The Enemy’s Limitations

I was thinking about incidences in the Bible where there was a great focus on eliminating a threat and how that the schemer got the taste of his own medicine.

Think about Haman who left nothing to chance, even changing the constitution to make sure that the Jews are eliminated.

Then of course the opportunity of his life happens when he is invited by the queen.

Imagine a personal invitation where only the king was present!

But the guy who does not shake at his presence does not appear to appreciate who he is dealing with.

Why not deal with him summarily even before dealing with his people?

Unbeknownst to him, that was the turning point in the narrative as the same ‘enemy’ has friends higher up than even the king.

That is when everything starts going down.

Or Daniel’s colleagues who found him too good and polished for their professional progression.

They also hatch a plan that included changing the constitution.

Again, someOne higher than their scheming takes charge, causing them to even lose their posterity.

How does that always happen?

One very interesting verse

For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. (Revelation 17:17)

God has a way with schemes, especially schemes against Him.

Mordecai does something normal for his upbringing and faith. Then in oversight only a mention is made and the reward forgotten.

That simple thing turns the wheels of justice his way against his foes.

Look also at Moses.

Pharaoh in his zeal to deal with a threat to his kingdom forgets to shield his house from the threat, eventually shielding the threat he was guarding against, probably because his sister could not overlook the chance of having her own child (chances are that she was barren).

Or Joseph’s brothers fear to kill him and sell him instead, to the right person. Then the guy’s wife schemes and has him jailed, again in the right place.

When the right time comes, nobody has to struggle to have him placed where God had intended all along.

And it always works that way

What am I saying?

God is the absolute planner.

It means that when you are on His side you are the safest you can be since everything goes as per His perfect plan.

It means that whether it is in pain or gain you are okay. Whether you are in prison or palace you are in the right place. In short you are in the place He has determined for you to be at that time.

Like as Paul was told, God’s grace is sufficient for that ‘dungeon’.

But I know this is not a very uplifting message for our times as I recently posted about goat doctrines.

We enjoy the palace but are not ready to take the road there. Just like we love being on the mountain peaks but would rather not struggle to get there.

But I am basically on the point that the enemy has very major limitations when it comes to people submitted and finding joy in God’s will and revelation (what is the difference?).

His schemes, however elaborate, always fall flush with what God had intended.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. (Psalm 2:4)

This is therefore a post to remind you that you are at your best when you choose to obey God, however foolish that obedience might appear to you or others.

He will come out on top even in the direst of circumstances. And where will you then be?

CHOOSE OBEDIENCE. CHOOSE OBEDIENCE. CHOOSE OBEDIENCE.

 

Goat Doctrines

As I have severally said, the Bible is written from a farming and not a business or other contexts

As such, it becomes easy to appreciate and understand the Bible when you read it from that context.

Again, as I said not so long ago, God has led me to a farm, however small some may think it is. I even have some animals I am raising and it is a difficult marathon for someone who last took care of animals before going to school.

That is the context of much of my sharing these days.

I have a few goats and have been studying them and this is what I feel God would have me share today.

A goat is the exemplification of ‘grass is greener on the other side’ syndrome.

Give a goat the lushest of pastures and it will run after someone carrying anything looking like food.

A goat will leave its food and run to snatch scraps from chicken or rabbits. It will leave its green fodder to break the fence to snatch some nothings from a neighbor’s farm.

A goat’s greed is legendary.

Though it doesn’t have a huge stomach, it will never be so full as to stop running at anything looking like food.

That is where I want us to start today.

Ever noticed that contentment is these days treated as the surrender of the failure or unambitious? That greed couched as ambition occupies a more prominent position in our preaching than holiness?

Have you noticed that our favorite prophets are the ones who prophesy to us things above our present estate as the KJV would say?

That is why we love motivation and despise didactics. That is why we run after comedians instead of admonishers. And that is why we support the entertainers and wish those with solid Biblical instruction would disappear.

We love those who can arrange those verses to make us feel good. We love using those devotionals that give us glucose to bounce back from disappointment without having to do much.

