hours later). I have written about that elsewhere and so will not repeat the story.

As I was pursuing justice, God ordered me to let it go and start praying for him.

In three years the same guy walked straight to me as I was leading a meeting and asked to receive Christ.

That was God’s confirmation that He had healed my heart as I was able to receive him with gratitude.

I believe this was the reason God gave that order to those friends. And the reason Job’s captivity was released immediately after.

Releasing the captivity before that could have been catastrophic for Job as it could have been very hard for him not to try to prove a point to those friends. It is also possible that he could have had a hard time receiving his family and friends who had turned against him in his most difficult moments when he most needed them.

In short the captivity could have been lengthened or even worsened because he could have had a bone to pick with anybody and everybody.

Job released himself by releasing his friends.

What am I saying?

We are blessed as we bless others. We find rest as we relieve others. And we gain forgiveness by forgiving others.

Remember the parable of the unforgiving servant Jesus gave?

But that is not the only time God did things for the sake of His friend.

Remember that Lot had nothing in him to be rescued from Sodom?

Though the Bible calls him righteous, he was already soiled by the stench of Sodom since you remember that shortly after his rescue, not only did his wife look back, his daughters drug raped him.

And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt. (Genesis 19:29)

Several times Israel was saved because of Moses’ relationship with God. And you remember Solomon’s punishment was reduced because of David’s relationship with God.

In short, not everything is as it looks.

That favor you are boasting about could be the product of someone’s worship, probably someone you do not even know.

Their relationship to God and your forebears meant that you will harvest that favor.

That breakthrough you are boasting about may be because your parents were faithful in their dealings.

You may have to forget about those fasts you think are the reason you enjoy those answers to prayer.

But you could also choose to be the reason others are blessed and enjoy favor just as we know you can do the same to attract a curse like Jeroboam, Baasha, Ahab.

The choice is yours.

David was the last born but became the reason his whole family enjoyed the blessings of his worship to the point of being enjoined to the Christ. Rahab the harlot was the city reject yet was the reason her whole family was not destroyed when Jericho was.

What will you choose?

Will your worship become a blessing to others?

And those experiences do not only bear fruit that touches others, they strengthen and enrich our relationship with God.

Hearable Cries

And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. (Genesis 21: 16, 17)

I want us to look at an interesting spiritual dynamic in these verses.

How come Hagar is weeping yet God is hearing Ishmael’s voice.

How does that happen?

Let me give us another scenario.

And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD. And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: (Exodus 14: 10, 14)

Again we see Israel crying out and God hearing the cry coming from Moses. Yet in the intervening verses we see Moses confident of God’s deliverance and trying to convince Israel of the same.

In both of these instances, it is clear that the cry of one person is being heard through another person. Or in another way the cry is irrelevant if it does not go through this other person. You might as well have kept quiet.

Let us look at it differently.

Hagar was the slave Sarah used to get Abraham an heir when the promise appeared impossible to her.

Remember when Sarah dealt harshly (mistreated her?) when she started despising her barrenness and she fled. Look at what God says to her.

And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. (Genesis 16:9)

Basically speaking she was nothing outside Abraham’s promise. And the link to the same was Ishmael. She was literally disconnected from the promise apart from Ishmael.

And it was the same with Israel. Moses was their only link to God. And of course we know a few instances when he was the only reason they were not destroyed for their rebellion.

We know that through Christ’s atoning death the curtain was torn opening the way for us to be able to connect to God at the personal level.

But do you think the same nullified the structures God had established since creation. Is the New Testament the nullification of the Old?

Of course not.

There still are structures God uses to connect His creation to His redemptive agenda. And they are as valid as they were when they were established. And that is why some verses in the Bible do not seem to make sense so that some think they should be removed from the New Testament.

Yet they are there because God’s structures were not demolished by the cross.

Let me give one example.

Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. (Ephesians 5:24)

How can this make sense to the modern woman?

We get to understand when we go to the Old Testament.

Numbers 30 explains a woman with respect to her authority, especially in things touching on her spirituality or relationship to God.

Remember when Sarah was taken as the king’s concubine. Do you realize that it is Abraham who was rebuked and compensated when God intervened?

Let us get another verse difficult to understand unless we understand this dynamic.

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)

Imagine this is talking about a believer married to an unbelieving husband!

Recognize his authority and worship God under it if he is ever going to understand the Gospel.

Is that how the Gospel has been taught, especially to our generation?

