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?

New World Church 2

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 imperative that I give a context for my last message for the purposes of some to be able to appreciate why elders are essential for the health of the church.

And I will start by asking some obvious questions.

Can pastors fall in sin?

Can pastors backslide?

Can bishops forsake the faith?

Do Christian leaders encounter temptation like other believers and can they also fall?

Why all these questions?

Many ‘average’ believers think that their leaders are infallible. Many think that the presence of a position in the spiritual is total insurance against anything the devil can attempt.

Sadly, they also live as such.

Why then did Jesus close His sermon with this warning?

How could He say He does not know people who had been effective in ministry?

It simply means that it is possible to start right in the things of God and end up irrevocably lost.

And the Bible flows with example after another of the same.

From Balaam to Saul to Hezekiah to Asa to Uzziah.

And in the New Testament, from Judas to Ananias to Demas to Diotrephes.

Ministers are fallible too.

1 Corinthians 10:12 is also addressed to us ministers, and probably more.

Treating a fallible being as infallible is literally killing them spiritually because they have no capacity of handling themselves at that level.

Remember an incident in the recent past when there was an uproar after a bishop impregnated his parishioner?

Then what happened?

Other bishops scrambled a defence that was laughable. They repented on behalf of their colleague.

You would wonder whether he had been representing them in that bed of sin. Or probably he had.

Word on the street was that that sheep just became wayward and did the unthinkable.

During those trysts, girls are supposed to take interventional contraception. And in case conception still happens, there is enough offering money to fund abortions.

Sadly, that is quite widespread in church circles.

A friend who had been a gateman/ watchman of a flat in a posh estate told me of his disgust when he would see a revered and ancient archbishop bring girls, different girls, some his granddughter’s age, to an apartment he had rented there for sex purposes. And you can be sure that those sin excursions were funded by tithes and offerings.

If you are able to hear people who work on those expensive hotels and exclusive getaways, you will be nauseated by the things you hear about the conduct of some of those senior clerics you admire; from drunken fights to obscene language to sex orgies.

And the list goes on and on.

But as always, I will hasten to add that not all are like that.

There are a few who have not stained their garments and have kept to the straight and narrow conscientiously. These are the ones who make this post urgent because they will be lumped together with these rotten caricatures of ministers. Because very few, especially the unbelievers who desperately need our witness, can tell between a sheep and a wolf garbed like a sheep, which is what these conmen are.

Accountability is not there to question someone’s commitment to the cause of Christ. It is not there to hinder the performance of someone’s ministry. It is not there to doubt the anointing.

Accountability presupposes the limitation and fallibility of man, however anointed he is.

In fact, accountability starts at the point that the anointing is evident. It starts at the point that the ministry is portent.

And that because it is very difficult to fall into pride when we are struggling to establish anything. It is impossible to fall into sin when we are building foundations.

Saul did not start disregarding God’s word when he was ‘fighting’ for acceptance but when his army was fully behind him.

You might also remember that David fell into sin after he had more or less vanquished his enemies and sent his army for conquests for the fun of it, and that in distant lands.

All these characters we see in the Bible who fell from grace did it more or less at their pinnacle.

We must therefore start the accountability early to forestall that. And only elders have the Biblical mandate to handle that.

I am sure that most of those excesses are driven by the pressure to continue functioning beyond the Biblical mandated time, especially because they refused to mentor others to take over their positions when the time came. They felt threatened instead of relieved when their vigour waned.

Like Saul, they then started fighting the move of God using those ecclesiastical offices.

Those other sins and abominations are just fights to maintain relevance.

Yet had they just listened to the One who called them they could have simply taken the elder role.

This could have released them to serve an even bigger and wider constituency.

As an example, I receive calls from ministers I have never met or even heard of who were referred to me for ministry. And I am sure it is because I am available, and untethered to structures. They can trust me to keep their secrets because nobody can coerce me to divulge them since I am not in anybody’s employ.

They also know that they will have my undivided attention.

To the ant ministers, an elder appears like an idler because he is always found at the city gates.

