You See what You Seek

He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. (1Timothy 6: 4, 5)

I will start this message with the recent happenings in Paris, hoping that you will not take me for a sadist. It saddens me that the doctrine most Christians practice is a faulty one, even worse is that it is managed from hell.

But let us first deal with the Paris massacre. I was shocked when the reports started streaming especially from the place the worst carnage happened.

I was amazed to know that the band performing was called Eagles (angels?) of Death. How do people go to be entertained by people who are proud to be associated with death?

It got worse when videos were released showing the song being performed when the slaughter began. They were rocking to a song ‘Kiss the Devil’ with lyrics really worshipful to the evil one.

How do you expect the devil not to show up in such an environment? How do you cry out asking the devil to show up yet complain when he does it? Why cry out when he shows up with his trade mark?  Do you determine the facet the divine you worship displays? Of course not

This incident shows that what we call ignorance is for the most part worship, worship that will invoke the manifestation of the deity we are directing our worship. Yet in our ignorance we will start crying for the protection of the God we think we worship. I am sure most of the people in that concert hall had no idea that it was a worship service they were attending when they were buying the tickets, a worship of the father of lies whose best reward for his worshippers is stealing, killing and destroying.

And for the most part this is replicated in church again and again.

Someone innocently buys a T-shirt with some strange art and wonders why all of a sudden he is unable to get rid of nightmares. You buy an attractive necklace or bangle and wonder why you all of a sudden start getting sick. I make friends with someone and wonder why it starts being increasingly difficult to read the Bible or pray yet we do not even stay near each other. You stick a beautiful piece of art on your car or laptop and can’t understand why you start feeling as if your wife or husband should be replaced by all these hotties you all of a sudden start noticing. You attend a bash and wonder why it has always to end in risky sexual encounters.

And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. (Luke 16:8)

Mention images and people accuse you of spoiling their fun. Mention tattoos that are expressly forbidden by the scriptures and you are treated as too ancient to understand popular trends. Mention their music and they accuse you of being of the Stone Age.

The world understands the spiritual connections certain things attract.

Take an example of a person who commits suicide or murder because a soccer match was the other side of the globe in a place whose connection he makes only by watching the matches. Is it just football?

The game is a worship event. That explains why people take leave to watch the world cup when there is a time zone clash. Yet they may never take a week’s off to visit an ailing grandparent or even parent.

The money flowing into it is just a camouflage for the real thing.

What I will not shout loudly about (though I will shout it in a whisper) is that the game is the introduction to an interaction with the spirits running the show. Then they are able to manipulate you in such a way that you will start enjoying wasting your life running errands for them, and very joyfully so. No wonder the overnight prayer must be passed over when a match is on.

I was also a football fan. And it started long ago when we followed matches on radio. The TV just increased the craving.

I was also a news addict. And it was before I joined the media school and there were 24 hour TV stations. I followed them on short wave radio, one of the most taxing and frustrating tasks for those who have never experienced it. You are following a news item when a clash of waves in the stratosphere dims the signal until you stop hearing it. You then have to wait another hour hoping the same item will be repeated or you look for other stations to see whether they have the same splash. From BBC to VOA to Xinhua to Russia radio (don’t remember the name) and many others.

Until I returned to myself (the closest in English is came to my spiritual senses). I discovered that I was wasting too much time on something that was not only denying me time, sleep and thoughts, but something I had 0% control over. You see my watching has no effect or impact on the game. It is like spending the whole night watching a river flow with a lot of concentration and concern.

Any addiction is managed from hell. That is why all life apparently stops when the craving starts. Anything you MUST do is an addiction. Otherwise explain to me why one can never be addicted to godliness and holiness and must strive at all time because falling back is all ever too easy. Tell me why reading the Bible or living holy is so difficult for the bulk of the Christians.

You see a drunkard knows and confesses that he needs rescuing. A drug addict confesses to his helplessness.

Yet this is all child’s play compared with a faulty doctrine. This is because doctrine convinces me that I am on the right path even when I am on the highway to destruction.

And no doctrine could be more poisonous than that of equating material wealth to spirituality (supposing that gain is godliness).

Confusing the material with the spiritual or associating them is bound to create immense confusion. Using the material to judge the spiritual is as impractical as using a tape measure for liquid quantity. Just because we call a river long does not mean that we use the kilometre to measure the amount of water that makes that river.

That Abraham and Job were rich and blessed is not in dispute. But was Abraham cursed all the time his wife was barren? Was Job cursed when everything had been taken from him? I ask this because in those instances the connections we are nowadays teaching were being trashed.

Between the rich man and Lazarus in the parable Jesus gave, who was blessed and who was cursed? Who had the wealth and who had none? Who had God’s favor and who had none?

Even associating riches with money and things is a very faulty doctrine. You see in my experience the poorest people I know are people with loads of money and among the richest people I know are those with very little material substance.

