Assuaging Guilt?

What do you do when an opportunity falls on you that reminds you of your past negligence or disobedience?

What do you do if something you refused to do appears in an apparently post-dated mode?

Let me get to the point

How many have ever been involved in Muslim evangelism? How many have made a Muslim friend with the singular purpose of sharing the Gospel with them?

How many are scared of Muslims? How many equate all of them to terrorists?

How many have longed to reach out to Muslims but pulled back because they do not know how to do so?

How many have tried to reach out to them but pulled back when their target became unruly or even violent?

How many made enemies of all Muslims around them because they tried to share the Gospel with one?

Now where does all this leave you?

Many times, one is left feeling guilty of having failed to do something Christ commanded us to be doing, making future attempts scarier.

Now suppose with me that someone comes to you and proclaims to you that they have become a Christian needing your assistance because they have been disowned by their family, had all their property grabbed from them and are running for their life.

All that guilt will find a release, a very easy one. And it will be like it happens with a tube with so much pressure when it is punctured.

Very few, if any, will even want to establish how that conversion happened or even whether it actually happened.

Most will have no qualms paying exorbitantly for anything the ‘convert’ needs. Many would not have any issue with denying themselves essentials to make the ‘convert’ comfortable. They will even rope in their friends and churches so that the new ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ is comfortable.

The sad part is that very few will dare to question the convert even when there are very clear instances of abuse or dishonesty.

It is when they become completely exhausted or insulted that they find it prudent to seek for assistance, not exactly as assistance but extra people to share the burden with.

I have been there. And I have been approached severally to help in similar situations.

Interestingly, there are very few instances that I have pursued that I found a genuine conversion.

How can I say this? I know someone is asking.

I simply decided to do what Christ commands us to do for the new believer and the ‘convert’ fled.

What do I mean? I know someone is asking.

I will raise a team and resources to go the whole hog.

What does a new believer require? What does a new born in the faith need.

Nurture is the thing a child needs more than anything else. The greatest desire of a new believer is growth in the faith.

Paying a lodging is a secondary requirement that many times compromises the primary need since there is very little follow up and discipleship you can do in a lodging house.

Since discipleship is long term, a house must be got for the new believer in a safe place close to the disciplers and sustenance for the whole duration of the discipleship (at least six months).

Among the team that I raise will include a former Muslim (if possible) and ministers involved in Muslim outreach and discipleship as their primary call.

The sad truth is that all those people who were referred to me by churches and that I used that strategy run off once they established that they could not access easy money. In fact, one literally disappeared when he discovered I was on the way to see him at his ‘place’ since he had supposedly lost his wife.

The truth is that nobody can disciple at arm’s length. Nobody can disciple through remote. Nobody can disciple through text messages and sending money.

It is even worse if the convert has converted from a different religion since the conversion will confront everything they had believed and practiced; their whole world view.

It is therefore folly to think that taking care of their temporal needs on their terms has any spiritual impact on their spiritual growth.

Does it mean that we cannot effectively minister to converts form other religions whose conversions endanger their lives? I know someone is asking.

Of course, we can and should. We MUST.

But we must be intentional in the way we do it. We must be wholistic in the way we do it.

Otherwise, we could be pouring God’s resources into bottomless pits of perceived need because we fear long term engagement. We could be playing the con games the ‘converts’ are playing using our lack of evangelism as their bait. And we will be inviting more and more conmen to raid our resources.

I have had serious disagreements with churches when I insisted that they must think beyond the temporal to rope me into their interventions.

Without fail, they discarded my recommendations only to later encounter what I had warned them against.

The truth is that I have every right to determining how my support is utilised. And that is what past guilt fears to enforce.

Let me give my recommendations to anyone who encounters such an issue.

Lay down the ground rules of the kind of assistance you will be offering and its conditions. For example, I will not continue supporting you if you are not growing in discipleship. I will stop supporting you if you do not regularly attend the church I attend or recommend.

