Of Media as Accessory to Sin

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)

As I wind up the message about God hiding His generals, I need us to look at the media not as an innocent tool but an active and powerful participant in the slaying of those exposed generals, many times by exposing them.

I have written severally about the media and so will not dwell on it much. I will just highlight a few aspects of the media to open our eyes to its power for an agenda against God’s revelation.

Have you noticed of late that gossip has taken a very tidy curve? Do you realize that as opposed to how we have been looking at it that it has been glorified by social media?

It is gossip when you speak about someone when they are not present. But it is absolutely cool when you share their secret video on your social media page. Eavesdropping on a couple arguing or fighting is malicious. Recording the same is fine, even heroic.

It has become so bad that when something bad happens, instead of people rushing to help, they will take out their smartphones to shoot the action. I was told of an incident where someone hanged himself and the crowd was busy recording the spectacle, until the guy died.

It has become very easy to set up someone and besmirch his name by a simple connecting of events and location. Many have their names in tatters because they responded to a crisis without knowing that it had been a set up, even with cameras rolling. Then the video is posted online, and that many times becomes the end of a promising minister.

Though he may not have been entirely without blame, there is a pastor I really pitied when I looked at the leaked video as he was being beaten by the aggrieved ‘husband’ of the ‘cheating’ wife.

Just looking critically at the video it becomes clear that the pastor was pushed into the ‘situation’.

But only the barest minimum will want to look critically at the video and ask pertinent questions on the same. And almost no one will even treat that as gossip, which is really what it is. Even the believers who bash those of us who are radical with God’s word will forget their favorite verse, ‘do not judge’ as that is outside their frame of reference. A brother will therefore be judged without the slightest of doubt, or an iota of grace.

I am not saying that there are no pastors doing such things or even that those ones were innocent. On the contrary I believe that a pastor should be like the Bible says, above reproach. It was therefore folly for them to be in some of those situations they were framed as God holds His servants to a higher standard.

Do you realize that you are bound to the person who lifts you up? That is the reason a parent can speak roughly, their grown children and it is not taken as an insult, because that parent is the main contributor to where you are.

You will therefore never outgrow their authority over your life, however high you might fly.

Let us take this to our reputation. Do you realize that we are forever indebted to the people who elevated us?

Some ministers are disqualified in heaven because of their level of ingratitude to the people and structures that took him to the place he is. And God does not take that kindly. Remember gratitude is treated as a sacrifice in Psalm 50.

Let me explain. A pastor is offered a pastorate in a small church, a church that pours all her heart to him. Though they are not able to give him a good salary, they offer him all opportunities and support he may need to be the best of pastors.

Due to that enabling environment, he thrives and starts being noticed by others.

He is therefore offered a job by a large church and offered an enviable package that becomes irresistible to him. He therefore deserts the church that was dedicated to his elevation to serve in a church that had no time for his growth when he was down there.

Who do you think will fight for the hurting church that was left as an orphan?

Let me use the worldly systems to help us understand. When a company sponsors your training, they will many times bond you to work with them to compensate their investment. In other words, they will make sure they have not invested in you so that you can benefit some other company.

And the media is like that. They will expose you and bond you to their agenda because they are the ones who were responsible for your elevation. You must therefore play their game or they will take it upon themselves to destroy you.

That explains why popular preachers will never preach against sin. That is why the most popular are soft on abominations, some even saying that there are many ways to God, something the Bible is clear about. It is simply the world bonding you for its part in your elevation. Incidentally, because the evil one is the ruling spirit, you must be destroyed as opposed to rested when he is through with you. Sobering, is it?

We have many examples when we look around. A star will rise and blaze for a short time, then it gets extinguished. And nobody wants to ask why.

The media will give you visibility for its purpose. And it is clear that purpose is as far from God’s glory as sin is from righteousness.

We are badly and fatally deceived when we think of the media as God’s breakthrough, unless you are sure that God specifically placed you there. This means that you had nothing to do with the visibility unless it was walking radically connected to God’s clear leading.

The problem is that the human spirit loves the visibility, meaning that we are all biased toward seeking the visibility of our success.

We will therefore interpret any signal as God’s acceptance and leading just like a person in love will interpret anything, from a dream to a situation to interpret it to mean that God has approved of the relationship. And I am saying this from hard experience. This is why this verse is so pertinent.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Like the Bible says, to the starving, even bitter food is sweet; our craving for attention and appreciation makes it very difficult for us to clearly distinguish God’s leading and breakthrough when it concerns the media. And many times it happens because of the way the evil one packages it. We may therefore think it comes from God when it is the package that has been done so. Or you haven’t read 2 Corinthians 11: 13 - 15?

This is not to say that the media is sin. As someone who is in a small way a product of the media, I can only point to the ruling spirit of the media as the reason the media is the way it is. And I have been involved in media; from the mainstream to media in church.

One needs to be not only discriminating when thinking of the media, he must also be very close to the throne room of heaven not to be swayed by the said spirit. Many have gotten lost in their passion to thrive in that field. And I am specifically talking about media in church.

We must be very passionate in our pursuit of God to be able to handle media in ways that will glorify God. And it will be by deciding to walk step by step according to God’s revelation at the personal level.

Lest you think I am saying my own things, read the book of Acts and tell me where the apostles sent notices (not even advertisements) before visiting places to minister. Yet we know that Paul was very urbane and knew much about those things. Do you realize that he even used his rights after he was abused instead of to avoid abuse?

Was Jesus not also like that?

The solution to being swallowed by the media and the traps it sets for us is to walk in the Spirit. And I mean listening to what God is speaking moment by moment even as we dip ourselves completely in His word.