Powerful Women

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)

We love power!

Yet there is a power we do not want to be associated with.

Ever heard of someone calling their daughter Jezebel? Yet the lady had immense powers, even the power of life and death in the kingdom she was a part of.

What about Delilah?

Yet she was able to rescue her people from a tyrant. She was a great heroine to the Philistines. You can be sure they sung her praise fora long time.

And Judas? Yet he had been the accountant/ treasurer to the King of kings, even playing all trusty when he was siphoning funds.

Nobody wants to be associated with such power, simply because it was destructive, destructive because it went against God’s agenda and revelation.

It is respectable to kill for a cause, to steal for the poor. Many heroes of the past became such because of doing it.

But it is wicked when it is done for personal gain. It is wicked when it results in oppression or deprives the vulnerable of their rights.

However, we must guard against flipped narratives that will paint the villain as the hero as we see in many freedom movements where the real heroes either ‘disappear’ or are smeared with betrayer tags by the turncoats who were the actual traitors.

I therefore want us to look at the Bible to see what makes a believing woman powerful by looking at some women in the Bible we love to associate with and, if possible, emulate.

The first quality I find common amongst them is self-effacement.

They were meek, or in simpler terms, under the control of someone else, and willingly so.

They did not fight for dominance like many a modern woman.

The other is self-sacrifice.

They willingly surrendered their rights for someone or a cause outside themselves.

I want us to look at a couple of such women, beginning with Mary.

I do not know whether you realise her obedience being looked at from her side was worse than suicide.

A pregnant unmarried girl was stoned to death for adultery.

The second thing was that marriage would be impossible had she even overcome that first hurdle.

Do you not remember Joseph starting the process before God stepped in?

That surrender and sacrifice was therefore immense. No wonder she is talked about with such good words.

And even after Joseph takes her, we do not see her dominating his space at any time. Nor do we see her trying to control her Son or reminding Him of her sacrifice.

The second woman we look at is Rahab the harlot.

She saves the spies from torture and death.

Yet, instead of making demands on them, she actually pleads with them to save her life. And not only her life, but the life of her whole family, beginning with her parents.

That is not how harlots behave.

Ruth allowed Naomi to completely dominate her as if she did not have any rights.

And with her I want us to look at another aspect of these women.

She looked at this bleeding woman and chose to serve her, completely foregoing her dreams and aspirations.

Imagine foregoing marriage to walk with a grieving woman even when she is fighting so hard to ask you to leave her alone.

Hannah behaved the same way.

She prays for a son and then completely gives him away. And that with no assurance that any other child will come.

I do not care to have a child provided they stop calling me barren and (to society) cursed. An answer to her prayer to counter her barrenness ended at that. And she followed it up.

I think that aspect of release/ surrender/ sacrifice is what makes them stand out.

Each of these women gave away something extremely precious.

And of course, we remember the other Mary who poured all her savings on Jesus’ feet until Judas couldn’t take it any more and went to the priests.

I will stop here. But treat it as a pause.

 

Why Serpents 6

I want to develop my last post on this topic by giving scriptural examples of what I meant.

Our first example is Lot.

Though there is nothing wrong he did in following his uncle, he had no calling or understanding of what, where and why Abraham was going.

It is no wonder that when push comes to shove and he is given an option he chooses the physical appeal over spiritual relevance since he must have known the basics of Sodom’s spiritual reality.

No wonder he lost big. Lost his wife and name

The second is Esau.

Again, he did not know the spiritual nature of Abraham’s calling, thinking that his inheritance was purely material.

No wonder he was bypassed so easily. And the fact that when he meets his brother much later he had completely forgotten that he had been cheated of anything since he had been able to make his own wealth anyway.

Gehazi was poised to get the double portion of Elisha’s anointing but lost it when, like Esau, forgot that he was involved in a spiritual enterprise.

Solomon lost it when the miracle and the breakthrough became more important than the One who had performed it. The gift became more important that its giver.

In the New Testament we have Mark when he accompanied his uncle on his first mission.

But I think the ultimate is the Sceva brothers of Acts 19.

Sending is different from being sent.

I think that is the point of this post.

Why Serpents 5

About this time last year, I posted a series on Jesus’ instruction to His disciples (which we also are) concerning how they were to be as they took the Gospel to the world.

I built it on the serpent’s physiology, limitations and vulnerabilities.

But I remembered recently that I probably overlooked the foundation to the whole thing.

We are as sheep being sent to wolves.

It is the hunted hunting the hunter.

It is the prey searching the prowler.

Just imagine a cow looking for a lion or a goat looking for a leopard.

Yet that is the reality of that instruction.

We are not being told to be shrewd the way some are called streetwise.

We need to be shrewd because we are being hunted by the same people we are seeking to win over.

This means that any slip on our side is not just disastrous, it will result in our consumption.

You see, the hunter lives to eat the prey. He must eat the prey to survive.

Can you imagine a deer being sent to Esau just before he had gone home to sell his birthright?

That is the kind of chance we have with our mission field.

Forgetting that simple truth has led many believers into spiritual destruction.

I have severally written about people who have gone to minister becoming the vices they had gone to rescue their mission field from.

Like pastors burdened for harlots ending up as their customers. Or others who have gone to rescue others from alcohol dens ending up being drunkards.

How many ministers have gotten into politics to bring righteousness into politics have ever dented that wickedness? Do not they become part of the problem they had sought to solve? Do they not become as wicked as the people they had gone to ’save’?

But it is not a lost cause or Christ would not have commanded us to go.

