Prodigal Doctrines 2

Let me go a bit farther on the prodigal to let us appreciate the reality that the repentance of the prodigal was not the only requirement into his accessing any inheritance.

The first reason is that he had no inheritance at all. His connection to any inheritance was therefore dependent on the one holding it – the elder brother.

Second was that his system was already corrupted so that giving him access to inheritance could very easily launch him back to those wild days.

Let me give you this story that I know you may have as many variants as your experiences.

A minister fell into drunkenness and was lost for many years.

I knew that because everybody was always deriding his fall.

‘Can you imagine this was a pastor and missionary who even preached in other countries!’

It therefore bothered me and I made it my assignment to pray for his restoration even as I did all I could to not only understand but also help in that restoration.

I made him an Audio Bible and after some time he sold it and gave stories like any drunk does.

I think I still made him another one. We kept talking a lot but he was secretive and very hard (I hope you understand what I mean)

After over two years, a pastor friend of mine confronted him and he repented.

I was overjoyed.

I made him another Audio Bible, got him a Bible to read and a few other books. I even gave him a cellphone so that we could be in contact more and of course made a solar charger for the phone and Audio Bibles.

He changed!

He became clean, sober, very organised.

He even left his former crowd.

He would regularly visit and we would have great times discussing the scriptures. He even brough some albums of his past life as a man of God.

The only thing he did not do was activate the cell phone, his excuse being that his ID card was lost and its replacement was taking long.

After some time I started hearing about him in drunken issues.

As usual I believe time reveals most things so I waited since he continued behaving like a growing disciple.

One day I needed some work done and I was going to town so I went to the place he used to laze with some young men (his former crowd) so that they could direct me to where I could find him since that was his hood.

They called him from a bar! And that was in the morning.

Once his cover was blown, he tried to explain and even show that it was a blunder but God blew it another time.

It was as I sought to get him become open that he confessed to have sold the cellphone.

He died recently I hear in a drunken fight.

This was a man in his sixties.

I do not think he feigned repentance.

One does not leave the prodigal nature just like that as there are enough things that can trigger a relapse.

Let me give some other stories, this time of young men.

I was sought by a young man very desperately.

He was lost in drugs and wanted anybody who could help him and as he asked around the church was directed by a friend who knew that I was connected to a rehab.

When we met, I asked him when he wanted to join and he said immediately. He did not even return home for his personal effects as he was so desperate.

Well, I took him there and his transformation was immediate. He was clean long before the official time for having cleaned out.

He got into the worship team and even became a leader accompanying the big guys.

Then a friend gave him a cellphone and his former crowd was able to reconnect. In a short while he was where I found him, lost.

After a short time, he sought me out in tears to plead with me to help him rejoin the rehab as he had learnt his lessons.

I did so and what had happened the first time happened. The healing was very fast. Yet after the healing he was unable to resist the pressure of his former crowd.

I do not remember whether I took him back the third time but I eventually told him that I do not think he was ready to handle the transformation he sought.

To this day, any time he sees me he is always pleading with me to take him back to the rehab. But would you?

The next is still about another young man.

His parents brought the young man to me to convince him to go to rehab.

After talking for some time, I realized he was not ready and told the parents so.

He later came ready

When the time came to be released after becoming clean, he refused to go back home and said he did not trust himself enough to go back to his former crowd.

We looked for a college for him and the parents were more than willing to support the same.

He left the rehab after college and to date I continue receiving positive reports about him.

The purpose of all this narration is to prove to us that the prodigal, however drastic their repentance, must need adequate time to grow back into the inheritance.

We many times become enraged when we hear of a pastor eating his sheep without caring to know whether we released him into the sheep pen before completely curing his prodigal nature.

We scream the loudest when we hear of a spiritual leader eating all the offerings or a leader who is always insulting his flock without first asking where we picked him from before launching him into the ministry.

He may have just had a relapse because we did not allow him adequate time to detox his prodigal nature.

Our excitement at his homecoming overtook our reason.

In short, they are the way they are due to our folly and thus we are the ones to blame for their error.

It is sad that when a church member falls into sin they are disciplined for anything from six months to several years according to their sin. Yet the same church does not waste any time inducting someone who had been on the devil’s payroll for decades into leadership.

I have no issues with discipline. What I have a gigantic problem with is rolling the red carpet when a prodigal comes home to the point of overlooking the already overworked elder brother.

That is the sin of our generation.

I was told of girl that became pregnant and the boy was made a pastor because the girl comes from a prominent family. And that is not a church hidden somewhere in the bush.

And we seem surprised when we can’t contain the sexual explosion in our young people. We gave the prodigals the chance to manage the inheritance and left out the elder brother who had been managing it all the time the prodigal was away.

I repeat. There is need to celebrate the prodigal. Only that we must give him enough time to allow the stench of swine to get out of his system.

Otherwise we could end up having our whole house smelling like a swine sty. Not forgetting that it is very possible for him to forget that he moved from feeding among the swine to owning them and so comfortably start competing with them for food, something we have too many examples for comfort like the few examples I have mentioned above.

In conclusion, let me say that I love the prodigals coming back home. But I am even more excited when they are gradually grown back into the family before they are released into the mainstream of ministry involvement.

That is what we call discipleship.

Otherwise a harlot will come to church to leave that past behind and get converted into a ‘sanctified and anointed’ harlot due to lack of that growth.

I think that is one of the interpretations of this verse

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. (Matthew 23:15)

They thought capturing a proselyte was the main job like we do when we think the prodigal coming back home is the main job. And the outcome is the same.

I Hope we understand each other.