Covert Ministry

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: (Matthew 6:3)

I want us to look at Mordecai to understand this verse.

I do not think many believers appreciate that the depths of God’s revelation in His word is as deep and unfathomable as God is.

We can mine the truths from God’s word and never exhaust them.

But I want us to go to the Old Testament to get the clearest understanding of what Christ meant when He gave the instruction in this verse.

And we will look at two things that Mordecai did.

He raised Esther as his daughter when she became an orphan.

Imagine he ordered Esther to never mention that fact!

To imagine that even when he was pleading with her to go to the king he never even once reminded her of the fact that he raised her. He simply used other arguments.

He then saved the king’s life from an assassination.

Yet from the reading of the book it appears that he also ‘ordered’ that what he did is never mentioned anywhere. But God ensured that it was recorded.

Otherwise imagine with me that that fact had gone out.

Do you think that he could have continued being just a gate keeper? Do you even imagine Haman imagining about scheming about him? Do you think the king could have allowed him lie wasting at the gate?

Had his intervention for the king become public, the people at the gate would have been the ones prostrating before him, and not through the king’s order.

Haman could have been told something like this when his fellow gatekeepers were reporting his defiance.

‘This guy refuses to bow before you. But he is the one who saved the king from an assassination.’

Do you think Haman could have even thought of laying a hand on him?

Yet this great man buried his good deeds, refusing to exhume them even when his life was in danger yet doing so would have given him immediate relief.

Such giving is the product of great faith in God. It is the product of someone whose walk with God is not subject to any external prompting.

Though Joseph was as great, you remember him telling the cupbearer to remember him to pharaoh, though for God’s purposes to succeed the guy forgot until the right time came.

But Mordecai left the right time completely in God’s hands through his acts.

No wonder the king was shocked when he discovered that the inconspicuous character minding his gate had saved his life, even worse, that he had received nothing in exchange. He was also shocked to later learn that he was his de facto father-in-law.

That is why he was elevated so highly after what he had concealed became public.

Even his fellow gatekeepers looked at him with awe after knowing the kind of person they had been treating as one of them.

Reminds me of this verse

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: (1Peter 5:6)

I can only humble myself when I am completely surrendered to the authority I am submitting to.

That is how Mordecai was.

He gave and gave and completely forgot. Because he had actually given as his worship to the God he knew.

That is how Christ expects us to give, not only of our resources, but of ourselves as well.

Otherwise our giving will fall way below the threshold He can accept.

Further

I want us to look at the application and implications of giving like Mordecai did. That is giving and CHOOSING to completely forget it.

We have Mordecai and Barnabas as examples, one in the OT and the other in the New.

I have used the word choosing intentionally. And it is because it is impossible for the left hand not to know what the right is doing since both are part of the same body.

It is also akin to what God did for our justification.

He paid for our sins and completely forgets them when we choose to accept that sacrifice.

That does not mean He deletes our past or formats the hard disk that is our past.

He simply starts with us afresh from the point at which we accept that sacrifice.

Otherwise tell me why the Bible says that we will give an account of ourselves before God. Or that we will give an account of every idle word we speak.

God chooses to treat us as if we never sinned due to the fact that Jesus paid for our sins.

And like I always like us to never forget, free does not mean without cost. It simply means that somebody else bore the cost of what we are enjoying for free.

Again, look at verses like these

For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. (Hebrews 10: 26, 27)

Playing with grace means that we are trashing the sacrifice that paid for the salvation we received free. Meaning that we have disqualified ourselves from the payment of our redemption.

This in effect means that our relationship with God is reset to the point at which we were before accepting that sacrifice, only that this time we have no option of accessing that forgiveness, more like it happened with the evil one.

Mordecai’s giving is a giving that has zero expectation of reward. It is a complete release of the gift.

One does not hold the recipient of the gift to account for its reception.

And that is why the word choosing is so significant.

Human nature says that nothing is free. Someone must return the hand (a direct translation from Kiswahili) to be a receiver, and that from the giver.

But grace says otherwise.

What are the rewards of such giving? I know someone is wondering.

It releases the giver to focus on their assignment without distractions.

You see, had Mordecai not released his giving, he could have very easily sunk to depression with disappointment.

He could have thought something like this.

Imagine this girl I raised and she is giving reasons instead of jumping to my defence! Or, how can this king whose life I saved not concerned to even know who saved his life?

Releasing the gift released him to fight for the whole nation of Israel instead on focusing on his self preservation. It allowed him to rally the whole nation to a common cause, something he could not have done had he focused on an expectation of reward for his giving.

Releasing a gift thus simply means that one is releasing it to God and allowing God to use it as He wills.

 

Shifting Sands

I was praying and this thought crossed my head.

It is a very rude thought and for some could be extremely offensive.

But allow me to have a verse to get us into spiritual thinking

Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. (1Corinthians 7:20)

Have you wondered how some people, especially ministers, live?

Has it occurred to you that the only situation you can assess is your own? And even that you are not even clear about many aspects?

