Elders

And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, (Revelation 11:16)

I have been brooding over this message for a very long time.

Interestingly, the reason it has taken so long before getting to start writing it is because I have been unable to get the opening statement as is said in legal jargon, or a punch line in journalistic lines.

This has allowed me so much time to develop it as I continue searching the scriptures.

Incidentally, that opening statement has refused to come and so you will allow me to proceed the message without one. As a result, it might appear jumbled as I am allowing my thoughts to be transferred to the computer as they come.

An African proverb says that a seated elder can see farther than a young man on the tallest mast.

This appears paradoxical but it is not.

If you went to a Bible concordance, you will realise that the word elder is mentioned in the scriptures from the beginning to the end, and that very prominently.

Do you realise that it is the elders who lead worship in heaven?

Do you also realise that in David’s time worship was led by elders guiding their families into the same? Asaph, Jeduthun, Korah, etc.

Why is that so yet in our generation we think the best worship leaders are youngsters because they can leap and dance? Do we even know what worship is?

That is but one among many responsibilities elders are supposed to handle in the community.

Do you realise, according to the scriptures, that all kings, godly, wicked, heathen, had elders as a key part of the kingdom? Do you realise that Rehoboam’s fall was due to the single reason that he overlooked the elders? Do you realise that Joash morphed from godly to wicked for the same reason? You may also notice that the Gibeonites were able to con Joshua into a covenant because he did not have elders since he was the oldest among them all when the Gibeonites had the elders to come up with that convincing ruse.

Yet this post is not about the world and its systems. It is about the church of Christ.

Who is an elder?

He is of course an old man.

But that is not really the complete description since age alone is very limiting in giving someone such a title.

The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness. (Proverbs 16:31)

An elder is thus an old man who has grown old living an exemplary life. Or in church circles a person who has grown old serving God and living a holy life.

This takes me to the Levites and priests, a topic I have handled severally before, the post I can easily remember being ‘Ministry and Mortality’.

God ordered that they serve from thirty years to fifty.

This makes an elder an old person who is not in ‘active’ ministry. I will call him retired from ministry if it makes you feel better.

Why is this important?

The main reason is that they will not be in competition with anybody.

Somebody will go to him for counsel without being scared of him taking advantage of the information shared to upstage them. You can share your vision with him sure that he will not use it to diversify his ministry with your vision as happens very many times when someone shares their vision with a church needing partnership or support.

Let me give a small ‘testimony’ to illustrate what I mean.

One time a young man came seeking my input. He was stranded on things relationships and marriage. This because in the church we were serving there was an overabundance of eligible girls. How was he to know who a good girl was?

I showed him a girl I had discipled and ensured him that she was probably everything he was looking for.

He went with my information to a friend who like him was unmarried and asked him to advise.

Before he knew it, his friend was marrying the girl.

The other reason is that they will be able to soberly and patiently listen since they are not under any pressure from anywhere.

That single factor is the reason Gibeonites were able to dupe Joshua and his team since they required results.

The greatest need for elders is being able to see a wide panorama with the little information they receive. This means that they can, due to their long walk with and service to God be able to deduce the various outcomes for a much longer period than the visionary and his team. They are also able to see the motivations of some visions and decisions, again from the little interaction with those seeking his wisdom.

Let me say a few things about a proper elder.

The first is that he has to be outside the action. It is impossible to be wise in action.

We know about player coaches. But that is not only a rare occurrence but many times a desperate measure because a coach has left and the team is in the process of looking for another. Or the team is unable to afford one.

Many governments shoot themselves in the foot because they put their elders in offices and give them titles thinking the wisdom they possessed out there will be translated into performance. It always fails because nobody can give himself oversight. Venerable gospel ministers have dirtied their names big time when they left (or retired from) their pulpits to seek or occupy political positions.

You can’t see the whole battlefield when you are battling enemies there. You must be withdrawn from the battlefield to be able to give any useful oversight there.

David is the best king when we read the Bible. And the thing that stands out is his teams.

He used priests to know God’s will. He listened to prophets and did what they said. And thirdly he relied on elders as the sounding board for his leadership.

Also Jonathan David's uncle was a counsellor, a wise man, and a scribe: and Jehiel the son of Hachmoni was with the king's sons: And Ahithophel was the king's counsellor: and Hushai the Archite was the king's companion: (1Chronicles 27: 32, 33)

David had elders. One is elsewhere called the king’s friend.

When Absalom overthrew him, he sent Hushai to counter Ahithophel since only an elder can counter another one.

They didn’t occupy offices or have titles. But they were available to offer wisdom to the king. They were his friends. This means he was safe with them since they were not looking for anything from him.