All those are indications of spiritual goats. And that preaching is the fodder goats enjoy.

Missions are a very useful tool to raise money. But actual missions are not a priority in the budget of the structure.

That is why mission spending is little, sometimes needing to be reduced yet the main guys running the structure are changing fuel guzzlers the way some people change clothes from the same finances.

Missionaries are crying for sufficient support when millions are spent making seats to make the goats comfortable as they are being entertained.

There are even itinerating evangelists in the structure who walk wherever they are sent and sometimes sleep hungry even as funds are spent to shield the main guys from interacting with the riff raffs by making secure blocks and doors and employing people to operate them.

There are people in the congregation who have lost livelihoods who cannot access the barest of basics from the church when the main guys are swimming in more money than they need and must be facilitated to go for holidays to be able to get revelations to feed the goats properly.

I am writing about things I have had too close an encounter with.

I know some are getting confused even as others are getting enraged.

You see, some already know what I am getting at.

But let me get to the crux of the matter by asking these easy questions.

Why do you go to church? Why do you give? Why are you good? Why do you worship? What is worship? What is fulfilment? What draws people to your church?

The answer to these questions is an indicator of the kind of flock you are in God’s eyes.

If you do these things to feel good; if you do them to be accomplished; if you do them to get something, then it is clear that you are a goat according to the Bible.

You see, goats are selfish, self-centered, self-focused, self-driven and all other self-characteristics.

Everything revolves around a goat since a goat lives only for itself.

Sheep know team work. Sheep know contentment. Sheep have no problem being led. Sheep do not need to see the end of the staircase to start climbing.

A sheep is dependent on the shepherd and lives for the shepherd. A goat uses the shepherd to get what it wants.

That is what I want us to understand today.

Have you ever heard people complaining about boring worship? But what is worship?

Ever heard people leaving a church because of a pastor’s dress or language of delivery? Ever heard people leaving church because their preacher is absent?

Ever heard someone protesting because a preacher touched too close to home that they felt that he had some leakage on them?

Ever hated a preacher because he challenged your comfort?

Do you not mind if the stars in your worship leadership have sin issues? Do you not mind if your most prominent givers have some character questions?

Are these questions making you very uncomfortable?

This clearly shows that you do church for yourself and are therefore a goat.

The church that you attend therefore thrives on the goat doctrine.

The truth of the matter is that Christ is the centre, and everything else in His church. Everything revolves around Him.

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. (Colossians 1: 16 – 18)

Where are you in these verses?

Focus on Him determines my fulfilment if I am His sheep.

Let me leave it here trusting that there is a goat who has seen the need to allow God to transform them into His sheep.

 

Of Useless Leaders

I will continue irritating some of you by writing about politics and political leadership.

Let me start by asking a simple question.

What do you use to gauge a successful parent?

A successful parent is simply one who has raised all his children to independence.

Success of the children is not enough for the parent if his very educated and jet set offspring are always coming to him to beg for sustenance. It is frustrating if his very successful children are refusing to leave home because the world for them is a hard place. It is not success if all his sons and daughters are bringing him children to raise. It is not success if he must be consulted before the smallest decision is made. And it is not success if the successful children use their success on immorality and substance abuse.

The mark of a successful parent is foresight.

He will get a child who can do nothing for himself and over time transform him into someone who is raising many others to great heights.

A leader is (or should be) exactly the same.

It is very sad that many of the people who love being called leaders are lords of poverty, to borrow from one of them.

They thrive in fighting to maintain poverty levels so that they can buy support and votes very cheaply.

An empowered populace is a very dangerous thing for them as they will have nobody to ‘fight’ for.

Let me mention security.

A functional country is not one where police patrol to deter or fight criminals because then we will need a policeman for every five or so people.

A functional state is one where someone can leave their gate open overnight without worrying whether anything will be stolen from their compound. And that will happen when everybody is empowered and can comfortably live.

