Curse Magnets

He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse. (Proverbs 28:27)

In my not so very long life, I have seen enough things to give me some accurate consequences of some of the things we do.

I have seen extreme reversal of fortunes, a reversal that could only be called miraculous. I have been around situations which are so amazing that were I not around the situation could have simply refused the happenings. Many times it fits more with the situations where truth is stranger than fiction.

I therefore want us to look at some actions and attitudes that seem to draw curses or judgment without fail from the scriptures. I will give stories of situations I have seen or heard from reliable sources. But for the most part it will be people and situations of people known to me. I will try my best to protect their identities as I am not doing a documentary. As such I may have to change some details to achieve that. But the story will maintain the key facts.

Our area having been a hotbed of the freedom struggle meant that the colonialists and their henchmen really brought down people and families who were Mau Mau or even remotely perceived to be sympathetic to the Mau Mau. It was no surprise that when they were given the positions of subdividing the land, they made sure that none of them got any land. My father, having been in the forest for the struggle lost the land he had had before he joined the struggle for that land. (By the way he has no land to date as someone had sworn to ensure that nothing like that happened as long as he was alive).

Poverty was therefore a very present reality when I grew up. But I have shared this to give you a context to most of the stories.

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There was this teacher whose husband was a senior civil servant. As is common in farming communities, the mother is normally required to manage farming as the husband gets the money. Due to that, the family was unimaginably wealthy especially in those times when a very tiny minority was employed. Most were simply peasant farmers, many who did not even have their own land.

There was this family that had lost their father but at least had some land. The mother was probably overwhelmed with raising so many children after the death of her husband that she did not do a good job of making her farm profitable or keeping her children neat and clean. Of course you know that poverty worsens such situations.

That was the season jiggers were a nuisance. They therefore really harassed those poor children.

The teacher’s children however were the envy of all around. They had shoes, a thing not many adults had. They also had changes of clothes and were always clean.

This teacher really harassed those poor orphans. How dirty they were, how those jiggers ought to be removed. She made their life in school a nuisance. No wonder none of them went far in education.

Of course her children went as far as their grades could take them as they did not have any financial bottlenecks. But they did not soar very high.

Fast forward to many years later. A son of this miserable widow is able to become good in business. Incidentally the firstborn of this teacher is sent to work in the town this jigger-past guy is and they fall in love. In fact they go too fast and get a child before the parents know.

Now imagine this widow going to ask for a wife from this teacher for her son! Do you think God allowed her to forget her taunts when the children were young? Do you think this young man ever forgot those taunts?

But imagine if you were that teacher.

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There was this man whose compound we as children yearned to see because it had two gates, with a warning about dogs, the only one I saw as I grew up at the gate next to the road. And each gate had a fence and a very well trimmed hedge. He also was working class and so that compound was not one us peasants could enter as his children were better than the rest. And only a countable number of compounds had any fence, leave alone a gate.

When God asked me to leave employment and I spent some time at home, I used to see this same old man very early getting into the chief’s house. Many times he would arrive before the gate was opened. His crises must have been extreme as he never waited for him to get to the office but came to his home.

A friend who was older than me one day saw this old man and told me that he remembered something in his past (in the 1960s).

This chief’s father did not have land and did not have a job whereas this man had both. But both would frequent a bar with their age mates. This friend of mine was much younger than them but as you know in a bar there is some equality.

Well, as they were drinking, a friend ordered some beers for this penniless age mate. This employed rich guy made a very sharp and scathing statement.

‘Why should you buy anything for this guy? Isn’t that like pouring it on the ground as he will never be able to reciprocate ever?’

This friend who was buying said to this rich friend, ‘you are speaking very foolishly and for that you will at one time be bowing to him’.

That is what was happening. He retired and sold most of that land. He was requiring the services of this age mate’s son to help navigate the issues and battles his retirement had created.

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There was this old man who was the best farmer around. He was the only one I knew who had Friesian cows. He was therefore the one milk societies used as demonstration. He was always the leader in those societies as he was the one who provided the most milk at any time. He was not a snob like most people of that class.

When he died, his whole empire collapsed. His children sold everything. In fact the clan had to block the sale of the land. His wife, who was of such class became a beggar, and not because she did not have food. Her daughters would buy enough food so that she could cook whatever she needed but she sold it. She craved food from restaurants. She became a nuisance if you met her on the road as she would beg for money to buy mandazi.