The second is that they are not dependent on the system. What I mean is that they do not offer their services for pay. They are friends who will support, cheer, challenge someone to excel.

Remember Barzillai the Gileadite who fed David when he was fleeing from Absalom and his response when David wanted to pay him back for his sacrifice? He refused that offer.

In short, he was not ministering to David and his people because he was expecting anything in return. He was not like Mephibosheth’s servant.

Now that is your elder. Why would David refuse to give such a man audience or listen to anything he said?

Due to that, they simply cannot be compromised or threatened to agree with the boss. They will not be scared of the boss since he is not over them nor does he hold any sway over them.

Third is that they must be effectively older and have had a longer experience than the person they are guiding though there may be some exceptions.

It would be guesswork following guidance from someone younger since their experience is much narrower and their scope smaller.

Do you wonder why many churches fail?

The pastor is the oldest and thinks that he doesn’t need elders to guide the church under his care. Many choose the rich and powerful as their companions. And we wonder why many churches have become corporations at all levels!

Peter and John started out as apostles. But we later see them calling themselves elders.

We see Paul saying the same when he is writing his latter letters.

We can clearly see the authority they wield as elders, and it is not the authority to rule or perform, but to guide.

We can comfortably say that they grew through the system to get to that point.

You remember Moses’ father-in-law?

It was his detached level that could give him the counsel on the need for Moses to delegate, something Moses could never have been able to see for the challenges his leadership made him handle every single moment of his life.

Jethro had been a priest and leader of Midian and therefore understood leadership better than Moses who was on his first appointment. He had most probably gone through the burnout that he was advising Moses against. But it is important to realise that he had been a spiritual leader. That he got his wisdom from his spiritual experience.

That is not to say that all elders must have been ministers. I am only saying that the most effective wisdom for a minister must come from a minister. Others will only give general wisdom.

Another plus for an elder is his ability to balance between justice and mercy. As someone who has walked with God for a long time, he is able to extend mercy to the fledgling as well as be firm on the rebel.

Because he is detached from the action, he can be able to accurately assess the situations without bias since his only bias is in the direction of God and His standards.

An elder cannot be bought because he does not sit on those decision-making boards as he guides from outside. He also can’t be unfair to anybody since he does not make those decisions.

However, he is able to plead for the repentant because he understands human nature more than most. But he is very firm on the fakeness in some repentance for the same reason.

An elder is the sounding board for the church leadership and in extension the whole church. And I think this is probably the most poignant point I will make on this post.

That is why a priest retired at fifty so that he can become an elder.

Moses went to the elders before talking to Israel in Egypt. Paul addressed the fathers first in his address after his arrest in Jerusalem. And like I have already said earlier, the success of a king depended with his relationship to his elders and secondly by the spiritual stature of those elders.

You might also remember that Israel slid into idolatry after the deaths of the elders who outlived Joshua.

My verse for the elders is what the elder, John the revelator wrote.

I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. (1John 2:14 a)

You might have noticed that the instruction on the father (what a spiritual elder really is) is repeated word for word in both verses.

That experience the has with God is the crowning part of his ministry since that is what he uses to minister to the church of Christ.

I will hasten to add that a deacon is not the equivalent of an elder.

A deacon serves the congregation while an elder guides the spiritual direction of the same congregation.

Both are indispensable to the congregation.

A pastor lies between those two; depending on the guiding arm of the elders even as he guides the ministering arm of the deacons.

Incidentally, their qualifications are the same, the only difference being age and that one is active in ministry while the other ‘watches’ over it, a ministry he understands well because he only left it because he had raised enough ministers to do it.

The only ministry the elders can do is teach as Peter and Paul say.

 Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. (1Timothy 5:17)

This verse tells us one thing. The source of all these spurious doctrines we are handling is the lack of spiritual elders. Sadly, very few churches have any elders. Some have women elders. Others have young people, even unmarried, as elders. Their qualification for an elder is the status in society of the overabundance of gifts.

But the first qualification of an elder is age. Incidentally that is the same with a deacon and bishop. Then marriage. Then a long time in the faith. And then many other qualifications.

Removing the first qualification disqualifies the whole position.

The elder should be the among the oldest believers in a congregation. And it is better if he is older than the pastor.

But he must have a potent and vibrant relationship with Christ.

That is what the Bible clearly states.

The exceptions must be few but not sway too far from what the Bible says.

Allow me to stress that gifting is not part of the requirements of an elder. And from what I have shared you will agree with me.

Gifts are for performance, if I may call it that. Oversight and counsel do not require gifts.

An elder does not need to have been walking in charismata but in obedience to Christ’s revelation.

