Manasseh

2 Chronicles 33 talks about Manasseh, the most wicked king of Judah, the king whose wickedness was the reason for the captivity.

I want us to examine that wickedness by looking at his father, Hezekiah.

Incidentally, Hezekiah is widely known as a godly king with a stellar history of faith.

After he had prayed against his death and was added fifteen years, he became proud. And it is from that that we get these verses.

And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days? (2Kings 20: 18, 19)

It was therefore in that backslidden state that he raised young Manasseh.

But his backslidden state did not go as far as Solomon’s since only his heart had shifted. It was only in his heart that fire for God had become all but extinguished.

Outwardly, he was the same Hezekiah

This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. (Matthew 15:8)

No wonder he had no issues with his sons being castrated to serve other kings.

You see, with pride, self becomes the predominantly guiding light.

In fact, even his prayer against death went along those lines.

How can you be so unfair, appears the pitch of that prayer.

You do not weep bitterly unless you feel unfairly treated.

And to imagine it was God it was directed at!

That is the kind of heart that raised young Manasseh.

Sadly, the mouth continued speaking the right things.

But we know that children do not listen to words.

They normally glean from the heart and spirit.

An example is this parent who sends his children to buy him a smoke yet never forgets to remind them that smoking is dangerous. Or the one railing against drunkenness when they know that he becomes more talkative after a pint.

All his children will become smokers despite all those warnings.

And that is what happened to Hezekiah’s powerful testimonies of his earlier spiritual exploits.

The only thing that young child was able to pick was that godless and rebellious spirit.

Another thing that made it so tragic was that he had not grown enough to examine the evidence to establish whether his father was lying or even what had happened for his life to be that shallow.

He respected his father and picked that rebellious spirit from him.

No wonder he hated God with so much passion!

He couldn’t distinguish between the God his father spoke so passionately and convincingly about and the rebellious spirit he lived by.

This means that when push came to shove, he would choose the spirit and trash the testimony.

Your actions are speaking so loudly that I can’t hear what you are saying, is the outcome of a life lived at cross purposes when picked by a child like Manasseh.

Your life is being lived in full colour that there is absolutely no attraction at all from the fuzzy, hazy and undistinguishable monochrome images your narratives are trying to point me to.

I am still speaking about spiritual leadership and parenting.

And we are doing this all the time, whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we believe it or not.

I know someone is shouting to me to prove one or the other thing.

Manasseh is the sum total of Hezekiah’s backslidden state.

And I will take us to the answer people are asking for.

And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God. And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. (2Chronicles 33: 12, 13, 15, 16)

He required his own encounter with God to know that the God his father had been speaking about was actually God and acted accordingly.

That realisation could have led to a huge revival.

The only impediment was that his earlier state had been so bad that it became impossible for that revival to reverse the damage his spiritual heritage had planted.

This also proves something many always refuse to face; and it is that the earlier someone responds to and starts serving God, the better everything becomes.

Simply because there is very little baggage involved.

I do not know whether people say it nowadays, but when we were young, people would plead for time to ‘eat’ life first and get saved later.

I have ministered with that sample of believers and one very visible dynamic you will notice without looking is regret.

The wastefulness of a life lived outside God’s revelation cannot be hidden because the damages accrued therein are constant pricks on one’s whole existence.

A worse thing would be a backslidden life, especially Hezekiah’s kind of backsliding.

And that because it is like a cancer eating ever so slowly and unobtrusively, especially to the backslider. And some examples are in order.

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. (Revelation 2: 4, 5)

The previous verses read like a huge commendation.

Nothing about the church was questionable.

But the fire in their heart had waned.

That is what they were being rebuked for.

Think about doing ministry on autopilot!

This means it is possible to do ministry for so long as to do it by instinct. To the point that I can backslide and nobody will be able to know the difference.

Please note that I am not talking about the outward backsliding as we see with Solomon, Uzziah and many others.

Reminds me of the ministers in Matthew 7

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 22, 23)

They were not able to know when their ministry was deleted from God’s records because they were not able to see the fire in their hearts cooling off ever so slowly.

That is the backsliding I want us to consider here.

And it is important to do it because for the most part none of us is able to see it in us or even in our circles.

And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. (Revelation 3:1)

As was the case with the church in Ephesus, the externals were glowing. But the internals were completely kaput.

And both required the eye of the Only One who could see the heart to diagnose their situation.

It means that, apart from God, only someone whose eyes God has opened can see that reality and accurately address it.

Sadly, many times, he is made the enemy by the systems and people in that state, something I have seen enough times in ministry.

It requires immense humility and faith from us to even imagine that we could be so backslidden when the reports of our exploits are glowing wherever we look.

Incidentally, that is why prophets are always endangered. They can see what God is seeing, an unpleasant reality that we are not willing or ready to face.