I was told she was discovered very far from home partially eaten by dogs or hyenas.

Then I was given her story. In our community children belong to the father. As such, when a man impregnates a girl, the girl’s family would take the infant to the boy’s mother to raise. And this is what she found when she got married. Then she really mistreated those children.

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There was this lady whose husband owned the only brick house in a very wide area. That she was proud is an understatement. And her children were not different. They did not mix with the peasants for reasons I have touched on above. It was even visible in church.

When I was home in the season after I had left employment I met her and was amazed. I heard her give a testimony and her humility was palpable. I then wondered around what happened and what I was told was hard to believe.

She leaked a secret of her past to her husband and he blew his top. Instead of evicting her from that brick house he decided to demolish it and build a smaller one for another wife who was the age of his last born daughter.

The same old man died a very miserable death as he was unable to access his money when he was bedridden.

I was told that he made his money by disinheriting his brother’s widows, leaving the widows and orphans in dire straits.

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A lady whose elder brother lost his land because he had been in the forest fighting for what we now call freedom got married to a man of substance who had what can be called prime agricultural land. Incidentally her brother’s children were quite bright.

One day she was asking her nephews and nieces what position they had been in school and all were at the top. Then she commented.

‘What is the need of all this intelligence since none of them can get to high school?’ You see the situation in her brother’s family was desperate as he did not have a job or even land to imagine such luxury.

Incidentally none of her children went to high school. She also died a squatter as her husband sold that land and disappeared. But her brothers children went very far.

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There was this old man who was very rich and he had got his wealth by the sweat of his brow and enough sacrifice. He therefore did not understand how a person can remain poor for so long unless something was wrong with them. Unfortunately he did not keep that to himself but spurted it out to those who would listen, among whom were members of his extended family.

As was usual, he had a number of wives and several sons. But he had prepared for that eventuality. He would buy land and build for his sons and help them get married when they become of age. Then he would help them establish a line of business for themselves.

But his elder sons thought he was chasing them away so that he gives children of his youngest wife all his property. They therefore came back to his main business and started to grab and waste so that those other children get nothing.

By the time this old man died, many of his properties had been sold and the main business closed. But it is interesting that these sons did not grab to save but to squander. Some of them died desperately poor. Many lost their wives who could not adjust to their new status after they had killed their business. It is amazing that these children of the youngest wife required organizing a fundraiser to access education. This despite his arrogance and spite poured on people who could not be able to afford to educate their children.

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There was this shopkeeper who was extremely bright for those times. Since most parents were illiterate it was very easy to swindle them with wrong change. But he was one ahead. He enthralled the children. He would swindle the child a shilling or two and give them sweets (candies) worth ten cents, and they were many then. Of course his shop became the stop for most children, especially those who did not care to establish whether they got the correct change or not. And his shop was really stocked.

I then come to that shop a few years later and what do I find? It was being run by a prostitute. What had happened? I was not able to find out though I found the same man in a desert town. But even the prostitute did not operate it for long.

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The point of all these stories is that God is still as alive as He was. He also has not changed a little bit. Many people talk and behave as if the death of Christ neutered the attributes of God that we see in the Old Testament. But nothing can be farther from the truth.

I have talked about capitalism and mammon several times in my blog. This is an example of what capitalism and mammon opens one to if we pursue them. Selfishness and pride are the first fruits of a life dominated by the pursuit of gain as one thinks they have what they have because they are better than the rest or that they have put in more effort than the rest. And no wonder they will pour spite on the down and outs.

I have intentionally refused to talk about mistreatment and spite of ministers of the Gospel so that you will not think I am threatening you to treat me nicely. I do not need to fight for myself. I do not need to plead for support. The God I serve is more than adequate to fend for His own servants and does not need them lending a hand.

You see God has a special place for the disadvantaged. Look at all the verses God speaks about the orphan and widow. Look at the way He speaks about the refugee (alien). Look at how He speaks about the poor.

That wealth you have must be surrendered to God to be of use to your posterity. I have not given stories of people who hoarded so that their children will have a head start in life only to have all the money and property disappear before the same children are old enough to access it.

There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. (Ecclesiastes 5:13, 14)

But I just wanted us to know that God HATES spite for the poor and disadvantaged and MUST punish it somehow. That is one thing I can say emphatically as I have seen it all over I have been. It is only that I chose a location and a time span to pick the stories from. But what I have shared in these stories can be seen wherever there is much disparity on any plane.