The gifts he possessed or walked in when he served are therefore irrelevant to his role as elder.

The only plus for gifts is when his ministry involves ministers walking in the giftings he walked in as his guidance could then get beyond counsel to guidance into the nitty gritty of the ministry. And that is something so wanting in our generation.

Ministers refuse to retire. Some even have problems going for sabbatical.

The few who retire either get into politics, political appointments or business. The ones who do not fly far off get into ministerial consultancy where they get paid for being elders.

Allow me to pause here for now.

I will continue on this topic later.

 

Revival (Repentance 2)

For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. (Luke 15:24)

I want us to use the prodigal to look at what results from genuine repentance, that is the revival of the relationship sin had killed.

The argument is the same. There was nothing to build on concerning the prodigal’s relationship.

His departure from his father’s compound and authority had effectively killed his relationship to him.

He therefore had nothing to heal since it was dead and buried.

What he needed is a new relationship established.

But as we saw with repentance, many of us seek to pump up those dead relationships with the hope that we will refire what had waned without realizing the folly and futility of the whole thing. Doing that is like trying first aid in the mortuary.

When we need revival, we are not talking about refiring our passion for the things of God. We are calling on God to create in us a new thing; a new love and passion.

We have nothing to build on but God’s mercy and reviving power.

Sadly, most of the people talking about revival boast about their being alive. They still believe their passion for the things of God is fine and just needs a small push. No wonder nothing changes however many revival activities they may have.

The first qualification of revival is a confirmed death.

We have heard of drunks who were mistakenly taken to morgues because they appeared dead.

But were they dead? Of course not.

The good thing is that some of them were able to see their spiritual death and cried to be revived in that direction.

Before you start arguing, allow me to give a few other scriptures.

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 6:5)

For Isaiah to be revived, he clearly saw his depravity. And I hope you realise that he was already a prophet when he was saying this.

Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us. (2Kings 22:13)

Again, you will see that Josiah was repairing the temple when the scriptures were found. He was not minding his own business when he saw his need for revival as we have also seen with Isaiah.

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. (Luke 5:8)

We also see Peter seeing his wretchedness after he had offered Jesus a platform for preaching and performing a miracle.

What am I saying?

It is only in our deadedness that we can be able to see our need for revival. What I mean is that we must be clearly able to see how dead we are to qualify for revival.

You can’t revive a living thing.

We are deceiving ourselves when we are praying for God to revive us before we see and acknowledge our death.

From the three people I have mentioned, it is only the spiritually awakened that can clearly their death and thus their need for revival.

Others will continue shouting revival in their liveliness.

It is like the prodigal confessing that he has been reaccepted by his father before seeing how completely he had disconnected from him.

I am sure he battled that deception for a long time before finally seeing the futility of the same in the eyes of the prevailing circumstances.

My father loves me unconditionally. My father will accept me unreservedly. My father knows that I am sorry for my shameful and wasteful conduct. I am the son of my father. And many other positive confessions.

I am also sure that David battled the same thoughts and probably made similar confessions after his sin.

That is why repentance takes time. We fight the most to make our sin look less serious than it is. We fight the fiercest to convince ourselves that it is not as big a deal as others may think or even the Bible says.

We forget that we are not the ones that set the standards we have breached. We forget the fact that we are the ones in need of forgiveness and restoration.

We are the ones who left home. We are the ones who left the marriage. We are the ones who left school. We are the ones who left whatever it was we had betrayed.

It is therefore foolish to even imagine we have any right to be accepted.

It is water under the bridge, only that we broke that bridge into pieces in our breach and we have no capacity to rebuild it since it does not lead to our compound but to the compound we deserted after desecrating.

We are pleading with the offended to rebuild the bridge and allow us to use it to get into his life. He is not the one in need of that bridge.

He therefore determines whether there even needs to be a bridge in the first place, let alone whether we will need to be allowed to use it.

Allow me to say something else concerning repentance and revival.

It originates with God and not man.

Let me explain.

Someone has to see God for who He is and what He represents to be able to see his wretchedness.

I will always defend my choices and actions because I was not forced to sin.

Using me as the standard will always seek to justify me.

That is why people look for verses to defend their sin instead of confessing.

Isaiah had to see God to see his wretchedness. Josiah had to see God’s standards to see his fallenness. And Peter had to see Christ’s power to see his sinful nature.

You may realise that nobody preached to them. It was the presence of God that painted their sin clearest.

This means that there is only one type of preaching that can bring about revival. And it is the preaching that paints God clearly; His nature, His attributes, His holiness, His jealousy, His hatred for sin, His love, etc.