But if we released ourselves to God and allowed Him to shine His all-powerful flashlight on our spirits, we will see ourselves as He sees us.

However, I feel there are some guidelines to help us navigate this confusing maze where actions and words are removed from the state of the heart. And self is the clearest one.

By self, do not just think of ego.

Think of structures, histories, relationships, impacts,

What makes you bend the rules ever so slightly?

Who takes you from a ‘lesser’ ministry opportunities?

Why do you refuse to minister at particular places?

What makes your blood hot for no reason?

What makes you look the other way when a supporter or partner is in the wrong?

When our life’s direction shifts slightly off Christ and His agenda, Christ and His assignment, Christ and His passion, Christ and His victory, we have shifted from the straight and narrow.

We are slightly off the centre. But off the centre all the same.

Why is it that sycophants are the ones who get closest to the centre of ministries and churches even as people who are known for their spirituality are slowly but surely kicked away from those decision-making centres?

Why is it that the people who enjoy the best support are the cheer leaders for the leadership instead of the ones doing the actual ministry?

Why do senior ministers with means shun their filial responsibilities if their own families refuse to join their cheerleading choirs?

Why do senior ministers ringfence their offices to block serious believers (especially those they grew up with in ministry) from getting in?

Why is retirement anathema to senior ministers?

All these questions are meant to guide us to the state of our spirits.

But I believe it is more important for us to get positive glimpses of the right thing.

A fire in the spirit is indicated by an overflowing passion for God and His agenda, an agenda that is completely opposed to the pursuit of mine.

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

And we will start with Biblical examples.

Jacob is dying.

He calls his sons and reminds them of The Promise, reminding them to continue being faithful to it and even requiring to be buried there.

Joseph is also dying.

As a way of ensuring that the promise is never forgotten, he requires an intergenerational oath to ensure it is never forgotten by asking that his bones be buried in the promised land. And it was a promise that would take centuries to come to fruition.

Moses is told his time was up.

Deuteronomy is the product where he is passing his fire to the next generation. And he also prepared Joshua and anointed him to take over from him.

We see the same with Joshua. And David.

In the New Testament, we see the same with Paul.

In his earlier letters, he is pushing around as Paul.

In his later letters, we are seeing him again passing the fire by issuing instructions and guidelines to another generation of ministers, giving them status and authority to minister.

We see the same with Peter and John.

The fire of God in a heart grows outward to infect others.

But it does more than that.

It allows those others to thrive, even outshine the origin of that fire.

Remember Moses when some were reported to have prophesied outside the centre and someone wanted them stopped?

And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD'S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them! (Number 11:29)

A heart on fire for God is not content blazing alone.

Fire always spreads.

This means that, if I am scared of seeing the spread of my fire; if I am scared of losing control of that spread; if I want to always want to be in charge of my fire, ...

It is probably the most glaring indication that I have lost my spiritual fire.

It is most probably true that the fire I have is self created and self sustained.

It is probable that I lost God’s fire loooong ago and am operating on counterfeit fire, a strange fire that is offensive to God.

God’s fire thinks about the next generation.

God’s fire prepares aggressively to ensure that the next generation has even better tools (greater fire) to blaze.

And God’s fire prepares to exit the stage and watches that next generation blaze even better than it did.

As I have written about elders, that is the reason priests and Levites retired at fifty as per God’s own commandment.

This is so that they can enjoy seeing the result of their passing on their fire.

What am I saying?

I am shouting from the rooftops that you are completely and probably hopelessly backslidden if you are unable think of ministry without you.

And the folly of it all is that you will eventually exit that stage.

You will either become too infirm to perform or even die.

Even the wife or child you are planning to hand over to for your security will also exit.

Worse still, they could become like little Manasseh who will put to shame everything you so painfully built.

All because you became too selfish to give God the space to run His enterprise.

Your fire is not God’s fire unless it is intergenerational.

It is not God’s fire unless it allows for your letting go of everything to allow it to spread as God chooses.

Why is it so difficult to let go of ministry you openly say is God’s when in your youth you left everything, from jobs to classes to businesses, to pursue it?

Why is it becoming painful to imagine that ministry thriving without you?

I know this is an extremely hard teaching.

But I am convinced it is a message for our generation.

Because we were such a radical generation and nothing could stand between us and God’s revelation.

We left families. We left churches. We left jobs. We left businesses. We left security. We left relationships.

It is hard to imagine that God’s ministry has now become a personal enterprise or a club for a select few.

Will we allow God to shine His powerful spotlight on our hearts?

Will we go to the closet to ensure He does it His way?

God bless you

When God’s Hides His Generals (Reposted)

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. (Psalm 27:5)

I want us to look at God contrary to what our generation accepts as true and necessary.