But you may remember that it was at those city gates that Mordecai was able to thwart an assassination. And apparently nobody else in that gate even knew how he was able to do it because they didn’t even know that he was the one who intervened.

An African proverb summarises the role of the elder.

A seated elder can see farther than a young man on an elevated platform.

I will later look at the reason/s ministers are scared of becoming elders when their time comes.

For example, why do senior ministers refuse to take sabbatical leave? Why do they always refuse to retire when the time comes? And why do they change church constitutions to extend their stay in those offices when they are most qualified to serve as elders?

New World Church

I have for a very long time struggled through understanding the leadership confusion in the church today.

Why is there so much corruption in church and faith-based structures?

Why is there so much unchallenged sin?

I am writing this as someone who has over the years attempted to challenge sin and wickedness in churches and Christian groups I have been part of, especially the ones that were foolish enough to put me in leadership.

And I am saying foolish because they interpret my passion and commitment to ministry wrongly; thinking that only zeal separates my practice of religion with theirs.

But it rarely takes long before what they always assumed as acceptable is challenged by scripture and godly logic.

I of course try as much as possible to follow the same scriptures in the challenge.

Allow me to give an example.

I was at one time an elected leader of a Christian Union and in a short while the bigger chaps in the CU became uncomfortable with my presence though they could not do much about it.

One of my quarrels with them was passing things and setting ambitious plans that never worked, some of which did not make much sense.

Why are we discussing another engagement when we have three previous ones that we had already decided on yet have done or are doing nothing about them? Was my main argument.

Why are we discussing plans for new things instead of discussing the implementation of the already agreed on plans?

But things came to a head when they invited a heretic for an overnight meeting. And I didn’t know him and so went to hear a good preacher. Incidentally he was very entertaining, even though he could become gross.

I took notes very studiously.

When the dust settled, I went back to the notes and started seeing very clear signs of open heresy, statement so clearly unscriptural.

I was unable to let that pass as I prayed.

But I had to also use scripture to challenge that heresy.

I looked for him (that was before the internet) until I got his postal address (these were the 80s).

I then wrote him a letter outlining all the points at which he had strayed from the scriptures and showed him the scriptural position. I also gave him my address, even to the room I stayed in so that we could examine the scriptures together since I did not think anybody chooses error wittingly.

Interestingly, instead of responding to my letter or even seeking my audience, he told the leaders who had invited him that I had called him a heretic, something I did not do.

All the other officials (or probably the big mouthed ones) had some private meetings to discuss what they needed to do with me.

Then a meeting was called that I attended without knowing that I was the only agenda.

After the chairman talking volumes, he got to the point.

Someone called the preacher a heretic.

That didn’t affect me since I didn’t, and second, my letter was personal, even seeking an audience.

They got stuck.

Then I think somebody else said that he had said that someone had told him that some things he had taught were unscriptural.

I said I had told him that.

So, you wrote the letter?

Of course, from there pandemonium though it is impossible to mob the truth.

They then kicked me out of their committee and I walked out knowing that it was because I sought to right a wrong scripturally.

But what they did after that was more saddening.

When the time for the elections of new officials came, due to their fear of me being elected into office again, probably even being made chairman, they effectively rigged the whole thing by choosing their people and asking the membership to place them into positions.

Yet I have never sought any positions since I responded to God’s call. In fact, I try my best to avoid them since they are many times a drag on my assignment. And I was very young then.

Why do such things happen in the church Christ purchased with His blood? And I say this because I have witnessed similar things more times than I care to remember.

The first reason is that we have corrupted the New Testament model.

The New Testament church did not have an ultimate leader or board. It had accountable relationships of ministers.

Though Peter was the pope (according to some), he never was absolute in any way.

Remember when God sent him to Cornelius?

He had to give an account of his departure from what the other elders thought was their mission.

You may also remember Paul openly rebuking him yet in his letter he writes of him very highly instead of calling him insubordinate.

Or in Acts 15 when the church has to deal with the inclusion of the gentiles.