Allow me to introduce another verse

Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. (Romans 14:4)

Has it occurred to you that God will never consult you before calling anybody into His service? Do you know that each and every minister in the whole world is only accountable to that calling Authority? That even when you are entrusted with oversight it is only as a supervisor of sorts to make the servant be more effective to the One who called him?

Why am I using all these words to say a very simple thing?

In my decades of ministry, I have clashed severally with ministers because they have made themselves God’s prefects, wanting to micromanage or even determine others’ calling and ministry.

Some have blatantly said that what God has ordered one to do or how He has ordered them to do it is wrong because it does not agree with their calling or methods.

Some will go as far as saying that what a minister is doing borders on sin and rebellion because it does not fit into their rudder of ministry and calling.

There are some ministers (many times senior ministry or church operatives) who will trash you because you do not fit into their support structures.

Some will blatantly tell you that they cannot partner with you because you think and get support ambiguously (wrongly according to them).

But allow me to ask some questions

Are you the one who called them? Are they serving you? Are they accountable to you as per their calling? Do you feed them? Do you open ministry doors for them?

You see, we will all stand (individually) at the judgment seat of Christ.

It is therefore wise to view everything in that context.

Even that pittance you use to intimidate God’s ministers into serving you really does not come from you. You only give, however grudgingly, what you have also received.

The fact that you have been given the oversight role (and we might even question by who) does not make you the final authority in all things ministry. The fact that God used you into His calling someone into ministry does not make you the determinant of every detail of that ministry.

Let us get to the Bible for context.

Barnabas rescued Paul from rejection and discipled him into ministry. Yet we do not make this great man making any demands on his disciple.

He then takes Mark.

But Paul will have none of that, trashing this deserter and in a way disqualifying Barnabas’ ministry because he did not think Mark deserved a second chance.

But Barnabas knew what he was called to and separated with this success he had made to continue functioning in his calling.

We later see the same Paul, not only commending Mark, but pleading to have him, calling him useful for ministry.

The fact that Paul succeeded in ministry does not mean that Barnabas’ ministry was not of God. It just means that God holds someone accountable to what He has called him to.

And the fact that we have the book of Mark and Paul’s plea for Mark to be brought is proof that Barnabas was right in disagreeing with Paul to be able to walk in his calling.

I can only understand my ministry and calling. I am unable to understand even my children’s callings though I brought them up because they really belong to God and I was just a steward to guide them to hear God for themselves.

But allow me to be rude for you who think that because someone is calling you dad or mom (whatever that means) you are the ultimate in wisdom concerning their ministry, calling, support and so on.

Do you feed them? Do you give them peace? Do you give them fulfilment as they serve God?

Thou fool

Just because someone has chosen to serve God different from the way God clearly spoke to you about the way you do, are they not still serving?

Are those you trashed not having an impact for God?

Do those you trashed the way they raise (or refuse) to raise support live off your gifts after you threw them under the bus for rejecting your wisdom?

Are those whose Bible training you refused because they had used a different method or received a different order not even better educated than you?

Are those you kicked out of ministry or church not still ministering?

Are those support you cut without notice starving?

Are the children of those you kicked out of ‘your’ church starving as you had thought?

I will repeat again and again.

God is the ONLY ONE who calls people to HIS MINISTRY.

It is His calling and His ministry and we better remove ourselves from that.

We will be judged very harshly by taking that singular mandate just because He has made us under shepherds.

And for emphasis let me get us to a few crazy situations in the scriptures.

What would you have done if you were Isaiah’s bishop when he walked naked for three years?

What would you have said if Hosea was in your congregation when he chose to marry a known harlot, twice?

What would you have said to Philip when he left a revival meeting to run to the desert?

What would you have done to Jeremiah for refusing to get married among many other crazy things he did?

What would you have done to Elijah for staying with a heathen widow for years?

What would you have said to Elisha when he destroyed his source of livelihood to prepare a farewell party to join a prophet that nobody knew how he operated or even where he lived?

What would you have said to Amos who left his going concern farm to take a message to a far-off enemy land?

Could you have been Jonah’s advisor when he ran off instead of taking on the crazy assignment God was giving him?

What I am saying that you should leave God to deal with His servants.

Assist when you can. Counsel when opportunity comes your way. Empower when it is in your power.

But never forget this simple fact.

Each one of those people are directly called by God, even those you think are not called.

And I am speaking from some experience.

There are people who from my view were not called looking at the circumstances around that calling and even their testimony and claim of that calling.

But that did not stop them from doing wonders in the ministry they in my view had called themselves into.

Please stop pretending to be God’s prefect because He has none that he has given that job.

Spiritualised Corruption

And, behold, God himself is with us for our captain, and his priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you. O children of Israel, fight ye not against the LORD God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper. (2Chronicles 13:12)

Many Christian nations are reeling with disappointment and dismay at the way they have been played by the political class.

They wonder how easily they were duped into trusting the untrustworthy, believing the lies of perennial liars.

The sad part is that the spiritual leaders are groaning as much, if not more loudly, than the flock.

Allow me to look at some politicians in the scriptures, the first being this character Abijah, or Abijam in 1 Kings. It would be wise if you read the whole chapter.

