Relevance, the Curse of Our Generation

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2)

I was looking at music videos in a PSV when it occurred to me that there is no distinction between a worship video and an obscene one for the most part.

You can shout as hard as you may, but you will allow me some time to explain why I am saying this.

What is our standard? Where do we get our marching orders? Who gauges our success?

What makes a Christian influencer? What kind of influence does he wield?

What brings about Christian impact? Where is it most visible?

Who guides our values?

Why am I asking all these questions? You may be wondering.

The truth of the matter is that how each of us answers will determine the level of our transformation, or lack of it, in our faith.

You might be a very successful, even impactful pastor (or any other superstar minister), yet be completely invisible in the spiritual realm.

Likes and follows are not spiritual standards. And I am not condemning them or even calling them wicked.

I am simply saying that they are purely worldly standards.

In Matthew 25, Jesus gives the reality of the final judgment by separating two teams; one being condemned and the other being rewarded.

It is interesting that both teams pose the same question, WHEN?

One group was wondering when they did all those things they were being commended for. The other was asking when those opportunities bypassed them.

That is what is guiding this message.

We are looking for relevance and success from the wrong place as believers.

This makes us bend our values in that wrong direction.

We will then applaud the success coming from those exertions and mourn when we fail to attain success there.

We will make enemies of those who refuse to applaud us, simply because they look for success in God’s direction.

Let me ask a little question.

What is the relevance of smoke and disco lights in worship?

In fact, what does that word disco have to do with anything godly, let alone worship?

What accessory is a dance crew to worship? What does it add to worship?

Why, in the first place, do we need to look at people, dancing ones at that, to be able to worship or even praise?

I did not want to ask this as I have addressed it in past posts. But I will.

What is Biblical praise? What is Biblical worship?

Who is the object of that praise or worship?

What is our part in that praise or worship?

I will not answer these questions. And not because I have addressed them comprehensively in past posts.

I just want you to go to the scriptures prayerfully and ask that God Himself gives you those answers.

You have been spoon fed enough. It is time for you to look for food, not just to feed yourself, but also to feed those under your responsibility.

There will not be spoon fed spiritual babes in heaven. There will not be milk drinking babes in heaven.

Would it then not be more important to grow up in your faith?

 

 

With or For?

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4)

I want us to look at the starkest difference between the Old Covenant and the New. And it is in those two little words.

What does it mean? I know someone is wondering.

A nation has ambassadors.

These people represent the nation sending them.

He acts for the entity he represents.

Touching him is akin to touching the entity that sent him

When he misbehaves in his host nation, the worst they can do to him is order him to leave since they cannot arrest him, whatever he may have done. And it is to the entity that sent him that his expulsion is given, not the offender.

But he does not enjoy diplomatic immunity for nothing.

He is expected to perform his duties with an excellence not expected of most people since he is the pride of his sending entity.

He must undergo strenuous training to understand diplomatic etiquette so that he does not overstep his position.

Compare that with the son of royalty. And I will give us one very sad verse.

But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. (Mark 12:7)

That son does not represent the king. He is part of the king.

A son will, on being sent by the king, be taking the kingdom with him.

A son reigns with the king. An ambassador acts for the king.

An ambassador acts with the powers vested on him. A prince not only goes in the name of the king, he is in many ways the king since he is part of him as his son.

An ambassador goes by the guidelines and rules set by the king. A prince goes by the decisions he was part of, some of which originated with him.

An ambassador is ordered. A prince goes in the name of the king.

An ambassador is not final in his negotiations because he must get a final order from the king. A prince’s decision carries the weight of the king.

An ambassador must act within the bounds set for him. A prince acts as the king in all ways since he is part of him.

I hope all these words are leading you somewhere because that is the kind of message God wants to get to us.

Old Testament prophets acted on instructions they were given. Priests behaved according to the rules set for their duties.

And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount. (Exodus 25:40)

There was no room for creativity or inventiveness. It was the rule book or nothing.

Remember Uzzah or Aaron’s sons?

Look at the New Testament.             

Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 18:18)

I hope you can see the difference. But allow me to give an OT verse

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:34)

In the NT God starts with the heart as opposed to the OT where He started with the rule book.

No wonder the yardstick is way higher than it was in the OT.

Spite is akin to murder. A look is adultery. Discontent is idolatry.

Because the dynamic has completely changed.

And of course I will give us the verse that gets us there.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12)

We become sons after our salvation.

This means we carry the Person of God by the way we live and so do not really need rules.

But as members of the palace, we are bound by the palace etiquette because that is now my residence.

I represent the king not just more than an ambassador, I must be the King personified. Remember Christ saying this?

Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? (John 14:9)

But this is not a motivational message.

I do not want to challenge you to tell your neighbour that you are now reigning with Christ.

This is a post about maturity.

Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. (Galatians 4: 1, 2)

A prince does not reign just because he is a son to the king.

Let me give us a case in point

Remember this prince who got tired of royal constraints and opted out of being a working royal, even moving out of royal domain?

He was not denounced.

But his supporters were shocked when his children were deprived of royal titles.

Being a son is not synonymous with reigning with the king.

Only the son who qualifies can represent the king.

The prodigal did not go in the name of his father though he was a son.

No wonder he came back on his knees after realising that his freedom was worse than slavery under his father’s reign. I am sure that he ran off because he had thought that his father’s was a reign of terror.

Reigning does not simply mean sitting on a throne.

