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.

Essential non-Essentials

I want us to look at our lives and ministry.

This because we can be so swallowed by the externals that we forget the basics of our ministry.

And I have made that apparently conflicting title intentionally.

As I am gradually getting into fitting on the Biblical elder role, I many times have to deal with handling many a question and resolve many a dilemma.

Interestingly, probably the most recurrent has to do with a call to ministry.

The surprising thing is that even before many would come up with the clarity of the call, they will be thinking and sourcing for the equipment they will require for the ministry they are not very clear about at that point.

Allow me to give an example

Someone is sensing a call to start a church.

He will come asking for prayer for clarity. Then with the same breath will ask for prayer and assistance to procure musical instruments and a sound system.

Yet it might be in a place without electricity.

But even worse, since it will be a new church, there are essentially no people to play those instruments or crowds to need that public address.

Why does a need for equipment come before the clarity of the call?

That is where my title comes from.

What will happen when you get the equipment before clarifying the call? Suppose God shows you a different ministry?

You will be compelled to pursue that call on your own. That call must be there whatever else God says.

You see, you cannot disappoint the people who gave towards the procurement of that equipment.

Isn’t that what is called putting the cart before the horse?

Allow me to give an oblique example from the scriptures

In Jeremiah 42 we have some people coming to the prophet for clarity concerning the direction they were to take due to the crisis they were in.

The prophet prayed and of course received guidance from on high. He simply gave the message as he had received it.

In chapter 43, we have the ones who had sought that clarity accusing Jeremiah of corruption because the prophecy did not go the way they had anticipated.

You wonder why they had asked for prayer in the first place.

The truth is that they had already decided on what they would do and needed God’s rubber stamp to feel spiritual.

It is like the people who will approach an oracle concerning leaving employment for ministry because they already know that they would be retrenched or sacked instead of asking what they would need to do because they will soon be out of a job.

Or the couple who are seeking to know God’s will concerning marriage when they are already living together or have already set up everything for their wedding.

What do you want God to say or do?

God’s will is primary. It should be the highest pursuit of our lives and experience.

We do not seek His will with a plan B in our minds. It is His will or nothing.

Probably you sense that God is issuing one order or the other to you.

Wouldn’t the best thing to establish without doubt whether that is what He is ordering you first before laying the groundwork for something you are not sure off.

Or do you think that the same God who issued the order is unable to help you in that groundwork? 

Prophetic Watch 2

We will briefly look at one or two aspects common with the false prophets that you will not see with God’s prophets. These are the characteristics that will give them away for the most part since like I explained in the last post their counterfeiting of the prophetic is almost perfect.

And we will look at a few times they are talked about in scripture.

False prophets love company. It is not very easy to find a false prophet lacking company, be it the slaves or contemporaries. That is unless they are starting. They thrive in crowds.

Remember that even after Elijah killed 850 prophets at Carmel Ahab had four hundred others when Jehoshaphat came calling? Remember that even his son had his prophets?

Yet in those times only one prophet of God was called to counter their unified prophecies.

True prophets will not seek security in numbers since they have the security of the One sending them.

The other thing you will notice is that wicked rulers surround themselves with those prophets. Incidentally, the more wicked, the more the prophets.

And they both feed off each other. The ruler on the gullibility of the masses following the false prophets and the false prophets on the goodies they can access from that relationship.

False prophets will put a good word about the ruler to shield him from any uprising and the ruler pays in kind by opening his palace for their access.

Or do you not remember that all those prophets I have mentioned were being facilitated by the kings they were prophesying to? Remember that even in Egypt their lands were not confiscated because they were being fed by the king as opposed to the populace?

Another thing you will notice is that they are many times agreed on their prophecies. It is like they are reading from the same script, which in actual fact they are doing at the spiritual level.

Look at most sermons. They are in most ways similar and pass essentially the same message, the message of hope, good things are on the way even for someone coming from a whorehouse, gambling or drink den.