In our country, only the armed forces are allowed to carry weapons. It is therefore illegal for me to arm myself to protect what is mine.

The state will not make me safe by placing a policeman at my gate at night. They will do so by ensuring that none of my neighbors sleeps hungry or is unable to raise his children.

Disparity is a normal thing. Remember God saying that the poor will always be with the Israelites, unless they choose to follow His commandments and instructions?

But disparity has its limits.

When some rich are stinking rich (meaning they smell bad for their riches), and the poor are hopelessly poor, then we have a huge problem in our hands. The balance has been tipped badly.

In my childhood we were poor and there were some who were better.

A neighbor drove a lorry (Americans call them trucks) for a wholesaler in town and once in a while would have it stay overnight at his place.

The next morning the children from the whole village would be gathered at his gate.

Do you know why? He would carry all of them to school.

That vehicle ‘belonged’ to him. But it was the responsibility of the whole village to protect it because it served them.

Let me give you another story, again of people I know.

This family was very rich (according to those times) as both the husband and wife had cars at a time very few people had shoes.

But they were also proud.

They therefore did not offer anybody a lift in their vehicles as they would dirty them. They were reserved for the family, for many years.

Then one day the man of the house had an accident and the vehicle lay on him, for lack of better words, not far from his home.

Do you know what the neighbors did and said?

We are sorry we do not want to dirty your car. Let us run to call the ones who will not dirty it.

They then ran to the mzee’s home to call the ones who were there.

Of course the weight on him could not wait for the deserving people to arrive and that is how he died.

You might think the neighbors were wicked.

But think of this person who had to trek for hours with a sick child to the nearest place they can get some transport. Think of the person who was rushing to an emergency and the vehicle blew dust on him and refused to even acknowledge his raised hands. Think of the mother who delivered on the roadside as the same vehicle passed them struggling. Think of the person whose loved one died because the way to hospital was too long.

Unlike our situation, those vehicles did not belong to the community. And that because their owners did not belong to the community. As such none owed the other anything.

It is such situations leaders should be seeking to rectify by making sure that the disparities are not so extreme and that the community is not so fragmented.

A leader who invests in his and his cronies’ betterment is worse than useless. He is dangerous to society, and of course to himself.

This is because he will be increasing the disparity to dangerous levels. The gap between citizens and the ruler and his cronies will reach unmanageable levels because they are the ones eating all the taxes whereas the ones paying those taxes get nothing in return.

It will eventually reach a point where the populace will become desperate. Then even if the army protects them and their wealth, it would not make much of a difference as they will essentially have nothing to lose.

The last time I posted on leadership I mentioned the fact that compared to our neighbors, animal feeds are too expensive as to make animal farming feasible. Farm inputs are too expensive as to make crop husbandry also unfeasible.

The fact that we must import so much food from neighboring countries, countries whose weather is not different from ours; the sad fact being that their food is many times cheaper that what we produce even after transportation.

For this I will give an A for uselessness in leadership.

Another thing I will say that makes me call our leadership useless is the fact that though we produce our own power, people and companies are shifting to solar and investing billions to do so.

All because we have a utility power company that eats and eats and eats without caring what those they are eating from are getting in return.

That a company without competition can operate at a loss is a clear indictment of the government and its leaders. It goes without say that they are the ones eating the utility company.

In a short while we will be asked to bail out the company again because they have too much power without consumers because they chased them away.

In the past we used to buy crude oil and refine it. Now we have oil and the leaders are telling us that it is not feasible to refine it ourselves.

We must therefore sell it crude and buy it refined.

If that is not folly, we must look for another dictionary.

Why should I sell my unshelled maize to my neighbor to later buy it after he shells it?

These are some of the things I am challenging people to look at when considering who to vote for.

A leader worth his salt is one whose leadership reduces his influence by empowering his populace and not the other way round.

Just look at David.

He started with useless rejects but later was comfortable having them making decisions for him, with some even rebuking him and he did not retaliate because he had accomplished his leadership mandate.

