Incarnational Ministry

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

I have of late been thinking of transformational ministry.

Why is it that some missionaries and missions always raise dependents?

And by dependents I am talking about everything from money to leadership and oversight.

Like a recent post I saw on social media of a minister coming from ministry in Africa complaining that there were no genuine pastors because all he dealt with were after his money.

The first question I would have asked him is how he had packaged himself.

You see, many times, you will be taken as you appear.

And as an African who has ministered in Africa all my life, I can tell you that Africa is the centre of hospitality.

This directly means that you will be received in a way that will make you feel at home wherever you go. You will be received as you come; and as you have presented yourself.

I have never had any qualms being sent anywhere in Africa whether I know anybody or not.

In fact, over the years, all I will travel with is a phone number that I will call when I get to the destination, and most times I do not even have any return fare, let alone money to sustain my stay there.

And I have never been disappointed.

And it is not a single community, or even country.

I have been to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo and Mozambique as well as in most communities in my country, Kenya.

I will be invited or even sent by another minister to people I do not know and have never met and would be with them for a week, two or even longer.

But I won’t risk that in Europe or America, places where even a child has to make an appointment to enjoy lunch with his own parents.

But that is not why I am writing this.

Why is there inbreeding in many ‘high’ societies?

The main driver is the exclusive nature of their structures. They will not risk for any outsider to ‘hack’ into their closeknit communities.

They are too protective of their structures and may kill them by guarding against ‘defilement’.

A wealthy or ‘royal’ community gets scared that any outsider getting married into their family is looking to exploit it. Also, the danger that expanding the community could dilute its influence.

A wealthy person thinks that any girl or boy loving their own is doing it for the money; that any love being expressed is directly proportional to their interest in accessing that money.

What does this have to do with ministry? I know someone is wondering.

Ministry is launching out in obedience to God to the place He sends you.

In short, you are a river flowing into the desert to quench the thirst inherent therein.

That is what I want us to look at.

What is your expectation? Where is your faith?

Do you expect that desert to be transformed into a thriving farmland or do you think you will always be needed to water it?

Do you expect the water you provide to be swallowed to create an independent ecosystem that does not require you or do you always expect to continue flowing to them?

Must you always be there for your river to function properly? Can your river be sent elsewhere? In short, can you be given another assignment and leave confident that your assignment has been completed?

Where are you anchored at?

At the root of any ministry is its expectation, and especially the end result.

Many a ministry dies because the founder refuses to have his influence diluted.

He wants to be the main guy, if possible, even beyond the grave.

And that is the problem with much of the church today.

That is the driver of most of the corruption in churches and ministries.

Let me give two ways church has been being done.

The first one is that the leader is a master or lord. And by leader I am talking about the missionary or founding pastor, evangelist or team.

Think about Abraham.

He had a very faithful servant; one he could entrust with the job of looking for a wife for his son.

Yet what do we see when he was speaking to God?

And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. (Genesis 15:3)

Only children should inherit their parents, normally.

It was therefore a sad affair for Abraham then because he did not have an heir.

Personal empires require the continuity that family produces.

Think also about a corporation or business.

The CEO is an employee (like Eleazer)

He will never own that business, however well he performs.

He will always be an employee, subject to the owner/s.

What model do you think the church operates under?

Jesus said that we are unworthy slaves in His ‘business’. We therefore do only what we are ordered to do. Only the Master knows and cares for the outcome; simply because servants do not have any stakes beyond performance.

Wanting to perpetuate my leadership of ministry or church is therefore counterproductive, even destructive, to our pursuit. It is rebellion.

And that is irrelevant whether I am the one who founded that church or ministry or not.

I did what I was ordered and therefore have no ownership stake in what I was sent to do.

And we see that with CEOs all over the world.

The only thing that grows with their impactful and profit-growing leadership will be their remuneration, unless the owners think they stand to gain more by giving them a share of their company.

But the owners’ children do not have to prove themselves (though they are raised to pursue leadership and understand the enterprise). They will eventually take over the enterprise once their parents’ get out of the picture or decide to retire.

But there is something else I want us to look at concerning the church.

Though it unilaterally belongs to Christ, He does not behave like those corporations.

He seeks to coopt us into His enterprise, though that in no way implies that we have become co owners.

Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (John 15:15)

The fact that He calls us friends does not mean that He stops being our Lord.

And that is the point of this message.

Why do we find it difficult to copy our Lord in that aspect?

Of course I will add another verse to add more emphasis.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. (John 14:12)

Why does it seem like an offense, even sin, if somebody who has grown under you becomes better than you?

This brings another dynamic, parenting.

A father is never threatened when his son outshines him.

In fact, the heart of a father desires for his son to outshine him.

‘That is my son’, is the greatest pride of a father when his son thrives.

That is why an illiterate father has no qualms selling his livestock and/or land to educate his children.

That is what Christ is doing in this verse

As adopted children in His family, He not only wants us to connect to His enterprise, He expects us to make it accomplish even beyond what He was able to accomplish when He dwelt amongst us.

Not only that. He wants us to operate in His Spirit.

Whatever do you mean? I know someone is wondering.