The church was led by very spiritual elders who were placed in those positions by their relationship with God and how it ministered to the flock.

I do not see any evidence of elections being done to choose those elders. Their spirituality did not need any human push to authenticate.

As an example, how did James (Jesus’ half brother) become a pillar yet we see him with the rest of his brothers doubting Jesus when the apostles were completely sold out to Him? How did he overtake them?

You can be sure that it was not just because he was related to Jesus as we see even Jude, instead of mentioning about his earthly connection with Jesus was content to say he was related to James.

God had raised him to the point that his leadership did not need any trumpeting. Just like Jesus did not tell His disciples that Peter was the leader they should have submitted to. Nor did Peter at any time ask to be recognised as a leader. Again no elections were ever held.

Their relationships and fellowship were able to shine out the leadership inherent in each of the disciples without bringing down anybody else.

All were leaders but Peter and James stood above the rest in the fellowship.

I am sure that like Paul they did not feel qualified to be leaders because of their past (James doubted and even challenged Jesus’ authenticity and Peter denied Him). You may even remember that Jesus sought out the same Peter after His resurrection.

That is why he was subject to the other elders since he knew that he was not any better than they were. And that is why he took Paul’s very ‘humiliating’ rebuke very positively.

That is the most glaring difference I see with the modern church.

Challenging a pastor’s sermon is many times treated as heresy. Questioning a minister’s conduct is treated as blasphemy. And demanding scriptural explanation for some crazy things churches do is treated as touching the anointed.

There simply is no accountability in church leadership.

Of course, there is a pretence of the same because churches have elders and deacons.

But what sort of accountability can we have when the same elders and deacons are chosen by the pastor?

We say that the church has its foundations on apostles and prophets.

What kind of foundation are we having when the pastor is the apostle and prophet rolled on in one?

We have bishops and overseers (although that is actually the same thing)

Can I oversee others when I am in the thick of things with my own kiosk?

How can I be a supervisor of someone’s enterprise when I am running a similar enterprise on the side?

How can I be a foreman of someone’s building when I am doing the same on my site?

What I am trying to make us understand is that we are severely limited in what we can do at any one time, not only because I cannot be at two places at one time but also because my mind is unable to focus on several different things at one time.

You can’t be overseeing several churches when you are also pastoring your own church.

How will you prioritise between the crisis in your flock and the one in the diocese?

Who will you rush to rescue between a marriage in your church falling apart and a pastor who has been kicked out? What between your choir or prayer team falling apart and a church whose leadership is falling apart will you rush to rescue? And what between attending a fundraiser in one of the churches you lead and dealing with the reduction of the contributions churches make that has drastically reduced your ‘salary’?

We have in our folly of seeking to be in control lost the essence of Christ’s ministry.

Holding a title has become more important than functioning in it.

Feeding off a title has become of greater worth than feeding others using it.

Personal emolument is a greater driver than self sacrifice.

No wonder accountability structures are hated and dreaded when they cannot be avoided.

That is why church constitutions are more frequently changed than the political ones; because the man or men at the top does not want his foibles to be legally challenged.

That is why retirement ages are always being pushed higher and higher because the big fish would rather die in office than raise a Timothy or a Titus or a Mark.

And they fear retirement because they know they have absolutely no spiritual investment on the ground since they poured it all into their stomach or their cronies.

The only spiritual war they fight is against their growing irrelevance in the spiritual. And that since the devil doesn’t really mind their high-sounding proclamations and declarations since they are doing absolutely nothing to threaten his kingdom.

I have thrown this stone to rouse some reflection on our values and structures.

Why do Peter and John call themselves elders and not apostles in their epistles?

Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. (3John 1:10)

As an aside, could John have been able to plan such trips if he was running his own congregation? And how many such trips could he have been able to plan on a regular basis?

And how could Peter have been able to be out of Jerusalem for so long during the Dorcas and Cornelius ministries if he had had a congregation he was pastoring?

I believe the essence of oversight demands freedom from attachment.

