The Root of Rebellion

And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. IF the LORD delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. (Numbers 14: 6 – 8)

God releases an order after a revelation.

It is our obedience that releases His manifestation.

We must therefore step out before He breaks through and not before.

The uncertainty of the outcome is what produces two opposed teams.

IF is the key word here.

You see, if and if not will depend on the faith of the ones thinking it. Even more is the fact is that it will depend on their relationship to the divine who does the manifesting.

The IF of Caleb was as valid as the IF NOT of the ten other spies as it was dependent on their relationship to the God who would be performing the miracles required to get them the land.

The interesting thing is that both teams had shared experiences with God since they left Egypt.

They had all seen the miracles of deliverance, the parting of the sea and many, many others.

And that is where the IF originates.

Some were experiencing God while the others were seeing God at work.

Some were in the game while others were watching it.

The IF was dependent on the position the person was at.

Caleb, from his experience, was sure that God would perform what He had promised. His IF was therefore stemming from faith.

The ten had seen God doing wonderful things. He was to them a great performer. But how were they sure that He would not turn against them as He had turned against enemies and colleagues who had displeased Him? Suppose He decided to turn against them? Their IF therefore stemmed from doubt.

Both teams knew that God was able. But only one team was sure that He was on their side.

One team was willing to step out and see Him perform for them. The other team was scared that He might refuse to support them when they stepped out.

Imagine you are on a cliff edge where you can’t see beyond where you are stepping and God tells you to jump? What will you do?

Joshua and Caleb would ask, how far? While the ten would shout, won’t we be broken in pieces by the rocks?

That is what faith is about.

Faith is not about what or even who we believe in. It is what we do about that believing.

The one having faith and the one lacking in it are standing at the exact same place, circumstantially.

That is why faith is looked at as folly from those lacking it. I call it madness since it makes no sense at all to the senses.

The only problem for the doubter is that faith invites God’s manifestation just as the lack of the same invites judgment.

Obedience and disobedience originate from the same spot.

If you are one of those people who wonder why some testimonies are so full of manifestation and breakthrough, I would urge you to first examine how you handle those crazy orders God releases to you.

It is your response that determines the kind of manifestation you will experience.

And it is possible to build your faith

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)

God’s word fills us with His works so that we can easily release ourselves to His manifestation in our situations.

Or else we will continue being spectators in other people’s breakthroughs.

It is possible in faith to sleep hungry rather than call that loving parent or friend because you feel God’s conviction on the same.

It is possible to step out for a journey without adequate resources because you feel led to do so even when there are better and safer things to do.

It is possible to turn down a lucrative job or business offer even when you have issues feeding your own self because that is what you feel God leading you toward.

You see, faith is giving God the space to show off. And what better way for that than cutting off all other props?

I do not need to add that faith grows as we continue stepping out into that dark again and again

Joshua and Caleb must have had experienced God as the others were spectating.

No wonder they were ready to be stoned by the crowd for defending their ‘folly’ and ‘idiocy’.

And forty-five years later we see Caleb proving that it had been a gamble worth taking.

It also explains why instead of asking for the army to take on the Anakims who were the reason the ten had doubted God’s revelation decided to take them on personally though he was the ancientest in all Israel.

Do you fit in this narrative? Where are you?

Are you content with where you are?

Revival

And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. (2Kings 22:10)

I want us to get a background of this groundbreaking moment.

Remember Hezekiah and his fifteen added years?

The Bible says that he backslid (to use our term) after that momentous answer. It therefore means that the book disappeared from the public realm.

Then we have Manasseh and his fifty-five-year reign where things became even worse.

He was replaced by Amon who also had no regard for God and so cared nothing for the book.

By the time Josiah came to the picture, we have seventy-two years of the book’s absence in Judah.

But he loved God and His ways even without the scriptures.

By the time he was able to raise adequate resources to repair the temple, it was a whole ninety years of the book’s absence. You really wonder the condition of the same when it was found in the ravaged ruins of the temple. How much dust covered it? How much dust can accumulate in ninety years?

But amidst all that rubble it had somehow survived in a readable state.

And that is where I want us to start.

What happens when the king hears what the book says?

He is able to accurately diagnose his nation’s spiritual position and destination.

He therefore starts weeping, knowing that judgment was long overdue.

God due to that repentance defers judgment.

Yet, unlike his forebear Hezekiah, he does not relax just because it was deferred to after his death.

He starts to follow what he reads in the book.