It is only that we, in our passion to rescue the damsel in distress (a lost world), we overlook the giant holding her captive, and especially the fact that the same giant is not satisfied with having one captive.

The bravado many of us employ in our rescue (evangelistic) efforts expose us to the giant long before we get anywhere close to his tower, meaning we will find him ready for our approach.

Our proclaiming victory before we get to the battlefield extinguishes our fire before we need to use it.

But the most dangerous part in our endeavours is the fact that for the most part we want to get into the battle field before getting any orders from our King and Lord.

Allow me to share a verse many know yet assume never exists.

Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. (Luke 10:2)

The fact that the harvest is plentiful is not an open invitation to rush into that field. The fact that there are no labourers does not make you one immediately.

Our first call is to pray; call the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into that field, availing yourself in case He may see it fit to send you yet leaving the decision to Him.

And that because only the ones who are sent are equipped for the job at hand.

Even in military circles, when there is a war, it is not everybody who picks the weapons, it is the ones who have been assigned those duties.

The driver does not rush to the armoury. Nor does the cook or doctor.

Each will run to the place where the tools of his part in a war are.

Incidentally, that is the same way with ministry and spiritual warfare.

We must know what our commander wants us to be doing. We must receive His direct orders on the same.

Allow me to give an example.

I have gone for numerous missions.

You will find everybody rushing for the flowery parts of ministry leaving the very essential ones to somebody else.

Everybody will want to be in the door-to-door and open-air campaigns and nobody will be left in the kitchen or washing dishes, thinking those are inferior tasks in a mission.

Then they come complaining that supper is late, yet only one person was responsible enough to realise that those ‘evangelists’ also had stomachs.

And there will be a battle the next morning because nobody wants to lower themself to wash the dishes, especially because they will be left out of the actual mission of reaching out to the lost.

That is why as I grew older, I found myself gravitating around those ‘lower cadre’ ministries lacking volunteers so that I can fill in the gaps.

It is sad that on a week-long mission you will have one person smelling of smoke because nobody had any burden for anything other than ‘lost souls’. That you will find someone who never left the camping ground to even get a glimpse of the land being ‘conquered’. That you will find someone completely exhausted from doing all the donkey work alone without any assistance or appreciation.

That is why you will hear such a person vowing never to be involved in any other mission due to the draining that one exerted on them.

That happens because probably none in the whole mission had a personal invitation to participate in that mission.

They simply interpreted that verse to mean

The harvest is plentiful, the labourers are few, please rush into the harvest field before time runs out.

The sheep rushed to the field to save wolves without any order and equipping.

Imagine a sheep going to the wolves’ den and introducing himself thus,

Good morning my friends. Will you allow me five of your minutes to share with you about the love of God (or the four spiritual laws)?

Would be the wolves be listening to the narration or whetting their appetites for this juicy meat that brought itself to their den, saving them valuable hunting time and energy?

Yet is that not how many of us approach evangelism?

What is the application?

I leave it to you to pray about your part. 

Painful Waiting

For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. (Isaiah 64:4)

Who is a fan of waiting?

Who loves suspense concerning him?

You see, suspense movies and novels are nice. We love to turn and turn and turn to the next page to get to the conclusion of the plot in the book. We love those nail-biting moments in movies.

But have you ever placed yourself in those situations?

Are they not fun because they concern other people? Aren’t they exciting because you are a spectator?

Allow me to ask another question.

Would you love for your story to have as much suspense as you see in movies and read in thriller novels?

That is what I want us to look at today. And that because God is a storyteller, nay, a story maker.

And God loves suspense because suspense makes the story more interesting.

One reason the Bible is exciting to read is because it is composed of page after page of nail-biting suspense concerning the characters in it.

God is more interested in the plot than in the conclusion because it is the suspense in the plot that makes the ending more captivating.

Think about the book of Esther, the only book where there is no mention of God, and you discover that it is probably the book where the demonstration of His overarching presence is most visible.

But do you think it was exciting to Mordecai? Do you think it was nail-biting to Esther? Do you think it was uplifting to the Jews?

That suspense was stifling to the players in the plot but enriching and exciting to the audience, us.

Incidentally, I believe that is one aspect that sets apart the Bible from all other religious books. It is a down to earth book because it does not hide anything to make its story appealing.

What am I trying to say?

God is writing my story as He is writing yours for others to read.

And that story must have a good level of suspense to not only be real, but also highly enriching.

Good endings are good because they are the product of suspenseful happenings.

A journey is not a story worth reporting.

Even an accident is not a captivating story.

However, walking out of a written-off vehicle is.

Do you realise that this is the way God shows off the most? Do you know that is the way He attracts the attention of a world indifferent to Him?

I therefore want you to place yourself in Mordecai’s situation, because you are in a similar situation if you are a believer in God.

It is good to remember that Mordecai was not for the most part desperate because he had options.

He had raised the queen and saved the king and therefore could have easily used that to pull the rug off Haman’s plot.

But Haman’s plot was not personal. It was clearly spiritual.

It was an affront to the God of Israel.

And a man of faith does not use worldly weapons to fight spiritual battles.

He therefore called on God, and then waited for Him.

We see the same when he goes to Esther, bringing God to the fore of his request.

And Esther did the same, throwing a curveball to the Jews by asking them to call upon God, and also waiting.

No wonder God shows off.

The point I want us to get from this is that waiting is not desperation or the product of the same.

I do not wait because I am short of options.

I wait because I realise that the battle really belongs to God and He must be given the chance to show off.

The other point I need to make is that waiting is not passive.

Waiting is not for the lazy bones or weaklings.