The preaching that builds kiosks around His love and mercy and leaves out His other attributes has no capacity of bringing about revival. Preaching dwelling on His Rapha and Jireh and leaves out His Tsidkenu and Kabowd psyches people to hope without changing.

You can’t truly repent if you have not encountered God and seen what He is like. You can’t repent is you do not have His standards in your heart and mind.

Those are the same terms when we use when talking about revival.

Any student of revival will tell you that.

Repentance is what we do when we encounter God. Revival is what results after God restores the relationship our backslidden nature broke.

That is what was done to the prodigal.

He was restored into a new relationship.

A ring restored his authority.

Washing removed the stench of his rebellion.

A gown restored his honor.

And the party indicated his restoration into the family.

But that was able to happen because he had finally confessed to have died to his father so that the father more or less created a new son from the old.

That is what revival is.

The tragicomedy that our generation calls revival is actually a stench in God’s nose.

Will we look up to God to allow Him to define revival to us? Will we seek to know Him enough to repent after rejecting our self-justification for so long?

Do we really agree that we are not worthy to be called His sons?

Or is our independence fighting to force God to accept us on our terms?

Repentance

I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. (Luke 15: 18, 19)

I want us to look at repentance today.

And the main thing I want us to focus on is the complete lack of entitlement in repentance we see as we study the Bible.

Second is the fact that we have no entitlement except a plea for mercy that we will give the offended the whole stick to do to us as he would.

It is preposterous to expect any mercy if you will set the terms for your forgiveness or reception. That is why I want us to start with the prodigal.

He had wasted his inheritance. He had defamed his father through his reprehensible living. He had shamed his friends when he ran off with harlots.

He had chosen to live his life contrary to everything he had been taught and had therefore disinherited himself completely.

Did his father love him? Of course.

Was he following him? It is very possible he had his tabs on him and was seeing him wallowing in that slough of sin.

The reason I say this is because we see him prepared for his comeback. The fatted calf, the robe, the ring, were all indicators that the father was expecting his son to come back.

Why then did he not go looking for him?

Doing so would have short-circuited the repentance. It would have dealt with repentance on the prodigal’s terms.

The son had to come back to himself. He had to see himself in the eyes of his father and his standards.

It is when he knew that he was unworthy to be called a son of his father that he qualified to be restored into one. That is the reason his father never looked for him.

I know about parents whose children die on drugs/ on the streets for that single reason. They are not given time to come back to themselves. They are not allowed to experience their lostness. Their parent’s love and care will supersede those whorehouses and sloughs.

This breeds entitlement since the prodigal knows that he will be rescued however much he shames his father. He therefore feels as if his father’s love has no boundaries and would stretch to infinity.

They go to prison and their father bails them out. If they were this father we are talking about they could have never allowed their son feed swine and even battle with swine for food. This because they have an abundant of food as we see the prodigal confessing.

But the father of the prodigal was not like that. He allowed him to sink to his lowest because he knew that intervening before then would not have created a chance for his son to repent.

No wonder his son came back to himself.

Look at what he says.

I am disqualified from being your son. Please just give me a job.

He was not negotiating any terms for his acceptance. He was not even reminding his father that he was his lost son. He was not pleading for any forgotten inheritance.

He was pleading for mercy; to be made a hired hand.

That is what made his father know that he had his son back.

Handling sin with kid gloves worsens it.

Spoilt children, or sons of Belial as the Bible calls them, are children whose sin was handled delicately. They were allowed to repent on their terms, making their repentance plastic and completely hypocritical.

Let me give a Biblical example.

Absalom killed his brother for raping his sister. I am sure he was angry with his father for not doing the killing. Since he knew that he was supposed to die for his crime according to the Bible his father believed, he ran away.

When he is brought back, it was not because he was sorry for his crime but because his father longed for him. Now that breeds entitlement.

He burns the farm of the person who negotiated his coming back to be able to see his father.

Then he starts plotting to overthrow his father, something he almost succeeded in.

All because he was not given time to repent before being received.

Anyone who has dealt with addicts will confirm this since they deal with this aspect of repentance every day.

You see, true repentance is very humbling. No wonder it takes ages before someone can get there. Remember this?

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. (Psalm 32: 3, 4)

David was not battling conviction. He was fighting the acknowledgement of that sin since there were sure to have been decisions that would have needed to be made and actions that needed to be performed.

Saying that I have sinned is very easy. That is where rebellion thrives.

Facing my sin is the actual problem we have after we have sinned because I am not willing to face my sin head on. I am not willing to wear the gown of shame the sin made for me.

Like Saul we want our reputation to remain intact. We want our confession to return us to the place our sin snatched us from without dealing with the damages it caused. It might be the problem the prodigal had, to the point that he battled swine for food just because he couldn’t face his father in contrition.