David made his people richer and was the better for it. Solomon made Israel richer and lost the kingdom due to that as his people were the ones who paid the price for the same.

You never go down by lifting others, especially those way down the ladder.

Infrastructure without corresponding people empowerment is for me the epitome of greed as the leaders want to have the best for themselves, even roads that only they can use as nobody else can afford to use.

I am Christ’s minister and not a politician and must say things as I feel heaven needs them said.

In Perspective

And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? (Mark 14:4)

It dawned on me why Jesus rebuked the people who were protesting the ‘wastage’ of such a precious and expensive perfume.

Why were people remembering the poor?

Why were they saying that it ought to have been sold? Who to?

Let us ask ourselves a simple question.

What was spikenard for? Why was it made? What was it intended for? Who was supposed to use it and how?

I am convinced that its container was made to be used exactly the way the lady used it. It was supposed to be broken so that it spreads its perfume just as it did.

The problem was in the person for whom it was broken.

It was supposed for the person who could afford it. Simply speaking it was supposed to be broken for the person worth its value.

It was meant for a king because he deserved it since he was sovereign. Or probably a very rich person because they could afford it.

In the eyes of those people, Jesus was not worth that perfume. That is why they called his anointing wastage.

Their reasoning went thus. If that perfume was sold there would be so much money that the ministry could have progressed and much would be left for the poor.

But was Jesus worth the perfume?

His breakage (crucifixion) is the only thing that would raise incense acceptable by God. (This is a figure like the Bible always says)

But we also know that Jesus is the King of kings and so is way above every other king. And as the creator of all things, we know He actually owns everything and so deserves not just the best (spikenard) but everything and everyone.

Let me address the question to you now.

Was the spikenard being wasted by being poured on Jesus?

Judas was so incensed that he immediately went to look for compensation from the priests.

But look at what Jesus said.

Wherever the Gospel will be preached what the lady in question had done will be mentioned in her memory.

A simple application (one among many) for that is that her ministry will be replicated by the people who will learn from her example.

And what is her example? That Jesus is worth the best that there is. He is worth everything we have.

Let us go to the Old Testament.

Remember the Shunamite woman?

She saw value in a dusty and weary old man who used to pass by her place long before she knew he was a prophet.

This was the same old man younglings made fun of when he had just received his commission and died. And he was then not tired or dusty or as old. Only bald.

We love focusing on what she got but I think the focus of the Bible is in who she was.

She saw value in what looked useless. Like the lady in our discussion, she released value to a person only she saw and probably left other people complaining.

Do we have an application for our instruction? I believe we have.

Incidentally many times we are even worse that those people rebuking that giver and her gift to Christ.

Do we see a holy man of God inside a dusty, weary, withered old man who is not even trying to get our attention? Do we look for ways to ease some of that weariness and fatigue? Do we seek to refresh him? Do we want him to be invigorated before he gets to his next destination?

How many have heard God telling them to minister to someone before they started seeing anything useful in them? Did you obey?

Our generation is fixated with visibility to the point that we refuse to hear God speak to us about the invisible.

I am almost sure that if Elisha was passing by our gates in the condition the Shunamite woman saw we would most possibly share his picture to show a man who lost his moment and wasted his life.

We wait for someone to become successful before supporting him. We actually question the logic of supporting an upstart without asking how those successful cases began.

Nineveh saw a man of God in the stinky, smelly and peeling man saying things in a strange accent. We see a man of God when he is prophesying to us things that we want to hear.

We many times are like people in Jeremiah’s time; so full of the right leaning prophets yet suffocating and persecuting the men God has sent to prophesy to us. We are so full of messages that are blessing our lives yet none that are showing us where we are falling short of God’s standard. We are suffocating those ‘prophets’ with motivating prophecies with gifts and praying that the ones giving us uncomfortable messages and rebuking our worldliness will disappear and stop disturbing our peace.

We do not give when there is no compensation, or at least a chance for the same.

We do not give when we do not see compensation.