Many believe that God is in the business of parading His servants. Like we behave in social media, we think that God’s favorite servant is the one with most likes. We think a good servant is the most prolific, active and visible. As such, ministers spend most of their time looking for visibility forums, from churches to corporate events, instead of building their spiritual stature.

Do you realize when you read the Bible that God only exposes His generals when it is necessary? Do you realize that the rest of the time they are hidden? Do you realize that God shapes His servants in secret?

Why does He do that?

The public realm is a dangerous place to train. The best thing the public realm does is test the training.

The army is never trained on the battlefield.

Do you realize that Moses was hidden in the wilderness for forty years before he was given the assignment? And we are not even touching the other forty he was hidden in the palace. And do you realize that most of the rest of the active time was spent in God’s presence, be it on the mount or in the tabernacle?

But the clearest indication of this is Elijah.

After proclaiming the devastating drought, God hides His servant.

Why do I say that?

He was sent to a foreign city. It couldn’t have been an obscure village because he recognized the name when God spoke. He was not going like Abraham (to a land I will show you).

I am travelled some and know that towns do not become famous beyond their borders by fluke. Very few outside East Africa know Kenyan towns beyond Nairobi, Mombasa and probably Malindi for tourists. Having ministered in a few foreign countries, and travelled quite a bit in the process, I have the recollection of very few towns outside the ones I ministered in.

Zarephath must therefore have been a famous town, most likely a big one.

How does Elijah stay there for about three years without anyone knowing he was there?

How was he able to remain hidden even after raising the dead, let alone keeping a hopeless family well nourished? And I doubt those were the only miracles he performed.

God hid him.

He hid him as He hid David to train him with the sheep, or as He hid him when Saul wanted to kill him.

God is not the God of the limelight. Though He created the light, He does not need the light to shine.

The most precious minerals are hidden way below the surface.

Ministers do not need publicity to thrive. They need the private place to be hardened enough for the public sphere.

John the Baptist was constrained to the desert until God’s right time. Then he was exposed for a short time. And in that short time he was killed.

As the LORD thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom, whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee: and when they said, He is not there; he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found thee not. (1Kings 18:10)

Do not for one moment think that Ahab was looking for Elijah to reward him. He actually wanted to kill him. That was the reason God hid him.

Isn’t it amazing that John was hid for so long just to be killed shortly after his exposure? Isn’t it amazing that Elijah was so powerful as a prophet, yet we only have just short snippets of his ministry? And he only appeared when he was sent.

God hides His servants. He is not in the business of parading them so that they can amass likes on social media, or anywhere else for that matter.

My observation is that the limelight is the cause of the fall and emasculation of most ministers. The limelight attracts all eyes on you, even the eyes of your enemies. Many times, wrong motives can be planted on you due to that publicity.

Now he does not speak to us. He has become proud. He despises us.

These are some statements you hear from the friends of those on the limelight. Yet for some you will find that their hearts are still in the right place. It is the demands of the limelight that make one unavailable. Yet many times what makes one unavailable is the baggage (read company) one picks (or that picks him) because of the limelight.

For a minister, the limelight is taken as a taunt to the enemy of souls. He therefore will release the most nefarious of his arsenal to bring you down.

You realize Samson became a target to the Philistines when the spirit started moving in his life. Then they were able to see his weakness with women, and he became toast.

It is as a king that Saul sinned. David sinned at his peak.

God exposes his army at the battlefield because He has prepared them in the secret place. And He seeks to hide them after a battle.

Why is it that some people even in the palace could not recognize Elijah (2 Kings 1)? How come the noble woman perceived and not knew that Elisha was a man of God yet he was the prophet to at least three kings? Why did the guy Jesus heal at the pool not know who it was that healed him? Why did the captain not know who Paul was when he rescued him at Jerusalem?

God does not parade his minister. He gives him an assignment.

It is the assignment that God parades.

So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do. (Luke 17:10)

But the limelight exposes the servant and not the assignment, meaning that the glory diverts from God to the servant. Yet God says this

For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: (Exodus 34:14)

God does not share His glory with another, even if that another is His servant.

I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. (Isaiah 42:8)

The reason He hides His servants is to protect them from themselves and everything else that exposing a servant attracts, from intense temptations to pride and entitlement.

The saddest part is that nowadays we think the exposure of a minister to publicity is a great plus to their ministry. How many churches treat it as an exceptional bonus when they expose a gifted child to the masses? Yet the same child does not know anything about life. Let me confess that I have fallen prey to that folly a number of times and am grateful to God that He clipped those attempts at their bud. It is as I look back that I agree that God did the best thing for me when He hid me from the limelight or destroyed my limelight.

Many will tell you the dangers popularity brought to them. The limelight is a very delicate position to occupy. And it is even worse for the Christian minister because we have an enemy who will take advantage of the limelight to arouse the base cravings for his purpose.

