When Servants Fare Better than their Lords

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. (Matthew 22:29)

I have been thinking of these big-name ministers who live large on the giving of the people they presumably serve who lead pitiable lives.

Then it dawned on me (God opened my eyes to this reality) that it is guided by some assumptions.

How do children normally treat their father?

He is the ever-present provider and protector that very few children appreciate or acknowledge.

A father never shouts to be recognised. A father never highlights the sacrifices he makes to provide.

You will realise in many family settings that it is the mother who gets the bulk of the gratitude because she is the visible reality, probably the one who draws the attraction of the children to her input.

Look at these examples.

A father pays school fees for a child, does the shopping (or provides for the same) and gives some pocket money, money that the child feels is inadequate yet the father has reached his limit.

In that argument (or whatever) comes the mother to resolve the stalemate.

What does she do?

She takes her shopping money (that the same man had given her) and gives the child.

Now the same child goes all over screaming how his mother is the life saver, the only one who can sacrifice for him, looking at his father as inadequate without considering that every single coin in that pocket of his came from the same man he thinks is ‘useless and uncaring’.

Or a father goes shopping and buys the ingredients to make a meal fit for a king.

The mother converts them into a meal.

The children fall over themselves to pour praise and gratitude for a meal well prepared and forgets the man who made it possible. He could have been a table cloth or dishwasher for all they care.

These are things I have seen too many times to count.

Fathers rarely notice that. Or it does not seem to affect them in any significant way since he is content to take the responsibilities God has laid on him without a fuss.

I know of men who were evicted from their property by their children because the said children had concluded that they owed him nothing since he had provided nothing in their lives forgetting that their father had been the sole breadwinner long before they developed those teeth to bite him. Yet the mother had been able to convince them that their father was worthless and had been worthless all along, yet they were evicting him from property his own effort acquired.

I have seen fathers beaten to pulp by their children at the instigation of their mother because the mother got fed up with him, probably because he lost his job or retired.

How many fathers are left to live alone in their sunset years while their children are scrambling to host their mother? How many are left fending for themselves even as the wife is shuttling from child to child to compensate for the ‘sacrifice’ she made to raise them up?

Just this morning I have learnt of a neighbor who has died of hunger since his wife visits to bring him food once a week as she lives some distance away with the children. The person who has told me once worked in his compound and had told me of the neglect even before his unfortunate death.

Sadly, this is one among many such incidences.

Someone equated a father with an earth mover or grader that is used to carpet a road which, after completing the task is unworthy to use the same road. It has to be carried by a worthy vehicle along that road.

A father’s usefulness determines his value. Once he loses his usefulness (loses his job, retires, ages, etc.) he is quickly disposed of. He was indispensable only due to his usefulness.

What am I driving at? You may be wondering.

Do you know that many believers treat God the same way?

We need God only when we have no other option. We need God because we know we cannot do without Him.

But we are not in the least interested in any relationship with Him, especially because we know that relationship will give us responsibilities we would rather not have.

Let us look at another thing.

Have you ever wondered why children are closer to a mother than a father?

The simple reason is that their mother is the one who knows the right screws to turn to make this ‘stingy’ human to give.

They believe their father does not love them and only gives because their mother has compelled him.

There are situations where a husband used his resources to turn the children against their mother because the mother chose Biblical submission over feminism. Yet these are exceptions, very rare ones.

We know that God is the provider. But we look at Him as a stingy one who must be coerced to give.

That is where these spiritual brokers come in.

Have you ever wondered why someone would board a plane and incur hotel expenses so that their healing is prayed for? Ever asked why someone would sell their land to take the money to a prophet to release their breakthrough? Ever wondered why someone would disown and desert their family to move to a minister’s place? Ever wondered why a whole church would fast and pray for a pastor to get a guiding message for the coming year instead of doing the same to receive a personalised one? Ever wondered how a minister can be so immersed in sin, immorality and scandal yet his followers continue increasing instead of decreasing?

God is stingy, is the driving doctrine of their lives. They believe that God must be pushed to be gracious. He must be pushed to provide. He must be pushed to change things. He must be pushed to speak.

And that spiritual broker is the link. He/ she is the only one that knows the right keys to press to move God to step into their situations.

It therefore means that this spiritual broker must be bribed (say it with a spiritual accent) to speak to God on their behalf. The spiritual broker must be made to understand their situation to be able to convince God to step in.

Incidentally that is the whole doctrine of Mariolatry.

She, as our mothers, can touch her Son and His Father better than our feeble efforts.

All because God really does not want to be God in our lives that He must be convinced by somebody else.

Why then should I give God when the broker is the one who can move God to step into my situation? Why not give God through the broker in the first place. Or isn’t that the way we do when we think our fathers may not listen to us?

That is why a spiritual broker lives in the leafiest suburbs when those he brokers for live in the slums.

That is why a spiritual broker owns a private jet when those he brokers for walk to work, as they do everywhere else.

And the followers do not mind that disparity because they are convinced that God really must be pushed and they do not know how to push Him.

Incidentally, that is the reason some subordinate staff responsible for filing and files may be driving cars they could not afford even if they were given their salaries for a hundred years – they know where your file is and who needs to sign it for your situation to be sorted. That was prevalent before the digital age when files could disappear at will or a pen to sign them needed very expensive ink. Though I still hear of similar situations especially where a meeting must be convened to pass things and such.