A throne is weighty, too weighty even for a son

Remember that when the reigning king was a prince he could not marry the girl he loved and married one he had no feelings for because that is how a crown prince must behave.

He had to wait for that forced wife to depart before marrying the girl of his dreams – in their old age!

Not every prince reigns with his father. It is not even automatic for the eldest prince to occupy his father’s throne.

A prince must be adequately prepared to reign with his father.

It means that for our verse to be actualised we must become princes worth that responsibility.

We must be thoroughly and completely polished to run errands for the King, the King of kings nonetheless.

So, if you must turn to your neighbour, the question I would have you ask is, can you be entrusted with the throne of the King of kings?

And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. (Exodus 12:29)

This son was more like Joseph, subject to the king only as far as the name (throne) was concerned.

Remember that with Joseph the king was more or less subject to him since he basically put all Egypt at his service?

But what trust necessitates that?

Pharaoh had realised that Joseph possessed something his whole kingdom lacked.

Incidentally, that is how believers reign.

Our anointing (forget the motivators) gives us tools that nobody else has and solutions nobody else can access.

I should in passing mention something so distinct between the OT and New; the casting of lots, Urim and Thummim.

Lots were cast as a way to know God’s will.

Do you realise that you will never find that in the NT except at the Upper Room prior to Pentecost?

And why so?

The residence of the Holy Spirit had shifted from structures to living beings, believers in Christ.

He could then direct with greater precision that all those OT tools.

Then God would not need His people to make a choice between one against the other but clearly speak His will to His children.

And Moses was a type who had God speaking to him mouth to mouth. He had access most are even unable to dream of.

That is the dynamic you see when you read the New Testament.

But why does He seem to speak to one and not another? You may be asking.

Not all the sons have an equal access to their father. Not all the sons can be entrusted with their father’s errands.

It is the mature sons, sons who understand and value their positions and responsibilities, who are groomed for the crown.

Many people approach me to ask how they can hear from God and are shocked when I do not give them a 1, 2, 3 step plan.

And it is because listening to God is not a skill one acquires or is trained for.

Hearing God is the product of great obedience and surrender to God’s revelation.

In simple terms, God speaks to people who are ready to do His bidding at all times.

For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. (Isaiah 66:2)

To understand this word trembleth, I want you to look at an athlete at the start of a race waiting for the starting gun to go off.

It is a trembling with anticipation, with expectation, with a longing to blast off the blocks.

That person will never struggle to hear God’s voice or know God’s will. Because God will never want to lengthen that anticipation, that tension.

So when people ask me how they can know God’s will, I will only ask them one simple question, how ready are you to run off in the direction God shows you? How ready are you to do what He orders you?

Therein is the ‘short cut’ to hearing God and knowing His will.

God will never speak for the simple purpose of someone hearing His voice.

Israel heard Him at Sinai and still perished in the wilderness for rebellion.

But I never heard of one who was seeking obedience fumbling around unable to know exactly what God wanted with him.

God simply speaks to the ears of those whose hands and feet are set to move on hearing.

And that is the point at which we can then start reigning with Him because we will have absorbed His nature through our unbridled obedience and surrender.

However, that reigning does not raise us to His level.

Remember that even the twenty-four elders who were reigning with God would all the time be throwing their thrones in surrender under the One they were reigning with?

Let us look at a few scriptural examples.

The first is David.

His introduction is sobering because God Himself says that he is a man after His own heart.

That becomes clearer when we see how he operates.

Imagine someone whose worship on the harp exorcises demons and heals!

In short, the worship of his fingers did not need any verbal accompaniment to perform.

One thing we see with him is the constant seeking to have God’s word on his situations, however urgent or desperate they were like when his army wanted to stone him.

He was reigning with God because he always sought to establish God’s position and orders on his circumstances.

No wonder he was always told that he was fighting God’s wars; that his army was God’s army.

The other is Elisha.

This old man (or who becomes bald in teenage?) was content to wash Elijah’s hands after leaving a wealthy farming concern.

He was an errand boy for this eccentric prophet.

No wonder he was able to inherit that prophetic mantle.

Our prime example is Jesus and Philippians 2 describes Him.

Moses is another great example.

The long and short of what I am saying is that for someone to reign with Christ, he must be in a proper relationship of trust and submission to the one he will reign with.

Christ was equal to God in essence but submitted Himself lower than His creation to effectively reign with Hia Father.

Remember Him saying that He only does what He sees His Father doing?

Do you remember that this was one of the reasons He was crucified?

The reality is that God wills that we reign with Him.

But like Gehazi and Judas we have some hidden self propelling instincts that we strive to satisfy.

Our submission is therefore subject more to our self interest than to the One we seek to reign with.

That immediately and permanently disqualifies us.

Can you be entrusted to reign with Christ?

 

Of Grace and Debt 3

In concluding this topic of archived files, allow me to get us into some scriptural examples; first, of someone who lived as if no such files existed, then later of someone who lived in the present reality of those archived files.

It would be important for someone who is reading this to go back to my earlier messages.

Let me however repeat that those archived files contain our sins, sins that were forgiven by the sacrifice of our Saviour.

Absalom schemed for two years to kill his eldest brother for raping his sister.

He then drugged him before killing him.

Of course there was only one expectation; his death for that crime.

He therefore ran to another kingdom.

After a few years as a ‘political’ refugee, his friend, general Joab, interceded for him before the king and he was allowed back.