We do not have issues breaking the spikenard container. We only insist that it must be broken for someone worth it, but in the material, especially financial.

That is why churches, ministries and ministers who have ‘reached’ are the ones enjoying more than adequate giving, giving that many times goes into irrelevant and unspiritual things.

Such a ministry will buy their main guys the latest (and probably most expensive) fuel guzzler when they have a missionary crying for a motorbike to be able to reach the large swathes his mission field consists of. All the while as their missionaries are crying for increased support to be able to effectively minister in those forgotten regions.

You see, the pastor is visible and his ‘work’ ‘tangible’. Who knows whether the missionaries are doing anything apart from enjoying the little support the church gives them?

It therefore makes more sense to make the pastor of the right class comfortable because that will attract the right combinations of givers.

We can’t waste our spikenard on missionaries because even in the event that they become successful, chances are close to nil that their ‘ministry’ will ‘benefit’ the church sending the missionaries.

In short, missionaries are a waste of spikenard as it was in Jesus’ day.

How many ministers do you know that are not on the rolls of any organized spiritual organization?

Do you consider investing in (or supporting) them as a waste of your spikenard?

Are you like those who argue that all your giving should go to the house ‘feeding’ you?

Who than do you think will take care of those whose call requires them to invest their all in barren lands?

Like I always ask, do you think God stopped calling people when your pastor (or spiritual superstar) responded? Must He then look for permission from the said superstars to validate a calling?

Before I crush your spirit (I give you a small break) I will give you another example from Jesus.

Remember when children were being brought to Him and the disciples sought to block them?

What do you think was the reasoning of the disciples?

Children are a liability to effective ministry. Their presence will only waste Jesus’ ministry to those with a capacity to appreciate and receive it.

Ministry to children is simply a waste of Jesus’ spikenard.

But that is not what Jesus saw.

Jesus saw them as a very key cog in His ministry to the nations.

But are we any different?

Do we treat our children like Christ did even at the home front?

As you think about that, let me try to close this discussion by asking a few questions.

Suppose you were in Jerusalem the three years Isaiah walked stark naked.

Or was Hosea’s neighbor when he married a harlot, twice.

Or Ezekiel’s when he behaved as if nothing had happened when his wife died.

Would you have considered them as God’s servants, leave alone prophets?

Would you have supported them when everybody else turned against them?

Would you have fought for them and hidden them when the community sought to deal with them?

I know that you are probably arguing like the Jews. Those people were bad. We are different.

But how many ministers do you support before knowing they are so? How many children have you opened you heart for?

You see, the worth of the nard’s recipient does not depend on you and your eyes, however good your eyes are. And not even when they are enhanced with equipment.

God is the only One who can see the worth of the recipient of our nard. And we are safest when we depend on Him to see as He does. But then we must allow Him to guide our eyes.

You see, the woman with the spikenard saw what everybody else was not seeing. The Shunamite was able to see what I am sure some of the beneficiaries of Elisha’s ministry couldn’t.

I have been ostracized, even demonized because I did something whose only reason for doing was God had ordered me. I have severally been told that I was wasting my spikenard on some people and organizations when I decided in obedience to minister to them.

Later, however, the same people were falling over each other to access what that ‘waste’ was able to produce as the nard penetrated.

Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. (Ecclesiastes 11:1)

In reality, casting of bread to the waters (rivers, oceans) is basically wasting it.

But it stops being so when it is in obedience to God.

Jeremiah bought land to make a point to Judah. It was land that he would never use as the seventy-year captivity was beginning and he had no children to inherit it.

In our eyes it is wastage.

But not to God.

Will we ask God to open our eyes and hands to be able to ‘waste’ on His priorities?

Will we ask Him to show us who we should be building a study and rest room even before understanding who they are and what we do like the Shunamite?

Will we ask Him to show us the person to break our very precious spikenard for even when it looks foolish and wasteful to everybody else?

Do not look for the viable ministry and minister to give that car or house. Do not look for the sensible project and projector to write that cheque.