A wait because, not only am I waiting for God to show off, I am waiting for the orders He may have to open the door for His showing off.

Mordecai prayed and waited. Then went to Esther and waited some more.

Esther prayed and waited.

Then went to the king and waited for just the right moment, probably after praying for a sign to know when the time was right.

No wonder we see many becoming Jews without crusades or door to door evangelism. Simply because God showed off.

But before I forget, allow me to look at our verse.

I want us to realise that the outcome of waiting on God is completely out of this world.

If it has been seen, it is not the reward of waiting on God

If it has been heard, it is not the reward of waiting on God.

And if it can be imagined, you can be sure it is not the reward of waiting on God.

That is what the verse plainly says.

This means that to be waiting on God, you must stop looking out of windows and gates of whatever nature for that breakthrough. You must stop looking for those text messages and emails for your miracle.

The only thing you can rightly do is listening to an order should it come, because He may just decide to bypass that order to show off as He did with Mordecai and even Joseph in prison.

Incidentally, Joseph is another person of interest in our study of waiting on God.

Waiting is work.

Waiting is doing what God has revealed as you wait for Him to show off. And it is doing that even when nothing seems to make sense. It is serving God amidst uncertainty because you trust Him.

He served with distinction even when he was sold as a slave.

He refused to sin even when that could have opened a few doors for him.

And when he was sent to prison for daring follow God’s revelation, he still served with distinction in that prison.

Is God left with any other option than showing off?

Waiting is therefore probably the only work God has for most of us.

Because waiting requires us to be listening and doing what God orders us to do.

And that until He either changes the orders or the situation.

It is establishing in my heart that no other position is viable, no other open door is open and no other breakthrough is worthy my response but His revelation and showing off.

I am sure Daniel knew of the plot of those colleagues.

But he refused to intervene because it was clearly an affront to the God he served.

As their boss, it is inconceivable that he didn’t know that plot as it was being hatched. And as their boss he could have easily nipped that plot at its bud by simply going to the king and exposing it.

But he knew that his God was not impotent. His God could stand on His own.

He therefore let Him show off in the best way. And He did.

But do not for a moment think that that was an easy time for him between knowing of the plot and being rescued from the lions.

And I am sure it was the same with his three friends.

They could have comfortably disappeared from the radar so that they are not seen not bowing to that idol.

But what would that have communicated about the God they served?

But it was not an easy ride between the time the idol was unveiled and the time they walked out of that furnace.

What am I saying?

Waiting for God requires for me to trash any other options that would leave God out as the sole provider of my solution.

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. (2Chronicles 16:9a)

Leaving God as the sole source of solutions gives Him complete leeway to do whatever He wants with us.

This means that He will get maximum, nay, all the credit for the interventions He offers.

I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. (Isaiah 42:8)

It is one thing to wait for the Lord while you are scrolling all over for solutions.

It is a different thing altogether when like Shadrack and his three friends say

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. (Daniel 3: 17, 18)

If God chooses not to show off, then so be it. We will continue serving Him even if we will be consumed by the fire.

That is what waiting for God entails.

Stephen died proclaiming the Gospel.

Waiting for God means placing my neck on the chopping block, not for God to suddenly decide to melt it or convert the powers that be, but for God to decide the best way to show off by offering my life as a sacrifice.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12: 1, 2)

Abraham had waited for a child for over seventy years.

Yet he does not hesitate when he is ordered to offer him as a sacrifice because he had been waiting for God.

And we know he had options. Hagar is one demonstration of that.

And from reading the story it appears that the angel probably held his hand to stop him from killing the promise.

Simply because he was waiting for God.

God was greater and way more valuable than the promise, however valuable the promise was.

I know some are thinking I am hitting too hard.

But since when did faith become fashionable? Since when did obedience become easy? Since when did waiting become free flowing?

In closing let me give us a verse or two of some promises concerning waiting.

And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. (Isaiah 30:18)

There is a blessing bestowed on the person who chooses to wait for God, on God’s terms.

Blessing in the Bible speaks of a completeness, a peaceful restfulness because God is delighted in us.

And that precedes His showing off.

Call it showing off in us before showing us off to the world.

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

Ther is a renewal when we choose to wait for God. There is a refreshing. There is an energising.

That because waiting for God is not easy.

It may be the most energy consuming aspect of our faith because it requires an obedience without an end in sight.

It many times requires our rest amidst great turbulence.

It requires my confessing that I believe when nothing makes sense, just because God has said it.

That is what made Peter sleep in prison when everything pointed to his being beheaded the next day. It is what made Paul peaceful when all indications were that they would be drowned by the storms besetting their ship, because God had told him that he was taking him to Rome.

We wait because we have God’s word.

It is therefore important to get that word.

And not these words the conmen on the pulpits are giving to get the offerings flowing.

It is His word for you.

I hope I have rattled your faith enough to challenge you to consider waiting for God alone.

Because

O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth. (Isaiah 37:16)

Between the Lines Theology 2

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. (Isaiah 6:1)

I thought to give this message a very harsh title but realised there are some believers with very delicate sensibilities for serious stuff and changed.

But I have not changed the message.

Have you heard a message on Isaiah 6?

What was its focus?

I for one have heard it innumerable times in all sorts of settings.

Interestingly, the focus of all of them was on the death of the king and nothing else.

I for one have preached it a couple of times, but I focused on what the prophet saw since that is the purpose of that chapter.

Sadly, all the preaching I have heard about those first six words are purely speculative with no scriptural backing.

