Whose Sewage?

As I was walking to church, I was reminded of a dream I had a long time ago.

In it, I was flying over a meadow.

Below me was the most beautiful and green piece of land I had ever seen. So lush and inviting it was that the pull toward lying in the grass and walking over all that beauty was irresistible.

Until I came down and received the shock of my life.

Below that foliage was sewage, raw, untreated and putrid.

Below all that beauty was the most offensive smell one could encounter, even forgetting the other dangers that overflowing sewage posed.

Talk about skin deep!

Then I thought about beauty.

Ever realized that most people who are strikingly beautiful rarely have anything of worth beneath all that beauty?

They are showpieces, but very few want anything else with them beyond that.

No wonder very few beauties land worthy or long-term husbands.

But have you ever realized that we are not much different? Or haven’t you read this verse?

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: … (Romans 7:18a)

We are not much different from that meadow.

But do you also know that the same sewage can be turned into a very fertile and productive land?

Once you treat and release it to processes, it can be used in the king’s farm as fertilizer.

The same sewage. One is an eyesore (or is it nose sore?) and the other is an asset.

One is released to the market as is while the other is taken through the master of sewage.

One is confident and content with who he is while the other knows that he is hopelessly and irredeemably useless but for the hands of the master.

The fruit above the ground might appear luscious but it is poison since it is feeding on poison.

Yet we can be sure that after the process it is as healthy as health itself.

We love organic produce because we are scared of all the chemicals synthetic inputs expose us to.

Yet do we realise that organic farming requires excrement? Only that it is waste that has gone through some processes requiring time.

Organic fertilizer is fertilizer that is produced from natural faecal matter, what is many times simply called dung.

What am I driving at?

Apart from Christ, we are not any different from that meadow.

Second, though we may be in Christ, we will not be much different if we do not allow Him to complete His work in us.

It is His work in us that makes us useful. And the more released we are to His work, the sweeter and better and useful to the world around us.

I want us to look at the trending topic on the media, probably all over about a pastor who killed his singer wife with this in context.

Over the years I have been posting and teaching on the need to take the Bible seriously as we make people our leaders.

And my reason is simple, sewage process progression.

You release sewage before the process is completed and you are faced with poisonous fertility hence production.

The giftedness of sewage is nothing if it has not been treated.

Sadly, many in our generation think that all someone needs to minister or lead is a gift, and the more prominent the better. Or don’t we even see children being ordained as pastors and in other serious positions?

And we will later protest their depravity when push comes to shove. Because their sewage nature was not allowed to be processed before being released to produce results.

I am very sure that that pastor was given the position before growing enough to handle the responsibilities inherent in that position. He was released at the beginning of the process and so was totally inadequate to handle the pressures of marriage combined with the pressures of pastoring.

He can be equated to a saloon car being loaded with five tons to ferry.

Or have we forgotten that recently we were fighting over a bishop that was being defended by other bishops for getting a child out of wedlock?

Giving a child adult responsibility may mature them if they are supervised properly.

Giving a child adult authority destroys them.

Sadly, that is what we have been doing by using giftedness as the yardstick to use when looking for spiritual leaders.

You see, we all are sewage. But some have gone through the process more and so are more useful to God’s kingdom.

And I do not mean God does not use new believers or sewage that has just joined the process.

The master of the process knows where and how to use them too.

Having responded to God’s call close to forty years ago I can confidently affirm that God uses anyone and everyone who has released himself into His hands. And I am evidence of that.

But I also know that there are responsibilities God gives me now that I couldn’t have handled in my youth due to His continued work in my life and the ministry He has called me to.

The sewage that I was when He called me has gone through some process.

There are unflinching positions I held that I have flinched on as there are some things I would have let go that I am now unflinching toward, again because of the process

The simple process I know is discipleship, what we call The Great Commission. And I will place it here for us to understand.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28: 19, 20)

And it happens because it gives responsibilities to different groups. Again let me put some other verses.

I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. (1John 2: 12 – 14)

Giving a spiritual child or youth a father’s role (which is what a pastor many times is) will compromise their maturity because a child does not have adequate assurance and the youth is always at war.

The spiritual child pastor will always be looking for affirmation and assurance. He will therefore be serving as a means to get that affirmation and assurance.

The pastor who is a spiritual youth will be looking for war and anything they do will be treated from a conquest dimension. He will therefore be looking for enemies from all directions. A small disagreement and you will be treated as an enemy worth vanquishing.

A father, however, is someone who is content with their relationship with God and the children God brings to him to raise. He will therefore be content with his flock and fine with all the other flocks his shepherd has since his end game is pleasing the One who called him.

A child is raw sewage that flows all over without caring for boundaries. A youth is thicker but still fluid enough to flow as per gravity. Both could very easily fertilize an enemy’s farm as their boundaries are not set. A father is solid fertilizer and will therefore be available only where the master needs him and will be content to be in that one position as long as the master directs.

What kind of sewage are you? Whose sewage? At what stage are you in the master’s process?

The process produces spiritual maturity that is the tree bearing spiritual fruit.

Love is not an anointing. Patience does not come from the laying on of hands. Peace is not the product of prolonged times of prayer.

Spiritual fruit is the product of a person who has successfully gone through the Master’s process and has thus transformed from raw sewage to useable fertilizer.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. (Galatians 5: 22 – 24)

Where are you in the process? Are you content?

You see, gifts come from outside while fruit is the product of what is inside.

Gifts do not depend on who I am but fruit is as a result of my makeup.

The Master of the process therefore works on transforming my makeup so that like a mango I do not produce a lemon or any other fruit.

He changes my makeup from sewage to fertilizer; from dangerous and poisonous and putrid to useful and necessary and desirable.

The Master of the process is also the Master of transformation.

Will you allow Him to start His process in you?

Talk to me about discipleship and spiritual maturity

God bless you