They have no place for rebuking sin or teaching holiness. They have no place for teaching obedience. There is no place for abandoning the world for the cause of Christ. There is no place for sacrificing and leaving everything to follow Christ.

The cross features nowhere in their prophecies except as a decoration, probably a tattoo, without caring to know that tattoos are sin in scripture.

They do not speak to the heart of man that is desperately wicked since you must feel good to fund their excesses just as those surrounding wicked rulers do.

I will repeat what I have said many times.

Probably the finest representation of the false prophet is the motivational peddler.

They will never preach holiness, repentance or self examination in the Biblical context.

And they flock together.

That is how to know the false prophet.

He lives for the moment. He exists to make people feel good.

How do you know that you are following a false prophet?

If you go to church to feel good instead of getting challenged; If you go to a fellowship to have the time of your life; If you go to church to hide from the challenges of life; it is very possible that you are following a false prophet.

Allow me to close by saying something I have said severally. And it is that the danger of the false prophet is not in just misleading the masses. It is actually in leading them to the worship of a counterfeit christ.

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. (Matthew 24:24)

These followers are not therefore worshiping wrong; they are not just misled into worshiping Christ in error.

They are being guided in worshipping the wrong christ, or the counterfeit christ.

And that counterfeit even has signs that have been counterfeited from the actual Christ. He has rewards for those who are following him, whether wittingly or in error.

This means that when they are praying and you join them or say Amen, you are actually saying yes to the antichrist.

I have explained elsewhere that the name antichrist does not directly mean opposed to Christ as it appears. It simply means opposing the cause of Christ, the spirit of Christ, the character of Christ, the work of Christ, the salvation of Christ.

And he does that most effectively by creating a persona so close to the original that like we see in that verse it will take God’s hand to stop the elect from being deceived.

That is how bad it is.

And that is why I am writing about the prophetic watch.

We must be not only extremely alert to avoid falling under the clutches of the false prophet, we must be so attuned to God so that the slightest deviation from scripture or the Biblical standard will drive us to the closet to ascertain whether it is a simple error or the worship of a false christ.

This because revelation does not come in one swell swoop. It normally arrives in doses as someone is growing in the knowledge of the divine.

Very simple and black and white issues to a mature disciple might pose herculean dilemmas to a new believer or someone who has not grown as much.

Something that is a plain sin or rebellion to one may be a weakness to another according to the level of their maturity.

And I am writing this as a disciple maker who has seen growth over the years I have been in Christ’s service.

To the growing believer (disciple), you will be gentle as a parent as you guide them through the scriptures for the purposes of their growth and transformation.

To the other we are ordered to flee and touch no unclean thing. We are ordered not to greet or even wish them a safe journey since doing so is tantamount to participating in their wrong. We are told to deliver them to the devil they serve.

There is no middle ground when dealing with a false prophet.

In Revelation we see a church being rebuked for going soft on a false prophet (Jezebel). Another was commended for rejecting a peddler of a false doctrine.

We are supposed to come down very hard on the false prophet because he really is advocating for the worship of a counterfeit christ, what in the Old Testament is called idolatry.

Prophetic Watch

And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. (John 1:21)

And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. (Matthew 16:14)

I want us to look at spiritual expectations in our day by trying to understand how it was in the New Testament days.

During Jesus’ time, the time was ripe with expectation of God’s fulfilment of prophecy.

You remember that when the wise men appeared to Herod’s court and asked about the birth of a king, nobody went back to look for books for an answer.

They spurted their expectation. They more or less said something like this.

Look no farther. If the king of the Jews is born, he will certainly be in Bethlehem.

To use a heavy word, the air was pregnant with the expectation of the completion of prophecy.

This means that the scribes and Pharisees, who were consistently involved in the study and observation of the word of God knew that the time was right.

It was as in Daniel’s time when he knew through his intake of the scriptures that the time had come for the Jews to return to their land and so started actualising the same through prayer and repentance.