Get them a house that your team can afford and plan to pay for it until the new believer has some way to do it. I suggest for at least six months. Insist that it is very close to where you stay so that you can be monitoring and protecting them as you are discipling them. The land lord knows that it is your house anyway so it is part of your responsibility.

Budget for their food for them and all the other needs and purchase them yourself (I am talking about your team). You can then give them an allowance of sorts for their miscellaneous expenditure.

Then establish a program where your team has adequate and regular times to walk with them through their new faith. Have them join and be involved in the church you are part of.

Get your families involved in their lives and make them welcome to your homes.

Of course, you must have first prayerful raised your team and walked together through what you intend to do.

Then as a team you have had adequate time with the convert to go through his testimony to be able to establish his needs and ascertain his conversion credentials. You can even invite a former Muslim or minister involved with Muslims to help you in this.

Let me give what I think is the best recommendation though it may be costlier in many ways.

Host the convert(s) in your home and grow with them. Then your team will not have much of a problem supporting and discipling them.

In summary, I want to insist that if you are not ready for long term involvement, especially discipleship, please look for someone with that long term capacity and support them.

Giving them handouts to soothe your conscience is not only ineffectual in their journey of faith, it could actually be sin and rebellion since it opens doors to be swindled or at best offering support to someone without caring whether they are growing in their faith or not.

Compare it with stocking a toddler’s house with food and leaving them all alone to figure out how to grow up and take care of itself.

You neglect spiritual growth and any other support you give is inconsequential.

Jesus taught before feeding. He healed in the process of His teaching.

And of course, He did not send us to feed and clothe in the Great Commission. He sent us to teach, to disciple.

Feeding is an aside, an accessory to the teaching role.

Yet very few of those so called converts really care for spiritual nurture.

That is not to say that there are none.

I know dear brothers and sisters who converted and grew to the point that they are now ministers of the Gospel.

They were able to get there because the people who took them in adopted the whole person and not just their ‘stomach’.

I hope this message will be of some help to someone out there.

Goats and Backsliding

I have been writing about goats for some time.

I want to use that to explain backsliding in that context.

God created us with a sheep nature as the operating system.

He also included free will in the system so that we can decide on how we want to run our lives

Choosing disobedience introduced a very invasive virus into our system, a virus that completely corrupted our operating system, overwriting it with the goat operating system.

But the sheep nature did not disappear. It was suppressed to the point of inoperability.

That is why we have a verse like this

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can't find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 WEB)

The sheep nature is therefore overwritten with the goat nature, yet it still exists.

That is the nature that responds to the Gospel call since the goat nature can never respond to a shepherd in submission and dependence (faith) (Romans 7: 14, 18)

After the response (conversion), the sheep nature is reactivated, yet it does not override the power of choice God created in us.

Choice is the fact that guides us on the operating system I will run in my life since both start operating in me. I must decide the one I want to depress as I give the other prominence.

I do that through the choices I make

Giving the Shepherd more leverage in my live automatically grows the sheep nature in me just as choosing independence grows the goat one.

Discipleship is a key element in the increasing of the sheep nature.

This is because someone submits to the exposure of the Shepherd so that we can then be able to accurately hear and respond to His voice so that we can then choose to follow Him as we get to know Him even more.

Feeding from the Shepherd will make us become in a growing measure His sheep as we learn dependence as opposed to the independence that was our operating system when we were goats.

It means that the more we are growing in discipleship, the more we will be growing into the likeness of the Shepherd, or the more of His sheep we become.

And it will be evident even to those around us.

But just like the goat virus overriding the sheep operating system did not kill the sheep operating system, the growth of the sheep nature will not obliterate the goat nature however prominent it becomes. It suppresses to the point it appears as if it is absent.

And that is because God still wants us to choose.

Since the goat nature is a virus, it will multiply faster when it gets the slightest chance.

It therefore means that I must be growing the sheep nature to guard against the explosion of the goat virus.

The slip in concentration in the growth of the sheep nature is what I want to call backsliding.

Sinning is not backsliding. It is the fruit of backsliding.

Someone can be completely backslidden yet appear to be as godly or even more godly than the next person.

Again, it is our choices that bring to the fore our backslidden state.