Let me give a small example of something that has happened to me a number of times.

As you already know I give the books I write at no cost where God leads or opens doors. The one I have reprinted many times is the discipleship book ‘Fruit that Lasts’. It therefore goes without say that I do not know the places and people most of the books go to.

One day I met a person who almost fell to the ground exclaiming,

‘My prayers have been answered. How I have been praying to see you!’

They had been using the discipleship book and as he told me the study had completely transformed the group. Yet they had never seen me. That was the reason for that prayer. He had been praying to see me to thank me for the books.

How would you feel?

It is very easy to see yourself beyond the assignment and the Lord of the same. And pride comes very naturally in such instances. Of course the limelight makes people think of you as more than a person, superhuman (or super anointed for those with spiritual jargon) if I may say it.

But that is the smaller problem. The real one is that you start believing because of the way they treat you. You therefore slowly start treating yourself and others with that attitude.

As an example, how many worship leaders (musicians is the right word) sit through a sermon? Don’t they move out after they sing only to come back just before the invitation song. Why? They do not think they need a sermon. Their life has too much anointing to defile it with dull sermons. And to date I still wonder how someone can play instruments when praying and still be part of the prayer.

I was a singer and instrumentalist for a long time and so am able to see beyond what most can’t.

One thing that kept my feet on the ground was the fact that I never loosened my grip on daily and substantial reading of the Bible. Another thing is that I was a celeb in small and far off lands. Of course I believe that God intentionally hid me. Imagine a singer who can play several instruments and preach and teach as well! God hid me. As an example, God always moved me when a church I was serving in started making plans to ordain me into one or the other position. And He still hides me.

A minister is most effective when he is performing his assignment, be it in the desert or the palace, whether he is serving crowds or the small abandoned children at the dumpsite.

People’s eyes do not determine your effectiveness. God does. And He is the only one who holds the key to the perfect reward. Remember this?

His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. (Matthew 25:23)

The faithful servant does what he is commanded. He does not play to the gallery. Like in the parable, it was not the quantity of the returns that determined their commendation of judgment; it was doing what they had been asked to do.

Yet the limelight moves the goalposts to what the crowds (and a church could very easily become a crowd) demand or desire. I believe the limelight is the reason this verse is in the Bible.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; (2Timothy 4:3)

We must have our spirits hardened in the secret place to resist the pressure the crowds (even if it is the FB or church crowd) places on our doctrine. And we must allow ourselves to be hidden.

We must resist the urge to pursue publicity.

We must not advertise ministry. In fact advertising ministry converts it to a business. Jesus said that it is our fruit that will push the ministry forward.

Many pastors must have their faces and names wherever the church’s signboard is. In fact they make the name and picture more prominent than the name of the church. Then they will wonder why the devil is on their case all the time. You advertised your presence even before you went to the battlefield. You will never experience rest.

You write a book targeting the enemy of souls. Then you advertise it heavily. Then you wonder why everything is falling apart. Yet you announced to the devil what you will do to him if the book sells.

Maybe you sing a song that raises God’s profile in worship or instruction. Then you publicize it on all the media outlets. Then you wonder why everybody starts harassing you.

When I worked with a media house, the only one then, many Christian singers brought their tapes (it was before CDs) to be played on air. Surprising as it seems, they had to bribe the continuity announcers and producers to have their ‘Christian’ songs played. Many had to sleep with those same people to have their ‘worship’ played on air.

To date, many producers require a pound of flesh from worshippers who must penetrate the ceiling to make their music popular.

Why should the god of this world, who also is the ruling spirit of the media, allow unfettered access to his kingdom for those opposed to and working contrary to it? That is why you must pay using his currency. Sadly that currency is sin. And that is what any minister who must use his effort to get to the limelight must use. And the primary reason is because God is not interested in you being on the limelight unless He places you there for war.

Do you realize that most popular choirs (worship teams in today’s language) start falling apart when they hit through the ceiling into great popularity. And many times what brings them down is sexual immorality. Perfect harmony arouses the desire for human appreciation. Once it is given a chance, the rest is downhill as the flesh thrives.

And it is not any different with solo singers. I have written elsewhere that very spiritual songs and lifestyle expose a singer to the people. Then fame takes over, making later songs spiritual trash as they will be appreciated anyway. Their purity of life later becomes irrelevant to their performance.

What is the advantage of allowing God to hide you after any battle?

The first is freedom. You are content with the audience of One, who is the Lord and King of your life. There is no expectation from the masses.

