Gehazi’s Harvest 2

Allow me to dwell more on trust placed upon ministers today.

And I do this because I am convinced that it is at that point that ministers most easily get into Gehazi’s harvest.

Have you ever cared to know why people give their offerings and any other gift they bring to church or you? Have you ever asked givers the focus or purpose of their giving?

As a minister who loves and ministers to the grassroots as is said, I am able to listen to the givers at a closer range that pastors.

I am presently dealing with an issue where some people have usurped the leadership the church had elected. Some of the things I continue to hear are very instructive for this topic.

Some people have stopped attending the church simply because they know that they must give an offering amongst other giving because they do not trust that leadership with the moneys given.

Instead of suffering a guilty conscience for the misuse of their gift, they opt to not attending the church.

The truth is that anybody in giving is responding to God’s prompt and so has an expectation of the direction of their giving. And it is guided by the giftings and callings God has placed on each one who has responded to His call.

Allow me to add another element to this.

Each calling has three clear and distinct assignments or teams though many times we only think of the visible one.

Take missions for example.

There is the root, the trunk and the branches that make the ministry we call missions.

The root is simply the foundational and most essential element, the one on which the others build on.

Call it the background ministry. The ministry probably nobody will see.

These are the people who agonise over the lost. The people who are heavily invested in missions in the closet.

They are the ones who secretly and generously give for missions.

Out of that group, and because of that group, come the logisticians and people who give pointedly to missions and administer resources to make missions most effective and impactful.

They are the ones who found and facilitate evangelistic organisations. They will also give designated funds for missions.

These I am calling the trunk.

Then we have the goers; the evangelists, the apostles.

Now look at the closet missionary whose heart beats missions.

Any coin he will give has missions written all over it. But he writes it in the closet.

He brings that money to the offertory basket confident that the closet has done its part as he had prayed.

Then the church board or pastor decides to use it to extend the sanctuary to be able to snatch members from neighbouring churches to be able to increase the offerings.

They will simply have stolen money meant for missions.

Do they know it?

Not directly, unless they have sought God’s counsel on the same. And they can’t risk that because God is about overturning our most cherished apple carts.

And they will pay for that.

It will be made worse by the fact that the giver will take his complaints to the closet where his gift originated from. He will not confront those thieves at any one time since his giving originated from the closet.

As a minister I receive many gifts.

But it is on very few chances that the giver told me to spend whatever they gave on myself and my interests. There are very few instances that the giver or supporter told me to use the money they had given me to pay house rent or school fees.

This means that most gifts are given for the single purpose of facilitating the ministry God has called me to.

That of course takes into consideration rents and food and children’s fees and personal needs for the single purpose of making my ministry succeed and have the right impact.

Focusing on me and my needs is therefore sowing into Gehazi’s garden.

Let me give an example I have given elsewhere.

One time a friend was giving away mattresses, almost a dozen of them and was giving me to take them to where there was need.

At that time, I needed one or two, but these were many.

I have a friend with a children’s home and so asked them whether they needed some mattresses and how many.

The astounding thing is that they needed the exact number I was administering.

That was the clearest indication that I was outside that equation.

I connected them and even more ministry partnership was occasioned by that.

Now suppose I had decided that my needs were more important than God’s direction?

Nobody could have questioned me since it was within my rights and power. Nobody could have known or cared even if they knew because I have ministered anyway.

But I then could have invited Gehazi’s harvest.

Nobody pays a pastor because he is a pastor. A pastor is facilitated to perform the pastoral ministry.

A prophet is not paid to or for prophecy. He is facilitated to function best in that ministry as we see with Elisha.

The Shunammite knew that when she was building a rest house for Elisha.

But Gehazi didn’t, as many of the ministers of our generation do not also.

I have mentioned missions. But the designation of the gifts is as varied as the gifts and callings God has on each and every one of His servants. I just used missions to give the structure against which we can judge any other ministry.

Probably the most dangerous ministry in this respect is the ministry of helps or what many churches call benevolence.

My interaction with the needy is that the most vocal requesters for assistance are very rarely the really needy, most being professional beggars, if I may call them thus.

You see, it is demeaning to confess helplessness and vulnerability. It is very shameful to confess that one is unable to provide for his family even to close friends and family. And that because very few people take kindly to giving assistance if there are no strings attached.

As someone who has gone through a need after another in ministry, there are times when hunger is preferable to assistance or support from some quarters. There is support one runs away from however bad the need is because it leaves a very bad taste on its reception.

The needy must first establish, not only the genuineness of the help being offered, but the love prompting it.

This therefore means that the giver must be very careful, not only to be seen to be concerned, but to be understood to be doing it from a heart of real concern. He must also be understood to be giving from a point of aiming at empowering instead of offering handouts. No sane person enjoys extending the begging bowl except the professional beggar.

The implications of this is that it is not easy to minister to the needy as it needs, not only very deep discernment, but also a heart that can draw the needy to our help, even feet that can visit to help them open their hearts to receive our help.

But aren’t they the ones who should be looking for help? I know someone is asking.

Who has been called to the ministry of helps? Whose responsibility is it to effectively minister that help? Who is answerable to God for that help?

Jesus did not wait for people to come for help. Many times, he reached out to people who did not even know who He was.

The Bible is full of God reaching out to people who did not even know they needed Him.

That for me describes the ministry of helps.

The reality on the ground is that the bulk of that ministry ends up in the hands of the wrong people, especially people who do not even need it.

Just like we see in the bursaries and scholarships, it is the one who can best package their perceived need who can access it, leaving the bulk of the needy out of something that exists in their name and for their use.

Do you think God is impressed when the resources given by the roots called into the helps ministry ends up in the hands of the professional beggar? Do you think God will ignore your ignorance in the way you administered it?

We need to pray to clearly know what God wants with us. We need to pray to know exactly how God wants to use us. And we need to really pray to accurately know how to manage the gifts God releases our way, and especially whether we should even accept them.

Or we will reap Gehazi’s harvest.