The Bible plainly says that he was a wicked king.

Yet he was able to apparently bring God into his side in a war against a superior army.

How was he able to do it?

I know to some that is the million-dollar question.

He was able to do that by basically preaching God to Jeroboam. He was able to do that by painting God’s nature accurately to everybody listening. He was able to do it by broadcasting God’s word and attributes to his audience.

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. (Psalm 138:2)

And God is activated by His word accurately quoted. He responds to His revelation when it is quoted, irrespective of who is quoting it.

I want us to look at another politician in the scriptures, this time the son of Ahab, the most wicked king Israel had.

And the king of Israel said, Alas! that the LORD hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab! (2Kings 3:10)

This king quoted God wrongly, ascribing to Him a scheme to finish His people, and this in the presence of a worshipful king.

That activated God to act since it really was His name that was on the block as He had done with Abijah.

Simply speaking, God is bound to His word and will not allow it to lose its power at any time.

That is why, even when it is accurately proclaimed by the wicked, it must have effect.

Then said Yahweh to me, You have well seen: for I watch over my word to perform it. (Jeremiah 1:12, WEB)

Looking at the last campaigns in Kenya, most of the politicians became very devout at the mouth level.

But after they were elected, they became just like their fellow politician Abijah. They then had nothing to conceal since they had got what they were looking for. I remember a classmate who got ‘saved’ to be made a prefect and ‘backslid’ when his term ended. And I say it because he had informed me of his plot.

They had simply used God and His word to further their ambitions.

But they are not to blame, though they will one time stand before God to give an account for their conduct.

There is one group fully to blame for misleading Kenyans, and that is the spiritual leaders; the prophets, bishops, pastors and their ilk.

Why do I say so?

You can not blame the chameleon for changing its colours since that is its nature. It is being true to the way it was created.

But a spiritual leader is different since he must prepare the people he leads for whatever their choices will release.

And an example is in order.

Remember when Israel asked for a king? In our times we might say that they voted unanimously for a king.

Yet what did Samuel do?

He said something like this.

It is fine that this is the way you are exercising your democratic right.

Yet listen to what heaven is saying.

That vote will bring about these consequences.

They could not therefore feign ignorance when the consequences caught up with them.

But look at our prophets!

They joined the campaign team and endorsed the chameleon, implying that it had changed into something else just because it used the scriptures accurately.

And that is why we have a verse like this in the scriptures

Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment. (James 3:1)

Leading has its cost because of the trust it attracts.

I remember once trying to expose a pyramid scheme making rounds in a church and was met with this response

‘Do you think you hear God better than our pastors who are in it?’

But that did not prevent them from being swindled

That is why the culprits in this deception are the spiritual leaders because they abused the trust vested in them to look for those envelopes at the expense of telling their flock what heaven was saying, not only about their choices, but especially about the consequences of those choices.

I am not absolving the politicians for chamelioning. But they were simply playing in their league, for which they will also give an account.

It is the prophet who allowed them to do it on their pulpits and even went ahead to advise their flock that they were God-ordained without any caveat. This has no excuse.

Again I am not saying that they could have campaigned for the alternative since even that was as chameleonic as any other.

They simply ought to have used their pulpits to share God’s word as revealed and leave politics to the politicians. And if they must speak about politics and politicians, a thing that many times accompanies the proclamation of God’s word, they share only what God is saying and not their opinions on this or the other. Because God must have a word in season even for such times.

Taking sides in politics is against the high calling God’s ministry aspires. It is not much different from leaving the pulpit for a political seat.

Incidentally I am writing this as a spiritual leader just asking that we search our hearts and return to what God has called us to.

Incidentally the judgment of that conduct is loading

Courting Failure

And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart. (Deuteronomy 20:8)

I want us to look at one main cause of failure in our Christian endeavours.

And I do this because I have never heard or read of it being addressed anywhere all my life.

You see, our generation loves the masses. We love the crowds. We love the applause.

We have no place for the lone wolf. We have no place for the lone fighter except in movies.

The social media is the clearest evidence of this. And it thrives therein.

No wonder they pay a premium to influencers irrespective of their content. And we know that what trends most is normally controversial, if not openly gross.

We transfer that to the spiritual and the results are plain and gross wickedness.

But we love the mega church. We love mass evangelism. We are excited at seeing our pastor trending on social media for whatever reason. A congregation boasts for long when their services are aired on TV without realising that the media station may have chosen them because their sermons are simple social commentaries or entertainment and comedy, not heavenly discourses.

This has led us to the point where we think it is wrong to set standards on anything because standards chase some, at times, most people.

Incidentally, the only thing a crowd is able to do effectively is mob justice that has no positives.

But that is not how God operates.

From beginning to end, we see God discriminating, setting standards, disqualifying, in His choices and calling. We see Him narrowing His choices all the time.

What am I saying?

We choose people to join our teams without caring to know whether they are adequately prepared to fight the battles we are calling them to.

Then we are disappointed when they run off and leave us to fight alone. We can even call curses on them because we feel that they disappointed us and exposed us to failure.