But he wanted more.

To imagine he burned Joab’s ready to harvest barley field to send him to his father, king David!

It is also interesting that he argues his innocence as he is putting forth his case.

If I am guilty, let the king kill me.

The fact that he had been forgiven made him completely forget that he had ever been guilty of anything, let alone murder.

As you follow his story, you realise that he starts looking at himself as the victim, the one most offended.

To the point that he plotted and eventually overthrew his father.

He must have felt so offended to go to the point of raping his father’s ten concubines in broad daylight before the whole congregation.

It is no surprise that Joab was so angry at him that he killed him against David’s direct orders.

To imagine a person you rescued from oblivion burning your farm to force you to take him to the palace is not a pleasant feeling.

On the other hand, David exhibited intense gratitude for his forgiveness that he could still extend grace to this ungrateful murderer.

I am sure he wept because he was sad that his son had died without getting in touch with the grace that comes from proper forgiveness and restoration.

Absalom’s archived file transformed him into a worse person than he was before the first sin because he forgot what that forgiveness meant to the one offering it. He forgot the cost of that forgiveness by forgetting his sin.

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. (2Corinthians 7:10)

I will probably say something I think may have prompted that behaviour.

He is not the one who sought the reconciliation or even forgiveness.

We do not have any evidence that he ever approached Joab to intercede for him before David.

We are told that Joab sensed that David’s heart had softened toward Absalom.

It is possible this murderer thought that it was David who repented for chasing him from Israel, making David the guilty party.

That invitation was therefore the clearest indicator that David had repented of his mistreatment of his innocent son.

This flipped narrative completely changed the story to what we read in the scriptures.

That is what happens when we forget that we have been forgiven a debt that we had no capacity to pay, our sins.

And I see that all the time. Some have even made doctrines out of it though none of them produce holiness or even a desire to grow towards Christlikeness.

Allow me to give us two examples of someone who lives by the reality of that archived file.

The first one is Mephibosheth.

For all of my father's house were but dead men before my lord the king: yet didst thou set thy servant among them that did eat at thine own table. What right therefore have I yet to cry any more unto the king? (2Samuel 19:28)

Mephibosheth has been slandered by his servant before David so that in anger David would give him Saul’s estate. Yet look at our friend

And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king, and had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came again in peace. (v 24)

Look at what he says when the king seeks to reverse his earlier order

And Mephibosheth said unto the king, Yea, let him take all, forasmuch as my lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house. (v30)

That for me is what gratitude produces.

The other person is Paul. And I will just give a verse or so

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1Timothy 1:15)

That reality guided his life from the time he believed, from his work ethic to his response to his innumerable persecutions.

He knew he did not deserve.

He was only worthy because of the worth that was invested in him. Or do you not remember this

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. (Romans 7:18)

There is nothing in me deserving the grace bestowed on me, was his rallying call even when he was on the way to his many ‘deaths’.

One thing that is evident with the people who like Absalom have obliterated the existence of their forgiveness is that they become vindicative like Absalom was. Or like the debtor who started this series of messages behaved.

Since I owe nobody nothing, nobody should owe me anything, becomes their confession.

In fact, the ‘do not judge’ brigade is for the most part confessors of this doctrine.

The other members are repeat offenders who will always want you to start with a clean slate however thick their file of past offenses is.

The immaturity resident in these characters is numbing. The ignorance exhibited in their arguments is insane.

Forgetting the fact of our forgiveness is detrimental to our spirituality. It is actually a denial of our redemption; however loud it shouts otherwise.

Ingratitude and entitlement are the direct results of that memory lapse, because it affects our entire memory bank concerning everything else.

Jesus was crucified due to that. He was ridiculed even by His immediate family due to that.

Remember at one time arguing with Jesus that they had never been slaves to anybody. Yet from Egypt to the time of judges to Babylon, their history was full of enslavement.

To the point that they even forgot that they were even at that time subject to Rome.

Jesus said something sobering. They had forgotten that they had been servants to anyone because they were slaves to sin and the devil who reigns in that realm.

Like is said, he who forgets history is bound to repeat it.

Forgetting from where Christ rescued me will lead me to requiring Him to rescue me once again.

Let me repeat some verses I used in my last post concerning this.

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. (2Peter 1: 5 – 9)

It is a desire and effort to grow that will keep me in the right balance

We must desire to know God more to be able to access His grace.

But it will have to start at the point at which we acknowledge what He has done for us and where He has rescued us from

I may have to write further on this by looking at our relationships and how the lack of that memory of the good done for us interferes with healthy and wholesome relationships.

Penina

And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat. (1Samuel 1: 6, 7)

Today I want us to look at Penina with new eyes.

Do you realise that she lengthened the waiting for her cowife through her provocation?

You see, she weakened Hannah spiritually to the point that her body refused to function properly. And you will allow me to give us a verse that demonstrates that.

And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. (1Samuel 1:18)

Before then, this lady had been unable to eat, especially after coming from the spiritual retreats.

But we see her receiving a prophetic word (though Eli may not have thought of it that way).

This gives her peace, releasing her body to function properly. No wonder she is able to conceive immediately.

Spiritual oppression has immediate physical and biological consequences.

We are created in such a way that should one part of our body malfunction, the rest of the body rallies all its resources to deal with that.