It might be that one family has bright children whereas the other has those who have problems writing their names. It might be a family that accesses an excess of favor and openings when the other seems to have all the doors slammed in their face. It might be in ministry where one seems spoilt for choice when the other seems condemned by God though he is as diligent, if not more, than the one experiencing that much success.

DO NOT DESPISE OTHERS. YOU WILL PAY FOR IT. And you can take that to the bank as they say.

For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit. (Ecclesiastes 2:26)

God hates pride.

These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood … (Proverbs 6:16, 17)

To call pride an abomination is very strong, especially coming from God Himself.

The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. (Proverbs 8:13)

A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit. (Proverbs 29:23)

We realize that pride was the reason Pharaoh was humbled. It was because of pride that Nebuchadnezzar ate grass like a cow. And of course we know that pride is what made Lucifer be thrown down from heaven.

Rejoice in your achievements. Only do not look down on the ones who seem divorced from any achievements. God loves them not a whit less than He does you as they are also created in His image and likeness.

Above all, realize that your success is not your personal property though it might legally be in your name. God has a bigger purpose for it than your narrow view.

There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. (Proverbs 11:24)

God is the giver and the disadvantaged are the testing ground for our connecting with His agenda. Despising them and rebuking them for everything from laziness to lack of smart planning might actually be taking you their route.

But I also need to add that in those few years I have seen such a reversal of fortunes that I do not stop being amazed. Most of the then very rich are now at the bottom of the wealth ladder and those who were desperately and hopelessly poor are now the leading tycoons in that small area I have profiled. Though Christ was talking about His kingdom I have seen this verse being very true that the first shall be last and the last first.

Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. (Psalm 41: 1)

Prayer Changes Me

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4: 6, 7)

I am sure that those of you who have followed my posts must have realized that I appear very controversial on the surface. But you must also have realized that that controversy is due to the fact that I want to go deeper than the usual statements and assumptions. It is all too easy to say something, but it is a totally different thing to speak about something you have experienced or are pursuing.

There are too many clichés in our Christian lives yet there is very little to show for our so open confession.

But that may need another post if it is not already addressed in one already posted since I post what God prompts me. Let us now talk about prayer.

Prayer changes things is a cliché. But is that true? Yes and no. What do you mean? I know someone is wondering.

The reality is that God intends for prayer to change me and prepare me for His changing of the things. A prayer for God to change things is a selfish thing. A prayer that only changes things can be very injurious to the one who prays.

I think that is the reason Jabez’ story appears in Chronicles, the book with enough genealogy to dazzle most. He appears, prays, is answered and disappears again. What happened after his prayer was answered? Why don’t we read of who he begat? Where did his family disappear in all that genealogy?

I suspect that his life lost spiritual relevance after his prayer was answered. He simply disappeared from the spiritual radar.

By the way the same happened to Hezekiah after he was added fifteen years after his very bitter prayer. The only thing he was able to produce was Manasseh, the most wicked king and the cause of the exile. All his exploits were attributable to his fourteen years before that prayer.

Hannah was different. She prayed for years in the same manner as we do. ‘Oh Lord that I may hold my own child’. She must have prayed that enough times.

But eventually her prayer transforms her request. ‘I just want to get rid of the shame of barrenness. Just let me bear a son and you can have him for all I care’. By that she transformed herself to God’s partner and prayed for an even better child, a son who was to be mightily used of God as a prophet and judge. That prayer had put God in her debt. No wonder she was given other sons and daughters.

That is what I want us to do. I want us to pray prayers that will change us. And by the way you realize that this is what Christ taught. A look at some of His commands helps us understand this.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (Matthew 5:44)

Loving enemies is a human impossibility. In fact doing all those things Christ is ordering is humanly impossible. Prayer is the only way to do it.

I once met a robber who on realizing that I recognized him knocked me and left me dead. Somehow God revived me though the nurses were wondering loudly why I was not yet dead as that blow was enough to kill as even the skull had dented. I was put on observation, probably to ensure that I was not already dead.

I was advised to take the legal route to get the criminal to justice. But God had another order. He asked me to let go and trust Him. But He also gave me another order, pray for that young man.

Of course you cannot pray for God to punish him under those circumstances. But I grew slowly by slowly until my heart softened toward him. The pain and bitterness gradually eased until my heart was changed toward this young man who had ‘killed’ me.