Our prayers and scripture input can point us to the state of our sheepishness.

You see a goat is self-centred whereas the sheep is shepherd centred.

Hezekiah is a clear example when we look at his prayer when confronted with death.

No wonder we read of pride coming out of that answer and Manasseh being the product of that season.

It is possible that God wanted to take him before his backslidden nature manifested but he prayed otherwise.

We backslide when we stop growing into Christ’s likeness. We backslide when we lose that compelling urge to continue growing especially by thinking that we have grown enough.

Paul for me exemplifies what I am saying.

Look at this verse

The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments. (2Timothy 4:13)

You realise that he was awaiting his execution when we look at verses 6 and 7. And of course, he was old, that being the reason he was asking to be brought a cloak.

Yet he was seeking the scriptures to be brought to him.

This is more striking because theologians agree that he had major eye problems, meaning that reading anything was probably very difficult and painful.

This means he was not seeking to increase his scriptural intake for ministry purposes. He was not getting into all that pain to be a better theologian.

He simply wanted to know Christ more, especially because he was very close to meeting Him.

But that described his whole life since we see that desire in Philippians 3.

That is what we must maintain if we are to be safe from backsliding.

Forget those who read their Bibles only when they are preparing to speak religious things, whether in church or seminary. They lost it a long time ago.

I have left some gaps so that you will fill them in your context.

God bless you

God Created Goats

I suspect my past posts about goats have made some to detest them even as others may have thought that I hate them. Others may equate them with evil.

Allow me to set the record straight.

Goats are wonderful animals, created by God for particular purposes.

Goat milk is said to be medicinal as is its meat.

That comes about due to its diet and the process of the digestion of the same.

Goats eat the strangest of fare, some of it bordering on poison, yet they thrive.

A goat’s behaviour is therefore dictated by the kind of food it eats. Its diet is what makes it able to maximise on whatever is available to access the nutrients it needs to live and thrive. Goats are the only domestic animals I know that thrive on deserts.

Goats are wonderful animals.

I started with them the way I believe many of you are thinking after reading my last posts on goats; ‘New, not Improved Creation’ and ‘The Joneses’.

But after I have herded them consistently, I have been able to ascertain that there is nothing wrong with them. They are not crooks but simple animals that must eat.

They are different from sheep because they were created differently.

The shepherd must therefore decide to treat them as goats to not only feed them well but also save on his energy and sanity.

Knowing this is important as we examine the pastoral responsibilities we have on God’s people.

You see, a sinner is not so because they are inherently evil. They are simply being themselves.

Yet they must come to the realisation that they are not what God created them to be and desire the same for any chance of their being transformed.

A goat needs to look at a sheep, examine the connection the sheep has with its shepherd and the resultant better health for it to reach out to the shepherd to transform it.

What am I saying?

We were born goats. We are naturally goats. And it happened when we allowed the evil one to con us out of Eden.

But God has opened a door for us to be changed into His sheep. And the only way for that to happen is to enter through that single door.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)

That door is the key to the transformation since that is where the goat DNA is swapped with the sheep one.

But it is just the beginning, the beginning of the greatest adventure in all of life.

That single transaction opens one to the power of the Shepherd to transform them from glory to glory as they yield to His leading and revelation.

We must also acknowledge that the transformation that is occasioned by that decision to enter through that door does not happen suddenly.

The DNA change is therefore the first step of the transformational journey.

Though there are some things that transform immediately after the decision, it is the gradual and intentional infusion of that DNA that is able to completely transform just as it happens to a baby after being born.

The fact that for some the desire for drugs or other destructive habits dies immediately after the decision does not mean that the operation has been completed. It just means that God has demonstrated that He is able to handle everything you hand over to Him just like the fact that a child is born with complete limbs does not mean it can walk.

What conversion does is to infuse the convertee with the sheep nature DNA and not make them a functioning sheep.

It is the responsibility of the transformed goat to allow and facilitate for the growth of that new nature so that it eventually ‘replaces’ the goat nature in increasing ways.

How does it do so?