He wants us to do ministry as fathers.

And you will allow me to explain a little.

A father handles all the weight at the beginning. But that is not his end goal.

As the son grows, he will slowly start releasing the reins so that the son starts taking responsibility.

He will eventually let go of the load for the son to carry alone because he has learnt to do so.

That is the way empires are built.

And it is the same way effective ministry is built.

The father will initially be the star of the show, but only temporarily because he will start training his son to grow into it.

Eventually he will step back and allow his son to shine as he watches from the background, stepping in only when something requiring his experience or authority is required.

Peter and John did it that way.

No wonder in their epistles they are calling themselves elders instead of apostles.

And Paul did it the same way when we see him handing responsibilities to Timothy, Titus and even Philemon.

But the one who exemplifies that spirit to me is Barnabas.

And that because he did not wait to get old before doing it.

He takes Paul, disciples him and releases him when he has grown enough to ‘resist’ ministry to another prospect.

And he continues to do the same with Mark.

For self-important ministers, they may think that Barnabas disappeared from the picture without realising that this is the way it was meant to become.

Remember this?

He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30)

Ministry is about our disappearance after succeeding because then we are able to leave God with all the glory.

However, that is so completely opposite to human nature.

We love that glory and apart from our submitting to the grace that God releases to us are unable to completely release those reins since we think our value is related to our relevance and visibility.

I believe this is the reason the church in Africa has been unable to make enough strides over the time since we were evangelised.

Our ‘mother’ refused to cut the umbilical cord to release us from ‘her’ role.

And I know that this is hugely controversial but you will allow me to continue.

Almost any church you connect with is boasting about where it came from, even the independent ones, as proof of their greatness, even a hundred years after that ‘mother’ left.

They must as a consequence recreate that ‘motherhood’ wherever they go for missions.

The sad part is that some of those pretend that their chords were cut though they are many times worse than those confessing the presence of the same.

And there is a case of friends (of course they are not my friends now because I refused to buy their self-importance)

Look at their ministry and it is clear who their ‘father’ was from mannerisms to pulpit delivery.

Some were recently having an anniversary and interestingly they literally killed some history of their past to make it appear that they were the only ‘fathers’ in that structure.

I got to know of it when some people became uncomfortable with the history being presented and asked for my input since I had been part of it.

To imagine they even ‘killed’ the person who opened that door for them!

Yet these people are terribly offended if they are not acknowledged and acclaimed and fought for by anybody in that structure.

Calling them colonial relics appears offensive except for the fact that they embody that.

And now that I have used that term, I think I may need to say what I think made most missionaries of the past (of course not all of them) develop that system I have mentioned.

They had divided loyalty as they were subjects of an earthly kingdom that they were furthering even as they sought to make inroads for a heavenly one.

For the most part, missionaries were the ones who opened up Africa to colonialism.

No wonder it is said that when the missionary arrived, we had the land and they had the Bible.

Then they told us to close our eyes in prayer and that after the prayer they had our land and we had their Bible.

They were preaching even as they were searching for opportunities for their earthly kingdom.

Some were better than others. But their pursuits were not much different.

And I say this because I have ministered in British, French and Portuguese colonised (missioned) countries.

That was the bane of that missionary enterprise because it exported their earthly kingdom more than it furthered the heavenly one. Remember Jesus saying that you can not serve two masters?

The church then became colonial in its operations because of its founding.

No wonder getting a colonial name became synonymous to being converted. No wonder someone joining the church having multiple wives had to get rid of all but one to become a member of the church. No wonder being proficient in the colonial language appeared more spiritual than actual transformation. No wonder speaking truth to power became unpalatable.

You see, the king (or whoever represented him) was the backup for the mission.

Contrast that with the church in China.

The little or much I have read about missionaries to China makes one thing very clear.

The missionaries were kicked out of kingdoms, even ecclesiastical ones, because those structures did not agree with the calls guiding them.

It means that they went to China without any external support (the umbilical cord I have mentioned) because the structures saw only folly in the obedience being pursued.

This means that they had no backward glance as they pursued obedience and did missions.

The church created as a result did not have the strictures the ones I have mentioned had because they were more or less kicked out of the sending structures.

Their churches became autonomous for the most part and raised leaders organically without much outside influence.

This especially because the missionaries did not impose their culture on the mission field.

No wonder the church still thrives amidst unrelenting persecution for generations...

What am I aiming at?

Discipleship.

Raising Christ’s disciples, not ours.

Releasing Christ’s ministers, not ours.

Running Christ’s agenda, not ours.

Because, at the back of any failing system is a people not completely surrendered to Christ’s absolute Lordship; a people not totally sold out to Christ’s ownership of everything they are and have.

Many years ago, Christ taught me to choose between my name and His by sending me to a ground that automatically painted me as who I wasn’t.

And for some time (not a short time) I was looked at as a sinner and backslider because of my obedience. To the point people were sent to rebuke me for backsliding. Action was also taken against me for that obedience.

But that opened doors for ministry and eventually He was able to right what had appeared wrong.

And that is something we must face all the time as we walk in obedience, especially as we deal with ministerial, generational and filial peer pressure.