The good thing is that he finally decided that enough was enough. He was able to empty himself of entitlement of any sort. He was not even pleading to be taken back because he knew that he had completely disinherited himself from anything and anybody his father represented.

Forget me as a son. I am not making any demands on you. I am just pleading for one thing. Just give me the most menial job so that I can at least have something to eat.

Which father can resist such repentance?

I am sure that if he had met his elder brother and approached him like this he could also have softened.

This because his repentance went beyond saying sorry. He humbled himself completely as he faced his fallenness head on.

He was not ashamed to call himself worthless and useless in his father’s economy.

But assume with me that he came like most approach repentance.

Father, please listen to me. I know you will not understand. But you see I am your son and had to do what I did. And we can always look for some more things to replace what got lost.

What kind of grace could he have expected?

Nobody is interested in knowing how you fell or even why. Nobody cares what made you live contrary to everything you knew was right. Nobody cares to know, let alone understand, the temptation that brought you down.

Seeking to take them there is akin to causing them to revisit the pain you have caused them in that fallenness and sin.

I will repeat. Nobody wants to know why you fell or even how you fell. In fact, you can only be sure of one thing; no mercy or understanding can be accessed this way. No grace can be extended your way from the offended if you pursue that path.

You see, the father and elder brother knew what the prodigal was doing with his inheritance. And they also knew how short that experience was going to be.

Explaining that wastefulness would have been reopening those painful wounds. That is the bitterness we see with the elder brother because he had been absent when the confession was made. He simply thought that his father had been involved in the coming back of his brother.

There are two dangerous camouflages rebellion uses to feign repentance.

The first I have mentioned earlier being the explanation of the error and seeking to be understood so that you are then received on favorable terms, simply saying, terms that suit you.

We see that with king Saul when Samuel confronted him.

The truth is that it will harden the offended and make it harder for them to ever accept the genuineness of any repentance on your side.

The other one is the back door type.

In this someone seeks to reverse the damage in their spirit with good works. Allow me to use the prodigal to explain.

Imagine him sneaking to his father’s compound and swearing the servants to secrecy so that he can slowly try to rectify the damage he caused by becoming the best servant. He trusts that his father will discover that that most hardworking servant is his prodigal son. Then he could have repented when the confrontation occurred.

Do you think that ruse could have worked? Wouldn’t it have hastened his complete banishment by blocking any chance of restoration?

You see, it is the offended who has all the keys to restoration. Only the offended has any olive branch to offer the offender.

Yet how many times do we see ourselves or others doing that sneaky backdoor repentance?

About thirty years ago in a church I served, a young man became so engrossed in ministry, almost everywhere. From teaching Sunday School to choir to evangelism.

But he had been in church all along and so it was a sudden burst of zeal all of a sudden.

We didn’t think much about it except appreciating the new worker God has challenged.

But in a short while we came to learn that he was running away from the impact of his sin. He wanted to cover up his sin by being serious with God. He was seeking to cover his need for repentance by serving God.

Sadly, this repeats itself so frequently one wonders why repentance is so difficult while sin was so enticing, probably pleasurable that you were ready to trash what God says to enjoy it.

The truth of the matter is that for repentance to happen, there must be a complete absence of any entitlement, any respect, any personal worth or value in the repentant.

I must empty myself of myself to be able to truly repent.

Let me get us to this verse we very frequently quote.

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)

God is not asking us to explain our sins and fallenness. He is simply calling us into repentance, promising to forgive us if we do so as we see in subsequent verses.

Allow me to wind this up by saying in summary that repentance, to be acceptable, presents the repentant at his most vulnerable, requiring only mercy.

It is that mercy that has any capacity of extending forgiveness.

Going it any other way is counterproductive as it worsens the pain the sin had created. It actually reopens the wounds someone had been trying to heal after your injury (many times knowing about your sin).

I am sure probably all of you have dealt with that fake repentance at one time or the other. I know very few will confess to being culprits in that fake repentance.

But what is wrong with examining our hearts afresh so that we can deal with whatever God shows us concerning our repentance(s)?

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139: 23, 24)

Partnership Dynamics

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. (Romans 15:1)

I have intentionally chosen the ‘wrong’ verse to communicate a Biblical truth.

Why wrong? I know someone is asking.

I am writing about the relationship between a man and his wife.

I will start by taking us to farming, since as anyone who has interacted with the Bible consistently knows that the book leans on agriculture than it does business. God deals with His people as a farmer as opposed to as a businessman as many nowadays teach.

With very few exceptions, all the parables in the Bible and in Christ’s teachings were also agricultural in scope.