In fact, even the elder demands someone with grown children according to the Bible. Because only then can someone be able to spend more time on church affairs without sacrificing his family.

That is why we see Samuel failing on the family front even as he excelled ministry wise.

I am writing this sitting on the elder seat as I am learning the ropes of my responsibilities.

Allow me to give you a small glimpse of a typical day in my very relaxed schedule. And I will write about the ‘abnormal’ things occupying it.

I wake up before six to switch on the Audio Bible I broadcast to my neighbours.

When I switch it off at eight, I will many times sit down on the computer to write these messages as God releases them. And I do it in the morning for two main reasons.

My mind and spirit are at their freshest in the morning and my solar system is not big enough to work on later if I must have adequate power at night.

After that I will more or less relax and wait for ministry, many times in terms of calls

And I receive calls!

Calls requiring counsel. Calls asking for ministry direction. Calls requiring encouragement.

There are times I can spend up to four hours on a single call.

Other times God would ask me to also buy adequate minutes and reach out to people needing ministry, some we have not had contact for years.

The bulk of those calls are from ministers (the majority beingserving pastors) and dealing with ministry issues. God using my ministry experience to guide others into the ropes of ministry as they are growing, though some of them may have been in ministry for as long or even longer than I have been; the difference being that the model God has released for me to use is much more radical than theirs.

During that time, I would also be on my small piece of land looking at the progress of my fruit trees and dealing with any eventualities (I never thought trees would demand so much attention); pests, lack of water, stray growth, etc.

Mid afternoon would find me heading to the shops, choosing the ones that are far and using the routes with less traffic for the purposes of getting adequate time to meditate but also open myself up for ministry. And there are times that twenty-minute journey could take over two hours for the ministry God would bring.

Would that be possible in my previously fast-moving ministry seasons?

How possible would it be for me to detach from my very pressing ministry engagements to create that much time consistently to guide someone in a position similar to mine? How easy would it be for me to kick out a counselee to focus on a struggling pastor?

There are times when I have to travel of course.

I would receive calls and be saddened because there is no way I could do the ministry I always easily do because I am in a public vehicle or in a meeting or in someone’s shop.

God dramatically scaled down my writing ministry for the same reason. And I had to stop much of the publishing, even for missions’ materials because God needs that ‘idle’ time to use me properly as an elder. I had to source for other ministers to continue doing it.

What I am saying is that an elder needs to be freely available to be of much use since crises do not give any advance notice.

He needs to be occupied in affairs that would be able to easily release him to respond to whatever crisis God would release his way without having to leave other crises in the wake.

That is how the African nations operated.

Incidentally, that also appears to be the way Israel operated.

How many times do you read of elders being found on the city gates? What would their purpose be if not to respond to societal situations as they arose.

You are therefore not a Biblical elder if you are occupying an ecclesiastical office even if you are a hundred years old. And by continuing to force that position you are denying yourself much usefulness and fulfilment to get the pittance you continue receiving as a bishop, senior pastor, apostle, general overseer, archbishop and any other title you may think befits your position.

You are denying the church of Christ your walk of faith by living so selfishly. And it is sad because you are becoming what Christ called some, hireling.

Detach yourself from that pay package to be of any use to the church of Christ.

And I know I am offending some immensely. But if I do not say this, who will?

Pray through this ‘offense’ and allow God to speak to your situation specifically since this post speaks in a general way.

 

Vanquished, not Destroyed

I had a dream in which I was in a very brutal confrontation with a foe.

And the war was very bloody, to say the least.

But the battle was very unusual in that I would batter the enemy so conclusively to the point that I would leave him dead and bloodied all over.

Interestingly, in a very short while, the same (probably a similar) enemy would be up and ready for war and I would need to urgently, not only to get new strength, but readiness for combat.

The same repeated for several times before the dream ended.

Does this not indicate what spiritual warfare is all about?

Does it not show how life in the spirit is like most of the time?

But I want us to look at what I feel is the main message in this dream.