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. (Luke 9: 23, 24)

You realise that it is a daily struggle.

Nature is a very good explainer of spiritual truths.

You will therefore allow me to pick another aspect to explain this.

A pregnant mother is completely connected to the life she is carrying. To the point that anything happening to one automatically happens to the other.

That is due to the umbilical cord.

Once the child is born, the dynamic changes as the connection is loosened as it now requires choices to function.

The mother must choose to suckle the child and the child must choose to suck for the relationship to function right.

But the child needs the mother in a very huge way, though not as was when he was in the womb.

Then the exclusive breastfeeding phase passes and the child is introduced to solid food, slowly. But he is still breastfeeding, though not as much. He is also getting more nutrition from other feeding than it gets from sucking.

He will eventually be weaned from the breast altogether.

At this time, he is completely free from his mother for his feeding, as it is also freeing him from a lot more of her influence.

Remember that is the time Moses was taken from his mother?

Why?

Because he could then live independent of his mother.

I hope you are getting my drift because I am talking about church growth and missions.

That was how Christ did it.

You remember He was initially doing everything?

Then He started sending out the twelve.

Then the seventy-two.

Eventually He went to heaven and left the whole business to those He had invested in.

And as we have seen, He left with the expectation that there would be more getting done by those He left than He had been doing when He was with them.

Is that the way we do missions?

Is that the way we do church planting and establish church branches?

Is that the way we raise ministers?

What is God saying to you?

14th Hour Miracles

We love testimonies of eleventh-hour interventions.

Help arrives just in time

Intervention happens at the nick of time.

But do you realise that God is not constrained to the eleventh hour?

Do you realise that He can get glory even beyond the eleventh hour?

And the Bible is full of such.

Shadrach and his friends were not rescued just before they were thrown into the fire. Daniel’s intervention did not arrive just as he was about to be thrown into the den of lions. Joseph was not rescued before misfortunes happened.

This means that eleventh hour interventions, though far more comfortable and safer for us, are many times the exception instead of the rule.

Allow me to get to my testimony.

I had been invited to Nairobi to start a ministry after waiting for God’s clear order for about four years after leaving employment, again on His orders.

Ministry thrived and started bearing fruit.

But the big guys in the structure developed other ideas; they wanted me to be their poster boy. They wanted me to be their PR item. They wanted me to run their errands.

I confronted them, of course respectfully.

The reason you called me is because you were clear that God has called me into ministry. Do you think I should start listening and following you just because you are the ones holding the purse strings? Should I stop listening to Him because you are my superiors?

They tried to push their weight around.

Incidentally I was doing exactly what they had called me to be doing and so they couldn’t say that I was ineffective.

To cut the long story short, I became a problem to those ministry bosses.

Mark you, these were long term friends, people I highly respected.

They therefore kicked me out and even killed the ministry to erase my involvement in it.

Here I was in the city, without friends or means of support.

And of course, very hurt by the open betrayal of people I had spiritually held in high esteem.

But then I prayed and God spoke.

He told me that He was the One who had wanted me in Nairobi and that they were the tool God used.

I had of course wanted to go back home because there I had a house and a piece of land but God again spoke.

He wanted me in Nairobi and He will take care of me.

Of course that settled it. Or did it?

Here I am with a growing family and no friends or supporters staying in Nairobi that was difficult to stay in ten years earlier as a single person with a salary.

But I chose obedience. But I told God that I would not be raising support from the experiences of friends I had seen struggle through that.

So, here I was in Nairobi without any support.

The first thing I did was to move from a house run by estate agents.

Again, because of a retired neighbour who probably died from the harassment caused by them.

Any slight delay and they would come and confiscate all his things then return them when the rent is paid after including may other charges like that confiscation and transport.

I moved from the estate I was and the first place I got was small for my family. And in my spirit, I felt that the move was very temporal.

We therefore continued praying for the right house.

One time, my son, who was seven then, prayed and his prayer was a description of a house.

As I was walking around the neighbourhood looking for vacant houses, I found the exact house my son had been praying about, every detail.

The landlord was an old man who was very agreeable because he even allowed us to move in at the middle of the month yet start paying rent the next month.

I had of course told him that I was a minister and that my rent would not be predictable.

Not long after that, rent did not come. One month. Two months.

I think that alarmed him because I had not been there even three months. I therefore did not have any argument since there was no evidence of the provision I ‘claimed’.

He therefore gave me a deadline (a 15th) to pay rent or he throws me out.

He was not even opposed to my moving out without paying that rent as he seemed intent on having his house back.

A friend I had discipled offered to help.

He would look for a smaller house and pay rent. Then he would take a friend’s handcart that he would pay much later and help us move.

But God had said He would take care of us and so I refused that help.

If God could get any glory by letting us be thrown to the streets, who was I to resist?

And so we waited.

Another thing worth noting is that my cell phone had a weak battery (those days there was nowhere to buy batteries) and so it had to be on power to function.

This means I did not have it during the day.

I arrived home on 14th evening and find a message from a friend.

Please pass by my office. And in case you do not find me, ask for so and so.