No wonder he is able to oversee a Passover unlike any since Joshua’s time.

What am I saying?

God’s word is the foundation of true revival.

There of course are other essentials to revival, but as with a building, we cannot have any stable building without a solid foundation however beautiful it might look above the surface.

The longevity of a building is determined by the stability and depth of the foundation.

In the same way, the reach and depth of a revival is determined to its fidelity to scripture as a whole.

A revival that picks verses to support its doctrine has no capacity to sustain itself as it lacks a foundation.

Some already have an idea of one such and so I will not proceed.

Josiah’s revival was able to defer judgment because the king exposed the scriptures as the basis of the same.

And the community was able to change as it responded to what they read in the scriptures.

The spiritual reality is that no revival worth its salt can be centered on anything but God’s word. And no such revival can last beyond a generation.

I have written elsewhere about the three generations of revival.

These three generations happen because a revival did not base sorely on God’s word but on an experience or series of experiences.

Otherwise, there will only be three rules, or ten or a hundred, that will be unquestionably followed by the second generation.

The third generation will most probably rebel against that straightjacket that is rules without explanation.

Yet that could have been avoided had the revivalists exposed their followers to the scriptures at the personal level as the protestant revival did.

You see, no amount of motivation can result in revival. No fanfare is required for revival to happen or proceed.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Only a transformation of the person from deep within the spirit as he responds to the revelation from a clear understanding of scripture.

A revival that is not followed by discipleship is very short term, however deep it appears to run.

That is why for a long time I have been spending in the availability of everything Bible; from reading plans to Audio Bibles to physical Bibles.

That is why I do not tire from challenging people to read their Bibles and preparing materials for the same.

I love revival. But even better, I love lasting revival.

Do you?

Then join me in making the Bible your constant companion?

The Son and The Worker

I at one time inadvertently made an uncle almost hit me in rage.

We were talking and he mentioned the fact that our generation is very irresponsible as they dispose of their lands as quickly as they inherit them from their parents.

I gave him my young wisdom (I was quite young then), wisdom that most incensed him.

I told him that many in their generation treat their children as workers, a fact that disconnects them from their inheritance. They therefore do not connect to the land as theirs in all their labor.

It is therefore a windfall when the same land that they slaved in becomes theirs since it is like them winning a lottery.

It was later that an elder brother who stays at home told me that my truth had hit the mzee where it really hurt as I had been describing his situation.

We were having a fellowship with a pastor friend when this came out so clearly.

There are two types of ministers, those who are doing God’s work and those who are serving God.

Interestingly, very few are able to differentiate between them. And it is not much different with the ministers themselves

A son works with the father while the servant works for the father. Both are working at pleasing the father.

Work therefore describes both of them to the observer. But that is where it ends.

One is a partner in the enterprise while the other is a performer. One is preparing to take over the enterprise while the other is waiting for his emolument.

One depends on the success of the enterprise for a better package while the other has the enterprise define him.

A worker will look for another employer if the enterprise fails. The son may sink into depression to the point of suicide when it goes bust. The worker will feel a pain in their pockets in the occasion of a failure while the other will have a pain in their heart.

Now take this to ministry and church.

How many are involved in church as servants? How many serve in the church as sons?

How many feel the pain of a son when things in church are not going well? Why?

How do you feel when you hear of sin in the congregation and why?

Why do you preach the way you do?

Why do you give the way you do?

Why do you pray the way you do?

Defining the church in your context will tell you whether you are in the church as a son or a servant.

Just as a son imitates his father, a minister with the sonship dimension will imitate God.

He will love what God loves and hate what God hates. And that whether he sleeps hungry or full.

A worker, however, will want to be identified with God, especially before people.

Remember King Saul?

Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God. (1Samuel 15:30)

Being honored before his people carried more weight to him than being rejected by God as king.

Compare this with David

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. (Psalm 51:4)

People’s opinions counted for nil to David. And we see this all his life. No wonder God called him a man after His (God’s) heart.

Remember him being consumed by guilt after cutting a piece of Saul’s cloak yet the same king was seeking to kill him?

The fact that God had anointed Saul was enough to keep David from defending himself against such dangerous folly of a deranged king seeking to kill him for his delusions.

To David, God never makes mistakes. His anointing was not subject to question, however illogical it looked.

That is how a son thinks and operates.

A son’s obedience stems from trust; trust in the father’s position and intentions. Surely father must know what he is doing, is a son’s reasoning. That is why a father’s word is revered.