The new sheep must increase the time it spends with the Shepherd so that it can accurately be in a position to hear and understand His leading.

That is what will result in the calming we see in sheep as opposed to the restlessness we see in goats.

Incidentally, it is important to acknowledge that however far we may be in our journey of transformation, we have not completely eliminated the goat nature. It just means that the sheep nature has taken over more territory in our lives.

That is why we have a verse like this

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. (1Corinthians 10:12)

To imagine that the man after God’s heart could snatch a wife from a loyal soldier when all the damsels in his kingdom were at his disposal exemplifies what I am saying.

His past dealings with God, his diligence in ensuring that God’s will and revelation run his life was no insurance against the goatish desire for the forbidden as it required a single unguarded moment to explode.

What am I saying?

God wants to transform us into His sheep.

But it is as we allow Him more leverage into our lives that He is able to do so.

What is pastoral about this post then?

There are two important truths to learn as pastors.

The first is that we are sheep with a goat nature, however depressed it may be through our maturity and discipleship and ministry experience.

The second is that the people we pastor range from unconverted goats to sheep who have crucified the goat nature.

This calls for enough grace on our side as pastors.

Realising that we are intrinsically goats allows us to pursue our Shepherd with greater determination since we know that nothing in us qualifies us for the honour bestowed on us.

It also helps us pursue our calling and the responsibilities thereon with more commitment.

Of course, it allows us to have more grace on our persons when we fall off the mark since we will not have any problem admitting falling short of the Shepherd’s high calling.

On the shepherding front, it allows us to offer grace to those God has entrusted to us.

We are not threatened by those more mature or spiritually endowed than we are since we are connected to one Shepherd.

We also have enough grace to handle the frailties of the goats we are supposed to treat as sheep, especially those who have not seen the need to allow the sheep nature to increase in them.

We are also able to help the goats come to the realisation that they are not sheep just because they live amongst the sheep, even mumble everything sheep mumble.

But I think our greatest responsibility is to help converted goats to grow in sheep likeness; what we call discipleship.

Yet even the meaning of our calling is what defines our job which is feeding the sheep with the nurture we access from the Shepherd. In short, we are to feed them as the Shepherd feeds us.

That in simple terms means that we must be consistently feeding on the Shepherd to be of any use to the sheep He entrusts to our care. Otherwise, we could start thinking we are not also sheep in desperate need of a shepherd.

The fact that we have been entrusted with feeding other sheep in no way even remotely implies that we are other than sheep.

Yet many pastors behave as if they are not sheep. Some preach as if they are not sheep.

Probably they are not sheep. Or they stopped being sheep as they grew in their pastoring.

Meaning that they reverted to being goats.

 

Judges

Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself! (2Samuel 6:20)

Between the one who judges another person and the person who judges the one who judges, who is judgier (my word)?

Or do you not realise that telling someone not to judge is actually judging them?

But I want us to look at something that has been happening in our political landscape recently though I wrote a little about it not so long ago.

People have been pouring scorn on people because they are not afraid of proclaiming what they believe. People have been speaking very harshly against ministers because in their understanding they have been compromised.

I do not know whether you realise that faith is first a personal choice. It therefore results in a personal relationship with a deity.

It goes without say then that the determinant of faith is the deity the faith is directed to. And that deity is the one who proves or disproves that faith.

And it is the same with the deity’s servants.

Am I not therefore going overboard when I make myself the judge of a relationship outside of me? Who am I to determine the validity or otherwise of that relationship?

Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. (Romans 14:4)

We could very easily attract judgment from that deity when we become pedestrian with his worshippers or servants.

Let me narrow this down.

What does the Bible say about those who believe Christ? What does it say about those who serve Him?

I do not think you realise that you can make God qualify the unqualified when you put His name on the line.

What do I mean?

Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. (Jeremiah 1:12)

God defends His word whoever it is that speaks it.

That is why there are conmen running churches. That is why there are people running churches as their personal fiefdoms or businesses.

God will be where His word is proclaimed. And He will make that word bear fruit.

