Positive Mammon 2

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, (Luke 4:18)

Allow me to focus this topic today on us ministers

And I do this because we know that judgment starts in God’s household.

And I must address us separately because for many of us we do not have the resources to pour into those enterprises, simply because we depend on others to supply our needs.

I do not earn money from ministering. But I know I am not speaking about the majority.

Some of us have no disposable income to do anything apart from the ministry God has called us to.

For example, it would be disastrous for me to take moneys God has availed for me to make books or audio Bibles to feed the hungry just as it would be for someone to take money God has released for a mission to be taken to an orphanage. On the same vein it would be as wicked to take money meant to feed the vulnerable for a mission.

There are churches that have abused designated giving and attracted judgment, and continue doing so.

But this does not absolve us from using mammon for kingdom purposes.

That is what I want us to look at.

A minister is a servant of another. A minister is a steward of someone else’s resources.

It is only that the Lord and Owner of those resources is not physically visible. Nor does He enforce our compliance towards His orders.

Many interpret that as not caring whether His orders are followed or not.

But nothing can be farther than the truth.

God holds us accountable for the last cent He has entrusted to us just as He does for every idle word we speak and every idle minute we waste.

It means God in a more demanding boss than the rest, only that He does not always hold the whip to enforce our obedience.

It is therefore instructive that we learn the basics of what is required of us by way of giving us a focus.

Who does God focus on?

This will guide us as we use mammon positively.

Matthew 25 talks about sheep and goats. This means that this can guide us on our use of mammon.

Needs.

And we see that even in the Old Testament.

Among the signs Jesus gave for John the Baptist to know that He was the Christ was that the poor have the Gospel preached to them.

Two things I want us to look at.

The first is, what is the focus of our ministry? Where is our focus for our ministry.

We would do well to imitate our Lord in that.

He focused on the downs and outs. He focused on the rejects. He focused on the hopeless. He focused on the sick and seeking. He focused on the ones nobody else dared associate with.

Have you ever wondered why Judas had to kiss Jesus for Him to be known to the authorities yet He was such a public figure?

They had probably never seen Him. And that simply because His ministry never took Him anywhere close to them.

Herod longed to see Him yet Jesus never honoured that desire.

That is the reason they needed for Him to be identified.

Where does our ministry take us?

And I am not questioning the executive and golf course ministries.

But according to Jesus, the focus of ministry is the hurting, the ones who are openly expressing their need for someone to rescue them.

The other aspect is our assessment of the giving toward us and the ministry we have been called to.

Again, look at Jesus to get your focus. Look at Him at that offertory.

The one who had given close to nothing in monetary terms is gauged to have given more that all the others who had offered huge amounts.

And we would be wise to use His standard to gauge the giving we enjoy from God’s people.

Most people who give sacrificially have very little to live on, just like that widow with her two mites.

They are in effect giving everything they have.

I remember once a young man gave me twenty bob (equivalent to a quarter during those times).

And he really pressed me to take it because he felt that rejecting it meant that I was rejecting his appreciation for my ministry.

To imagine he had walked the equivalent of two to three times that amount in fare, of course because he couldn’t have afforded it, is unimaginable for most.

That he could have saved himself half of his walk by using that amount for fare should guide our appreciation for that mite since he had literally offered his blood in that gift.

And I have had several other similar incidences in the course of the ministry God has entrusted me with.

Thinking that the thousand-dollar offering is worth more than that quarter is tantamount to walking roughshod on that young man’s blood.

Like the Macedonians in 1 Corinthians 8, he had first offered himself before offering the gift.

The gift was therefore an extension of his sacrifice.

And it is the same way when we give.

We might not feel anything when in plenty we offer a huge gift. But it is quite painful when we have to offer our last coin because it then means we are left with nothing.

I hope we will fill the gaps with more relevant revelation.

Toxic Friendships 2

Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. (Proverbs 6: 4, 5)

We talked about the dangers of sharing a common purse as we were looking at toxic friendships

Sharing a purse is an entrapment whose folly can only be seen by someone outside it.

Remember the case of bishops repenting on behalf of a fellow bishop who had impregnated his parishioner?

Or, have you ever wondered why very intelligent and educated people are swallowed into cults and some very stupid con games?

Common purse.

A common purse unites the parties holding it in ways even blood cannot.

It is a covenant, though not signed or sacrificed for; but a covenant stronger than those legally and spiritually binding covenants.

This means that those other covenants are lower in ranking than the common purse.

And that for the simple reason that it is the uniting of livelihoods. That common purse puts food on the table in more ways than one.

Have you realised that many people are in church because simply for burial purposes?

They will participate in all the church programs so that they will be accorded a befitting send off when they die.

Many people (probably most, if not all) will join one self group or the other with a crisis as the driver.

You will hear them always complaining of this or the other stupid contribution yet are scared to death of getting out.

Yet, if they had saved all those illogical and criminal contributions, they would be more than adequately prepared for any unforeseen eventualities.

But the worst part is that they will give their money and presence in support of a member caught in immoral, even criminal scandals. Like those bishops repenting on behalf of their adulterous bishop.

Simply because they are sharing a purse.

 Purse is amoral.

Your spiritual or moral positions hold zero sway over other owners of that purse.

You therefore cannot pontificate anyone.

However, you are a part of all the other owners of that purse you share.

They have a right to get your complete support even if they do something completely contrary to your beliefs or values.

You must bail them out even if they are caught doing something contrary to your values.

That is how corruption thrives.

Nobody will request you to choose corruption

Many times, it will start with an invitation to make a small investment in a company that can offer services or goods.

And the dividends will start coming steadily.

By the time you realise, you are sunk to your neck in corruption yet can do nothing because you have already enjoyed the loot before knowing where it was coming from. And you can’t abandon the team just because they have been caught. In any case you are part of them since you are a partner in the purse.

Pastors do not transition into motivational speakers because they have accessed a new revelation.

They have simply united purses with an Ahab somewhere. And it is impossible to preach against a purse that you are a partner of just as you can’t preach against yourself.

And I am not talking about a gift, unless it is a gift you requested or demanded as many pastors vary creatively and stealthily do.

But a gift is powerful and requires great sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to be able to avoid being defiled by the giver as Balaam was.

This reminds me of a time I was invited to join a pyramid scheme (normally called multi level marketing) even before I knew about them.

I prayed and God forbid me.

I was invited for a seminar in another one and of course I knew I didn’t need to pray for direction since they were similar.

But my friend, who was very senior in that one made a simple request.

Just pay the subscription and wait for the money. We will do everything else. And it was not even a lot of money.

Were it not for the fact that I had already received God’s order, it would have been very easy to have joined that purse.

And that could have killed any opportunity for speaking against or educating people about pyramid schemes since I would have been part of one.

Relationships are another place where a common purse plays a very pivotal role.

It is impossible to love someone and hate their family

That was the Peor dynamic.

Israel loved Moabite damsels and couldn’t resist their worship.

That is why in the past there needed to be intense investigation before two young people are allowed to get married.

You see, if I love someone from a family practicing witchcraft, I will have witches and wizards as in laws. And as an in law, I must participate in some of their practices since there are spelt out roles for in laws in their system.

Incidentally that is what happened with Jehoshaphat.

In my next post, I will look at how to avoid such traps.