With Jesus, the parable of the talents is the one that is plainly business oriented though it also easily fits an agricultural perspective.

Let me get to my message.

Many a farmer with a yoke of oxen must know the respective strengths of each of his bulls. He must know the weaknesses or peculiarities of each bull to be able to work them properly.

Allow me to explain using the farm.

When the farmer is ploughing with that yoke of oxen, it is extremely important that he knows how each of the bulls can pull.

Then he will be able to plan his compensational tactics. Otherwise, he will end up with a farm that is shoddily ploughed.

It is the same with the ones used to pull carts. The driver must know his oxen well. Otherwise, he will end up crashing into fences and rockfaces and harming those oxen in the process.

Or do you not remember God commanding His people not to be yoking a donkey and an ox together?

That is the primary reason. Though there might also be religious reasons as was with planting two different plants and wearing two different fabrics.

Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered. (1Peter 3:7)

That is the dynamic I want us to examine today.

What happens when two oxen of different strengths are yoked together is similar to what Peter is saying here.

The husband and wife are yoked together in marriage, no wonder they are called one flesh.

However, one is stronger than the other, the husband.

The implications of that are that there would be disaster if they are treated as equal in their yoking since they will be pulling very differently, or using very different strengths. They could very easily be moving in circles since the stronger partner cannot move straight as he will be being pulled back by the weaker one, ending up forgetting the straight and narrow.

There must be some compensational mechanisms in place if the team is to accomplish its intended purpose.

What am I talking about?

The stronger partner must intentionally handle more weight for the work to be done smoothly. It is as the stronger partner takes in more weight that the team will move in tandem as the weaker one is relieved from handling the weight she would have handled if the burden was shared equally.

As every Christian confesses, marriage was God’s idea. This implies that He is the One who came out with the blueprint for the same.

He therefore is the One who came up with those compensatory mechanisms I am talking about.

The good thing is that He has released them through His word. Sadly, our generation seems hell bent on trashing those guidelines.

Let me quote the most blatant of it because it is happening in the holy place.

But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. (1Timothy 2:12)

Was God stupid to allow that verse in the holy writ?

Yet it is not the only verse teaching that. You will be hard pressed to argue for the trashing of that instruction.

Let me give another passage

If a woman also vow a vow unto the LORD, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father's house in her youth; And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand. But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand: and the LORD shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her. And if she had at all an husband, when she vowed, or uttered ought out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul; And her husband heard it, and held his peace at her in the day that he heard it: then her vows shall stand, and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard it; then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none effect: and the LORD shall forgive her. (Numbers 30: 3 – 8)

Allow me to also add two other verses from the same passage

Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void. But if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard them; then he shall bear her iniquity. (Numbers 30: 13, 15)

That for me is the strength God meant.

It is illogical to hold someone answerable for another person’s vows (commitment to God) if they are equal partners. Two people cannot be equal if one is held accountable for the actions of the other.

Like you will notice when you read the Bible, God always holds the husband accountable even for the sins of his wife. And Ahab is the prime example. He was judged for doing something he probably had no idea how it happened. And that is repeated wherever else you look in the Bible.

A weaker stronger partner or a stronger weaker partner is therefore a disaster wherever you look for that reason. A partner who allows the weaker partner to make their decisions is abominable in God’s eyes. For the simple reason that all those decisions will be attributable to him. A partner whose spirituality is guided by his wife is an ignoramus because he is the actual spiritual head in that structure and is thus accountable to God for the direction that spirituality takes them.

David committed adultery yet the woman was nowhere mentioned in the judgment though I highly suspect she is the one who set up the king. And you will see this everywhere you look at in the Bible.

For example, do you know that even Mary who carried Jesus was completely overlooked once Joseph took over the responsibility of taking her as his wife. Why was someone who was so highly spoken of completely shunted when decisions concerning her were being made?

I know this is a hard teaching. This is the reason I am trying to go slowly because I could easily (I know I have already done to some) antagonize the bulk of my readers based on the teachings they have been receiving and examples they have been following.

It is plain when you read the Bible that the spiritual weight of any family is on the man. That is why Paul said that he is the head of the wife, and not the family as many people teach. It is the two that will head the family unit as yokefellows.

Allow me to add another aspect to this topic.

In the verse above, the word vessel is used.

Why vessel? I think it is primarily because she is handling some treasure.

Second is that she is delicate. That is why prayer is mentioned.

This directly makes the man a carrier of that vessel, a carrier who must handle it with care to enable her to carry her treasure and present it to her Lord, Jesus Christ.

The man not only handles proportionately more weight than his wife, he is called upon to carry her and do it very carefully so that she can fulfil her responsibilities, the weight God has placed on her.