Making yourself a judge of the quality of vessel is in effect judging the treasure it contains, meaning that you are judging the owner of that treasure.

I am writing this as a minister and it pains me immensely when I see a believer or minister who does not walk according to God’s revelation through His word.

I therefore feel in a very small way the pain God feels when that happens.

But the reality is that God validates His word irrespective of the one speaking it.

You also realise that there is a reward for the carrier of that word just like it says you do not muzzle an ox when it is treading corn.

But God will also judge that messenger who does not walk according to the word he is releasing. And it is only God who can do that.

When you laugh at someone praying because you believe he doesn’t qualify to have his prayers answered, when you pour scorn on someone because he shed tears when he was praying, when you shout that you also pray and they were not doing something special when they were praying, you are actually directing your anger and frustrations to the wrong place because they were not praying to you.

When you dismiss all pastors and bishops because one or all of them supported what you oppose, you are actually dismissing the God whose name they minister through.

Let me be didactic for a moment.

Remember the temple?

Was it God’s house? Of course not.

It was simply a house built in His name and for His glory. We can call it a monument to point people to God.

But it was not like any other house for that simple reason.

That is why praying towards it brought results, not because of the house but because of the One it was called after as we see in 2 Chronicles 6 and 7.

Focusing on the house and forgetting its purpose is the reason God destroyed it as He had earlier done with Shiloh, another place where His name had been identified with.

Michal was judged for making herself the judge of David’s worship.

Are you any different?

The long and short of what I am saying is this; when you make yourself the judge of someone else’s practice of faith, you are opening yourself up to the fightback of the deity the person professes.

And God will surely judge you.

Allow God to judge His own without your feeble interference. 

The Joneses

I promised to continue with my discourse on goats.

Sadly, my solar system has been having issues even as the sun had decided to completely hide itself behind the clouds.

Add that to the fact that my children all flocked back from distant schools and the animals required more attention even as I continued learning from God as I took care of them.

But now I have some time to share a few points.

Goats are never content with their lot. And I have done a lot of observation to come up with that.

A goat will not settle in a pasture, however good.

A goat will bite a leaf here and then run to bite another there. Then run back to bite where they left and repeat the same ad infinitum.

Take them to a lush bush and they will be scattering everywhere, biting here before rushing to take another bite somewhere else.

Let me give an analogy to help us understand.

Imagine a buffet?

A goat will not take a plate to serve food on it.

It will pick the smallest tea spoon and go round the whole place sampling from all saucepans (sufurias) again and again.

They will even dash back to the start point or anywhere else midway when they see another goat seemingly enjoying their bite

Let me get us to human nature to help us identify our goatish nature in one thing.

Why do people exchange sex partners?

I believe (and doctors will concur with me) that the physical aspect of sex is the same whoever one has sex with since the sex organs were created the same way basically.

The sensation and pleasure of sex is therefore not the primary reason for sexual promiscuity. Nor is the ‘satisfaction’ one gets from sex.

I saw strange things that were hard to comprehend when I was working.

How does someone coming from his wife rush to look for a prostitute immediately they leave home?

Why does a man sneak back home to have sex with the house girl when his wife is at work, and vice versa, when they probably had sex with their partner the previous night?

That is simply the goat nature manifesting.

A goat does not enjoy eating at the point it is picking food. They swallow and swallow.

They enjoy that food three days later as they are chewing the cud. By then it will have fermented (I read that from biological experts)

They must sample to eat. They in fact eat by sampling. That is why they never get full. Show a goat something new and they will jump from their siesta however full they may appear to be. You will always see them feeding on the borders however lush the centre is.

You tether a goat and the end of the rope will be trampled bare yet it was tethered with the best pasture closest to the centre.

To a goat risk is motivation as they operate by the borderline theology.

Another thing I have noticed is that goats fear being alone. They feed looking around for the others.

The first goat we bought made so much noise we hardly slept. Then we brought others and the noise ceased.

Even when herding them, you will find that they do not scatter very far since they must be within sight of each other. A few bites and they look around to see where the others are. No wonder goats do not normally get lost.