That is why you may go to sleep when you have a toothache, though teeth have nothing to do with work apart from eating. Or you have a headache when your stomach aches. Or experience extreme fatigue when you are anxious.

Pain in one part of the body is spread to every part of the body so that the body can then look for the solution for that discomfort.

Or have you not seen how a person lacking one sense has more acute sensitivity on the remaining senses. Someone who can’t see has an acute sense of hearing and touch. Someone who can’t walk has greater strength on their hands and so on.

The spiritual dimension is the controller of the whole body.

This means that touching on the spiritual will weaken the other functions of the body even worse than if one part of the body was removed.

And this because the body rallies to deal with something it has no capacity of dealing with since it is outside its realm.

This directly affects the functions of the body. The more the harassment the worse it affects.

Immunity will go down and even the production of the hormones for the normal functions of the body goes berserk since it has been messed with.

That is why it becomes increasingly difficult for a couple that has been unable to get a child for a few years conceive since the pressure (call it spiritual, though interpreted as cultural) increases with time.

That is why they fail though doctors may consistently find nothing functionally or biologically wrong.

That craving for a child increases the spiritual pressure on them to the point that their very normal and healthy functions are unable to cope.

That is what Penina was doing to Hannah.

The positive thing is that she took all that pressure to the right place, God’s hands. And she was able to get God’s word that released it.

But this post is not about Hannah, or even Penina. I have brought them to create a context for what I want to share.

Have you realised that most people in those highly demanding and paying professions struggle to get even a single child, especially if they got into those positions very early?

And why do people with all the money also have problems getting children to the point of buying them? Why do many successful people lack an heir?

Incidentally, why is that casual teenage fling so effective in granting that ‘unwanted’ conception?

The teenager has basically no care in the world since they are their parents’ responsibility.

This means that their bodies operate optimally.

Bring two such together, even accidentally, and the results are excellent.

Twenty years down the line and the same people will go to fertility clinics and still fail to conceive yet they have not gone through any health issues on their upward trajectory.

What has happened?

They have undergone some spiritual transformation of sorts because they are now in charge of their lives.

Beyond that, they have had some spiritual battering, probably through all the expectation their position and prosperity are always attracting.

Instead of a child being a consequence of a healthy life, it becomes the ultimate goal, the highest target, in their success. Remember Rachael asking Jacob to give her a child or she dies?

They have started looking for a competitive edge in their success, a child to carry their name.

This is compounded by the demand of the same from the community around them, and especially the culture they have grown in.

That pressure castrates the man and renders the woman infertile.

I think it is important to say something else to demonstrate what I am saying.

Ever realised that in the even that such a high-profile couple separate, many times the man will impregnate a girl somewhere and the woman will be impregnated somewhere else?

Infertility is therefore not the issue we are dealing with here. Both are as healthy as a mule.

But the spiritual atmosphere around them is so stifling that their bodies simply cannot perform.

Take them out of that pressure and their bodies become normal once again.

It is important to remind you that I am also not writing about successful and rich couples, just gleaning some lessons from them.

For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD. (Hosea 4:10)

In the past, we associated sexual activity with pregnancy.

In fact, that was even scarier than STDs. That was the only thing parents scared their children with not so long ago.

Nowadays, even with all the sexual activity around, it is rare to see a single pregnant girl yet they do not even use ‘protection’. And I am writing this from a village.

Schools are closing (some have closed already) because there are no children to attend them, even schools that had hundreds of pupils in their hey days.

What has happened? Why are people who are so sexually active, almost to the point of obsession, not able to produce children?

Looking at social media you will notice immediately that sex stopped being a taboo topic. It is more of a trending topic than anything else.

Young people are obsessed with sex. Heartbreaks are the only crisis you will notice.

But there are almost nil conceptions.

And nobody wants to associate this with the spiritual.

I do not want to descend into the banal since that is not what I want us to learn.

Spiritual disconnection brings about unproductivity in other dimensions.

Spiritual pressure emasculates all other fields.

They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul. (Psalm 106: 13 - 15)

Leanness may be equated with someone eating a fat-loaded food yet never gaining any weight or getting fat. Or someone always exercising but never getting fit or getting anywhere near his targets.

You may also realise that it is God who is sending this leanness. And He does it because His people have chosen to forget Him and insist on having their way.

He is therefore sending leanness to show man that any pursuit outside God’s revelation and against His standards is not only futile but counterproductive.

Pursuing any agenda but the one God has set up for us will never bring about positive and rewarding fruit, simply because it has locked God outside.

The lack of fruit is therefore the outcome of life lived outside God’s agenda, or anything like that.

God is therefore not welcome to manifest His fulness, simply because it will be credited to something or somebody other that Himself, yet we know Him as a jealous God.

You see, even the testimonies coming from such success will heavily lean on everything else but God, though He might be mentioned to avoid Him being outrightly offended.

I have bailed out of book projects when that happened, simply because I couldn’t be able to bridge God’s glory and self-made men.

God is all or He is nothing. Do not mention Him if you are not ready to give Him all the honours, even the ones that you think belong to you. Or what does John 3:30 say?

Back to conceptions.

What happens when God’s order is reversed?

For decades, we have been immersed in the empowering of the girl child.

Sadly (or intentionally), we have forgotten that we also have the boy child. Some communities have gone so far as unashamedly saying that the girl is a better investment for a parent than a boy.

The result of that has been the complete neglect of the boy child in many communities.

The girls are now way up in the clouds and the boys are completely finished.