Like Elijah and John the Baptist, you could dress in rags and it wouldn’t matter as your Lord is fine with it. Like Isaiah you could walk naked for three years and not run mad because you are playing to your audience of One. Like Jonah you could preach stinking like fish and looking like you were from being cooked with fish oil because you have reconciled with your Lord. Like Paul you can sing in prison while bound to the stocks because you know God is never caught by surprise. And like Noah you are able to build that humongous box to protect you from a flood even when you do not even know, let alone can conceptualize what rain is.

But being hidden requires you to be able to hear clearly what your Lord orders. Only then will you know when to get to the battlefield and when to retreat to the hiding place.

Application question; do you know what God requires of you NOW?

Entitlement

So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself? (Esther 6:6)

I am finding it strange that someone could be so certain.

Until I realise that it is a very common problem among many ‘servants’ of God.

But something struck me so hard as I was reading this.

And that is the extent to which Haman was willing to go to prove his favoured position.

Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head: (Esther 6:8)

Imagine wanting to look just like the king!

I am certain that had the king been wanting to honour Haman, that single demand could have sealed his fate as a seditionist.

‘Remove your crown and place it on my head’, is what Haman was in effect telling the king.

You see, the crown is the symbol of the king’s authority.

Meaning that removing it and placing it on Haman’s head could have been openly stating that he was equal, if not greater than the king since it was the king who had placed it on him.

His only salvation for him at that time was that the king was thinking about someone who had saved his life, someone who actually deserved having that crown on his head as he had saved it.

And that crown on Mordecai’s head was the reason Haman and his wife and friends were certain of his downfall.

And Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered. And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him. (Esther 6: 12, 13)

That crown on Mordecai’s head meant that Mordecai was way higher than Haman in the kingdom and that anything he had done or would do would have to bow to that crown.

Haman had in his self importance promoted his enemy way higher that he was. He had made him his bridge to the king by seeking to rise so close to the king.

Remember the evil one?

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (Isaiah 14:14)

That was our Haman.

Some translations say it was the crest on the king’s horse.

That is saying the same thing since the only time it would be placed on the horse’s head would be when the king was its rider.

When I worked in the media, I was at one time around the president quite some and that is from where I am saying this.

The only time the president’s limousine had his standard would be the times he was riding it.

Any other time it was had to be removed.

And it is the same with government senior officers who require having flags on their vehicles.

Even military generals must have their stars covered any time they are not on those official vehicles.

It means that Haman was asking the king to hand over his throne for a moment.

How could he have been so foolish?

But is that not how self-interest always operates by locking everybody and everything (even logic) out of that desire?

It actually closes one’s eyes to reality; blocks one’s eyes to see beyond the present.

It makes one unable to assess reality.

Esau demonstrated the same thing when he sold his birthright.

The second problem with entitlement is the clear absence of foresight.

Haman thought he was the apple of the king’s eye.

He thought that nobody else could have caught the king’s eye; nobody but him was worth any such favour from the king.

Yet there were one hundred and seventy provinces with enough faithful servants for him to be fixated on one man.

The other problem is that it easily overlooks the past and by doing it repeats it.

Vashti was the king’s favourite shortly before then but lost her position.

It might even be possible that he was a beneficiary of that fallout.

Another problem with entitlement is the paucity of gratitude.

I deserve overtakes this is a favour.

Remember the ten lepers Jesus healed?

The Jews took the healing as their right. It is the stranger who was grateful.

Haman was not content with his position. He was not content with having people bowing before him.

No wonder a single person not bowing to him (and he knew of it when he was told) completely changed his life’s trajectory.

From that moment, the only thing he could see was this one man who refused to recognise him.

He dropped everything to deal with him and his ilk.

That became his waterloo.

That because he lost sight of his service to the king to concentrate on Mordecai.

He even used the king’s property to erect gallows to hang this upstart.

In short, he lost himself to demonstrate to everybody who he was.

No wonder it turned out so tragically for him.

Can we apply this lesson on ourselves?

Generational Lapses

Young people are very useful in the church of Christ.

They represent the energy the church possesses. They represent potential.

They represent the initiative, the drive, the push the church needs for growth and expansion.

But they are incomplete on their own since they can only do so much.

The church also needs elders for the direction, the wisdom, the stability, the stamina, the fall-back receptors to come back to after their exertions.

You see, the church is not all energy.

There must be strategy. There must be resources. There must be heat sinks to deal with burnout.

In short, those youths must have Antiochs and Jerusalems to refocus and reset after their exertions.

Sadly, young people do not think they ever need any such breaks or brakes.

They will therefore run and run and fight and fight until they faint, if not fall dead altogether. Simply because they do not think they need any rest.

And I write this as someone who responded to the call to ministry in my teenage.

Now, suppose with me that these young people get into the leadership of spiritual structures, especially without those overbearing ancients around?

There will be an unending adrenaline rush in ministry because limitations are absent.

Again, suppose with me that the led in those spiritual structures are also young as it will normally be?