But apart from need for company is another reason for the same.

A goat believes that the other goat has or is in a better pasture. No wonder they will be all over the place looking to snatch from each other.

This of course means that peer pressure is a huge item in a goat’s life. That is why my title is thus.

A goat cries for personal space yet will never settle without other goats.

Look at human nature.

Why do people buy all-terrain vehicles when living and working in well paved city roads?

Why does someone with only one child (or even none) and rarely having visitors buy or build a ten or more-bedroom mansion?

Why would someone who rarely walks have a wardrobe full of shoes that they may never wear?

Why would someone without any children continue building his wealth portfolio by grabbing from the vulnerable?

To most they are symbols of success – goatish nature.

We seek to compete and compare with each other. Or we are fighting to appear better than the other person.

Peer pressure thrives with goats.

We cry personal space yet are unable to handle it if it is not congregated with others.

We love the feel of achievement only when we can share with others and show them how much better we are than them or prove them wrong in their assessment of our achievement.

Why do we love huge churches yet we know that fellowship and ministry is minimal?

Why do we support pastors and churches with budgets in their millions yet we will run to that pastor of a small church when we need actual ministry?

We want to be associated with success and believe numbers and budgets are the yardstick for the same – goatish behaviour.

We love numbers and swim with numbers. We love good locations even when we cannot afford them.

That is why many people living in the slums bordering leafy suburbs like to say they live on those estates. And I saw that even in church when they were filling forms for this or the other.

A goat fears being alone.

That is why the prayer closet is a no for many believers since they then must face God on His terms.

That is why people shout in prayer as if God is deaf.

That is why people must be in a prayer centre or meeting to effectively pray.

There is nothing wrong with prayer meetings or prayer centres. But if that is the only place you can effectively pray, chances are that you are a goat.

If people must know you are praying, or even see you praying, it is also likely that you are a goat.

Or what did Christ say in Matthew 6?

Another thing I need to mention is that there is a whole spectrum of goatishness in goats.

Some goats are in behaviour close to sheep.

They are not overly scared of the shepherd. They do not scatter all over when released to pasture, they eat without jumping all over the pasture. They do not overly concern themselves with other goats once they get to the pasture. Etc.

Incidentally, they become the focal point for the other goats; more like automatic leaders. You see, the other goats equate their ‘rest’ with great pasture and so will hang around.

Confirms why a friend advised me to buy a sheep to make the goats eat better.

What am I driving at?

There are non-believers who behave like believers and can easily be mistaken for being sheep.

But their hearts are still goatish since their nature has not been transformed by the Gospel.

That is why the Gospel presentation is so important.

There are enough instances of even pastors getting saved when the Gospel is clearly explained. Yet they had all the time thought they were sheep because they behaved like sheep, even doing everything sheep did.

The clearer the Gospel is presented, the easier is it to separate sheep looking goats from actual sheep.

But I need to make another application

Why is it that single people prefer having sex with married people? Why do girls prefer older married men for a husband? What is so intriguing or special with having sex with a minister of the Gospel?

Goats respect sheep. They know that the settled nature of sheep is the security they need to eat well.

Left to itself, it is possible for a goat to sleep hungry since it will never settle anywhere.

That is why a youth will waste their youth and later join the church to get a sheep spouse. They will not trust their goat partners when they want to settle down in marriage.

In summary let me say this.

Peer pressure is the preserve of goats. Sheep are content with wherever the shepherd takes them and will settle down with the pasture they are led to without looking over their shoulders to see whether other sheep have a better pasture.

Rest is the preserve of sheep. Contentment defines a sheep under a shepherd.

A goat looks at and seeks to have what their neighbour has.

A sheep prays for daily bread. A goat prays for a better life, especially in comparison with someone else.

Motivation is the fare for goats since they must be pointed to a ‘higher’ purpose. Plain Biblical instruction is the fare for sheep since all they need to know is how to connect with the Shepherd’s voice.

Goats must be shown why it is important for them to give. Sheep give because they have a relationship with the Shepherd.

In the next post, I intend to lead us to the application of these truths to our pastoral mandate.