God’s people were only looking for the pointers as the time was ripe for the fulfilment.

You may also realise that the other side is very strategic during such times to flood the world with counterfeits if they are unable to block the actualisation, so to speak.

You remember them trying to kill Moses and Jesus?

What promises were there? I know someone is asking.

The first has to do with Moses’ prophecy. That is why there was talk of the prophet, or that prophet.

The second had to do with Elijah, prophesied by Malachi among others.

The other had to do with David’s promise. You remember Jesus being called the son of David?

This was probably the pinnacle of their expectation since David was both king and prophet.

That is why there was talk of the Christ, the anointed One.

They didn’t expect that all those prophecies would merge into one person.

But they were all united in one thing; the fulfilment of those prophecies had come and so they were only looking for the manifestation.

The people who were so focused on the promise killed the person of the same to actualise it.

Let me get us to our times.

Do we have such an expectation? Is there any scriptural basis for the same? What then are we looking out for?

These being the end times, we would be deceived when we think to look out for a genuine prophet.

From Matthew 24 to Revelation to Daniel, we are only asked to look out for the false prophet.

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. they went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (1John 2: 18, 19)

That is our watchword.

You remember that even Christ warned us against false prophets?

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. (Matthew 7:15)

I will highlight a few facts about them from these verses.

First is that most, if not all, of them started with us.

They were probably genuine ministers at the beginning who were corrupted along the way by the enticements of the world. They were the seed planted on the rock or among thistles.

This means that for the most part they will look just like us. They look genuine yet the only genuineness in them is their error and probably, depravity.

I talked about that in the post ‘Of Aerials and Ears’ some time ago when I was expositing Matthew 7: 21 – 23.

They may have a very glowing past that completely overshadows their present. But be not deceived.

Allow me to go back to our initial verses before I continue.

Why were the Jews asking whether John the Baptist was Elijah or the prophet? Why were they saying that Jesus was Elijah, the prophet or John the Baptist?

They were simply displaying the characteristics the former possessed.

Moses and Elijah were uncompromisingly unflinching when confronting sin, the same with John the Baptist who died because he did the same against a reigning king.

They spoke God’s truth to power as we like to say, without fear or favor.

They could not be compromised; however high the stakes were taken.

As was said about Elisha, the spirit of Elijah was operating in them.

The second point I want to make about the false prophets is that they are unlike the former prophets in their relationship with sin and sinners. They are different from them in their relationship with power. In fact, they love dining with power.

Yet the past prophets’ link with power happened when they were given a message to the king or when the king came seeking direction from them.

False prophets enjoy their proximity to power to the point that I have heard churches buying their big shots cars commensurate with those invitations (called cars with a testimony, simply meaning class).

How can a prophet rebuke the king he loves dining with?

The third point I will state is that their prophecies are actually responses and analyses of situations.

They are commentators on what is happening instead of issuers of heavenly dispatches.

I am sure someone is wondering what I mean.

A prophet sent by God speaks to situations long before they are even formulated. A prophet addresses the heart of the problem instead of the symptoms of the same.

Remember Elisha sharing what a king was planning long before it happened? Remember Elijah meeting Ahab when he was on the way to Naboth’s garden? Remember him intercepting messengers who were going to a heathen prophet?

God’s prophet is not a commentator or analyst, however in-depth or accurate the analysis may be.

This is because a prophet deals with the hearts of men and not their actions

A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. (Matthew 12:35)

It is therefore foolish to call someone a prophet just because he has some very accurate analysis of situations. It is folly to call someone a prophet because they share some inside information as prophecy. And it is unwise to call someone a prophet just because they can foresee anything through observation and analysis.

But it is clearest when we see with a prophet dealing with sin.

God’s prophet offends blatantly. He is not scared of being in the wrong books of whoever, especially when issues dealing with sin and holiness are being addressed.