How stupid can a preacher get when he leaves the plainly written to concentrate on speculation?

Allow me to use another popular verse for preachers

And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. (Ezekiel 2:1)

Again the whole focus of the messages is the order to stand on one’s feet leaving the rest of the chapter untouched. As if someone can stand on anything else!

Isn’t this akin to refusing to turn on the light to admire the chandelier?

Isn’t it akin to spending your day admiring a sign post instead of following the direction it is showing?

And why are there no messages on several other times Isaiah and other prophets gave the death of a king at the beginning of a revelation?

Do you realise that focusing on the wrong message is distractive and can end up being spiritually destructive?

Do you realise the devil is using those distractions to lead God’s people away from the momentous message following that corrupted focus?

Uzziah’s death was a reference point, a timeline of sorts just like we see Luke writing about happenings in heathen nations in his books.

It gave a historical context to his message, something all the other prophets did time and again.

Concentrating on the calendar instead of the message is like looking for a needle in a haystack when you are a cow.

Not only is it futile, it is absolutely pointless and useless since even finding that needle has no benefit to the cow.

The message of Isaiah 6 is the revelation of God and His glory.

The focus of Ezekiel 2 is the prophet’s ministry preparedness. And he also first sees God and His glory before getting to that point (chapter 1).

Everything else should serve to give greater clarity to the message and assignment at hand.

Incidentally, there are very many such messages focusing on speculation instead of the plainly revealed.

No wonder many in the church are experts on speculation on everything from current affairs to the end times.

I hope I have communicated

Dismantling Ananias’ Error

I have written elsewhere that I believe Ananias really didn’t have to die.

He died because the spiritual leadership did not have the capacity to handle his gift.

That is why they asked him to translate it into the money they could easily manage.

But money has a mind of its own. And it also has a voice.

It therefore started speaking to Ananias about the need to take just a little, probably to handle a small emergency elsewhere.

The result was that someone who had been able to wholeheartedly give a property was unable to give the proceeds of the same, simply because money operates on a completely different spiritual realm, a reality very few of us know or appreciate.

Anybody can comfortably give out of what they have without much struggle.

Someone who keeps cows will not have a problem giving a cow out of the ones he has. Yet he will have a major problem giving 10% of the money he receives from the same cow he was willing to give after selling it. He can comfortably give a litre of milk a day to a neighbour or friend but will find it extremely difficult to give a fraction after its sale in cash.

Someone with an orchard will have no issues giving a sack of fruits from it. But get him when he is coming from the market and he will struggle to give you a small portion of the sale of the same sack of fruits he would have freely given you.

I am sure that even a car dealer will not have a problem giving out a car but will struggle giving money. And it is the same with a land dealer, amongst other wealth producers.

The only people who have no problem giving out money are the corrupt and those who handle easy money; drug dealers, thieves, money launderers etc.

That because it costs them pretty little, if anything, to access that money. Like they say, easy come, easy go.

But someone completely surrendered to God will also have a healthy relationship with money; meaning that he will not have issues following God’s orders concerning the same. The voice of money will be stilled by God’s voice.

I have gone to those pricey hotels and restaurants for this or the other meeting.

Interestingly, if you are known to the management, they will have no qualms feeding you with food costing a few months’ rent.

As an aside, allow me to tickle you on this.

There was this time we were pursuing a ministry in one such hotel and the management was very receptive to the same.

As happens in such instances, the management would offer us a cup of tea and cake every time we would have our meetings that did not even include them.

My partner and friend decided to involve his denomination by inviting a reverend and a few other members.

After a few meetings, the reverend felt inspired and offered to buy the refreshment for our next meeting without caring to understand how we always enjoyed refreshment or the cost.

My friend, who was the connection to the management obliged and asked for the bill for the four of us.

The reverend started sweating after receiving the bill. He couldn’t imagine that tea could cost that much. And he had no capacity of meeting that bill.

My friend had to request that it be treated as at other times. Or he had probably foreseen the drama before it unfolded.

The point I am trying to make is that we are disenfranchising givers when we limit their giving to money.

They might not die like Ananias but they will lose the blessing that is the product of wholehearted giving.

But we would rather they lose that blessing because we are not willing or ready to handle the giving of God’s people. We would rather they lose that blessing because we feel it is beneath our status to dirty our hands managing that giving. We would rather they lose that blessing because we are not ready to be accountable for the way we will handle that giving.

You see, I can very easily move money from here to there without much effort and without anybody noticing. I will just need a receipt to justify any expenditure without any other verification, especially in a church setting. I can inflate prices of what needs to be procured.

But imagine trying to do that with cows and goats! Imagine doing that with milk and vegetables! Imagine doing it with the Nazirite! Imagine doing that with lands and houses!

And the same thing applies to the professional beggar.

I have been able to keep them off by agreeing with them.

I offer to take the one who is hungry to a restaurant and he flees. Taking someone to a stage and offering to pay fare to their destination and telling the conductor not to refund a coin does the same thing.

In short, proper giving is giving in kind.

Many people argue that we need money to eat and I always disagree.

We eat food and not money. And I pray for food, not money to buy food, and receive.

Like now I have just received a whole bunch of bananas!

We do not need money to travel. We need an available means. And I have over the years travelled distant places without a coin.

We limit God when we restrict His provision to money.

Anyway, we were talking about giving, though I think that aside is also useful.

We should therefore allow people to give what they deal with.

That way, we will very easily exclude defiled money from our coffers even as we will keep shady occupations and businesses from our membership.

You can’t imagine a harlot giving in kind. Nor would a drug dealer.