That offered hope. But hope that was almost too late because the mzee had told me that come 15th, there would be no talking.

On 15th, I woke up very early.

I thought to rush to see my friend and if it is the miracle I needed, I rush back.

As I was praying, God told me

What are you running away from?

I remembered I had allowed God to get the glory from by being thrown out to the streets and decided to wait for him to do his worst.

But he didn’t come.

At 10.30, I decided to leave and told my wife to tell him that I left after he didn’t come.

I was given an envelope (my friend was not around)

I went to the church (that was nearby) and gave thanks before even opening it.

In it was the full rent plus food money (of course I have not told you that even food was a challenge).

I then went back home.

The mzee had still not come.

I therefore told my wife and son to take the rent and tell him that we had waited but he had not come.

Today is the 14th, is what he said. Mark you he was an educated fellow.

He then went to look at his calendar and was shocked that it was actually the 15th.

So what was I actually running away from since God had actually sorted out the calendar?

There are many testimonies that happened in that house; from reduction of rent, twice, to being fed better than his children even with rent arrears.

And our departure was as dramatic when the season ended.

 

Provision

I have recently sensed that direction of my online ministry is changing for some time.

It appears like I cannot write those long messages (at least for now) that you know me for.

Recently, a friend requested a testimony he had heard me give and the release for that was immediate.

It is therefore possible that God is leading me to share short testimonies of what He has been doing with my life.

There are too many testimonies about God’s provision as I continue serving Him that I can only share a few.

As a background, I minister as God directs.

This means that I have no support structure (institutional or financial) backing me.

I also do not raise support or even challenge people to support me.

For the most part people will respond to God’s promptings to support me and what God has called me to.

This testimony is about the time my firstborn joined high school.

The calling letter had come with all the requirements and reporting dates.

However, up to the last day (deadline) of reporting, the only thing I had acquired for his schooling was a box.

When a deadline passes, the vacancy is declared vacant and somebody else can be offered that chance.

After praying and getting no provision, I decided to do something I do when the road is not clear, especially provision; I do what the ten lepers did, I start walking in the direction I have been ordered.

And that is what I did.

I had enough money to take me and my son to town (Nairobi) and nothing else.

I therefore picked the box and asked my son to join me.

After getting to town, I received some money and started buying the required books.

(M-Pesa, mobile money transfer had started)

After finishing that, I received some other money and started buying the uniform, of course no branded since I did not have much money.

I then took a matatu to the estate the school was at to buy beddings and similar items as well as label them.

I received some money that I deposited for fees (there was a bank nearby).

Then we left for the school, at this time evening was approaching.

And I was scared, especially because I did not have branded uniform.

You see I had before then taken students to school and been forced to buy from their preferred shop, even for non-branded uniform.

(I remember once going all the way beyond Busia [phones pick Uganda network there] and was forced to buy a skirt that looked just like the one I had bought in Nairobi because I had not bought from ‘their’ shop).

I was therefore scared that I would be forced to buy uniform afresh when I did not have any money. I also do not think I had bought enough stationary.

But what happened was interesting.

The teacher receiving us just asked one question

Do you have the uniform?

When I said yes, he simply received my son. He did not check anything.

And I had not even paid all the fees.

Forgiveness

(A friend asked for this testimony and I thought to share it here as well)

When I was working in the Media and posted at Marsabit, I encountered an armed robber.

As a background, there was no public transport in the Isiolo – Marsabit – Moyale route those days.

We therefore rode trucks transporting goods, and paid very expensively for that.

Another dynamic was that there were highway robbers (called shiftas after the shifta menace of the 70s).

This meant that the trucks would travel in convoys.

The journey goes through the desert and so many times it meant the trucks would leave very early.

I had been on leave and was therefore going back to work.

On this day, I had spent the night at my brother’s place some distance from town.

I left shortly after three.

Not long after, I met someone I knew as a robber.

In fact, he proudly called himself a murderer.

His name was Ibilisi (lucifer), a name he was proud of so I suspect it was a nickname.

The last time I knew he had gone to prison.

More surprising was that he operated from Meru and not Isiolo.

I therefore pretended not to know him for obvious reasons.

He asked for money and I gave him and thought the worst was over.

I suspected he realised that I knew him because he hit me with that bolted club at the back of my head.

I came to probably two hours later, completely unaware of where I was.

But it was still dark.

I started walking anyhow.

The only thing I knew was that I had been attacked and was severely wounded as I was bleeding even from the ears.

I then stumbled on a church mission where there were watchmen at the gate.

I told them I was wounded and needed help and they turned me away.

I fell again and became unconscious for some other minutes.

When I came to again, I was able to recollect where I was.

I started walking toward the Police station which was kilometres away.

The officer I met wrote me a note to take to the hospital so that I could be helped.

The hospital was also some distance away but I walked.

By then dawn was approaching.

I met a distant cousin who worked at the hospital as he was coming from his shift.

On seeing me, he took me back to hospital so that I do not struggle with much protocol.

He left when he was sure I was being attended to.

Then they required an X ray and required payment.

Interestingly, another cousin was the accountant of the hospital who was told about my case when he met the other one.

He therefore was able to authorise that X ray.