God’s prophet is not ashamed to stand alone.

Moses stood alone against the might of Egypt. He stood alone against the whole house of Israel when they turned against God. Elijah was on his own when confronting Ahab and his son, kings of Israel. He was alone when confronting Israel and the combined might of the spiritual formation Jezebel had raised. John the Baptist was alone for much of his ministry. He was alone when confronting the hypocrisy of his nation. And he of course used no proxies when confronting Herod.

And they are not the only prophets. A study of the prophets in the Bible will make this very clear.

Jeremiah suffered alone. One of his names was ‘the lonely prophet’. And do you think Isaiah had friends when he walked naked for three years? Elisha himself, though he was held in high regard by kings of Israel and Syria was also a loner.

But let me give you time to do your own study on the same.

We can almost put it as a rule of the thumb that a popular prophet is a false one.

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (James 4:4)

That is what I am addressing here by showing us the signs of a true prophet.

Even looking at the end times to get a clearer picture, you will see the final prophets, who are not even called prophets but witnesses, are alone, the two of them against the whole world and its systems.

It therefore means that in these end times we really do not have a prophet on God’s side.

This of course does not mean that the prophetic calling and gifting are absent.

It just means that the prominence of that office has shifted, and that because of the proliferation and perfection of the imitation of the gift and the gullibility of the people.

And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days. For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. (Mark 13: 20, 22)

I hope you understand where I am coming from.

The imitation will be an almost perfect reproduction of the real that even the elect may be unable to notice the difference.

That is why Jesus warned us to avoid running or following those gifted charlatans, because they do not look like charlatans however hard you may look.

The prophetic is the most dangerous of the errors because it literally shapes lives. And a few illustrations are in order.

Remember the Shunamite being told by Elijah to leave everything and relocate for seven years? Just imagine if it had been a false prophecy.

Or the three thirsty kings who were ordered to dig trenches when they cried for water?

Suppose Jehoshaphat had obeyed a false prophet when he had the choir lead the army to war?

In Kenya we are dealing with a prophet who led hundreds to starve to death just the other day. And such things have been happening over the years all over the world where a prophet, under one pretext or the other, leads masses to their death.

I remember when we were sitting our A-levels and a prophet stopped his or her followers from sitting the exams because Jesus was about to come.

What am I saying?

The prophetic is such a delicate ministry as it impacts so much more than probably any other ministry. That because it shapes destinies of those under it drastically and irreversibly.

What is the solution? I know someone is asking.

Get to know God at the personal level. Interact effectively with His word. Allow Him to guide you through your intake of His word as opposed to external sources, even those that look like they come from Him, because they may actually be counterfeits.

And even if they are not, has God stopped speaking to you at the personal level so that you must look for those external voices and guidance?

If that is the case, you most likely are backslidden. Because He speaks to those who are obedient to Him. This is one of my most favourite verses.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27)

You remember when God went silent on Saul the king?

Does it mean we stop listening to God’s ministers?

Of course not.

And I am writing this as an elder whose ministry involves guiding God’s people.

But I do not listen for them.

Once in a while God will give me a direct message for someone. But it is not an absolute message. They must listen for themselves since they are accountable to God for their obedience.

I am a guide and not the destination. God’s will is the destination.

Allow me to bring another element that has just come to mind.

It is the support of those prophets. It is the demands they make for your following their ministry. It is the loyalty they demand from their followers. It is the rewards they promise to their gullible followers. It is the kind of life they lead as opposed to the lives of their followers. It is the leash they have on their followers.

A true prophet is content to pass God’s message and give God’s guidance. And he will leave it at that.

The recipient of the message will decide on his own how to respond to that message and so will be ultimately accountable to God for that response, not the prophet.

God’s prophet never seeks recognition for his ministry. He is content to pass the message he was given to the best of his ability.

The only thing we see with many prophets is the presence of disciples, in the OT called schools of the prophets.