But are we justified?

If truth be said, we are the cause of our failure.

Not only had we not counted the cost as Christ taught, we never even told them that there was a cost before calling on them to join us.

I believe that the very basic training of a soldier ingrains in him the expectation of death. A soldier must be ready to die any time he is performing his duties. It is therefore inconceivable for him to be scared to fight.

In the passage where our verse comes from, we are able to see that very clearly.

Is there some unfinished business you have left? Then go back and finish it because you might not come back alive.

When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken. (Deuteronomy 24:5)

That is the same reasoning.

One goes to war ready to die. He must release himself to death before he can be of any worth as a soldier.

That expectation of death is what deals fear a death wound. And that is what makes a soldier able to function.

That can only be dealt with at a personal level because nobody dies in a crowd.

But chasing the crowd will diminish our followership. I know someone is countering. And of course it will.

Remember in Gideon’s time what happened when Gideon did that at God’s command?

Almost 70% of his army went back. And that is the reality even today.

But the alternative is not feasible. This because you would rather ten geared up fighters than a thousand-strong chickenhearted crowd.

We fail tremendously when we invite the whole church for evangelism, even guilt tripping them to come.

We fail when we insist that every member of the church attends the overnight prayer meeting and fasting.

We fail when we insist that every member gives sacrificially for this or the other battlefront.

We kill people when we force them to the battlefront. But we kill the battle itself by doing that.

And this because they have no capacity to face the dangers inherent in the battles we are inviting them to.

Allow me to deal with one aspect of this topic because the rest are understandable.

He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. (Matthew 10: 41, 42)

I want us to look at ministry support and giving in general.

The person who supports me in ministry becomes a partner in the ministry I am involved in.

This means that he must in effect be involved in the warfare my ministry attracts.

That is the reason that in times of intense spiritual warfare support goes down tremendously and then resumes after the season ends.

Why do you think that happens?

I am sure it is because God wants to spare my supporters the shrapnel that warfare will release through their support, especially because very few know that there is any warfare involved in giving.

Even the ones who will continue giving will also have to deal with quite some warfare on their side, a warfare they may not associate with the warfare I am involved in.

Allow me to give an example.

One time a mother (not my mother, but she was a mother to me in many ways) fell sick.

She went to many hospitals and her problem could not be diagnosed yet her condition continued worsening, even becoming desperate. Yet it was in high end hospitals

It pained me to see the suffering she and her family were going through.

I prayed a prayer I think I will never pray again (of course unless God specifically orders me to).

Then I became sick, almost to the point of death.

It is interesting that when I was able to get out of bed she was also out of hospital.

Standing with and for someone has a huge cost to it, a cost with a direct relationship with whatever the one we are standing with or for is battling.

There is a great cost to supporting ministry, a cost many ministers and supporters do not know exists.

Of course there are rewards. But that dimension has been preached and taught bare so I will not waste any time mentioning it.

And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? (1Kings 17:18)

Standing with Elijah was the cause of the widow’s loss.

And it is because the evil one looks for the weakest link to try to kill the assignment (I will write more conclusively on that later), and the carrier of that assignment is many times adequately prepared for any opposition and warfare. Remember the same thing happened with Elisha and the Shunamite?

Preparing our supporters is therefore more important for us (and especially safe for them) because it then opens their eyes to the cost of supporting us as opposed to the rewards which are very easily seen.

It would be very immoral for me if my supporter loses their job because they are supporting me and I had not prepared them for that eventuality. It would be very wicked of me if my supporter loses their child as those two cases I have highlighted and they are not even aware why it happened, and especially if I do not have any antidote for that spiritual attack, just because I do not associate it with their supporting me.

As usual I will leave this post here for your meditation.

I want you to fill the gaps, probably write an even fuller post on the same.

Dressed Naked

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. (2Corinthians 5: 2 – 4)

I want us to look at dressing, but in a different way.

However, we will look at convention to get the lesson.

What do you understand by the attire of a harlot when you see it in the Bible?

How does a whoremonger identify a harlot?

Do you realise that the attire of a harlot does not mean nakedness?

How did Judah know that Tamar was a harlot yet she was veiled?

Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock, where you rest them at noon; For why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions? (Song 1:7 WEB)

This actually tells us that harlots’ distinctive dress may have been a hijab, the kind of dress Muslim women wear.

That complete covering was the cover for immorality. It was the invitation to immorality.

The attire of a harlot is dependent on the cultural dress. But it is very clear to customers.

You might go to a place and think you are dealing with very devout people and a whoremonger will immediately be able to access those services because that is his way of life, or escape for those who want to be devout on familiar ground as I got to know when I worked in the media and in places people think nobody knows them.

A harlot is not described simply by their physical dress, though dress plays a pivotal role in their identification.

But a harlot represents nakedness since sin makes one naked. Or why do you think people blush and not grin when they are found out in sin. It is the same reason Adam hid after sinning.

The sex act is treated as nakedness in the Bible. Just look at Leviticus 18 among other similar scriptures.