My skull had been dented by that knock.

Then I was taken to the wards.

I was initially taken to the observation ward because the nurses thought I would somehow die.

Many would come and look at me and openly wonder

You are not dead? And many other such questions.

It appears that the guy was a professional and only God frustrated his mission.

Two days at the observation ward and I was taken to the normal ward after which I was discharged after another two days.

It took some time before my memory was fully healed.

As an example, I would be holding the guitar to play the intro to a song in church and I can’t recollect the tune and someone has to hum for me to catch.

I probably need to state that he took my bag which had tools I had bought very expensively and some Bibles especially a Study Bible I prized.

After I felt better, I went to the police to report since I knew the guy.

After several visits, I realised that they were not in a hurry to do anything. And I was then operating from home in Meru.

In fact, I at one time saw him at our market. When he saw me, he was so shaken because I think he had been convinced that I had died.

The family decided that we will need to take the police to court to force them to take action, especially since the offender was known.

But I had been praying.

And the hospital had been extending my leave, especially since the clotted blood stuck in one ear was not in a hurry to come out.

God told me to go back to work and so I went and the plan of taking the police to court died.

As I continued praying, God challenged me to start praying for the guy.

But how does one pray for someone who had killed him but for God’s intervention?

Incidentally, God had given me Psalm 34:7 as the reason I did not die.

As I prayed, God slowly started working on my heart until I started praying good things for him; he finds salvation, he ministers alongside me, etc.

Eventually, I was able to completely forgive him.

But I didn’t know that until God confirmed it.

After I left work, I went back home to await other orders.

I got involved in a denomination that planned a youth camp in the school near the shopping centre.

There were many events, but in the evenings, we had meetings where we would talk to the youth and share the Gospel.

On this day I was the one leading and I asked whether there was someone who wanted to get saved.

Who do I see walking from the back?

The guy who had ‘killed’ me in Isiolo.

But instead of feeling bitter or edgy, I felt such a release and love that I gladly led him to Christ.

But this is not what I have been asked to write about.

Yet the next story would not be clear if I had left out this one.

Marsabit had enough drama for me and my faith.

I went because God told me to ask for the transfer.

I therefore expected ministry to thrive because at that time we were praying through Operation World and combined it with praying about unreached people in Kenya.

I went and there was confusion and pain all over, for the most part.

After that assault, and combined with some intense persecution at work, I decided that God did not call me to Marsabit and I had just imagined it since there was so much pain (at one time my salary had been stopped for six months)

I requested for a transfer and even looked for transport to move.

Then I thought to ask God for a sign, a sign that I knew He could not beat.

But He did it anyway.

This confirmed to me that He wanted me in Marsabit.

I therefore settled.

He had showed me a church deep in the Manyattas and I went there with gusto.

Even the bosses who had engineered the stoppage of my salary had gone and so I thought things would get better.

Incidentally, my friend, who had been at loggerheads with those other bosses, was the one who was made my boss.

But my joy was short-lived, especially as ministry opportunities started opening up

I will not speculate, but as ministry started getting clarity and results, my friend completely turned against me, started placing as many blocks as he would to those ministry openings.

He even started accusing me of anything, asking for explanations from me for very funny (let me not say stupid) things.

The other staff could not understand.

The others had done the machination in secret. This one was openly fighting me as a person.

To imagine I had to walk twelve kilometres (one way) to town and back to do my shopping yet the rest of the staff would be taken by the station vehicle is one such reality.

My life became one battle after another.

Incidentally, that persecution and incessant accusations is what God used when He wanted me to leave employment because I told Him I would be ready to leave employment but I was not ready to resign.

But this time I was no leaving as had been the case of planning to go for a transfer. God had clearly asked me to leave employment.

It is only that I wanted Him to work out in such a way that I would never be in doubt that He had asked me whatever else happened.

I was later called to start a student ministry in Nairobi.

As I had learnt when I was dealing with the guy who had attempted to kill me, I was sure that God wanted me to pray for this guy who had made my life a living hell of sorts.

After a few years, I felt that God had healed my heart of bitterness and anything else that would stand between me and what God wanted for me.

I prayed and asked God to give me the evidence that He had healed my heart.

God is very interesting.

I had friends in the tallest building in Nairobi (then) and would visit them.

That was a government office which had an unending stream of visitors at all times. The lifts are packed at all times.

I therefore got into one lift and this former boss enters.

Nobody else enters and I know that my heart has healed.

But it does not stop there.

We start talking.

The lift goes up to the 29th floor without anybody entering. It would stop, people would look in and simply not enter.

Then it goes down to the ground floor the same way.

It then went up, again the same way. But this time he stepped out at the floor he was visiting.

That was how God confirmed to me that He had healed my heart of any bitterness against him.

Any questions?

 

Anchor or Dead-Weight?

Ministry is exciting.

Ministry is empowering.

Ministry is liberating.

What then about the minister?

What about his support systems?

You see, a minister is not an island as is normally said.

A minister depends on structures, not only to stand, but to thrive.

The effectiveness of a minister is determined by the kind of support structures he has.

