Explaining God Away

I was listening to Revelation on audio Bible and wondered why after the last mention of saints (chapter 15) there is no other mention of God, gods or idols. It is surprising that after that we stop hearing the mention of any sort of worship, only blasphemy after judgment.

How come gods disappear from the scene so suddenly and so completely? What has happened that we stop seeing trace of worship of any sort? Earlier, we find all religions united against the saints who worship God through Christ Jesus. What has happened that all of a sudden all worship ceases? Does it mean that Christ is the end of all worship? Does it not mean that all religions exist with the single aim of stopping or corrupting the knowledge and worship of Christ? Does it not actually mean that there is no other worship but through Christ, that the removal of His worship ends the need for any other worship?

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed… (Psalm 2: 1, 2)

How do people stop doing all that they have been doing since time immemorial? Where are the Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists? What has happened to organized religion all of a sudden?

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. (Daniel 12:4)

I think that we are living in a time where we are looking to explain away everything. We are explaining away all mysteries. We have answers to all previously hidden knowledge. We think even God fits snug in the box of our explanations.

One challenge of that knowledge is that we are able to manipulate anything to serve us. Sadly, we also tend to think that God is also part of it. We find great fulfillment being supreme rulers of our universe through our knowledge. Like was told in Eden, we have become gods; at least we try to be. We are in charge of our destiny. Like the crowd in Babel (Genesis 11), we have made a name for ourselves and through technology have become a village. What do we need God for?

We are made to believe that there are ‘believers’ pre and post rapture. Why don’t we see any evidence of the same after the saints depart?

I also got to look at a question that has bugged me for a very long time. Why do we have these very senior ministers being condemned to hell in Matthew 7: 21 – 23? How could they have been able to do that kind of ministry in the wrong spirit and never know it?

I think they were able to distill the essence of ministry in quantifiable doses. They understood ministry completely until it lost its mystery. Until it became a job like any other! Even the supernatural could be explained. They only ‘called for’ faith because they had to earn a living. Faith was for the ignorant, and they were not the ignorant. Incidentally that is what you find with all other religions; the masses are strict adherents but the elite care for none of it though they are the ones who teach the same masses. It is called esoteric knowledge that does not need any observance. 

It then is no wonder that we hear of ministers caught in despicable behavior. It is a pity to see a pastor renowned for his exemplary exposition of the scriptures having sex with his parishioners and showing not even the slightest sense of shame or remorse.

God is one of the essentials of living. But sadly He is not much different from electricity, at least to these ministers. As such He can be defied just like in flying we defy gravity if we just have enough expertise to counter the repercussions of such defiance.

That is how they can flout the scriptures again and again as they teach self serving doctrines and live God defying lifestyles. The know enough about God to play into His bounty without necessarily having to subscribe to His standards. It is like an electrical engineer who can play with high voltage cables without seeming to care whether a small slip may mean instant death.

A minister therefore becomes similar to a magician, someone with enough trickery to convince an audience to pay for all the entertainment and wowing performances.

He could come fresh from having some wicked fun with a prostitute yet is able to make the presence (whatever it is) palpable when he gets to that pulpit. He could be tipsy yet becomes most heavenly after taking the pulpit that people think that he was drunk with the Holy Spirit, as if that is even remotely possible.

He could be an enemy of the cross outside that pulpit yet becomes angelic when he occupies it. And I am also talking of us whose pulpit is the written word. It thus appears as if the pulpit transforms Mr. Hyde into a Dr Jekyll.

Yet is that what God expects of His ministers? Is that the standard Christ set for us?

Whereas many assume I write as a whiner who has given up on the church of Christ, I do it to distinguish those who are Christ’s from the ones seeking to benefit from their association to Christ and His calling though they may be farthest from Him. You see it is only by knowing the real that the fake (pretense) can be revealed. I write with ire because of the damage they cause to the seekers of the truth and of God, much like what happened to David when he heard Goliath defying God’s armies.

What was Christ’s take on this?