The amount of energy in those structures will be astronomical, and unrestrained. Probably unhinged is the word I should use here.

However, youth energy is not unlimited. Youth zeal does not come from a bottomless source.

And youth itself is not forever.

It gets to middle age. Then to old age.

Allow me to get to the topic of today; youth leadership gone haywire.

At the core of many revivals is a core group that has several young people. Some consist only of young people.

This means that these young people will take the leadership of the spiritual structures thus formed.

Incidentally, many of those young men may have little or no education. Worse still, they may lack even the basics of theological instruction.

When they start questioning the existing ecclesiastical order due to their new ‘revelation’ and experience, many times not respectfully, they will be kicked out of them while others may run out because they decide their differences are irreconcilable.

The new congregations will thus consist only of young people full of fire.

They will thus pick their leadership from themselves using very vague yardsticks.

The gifts, the eloquence, the zeal, the dress.

Because that is all they know.

Theological education will come when it can’t be avoided. Meaning that only the essential leadership will seek it; and then only to tick a box of requirements.

The elders will be the same young men. Because a church must have elders.

And those pastors and elders will have all the powers vested in those positions.

Meaning that they hold unswaying power over others when they barely understand themselves.

Their leadership will therefore be akin to handing a machinegun to someone whose only exposure to guns is in action movies.

He will be a danger, not only to others, but also to himself.

This because he now possesses the power of life and death and that nobody else can resist or restrain him.

A friend once told me of such an incident.

Some carjackers took charge of a matatu (Public Service Vehicle).

In the rush to demonstrate that they had guns, one shot his finger off.

We are still on youth spiritual leadership.

And that is exactly how much of that leadership behaves.

And I have seen a lot of that over the years.

From nonsensical excommunications to comedic titles to insane rules.

And that because they fear that they do not deserve those titles. And they are right.

They therefore must push their weight around for people to respect them.

Calling someone an elder in his twenties does not make them one.

And it is the same thing with calling someone a father who is not one.

But it makes them feel so good.

And consistently doing so makes them believe that they really are what they are not.

These leaders will therefore ride waves they are not prepared for because they have nobody to tell them otherwise. And that because they started something without spiritual oversight when they declared themselves the oversight.

And it becomes worse because they then believe they deserve the perks that accompany those offices.

But I want us to look at one dangerous aspect of that reality.

They start serving very early in their lives without much oversight because they are the elders, pastors, bishops and everything in between.

They therefore enjoy unfettered and unquestioned power and authority because they appear to be the best their generation or revival movement could produce.

They will own those offices and positions; positions they were scripturally unqualified to hold even when they got them.

My name is pastor X, my name is bishop Y, mean that nobody is allowed to tamper with those positions and the offices they occupy.

What happens when they grow old and a few other characters see the need or receive the call to occupy those positions?

They will encounter a brick wall.

The other scenario is where the constitutions they made had a retirement age and they had attained it.

They have been in that office for so long that they have no idea what else they could do.

Imagine occupying an office and exercising spiritual authority for thirty or forty years!

Probably two thirds of your life have been spent in that office with that power enjoying all those goodies.

That office defines you.

But it gets even worse because you actually own that office even as your mouth shouts the loudest that it is Christ’s.

And the same happens when such a person is caught in sin.

They will not allow anyone to come between them and that office and position.

They will simply ring fence it.

They will arbitrarily excommunicate any challenge to their leadership, change the constitution to remove that age requirement for retirement and ensure that they are in charge of filling any positions in their structure to ensure that only loyalists get close to that power.

And since it is a generational thing, they have enough of their agemates and contemporaries running similar spiritual structures who will stand with them because they also see the same thing happening in their structures. They will therefore scratch his back because they know that in a short or long while they will need their backs being scratched as well.

By the way I am talking about the church of Christ.

You will therefore allow me to give the context.

There was a revival of sorts in East Africa between the sixties and eighties.

Out of that came out hot rods of young men completely sold out to Christ.

They founded several denominations, mainly because the existing ones did not have any space for them.

Due to that (and I have written this elsewhere), some, who were sold out for missions to the unreached places in the region, allowed that fire to die to be able to run the churches they had started.

And as their various denominations grew, their positions and influence grew.

Now they are in their sixties and seventies and eighties and beyond.

They have no other experience apart from leading churches.

They are therefore faced with a dilemma; what do they do after retirement?

What exactly is retirement?

How does one retire from ministry?

I remember a recent case in a mainstream denomination when an ancient flatly refused to retire though he was almost ten years past his retirement according to the church’s constitution. He had to be forcefully retired yet he was not even a good or effective pastor.

The dilemma that accompanies many career civil servants is on steroids when it gets to these ministers.

The civil servant knows no other life during the day when he is taken from a workplace he has occupied for thirty to forty years though he knew he would eventually leave it. And many who had no life outside their work rarely live long after their retirement.