But it is more important to say that a minister’s success is determined by his proximity to God’s orders, and how close his support structures also are to those orders.

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14: 26, 27)

God’s call and orders predetermine the structures we will use or reject.

That is why Abraham was ordered out of all his support structures to be able to respond to God’s call.

And that is what Jesus is saying in these verses.

Our support structures may appear like launching pads for ministry when they are the tethering pegs ensuring we do not lift off.

Think of a job

I was called as a student.

Then God took me to college and then to a job.

I enjoyed ministering when I was employed because I had the money to follow my calling without needing anybody else’s support.

But the dynamic of what I am saying here became very clear.

A boss opposed to your call and values can make it almost impossible to minister as God would have you.

A boss who hates ministry (probably because your ministry is a daily reminder that he deserted the faith) will place innumerable blocks to your ministry.

In effect, you become a most deadly enemy to bosses who have a thing with your practice of faith and ministry.

A boss can plan your shifts in such a way that your ministry schedules are suffocated.

And as was with me then, he would micromanage it to ensure that that nobody else could hold brief for me even when there was an abundance of friends willing to step in because they respected my call, some who knew about my call since college.

This means that a job, as liberating as it may be, has other dynamics that could stifle ministry instead of enhancing it.

And rebelling against those structures is not an option unless they are calling on you to act against your faith, something I also underwent with other bosses.

I have indicated elsewhere that there was a time my salary was stopped for six months for a fabricated desertion.

But the reason was sadder; I had refused to attend a staff meeting in restaurant with a club because an earlier meeting had ended in drunkenness and that offended the bosses immensely.

What am I saying?

A job as a means of ministry support is dependent on many factors; schedules, duties, structures, colleagues, etc.

Yet the same job is a very visible ministry opportunity. It is actually a ministry opportunity that I believe is the major reason God would take you there.

Treat money and ministry elsewhere as secondary reasons.

There are ministry doors that opened in those job situations that could not have opened elsewhere. There were evangelistic openings that could not have opened elsewhere. There were interfaith interactions that could not have occurred elsewhere.

You are therefore first a minister at your workplace before accessing those resources it offers.

Many will make a huge mess of their workplace by focusing on ministry elsewhere and forgetting that Jerusalem of theirs.

They are therefore talking and planning for this or the other outreach even as they become shoddy in their workplaces. They kill their witness where God has placed them by focusing all their effort on the uttermost realms.

You must be faithful and excel in the workplace before God can entrust you with greater opportunities.

It is the same with business.

It is hard to be a great minister yet a shoddy businessman, especially when you are depending on that business to fund your ministry.

I will need to also reiterate that that business is also a ministry forum.

God places you in that business as His minister.

Money is a consequence of that first obedience.

And the same dynamic plays there.

Your other ministry must not interfere with that first one.

You do not unceremoniously leave your customers high and dry even as you are pursuing other ministry.

Your faith is respected by your reliability. It is respected by your customer relationships.

You will lose ministry opportunities if you think that the business is there only for the money. You could then be treated as a harlot.

Let us now look at direct ministry support where I am given money and other resources to minister.

Many people think that is a simple open and close transaction.

But is it?

For someone to give their resources to a minister, they must agree with whatever the minister is doing. They must want to be part of what the minister is doing.

It is essential therefore that the said minister justify that support if he must continue receiving it.

However, that is not easy for many ministers and ministries.

It is impossible for some.

Think of this missionary who is labouring in an unresponsive ground without any visible results for a decade or two. Think of this minister who is on the dumps rescuing derelicts where a single rescue may take years. Think of this other one who is reaching out to harlots with methods most would question and whose success is also painfully slow. Think of this one who dealing with confidential stuff. Think of the one dealing with the underworld; drug and arms dealers, pimps.

It would be impossible for them to issue satisfactory reports to justify the support they receive.

That is why some ministers cook reports. That is why some exaggerate results. That is why become professional liars so that the support flows.

Support also places an unpleasant dynamic to many ministers.

Unless God has spoken to the supporters Himself. Then they will not place that heavy yoke on His minister.

And I am speaking this as a minister who has experienced all that, and more.

And church support may be even more constricting because we have a pastor and board that must be satisfied by those reports before unwillingly releasing those few coins.

I remember not so long ago where a denomination closed in the whereabouts of sixty churches and sacked their pastors because they were not making a good return on its investment.

That is what I mean.

Allow me to get to the most delicate part of this message.

And it is about a wife supporting her husband’s ministry.

Of course, it appears very good and positive. And I will not begrudge that.

But even that has its own caveats.

Remember the common proverb, he who pays the piper calls the tune?

That is exactly what I mean.

It is very difficult to lord over someone who is paying your keep.

And it is near impossible to submit to somebody who lives off your provision.

There must be some situations where it works perfectly. But I believe it is in an infinitesimal number of cases, if there are any. And this is where we will have an exceptionally spiritually alert woman.

Why am I saying this?

In Genesis, we see the woman having a desire to rule over her husband.

The fall was in fact the evidence of that reversal of order.

And in this she had found the man complete; with resources and authority.

Her questioning her husband’s orders is the reason we fell.