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. (Matthew 7: 15 – 20)

We produce after our kind. And the spiritual is not any different.

God’s minister serves God, and only God. He serves people as an overflow of that worship. But people are not his focus. Only God is. That is where we look when we are looking for the fruit.

Does he have the heart of Christ?

What is your favorite minister’s relationship with friends and enemies, the rich and the poor, friends and enemies, the needy and the desperately needy? What especially is his attitude towards sin in those relationships? What is his attitude towards sin when it concerns his circles, especially his supporters?

What fruit does he produce? What is the product of his ministry and mentoring? How does he do that mentoring? Does it reflect the heart of Christ or does it further his self seeking agenda.

Is he replaceable or is he even more precious than Christ in the ministry he is in? Can the ministry proceed without him? Does he have fellow ministers or simple errand boys in ministry? Is there a possibility of him being overruled by a spiritual argument or is his position canon?

Is he replaceable or is he a permanent feature of the ministry he does? Does he encourage and even speak of his departure as he prepares others to take over from him or is it anathema to even imagine him gone?

Look at all that with Christ as the standard and you will easily see the person who serves God and on whose terms he does it.

Revelation versus Repetition

I want us to look at the way we start or do new things. And I want us to focus on ministry.

How do we start new ministries and churches? How do we venture into new territories? How do we break away from abusive spiritual relationships? How do we do God’s work in new frontiers?

Is ours a protest movement or a pursuit for God? Are we fighting to prove that God is still using us or are we seeking greater revelation to enable us live more obedient lives? Are we looking for worldly approval and acknowledgement or does a nod from heaven satisfy us?

Over the years I have observed a common trait about break away churches, ministries and groups. They will start so different from their ‘parent’ group because they are rebelling from the authority it exerted on them. But eventually they slowly start taking the character of the ‘parent’ they had rebelled from and disown almost everything they had pursued in the protest.

A case in point is the charismatic movement.

In the 70s and 80s hymns and hymnals were treated as clear evidence of lack of spirituality. It was the same with an order of service. Priestly collars and vestments were anathema. And there were many other such things.

The other day I was in a function where there were hundreds of pastors and bishops of charismatic churches.

You would not be mistaken if you thought it was an assembly of mainstream clergy. From the robes to the bishopric colors to the staffs to the collars there was no difference at all with how mainstream clergy are robed.

It got me thinking. Why do protest movements end up becoming like the places they left? Why does a protester not create something completely different from what he left in disgust?

The reason is the difference between revelation and repetition or protest.

You see only revelation produces original things. This is because God will never duplicate anything people have done. He always starts things afresh. All His revelations are new. You see, the One who created everything we see and even can’t from nothing does not need any existing thing to do something new.

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19)

Doing something because you are fed up with what is can never offer something new, only a pretense of it. And you can be certain that God is not the originator of it.

I once was called to start a ministry by a church. After some time the leadership realized that I was more conscious about God’s orders than I was about their self serving agenda. We disagreed again and again because they were more for the visibility of their church in the ministry than they were of its impact of the ministry. Worse still we disagreed on the direction God was giving me as it did not serve the self importance of the same leaders. The fact that it was transforming many was not enough to convince them of its importance or relevance.

They therefore killed the ministry, destroying everything I had spent years building. They did not even replace me as they ought to have done as they probably feared my influence on whoever would have replaced me.

It was a heartbreaking experience.

I therefore decided to start a similar ministry that would not be subject to a church structure. I wrote the constitution and laid down as much of its structure as I could before seeking registration.

But God stopped me from seeking registration, leading me instead to start Restore Hope Ministries, an empowerment ministry whose target is the disadvantaged. Even its registration went very smoothly.

Then He got me into the writing ministry that I enjoy as I see smiles from people who had been on the wilderness for so long finding the fulfillment of their vision after my helping them publish their book. And the greatest fulfillment comes from realizing that there is nobody doing the ministry I am doing, at least in the way I am doing it.