But these are not the slaves these modern charlatans create for the purposes of enlarging their domain, people’s whose only occupation is to parrot what their master or mistress is saying, unless I am the only one who notices such things.

And these disciples are not their personal property as we see with John whose two immediately left him when he identified Christ (John 1:37). And he was fine with that. John 3:30 summarises the focus of his ministry.

True prophets are willing for their disciples to outshine them since they have no shine of their own. They are only reflecting or radiating the shine from God who alone owns them.

I trust we are on the same page.

Incidentally you can interchange the name prophet with your spiritual leader; pastor, bishop, apostle, etc. Especially since most of them want to be treated as prophets anyway.

Modern Woes

Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee. (Matthew 11: 21 – 24)

I want us to look at the church, and of course us, today, to be able to get this message.

Let us however go to the Bible to understand where I am coming from.

Why did a whole generation perish in the wilderness? Why did it take forty years for Israel to complete an eleven-day journey?

Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. (Numbers 14:28 – 34)

You will realise as you read the story that the reasons Moses gave in his intercession for the forgiveness of Israel were the very same God used in passing judgment on them; simply that they had witnessed God’s power and love since they were in Egypt.

This means that they had seen God rescue them from slavery and take them through the experience of knowing Him at close quarters. He had even allowed them to hear His voice as well as see His form. He also walked with them through the cloudy pillar.

They could quite accurately say this.

They had seen Him guide, provide and protect them.

Yet they turned their backs on Him by seeking to go back to Egypt just because they had been fed a dish of feeble giants.

Before Moses appeared, they could have easily argued like Gideon. Where is the God our fathers talk about?

But they were then without excuse.

Their children could be excused because they were forming their experiences and were also subject to their parents.

That is why they were given the forty years to develop their own experience with God as He was dealing with their rebellious parents.

Jesus’ crowd was worse because not only had they a wider knowledge as the scriptures were already in existence (the Old Testament), they also had Christ walking amongst them.

Tyre, Sidon, Sodom had neither the experience nor the scriptures. Yet they were judged for their sin.

Had they had the experience Christ’s crowd had, they could have easily turned to God. And Jesus was talking from the position of God who knows all things.

What does our generation have?

We have the scriptures, the complete package.

We have the history of the church since the New Testament.

We have seen God at work, at least from first hand witnesses. By that I am talking about the most recent revival, the East Africa revival that transformed our region.

And some of us have even had our own unique experience since we believed and so possess first hand testimonies.

Some of us have left everything for the call of God and continue to experience His fulness in all ways.

Do we have any excuse for not walking in absolute obedience? Do we have any excuse for not building our most holy faith?

Can we be excused for doubting any of His promises? And I am not talking about the wholesale promises motivational peddlers are always dishing out for the ignorant to possess.

Can we expect a slack when we take the logical instead of the obedient way? Can we be excused for listening to people instead of following the revelation He gives us?

Remember the young prophet from Judah (1 Kings 13)?

He died because he agreed with a prophetic voice that differed from the orders he had received. And I am sure he agreed because that prophecy was so attuned to how he was feeling at that time.

You see, he was tired, thirsty and hungry due to the orders God had issued to him. No wonder he was found resting under a tree instead of walking.

Imagine the journey from Judah to Bethel without a sip or bite. And I am sure it was not a short journey. Then he probably had to take a longer journey back because he couldn’t use the first one.

It is possible he was praying for God to give him a breakthrough of sorts when the con prophet appeared.

The fact that he had accomplished over 80% of his assignment did not allow him a slack.

He still died for disobedience.

Balaam died because he sought a second opinion from God instead of following the order he had been given earlier.

Uzzah died because they sought to implement God’s orders according to Philistine practice instead of the scriptural way.

We are answerable to the orders we have received from God, not to the interpretation of those orders even by our spiritual supervisors (if there are such people).