Nobody cares whether they are educated or not. Nobody cares what they do with their lives. Nobody cares whether or even when they drown in drugs or crime. Nobody cares whether they are responsible or not. Nobody cares whether they mature or not.

They might die for all they care.

Yet these high-flying girls will need husbands.

This will mean that for some of them those village bums will be their husbands, probably those from good (meaning wealthy) families. Others will decide to get married to whoever to tick the community and culture box.

Now, who do you think will be the husband and who will be the wife in this scenario?

Who will submit to the other?

That was the purpose of this post.

The spiritual tension in that household will be so thick as can be cut with the right knife.

And that is why schools are unable to get pupils.

It is Penina pressuring Hannah.

But it is worse because our Hannah does not even realise there is a problem because she has refused to seek God’s solution to her infertility, especially because she has a man to blame, the man society chose to raise contrary to God’s revelation.

The resulting leanness is the product of our overturning and reversing God’s order

And this because nature itself will rebel at such an affront. Even our bodies will rebel.

Just like a fish cannot live on land and a bird cannot live in water, people cannot operate contrary to the way they were created to function.

No wonder there is so much infidelity as people outside God’s order struggle to compensate for that leanness using their own designs.

But then it will make it far worse. It is like taking salt to deal with thirst.

And it will continue becoming increasingly worse until like Hannah we take it where it matters by seeking God’s take on the whole stinking game.

Then, like Hannah we will be able to hear what God has to say about our situation.

But He has already spoken through His word.

But are we willing to surrender our rebellion? Are we willing to repent that upside down structure we have nurtured and bred?

Because that is the only thing that has the solution we so desperately need.

We must agree with God to be able to access His fullness and wholeness. We must agree with God to access the peace that releases our bodies to function as He created them to function.

His word is the primary key to all that.

Our hunger and thirst for it is the easiest way to access what God has released to us.

It is the sure way to let us know when we are drifting from His ways.

In closing let me say that the leanness God releases to us is actually allowing us to reap what our self-seeking and unspiritual pursuits produce.

It is the pressure we create when we remove ourselves from His dictates and refuse to surrender to His Lordship.

Complete

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. (Deuteronomy 4:2)

I think this is the first time in the Bible that this statement is made; do not add or subtract from God’s revelation.

Yet it is the running theme, a recurring instruction, wherever you look in the Bible.

Allow me to repeat it in a different way

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 28:20)

Our instruction is not to only maintain the purity of what we are taught. It goes into the observance of the same. And to teach others the same.

For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. (Ezra 7:10)

Do we see the same thing here?

Pursue with the purpose of knowing.

Then knowing with the purpose of obedience.

Then the obedience will open avenues for us to teach

That word ALL is our all-important bulwark. It is our pivot. It is our foundation.

All those things for such a small and short word.

But the lack of that word pits us against the world and evil in a completely disadvantageous way.

You see, the devil knows ALL the scriptures. He knows ALL about Christ at the knowledge level.

We are told he even trembles in his belief.

How wise would we be to suppose anything other than knowing the All that we are required to know can face the evil one effectively?

Of course we are not, nor can we be omniscient. We therefore are not expected to get all knowledge. In fact, the fall occurred partly because of the pursuit of that.

And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount. (Exodus 25:40)

It has to do with the revelation we have received as opposed to all knowledge.

What we do with revelation is the difference between believers and the evil one, pursuit of knowledge with purpose of obedience against pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake.

God is therefore challenging us to pursue obedience with diligence. He is commanding us to leave nothing to chance in that pursuit.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2Timothy 2:15)

Again, this is talking about diligence, not perfection. It is talking about a pursuit, a pursuit of God’s revelation.

You may also remember that God rewards His servants at the end of time, not for power or impact but for faithfulness.

We are therefore wise if we determine to know all we are required to know so that we can faithfully do all that is required of us. It is even better if we will be able to distinguish between logic, sense and revelation, however close they may resemble.

Let me give one or two examples of the additions and subtractions dominating Christendom.

God helps those who help themselves.

It is interesting that this statement is quoted by some as a Bible verse yet is not only outside revelation, but it is completely contrary to Biblical teaching.

Your parents are your second god

Again, I have heard this all my life and many think this is part of Biblical revelation.

But the correct position is that God Himself said that we should have no other gods apart from Him.

Now for subtractions

You shall not judge is probably the most quoted absent verse worldwide.

I know I have addressed this in a few earlier posts.

The reality or revelation is that life without judging is plainly animalistic, simply because choice is judgment. We choose one over another because we make a judgment. We have standards because of judgment.

The verse so misquoted does not deal with choices but with grace.

But it also directs us into making just judgments by first being brutal when judging ourselves than when we are judging others.

We can’t have heaven and hell without judgment. We can’t have salvation without judgment. And Christ could not have died if there was no judgment.

He who has the Son has a testimony.

This quote trumped me for long because I did not find it when I started going through the Bible.

I laughed when I was shown where it is apparently taken from. And it says nothing close to the quotation. It is only that it contains all those words, but with a different meaning. I was even surprised that I had memorised that verse.

In short, a verse was being made to say something it was not saying.

I hope you understand what I am saying thus far.

There is revelation and there is what we think or interpret that revelation.

Many times there is a huge disparity between them.

And that disparity could be the difference between heaven and hell.

What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. (Deuteronomy 12:32)

And of course,

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. (Revelation 22: 18, 19)

If that is not sobering, I do not know what is.