It was as God gave me this message that I got to understand why He did not allow me to start the ministry that church killed. Though it was a valid desire borne of a great (even urgent) need, it could have been impossible to operate that ministry without thinking about the disappointment and trying to show the church how ‘foolish’ they had been to kill it. It could have been an unconscious thing, but powerful all the same. I would gradually have started pursuing what I had fought against when I was doing ministry, visibility.

But revelation is different. In it God will give precise orders consistent with His purpose. They will also be tailored to His design and order for your creation, meaning that there will be no competition or ill feeling against people doing a similar thing. What is considered competition without revelation becomes partnership because God’s orders are the ones being sought and pursued.

Interesting enough God has been opening several doors on the ministry He had forbidden me to start. From consultation to helping set up to doing it the doors continue opening. But now I do not have any backward glance as I minister, something I know would have been impossible had I started it then.

Are you doing ministry because someone is enjoying immense support as he is doing it or because God is ordering you to do it? Are you pursuing a particular line of ministry because the person who first did it grew a mountain from a molehill of a congregation or is it an order God has given you?

A case in point is the way ‘praise and worship’ (whatever it is) is done. All distinctions have been demolished so that people enjoy it. First is a couple of fast paced danceable choruses that yield to very slow songs that lead to some semblance of reflective prayer. You will find the same whether you go to an extremely charismatic or dogmatically mainstream group.

The sad part in it is that there is no originality. All songs are copied from others who appear more worship conscious or seem to hit the musical notes better than we do. Authentic worship has disappeared; all because someone somewhere started something that was apparently too attractive to ignore.

Or look at some of the programs churches have been swallowed into like the purpose driven movement. They are popular simply because the originator is the pastor of a mega church, probably nothing else. The fact that he is shady on the gay agenda and has even invited homosexuals to hold an event in his church is not enough to challenge pastors to rethink that strategy they have adopted to the extent that some have changed church constitutions to fit in.

Look also at sermons. It appears as if all the preachers go through the same preaching school. A few times I am surprised by a blind beggar preaching so animatedly as a preparation for his begging mission. It appears very inspired until you realize that he is just a very good copy of the sermons he hears, needing no creativity at all. Most sermons have the same flow, end and expectation that you wonder how someone can talk about what God is saying yet you hear it from most pulpits and even radio and TV preachers in an almost identical way.

‘Thus says the Lord’ has been cheapened by the way ‘successful’ preachers are copied by aspiring preachers just because they have packed pews without caring to know where the inspiration is gotten from. Yet we know that some have bought that ‘anointing’ from the dark forces, some even having to consistently defile virgins and break marriages to maintain it. Yet we still copy them.

The absence of any preaching dealing with responsible Christian living and growth is the pointer that maybe all that preaching does not proceed from God, however inspiring it may appear. The lack of any preaching against sin even in the presence of rampant immorality clearly shows us that it can never proceed from heaven.

It appears as if worldly success is all one needs to be given leadership in church. A very rich thief has a greater chance at becoming a deacon than a poor man who has walked with God all his life. A prostitute has a higher chance of being the lead singer (called worship leader) than a housewife who decided that raising children was more obedient to God than remaining on Caesar’s payroll.

Why is that? I dare say that we are more interested in aping worldly success than in seeking heavenly revelation.

Let me talk as a writer of several books. I would be more attractive to churches if I have on my belt a million books sold than what I do; printing and giving books out for free. And that will not depend on the spiritual quality or relevance of what is written. A person who has sold a million copies of spiritual trash will find it easier to get an invitation to speak to a church gathering than one whose message is so deep that one has to go into adequate spiritual preparation before venturing to read or listen to it.

Why is that? The reason is simple. We are more inclined to the world and its standards than God and His revelation.

We forget that Jesus did not say that by their crowds, volumes and quantity we shall know them.

You see, according to spiritual standards, a person in a very remote village who has never travelled more than 50 km from where he was born but has through his words and deeds shared the Gospel to everyone who has passed through his village may be a better evangelist than the one who preaches to millions but has to water down the Gospel to get all those statistics (responses).