It means that the attire of a harlot is spiritually speaking the kind of attire that will draw someone into nakedness, however well covered one is.

What then does our initial verse mean?

It means that we should be careful to ensure that our dress does what God intended for it to do, cover our nakedness, which is the opposite of what a harlot’s dress does. But it also takes us to the spiritual realm aspect of dress.

Our verse is talking about our spiritual coverdness.

You see, the spiritual realm can accurately see the state of our spirits. It can accurately assess how dressed or naked we are in the spiritual realm.

Look at this verse

For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, (2Timothy 3:6)

False teachers do not hunt for prey. They look for silly women leaning towards sin.

In short, those women are spiritually naked though they may be called pastors or possess big religious titles.

Their spiritual dress is actually naked, the attire of a harlot in the spirit.

For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. (1Corinthians 11:10)

This clearly speaks of the spiritual realm.

An unsubmissive woman, for example, is spiritually naked and completely exposed to deception.

Allow me to leave it here so that you may reflect

I may develop it farther if God allows me.

Treat this as an eye opener. Throw the verses if you feel I am not scriptural. But only scripture. 

When Stubble Lasts 2

We looked at stubble and some of the reasons it can last a long time and continue producing the heat it is supposed to produce.

At the back of everything is the fact that the stubble is backed by the God it is connected to.

I need to remind us that the stubble I am talking about is the young and/or new believer.

As I was developing that message, I went to the net to look for some scriptural songs for my children since as you know much of what is now called Gospel music is nothing but just music with a smattering mention of Jesus or any other spiritual sounding jargon to bait the ignorant.

I remembered Keith Green since any song I knew he sang was solidly scriptural. Incidentally, the only thing I knew about him apart from his songs was his face.

I came across a documentary about him and of course was interested.

To say I was shocked may be an understatement.

He died at 28 after being a Christian for seven years, coming from a past that was tumultuous to say the least.

But one thing will stand out when you listen to that documentary or even listen to his songs.

He took God seriously. He did not understand why believers were living a life different from what the Bible plainly says.

As a result of that, he opened his home to the needy; drug addicts, homeless, pregnant girls and a mix of all those useless cases churches would not touch with a ten-foot pole.

Until his house was full beyond capacity. Then he rented another. And another. And another.

Then he bought one. Then another.

And that in a city.

Until he needed to buy a ranch so that he could do what the Bible says without breaking city rules since he couldn’t turn anyone away.

Not only was he feeding and sheltering all those people, he was also teaching them the Bible as he was also learning; meaning that he was offering them a wholesome spiritual diet.

All his life before his conversion, he had craved stardom in music.

After he became a Christian, he became the bestselling musician in a short while. And it went against what he was learning from God.

Then the selling of albums and tickets to his concerts also went against what God was teaching him and he had to cancel a record deal.

He had to build his own studio to record songs that he gave away. He also started a magazine that he also gave away, and not in exchange for an offering as modern televangelists do.

All that and more in seven years!

That for me is the stubble I am talking about.

He was a young man who was able to have a monumental impact because he took God and His word seriously.

And that is the kind of faith God requires. The faith that only stubble can replicate because it has no past, no experience, no history.

It is seed on virgin ground.

His intake of the word was not dirtied by the experiences of those who had been raised in church.

He made enemies because he was questioning everything that did not make sense to the word he was reading. And many believers, more so leaders, hated him because his taking the word at face value was a constant source of rebuke.

Yet, not only was he able to bring throngs to salvation, he was able to challenge many more to offering themselves for missions.

After his death in a plane crash, even more responded to his call to take the Gospel to the nations from the last songs and messages he had released or that were recorded.

So, what am I saying?

Stubble can and does last. It can continue blazing for long

But that is not automatic.

It needs a fuel source to be able to do so.

That fuel is the word of God and how the said stubble relates with it.

But it is not only that.

Stubble can also graduate to be blazing logs if its relationship with God and His word is alive.

It loses its fire when experience starts ruling.

Remember John the Baptist recognising Christ when both were in their mothers’ wombs yet looking for clarification towards the end of his ministry?

That is what I mean.

The childlike faith must continue for stubble to continue blazing, even graduating to a more lasting fuel source.

 

When Stubble Lasts

But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:13)

In our youth, much was talked about our radical salvation and obedience, most of which was not positive.

Among the most popular cliches was the one saying that a youth’s salvation is comparable to a fire fuelled by stubble.

I have also written elsewhere that when I joined the media, I was told matter-of-factly that it would not take long before I was back to the world. And there were many samples he was using to prove his point.

Yet not only did some of us survive that fallout, but we even went ahead and thrived, not only in our faith, but also in ministry.

I have used discipleship as what separated us from the rest.

But today I want us to examine another aspect that God opened my eyes recently through my farming.

When I feed goats, I will normally cut their feed into small pieces to reduce wastage.

But even then, they will not eat everything. Meaning that quite a bit gets wasted.

That is quite some stubble.

But even that stubble is not useless to the farmer.

If you burn it, it makes very good fertilizer, especially one that is resistant to the termites that ravage everything in our farms.