Even the corrupt will shun the altar because there would be nowhere to hide.

As things now stand, it is the corrupt and wicked who run churches because they have the financial muscle to push the godly out.

Let us look at probably the most misused verse in the Bible

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. (Malachi 3:10)

Have you noticed that great omission, storehouse and food?

There is a world of difference between a bank account and a storehouse as there is between food and cash. And that difference is what is making Ananias’ error thrive in our generation.

We should revert to what God meant when he talked about ministry and ministry support.

Just as you do not have to have money to minister, you do not need money to minister.

But you can’t do without food unless you are Moses. And even then, it was for the eighty days he was on the mount in God’s presence.

I believe even the most demanding of the constraints in a minister’s support can also be solved the same way.

What makes you think that a minister with an educational institution will not offer free tuition to some students as his ministry support? And what will make it so hard to offer a few of those chances to ministers’ children?

And it is the same with all other aspects of ministry.

I have had my rent reduced two times by two different landlords, and that in the city. And I had not even made any request. In one I even had rent arrears.

I do not dictate how God supports me. I do not look at money as the medium of support.

As a result of that reality, I am able to appreciate support in very many ways.

But due to that I am also not constrained in the way I minister.

I know the power of presence and so will visit even without a coin to be able to meet a need.

I offer technical assistance as my ministry, as a result saving people immense amounts of money, money they may not have.

I offer my expertise and experience in many fields as my ministry.

In short, I offer what God has given me in kind, the way God intended it.

It would be impossible to evaluate giving in kind because it is coming from the heart. It is giving responding to God’s prompting.

People wonder at Jesus’ saying that the two mites the widow gave was more that the whole giving of all the others.

She gave all she had while the rest gave money.

In short, she gave her livelihood while the rest gave a portion of what they had.

It is akin the Zarephath widow who prepared food for Elijah with the last flour and oil she had, the only food she had between her and her son and death.

And we still wonder why God overlooked all the widows (and families in Israel) when looking for somewhere for His prophet to hide!

Giving in kind requires a relationship with God. And it gives the greatest witness of our faith because it is the clearest demonstration of our detachment from things.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to know the amount of sacrifice and detachment from things when using money because it is impossible to know what remains after giving it.

Only God can tell the level of our sacrifice using money like we see with Jesus at the offering basket in the temple.

And humanly speaking, it is only normal to appreciate the thicker envelope than the sacrificial penny since it can take us farther. Remember Solomon stating that money is the answer to everything!

Giving in kind will many times accurately assess the commitment of the giver to the cause of Christ.

A peasant who gives a chicken from his three to support a church program will gain respect instead of spite than the millionaire who gives ten thousand.

I think an example is important at this point.

I rarely give any notice for pastoral visits, the simple reason being that giving it will place demands on the person being visited. This is even more important where the ministry is to the people Jesus’ anointing was focused on, the materially challenged or poor if you insist that I use that word though I have some portent definitions for the same.

Many will go to great lengths to entertain a minister. Some could even slaughter their only chicken. Others will get into debt. And pastors still argue that they are not privileged!

Well, I visited such a family and the mother was preparing a meal in their single room with the children eagerly surrounding her.

You could, from looking at the children, know that the children were hungry and probably had not eaten for some time.

It was also evident that the meal would be the only meal for the day.

After preparing the meal, she served me first, a sizeable serving, meaning that the children would barely have anything to eat.

Of course I couldn’t eat that food. But I couldn’t reject that honour.

I therefore took a bite and ‘became’ full immediately.

Would you compare that offering with a buffet in a five-star hotel?

It reminds me of David pouring the water his famous three had fetched by going through a Philistine garrison.

Or this other time a family with small children were leaving their small hut for me to spend the night to go and look for accommodation in similar small huts in the village.

The saving grace was in the fact that the place was very warm and so I said it would be impossible to sleep in a house in all that heat. I therefore comfortably spent the night in the open in the company of my host. But at least this time I had been invited.

That sacrifice is way higher than someone paying for a room for me in a five-star hotel.

But I couldn’t have appreciated it had there been lodgings and they had borrowed to pay for a room for me.

Incidentally, that is why for all my missions I prefer staying with a hosting family than staying in hotels and lodges. It makes it very easy to appreciate the giving as well as become a relevant guest/ minister.

But few ministers want to bend that low in their ministry.

Some even openly confess that doing that weakens their anointing. You wonder what kind of anointing since Christ’s anointing allowed Him to touch the completely untouchable, lepers, without being defiled.

Can we be more anointed than the Source of our anointing? Again, unless our source is not Christ?

What I am saying is that giving in kind is the giving God through His word advocates.

Changing our expectation to other giving therefore emasculates true giving by introducing other dynamics and temptations to it.

It is difficult to divert giving in kind.

You see, If I am taking a thousand to church and meet a need requiring a hundred, it is very easy to be moved by the plea and reduce the gift. But I can’t do that when I am driving a cow, or sack of produce, or car. And even if I will do so, it will be doing the ministry the gift would have done anyway.

Temptations like Ananias’ will vanish when we agree with the scriptures and encourage giving in kind.

I know this is a monumental challenge.

But think about it. Then pray about it.

But what about those who earn money? What about those medium of trade/occupation is money?

That is their kind.

It would be as disastrous for them to buy cows to give as offerings. Yet we do not think so when people sell cows and lands to take money as offering.

Mega Church Lapses

I want us to look at you today, you who was raised in those deplorable and backward places where nothing worked, but who later, due to education, position, or profit relocated to the big city.