Three years later we were having a youth camp and I was the one who was on the pulpit. I then see this same young man walking toward the pulpit. He walks to where I was and asked to receive Christ. I was surprised that I felt very nice when he was walking toward me, as if it was my brother or someone like that. I do not even remember whether there had been an altar call or not.

The same thing has happened to me many other times after that groundbreaking experience. You see it is impossible to hate someone you are constantly praying for. It is impossible to continue being bitter against someone who is constantly in your prayers.

And that is the challenge I want to throw to us. I want us to pray positively.

Let us pray for the evangelization of the world.

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)

But this prayer is not harmless. It has the capacity of making you one of the laborers. I know because it happened to me. Transformative prayer starts the transformation with the one who is praying. Like Hannah, agree to join God’s team if that is the way your prayer will be answered.

As an example pray for the terrorists. You see praying for peace is many times very selfish. Pray for them to encounter the love of God. Pray that God will send laborers to them too.

Pray for these schoolgirls who are being forced to convert to Islam and their captors that God will reveal Himself to them. Again pray that God will release and pour His love in their direction. At least you realize that Christ died for them too.

Pray that God makes you all that He has purposed. Pray that He makes you what He wants you to be. Pray that He reveals Himself to you in a way you will understand. Pray that He shows you what He expects of you. Pray that He changes you to become what He had in mind when He created you. Release yourself for His exclusive use.

Pray also for me. Dedicate a moment to lift me to the throne in heaven. Even a flash prayer as you are in the middle of your hustle is still one I will appreciate. But above all pray as God leads you.

Some of you might not be agreeing with some of the things I post. But God understands. I might be an enemy to some though I do not know it. But pray for me anyway. In fact that is what you should do with even more fervor if what I have shared here makes sense to you. Then you will connect me to God in a way that will answer your prayers for Him to be glorified in my life.

I will not give you any prayer request at all. I just want you to just pray. Let the Lord Himself give you what you ought to pray for. Let Him give you the time you require to spend praying for me.

Of course you know that the greatest challenge in my blogs is personal spiritual responsibility and connection. And that is the reason I want you to connect to God on my behalf. Then God will give you the next instruction as He has purposed.

But my prayer is that God will become as real to you as reality itself. I pray that you will be able to hear God even as He has created and saved you to. My prayer is that you commitment to God will stop being through proxies and brokers, however anointed and connected they appear to be.

I will close with my favorite verse in these times.

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

May you be able to accurately hear that voice and follow Him wherever He is going.

Prosperity unGospel

I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. (Philippians 4:12)

I am reading the book of Job and seeing a great correlation between the so called prosperity preachers and Job’s three comforters.

Looking at the arguments Job’s three friends were putting up in defense of God it becomes apparent that these preachers are simply replicating those arguments on their pulpits. The only difference is that those comforters were doing a post mortem using that doctrine as opposed to the preachers who are laying the foundation for that kind of living.

In a nutshell the doctrine teaches that deprivation, persecution, sickness and hardship are not consistent with a life having God’s involvement and favor. It is therefore wrong for someone schooled in that doctrine to undergo any hardship or pain as a member of God’s family.

Like the reasoning of Job’s friends, anything unpleasant in a Christian’s life is an indication of sin and God’s judgment. There is simply no room for negative experiences once one is in Christ. The Christian life is therefore something akin to one long holiday.

But is that the reality? Is that the teaching of the scriptures? Is that what Christ taught?

I myself once followed that route. After I rededicated my life to Christ and was called to ministry, I was exposed to such teaching almost from all fronts. Most of the books I got to read were of that nature, though in the earlier years it was centred more on health than wealth, maybe because it was a seed being sown. The thrust of what I was reading was that sickness has two causes, sin and lack of faith. The solution to sickness was therefore repentance or a burst of faith if one was saved.

And that doctrine was bearing fruit as I practiced it. I used to minister to the national referral hospital (Kenyatta Hospital) at least twice a week. I would establish one’s spiritual status then share the Gospel. After someone got saved I would then pray for their healing.

I remember the first encounter being really scary. I found a young man with tubes all over. If I can still remember well I think his name was Kibet. He could not even speak due to all those tubes. As I shared the Gospel I used his gestures to establish his response to what I was sharing. But he accepted Christ all the same and I went ahead to pray for his healing.