A worker’s obedience is short term. It is therefore a surface obedience. And this because he knows that however much he may work he will never achieve the position of a son. It may not make much difference to his future whether he just works or works extremely hard since his position does not change.

His remuneration may rise to the clouds but he will never own the enterprise.

At the surface, a worker may seem to enjoy better than the son but that is due to the fact that he is eating everything he gets whereas the son is not in any hurry as it will all be his anyway.

A servant’s obedience is driven by a paycheck and so he must be receiving it regularly. He can therefore not defer the same for anything.

A son on the other side could defer pleasure since he knows that all will be his eventually.

A worker could introduce short cuts, especially if he could easily cover up for the same. A son dares not do so as it is his structure that will fall.

Ever heard of believers who wonder why we are so particular about small sins? Ever wondered why we have bishops who have no problem with homosexuality provided the person doing it is faithful to their gay partner and church? Ever wondered why pastors have no issues with secular performers doing their thing in church provided they insert Jesus somewhere? Ever wondered why whoremongers continue ministering in churches with the leaders fully aware of the fact?

Those are workers who have no issues with ‘small’ issues and sins since they do not cause much damage to the church and what they are getting from it.

That explains why a dissenter (who many times is a son incensed with sin) is a worse enemy in church than the openly sinful.

Sons have the father’s heart and so are more interested with what the father loves and hates than in the work the father wants done. He therefore works according to the father’s heart.

That is the reason I always say that the clearest way to know a church that is aligned with God is how they relate with sin, especially sin in their midst.

A son is ruthless against sin, be it in his own life or in the lives of the ones around him.

Excellence counts for nothing to the son if there are things, however small or concealed, that are contrary to the father’s will since they could very easily mar the enterprise.

An accountant may conceal things to an auditor and it won’t be a big deal. Doing the same to the son or father could very easily lead to has sacking.

Let me close by saying the thing I have tried to explain in this whole post.

A son lives and acts as his father does while a worker is more interested in performance since that is what is rewarded. A worker works to be seen since that is how he is remunerated while the son does not care being seen since he is working on what will eventually become his.

Does the Bible call you a son or a worker?

That is who you are irrespective of how psyched you might be otherwise.

God, not your favorite motivator or preacher, determines who His sons are.

 

Do We Ever Learn?

Still continuing with the topic God and friends.

And we will use the same person, Jehoshaphat.

We are a generation later than when the same situation is replicated, this time with Ahab’s son in 2 Kings 3.

He asks the same question and our friend gives the same answer.

And as he did with the father he does with the son. He asks for a prophetic word.

You wonder why.

With the previous word that he dishonored to a rebuke from God, he still maintains alliances with God’s enemies, yet still pursues God’s revelation.

But I think the more pressing question is why was he always hanging out with friends with no regard for the God he served.

But that is what friendship really is

Your friends determine your spiritual temperature.

God’s revelation is irrelevant when it is tempered by friends.

Or have we forgotten Solomon who could trash two clear appearances of the divine.

Or Moses who for his loyalty to Israel messed his assignment.

In short, there is no spiritual insurance against friends.

A firebrand can be converted to a refrigerator by a friend or friends.

Why am I writing this?

I have never seen a believer getting into drunkenness or sexual immorality overnight.

That is why believers in schools and colleges are so on fire that they are always in this or that mission and will explode at the smallest spiritual infraction with no grey areas in their lives.

Let them get out of that ‘cocoon’ of like friends.

Then they get new professional friends and it becomes harder and harder to get enough time to attend church, let alone planning or even going for a mission.

Someone who attended an overnight prayer meeting almost every week finds it impossible to get time to pray when he is alone.

At least Jehoshaphat was better than that as he always sought God’s take on issues, though his friendships meant it was irrelevant what God said.

Sadly, it happens all the time.

It can very easily happen to you and me.

But it doesn’t have to. And the solution is not complicated.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (Psalm 1: 1, 2)

Are we together?

God’s Timing in Context 2

And the LORD said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria: And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. (1Kings 19: 15, 16)

Still on God’s assignment being the manager of His timing.

Let us look at a few scriptural examples.

In the verses above, we have Elijah ready to go (die) as he is convinced there was nothing left for him to do.

But what does God say?

You are still on assignment.

He also shows him how he was to finish it.

But do you realise that the first parts were not his to do? Or at least we know he is not the one who performed them?

In short, God just ordered him to appoint a successor whose assignment would be to complete his.