I especially want to speak to you who was raised in that humdrum church in those places who has finally found your ‘rest’ in a mega church and completely forgotten where he came from because it even appears shameful to be associated with such small beginnings.

I do not know whether you realise that that offering you give in that city mega church can comfortably and sufficiently support a pastor of that small church you now despise. That the small offering the big church does not really appreciate can make a huge difference in that church that made you who you are spiritually. That the church that raised you has stagnated because you have decided to effectively forget her existence, at least in your giving.

I do not know whether you realise that probably the reason the church is still backward is because you renounced it when you ‘made it’ in life.

I do not know whether you know that nothing is working in that village church because you have concentrated all your effort, experience and resources on a church that needs you for the money and expertise you give than the person you are.

And to be as crude as many are, do you realise that when you die it is that neglected village church that will carry the bulk of the burden of burying you?

Why am I writing this?

Tithe peddlers always remind the ones they are fleecing to take their money where they are fed, meaning where they are entertained or pampered.

But why do they not speak about remembering where they were breastfed?

That is the purpose of this message.

You are who you are because someone nurtured you from birth.

And it is not much different in the spiritual.

That Sunday school that taught you songs you did not understand has had a much greater influence on your spirituality than that comedic pastor who commands you to possess and claim.

The clearest you will find this is in one’s understanding of sin and the holy place.

That is why some are blatant sinners while others are very ashamed if they are caught. That is why you see some who do not have issues stealing or misusing church resources even as others would rather that their resources are swallowed up instead of touching church things.

The building blocks of your spiritual foundations are the reason you are the way you are.

That is the foundation I want us to remember.

Allow me to demonstrate the truth that the megachurch is only interested in what it can get from you, very simply.

How does it deal with sin?

Do you realise that most of these stinky and corrupt politicians that are morally decadent even if we used secular standards are members of these megachurches? The simple reason is those fat envelopes they give.

But I suspect you fled the village church because you know they will not be scared of your money and be scared of rebuking your sin. They would rather ‘starve’ than compromise their revelation.

But not many fled the village church because of sin.

Many did it because they got scared of giving, thinking that the village church is composed of beggars.

They therefore fled to the city where they are being milked dry by the educated smooth talkers.

They are giving much more in churches that use their money badly because they are scared of giving it to a church where they can trace the last coin.

They are giving their money to take their smooth-talking fraudsters for cruises and holidays when the same money could have sorted the roofing of their village church.

They are giving so that those comedic ‘pastors’ can buy houses and fuel guzzlers that they will still have to give to maintain when the same money could have installed electricity in that village church.

They are giving their money for mission trips that are mostly holidays when the same money could have bought instruments for that village church.

Do I hate the megachurch?

Of course not.

But I have been in megachurches, even been in leadership and know that for the most part the megachurch is a monster of a structure where spiritual accountability is very difficult to be found.

Ministers who are walking in their calling are too busy doing what they have been called to to think of taking leadership. Meaning that leadership is mostly taken by the wheeler-dealers, spiritual fraudsters, brokers or immature believers.

This means that chances of your giving going to where you intended it rarely, if ever, happens.

Incidentally, even if you get into leadership, you will discover that there are some who have more mouth than others. This means that your input will only be useful if it is in line with them. Otherwise, you may as well go hang.

But the village church is small, just as the village. This means that everybody’s opinion matters, even the ones of those not in leadership.

The other megachurch dynamic you will notice is ministry.

If you are not known, especially if your money is not visible, you may as well forget ministry from the church.

Many people who are not well off who go to a megachurch do so for the purposes of rubbing shoulders with the movers and shakers of society and not ministry. They think that standing side by side with a millionaire in church will somehow transfer the millionaire anointing to them.

It is when a crisis occurs that you realise the superficial nature of the megachurch fellowship. And I have seen enough of those heartbreaks.

But the village church does not operate that way, simply because everybody knows everybody else. And they will do all things together.

Though sin can thrive in a megachurch, it will find it very difficult to do so in a village church unless the same village has wicked foundations that the church is scared to confront. Or the said church was built on a corrupt foundation.

You see, normal is the operating spiritual system a child found.

A child who found obscenity thinks it is the norm and is even surprised to go to a place that lacks it.

The same goes for a child who found deference for the holy place and things, amongst other realities.

There is this person who views not going to church on Sunday the unpardonable sin because that is how he was brought up even as another thinks going to church is enough to bribe God.

I do not know whether we are getting anywhere.

What I am saying is that the village church has contributed more to your spiritual development than that surge of adrenaline you are being fed by that superstar you are calling pastor, bishop, prophet, apostle or any other title.

This means that as part of our appreciation for where God has taken us, we should honour those spiritual foundations with our resources.

Most, probably all megachurches do not know you apart from what they can get from you, from money to the deference your position attracts.

But the village church will treat you as you are without any deference to what you have since it raised you without them anyway. Or you do not remember Jesus in Nazareth?

Yet Jesus did not desert Nazareth, even dying with the name on His epitaph.

That is what I believe we should do with our Nazareth, wherever it is.

Allow me to add another aspect as a footnote to this.

Do you know those ministers who remain hidden most of the time yet are the ones you will always run to when you have a crisis?

Those are the other people you are sinning against God by neglecting in your giving and other support.

You should ask yourself why you will not run to your superstar pastor when you have a crisis yet will always run to him with an envelope when you are celebrating something. You should ask yourself why he never comes to your mind when you get that promotion, job or travel documents to your Canaan. Yet he is the only shoulder you will cry on when your life is a mess. Yet he is the only one you run to when you need counsel. Yet he is the only one you will run to when you need prayers because you know that he will pray.

Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward. (1Timothy 5: 17, 18)

Second to your village church is therefore the minister who does not remind you to support him or remind you of the many ways he has ministered to you.

Forgetting him is ingratitude of the highest order.

I will also mention the husband.

Many wives will treat their husbands as trash when it comes to spiritual things.

Yet it is this same husband who allows you to not only attend those meetings belittling him, but also funds you to do it, at the very least by reducing his expectation of what you should have done had you not attended those ‘enriching’ sessions.

Wives will leave their homes for days without as much as informing their husbands where they are going yet call him a demon when he takes responsibility for his house by demanding an explanation. Yet the same wives will call him weak if he doesn’t demand it.

Allow me to leave this here as I do not intend to build on it, at least in this post.

It is an addendum to what I am sharing.

I know I have made enough enemies by writing this post. But I would rather be right with God than be relevant to worldly expectations.

In any way, would you please show me where I have gone against scripture?

Watch or Listen?

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

The context of this message is a quote from a very good Bible study book called Experiencing God.

It says something like this

See what God is doing and join Him.

I am sure these are not the actual words but that is the thrust of the statement.

At face value, it looks like a very healthy quote.

Allow me, however, to look at some of its implications.

The first is the subtle assumption that God does not speak.

That is why we must wait to first see His wind moving to know what and where He is at.

That single error has the capacity of leading us to places God never intended for us to get to.

Before I get to Biblical examples, allow me to remind us of things that are happening all around us.

Doomsday cults operate on that principle.

The people who were recently starved to death, hundreds of them, were following God’s move.

Even cults thrive on that principle.

That is why they manufacture miracles and prophecies to prove that they have or are in the move of God.

Most televangelists and prophets thrive on that.

Though I do not follow them, I am also certain that most social media ministers operate on the same principle.

In the Bible, we see many incidences of the same.

The mixed multitude that was a thorn in Moses’ flesh simply followed that move.

Lot followed Abraham because it was evident that God was with him.

Michal loved David on the same terms.

And I am sure Gehazi served Elisha for the same reason.

On the home front, I am sure many Christian marriages fail because they were built on that dynamic.

You see, joining someone who is working does not automatically unite you with them.

You are an admirer of what you have seen. You are simply like a social media follower.

Compare that with Jonathan.

He saw David and the spirit he operated under and sought partnership, even surrendering his position to the anointing he had seen, unlike his sister.

Also, unlike Gehazi, we see Elisha surrendering everything to simply pour water on Elijah’s hands, eventually requesting to inherit him and succeeding.

Seeing God at work is therefore not enough to get us into a relationship with Him.

Because God does speak. In fact, He has already spoken.

But beyond that, He seeks to speak to anyone willing to hear.

And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. (Mark 4:9)

Looking for the evidence of His working is an inferior method of partnering with God because He is already looking for partners who will receive His orders.

The second problem with the statement is that we must become observers before joining God.

This means that we are reactors, followers instead of workers, partners. And that is a big difference.

This is because someone else must first hear from God and start moving before I even consider moving. Someone must first initiate obedience before I can join the move of God.

Imagine if all of us did that!

What would have happened had Samuel followed that advice? What about David when Goliath was harassing the Israeli army? Incidentally that is what the army was waiting for the forty days Goliath was harassing them.

And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that is come up? surely to defy Israel is he come up: and it shall be, that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free in Israel. (1Samuel 17:25)

The reason they couldn’t fight or surrender was because they were waiting for a man to initiate the move of God that they could then join him.

We can’t hide under waiting to see the move of God to respond because God seeks people to initiate those moves. Incidentally that starts with you.

For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth. (Zechariah 4:10)

Someone MUST start. And that person is someone who has received the order

Waiting for him to move before joining means that you are an outsider to the things of God.

It is the non-believers who are drawn to the faith by those moves; simply because they do not know God and so need some demo of sorts to believe.

Remember that Jesus, though He performed miracles at will, refused to give a sign to the Jews.

And why?

Because they knew God beyond signs since they had His word.

By waiting to see the move of God, we are simply repeating the same error.

Believers do not chase signs and wonders. Believers do not chase prophets and prophecies. Believers do not chase miracles or glitter of any kind and type.

That is the preserve of the cynics.

We have God’s word that we should hide in our hearts and minds. We have His Spirit to guide us to His will. We have His power resident in us.

In fact, those miracles are resident in us by virtue of the Holy Spirit being released to us.

Seeking drama of any sort is therefore an indictment on our rebellion.

Pretending to use it to guide our obedience is akin to worshiping another god, the god of displays.

The third reason that statement could mislead is because waiting to see God and joining that move will make me a secondary recipient of His guidance.

As is commonly said, God does not have any grandchildren.

Why then should He use a proxy to get me into His work? By proxy I mean somebody else who is working causing me to work.

God is interested with a relationship with His people. And that relationship is a very personal one.

This means that He seeks to speak to us as personally as possible so that we are very clear with what He wants with us.

He is not interested in our guess work. He is not interested in our interpretations of what He wants us to be and do.

What some of us are doing is akin to a son asking his father, who is at home with him, to send him a letter through the post office (or email) so that he can understand what he wants.

We are the move of God if we are obedient to His revelation.

And that is the move He will use to draw the world to Himself.

Let us immerse ourselves in His word to know Him.

Let us obey everything He commands to align ourselves with His will.

That is what will create the momentum for the move the world will see to come to Him.