If it is difficult for a woman to submit to a man with resources and authority, what do you think will happen to a woman who is the backbone of her man’s ministry?

As an example, I believe that many pastors and bishops who have their wives as fellow pastors do so due to the pressure of that same woman because she resents the background.

Numbers 30 deals with vows, the important one for our topic being those of a married woman, who must get her husband’s clear go ahead before proceeding.

Would she need that if even her husband ministers at her mercy (through her resources of course)?

Who between the holder of the purse and the carrier of the vision will be the determinant of the direction the ministry will take?

I am becoming such a wet blanket for some. But I believe sanity is more important than feelings.

Vision is the pursuit of an order from God whereas support is the response to an appeal.

Can a husband have the kind of authority he needs to pursue God’s order if he is subject to his wife’s support?

If, for some of us who rely on God’s people for all support, we have support shifting all the time, do you think a wife’s support is immoveable? Can she also have second thoughts about our pursuit of God’s call?

I am dealing here with a husband who ministers and the wife is holding a job or running a business to support him.

I am also talking of this man who raises support but the wife has to have a business or run a business to supplement that support.

She will therefore be required to step in again and again to rescue her husband when the support taps run dry as they always do.

If Sarah gave up and pushed Abraham to bend the rules to take Hagar after sixty years of faithfully waiting, yet she was feeding off his bounty and relationship with God, what makes you think that a wife would not get tired of stepping in so many times after a support dip?

What makes you think that she will agree to leave her job or close her business when God orders you to order her?

What makes you think she will listen to you when you receive an order she resents?

Those are the things I want us to think about.

She will in theory be the virtuous woman.

But her holding the pulse strings makes her somebody else, a major stakeholder to something she does not understand, as happened with Sarah and many others.

Or you do not remember Zipporah? Or Michal? Or Rachael?

A man must get his orders from heaven. And those orders do not need a wife to understand or even agree with.

Her position is bowing down to the lordship of her husband as he pursues those orders.

And it is impossible, I feel, for someone to bow down to someone who bows to them for support.

Many think a working woman is an asset to a minister but I feel the opposite is the reality.

I am throwing very heavy stones on a topic many will gladly stone me for saying.

But that is what I get when I interact with the word of God.

That is what I see when I observe ministers who are comfortable because mama is holding the fort with her resourcefulness even as he labours in the unyielding field.

It becomes worse when the ministry eventually picks up and is able to completely take care of the minister because mama will many times refuse to leave that job or close the business because she believes that job is the insurance scheme for the family, since, who knows whether that support is sustainable, anyway?

Or she will insist on being part of the decision making and resource sharing determining team in the ministry so that there are no shocks she is not part of.

This means she will be a housewife most of the time but must be there when ministers are determining the direction ministry is taking, having a bigger vote than any of the ones on the ground.

Or she will be in the background yet her husband or board cannot make any decision without her input because of her initial investment.

Should I stop here?

Forgetfulness

Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: (Numbers 14: 22, 23)

We were having a discussion about forgetfulness.

Though we differed on a few things, we were agreed on the fact that forgetfulness is sin.

In short, forgetting what I am supposed to remember is sin.

Then I got to consider forgetfulness.

Do you know that it could be foundational in the whole dynamic of sin?

It could actually be the sin that enables and empowers all other sins.

We say, ‘once bitten, twice shy’, because we are employing memory.

You remove that memory and you can be bitten all the time.

Let us look at a very common sin, illicit sex, or, in short, sex outside divine and societal boundaries.

Who doesn’t know that they could be caught and dealt with ruthlessly?

Who doesn’t know about STI, even terminal ones?

Who doesn’t know about the shame that accompanies that thrill?

Who doesn’t know that their marriage could collapse due to that?

Who among the unmarried doesn’t know that they are playing with their future?

Who among the students doesn’t know that that thrill will affect, may even kill their studies?

However, looking at the reality on the ground, sexual immorality is growing at alarming rates everywhere you look.

Boundaries are being demolished all the time.

That despite the fact that divorce is soaring and that is the key driver.

This despite the fact that there are enough examples of students whose lives have been cut short and others have had to do the same to their studies.

This despite the fact that businesses are collapsing as a direct result of that.

What does this tell us?

We choose to remember what favours our circumstance.

We employ selective amnesia for that short thrill.

In short, we forget everything else when the sex animal gets aroused.

No wonder Proverbs says that the sexually immoral lacks sense, or is an idiot if we used more current wording.

But it is the same when pursuit for self interest takes charge.

Look at greed. Or addiction. Or gambling

Look at corruption. Or overindulgence.

Someone is digging themself into a hole they know is bottomless yet lacks any sense to stop digging, yet it is in their power to do so.

Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! (Isaiah 5:8)

The pursuit of things and wealth is one very stupid pursuit when looked at from outside.

You wonder what drives someone to pursue wealth at the expense of self.

Why does someone who has everything never stop grabbing?

Why does someone with more wealth than his posterity could ever exhaust however profligately they live and spend never pause to wonder why they still are unable to pause in their grabbing?

There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail. (Ecclesiastes 4:8)

The rich fool in Jesus’ parable was wiser than most of us because he at least came to the conclusion of his pursuit when he realised that he had made enough to live on for the rest of his life.