And why so? I know someone is wondering.

The church is composed of goats and transformed goats.

Do you realise that the same crowd that screamed, ‘crucify Him’ was the same one that was earlier seeking to make Him king by force?

Do you realise that Judas was with Jesus since the start of His public ministry?

Remember Jesus teaching about wheat and tares?

It is therefore important for the minister to be effective whether it is sheep or goats he is entrusted with, especially because goats always want to be close to sheep. And of course because his ministry should serve as a gateway for goats to be transformed into sheep. 

Jesus is not on the Ballot. But the devil is

Jesus is the King of kings and is therefore not looking for positions.

He does not need any expansion to His kingdom since His kingdom encompasses all others since He is the One who created them.

But the devil has been fighting for positions since time immemorial.

That is what caused him to be driven from God’s presence in the first place.

Let me give an example of what I mean.

In the early sixties the USA decided that any faith qualifies in the choice of a leader.

Ten years later a they legalised Molech worship (abortion)

How many innocent children have perished due to that? Multiplied millions.

But not only that. The country has released billions to the whole world to advocate and fund the same.

Regimes have been overthrown that have resisted that agenda

Whoever called America the great Satan was not way off the radar.

Then very recently they made a similar statement that any faith is better than no faith when they elected a Kenyan.

In a few short years, they legalised homosexuality.

But it went beyond that. They started aggressively pushing the same agenda.

Remember him being rebuffed by several African presidents when he tried to push that abomination down our throats.

It is now a crime to call an abomination what God calls it. Gay pride has become more important than speaking truth to sinners since one can be hauled to court for doing so.

Remember many businesses closed and pastors were defrocked because they were deemed as against that agenda. Imagine being fined for refusing to do business and promote agendas that are opposed to what you believe! And you wonder why they insist on being served by people opposed to their abomination. Why not give business to their own people?

You see, freedom of religion and conscience is only valid if it doesn’t paint the devil’s agenda the way God paints it

Satan is on the ballot through the people he has sponsored

And you will be voting for him if you vote for those people. And God will hold you accountable for that vote.

How do I know the devil’s agenda?

Let me look at just one aspect.

The liberal agenda is satanic. So is the feminist.

The first institution the devil targets is the family. And he will do it primarily through hitting at marriage. Forget about church for the moment because the church is comprised of families.

Abortion does not close churches. Abortion promotes sexual liberality and experimentation since the consequences are legally taken care of.

But since sex is also spiritual, the spiritual aspects of the same have no antidote. There are no condoms, contraceptive pills and ARVs for the spiritual aspects of sex.

Those spiritual wounds are carried into the marriage institution but are not visible in the physical. And they are more real and devastating than the visible ones.

How do I know the devil’s candidate?

How do they look at family? What is their family like? How do they look at roles in marriage and family?

As an example, the advisor to a presidential candidate was pouring scorn on another candidate because he had advised his daughter to submit to her husband during her wedding.

If that is not demonic, I want you to show me what is.

A candidate who is proud of divorce and single parenting is a red light because they will later advocate for other abnormal family set ups.

Divorce happens. Single parenthood happens. Just like fractures and malaria happens.

Do we celebrate malaria? Do we celebrate broken bones? Do we celebrate miscarriages?

We should be looking for solutions because we know they are abnormalities, illnesses even.

A single mother needs healing. A divorcee needs healing. Celebrating them is more destructive than ignoring them. It is akin to celebrating someone who has broken a bone by giving him a medal because he is the first in the community or has broken the most bones.

The whole obsession with women leaders being chosen just because they are women is bait from the other side. They are being raised only for the purposes of getting votes. And the rigors of all that campaigning will break a number of families because her role as the ‘fireplace’ of the family will be missing. Expect a few more broken marriages and children after the elections.

All the noise about corruption is a smoke screen to cover up real issues. We have known all of them from all the sides for a long time and none can claim they are clean. So, ignore that noise.

I will repeat.

Jesus is not on the ballot. But the devil is.

Choose prayerfully and wisely.