However logical and convincing and in tune with our inmost feelings, nothing can be trusted apart from the scriptures and what they teach.

Like Jesus said, no miracle can equate with the scriptures, not even raising the dead.

This means that looking for anything and anyone else to justify your ministry or practice is spurious.

Putting anything or anyone before the scriptures is idolatry that God will judge, even if it is what God can and does do.

We completely err when we take man more seriously than God’s word, even if that man is a servant of God.

And we are completely off the path to heaven when we are more attentive to what the servant says than the scriptures he claims to be quoting from.

The Curse of the Self-Made

The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? (Daniel 4:30)

I want to look at the people who call themselves self-made and see some resulting judgment of a few in the scriptures.

I will not look at Nebuchadnezzar though his statement is the ultimate in that attitude.

And this because those of us who know their Bibles know what happened to him. In fact, even those with the barest acquaintance know his story well.

Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be? (1Samuel 25:11)

Let us look at this character Nabal.

That he was successful is not in doubt; unless three thousand sheep and a thousand goats is a pittance in your eyes.

Even if we valued them very moderately, that flock was worth a half million dollars, which in many currencies would make him a millionaire, and that on those two items alone.

Yet we know he also had pasturelands and buildings to make that going concern a success. He also had slaves as well as servants.

We can therefore call him a farming and real estate magnate if we used our vocabulary.

We can’t dispute the fact that he worked hard, and had worked hard to get to that point.

He also treated his servants well from the statement.

What then was his problem?

He believed that he was the sole determinant of his success. And that is what in our days is called a self-made man.

He thought that it was his money that had offered security to his shepherds when they were in the wilderness.

It is like many politicians who boast that they bought their positions just because they used their money (most of it wrongly got) to campaign for their positions. Or those who think their success in politics is due to their shrewdness in the political game.

But sooner or later God’s judgment is released to them.

You see, at the base of the self-made doctrine is a huge dosage of pride.

Look at the New Testament to see the same thing.

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. (Luke 12: 16 – 21)

This situation is identical to what we saw with Nebuchadnezzar.

It is popularly called the ‘I’ syndrome.

Someone is so full of self that there is no breathing space for anything or anyone else.

Since I have made it (on my own of course), I deserve the best of the result.

Like the rich man we looked at recently, even a poor neighbour does not deserve anything from me because he is not part of my success. I owe nothing to nobody for my success.

But is that the reality?

Nabal’s servants confessed to the need they had and the cover David had been to them.

But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields: They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. (1Samuel 25: 15, 16)

But Nabal’s independent spirit had no place for such stupidity.

He probably thought that they were just idlers surrounding his flock for what they could get. He probably thought that they were just desperate and looking for the company his shepherds provided. Or he probably thought they just wanted to be simply associated with the big shot who was Nabal.

Do we think like that some times?

How many times have you seen people laughing at commitment from young people on spiritual things? How many have seen people making fun of people giving sacrificially to ministry? How many have refused to create time when a minister or seeker is looking for a friend?

What does that say?

I am complete on my own. I do not allow people to invade my privacy. I do not want to be stressed by people who are claiming to be serving God.

I am a self-made man.

And that is abominable to God.

Herod refused to stop people who were associating with God and was eaten by worms, alive.

How self-made are you?

 

The Eccentric God 3

Allow me to get us to another aspect of God’s eccentricities; and that is the kind of people He uses, and the kind of people He chooses to work with contrary to what we think should happen.

In the first post I mentioned Jacob, the meaning of whose name is conman.

Incidentally, when you look at Jesus’ line, you will see a smattering of many such characters.

How does God include Tamar in that lineage.

You see, not only was she from a heathen nation, she even had the audacity of tricking her father-in-law to sleep with her by pretending to be a harlot.

Or Rahab the harlot. Why does God not at least sanitise her profession to make her a little bit acceptable? And to imagine she was a harlot in condemned Jericho!

Some theologians argue that harlot may also mean housekeeper or lodging owner.