The Bible teaches that a woman’s voice is heard through her husband. That a woman’s prayer is most effective when it is heard through her husband as she totally submits to him, however godless he could be. I think that is the reason that wherever you go to the world a woman takes her husband’s name, even in places where the girl’s parents are the ones paying the dowry.

But I think it is important to note that this is a double edged sword. That authority assumes all the responsibility and accountability over its subordinate, if we may call it thus.

In simple terms, when the channel through which someone’s voice is heard becomes blocked or clogged, it is the channel that is dealt with. And of course we know that God can even remove it since He equally loves that subordinate.

Let us get back to Numbers 30.

A woman’s vows to God depend on their being validated or annulled by her authority; her father when unmarried, and her husband if she is married (not her modern ‘spiritual authority’, mark you). And that authority had to make a decision when he hears the vow and not later.

But if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard them; then he shall bear her iniquity. (Numbers 30:15)

That is why in the Bible the man was held responsible for his wife’s sins.

Or do you not remember Ahab being confronted for killing Naboth yet it is probable he had no idea about Jezebel’s schemes?

Of course we know that though Moses literally stopped death and destruction from visiting Israel he was unable to escape judgment for a very slight infraction since he had no human authority over him?

Again do you remember that though Mary was highly favored, God stopped speaking to her when Joseph took her in and started speaking to Joseph even on things concerning her?

These are difficult spiritual realities we are dealing with.

But please do not transpose them to a pastor, bishop, apostle, prophet etc. And it is because there has been so much abuse on such authority.

I am sure there is a place for that, and God may allow me to share about it later.

This is dealing with the spiritual authority in the home.

It also explains some very difficult commands like

And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. (Deuteronomy 24: 3, 4)

Why is it an abomination for a man to reunite with the former flame he divorced if she got married?

We can only understand it if we looked at it through this prism.

God was connecting to her through the first husband. Then the channel discontinued it and she reestablished another channel.

Would it not be like a dog returning to his vomit before God?

Look at another verse.

Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered. (1Peter 3:7)

Again it can be understood in this context as blocking a wife’s voice from being heard or modifying the voice by the way you treat her. Then even your prayer loses power because half of it has been tampered with.

And that is why getting married to someone of a different faith is so destructive because one becomes the channel to a different god even as they are trying to establish a relationship to their familiar one.

Muslims understand this dynamic very well. That is why they do not allow their girls to get married outside Islam yet do not mind their men doing it.

And of course the verse most modern women resist with their all.

Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. 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: 34, 35)

Does this now make sense?

You can throw those stones. But I must share what God is teaching me.

Korah challenged Moses’ authority and his whole team, including their families, livestock and homesteads were swallowed by the earth. Miriam thought her small bro was conceited and became leprous. David’s brothers who were accusing him of pride eventually needed his protection.

What am I saying?

It is very important to know the channels God is using to reach out to you, especially those clearly spelt out in scripture.

Why is it that when a man gets saved his whole family quickly follows suit yet when a woman does the same the man especially may almost never follow her there, especially when the said wife becomes ‘too spiritual’ or gets some other spiritual authority or cover and starts (in her heart at least) thinking of him as lost?

And have you realized that it is easier for children to lead their father to Christ than his wife?

You see, for the most part, the wife thinks she has become more spiritual than her channel of reaching God. Her voice despises the channel God is listening to. It is akin to Hagar despising Ishmael or what she had been attempting to do when she was running away from Sarah. All those cries become inaudible because they are abusing the channel through which they are heard.

Again why are independent women (call them single mothers) bitter against men?

And why do sons who rebel against the tyranny of their fathers not amount to much?

And why does honoring parents result in a long life?

And I am not absolving men as their judgment is worse, especially when they abuse or run away from the authority entrusted to them. In short they become the blocks to those feeble voices they should amplify being heard.

Remember David’s whole posterity was judged for his sin? Remember like I have mentioned earlier that Moses was disqualified from the Promised Land for a slight infraction when Aaron got away with worse than murder (the golden calf)?

I want you to realize that I am not just talking about submission to authority. I am principally dealing with each knowing and walking in their position.

As a man, please take authority over the people God has placed under your wing and as a wife, child, please do not think that that illiterate or unspiritual moron is useless as you will be in for a rude shock.

But men, you must become more spiritual. There is no shortcut.

Read the Bible. Pray. Know God more.

And like I say, ask me for a Bible Reading Plan is you need one. We can even work out on how you can get an Audio Bible so that you can listen to God’s word wherever you are instead of being immersed in news which are the megaphone of the destroyer of souls.