Ask God to show you clearly the person He had in mind when prompting you to give.

You could be giving to an Elisha. You could be ministering to an Isaiah. You could be refreshing a John the Baptist.

Let me close with this verse.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. (Hebrews 13:2)

Are we together?

Doctrine Test

I have been wondering at the flood of doctrinal posts on social media.

Some are from people I know; ministers I have some history with.

Some of that doctrine is spurious and some of it is misleading.

I could highlight the error but over the years in ministry I have come to appreciate the fact that it is rarely the right thing to correct someone publicly.

Jesus said we deal with them privately first.

But even that is not always productive.

I have written elsewhere of a time I was ejected from leadership for confronting a false teacher privately and even opened dialogue doors. He is the one that leaked my communication with the leadership that was comfortable with his error.

False doctrine is arrogant as it is aggressive. It is never open to another opinion or even reason.

That is why I have thought to help us examine our doctrine, sensibly. Call it a self-test of doctrine.

As we know, truth is self-perpetuating.

It spreads through the people living by the same.

It has no fanfare. No trumpets. No media outlets.

Truth is complete on its own.

The force of truth is in the ones living by it and the benefits of the same.

But a lie is aggressive. A lie must be heard at all cost. A lie seeks prominence. And a lie needs supporters.

Whereas truth doesn’t seek fans and supporters, a lie will suffocate to death if it lacks them.

Before I get to doctrine let me give an example or two of the same.

Ever seen someone looking for recognition when they are married right? Ever seen a wife parading herself all over to demonstrate that she is married right? Ever seen a faithful wife or husband trying to prove they are truly married or faithful? Ever seen rightly married couples fighting to have their marriage legislated into law?

Yet look at the concubines and clandestine lovers and harlots and homosexuals.

They are all over parading their perversions and fighting to have them recognized.

The next is a tad controversial but I will mention it anyway.

Look at this virus.

We believed when we were given the ‘facts’ and followed the guidelines.

The problem arose when the narrators started commanding us to stop thinking.

Then they started blocking questions and anything that does not agree with them. Then blocking any post that has the name of the virus not in line with their propaganda. Then closing accounts of people who question their narrative. Then dealing with prominent persons showing the slightest success in helping people think. Eventually criminalizing anybody who disagrees with their narrative.

We were created to question. That is the essence of choice.

You cannot tell me to choose if you do not allow me to examine available choices.

Those of us questioning are not questioning the virus. We are questioning the narrative that wants us to stop thinking or looking for alternative information or solutions.

They say that even the vilest must have their day in court. Why are the ‘vile’ in this case dumped in the dungeon without even being given a chance to admit guilt or otherwise? Why are they condemned even before their plea is taken? Why are they given the sentence even before they are taken to court? Why are their defense attorneys killed or blocked from getting to court?

Truth never fears being challenged. That is how the truth always triumphs.

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: (2Peter 1: 16 – 19)

When Peter said that he was an eyewitness, he was actually offering a challenge to any questioning his faith. And Paul said the same thing in 1 Corinthians 15 as John said.

That is what I want us to do to examine our doctrines.

If you treat someone holding or believing a different doctrine as an enemy who must be fought, it is possible that your doctrine is false, or unbiblical, or spurious.

If you do not entertain alternative interpretations of the scriptures supporting that doctrine, again treat that as a red flag.

If you blank verses that seem to disagree with your doctrine, it is again possible that your doctrine has issues.

And finally, if your doctrine occupies a more prominent place in your proclamation than Christ crucified and risen, it is possible that you are a preacher of another gospel.

In closing I will say that false doctrine thrives on the feel-good power it has. It spreads because of the pleasure or comfort it offers, comfort that is not a rest after working but a rest that I can claim or possess.

Of course it does not challenge anybody to change, substantially, that is. I can be all that I am promised by doing absolutely nothing. Maybe transfer what I should do to visible things like giving and attending sessions. Or reading their books instead of the Bible.

This is just a small stone I have thrown to raise a little dust over deceptive doctrines