And even if you realise your own father or brother is being fronted by the other side, reject them since your vote is your voice. And God will hold you accountable for that vote. Otherwise, how do you pray for them to see the light of the Gospel if you are endorsing their continual walking in darkness?

I need to also say that the world is leaning towards the anti-Christ. But we need to be on God’s side even more.

Daniel’s friends did not fight against Nebuchadnezzar. But they did not bow to his idol.

Daniel did not start a protest against his colleagues. But he did not join them when they were prostrating to the king.

Being subject to our leaders does not absolve us from our personal responsibility.

Like I said when I was campaigning against the current constitution, it will pass anyway, but my concerns and vote will indicate my spiritual responsibility.

Sadly, the people who trashed the church during that period are behaving as if they now love the church because they know it is a huge constituency. The media that blocked the church from voicing her concerns is now behaving as if they are the ones speaking for the same church.

Do not believe them.

Check their stand on family, sexuality, marriage. That is where the crunch is

I hope I have communicated

Backsliding is not Falling Back into Sin

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3: 15, 16)

We know about Uzziah. Yet many who think they know about him only know about what happened when he died.

Yet how many know that for the most part he was a godly king?

What then happened?

We are told that he became proud. And that was his downfall because due to it he thought as the sovereign he could as well do some priestly duties.

He did not fall into immorality or other vile vices as we think of backsliding.

What am I saying?

The reality of backsliding is the cooling down of one’s passion for Christ. It is a relaxing of a believer from the rigours of his past soldenness to the causes he held very dear. It is a lethargy towards disciplines he pursued relentlessly in the past. It is a logical explanation for one’s lack of fire for the things of God. It is a looking down of people pursuing God with your past passion.

I can be doing everything right. My spiritual CV might be overflowing with all the right qualifications for ministry. My ministry output might be recognised the world over for its impact.

But my heart may have cooled off from my love for Christ and what He stands for.

I might easily explain it as maturity but the reality is that I have lost my passion for the things of God.

I am simply using the momentum I created when my heart was afire. But I have no new energy to propel me higher.

David didn’t backslide when he slept with Bathsheba.

That sin was the fruit of his backsliding.

The clearest indicator of his backsliding was staying home in the season kings went out to war. And I believe even that was a symptom as the backsliding must have started much earlier.

Yet I think Hezekiah gives us the clearest of this

Remember he was a very good and godly king.

Then he was told that the time of his death had come.

That is when we see his backslidden state, not his backsliding.

I deserve better, is what he was telling God

He was propelling his life using his past godliness and using it to bargain with God.

Grace has slipped away.

It is no wonder that we see pride consuming him once his bargain bears fruit.

Yet the clearest evidence of his backsliding can be seen in the fruit of his backslidden state.

He raised Manasseh in that state.

No where in the Bible do we see Hezekiah falling into sin.

His life went on as it had been before. Only his heart had thawed against God.

And that is what Manasseh caught since our children will catch our spirit instead of our actions and words.

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. (Revelation 2:4)

You read that context of this verse and will not fail to see the ‘accolades’ Jesus heaped on the church in Ephesus.

They were doing everything right. They were defending the doctrine very nicely. Their outward was perfect.

But their heart had lost its fire.

And that to God was falling.

We love saying God sees the heart. Only that we do not really behave or run with that confession.

Why do I say that?

There are things we do in secret that we will be ashamed of if people knew that we do them. There are sites we visit on the net that we would be ashamed of if everybody knew we visit them. There are thoughts and attitudes we maintain and we know they are not right because nobody can access our thoughts or hearts.

Doing ministry because we must do it is an indicator of a backslidden state. Serving God because my support comes from that is also an indicator.

In short, doing all the right things is not any indicator that God is pleased with what I am doing because He sees the heart, the source and motivation of everything I do or think.

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 had to fix those verses somewhere.

And it is because they clearly exemplify what I have been saying.

One thing I love with Paul was his motivation

For the love of Christ constraineth us; (2Corinthians 5:14a)

His passion for Christ was unfazed by nothing until he was martyred.

How backslidden are you?