And it is the fact that, though we will at all times have complete victory over the battles God allows to grow our relationship with Him, we will never completely finish fighting for our faith. We will all the time be on the warfront.

But there is another reality we must look at.

And it is that once we defeat one enemy, we will graduate into another level of warfare.

In short, we will earn a promotion in the spiritual realm.

Which means that our next enemy will be of a higher rank and have better ability and skill than the one we have vanquished because our status has been elevated.

This directly means that the more spiritual battles God will send our way, the higher our spiritual rank becomes and the more powerful the enemies we must deal with.

At the start we will be dealing with personal temptations, then personal issues until our spiritual rank grows to the point that we will be dealing with kingdoms and empires.

It is comic to see people called (or calling themselves) spiritual generals hiring physical bodyguards as if the spiritual is subject to the worldly.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)

This is the reason the Bible looks at our faith in a military way.

You may remember Jesus commending the faith of a military commander seeking the healing of his servant because he applied military dynamics to his faith.

Authority goes with ranks. And ranks are not given; they are earned. Like is said someone must earn their stars.

That is why princes must join the military so that they would be able commanders in chief when they take over their kingdoms.

Like I have said severally, kings in the past led from the front.

This means that they must have the knowledge of war as well as earn the respect of the armed forces as they are knowledgeable in their leadership.

I hope you realise I am still dealing with spiritual realities. I am dealing with our faith.

Being knowledgeable in all the arts of war without any exposure to actual warfare might appear very useful. But a gun is never fired in a classroom.

This means I cannot gain any spiritual promotion in that classroom. I must get those stripes and stars on the warfront. I earn them through conflict. I earn them through the bruises and bumps I receive as I confront a world at war with her creator.

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

Is a gate the only fortification someone puts up against intruders?

Of course not.

A gate is meant to give someone time to organise his defences against attack. You might call them the first line of defence.

The actual defence lies behind those gates. The gate is the activating factor in their release.

Someone attempting to get past those gates must be ready to deal with a more formidable defence, a defence they could not see due to those gates, from booby traps to hidden weaponry.

But the gate will many times say what kind of defence someone should anticipate just as a gate will indicate the kind of treasure it is protecting.

As an example, how many people are killed in their compounds if it was not an inside job? How many banks are robbed without insider involvement?

Someone thinking of breaching the gate must therefore have infinitely superior arsenal than the simple ability of breaching that gate.

I hope you now understand the implication of Christ’s statement to Peter.

It was a promise of a victory so complete against the powers of darkness that the gates of hell would more or less open on their own accord at our advance. That because the power entrusted to us would render those gates a minor obstruction against our advance.

And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (Jude 1:23)

Our goal is not just blasting those gates. It is snatching people from hell.

The gates are there for the purpose of keeping those imprisoned from any rescue whereas the Gospel and its ministers’ responsibility is to get into hell through breaking those gates and snatching some out of hell itself.

I know there are innumerable arguments that can be made for or against this statement and so will refuse to add fodder to them.

But the bottom line is that God has given His obedient servants power and authority to break through the gates of hell and rescue some.

I am sure some of you have looked at someone and almost seen the fire of hell in their eyes and desperation.

The drug addict, the alcoholic, the sex maniac, the corrupt.

Their bravado is completely impotent to hide the helplessness in their spirits.

Though they may use everything in their power to shield them from the Gospel, they are unable to resist their craving for a better life, a God-ordered life.

I am saying this as someone God has at times sent to the dumps where the most hopeless side of humanity can be found. And their cry for help is always heartrending.

But they are in prison with forbidding gates.

However, God has always broken through for some to experience the rescue that the Gospel is.

Very few hearts are like Jezebel’s whose response to a revival is a murder threat to the tool God used.

Remember that even that legion of demons could not stop that character in Mark 5 from running to Jesus?

But this is a warfare post, the part of the Gospel in it being essential.

God will not send you to breach gates for which you have not been sufficiently trained and armed to breach.

This means that victory is assured only when we go to the gates we have the capacity to breach through our training and equipping.