That is why he is judged for the sins of that wife.

What are the implications for the man?

He must guard his relationship with God jealously since that is what will give him the right direction in handling this new vessel that God has entrusted to him.

He must be essentially the spiritual power house in that structure as anything else is against God’s blueprint.

It is sad that in many homes it is the wife who guides the prayer (and everything spiritual) dimension therein. Yet is that even scriptural?

I commented on a series of prayer books directed at everybody else, except the men who are the only ones scripturally ordered to pray.

Or do you not remember that only all the men were instructed to go to the designated place three times a year? Do you think it was oversight on God’s side? Or did not God create women with a spiritual dimension?

The truth is that women are more spiritually leaning than men.

That is why they can very easily bring men down spiritually as we see everywhere we look at in the scriptures.

That is the problem because that spirituality is multidimensional; meaning she can easily connect to spirituality from any direction. Incidentally that is why they boast of being able to multitask since that is easily apparent in the spiritual dimension.

That is what we see with Eve.

Whereas Adam was focused on the assignment God had given him, Eve’s spirituality drew her to renegotiate God’s orders with the wrong spiritual dimension leading to sin.

Adam sinned because he defended her misdirected spirituality. That is why God judged him for listening to his wife. In short Adam was judged for giving his wife as the authority of an equal partner.

That is what the Bible plainly teaches.

I will address other aspects of this message if/ when God allows me to.

Why Serpents? 3

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. (Psalm 1:1)

Today I want us to move outside what we were looking at, ministers of the Gospel.

I want us to look at our enemy as the serpent, since that is what he is called severally in the scriptures.

I also want us to look at him as he is addressed by Peter, as a roaring lion.

Way am I doing this?

Primarily because our generation has recreated the devil and magnified him beyond what the scriptures say.

The devil is not powerful, at least not as powerful as many believers think he is.

Second is that he is not omnipresent, meaning is operations are limited to places and people who have allowed him to use them and the places that have been dedicated to his use.

Third is that he is not all knowing and so depends on people getting him information to use.

This is the reason I want us to look at him with the revelation I have shared about serpents.

Probably the last reason I need us to look at the enemy of our souls as the serpent the Bible calls him is because he is as vulnerable against the march of an obedient church.

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)

As I have stated severally, gates are defensive. This verse therefore paints the devil as losing ground once our obedience is sealed.

The other verse that says the same thing is Genesis 3:15.

The only place the serpent can bite a man is the heel, thereby endangering his head in the process since that heel is part of the foot that can easily trample him.

I hope I am communicating something even before getting to the crux of the message.

The devil is limited.  And I am repeating this for emphasis.

But the point I want us to focus on today is his shrewdness. He must be shrewd because he is fully aware of his limitations. He knows that he has no chance of achieving anything unless he uses that subtlety.

A roaring lion, as I have written elsewhere, roars for the simple reason of scaring his enemies since a lion does not roar as part of his hunting strategy.

Incidentally, the devil is not called a roaring lion. He is pictured as projecting himself as one.

That roar is therefore part of that subtlety. It is part of his knowing his limitations and therefore putting on a false front to scare some of you into incapacity.

For many believers, that roar has scared them to the point of crippling their whole lives as it has completely dominated their whole system. It is said that a lion’s roar can be heard 2.5 miles (4km) from the point of the roaring since it is meant to keep his pride safe from marauders.

You could therefore be scared of leaving your house when the lion is too far to even smell your presence.

Is that not what the devil has for most succeeded in doing in our generation?

Explain to me why is there more discussion on the devil and his servants and wiles when Christ should be the only focus of our narrative? Why is most prayer nowadays about binding, resisting and commanding the devil than it is about releasing God’s kingdom?

I have written about blood abuse. And it has to do with Christ’s blood.

Do you realise that this whole doctrine finds its roots in the glorification of the devil and everything he represents? Do you realise that we call on that blood to cover us (blood abusers) because we are scared of the devil that we need that film to cover us?

Yet we are not diligent enough to pursue a more spiritual cover from the attacks of the enemy, which is our obedience.

What am I saying?

Simply that the devil, like any serpent, is vulnerable and limited.

He is therefore not someone to disturb an obedient believer. In actual fact, he is scared to death of being trampled by the same since he knows that there is absolutely no chance for overcoming him unless he can rebel against God as he knows that he cannot even repel him from raiding hell since his progress breaks through the gates effortlessly.

He will pretend to lunge at you so that you think he will finish you though he knows that even if he was to bite, his poison can never do you any harm. He will roar so that you imagine how impenetrable and heavily guarded they are to stop from approaching those gates since he knows that that is the only way he stands the slimmest chance of delaying, not stopping, the advance of the church.