But it is important to realise that God did not issue those commands because He was seeking to constrain us. It was actually to free us. It was for the purpose of releasing the best from each one of us since aligning with His revelation makes us function at our ultimate as opposed to jumping around looking for affirmations and logics and applauses.

Yet the best way to attain that is by establishing to seek God’s revelation as a priority.

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. (Psalm 42:1)

We must determine that nothing else will do or satisfy our seeking hearts.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6)

And the easiest way we can do it is by setting apart time to spend in God’s word consistently.

We can only do that when we determine that the Bible is ONE book and that each part is important.

We must know how to relate with our favourite verses and passages so that we can fit them in the complete tapestry that is the word of God.

We must determine that even the difficult and hard to understand passages and verses are as much God’s word as the ones we easily understand and love to claim.

That is why I am part of a team that prepares Bible reading plans to help believers to read through the Bible on their own and get their revelation as they interact with it.

You can request for one if you are stuck and want to start your own pursuit of revelation and want to get past all the deceptive argument that the Bible is too big or complicated to read.

And this because I am amongst many who read through the Bible constantly, at least once annually.

I lost count at fifty times years ago but have not lost the discipline and the desire that fuels it.

And the Bible is sweet to read, with revelation at every corner once you establish that you must read it to hear from God.

No sermon, however enriching, is as sweet or engaging with raw scriptural intake.

Even the difficult passages become easier, even clear, with that consistency because God’s revelation is always current.

Ministerial Retirement 2

And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle. (1Samuel 18:4)

I know someone is asking for the specifics of the retirement I have written about.

And I will start by giving scriptural examples.

The first is the one from where the verse comes from; Jonathan, the crown prince of Saul’s kingdom.

It is very possible that he knew that his father and kingdom had been rejected due to Saul’s rebellion.

He therefore knew that though he was the king in waiting, his kingdom was in the spiritual realm past tense, however long it lasted.

Then here comes a young man, probably the age of his eldest son. (Incidentally, we are only told of Mephibosheth who was a toddler when Jonathan died).

In this teenager (probably preteenager) Jonathan saw the actual king from the spiritual way he dealt with things, from playing an instrument to chase demons and heal and especially in the way he tackled Goliath.

He was then faced with a choice all of us in ministry must face one way of the other.

Should I defend my kingdom or submit to the next king?

What between being a king in a past tense kingdom and a servant in a future kingdom is better? What between reigning in a rejected kingdom and serving in a promised kingdom is better?

For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. (Psalm 84:10)

Whereas Saul saw David as a threat to his dying kingdom, Jonathan saw him as the actual king.

Though both father and son knew what David portended for their kingdom, the son chose the spiritual route while the father chose to fight a lost cause. Jonathan chose to defend and submit to the future king while Saul sought to extend his rejected kingdom.

It is worth noting that Jonathan was the one standing to lose the most by the coming kingdom. Imagine being demoted from a king to a servant! But he knew and was willing to take the spiritual route, however damaging it was to his future.

Or do you not remember this

For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. (1Samuel 20:31a)

Over the ages we hear of people opting to die fighting for their kingdoms, preferring to die as kings instead of surrendering under whatever terms.

Over my dead body is a statement we hear all too often.

Yet, what is better, watching and serving a king you helped ascend the throne or dying knowing that the king you resisted will completely wipe out your posterity?

Ministry has a time line and seasons. And seasons never go back or stretch longer than prescribed.

The wise person seeks to know his seasons and walk in them while the foolish, and I dare say selfish, seeks to stretch their seasons.

This is the purpose of this message; to get us out of Saul’s rut of continuing to fight for a season that has run its course.

Elevating David was the best thing Jonathan did, much better that he could have done fighting to inherit his father’s kingdom. Simply because God had already announced the end of that kingdom.

Do you know that God has already announced the end of your active ministry? Or you are like Saul who will choose to fight that reality to the death?

Why am I saying this so emphatically?

Matthew 28: 19, 20 and 2 Timothy 2: 15.

We do not raise children and continue feeding them. We raise them so that they can feed others. We raise them to reproduce after us in all ways. We raise them to multiply our impact. We raise them to outlive us, even replace us.

But we must fade for them to thrive. Remember John 3:30?

We are the ones who have the capacity to release them into that ministry. And we must step aside to allow them the space to function in their calling.

We are the ones who have the ‘eyes’ to see their anointing even before they see it and launch them into their destiny.

The second person I want us to look at is Barnabas.

And his story starts very simply by saying that he sold land and gave the proceeds to the apostles.

This means that he transitioned from landowner to landless in that simple bold move. He must have been the one the Ananias’s were seeking to imitate before they died.

But it doesn’t stop there.

The chief persecutor joins the faith. But even the characters who had been with Jesus refused to believe it and so refused to accept him into their fellowship.

But Barnabas went for him and convinced the apostles that the conversion was genuine.

Did he have more information concerning him than the others had? Of course not.

But he had God’s eyes and saw potential when the others were seeing a threat.

We later see him going all the way to Tarsus to look for him.

But it doesn’t stop there. He continues to walk and disciple this young radical.

When they are called for the first missionary journey, God called for Barnabas and Saul. Meaning that Barnabas was leading the mission as per that call.

But we see him giving Saul increasing chances to shine until midway through the mission the order has completely changed to Paul and Barnabas.

