Vain Motivations

We were talking with a friend about God and the ministry He entrusts to His servants. We were in agreement that we are ministers (actually slaves) because He is our master and so have no choice when He speaks but obey, unless we are not really His ministers as we pride ourselves in.

We then went on to talk about the motivational aspect of what many call ministry. The truth is that most of it is not ministry. In fact even the motivation itself appears to lead to futility as the goals it points us to are oftentimes unattainable. Worse is that the pinnacle of those goals, even if one was to attain them, is totally materialistic. They lead nobody to the attainable God defined goals.

Let me give some examples. From grass to grace is one very popular topic of the motivators though very little of any grace is seen. Most of what we can plainly see is aggression and greed (called ambition) to get ahead of the others since human success is what is pointed at. Most of the motivator examples are people who have pushed and shoved to get to the point they are at. They have left wrecks on the wayside as they attained that position since what they think is favor essentially means trampling on others. Success to them means getting to the top by stepping on others. It also means leaving vanquished enemies all over in the journey to that top.

But that is the problem we get into when we use earthly standards to gauge spiritual success.

But let us look at the unattainable nature of their goals. They will many times give us earthly success stories and their journey to that earthly ‘top’ to motivate us to aim there. For example they will look for a ‘christian’ president or billionaire and give us his journey to the top and especially the battles he fought. Some will not even care to look for a Christian, any ‘success’ story will suffice.

Now let us be realistic. How many people can become presidents? If in our country we have had four presidents over a period of fifty years, and the last one has just started his term. Does one’s journey to that office really need to be used yet at most only about ten people can be presidents in a generation? And that is if each will take one term and at least two will die early in their presidency.

How many can become corporation CEOs? How many can become chief surgeons? How many can become pastors of twenty thousand member congregations? Yet that is the place they want to inspire us to covet.

Whatever happened to Matthew 6: 33?

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33)

Reading their books or listening to their teaching becomes a real drag if you were really seeking a word from above. It becomes a real pain when such a person is one’s pastor as then one will have no choice over the matter unless he left that congregation. Yet many times in that congregation there will be enough wounded brothers who are desperate for a word from heaven. Many could even be struggling with sin and guilt as the pastor is pointing them to an earthly paradise.

Yet my brief is not to groan over all the trash congregations are fed with. I am responsible for giving God’s people a wholesome and Biblical alternative. I am responsible not to fight those imposters but give the right doctrine that has been unadulterated and leave one with a choice. Otherwise I will not be much different from them as I still would not be pointing people heavenward.

One aspect I always stress is obedience. Yet that is the one aspect you will rarely, if ever hear from those ‘motivators’. Another one is growth, especially under pressure or persecution when one stands for what is revealed. Next is abhorrence of sin, one thing that is rarer than finding a needle in a haystack with those preachers. And that is what gives them away. Again I will repeat one thing I always say; that Christ did not live and die for me to have this or acquire that. Christ died principally to deal with sin.

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. (John 14:21)

Was Moses a success? Why don’t they use his complete story? Moses was rightly called the man of God who spoke with God face to face as God Himself confessed. Do we care to replicate his life as we aim for greatness?

You see Moses was a success story before he started out with God. This meant he had to trash his worldly success and become nothing, even a fugitive, and for forty years before God could speak to him. How many times are we taught about those eighty years of his preparation? How many will tell their congregation that that job or business could be the one thing standing between them and God’s breakthrough or revelation? Yet many times it could be. But you see they many times will make that stumbling block look like the breakthrough. Then the bulk of the congregation will simply get their comfort from their rebellion.

Joseph did not become a success when he was made the CEO of Egypt. We begin to see excellence in him in his father’s house. In fact that was the reason his brothers hated him. His dreams just made it even plainer for them until they had to do something to clip his wings.

We see the same in Potipher’s house. Yet we are even able to see more. His commitment to God and abhorrence of sin is what really set him apart from the rest; a thing I think should be the focus of our motivation to greatness. Instead of making enemies on his journey to the top, he converted all his enemies to friends because of how radically God had worked in him.

Look at the prophets. What made them success stories? I am sure you realize that very few were earthly success stories, yet that is what makes them stand out.

Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:11, 12)

Was John a success? How much was that success should it be looked at from a materialistic angle? Yet which angle do we consider? Which angle ought we to consider? Which angle matters?

That is the reason I feel we are doing our pulpits a disservice by preaching success other than the one advocated by the Bible. Not only is it earthly and unattainable except for very few, even its acquisition does not promise much except the feeding of vanity. And this because like Solomon quipped one can never have enough of earthly success and acquisition. There will always be something more to be lusted after. Simply speaking one can never be content with earthly success however high they flew.

God’s standards are different. Though like Paul said we cannot attain them, we can experience wholesome growth that comes from our alignment with God’s will and revelation as we start and continue walking the road. We are able to experience peace and guidance along the way. Above all we will start getting content with the far God has taken us as it then gives us assurance about where He is taking us even though we do not know where. Just read Hebrews 11.

That is why we see Joseph completely overlooking the injuries caused by Potipher and his brothers when he is in a position to display the power he enjoyed. It is interesting that his brothers were the ones who reminded him. He had already agreed that God was right in allowing him to go through that ‘hell’, something most preaching will never touch as it is uncomfortable to the people who are not ready or willing to go all the way with God.

I will highlight another aspect of all that motivation that has no place for sin or repentance. They are many times called teachers of rebellion, and that against God.

In Jeremiah 28 and 29 we see several such motivators being put on God’s cross hairs for such ‘encouraging’ messages. They were saying restore when God was saying repent and doing so in God’s name, probably thinking God can’t be as ‘cruel’ as Jeremiah and other prophets were painting Him.

Success that does not deal with sin is not of God. A breakthrough that is not the result of intense spiritual opposition for doing what God (not His servant) has ordered can also not be from Him. Promotion that is not the result of my humbling myself before the Lord cannot come from Him. And victory that is not the result of my going to war on his orders is simply not attributable to Him. Simply speaking only what originates from Him from the start is really His. Results are not spurious. We simply look for the source and not the result.

I cannot be so full of myself and expect God to fill me with Himself. I cannot spend all my time on my farm and expect fruit from God’s harvest field. I cannot feed mammon during the day and expect anything from God at the end of it. Even a fool knows that.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. (Galatians 6: 7 – 9)

Let our encouragement and motivation point people God-ward.

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3: 1 - 3)

This will make people look heavenward as they develop their ambition. Then we can give them success stories that inspire them to copy examples of people who had developed godly habits and desires as we avoid success stories which brought in God’s wrath as they had swerved from the straight and narrow.

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. (1Corinthians 10:11)

Simply saying we have more than we need in the scriptures to look over the fence for other examples. And the examples we get from the Bible are wholesome as they have the approval of God Himself as they came from Him. I think that is the reason some are so graphic that they will even appear offensive to our modern taste. This is so that we are able to appreciate that success outside the bounds of God’s revelation is detestable.

But I also need to add that aligning with God’s revelation in our pursuit of success will give us true success, only that then it is in the line of God’s assignment for us. Many times it will get much farther than even the really worked at earthly success. We will have a Moses and a Joseph and a David and a Daniel, men who for their commitment to God were able to ascend the highest positions of authority.

Godly success is therefore not related to mediocrity. It has the highest level of excellence as the goals are not set by us but by a holy God who is perfect in all things. How can my agreement with Him produce mediocrity? We can therefore deduce that mediocrity is hypocrisy or even worse, ignorance about the God we serve. It is only that our submission to His will gives Him a free hand as to the position He gives me to occupy. Like David even being a doorkeeper under Him is better than being a CEO elsewhere. It therefore places me in a place where I will excel wherever He places me.

Like Joseph I will excel as a slave and a prisoner. Like Daniel I will excel as a eunuch. Like David I will excel as a shepherd. Like John the Baptist I will excel as a herald of the Christ. Like Paul I will excel as an apostle to the gentiles. And like Luke I will excel as a historian instead of the doctor I was professionally trained to be.

Do you know God’s will for you? Are you seeking it? Do your spiritual leaders create a desire in you to clearly know and follow it?