God’s assignments are too big for one person to complete, many times because of the time required and the massive reach of the same.

And he was not alone.

Remember we mentioned David in our last post?

The same thing happens to David, only that this time it is the opposite of this.

David desires to build a temple for God.

This of course pleases God.

But that was outside of his assignment and for that desire God promises him things.

But God tells him that the assignment, though coming from a heart in the right place, is outside his assignment.

He therefore gives him another assignment, preparing the person to carry out that assignment.

It was the same with Moses.

Jonah was stopped from his pity party because he needed a lesson to be able to continue in his assignment.

The saddest for me, however, happened with Hezekiah.

He completes his assignment at 39 after ruling for fourteen years and God tells him so.

But he protests, probably because he felt that he was too young and especially because he had no son to take over from him. God therefore adds him fifteen years, and a son outside his completed assignment.

Do you realise that absolutely nothing positive came out of those fifteen years and that that son was the reason Judah went to captivity?

Ahithophel committed suicide because he probably realized that he had messed his assignment big time, as did Judas.

In short, your assignment is the reason God placed you on earth. Living outside it, however good any other assignment may appear, is a complete waste in God’s sight.

I like what Jesus repeatedly said; that My time is not yet, then, the hour is come, until He finally said, it is finished.

Is it possible to live with that kind of focus?

Yet can we do that if we are unaware of our assignment?

 

God’s Time in Context

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2Peter 3:8)

I recently thought more than casually over this verse.

Everybody knows that with God a day is like a thousand years.

But have you ever considered the other aspect; that a thousand years is like one day?

With the first part we can comfortably demonstrate that God is never in a hurry. That He will somehow come through because His timetable is not like ours.

I want us to look at the other aspect. How can we squeeze a thousand years into one day?

How many days are in a thousand years? How many hours? How many seconds?

1000x365.25x24x60x60=31,557,600,000 seconds

One thousand years is therefore equivalent to a day which is 60x60x24 seconds

Meaning that one day is equivalent to 365,250 days

One second is equivalent to 365,250 seconds which is equivalent to 4.227 days or four days and five hours.

If God can stretch one second into four days and five hours, how does that explain God’s timing? How does it explain the accuracy of His moving?

And what does that seemingly most contradictory verse mean to us?

The first statement I will make is one we all agree on; that God is eternal. Meaning that He is not bound by time.

But in practical terms we can comfortably state that He does not operate by time the way we do.

This will help us appreciate the fact that God’s realm uses time differently from us.

And we need to know that to understand God and His dealings with man.

Let me give an example.

David was a warrior, or soldier if that is what you will take.

Fitness therefore was part and parcel of his being.

Yet why do we find him completely aged at seventy yet people with military backgrounds are still very strong at eighty?

It is because God operates by assignments. David at seventy had completed his assignment and so was completely ‘finished’.

Enoch, according to his times, departed when he had barely lived for the same reason

All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness. (Ecclesiastes 7:15)

God wants each of us to accomplish our assignment, giving us innumerable chances to help us reconnect to it as we see in 2^nd Peter 3: 8.

Interestingly, as we read the scriptures, we realize that those spiritually attuned were able to know when their assignment was complete; from Jacob to David to Paul to Peter.

Sadly, very few in our generation have the capacity for the same.

Do you know your assignment?

The second aspect is the one of seasons. God operates in seasons and not time as we know it. And those seasons are related to those assignments.

Seasons are the tools God uses to prepare us to complete our assignments.

Joseph moved from favorite son to slave to prisoner to prime minister to prophet, with each season preparing him for his ultimate assignment.

Do we know our assignment?

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Ephesians 4:13)

That is God’s assignment for each of us, with each given a different set of tasks to accomplish it.

That, incidentally, is what He will use to judge us when many think the judgment will be based on what we have done. Of course, I must have a place for probably my most quoted and sobering verses.

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)

Doing anything outside of my assignment is called wickedness however godly or evangelistic it may appear to be.

‘Well done’ and ‘depart from Me’ are two sides of the coin called judgment. And the yardstick is our assignment.

Like I like to say, God is the only holder of the marking scheme.

Our assignments are time bound, only that it is God’s time that is being used.

A person can therefore complete his assignment at ten while another is plucked prematurely at a hundred.

And I will be in my assignment when like Enoch I constantly walk with God.

How do I do it?

I will dwell in His word and prayer. I will not be diverted by anything, even things associated with and appearing as coming from God.