An office messenger who is the destination of anybody and everybody where he works and stays when they have a crisis for prayer and a word of encouragement is a more fruitful pastor than the mega church pastor who blocks problem characters from seeing him.

And a person or family that moves house to take the Gospel to a neighboring and hostile enemy tribe might be a more responsive missionary than the one who imports his first world conveniences to the mission field and even refuses to move from places electricity is guaranteed.

But it boils down to something I always say; it depends on the marking scheme you operate under. And that marking scheme will depend on whether you are pursuing a revelation or doing what everybody else is doing.

Doing things the way they have always been done can be a very easy indicator of a walk in the flesh, a walk without revelation.

But it is important to realize that it is been very difficult to break through the way things have always been done.

Why had Christ to call people who had been raised in gentile nations (Barnabas and Paul) to spearhead outreach to the gentiles? Why had He to shift the centre of the evangelization agenda from Jerusalem to Antioch?

You see the apostles, despite having walked with Christ as He ministered were bound to their Jewish upbringing and prejudices (the way things are always done). And we clearly see that when Peter is led to take the Gospel to the gentiles. We see how apologetic he becomes when confronted by the others. And even after Acts 15 we still find him having issues with gentiles in Galatians 2: 12.

But history tells us that they were finally able to deal with their bias as we are told most, probably all of the apostles died outside Israel. They were able to finally accept their calling to include gentiles.

Incidentally I think this is the problem Jonah also had.

Is there a solution? You may be wondering.

There certainly is. Only that it requires a greater commitment to our call. We must seek something greater than a politically friendly way of obedience. We must decide to delve farther than borderline obedience. We must seek to know beyond what is acceptable to most or even all. We must overlook convenience and popularity to pursue that call.

And we must pray for revelation before we pray open those doors.

Are you being abused and mistreated where you are ministering? Pray. Are you feeling strangled and drained by a minister who does nothing yet earns everything from your ministry? Pray. You might need to leave those abusive relationships but not to start your own thing.

Most of the pastors I know who ran off to start churches because they were being abused or exploited became worse abusers. That is why it is important to pray for the direction you should take.

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)

God shows us the need so that we can pray for Him to provide a solution, not so that we can provide it. It is as we are praying that He can enjoin us to His strategy of offering that solution. And He reserves the right to the strategy and our place in it.

So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do. (Luke 17:10)

Finally

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 what we do in obedience that is rewarded. Everything else is judged, even trashed (1 Corinthians 3: 15).

Curiosity vs Information

Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise (Deuteronomy 12:30)

I feel constrained to share on this topic at this time as I continue to see a lot of information being shared about the ‘other world’. There are DVDs on anything from the Illuminati to witchcraft to secret societies being made and sold all over, and that by ‘brethren’.

I remember in the 80s when a book was produced by a person who had defected from the other side sharing his experiences. At that time there was so much fear and suspicion in churches due to the leakage he gave about the tactics they used even to distract attention in the worship service.

 A crying toddler raised the antenna of every member as there had to be an agent who caused it. A visitor to church had to be screened secretly to ensure that he was not an agent.

I remember one day around that time leading a students’ Bible Study in church. As usual those BSs have visitors from the campuses. I don’t remember the topic but it was a hot one as it called on very passionate discussions. But as you know the Bible is very central there. Well, among the visitors was this young man who knew his Bible a little better than even some members of the study. As we discussed we would insist that any position one advocates must be supported by scripture. And this particular young man was good in that aspect.

After the study a member of the BS called me aside and ‘informed’ me that the young man was an agent. When I asked her to substantiate she used his knowledge of the Bible as the reason she was convinced so. But he did not use scripture wrongly and was even in tune with the study itself. Her problem was that he was supporting the side she was not in. I had to take her through the scriptures to show her that the Bible has the guidelines as to who represents the devil.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success (Joshua 1:8)

It is interesting that God never asks us to understand the other side. He never gave His people any allowance to even interact with people who even leaned to the other side. We are supposed to know God so much that we have no allowance to even be tempted to know anything on the other side. And that is why a witch was killed immediately. The same happened with the homosexual, the prostitute, the adulterer, the idol worshipper etc. He was not threatened to order such. He realized that we do not need to know anything about the other side to recognize them.