But this minister’s position is way more precarious because it involved all his wakeful moments, many times even going to bed with it as burdens.

So what are they doing? What have they been doing?

They have removed retirement from their constitutions.

They have ringfenced their positions by kicking out any threat and challenge.

They have incorporated wife and children in top positions of those structures.

To appease long term associates who were part of the founding of those ministries, they have elevated them to positions (and themself to a higher position) and where possible sent them far from the centre to get rid of coherent history.

In short, they have made that church or denomination personal property.

Simply because they do not know how to retire.

Simply because they have become drunk with the power their positions command for far too long.

And I could have been like them since I am not much younger than them.

I have ministered with them. I have been friends with them.

I was also part of that revival movement.

But for God’s grace.

You see, over the years, any time talk started about one or the other ordination started (and I am talking about several denominations I have ministered with over the years), God would take me to another location.

Another thing that has helped me is the realisation from reading scripture that ministerial retirement is fifty years.

I therefore knew that my active ministry would have to start winding up after I turned fifty.

I started preparing to become an elder long ago and was not therefore not shocked when fifty knocked, a thing most of these look at as an abomination.

Allow me to leave it here

Death

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)

I want us to look at one aspect of death we have for the most part neglected; preparedness.

When we read the Bible, there is one thing you will realise with people who were close to God. You will see them very ready for it, as if they were keeping an appointment.

And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. (Genesis 49:33)

That is exceptional when looked at using the lens of our times.

Yet it is not exceptional when looked at from a purely Biblical context.

The common thing you read is that someone set his house in order and then died.

As I have severally said, Hezekiah messed because he refused to agree with God that he had completed his assignment and sought an extension of the same, bitterly.

No wonder that extension brought about Manasseh!

Another thing that I will say paints our times in very bad light is the kind of revelation we enjoy.

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. (John 16:13)

How can it be called all truth if it does not include death?

What am I driving at?

God seeks to closely walk with us ALL THE TIME, not only when we are doing spiritual things.

But I think it is important to say one thing.

There must be a reason why we are unable to accurately know when our time has come.

It is because we do not know when our assignment is complete.

And do you know why that is so?

We actually do not know our assignment.

You see, I can only complete an assignment that I have been given.

And it is important to get our facts right.

Paul knew that his time had come because his assignment was complete.

And that was not because of threats of death or even being in prison because that was his constant diet over his ministry years. And a few verses of that reality are in order.

And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith; (Philippians 1:25)

But withal prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. (Philemon 1:22)

You may remember that in Acts 16 he refused to get out of prison because his rights had been breached. Yet he had not protested for his rights when he was beaten and sent to that prison.

This means that his assignment was more important than his rights. But they became important after the assignment was completed because it opened doors to a different kind of assignment.

You remember that even when he was stoned to death that he went on without a care after being prayed back to life?

Is it therefore possible to guess the point at which his assignment ended?

And we see the same with Peter.

He is asleep when awaiting death from Herod because his assignment was way from over.

Simply because he knew that nothing could block God from His purposes.

Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. (2Peter 1:14)

That assignment is what gave him sleep when everybody knew he was on his way to the gallows.

Its completion was the reason he knew that it was a matter of time before he rejoined Christ.

The assignment was the reason Stephen could stare his stoners and boldly and clearly share the Gospel.

It was the reason he was triumphant when he was being stoned.

And it was the reason he prayed for forgiveness for his killers; because he knew that his assignment required that stoning.

Even death from illness does not diminish that as we see with Elisha.

He closes his books before dying by delivering instructions to concerned people.

I know I am scaring people.

But my intent is different.

I want to challenge you to realise that God has an assignment for you and that connecting to that assignment should be the prime object of your existence.

And it is only when you are in your assignment that you can know when it is completed.

Ministers employ bodyguards, carry guns and live in the most secure environments because they are completely in the dark about their assignments.

Even the kinds of cars we drive will many times loudly speak about our preparedness for death.

Many will not even take a cup of water from an uncertified source because they must keep their health free from any sort of infection.

I am not saying that we become careless with our lives since they are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

But you see, it is impossible to serve God right if we are more concerned about our security than we are about our ministry.

A minister is required to eat whatever is offered without asking questions, not because he is careless, but because he is serving God, the same God who created all those microbes and viruses and therefore can direct them however He wants.

We do not trample on serpents and scorpions because we are looking for them.

We do it as we are busy on the assignment God has for us.

Poison does not become harmless to us because we are immune to it.

It is made powerless because we are on assignment.

It is essential therefore to ascertain whether we are on our assignment or not.

And that is the point of this message.

Do you know your assignment?

Is it not therefore of utmost importance that you seek to know it so that you can start walking in it?

Then death will be welcome because you will know when that assignment is completed.