For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. (2Corinthians 4:5)

Another aspect I will mention about these ‘motivators’ is that not only is their preaching so full of others, it must also have a very high dosage of themselves. They many times become accessories to the message they preach. This many times is because they are acknowledged as worldly success stories. Their story is therefore in demand because many other ‘pastors’ want to attain such levels of success.

Strangers and acquaintances will find the stories about the ‘man of God’ really exciting as they may be hearing them for the first time. Members of the congregation may have heard those stories innumerable times and therefore are tired of them. Yet many will not know what to do as they are captivated by his success to want to go to a place offering richer spiritual fare. They may feel spiritually deprived but the comfort and lack of confrontation they enjoy make them stay there as they are scared of another pastor who may shake them out of their spiritual stupor.

Yet the Bible is rich enough on its own to instruct. That is clear from the Bible itself.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (2Timothy 3:16, 17)

You wonder why other stories must be given prominence to motivate anybody. Unless it is not toward godliness, I guess.

I also use my story sometimes. But it will be more of an example to a message God has given me and not a subject. I am very careful in my use of my example as it has a short shelf life. It also has a limited contextual relevance.

Again I ask, why do we need worldly success stories when the Bible has enough? Why do we point people to others when God asks us to place the highest premium on His word? Are we saying that the Bible is not adequate to instruct or are we like the cults, convincing people that we have a more relevant ‘word’ than what God required to be written for our instruction?

The saddest consequence of this is that very few hearers will value the Bible as their focus has been shifted to the craftiness of man. They will therefore think that the Bible exists to justify the preacher, not to give him the subject matter. Very few if any of those congregations will see the need to read the Bible for themselves as they do not feel competent enough to dissect it as well as their hero. The Bible will therefore gather dust on their shelves as only the experts can understand it. They many times will have a library full of the messages and books of these experts. Are we back to the reason Martin Luther protested?

Yet the Bible is the easiest book to read in my assessment. In my not so many years I have enjoyed reading the Bible tremendously over the years as I will read it through once, sometimes twice yearly. Yet it never becomes boring as most fear. It becomes sweeter as we read it.

How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psalm 119:103) 

The over thirty times I have read through the Bible make me aspire to read and read and read. And I am sure I am not alone in that.

Yet I think the problem might be elsewhere. The hardness of the Bible has more to do with obedience than understanding. It is difficult to value the Bible if I am not willing to obey what it teaches. The much easier option is to feign ignorance and look for many other reasons to avoid reading the Bible. A preacher who encourages spiritual inertia therefore becomes such a useful accessory to that disobedience. No wonder God calls them teachers of rebellion!

My responsibility is therefore to let you know that you can read and understand the Bible without requiring the use of the experts. The only requirement is that you must determine in your heart to obey whatever the Bible tells you without asking questions.

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

That is the requirement for understanding the Bible and enjoying its reading. Let not the experts deceive you otherwise.

Again if a preacher does not place a high premium on your personal intake and observance of the Bible, please run from him. If his word is more important than the Bible even by the slightest of inferences, flee also. If only his dividing of the word makes sense, be very afraid. If there are doctrines only he can explain, I am afraid for you.

I believe a pastor should be a person whose delivery can be questioned by any member of his congregation as revelation does not stop with him.

Over the years I have confronted when I felt someone’s preaching has overstepped the bounds of the Bible, either in writing or face to face encounters. But I have never even once done it in public as I was more interested in our examining the scriptures together so that the Bible will be accorded the authority it has. Yet never even once did any of the preachers respond to my correspondence in a Biblically sound manner. Many made me their enemy. I have been relieved of positions I held in fellowships because of that. The meeting I was seeking in secret was publicized to demonize me without even explaining what the reason was in the first place.

That is why I emphasize that we must give the Bible the authority God gives it. Then we will not panic when someone questions our doctrine as we are safe in the Bible. I have also been confronted and at times have had to change some of my ‘doctrines’ as we examined the scriptures soundly. I do not look at a challenge to what I preach or teach as a confrontation on my person. I will therefore look at the scriptures with your perception so that I can get a clearer understanding. But I will also ask for God’s revelation as I examine the way you look at the Bible. But this is not to say I always change. What normally happens is that each of us will come out richer in our understanding of the scriptures as I think this is the real meaning of fellowship.