This is not a conclusive post. I have written briefly just to enlighten you that your obedience is your victory. That once you pursue obedience, the devil has a zero chance of harming you unless on God’s orders as happened with our brother Job and Peter.

Will you choose obedience?

 

Teaching in Pain, a Lesson on Gratitude

As I have boon looking at the flooding in our region, it has dawned on me that God is so precise in His guidance when we allow Him to.

This has led me into having so much gratitude in my heart for that leadership.

Let me get you into my heart briefly.

As those who have been following me through my blog, you must be aware that God has for a long time been speaking to me about my new aspect of ministry, especially after I turned fifty

As I have shared, priests were supposed to serve from thirty years and stop serving at fifty.

It means they were to stop serving when their bodies were still strong and able to continue serving.

Incidentally, God had impressed that truth on me for a very long time. I therefore knew that it was just a matter of time. I remember sharing those truths even before the day approached.

Among the things God did as that time came was to offer me some rest. It is essential for an elder to be seated to offer adequate guidance to the active.

I had been in the city for a long time with all the hassles inherent in it.

So, the first major thing God did to me was to give me my own place to free me from the stresses of house rent and its related strains.

He did not give me a ready-made place. Instead, He gave me money for the purchase and building of that place; in the right phases since that was one way of getting me into the place of rest.

I first got money for purchasing land yet it was six months before I was able to get to see that land. This is the focus of this post.

There was a wide range of places to choose from and it required not only the money but also the close guidance of God who had opened that door.

Since I had an inkling of the kind of place God needed me to have, I was looking for land in four counties, something I have also shared. Even then, I had my preferences according to the vision God had placed in my heart.

I would be called to see a piece of land, sometimes in far off places, by friends I had asked for assistance on the same.

With a friend or two, I would then go to the place to view the land.

A few times, we would immediately dismiss the land as not representing the vision God had put in my heart concerning it.

Sometimes, the land would be ideal and we would fall over ourselves in admiration.

I could take the copy of the title deed to commence the process of the purchase.

When I went home, however, God would stop me from proceeding by refusing to give His release.

At some point, I wondered whether I was the one who was not hearing God right, especially with the advice I got from my friends to take the very good pieces of land.

I remember once being caught in the curfew with my sons who had accompanied me to one such visit that we had to lodge in Nairobi during the corona season. Even then we had gotten the ideal piece of land among the very many we had viewed and even taking a copy of its title deed.

Still, God said No!

It was then that my broker told me that there was a place that had had so much war for a long time and that there was sure to be some land if I was not scared of that past.

We therefore went to view.

The piece of land was simply amazing, ideal for everything I would need.

It had a well already dug and built over. It had enough building materials to set off my building project. It even had mature trees, enough not just for shade but even for a few other uses. And of course, the price was just right. The owner was a minister of the Gospel.

There was no dispute that we had got the deal I was pursuing. I even started imagining the ministry I would be doing in that place.

God is as always interesting.

A few days after waiting for a copy of the title deed to be brought, I was told that the owner had been convinced to stop selling the piece of land.

What I think happened is that God realised that the offer had blocked my ears from hearing Him and had barred me from pursuing that deal, as has happened to me some other times. He therefore simply stopped it.

Later I was told there were some other pieces of land in the same area being sold and I didn’t feel any push towards them after that disappointment.

I went anyway. There were several offers on the table.

The first one we went to view was so way off anywhere (it appeared so) since we parked our vehicle and walked through the bush and brush for so long.

However, when I was shown that wasteland chocked with weeds, I felt in my heart that that was the land I had been looking for.

We went to look at several other pieces which looked even more promising and nearer development but my heart had already gotten to its rest.

My friends advised me against what my heart was telling me but I had the peace of God.

That is the place I am at today.

I have written all this to get us to this point.

The place I settled in is slightly elevated and boasts of sandy soil with a very gentle slope.

With this abundance of rain, my place has never flooded.

Two reasons. First, sandy soil simply passes the water through. Five minutes after the rain stops, you might think it rained the previous day. Second is that due to the elevation there is no time you will find any excess water on my plot, even in the farm. I then walk in sandals, even to the farm!

Less than fifty metres from my place you will get to a river and lake that go for over a kilometre.

In the other direction, I can comfortably get to the road without wading in water or mud.

With the rains, my crops are doing quite well as they are free from flooding.

What am I saying?

God directed me to the place I am at. His precision at doing it is amazing just like Him.

When I think of the place God stopped me from purchasing, the place everybody, including me, thought was ideal, I am sure that it is at this point completely flooded. I most likely would have had to move out.

I hope you now understand why I am so grateful.