Two days later when I came for ministry I found his bed unoccupied. On enquiring I was told he had been discharged as he had gotten healed. I know you can imagine what happened to my faith. I gained immense confidence to continue in that ministry. Somehow God gave me sufficient favor with the staff at the entrance and the wards as I was never stopped from visiting the patients though I was an outsider. And the ministry progressed with miracle after miracle being experienced as I shared the Gospel and prayed.

Then one day I went to the children’s ward where I found mothers who were already believers. We had a great fellowship and I encouraged them to believe for the healing of their children.

One mother was outstanding in her acceptance of the message. She even prompted me to give her a Bible I loved so much, the first Bible that I had ever owned, really loved and had had for close to eight years because she did not have one. Incidentally that got me into the ministry of getting Bibles to people who needed them, a ministry that has borne much fruit over the years. I left in very high spirits as for once I had ministered to people possessing so much faith.

About three days later I revisited that ward to see the confirmation of our united faith. The mother who had exhibited so much faith was absent and I assumed her child had been discharged. I was shocked, however when I was told that her child had died. And that child had not even been looking as bad as the others!

I was shattered. I could not fault my faith or the faith of that mother. What had gone wrong? Where was the problem?

It was then that I decided to search the scriptures for answers as I felt that there was something I needed to know about God especially concerning healing.  This is because from childhood I had been taught that God is sovereign and not subject to us or even our understanding. I therefore started to study the scriptures to understand and get out of that confusion.

It was then that I came across verses that will simply not make sense to someone who has bought into that doctrine, verses that seem like a slap in the face of that doctrine. I will share a few.

Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick. (2Timothy 4:20)

How can Paul who had raised Eutychus back to life leave somebody else sick just like that? Why did he not pray healing for him? Had he lost faith? How irresponsible could an apostle with the kind of gifting we see in Acts be in leaving someone sick instead of believing for his healing? Even if he had been in such a hurry could he not at least sent a handkerchief like we see being done in Acts?

Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. (Galatians 4:13)

How can this same Paul use sickness as a positive experience in his ministry? How can he use the same sickness as a pretext for his ministry in Galatia? What had happened to his faith that he seemed proud of sickness as he wrote this epistle? 

For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. (2Corinthians 12: 8 – 10)

This was the most confounding of all. Where does grace fit in sicknesses? What about faith? Where is the place of that faith? What is the evidence of faith when one is sick? How does someone demonstrate God’s power when the same power cannot take care of sicknesses? Where are Christ’s stripes if I am not healed?

But as I got to study the scriptures I came to one conclusion that has kept my faith in God positive; that God is not bound to my doctrinal position. God is everything apart from man and is therefore not bound to man’s understanding, which incidentally is one aspect of His holiness.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8, 9)

But that does not discount His power to perform miracles, even to heal. He still can and does healing. His power is infinite. But that power is not subject to man, however close to God that man may feel.

In actual fact a clear evidence of the backslidden state of the church is the absence of miracles however prosperity leaning we may paint ourselves. I suspect that is the reason preachers are using the money index to gauge their spiritual potency, because they have no spiritual standard for that. You see money is money is money. A thief’s money is no different from a prostitute’s money or a preacher’s money. A drug peddler’s billion can do as much as a preacher’s billion.

But even worse is that money is a worldly standard as it never gets beyond this life. This means it is subject to the god of this world called mammon and ultimately Lucifer. We are therefore allowing the devil to set standards to gauge the success or otherwise of those Christ said are not of this world.

But that is what we see with Job’s friends. They attributed the sudden reversal of his fortunes to his having fallen foul of God and attracted His wrath. Their single remedy was for Job to REPENT. As you continue reading those discourses you see them getting more and more convinced of his guilt, even arrogance and wickedness as he defends himself.

Their equation was simple, same as these preachers – material wealth equals God’s favor and poverty equals God’s displeasure without exception.

What those comforters did not know and what these preachers choose to ignore is the heavenly conference. They ignore the fact that Job’s situation was caused by God Himself. Or do we not know He was the one who dared the devil to try Job? And we know that happened because Job was without fault before God. In fact even the devil had written off the case and came to it because God dared him.

This doctrine can therefore be assumed to be managed from hell because it uses the material to judge spiritual realities.