Once a pile of stubble is big enough, I light it so that I will later use the remains to plant trees which are most targeted by the termites.

One time I had a pile of stubble that burnt for over three days, of course not blazing all the time. It would show some evidence of a fire when I had thought that it was long dead. Yet there had even been a little drizzle one of the days.

For me it was astounding that stubble could retain its fire for so long. It was unimaginable that a stubble fire could last that long.

Yet it did, shooting a blaze once in a long while, yet a blaze all the same.

It means that a stubble fire can survive without ‘solid’ fire holders like sticks and logs.

Can that describe our faith? I am convinced so.

But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:13)

How does it happen?

The first reality is that the stubble was in a heap. It was not scattered all over.

It is in fellowship that stubble, which is what a young believer (or any new believer for that case) can maintain their fire.

My father told me that when they used to herd (like all pastoralists do), they used to bury an ember of some trees and they would find it ready to restart a fire months later.

There were no matches those times and so starting a fire was a difficult and complex task.

Incidentally, that was how households used to ensure a fire in the morning in my childhood. The person who did not have good firewood to ‘bury’ those embers would always be on her neighbours’ doors looking for live embers to start her fire.

Not many had access to good wood that could keep their fire overnight since it would be a collection of the sticks and stubble that could be gathered anywhere. Good firewood could only be gotten from the forest which was illegal anyway, and quite a distance.

We are talking about lasting fire from stubble. It is only that I feel that background is important.

Stubble blazes brightly and powerfully, but only for a short time. Then it dies as suddenly.

But a pile of stubble can go on for a long time.

That is why many young people have blazing faith in school or college yet are unable to keep their fire once they leave those institutions.

That is why young people in college will use their pocket money to fund, plan and go for evangelistic outreaches all over yet have a very hard time supporting ministry when they get those well-paying jobs.

Their fellowship made their stubble fire blazing. But only when that fellowship lasted.

Remove them from the fellowship and they many times become worse than the ones who had never come across the Gospel.

That is when you see a young person who was blasting their fellow believer for compromise because they maintained close friendship with their villager who was not born again gets married to a clear infidel when they leave the warmth of that fellowship.

Fellowship is vitally important for stubble as it determines who lasts and who falls by the wayside.

And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10: 24, 25)

But that is not the only reason stubble can last. But it is a key reason all the same.

Fellowship is essential to the new believer. But it has to be the fellowship of people who are seeking to grow in the knowledge and obedience to God.

A fellowship around a man or woman of God has no capacity to make stubble blaze at all since it has human instead of divine fuel.

A true man of God will focus the fellowship of those following him to the knowledge and obedience to God. He will, like John the Baptist, seek to diminish even as Christ explodes in the lives of those following him. And I have left ‘her’ intentionally.

The other reason stubble can last is the purity of their faith. It is the innocence that comes from ‘foolishly’ following whatever they know God says.

I have left discipleship out of this intentionally. I hope you will get my reason as I go on.

Why did Jesus say that we should have a child’s faith.

It is unstained by experience, stories, reasonings.

God guards that folly and innocence.

You have heard of this or the other missionary who left his mission station heartbroken because after decades of ministry, they did not get a single convert. Some even backslide because they pour the blame of their barrenness on God.

Many decades later, they learn of thriving churches that are the direct fruit of their ‘unfruitful’ ministry exertion.

How did that church grow without a Bible, teacher and many other essentials that make a church grow?

They chose Christ and followed Him according to the little knowledge the missionary had given them even in their rebellion.

They walked with the little revelation they had received and God was able to fuel that stubble with His Holy Spirit.

I have interacted with people who became believers amidst idolatry and witchcraft who were lone believers for a long time. And some of them were children or young people.

They could not have fellowship because the nearest believer was very far and they were scared of associating with someone from such a background.

But they thrived all the same.

When I was in college, I hosted a brother who was beaten and kicked out of home because he had dared to become born again in a Roman Catholic family.

I think that is the kind of faith Timothy had inherited. And it was the kind of faith Apollos possessed.

I have been invited to teach in churches that do not have Bibles, in churches where even the pastor is illiterate.

But they do not have the challenges we are battling with because of the purity of their faith.

God is interested in growing their faith even though His church is actively resistant to His call to take the requisite materials to them.

I am therefore writing this as a call and plea for you to pray and be ready to be used to make that a reality.

But they will not stop growing because we are resistant and rebellious.

They believed in Christ and so Christ will sustain and grow their faith.

Holding on to the little they know will open them to a power able to sustain their faith under whatever pressure the enemy could exert.

It is the same way Rahab the harlot and Ruth were able to connect to the faith of Israel.

That was the same way Josiah was able to bring a revival amidst certain judgment.

And the Bible is full of such characters.

From Joseph to Daniel to Obadiah in Ahab’s palace.

They thrived though they lacked the traditional means or support to even stand.

And that is the whole understanding of grace. God will give you what you need to accomplish what He has called you to be and do.

This means that there is really no excuse for sin and backsliding.

That is simply the result of the choices we make and not because of the environment we were in.

But you do not have to be stubble all your life.