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. (2Corinthians 2:11)

Bankers do not study fake currency to recognize it. They are so exposed to the real that any slight touch of anything not real stands out so fast, almost by instinct.

God knows that our curiosity many times will cause us to lean so close to the edge that sometimes we could tip over. Curiosity killed the cat, so we say. But instead of another cat being dissuaded by that statement from being over inquisitive, she asked, ‘what did the cat want to know?’ Many times we are like that.

There are people who have gone to prostitutes to minister but finally became their customers. There are people who have gone to witness in bars and became drunkards. Understanding a prostitute or drunkard is not what will help you bring them to Christ. Christ changed prostitutes and extortionists simply by knowing and doing God’s will. It is His love that draws people to Him, not understanding them. And we will be wise to remember that.

We are supposed to soak ourselves with the scriptures that any slight diversion will be evident without even peering. Jesus said that we will know them by their fruit, not by having an inquisition. Our search to know so much can make us to want to venture a little further than is useful and get sucked into the system itself. We are supposed to know God intimately to refute the wiles of the enemy, not know the wiles enough to able to reason with them.

We know the devil is happy when we fall into two errors; ignoring him altogether and being obsessed with him. Both of them will have the same effect on us. Ignoring him will give him a lot of leeway into our lives as we will deny the evidence of evil that we see. Being obsessed with him might be even more disastrous as we will stop everything to ‘deal’ with him, something he gets excited about as he will then lead us to a wild goose chase as he has many personalities and ‘agents’. 

I always remember a wildlife documentary I saw when I worked at the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation long ago. Lions were hunting and we were being shown several tactics they use. The one I remember as if I have just watched it is when a big male went and stood on a hill overlooking a herd of gazelles with the wind behind him. The gazelles smelt the lion then saw him at a distance. Of course they were terrified. But he was not very near. So they all cocked their ears and stopped everything to see his next move. The other lions just came and picked their game easily as they were all stuck to the one they could see and smell.

I believe this is what these materials may end up producing.

Do we know that there are rich men involved in devil worship? The Bible is plain. Otherwise why did Jesus say it is very hard for the rich to inherit eternal life? Why did James appear to speak so roughly about the rich?

We know there are pastors who use witchcraft to perform miracles, who use beer and drugs to ‘perform’ on the pulpit. Must we know them? I don’t think so. We are supposed to know Christ above all. We are supposed to investigate the scriptures like the Bereans of Acts 17.

I brought DVDs about the connection between hip hop and demons (The Truth behind Hip Hop DVDs). Many people credit me with that. But I want to stress that I more or less stumbled on them on a mission to Uganda and felt that the church needs to know that some of the things they are doing and some of the dances and songs they are allowing have demonic links. But if that drove someone from reading and studying the Bible, I would be the first one to repent. That was and still is information. The pastor making them and the materials clearly point to Christ.

The inquisitions were the result of being so fixated on the devil (heresy) that we stopped living the Christian life as we hounded him from one corner to another, a thing he doesn’t mind. In fact he encourages as it leads us to fight him using carnal weapons, eventually turning it around to fight those who are living right as they will not follow us into our exclusive witch hunts. 

I get a lot of information. As a minister I need to know quite a bit. But I know that if the information I am looking for is taking me away from the word of God it is not useful information as it is diverting my attention from knowing and worshipping God. My primary purpose as a minister is knowing God and making Him known. 

Let us not be ensnared by the devil by looking to know what he or his servants are doing.

May we be fixated only by Christ and His word.

For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1Corinthians 2:2)

What is your primary pursuit? Are you determined to trash all information that does not lead you to know God?