It is essential that we clearly hear God’s orders before venturing out for those missions. Otherwise, we could become victims instead of the victors we had thought we were.

There are pastors and evangelists who have sent themselves to the gate called harlotry and ended up becoming customers instead of rescuers. Ther are pastors who have gone to rescue people from drinking dens and ended up becoming drunkards.

Yet we have others who are very successful in those ministries.

And we have many ministers who have sought to deal with corruption by joining politics and ended up becoming as corrupt, if not worse.

It is therefore supremely important that we know our capacity before approaching those gates.

I remember once leading a team to visit some Hindu temples and after the exercise we were so exhausted we did not think we could continue with the rest of the week’s program. Some of the team actually became sick and stopped. But God strengthened us.

Later visits were not like that because I had prior spiritual preparation.

Our spiritual capacity determines whether we will become victors or victims.

Going to the gate God sends you will give you victory just as going to a gate you have not been prepared for will bring disaster.

Do you know your spiritual capacity?

Purpose of Enduement

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)

I was recently asked to explain the Biblical position on the filling of the Holy Spirit.

I though it is important to get to the basics of the same of the same.

You see, that topic has been made complicated to the point that it has created controversy to whoever touches it.

So you will allow me to deal with the purpose to help us to navigate the other aspects.

See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, (Exodus 31:2)

I want to start with the first place the Bible says that someone has been filled with the Holy Spirit to set our ball rolling.

Why was Bezaleel filled with the Holy Spirit?

And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount. (Exodus 25:40)

God had a building project that required great attention to detail so that only someone possessed with His Spirit could supervise it.

You may also remember that even the sharing of the blueprints required someone even more filled, Moses.

It is clear from this single point that we are filled with the Holy Spirit for the purpose of doing God’s work exactly as He requires it; meaning that it has very little to do with us and everything to do with God.

God does not fill us with His Spirit for our purpose, fulfilment or whatever.

It is His assignment that is the focus of the filling as was with Bezaleel.

Before you start shouting about the New Testament, allow me to rush there, starting with a favourite verse.

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

We are given power not to build great edifices or grow mammoth organisations. We are given to BECOME His witnesses. We are empowered to direct the lost world to Him.

Let us also go to the anthem and most misunderstood verse of the charismatic movement.

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. (Acts 2: 4 – 6)

This was the immediate manifestation of our previous verse.

They were able to reach people they had no capacity of reaching apart from that gift of tongues. No wonder three thousand responded from that witness even as the locals thought the believers were blabbering since they did not understand those foreign tongues.

And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, ... And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4: 29, 31)

Here the need was for God’s power against force and threats and the filling resulted in a boldness to give their witness power against the powerful forces ganged against them.

As you continue reading Acts, you will see the power of that filling responding to the various challenges besetting its witness.

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (John 16: 13, 14)

The Holy Spirit is our link to heaven and its discourses.

What I mean is that He is the One who clearly has the heavenly pattern and can transfer it to us, that being the reason I started with the statement from the Lord’s prayer about God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven.

That is the primary, possibly the only purpose God sent His Spirit to fill us.

What about joy? What about peace? What about fulfilment?

Can you starve when working in a food joint?

Can you become penniless when managing money?

Can you be trudging to work when managing a transport company?

The Holy Spirit not only reveals heaven to us, but through Him filling us releases heaven to us.

No wonder God’s attributes are slowly transferred to us as we continue being filled.

It is a travesty to hear someone claiming being filled with the Spirit yet unable to control their base cravings.

God’s filling (through the Holy Spirit) transfers God’s nature to us.

No wonder we have these verses

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5: 22 – 25)

Before these verses is a demonstration of what someone who is not filled with the Spirit is like. No wonder they are called the works of the flesh!

The purpose of the filling of the Spirit is simply to make us conformed to Christ’s image

Allow me to close with this verse

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (John 12:32)

We are filled with the Holy Spirit to enhance our witness.

I hope this settles the dust for most of us though I know some will continue arguing using their denominational or experiential education