New World Church 3

I promised to deal with some reasons Biblical elders refuse to take their positions and insist on remaining active in ministry, even despite their waning strength.

The first is the dynamic of modern living.

In the past, children would automatically continue in the occupations of their parents and would learn the skills through apprenticeship. We did not have formal schools or jobs.

Today, all children go to school in a system designed to keep them unproductive until they complete. Then they continue being dependent until they get a job.

This means that they will be dependent on their parents for a very long time, at least till their mid twenties.

Another dynamic of modern living is that the marriage age has gone much higher than in the past.

This means that most will get married into their thirties.

A dynamic that seems to counter that is that most couples insist on having very few children.

But even then, it raises serious issues.

A pastor who gets married at thirty-five and gets a child immediately will get him at thirty-six.

At fifty, when he is supposed to retire from active ministry and take the Biblical role of elder, his first born is only fourteen, either in or joining high school.

Incidentally, that is when education starts becoming expensive. And he could be having another child or two.

The pull between what God’s word says and the dynamics of his life make it very difficult for him to even listen to God or even consider His way of doing things.

Even if he decides to push God’s retirement age to sixty, he still would be having greater needs because then his children will be in college, an even more expensive obligation.

That is why it becomes very easy to trash God’s word.

But closing our eyes to what God’s word commands does not invalidate it.

The need to remain afloat in the sea of parental demands has no way of annulling or even weakening God’s revelation.

We had better align ourselves with what God says to be able to walk with His favour and provision.

I am not an elder because I have all my chips aligned.

If anything, I am in a more difficult position than most. And I have been like that for most of my ministry years.

But I choose obedience because it allows God to always show off in my situation.

As an example, many believers will only remember to support ministers when they see them at work; either through reports or appeals.

But God not so long ago asked me to stop even sending those ministry updates. Meaning that those supporters who require the plodding of updates and reports will simply disappear.

Incidentally, they are the ones who request for those updates and reminders and so it is not begging as many might be thinking.

What this means is that my support is purely in God’s hands even as the educational demands are growing. It means I have completely lost control of my support since anybody who will give me will have to be prompted by God to do so.

My support has dimmed dramatically even as I am writing this, meaning I am writing this probably more for me than for you.

There are other orders I have received that has made the expectation of support for ministry even more ominous.

However, this has made me more focused on pursuing obedience because I know God is only involved in what is pursued in obedience.

There have of course been miracles of provision, some very dramatic. But they have not been in tandem with how they were when I was visible.

But we must take our roles seriously if the church will support us.

We must minister in that role before believers see the necessity of that role enough to pour their resources into it. We must minister in that role properly for the church to realise the need to support us.

Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward. (1Timothy 5: 17, 18)

You may realise that these elders are ruling, in other words exercising authority or bringing order in the church.

But they are not using whips and swords since their rulership is spiritual.

And their authority is not questioned because they have lived a full life of integrity and service.

Those verses are also talking about taking care of these elders since they have left fishing to watch over the church of Christ with their oversight.

I can confidently say that God is taking care of me, and has been since I decided to take my role of Biblical elder as the Bible states.

As happened when Israel was crossing the Jordan, we must put our feet completely into the flooding river before God can part it. We must trust God to release our cares completely into His revelation before He can take responsibility for our needs.

What I mean is that we must be operating in the elder position before we can expect God to make any sense of our nonsense of complete obedience.

We must throw away our crutches before we can walk in our healing, however secure we felt in those crutches.

That salary, that support, that honorarium; in fact, everything you were harvesting from the visibility of your ministry must be intentionally forsaken. Simply because elders are not visible.

As an aside, only elders can conclusively deal with a sin issue in the church leadership.

Any member of that leadership, even the pastor, will find it impossible to deal with corruption and many other destructive sins in the leadership because he is part of it. And the collective nature of decision making makes it almost impossible. The fact that it is the same body that decides his package makes it impossible to even attempt to put his foot down on issues dear to his heart.

Putting his foot down will simply divide the leadership and even the church due to the influence those leaders have, especially because there are relationships and interests being represented by each leader. Church splits are many times the product of such an attempt.

I for one have over the years in many committees attempted to deal with issues and was met with defamation, at times being ejected from leadership when they realise they can’t argue their way out of their sin or explain away their indiscretions since vested interest can also be found in church.

But an elder is not part of the leadership and so can be trusted to offer a sober solution to issues. He has also been in leadership and therefore knows the dynamics of that leadership. The fact that he served with distinction makes it easy for any leadership to take his word and counsel he offers seriously.

My argument so far is that an elder MUST NOT be in leadership. But he must have had actively served the Lord with integrity and distinction before he became an elder.

You can’t have a pastor who chased girls being entrusted with eldership because he will then be chasing people’s wives. You can’t have a person who had a reputation of Judas being an elder because he will always favor the side that had the best gifts. And we can’t have a person whose children are sons of Belial being an elder because it will be difficult to blot that stain from their character.

The Bible is very clear on the qualities of an elder.

If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. (Titus 1: 6 - 9)

A bishop is simply an overseer, an elder.

Nobody will trash the word of such an elder. Nobody will get enraged by the rebuke from such an elder. Nobody will run away from the counsel of such an elder.

That is what the modern church lacks.

And it lacks because the ones who should take that role are preoccupied with family affairs and the growth of their megachurches instead of looking at the big picture, God’s picture. They are preoccupied with chasing the shadows of ministry relevance that they forget that the only relevance that counts is the relevance God approves.

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)

It is not the doing of God things that takes us to heaven. It is only doing what God has for us to do.

Are we together?