If that were the case, what was her argument when her king came looking for the two spies? How do people lodge during the day and leave before dark?

Only her profession could have sold the lie she gave the king.

Why did Jesus first reveal Himself to Mary Magdalene after His resurrection, a woman who had had seven demons?

I have read some who say that she had been a harlot before coming to Christ. That that is where she picked the demons from.

Why did He chase the crowd who had come to stone the woman who had been caught in the act of adultery?

Most times after Jesus healed, He told the recipients of His miracles to not tell anyone.

Why then did He tell the character who had the legion of demons a to go and tell his hood what Christ had done for him?

What am I saying?

Jesus does not follow any rule book to do anything He wills. God does not follow anybody’s protocol when choosing who to work with.

He has rules. He has commandments.

But like Jesus said when arguing about Sabbath, they are His servants, not His prison.

The fact that He could use harlots does not mean He condones harlotry. Far from it.

It simply means that He still loves them and any of them that will open their heart to Him will be used, of course after being transformed.

Grace is what I am talking about.

As Paul argued in Romans and Galatians, the law was meant to drive us to Christ and not bind us to itself. It was a schoolmaster to lead us to grace.

That is the same reason that it was the ones who were outside who easily received John the Baptist and Christ.

For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him. (Matthew 21:32)

They knew that they needed grace as opposed to the spiritual right who were content in keeping the commandments.

That is what we see with the abominable characters God used, and continues to use.

Incidentally that is where wealth also falls under.

It is not very easy to submit to God, or anybody else, if you have no lack. How do you pray for your daily bread when your barn is full to overflowing?

God is waiting to use me and you.

However, He is the sole determinant of when and how to use us if we surrender to Him. He determines whether He will even use us.

That is why many ministers become frustrated when God chooses to use someone they had trashed all along. That is why some ministers become God’s enemies when He all of a sudden elevates someone they had buried to uselessness and makes them glaring lights of the Gospel.

That drug addict is not beyond reach. That serial divorcee is not useless as we see in John 4. That bastard still belongs to God, though they are ordered never to come close to the sanctuary even to the tenth generation.

Or do you not remember Jephthah?

That is why you see a verse like this

Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. (Isaiah 56: 3 – 5)

We have Daniel and Nehemiah as examples of this. And Ruth, whose tribe was excluded from Israel like the bastard (Deuteronomy 23: 1 – 3)

Will we allow God to use whoever He wills?

Allow me to add this in conclusion.

God does not use somebody because of who that person is. He is bound to the person who is surrendered to Him.

It directly means that this person will walk according to His revelation. He will use the person who has surrendered his whole life completely to be used of Him.

God will not use a harlot because she is a harlot. God will not use a drug addict because they enjoy those drugs. God will not use the thief because of his thieving.

God will follow His standards in using them.

He must transform them to use them. They must surrender their everything, even their lives, to Him for Him to use them.

God converts before He can use. Though He can still use before doing so.

But it gives Him glory when the vessel He is using has gone through His transformation.

That is why Christ sent the character who had the legion back to his hood.

The standard for knowing the person God uses is His word.

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? (Matthew 7: 15, 16)

And the only fruit worth looking for is a transformed life. It is a progressively growing spiritual life.

The rest is drama.

An unrepentant person is not being used of God, however effective he looks. A proud person also cannot be used by God for the simple reason that he is competing for recognition with God.

God will use abominable characters. But He does it after transforming them or in the process of transforming them.

Surrender is the non negotiable here.

Allow me to put my favourite and most scary verses here. Incidentally they follow the verses I have just quoted about fruit (vv. 15 – 20)

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 21 – 23)

 

The Eccentric God 2

Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? (John 8:48)

I want us to continue looking at God and His ways.

To a Jew, a Samaritan was probably the most despised person. No Jew ever wanted to be associated with them.