A rich man overflows his wealth while a poor man must grasp it all as he reaches out to grab more.

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)

Compare this with Job 31.

He coveteth greedily all the day long: but the righteous giveth and spareth not. (Proverbs 21:26)

The greatest problem with the present doctrine is that it concentrates on what we get and keep as opposed to the kind of blessing God will make us. We will thus pride ourselves in being the most suckful leeches instead of the most effective spreaders of God’s love.

And it gets worse because it makes greed a virtue instead of the vice the Bible calls it. We celebrate the stingy brat even as we lynch the faithful steward. We make Lazarus the despicable one even as we sing praises to the rich because we have overlooked the heavenly view.

It is no wonder that a very minimal percentage of pulpits speak against sin for this simple reason. Associating worldly wealth with God’s favor and blessing will never agree with the Bible’s position on sin. Even the purpose of our redemption is clouded in the haze of this faulty doctrine because it makes more sense that Christ died to make us rich instead of saving us for our sins.

This explains why sin is rampant in our churches as we speak of blessing and breakthrough. We define revival in terms of the vehicles we own instead of sinners saved and lives transformed.

As a result we are leading a lot more people to hell as we parade our faulty doctrine.

Yet God gives wealth. God gives. James 1 says that every perfect gift is from Him.

But wealth is not the end of the game as this doctrine seems to imply, even teach.

Lazarus could easily be identified with the poorest of the poor yet found a place on Abraham’s bosom. Many of God’s great servants died pitiable deaths and lived pitiable lives, and not because they fell out of favor with God. Many of God’s prize servants died in their prime, and not in judgment. Otherwise tell me why Hebrews 11 is in the Bible.

Stephen and James had heaven’s applause yet died very shameful, painful deaths. The only righteous person in Jeroboam’s family died in his infancy.

Why was James killed whereas Peter was released?

We just need to get the right perspective. And we will get it when we spend adequate amounts of time with God through reading His word and immersing ourselves in prayer. Listening to our favorite preachers may give us enough energy to look for that wealth but could eventually lead us to hell as only a right relationship with God can take us to heaven.

But it is not only heaven that can be missed by that doctrine. It is the present that can make one lose hope in this life. What with all the focus on what God is supposed to do for and give to us?

I have many times been confronted by friends who ask me why or whether God lies. On enquiring I learn that a preacher or preachers have given ‘revelations’ about things God was going to do or give them with a deadline in sight especially after they give a prescribed offering or seed.

The simple reason is that this harvester of seed has taught this faulty doctrine consistently that the flock is one tracked concerning God. To them God exists to fulfill their material cravings. Blessing is therefore measured in that yardstick.

It is an insult to call it the prosperity gospel because apart from the material, especially monetary cravings, nothing of any spiritual value is taught. People are taught to derive pleasure in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and ascribe it to God.

But it gets worse because the world does not have an unlimited supply for cravings. Second is that we cannot all have the same thing. We must determine our boundaries when we talk of being heads and not tails. Let me elaborate.

Suppose we have class with Christian students. Surely not all of them will take the top position as they were taught! And that is where they think that God has lied when one takes the last position after the prophecy was given.

Many people’s faith is crushed because their expectations are skewed by this doctrine. One will get depressed because the blessing they have from God is outside the boundaries of the doctrine. You see peace, good health, healthy family life are rate very low on the value spectrum the doctrine draws. A person who is admitted in a high end hospital is thought more blessed than the slum dweller enjoying excellent health.

A song, secular as it is epitomizes this doctrine. He sings that he would rather weep in a Range Rover than rejoice on a bicycle. He would rather lose sleep in a huge house than enjoy peace in a shanty.

I found a church that was involved in sports ministry very interesting. They would recognize the young ‘ministers’, but only when they won matches. I never heard any announcement when the team lost that I wonder the kind of ministry they had. But that is the outcome of this faulty doctrine. I would expect a sports minister to strategically lose the matches to be able to be more effective as a victor is normally more receptive than a wounded loser.

And it affects ministry in more devastating ways. People are feted for attaining wealth instead of walking with God. We take James’ admonition (James 2) to the extreme opposite.

I see that in pulpits all over. A celebrity or tycoon can occupy any pulpit whereas someone whose consistency and faithfulness to God and His call is never allowed anywhere near that pulpit. A politician known for his foul language and morals is invited to greet the congregation yet a longsuffering missionary is not even acknowledged.

I will repeat that God gives. But He does not do so for us to parade ourselves. He gives to get the glory. He gives for His purposes to be revealed. Redemption is the end result of his giving.

Is the doctrine you hold consistent with the complete and consistent revelation we get when we read the Word of God? Otherwise you could be filling the pews for the few who are on the narrow road to heaven, even cheering (jeering) them on.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Is that promise from the captain of our salvation making sense in our experience?