Once again, what is your assignment? How far are you progressing in the same?

 

Of God’s Voice and Friends

But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we might enquire of him? (2Chronicles 18:6

Have you realized that though the prophet came with God’s clear voice the seeker of that voice did nothing different from what he had initially planned?

Why then did he seek to hear a different message from the one hired prophets were proclaiming?

I want us to look at friends and friendship. And I want to state that a friend has a very great chance of either connecting or disconnecting one from their destiny.

Jehoshaphat was a godly king. He is famously known as the king who had the choir leading the army to war due to his faith.

But like Solomon before him he makes alliances with a neighboring king, thus making this king his brother.

But then this king was very wicked. He is known as the most wicked king Israel had.

He even had many prophets he had hired to further his kingdom, many owing allegiances to the gods that were the reason Canaan was replaced from their lands.

It is interesting that he still had so many prophets after Elijah had killed eight hundred and fifty others earlier.

Jehoshaphat can see through the smokescreen of all that prophecy and therefore asks for a proper prophet.

It is interesting that we do not see him taking the true prophet serious.

Why do I say so?

He accompanies the doomed king (according to the prophecy) to the war whose purpose according to heaven was the death of Ahab.

And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD. (2 Chronicles 19:2)

Why was that?

A friend is faithful. And that faithfulness does not waver when the friend is in danger. It becomes even surer.

That is why the good king accompanied the wicked and doomed king to war.

Was there any reason then for him to seek to know God’s will?

Probably he thought the true prophet would give clearer directions, or even alter the other king’s direction.

But the true prophet muddied the waters even more, making his decision a black and white issue.

You see he had committed to his friend earlier, even before the prophets came around.

Obedience to God therefore meant going back on his commitment to his ‘brother’.

He simply could not let his friend down.

And that is the power of friendship.

Friendship can be more powerful than God’s voice as we see in this case.

This is the reason for verses like these.

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2Corinthians 6: 14 - 18)

A friend will take you to their level.

That is what happened to Solomon.

Though God had appeared to him twice, his alliances made it impossible to say no to the idols his friends lived by.

The verses I have quoted are used in the context of marriage. But it is in other partnerships where this has most power.

Getting married to a person with allegiance to a different divine is an indicator that one has already fallen into disobedience.

But few people think that a partnership with an unbeliever in business poses much of a risk to their spirituality. Yet this is what happened to Jehoshaphat.

Of course, the devil schemes so tactfully to mess someone’s spirituality through marriage. But it backfires at times as was with Joseph and David.

But very few see this in business and other partnerships though the Bible is replete with example after another of the same.

Very few believers become drunkards just like that. Very few believers start becoming adulterous just like that.

It many times starts as the company they keep or people they do business or work together blend into deep friendships.

Then what was detestable becomes hard to rebuke. Then it becomes easy to just frown upon until it becomes acceptable.

Let me give my example.

One time God asked me to transfer to those remote places where people behave as if God does not see what happens.

As I have written elsewhere church elders became whoremongers,

things I saw repeatedly.

I did not have any friends.

I made friends with a carpenter and would spend a lot of my free time in his workshop. I would even help him with some work since I had studied carpentry in school.

Of course I did not hide the fact that I was a believer to anyone who came there.

There was very little social life and so many people would come to the workshop after work.

Initially, they would stop their stories when I was around. Then they would pause and blush in my presence.

But they were eventually able to talk as if I was not there. And I didn’t notice that progression.

Until God opened my eyes and I saw how deep I had sunk.

After repenting I had to withdraw from them for a time until I could be in charge of my spirituality amidst that crowd.

Now suppose we were doing business together? Suppose we were operating the workshop as a team?

Reminds me of an incident I witnessed the other day.

A brother and sister share a shop. One is the technician and the sister is involved in sales and other things.

The technician got stuck somewhere and decided to switch off his phone until he sorts things out.

The partner was left stranded as she could not really do much.

I found her pleading with his friends to advise her brother t stop doing such things.

Now what do you think she will tell the customer?

What between defending her brother (which will involve lying) or exposing him by telling the truth is more viable for her? What would you have done if it were you?

What would you do if your partner disappears with a customer’s stuff? What would you do if your partner is a habitual cheat?

These are some of the things spiritually discordant friends and partners bring to the table. And it is what God knew when He issued such commands.

In closing let me put down these verses.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (Psalm 1: 1, 2)

I think this is the clearest we get on the topic friends.