Wrong Prophets

There are false prophets.

And there are wrong prophets.

False prophets give you prophecy that has not come from God; meaning that they will misguide you for the most part.

They may give you joy when God intends you to be sad as you will see in Jeremiah’s interactions with them.

Or they might send you to death as happened with Ahab.

And it is because they are giving you directions they do not have.

A wrong prophet is worse by far because he is many times a destiny shaper, but from the wrong direction.

And I will have us look at one such, Balaam.

When Israel was leaving Egypt, it was very clear the nations they were to dispossess, nations that even Abraham had been told about centuries earlier.

Then there were nations they were not to touch. And they were told under no uncertain terms who they were.

God’s word was that they should not molest them or challenge them in any way as He would not give them even an inch of their territory.

Edom, Moab, Ammon, Midian.

And it was because they were family.

But those nations did not know that.

When Israel therefore came close to their nations, they felt threatened because of what Israel was doing to the Canaanites who were their neighbours.

They therefore looked for a prophet for spiritual intervention, offering a handsome reward for his services.

Offer for reward messed the prophet.

When he was given the reason to refuse the assignment, he openly refused to give God’s word, thus communicating the message that he was looking for a better reward.

What would you have done if you were Balaam?

The right thing was to give the correct message.

Then seek for a word for the seekers from God.

Had he done that, he could have known that Moab and Ammon were safe from Israel’s expansion; and that from the One who was leading them on and giving them the lands.

But he didn’t do that.

His greed led him on a downward spiral to the point that he became a soothsayer when he discovered that He could not manipulate God to get that elusive coin.

But the saddest part in that is that he led to brothers being converted to enemies.

Contrast this.

And the LORD said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession. (Deuteronomy 2:9)

And this

An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever: (Deuteronomy 23:3)

The prophet was the catalyst for that.

What am I saying?

A greedy prophet is more dangerous that a false prophet.

You see, Balaam was not a false prophet.

He knew God, listened to God and spoke as God told him.

But greed made listening difficult. Because it is impossible to hear God in a hurry or under pressure.

Remember Elijah?

And the giver of that gift is also not very patient because he wants his money to do the pushing and shoving on his behalf.

That is why ministry and money are on opposite sides of spirituality.

I am saying this as a minister. And I will leave you to fill the gaps.

And that because our generation are more like Barak than they are like David.

Barak sought results.

David sought God’s will and orders.

And that desire for results is the reason he dangled rewards that completely obliterated Balaam’s sensitivity and pursuit of God’s will.

This also brings up another reality I have written about; prophets who revolve around power as we saw with Ahab.

And you remember one of them slapping Michaiah and asking him when the spirit left him to get to Micaiah.

We can assume that Zedekiah fell into Balaam’s error when he became a royal prophet.

He was twisted by royal dainties to the point that he was unable to know when the spirit had completely left him.

Ministry rewards are dangerous, infinitely more dangerous that we may imagine.

This means that this post is not only about prophets.

It also concerns me who is a teacher of God’s word.

It concerns every single person God has called into ministry, even hidden ones like intercession.

Rewards will blunt the edge that is clarity about God’s orders.

However, rewards are not the culprit.

I think the expectation and reception of the same are the issues of concern, especially expectation.

This is the driver of the motivation craze running the bulk of the churches nowadays.

It is the driver of toothless sermons from our pulpits.

It is the reason heaven and hell, sin and sanctification, obedience and judgment, have been exiled from most pulpits for the longest time.

Nobody wants to scare givers with hard Biblical truths.

No wonder harlots occupy front row seats in churches baring their wares for all to see because confronting their sin would chase their tithes and offerings, to someone not as ‘radical’.

No wonder sex toys and drugs are traded in the church compounds because the peddlers are big givers.

No wonder politicians who are known for all the wrong things and celebrities who openly display their sin can sit next to pastors in forums.

Should I slow down?

But I hope you get the point.

But the point is that the gift you represent will kill the greedy minister’s spiritual sensitivity.

This means that any word he gives you could actually mess your destiny completely as Balaam did with Moab, Ammon and Midian.

That is what we see with Jeremiah’s confrontations with those prophets.

By listening to those paid prophets, the completely lost the plot that was God’s restoration because repent cannot be a paid prophet’s word.

And it is very difficult for restore to come before repent.

What is my conclusion then?

If your closeness to your minister is dependent on what you have or represent, it is time to run away because he is a Balaam that represents great harm to your destiny.

And I am talking about your pastor, bishop, prophet, encourager, even me.

Your money does not define you.

Do not be demeaned to the point that your value is tied to what you have or represent.

In any case, why look for prophets when God has released His word for all of us to consume?

And He also released His Holy Spirit to guide us to understanding it?

You can know and obey God without those imposters.