It is also interesting to note that when they are going for the second mission journey, he picks another reject, Mark, and Paul, who had been allowed to be leader, would have none of it.

But Barnabas goes ahead to disciple this loser and we read the Gospel of Mark due to that. And we even see the same Paul requesting for the same Mark to be brought to him due to his usefulness in ministry. Even Peter recommends Mark.

We have only one kingdom to build. And that kingdom does not bear our name or identity.

Barnabas demonstrates that.

Effective ministry must start with an end in sight. And that end is our elevating others to shine in our place. And that is whether we allow or fight against it.

David said furthermore, As the LORD liveth, the LORD shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and perish. (1Samuel 26:10)

Wouldn’t it be better then when you choose the path of your exit? Because somehow or the other you must someday be replaced.

That is the reality Jonathan lived in.

You also realise that David also exited the scene at one time.

You are not Jesus who lives forever. No ministry belongs to you, even the one you call by your name. Because even what you call by your name you must one day leave.

This is therefore a call to consciously prepare for our exit in the visible ministry God has called us to be able to guide others in the office of elder

We can’t guide when we are in the thick of things since we will be unable to see the arena clearly from the smoke, smog and dust our activity is raising. You cannot shout a command in the noise of all the ammunition exploding all around us since we might even be unable to hear our own voice.

We must get out of the action to be able to guide the action more effectively and accurately.

It saddens me to see ministers pushing and shoving for prominence, titles and positions with their grandchildren and great grandchildren, spiritual or otherwise, yet demand to be respected.

They are not elders. They are just very old toddlers dying for a sweet treat those positions offer.

And if you think I am insulting you, you are not wrong.

Behave your age and give the children their space to shine for Christ.

I pray that this will get to one person who has been fighting for relevance beyond God’s timeline.

I do this knowing that very many retirees have refused to give God the positions and pulpits He had given them even when every indicator showed that the time for it was long past.

Will you be a Saul or will you choose to be a Jonathan?

May God bless you as you choose the way of obedience.

The Other Woman

Allow me to mention the other woman, commonly known as the second wife though that is not an accurate description. She is sometimes called a concubine though I believe that title could be a precursor to what she eventually becomes. She can also be called a harlot though that is also too narrow for our purpose.

You might understand this better if you read my posts about intimidation

But allow me to say in short that the other woman is a woman who comes into a man’s life when the man is vulnerable and manages to breach his moral and spiritual defences to make that entry.

At other times she comes when the man is at a spiritual peak and has forgotten to cover his bases well. Remember Elijah after Carmel? Or Peter after his great confession? Or David when his conquests gave him the leisure of remaining at home as his army dealt with the small stuff?

What does 1 Corinthians 10:12 say?

I will start with Bible examples to get the ball rolling.

Who was Amalek and what was his relationship to Israel, a brother whichever way you looked at it?

What about Abimelech?

Remember Peninah?

What was the genesis of the Middle East crisis?

But that is not my focus today.

The other woman becomes legal by compromising the man. She gains prominence by killing a man’s spiritual sensitivity. She grows by killing a man’s sense of responsibility. She gains prominence by accessing his weakest point.

The other woman penetrates the man by making him break his vows in one way or the other. She worms her way through his heart by consciously but gently and slowly blinding him from his spiritual vision, eventually obliterating it. Then it becomes irrelevant whether he remembers it or not.

That is why you see a man pampering every whim of children that a woman had from other men even as his legal wife and children are starving. That is why you see a man taking those bastards to the best schools even as his children drop out of school.

Someone recently told me that her father never even once visited her in high school (he didn’t even pay her fees) yet always funded and visited his step daughter whose school was much farther than his own daughter’s school which was nearby.

I remember a neighbour I had to threaten to report to the police because his own daughter not only was the slave in the house, she was also the blunt of all the battery, even by her own father. Yet that woman had a daughter of the same age who did nothing and was treated as a princess by that man. And I knew that because anybody in the compound could hear the bumps and knocks the girl was getting. And it was a brick house and we were not even adjacent.

How a person can so quickly forget his own flesh and blood is unbelievable, only that it happens all so often.

That is why I want us to examine how it happens.

And I do it because it is one of the longest scheming tactics the devil has always used against God’s chosen servants.

Ever wondered how Solomon could overtake all his elder brothers to inherit David’s throne?

When David fell for the allure of Bathsheba and even went on to kill her husband, he completely fell prey to her machinations.

I have said elsewhere that plain reading of the Bible points (not says) to the very easy conclusion that the woman schemed to have David fall for her.

Otherwise explain to me how someone can bathe on a roof when a building with a higher roof is next to it. And that roof, due to the person inhabiting it, must always have someone walking on it, even if only for security purposes.

Yet that was the reality of her temptation.

But she was able to flip the narrative to make herself the victim. She was raped and her husband was killed by David before being forced to be his wife. And we know women are experts in such games.

David was from that point under her grip as his own way to deal with the guilt that narrative would create.

Even repentance could not cleanse that stain out of David’s heart.

That is why he was unable to deal with Amnon after he raped his sister. That is why he could not deal with Absalom after he killed Amnon. And that is why he was mourning for Absalom who died for overthrowing him.

His reasoning might have gone thus

What I did was much worse than what he has done. What right have I to implement the law that couldn’t have been implemented on me?

No wonder he wished that he had died instead of Absalom.