But that does not mean that God does not give wealth as Job’s case demonstrates. He feared God as God Himself declared when He was challenging the devil to try him. The presence of wealth is therefore not an indicator of wickedness. But it is not also an indicator of righteousness as the devil also has in him the capacity to give wealth. Of course we know that some of the wealthiest characters are very wicked. Slave traders and owners were very wealthy yet they did probably the most wicked business as it demeans God’s highest creation. Drug barons and networks are immensely wealthy yet they are in the business of converting people into zombies. The alcohol and tobacco businesses are some of the highest profit businesses, yet they destroy people and families.

Abraham was wealthy. David also was. But they were also righteous. Solomon was immensely wealthy, but he fell out completely with God, probably because of that wealth.

Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar were extremely wealthy, but we see them even challenging God due to that wealth. Herod was very wealthy but sought to extinguish the light that was the Christ.

The point I am making is that we need to use the same standard for similar things. We can’t use material to gauge the spiritual. It would be safer if we used the spiritual to gauge the material because the spiritual is a determinant of all things from here to eternity. But we have not been given that mandate by the creator. We are simply advised to pursue the spiritual as it is the one that will release the material.

But we also need to be careful lest we attach any spiritual labels to the material or the other way round.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33)

Our responsibility is to seek to know God and be constantly connected to Him. We need to know and walk by His standards. We need to establish a rich relationship with Him.

Then we will be in a position to know whether our want is a punishment or a test. Then we will be able to know whether the gift is a blessing or a snare. We will be able to accurately know on what side of God our experience leans.

Lacking that perspective will sink us lower and lower into the pit mammon has dug for the adherents of that doctrine. We will fall into it because we have built on the foundation mammon laid by using verses without the perspective of heaven.

In a book I will publish as soon as God releases funds I have wondered how the devil has been able to infiltrate the church to the point that he even runs some pulpits (Of Gates and Offenses on the blog, which is a chapter in the book). Where was the light when darkness was getting to the pulpit? I suspect he used that doctrine by introducing material standards for gauging success in ministry. Then he is able to strategically release his kind of money to buy the allegiance of these ministers.

With a warped value system he is then able to gradually shift a minister’s focus from God to the money he has released though sometimes it is God who has released as was the case with Solomon. This is because he knows that elevating the value of money is not that much different from worshipping him.

An erroneous gauge of success automatically leads to a life out of sync with the created order. You see success is not automatic. It must be sought. And that is why there are so many instructions in the Bible to seek, pursue, guard, etc. I can’t seek knowledge to get wisdom. I cannot seek popularity to get favor. I cannot seek worldly success to get heavenly approval.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:7, 8)

What happens when money becomes the gauge of my ministerial success? It becomes the fulcrum on which my ministry swings. I will be like Job’s friends, thinking that great cash flow indicates God’s favor and the lack of it judgment. I will even create imaginary sins to repent when the cash tide turns against me. (I remember doing so in those times I walked in that doctrine if a healing miracle (not through drugs, though) did not come fast enough.)

But even worse is that I will seek the means to get that money because it is more or less the validating factor of my ministry. I will use my creativity to attract that money to me and mine to avoid having to create sins again and again. And that is where sin comes in. But then it becomes easier because mammon is the one pulling the strings.

With such a value system, it then becomes something of an abomination if any ministry does not attract monetary returns. And that is why a pastor slowly stops ministering to the poor and needy and devotes a lot of his time to those with the means to reciprocate using the currency he understands. You see transformation becomes secondary to material returns.

That is the reason he will be interested in ministering to a huge gathering as opposed to a small one for the same reason. A missionary will opt to become a mission’s consultant because that attracts more returns than actual mission work. A singer like I was will use his popularity to become a pastor because music is more taxing and has less predictable returns unless one can sell the music. An evangelist will take the title of apostle because that title is more attractive to money. A writer like me will use all means to popularize his books to attract enough buyers. Some will write books upon books on a topic that can’t fill a chapter to create more variety for more returns. The gift and calling become less important than the returns whatever ministry one is in. In short one becomes a spiritual prostitute, available to the highest bidder, only that the bidding is baptized as offering or support.

But it becomes worse because a meeting without some offering becomes untenable. People must be convinced to give one way or the other. A preaching or teaching series that does not mention and create room for giving is not complete.

But there must be other methods of getting money out of people’s pockets in the name of ministry. The most popular might be the most obscene because it uses trickery to coax people to give. There are even experts who are invited for that purpose in meetings. And it has spread like cancer. Initially it was constrained to American televangelists but things have changed as it has spread its tentacles all over.