You can read the Bible for yourself. You can grow through knowing God through obedience to everything He reveals to you.

You can grow to be a blazing log that can help stubble to continue blazing for Christ.

But being stubble is not a lost cause.

I was stubble. But now I am not. And it can happen to you.

 

To the Last Drop

How do you feel when you hear a minister has committed suicide? How do you feel when you hear of a minister lost in alcoholism? How do you feel when you hear of a minister battling depression? How do you feel when you hear that a minister’s marriage has collapsed?

Do you ever wonder how it happened? Does it worry you? Do you lose peace and sleep?

Does it become a prayer burden?

I have written about hibernating ministers. You can read that on the blog.

But today I want us to look at the exhausted ministers. I want to look at the completely used up ministers. I want us to look at the ministers who gave to the last drop.

Look at Elijah.

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. (1Kings 19:4)

Do you wonder why he is praying to die when he was actually running away from being killed?

And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. (1Kings 19:14)

The prophet was exhausted, completely finished.

It was not fear that made him run away.

Facing the king and his eight fifty prophets was a more daunting task. It was laced with more danger.

We can comfortably say that Elijah was too exhausted to think or see straight.

Can you imagine the kind of host he had defeated in the spiritual realm in that confrontation at Carmel? Can you imagine the kind of warfare he was involved in when he was God’s Idler in Zarephath? (you can read ‘God’s Idler’ on the blog)

That had a very heavy bearing on how he felt at that time.

The truth of the matter is that he had given until he had nothing else to give.

That is why the first thing God gave him was food and sleep, even before He could deal with what was troubling him.

How are you as a minister?

How close are you to where Elijah was at this time?

Where do you go when you reach that point? Is there a brother you can confide in and share your fears with?

Are you that brother? Do you open your heart to all these exhausted ministers who have nowhere else to run to? Will you help them in those battles?

I know I have been a shoulder for a few of those ministers over the years though it is probably a bigger battle for the brothers helping the exhausted to hold their fort.

But it is always worth it.

 

Giving Niceness 3

For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. (Luke 7:5)

I want us to look at another aspect of giving that God approves.

And it is the giving that does not attract anything to ourselves since we stand to gain nothing from it. It is a giving that could open us to insults from the ones we gave to or towards.

This centurion is famous in the scriptures for one major reason; he understood authority. To the point that Jesus said He had not seen such faith in Israel.

But behind that was a faith-guided lifestyle.

How does someone build a synagogue he is prohibited from entering? How does someone build something he would defile by entering; a building he would be stoned had he attempted to enter?

Yet he built it anyway.

How does someone seek the healing services from someone he is disqualified from hosting for someone who treats him as an infidel?

Isn’t it interesting that his servant was a Jew that he ‘knew’ qualified for that healing? I am sure he could not have ‘risked’ looking for healing for his person or family if we are to go according to his reasoning.

For me, that is exceptional giving.

The other person who gave in such a way was the Samaritan we call good.

He invested his time, care and resources for a person who would have easily spat on his face. A person who may have wished that he had died rather than having his life saved by a Samaritan.

It is possible he ordered the innkeeper not to reveal his identity because what he was pursuing was healing for a person he had found in need.

Yet they gave. And God commended them for so doing.

Do we ever give in such a way? Will we give like that?

Simply because that attracts God’s approval and of course blessing.

But it is more exciting giving for the cameras and rewards and ‘revenge’.

But those have their rewards here and nothing from God who knows the heart from where all giving originates.

Though the rewards for worldly and selfish led giving are many times immediate, the substance of the rewards for God led giving are eternal because they start at the heart.

That is what I want us to pursue.

Giving Niceness 2

Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain. (Proverbs 25:14)

I want us to look at one or two things about our giving in view of my last post.

The primary one is giving for show. It is showing the extent of my generosity.

It is giving that is not prompted by a heart full of love.

Do you know what that is like?

It is like cheating in an exam.

Everybody will applaud you for an excellent job and excellent study habits.

But the One who matters, the One who determines everything beyond success, knows you as a thief, a cheat, plain and simple.

Incidentally, in these digital times, one great concern for the educational systems is graduates whose success was outsourced, many times from the so-called third world countries.

I know people who never went to college who earn their keep by doing assignments and even projects for university students in the west, even PhD students.

And that student will boast of the honours degree they get that way.

Incidentally, the higher the pass one’s customers get, the higher the rating he will get and the higher the pay he will receive from future students.

The workforce is even more worried as these cheaters will come to the job market, not just what in the past was called half-baked, but ones who barely entered the kitchen, leave alone the oven where the baking is done.

That is how God looks at our giving when we do it for beholders. It is how it is when we give for the cameras.

You see, God looks at the heart. He looks at the motive.

There is giving that is detestable to God. There is a giving that offends God.

And it is not because it is not generous.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. (1Corinthians 13:3)

That is God’s standard, love.

Any other reason is not acceptable to God.

I understand that some supporters must see their giving to continue supporting. I understand some donors insist on those pictures to continue giving.

And there is nothing inherently wrong with pictures.