It is even said that among some of the most present thanksgiving items for a Jew was that he was not a Samaritan. No wonder they were at this point calling Christ a Samaritan with a demon.

But that is not the way God operated. And I will give us a few instances where He overturned their perception.

Do you know that it is the Samaritans that welcomed Him and without reservation received His teaching. Do you realise that the first evangelist was a Samaritan woman, and a serial divorcee for that?

And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word; And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. (John 4: 39 – 42)

And this when all around the Jewish nation people were always disputing with Him and asking for the source of His authority.

It is also said that even passing through Samaria was an abomination of sorts. Jews would take a much longer route from one part of Israel to another to avoid the defilement they feared they could have got from the Samaritan nation. Yet Jesus not only passed through there, He bought food from them and even preached to them.

Remember the ten lepers who were cleansed and only one overflowed with gratitude? He was also a Samaritan.

But probably the most striking of the stories is the one He used to describe a neighbour.

How dare Christ use an abomination to describe kindness?

But that is how God operates.

For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. (1Corinthians 1: 26 – 29)

We need to come to the realisation that God will never do things in ways we either understand or approve. He is God all the time and not subject to His creation, even the crown of that creation.

Even today God will use people we think are outside His frame of operation for the same reason.

He will still use that divorcee as an evangelist to bring the corrupt and neglected populace to the saving knowledge of Christ.

I am sure Jesus passed through Samaria because He knew there were hearts seeking Him, though they did not know it.

He also knew that nobody could have gone there to take the Gospel to them.

I am also sure that His disciples only went there because Jesus was Boss. Or why were they wondering why He was speaking to that woman?

Those gangs need the Gospel. Those drug peddlers and addicts need the Gospel preached to them. Those harlots need the Gospel explained to them with the right tone, the tone of love and concern.

Do we have that love? Are we concerned that Christ also died for them and wants them saved?

These verses speak about the Samaritans too.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1: 11 – 13)

And they speak about the untouchables, the undesirables, the rejects.

Will you adopt God’s eccentricities in your ministry? Will you start seeing positive things about those people completely outside your acceptable?

The Eccentric God

But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, (Luke 4: 25 – 28)

Jesus was very offensive to many of the people following Him.

I was listening to the time a Pharisee invited Him for lunch and instead of praising Him started saying very bad things about their religion. Can you imagine hearing something like this from a guest you have made a personal invitation for lunch?

And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? (Luke 11: 37 – 40)

If that is not rudeness, then we ought to come up with a new dictionary.

But that is how God operates.

I want us to look at a few other eccentricities in the scriptures to appreciate what I am saying.

Ever wondered why God took the loser to heaven and the visibly successful to hell? Or what does the story of the rich man and Lazarus teach?

As I write I remember in our hood there is such a one who has defied age. He should be in the region of the late seventies but never shows it since I have seen him that way since my childhood.

But he is a sloth. He does nothing, not even bathing.

Yet he is always present when someone has a party or visitors.

But he never demands anything after getting something to eat. And you can have a normal conversation with him and so he appears normal, and very polite.

Many neighbours would speak very roughly to him when he would appear, openly wondering why a visibly strong and healthy man did not work yet the family he comes from is as normal as any other. Some would even deny him food, some even asking him to go work their farms to earn the food he was demanding.

To imagine this loafer getting to heaven and people who have built churches and done so much good in society appears like an abomination.

Incidentally, in most, probably all the places I have spent substantial time there has been at least one such loafer whose life defied logic.

We realise also that Lazarus was called a beggar, meaning that he lived off other people’s sweat.

Yet isn’t that the thrust of the parable?

God is not like us. No wonder we call Him holy.

But that is not the only eccentricity we see with God. The Bible is so full of that nature unique to God.

Allow me to stop here to allow us to reflect.

I will build on other situations that baffle us yet are normal with God.

I will not even ask any application questions for the same purpose. I want us to reflect and ask God to open our eyes to the Lazarus by our gates.