That infraction with Bathsheba had opened him to an unending guilt trip. A trip he could not abandon whatever he tried.

That is what Bathsheba knew and controlled.

Otherwise explain to me the logic behind David vowing to her that her son would be king after David yet he was probably beyond number ten on the queue?

Simply saying, the other woman wins by getting to identify the weakest spot in our spiritual makeup and working on it more like someone rubs the lamp to access a genie in Asian mythology.

She will breach our spiritual defences and from that point start controlling us from the inside.

This means that we will then be more or less under her spiritual machination due to that breach.

Another person who is very prominent in scripture is Jezebel who is even mentioned in Revelation.

We do not know how she breached Ahab’s defences but we know how total her control was over him. But even marrying her was in itself a spiritual breach.

What I want us to realise today is that the Bible calls her a harlot, at least at the time she was being killed.

How does a queen become a harlot, more so in the palace? How come the king could not do anything about it?

How could she kill a whole family to get the king a piece of land? Was she more powerful than the king?

But what I want us to realise is that she was not exactly powerful. Her power came from the men she could control, probably using sex as bait.

You may remember that she even tried to tempt Jehu before she was killed. Or do you not remember her dressing her best and painting herself lavishly before making her appearance? And I am sure he knew her wiles well enough.

I will not talk about Delilah because Samson was already compromised before she captured him though she was not much different.

Another thing I will say before forgetting is that the other woman is patient, patient enough until she gets the weakest point at which she will gain unfettered access and control.

She will bide her time because she knows that with that sustained ‘loyalty’ and ‘devotion’ she will finally get to break you. And I am talking about spiritually.

Many cultures have tales about their champions who were invincible due to a strength or a secret nobody, friend or foe, knew.

Then they loved a maiden from the enemy. Of course they didn’t know she was on assignment.

And this girl was able to worm her way into his life until she became the only person worth sharing the secret with.

And her assignment was completed and the enemy accomplished their mission.

It is similar to what is famously called the trojan horse.

I am talking about spiritual manhood here and why it is important for a man to shield himself from the other woman, however appealing or attractive she may be, whatever she may offer.

We must guard our relationship with God to avoid those snares, whatever shade they may take.

Though you might be able to repent or be forgiven for that sin, the breach it occasioned will be detrimental to the rest of your spiritual life.

And it is worst for the person with a spiritual assignment because the devil will place all his snares everywhere as a means of making us spoilt for choice in as far as temptations are concerned.

A simple dinner invitation could turn out to be more ensnaring than a visit to a whorehouse.

One time I had an electronics workshop.

One lady always came telling me that her TV had a problem and required that I go to her house to be able to understand it. And I insisted on her bringing it to the workshop.

She came to the workshop almost daily asking me to go to her house and I always refused.

I came to later learn from people in that centre that any man who went to her house became her prey.

I can say that she didn’t tempt me because she was a heathen. But you can see how innocent her ruse appeared.

How many pastors have fallen for the snares of rescuing that damsel in distress.

I was reading a book ‘The Naked Shepherd’ that talks about the pastoral call and what it entails.

I remember a story he shared about a young pastor being invited by a girl for prayer, only to find her naked in bed.

Serving God comes with many risks. And many of those risks are associated with our faithfulness.

It is therefore important that we keep ourselves safe from the ensnaring and entrapment the enemy is sure to be aiming at us in the course of our ministry and the maidens he will be using.

Otherwise, we may end up being washed out before our assignment is completed. Or at the very least have our arsenal weakened by that ‘small’ compromise.

Lack of compromise will allow us to pray without guilt even at our lowest.

And Elijah is an example. He prayed at his lowest and was able to get fresh bearings concerning the ministry God had remaining for him as well as clarify his assignment.

My prayer is for us to not only be wary of those easy and difficult temptations, but to respond to them as ruthlessly as Jehu did.

A damsel in distress does not tempt a man of God since she really is not in distress but is looking to bring me and what God has for me down. She is the daughter of Jezebel and deserves to be dealt with like Jehu did with her mother.

You do not battle with the evil one using kid gloves. You respond to him bare fisted because that is how he fights you.

I know some are thinking I am being plain cruel. But did these words not come to Peter from Jesus?

Get behind me Satan.

Should I be softer when I am not as strong or powerful or knowledgeable as my Lord?

Should I be lenient when Jesus called His opponents children of the devil and brood of vipers?

I am not advocating insults since I was not raised with them.

But firmness will at times come with a rebuke that appears like an insult and will be treated as one by the recipients.

And there are enough times that I have challenged falsehood and sin and accused of insulting.

I hope I have not lost the drift.

But the servant of God must be focused enough on their assignment and relationship with their Lord to clearly see and adequately respond to any attempt to sidetrack or even slow them down.

Otherwise, we will be just another specimen of men who were gently lured from their assignment. We will be trophies our enemy will display demonstrating his conquests.

And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to publish it in the house of their idols, and among the people. And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth: and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan. (1Samuel 31: 9, 10)

And the same happened with Samson.

Yet we never saw the enemy even hinting at something of the sort when they were tempting these characters. He had pampered their disobedience and rebellion until he had completely neutered them before displaying them.

I want us to think beyond that woman. But it is imperative to understand her wiles as we examine other avenues the enemy will use on us because a woman is probably the most portent weapon the evil one uses, and most frequently as well, as we see in the scriptures, from Adam in Genesis to prophetess Jezebel in Revelation.