But God looks at the heart. God looks at where those pictures are coming from or going at the heart level.

God will approve one picture and judge another one for the same reason, He sees beyond the simple giving that we will see.

That is why you will see Jesus’ teaching about giving in a completely different way than we may expect.

Like giving dinners to people who have no capacity to reciprocate. And loving enemies.

And of course in Matthew 6 when He is talking about the whole aspect of public versus private religion.

A Biblical example is in order though it might not be so exactly to the point.

Remember Saul getting delighted when David fell in love with his daughter? Yet at that time the same David was his enemy, the same man he had denied his other daughter that he had promised to the person who killed Goliath.

Why did he lower the requirements to ensure that David had to comply?

And Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. (1Samuel 18:21a)

That was not a giving prompted by love. It was not a positive giving.

It was a giving whose driving force was extermination.

Or the time David was giving Uriah a leave from war.

Those were gifts, abominable ones in God’s eyes though very generous to any beholder.

One reason I am a minister is to help connect God’s people to God’s standard in all things.

You see, I have been able to minister for almost 40 years because God’s people have consistently given towards the ministry God has called me to.

In short, for the most part, you can say that I live off the giving of God’s people.

To me, it would be a disaster if your giving is not acknowledged by the God I am ministering to.

It would be better for you that I starve from lack of your giving that giving me support that does not go according to God’s revelation through His word. And I am sure I will never starve because God always has people He raises for the support of His ministers.

Incidentally, He could still use you to give in a way that is not a blessing to you. And I will have no idea. Or do you not remember that it was the Midianite soldier who prophesied for Gideon to confirm God’s order?

It would sadden me so much for any of my supporters to be used in such a way.

That is why I am writing this to help you examine your giving to ensure that it is not only generous or even sacrificial, but also that it meets God’s threshold.

You see, very few ministers care whether the people supporting them will through that support access spiritual dividends. They just care that they are supported.

Many do not care to teach their people the kind of giving that is acceptable to God, provided it reaches their desk. Money is just money, becomes their mantra.

But I would rather starve than enjoy the support of someone whose support is not recognised in heaven, some that is even detestable in God’s eyes.

Ananias gave sacrificially, and died. And that is not the kind of support I want.

That is why I tell people expressing interest in supporting me to pray about it so that they can get heavens go ahead concerning it.

And I know that directly limits the kind of support I can access because many flee when I refuse to give figures and burdens and promptings. Because then they would be opening their purses for God’s exclusive use, a very scary prospect.

I want the people giving towards my ministry to grow through that giving. I love to see people who give towards the ministry God has called me to get better clarity about their resources, not just the support they are giving me.

That is why I do not mind when a key supporter is redirected elsewhere as they prayed since they stopped supporting me under God’s direction, many times because there are many in ministry who are not as visible as I am who also need support.

God is at liberty to redirect support just as He is at liberty to redirect His minister.

He is at liberty to shift my support base as He is at liberty shift my ministry base.

He is the boss, not only of the ministry He has called me, but also of the people He calls (mark the word called) to support me as I minister to Him.

Provided my supporter is growing in their relationship with God, I will be content whether it is me they are supporting or somebody else.

Just as obedience is what God uses to judge my ministry, it is obedience to His prompting that He will use to judge the people He has entrusted with supporting ministry and ministers.

I am never the gauge God will use to judge a giver. It is obedience to His leading that He will use.

And I am writing this at the point I really need support as I am going through a very tough stretch.

But you do not have to give me to be obedient to God. It might actually be the opposite.

But the non negotiable is that you MUST listen and do what God tells you to do.

God does not only tell His servants to give. He tells them where and how to give.

That is the only giving that pleases God.

 

Giving Niceness

And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living. (Mark 12: 42 – 44)

Yesterday, I took a father and his disabled daughter for assistance to get a wheelchair and met with this challenge I am sharing here.

I me two friends who were cheerfully helping these throngs with disability access the assistance they had come for.

But that is not where it stops.

(And you will allow me to leave out their names because as you know about me, I never want to interfere with their reward in heaven by giving you an opportunity to applaud them)

Another reason, though not as powerful, is that I have not told them I am sharing this since I know they will not want to be feted in such a way or forum.

One was called from a place far from the city to participate in the exercise, and I am almost sure he was not being paid. He was invited because he had access to persons with disability through his involvement with them over the years.

I have seen him serving in church for years with a disability that is so obvious and limiting yet doesn’t seem disturbed with those common falls his condition occasions. He will get up and continue serving as if nothing had happened.

The second, apart from having a disability, is also facing huge health challenges.

Yet, there they were, serving with a cheerfulness that was infectious.

It is a giving that can only be coming from the heart.

It is a giving that goes beyond giving things or service but a giving of self.

Many people only give what they have. But these were giving who they were.

Like the poor widow, they were giving all their living.

Treat this short message as a challenge

How do you give? What do you give?

And it encompasses all, from offerings to charity to supporting ministry.

This because to God, the only giving that gets His applause is the one originating from a sold-out heart that sacrifices who they are through what and how they give.

My prayer is that our giving will meet God’s threshold.