I hope my point is getting across.

A faulty theology has the capacity of derailing one’s life completely

God is love. God loves us with an infinite love. God is concerned about us. God will step into our situations, not because of how much we have cried, but because that is His nature.

He does not need the pleading of any brokers, not even Mary, to respond to us.

Christ died so that we can have unfettered access to God. No wonder He is the ONLY WAY, ONLY TRUTH, ONLY LIFE.

He is the only one through whom we can access God’s ears.

And it is only as we submit to His Lordship that we can use Him as our access to His Father.

That does not nullify the need for spiritual leaders.

But spiritual leaders are not brokers.

They are shepherds who are sheep like the rest, sheep who have been given the shepherding role by the Chief Shepherd (Christ). Their role being to help the sheep under them to be able to hear the voice of the Chief Shepherd and allow Him to lead them.

They could be the ears of the sheep they lead in a very minimal way because their major role is to connect the sheep to the voice of their Shepherd.

But you see, having a spiritual broker is fun as I do not have to take responsibility for my spiritual life.

I can’t hear Christ’s voice and assume I have not heard. I can’t hear His command and behave as if I haven’t heard. And it really will not matter much whether I will assume or not because I know that I have heard.

But I can do that if I have a spiritual broker because then I can ‘receive’ and ‘possess’ only what agrees with me. I can even choose to divert what I do not agree with to the person seated next to me or even behind since we are very many. And the spiritual broker knows what I am willing to ‘possess’ and ‘receive’ and so will release just that.

That is why those brokers must have their palms very well-greased as they take the responsibility of all these rebellious sheep who must connect to God’s bounty.

Another erroneous doctrine about fathers is entitlement.

Many children behave as if it is their right to receive everything from their father. That it is their right for their father to starve for them to eat.

That of course means that they have very little, if any, gratitude.

A father’s sacrifice is treated as nothing special because a father does not think of himself when he is doing what he should do.

Let me give an example.

As someone who uses public transport, I have noticed that students will rush to the most expensive vehicles while their fathers will wait for the cheapest. Yet it was that same father who gave that student their fare.

You may even hear the same student saying something like this to the others

I do not understand my father. Imagine he can afford to give me all this money yet has to wait for the ugliest matatu because it is the cheapest!

That sacrifice is not worth a dime to the child.

Yet is it not how many of us treat God, and especially Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on the cross?

And again, we see this error when we look at the spiritual brokers.

Many believers would rather sin than offend their spiritual ‘dad’ or ‘mum’. They believe their lives will shatter if that broker gets offended.

I have made many enemies when I insisted on calling some of those conmen by their spiritual names (spiritual brokers) to their followers. I have been called names when I trashed the authority they wielded over their idiotic followers. I have been cursed because I dared touch those anointed when I tried to convince their followers that they were also anointed.

But I still stand. I am still ministering. My anointing is still intact.

In fact, as long as my relationship with Christ is intact, I am completely safe and will continue calling all believers to their priestly roles.

The other error is closely connected to the second.

A father is judged for his omissions while the mother is judged for her commissions.

A father is judged for what he did not do (or could not do) while the mother is judged for what she did.

A father will not be forgiven for not buying that bike for a birthday though he brings the ingredients for making a cake that the mother bakes.

The same man might be denied that cake and sneered at while the mother is praised generously for remembering the child’s birthday.

Isn’t that the way many believers treat God?

Have you listened to the testimonies people with spiritual ‘moms’ and ‘dads’ and ‘spiritual covers’ give after their ‘breakthrough?

If I will be as crude as always, it will appear as if that man or woman of God did what God was unable or unwilling to do. God had refused to answer their prayers but that conman did it.

But I will hasten to add that not all children are like that.

However, those who can see through the smokescreen are ‘hated’ by their mothers because they are not willing to bite the hand that feeds them, so to speak. Their level headedness will be treated as spite because to many a woman, anything other than adoration is treated as hatred.

A woman’s greatest desire as per the curse at Eden is to supplant a man (and who better than her husband?). It is thus in her element to use her children to do it.

Again, I will hasten to add that not all women are like that.

There are many (who are a very small minority) who have allowed the Holy Spirit to so fill them that they willingly and happily submit to their husbands as per the scriptures.

I remember my mother who, though neglected and mistreated by her husband never once answered back at him or allowed any of her children to treat him with nothing other than reverence. We were never allowed to do what many children with responsible fathers do to them yet we did not exist in his scheme of things as he had another family that he was responsible for. She fed him until he died yet he never provided anything for her or her children, who were all his.

But I am talking about God and the conmen who behave as if they are the only ways to access God’s bounty.

Look at the way their supporters fight to prove the innocence of these crooks even when evidence is tabled against them? It is interesting when you hear their defence for things that are done in private. You wonder why they cannot allow them to defend themselves.

They will defend the utterances of those conmen more than they defend the cause of Christ or even scriptures. To them the scriptures derive their inspiration from the broker’s mouth.

This is not restricted to cults (I do not write to cults) but is rampant in major denominations and congregations, especially where the man or woman of God has experienced a measure of success or has a very flowery testimony.

I do not know how you will respond to this message