The fact that there are wealthy people who die of hunger in their busyness as their employees and labourers are left enjoying their wealth is telling on that pursuit.

Forgetfulness is the reason Adam sinned.

The evil one just needed to question what God said, shift it ever so slightly to imply what He meant, to lure our first parents to rebellion.

And he succeeded because he dealt with the person who did not get the original memo since she couldn’t argue about an order directed elsewhere.

Then, because of her feminine appeal, she was able to shift Adam from the order, because she ate of the fruit before informing him and most likely questioned God’s ‘threat’ of death.

Did God really say? was Satan’s snare.

Will we really die? must have been Eve’s rolled eye challenge to Adam after she ate the fruit.

And the fall happened because of that slight memory lapse.

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. (Psalm 119:11)

The only insurance we have against sin is God’s word stored in our hearts.

This is because it is the only one that can direct our heart to be aligned to God’s word since that is where it originates from.

But it doesn’t easily get into the heart’s storage.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17: 9, 10)

There must be effort to condition the heart to willingly host God’s word.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. (Joshua 1:8)

Before it gets into the heart, it must be the conversation around me. it must be the topic I am constantly engrossed in, consistently.

I must be committed to spending adequate time hearing, reading, studying, memorizing and meditating on God’s word for it to have that kind of impact in my heart.

I cannot be flippant with my intake of God’s word and expect to have God’s worldview.

I can’t spend time following news and trends and expect to find my rest in God.

I can’t spend more time in worldly pursuits and expect to have a heart leaning heavenward.

In short, the amount of effort I spend on my pursuit of God’s revelation (Bible), will determine the state of my heart as far as God is concerned.

And it will be evident to anybody around me.

Preachers whose sermons revolve around current affairs show you where they are feeding from.

In this world cup season, you can be sure that most fellowships revolve around it, because that is where the hearts are.

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

The filling comes because there is a desperation in that pursuit.

You cannot use your spare time to pursue godliness and expect to achieve anywhere close to someone who is up long before daybreak in his pursuit.

You do not expect to get as much from prayer when you are squeezing moments to do it as the person who dedicates hours toward the same.

You do not expect as much from your intake of scripture when you will open your Bible before bed as the person who has set up a study room, time and resources for his pursuit.

That is why there are believers who are decades in the faith who have never matured yet you find a firebrand new believer taking great strides in a very short time because of his sold-out nature.

We are still dealing with forgetfulness.

I just want us to realise that God’s word is the glue that binds us to all His revelation, past, present and future.

It is the one that activates our memory and kills our forgetfulness.

Allow me, however, to get us a scriptural example of forgetfulness.

Esau was third in line on Abraham’s promise.

He must have spent some years with the patriarch and heard enough stories about his journey of faith.

He of course knew of his father’s pursuit of a wife and its demands.

Yet for a meal he kicked himself out of that position.

Imagine hunger disinheriting you!

Worse still, he married Canaanite girls.

Yet he didn’t realise that his father was saddened by that breach until Isaac issued a similar order to Jacob.

Yet we know that Esau was a very hard-working man.

This simply means that his heart was not as hard working as his body.

Or that he allowed his hard-working body to dictate terms to his heart.

No wonder a birthright could be exchanged with a plate of stew.

And going the lengths his grandfather went to get a wife for his father was untenable to his basic need of a wife, even wives.

You even realise as he was meeting his brother that he had completely forgotten how he was tricked out of what had been his; because he had made it anyhow.

Esau was not spiritually leaning and so had little awareness of the spiritual.

And we are not much different if we become preoccupied with the here and now at the expense of the eternal.

The reality is that everything the world offers is temporal, however permanent we may want to make it appear.

And that is so from wealth to fun to power.

We are like a child who thinks he has an unlimited amount of time and energy.

We are like a tycoon’s child who looks down on everybody beneath his class because of the wealth he was born into, wealth he may waste in a flash once the one who made it exits the scene.

We are like that limousine chauffeur looking down on one driving his own ramshackle without realising that this one he is looking down on at least knows how to manage his own car.

All these forget the basics.

His parents were once children.

That tycoon sweated to create that wealth.

That limousine is not his.

In short, the main problem is that someone looks at the temporal and interprets it as eternal because of that forgetfulness.

And we do that even in ministry

For example, what are the marks of a successful minister or ministry?

We revere huge churches, large congregations, impressively large autos and huge titles.

We will want to tap into the anointing of someone who dines with kings without asking whether he could be a sellout to the Gospel of the kingdom.

We want to be mentored by the megastars of the church without caring to know where that stardom is based.

We conveniently forget that when God looks at His ministers, faithfulness in their obedience is the only currency He uses.

We also conveniently forget that Christ’s anointing manifested first in preaching the Gospel to the poor and underprivileged.

We also choose to forget that Christ’s mark of greatness was washing other’s feet, not lording over them.

We therefore forget God’s standards for the world’s allure.

We forget His standards for the world’s rewards.

And like Israel, we are condemned with wandering year after year, wallowing in our choices.

Can I stop here?