‘For your gift of 100 dollars I will give you this knick-knack absolutely free’. And they say it after a very good amount of very attractive teaching. If you looked at the value of the thing being offered you realize that you are being ripped off as it may not be worth 5 dollars. But you have to give immediately before you can evaluate that exchange.

There is one pastor who teaches very well on radio. But then he also has written about almost anything that might interest a Christian. Half of his program is devoted to teaching and the other half (the larger one) to marketing his numerous books. And there is a catch in it. You pay less if you buy without thinking much – when he is on air. You pay more and more if you decide to take your time to decide whether you need those books or not. But you are not really buying the books; you are giving him a love gift. How does one dictate the size of a gift, especially a love gift? But I am sure this preacher will be very offended if I called him a spiritual conman, though that is what he practically is. A gift is freely offered. Requesting for it makes it cease from being a gift. A gift is not also exchangeable for anything as it is complete on its own. Give your books if you want, only do not attach anything to that. Let someone respond to your offer as they feel or are led. Or else sell them and say that you are doing so. Stop pretending you are giving when you are exchanging it with anything. Or have you forgotten that barter trade is still trade?

Even those who ask for pledges use the same tactics. They strike when the iron is hot – as they are teaching. Then you won’t make a sane decision as you are giving your credit card details because you have no time to even consider the implications of that offering or pledge.

I also write books. But I do not write them to sell. God recently told me that His message cannot be sold. Over the years, even when I sold a few copies, I realized that I was receiving transformational testimonies from people I had given books as opposed to those who bought them. Some of those who bought my books have not even read them. They were buying them to support my ministry and I am grateful. However I did not write books to be kept in shelves but to be read and thank God that He finally released me to give out all the messages He gives me to write as a greater percentage of them are getting read.

Others are smoother. Why not pay even before receiving ministry in the name of facilitating? But that facilitating goes way beyond what you are paying to facilitate. For example a very rich church or ministry (materially of course) will invite a well known teacher for example to teach on a very basic topic like evangelism or discipleship. People are then invited to attend those very ‘enriching’ teaching sessions which are free of course. But one is required to pay for the materials which many times are books the same character has written. But the money one pays for those books might be more than they would have paid had they funded everything from lunch to the air ticket. Why not ask people to pay for everything instead of making paying for a manual do the same? Is that also not spiritual trickery?

Why must I pay to encounter God? Why should I pay to hear a testimony? Why must I pray to be prayed for whatever pretext is used? Why pay to have a worship experience? Can such an experience really be worship? Whoever paid a minister to function?

The greatest danger from that doctrine however is that that success is temporal. It all ends at the grave, sometimes even earlier.

For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? (Luke 9:25)

And that is what the devil is cultivating in these ministers through that doctrine.

But the ultimate game plan for the devil is to thoroughly confuse these ministers that they start living for the present, with eternity being just one of the baits they use to attract that money they so badly need.

And they of course become irrelevant as they technically stop becoming God’s ministers. But it becomes even worse because they will then forcefully stand in the way of true ministry like Diotrephes did in 3 John. Though their demeanor is that of a minister of Christ, they are farthest from Christ’s heart.

That is the reason we are scared to equip our members on the marketplace to be effective witnesses. We choose instead to teach them to make as much money as possible so that they make their ministry ‘supporting’ us who are doing the ministry, forgetting the purpose of our ministry in Ephesians 4: 11, 12 which is to equip our members to do works of ministry.

We do this because we fear that if they realize they are ministers they may stop the flow of those coins in our direction as they will start hearing from Christ for themselves.

What is Christ’s heart then?

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)

How many of those our anointing is supposed to reach have any capacity to pay for our ministry? How many of them even realize that they need that ministry so that they can pay for it upfront?

And that is the reason there is very little ministry to places that desperately need it. That is why two millennia later the Gospel has not reached some areas yet something like this happened with a few committed ministers.

And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. (Acts 19:10)

Why is Somalia not reached yet it borders the country where 95% of all missionaries sent to Africa reside?

As an aside let me offend you a little bit. I think the terrorism Kenya is experiencing is squarely blamable on Christians, especially those in Kenya, missionaries or not. Why? You may ask.

I believe God has been calling Christians to go to evangelize Somalia for the last century. But the church has consistently refused to go, maybe even refused to support those who had responded to the call. Then God allows for the disintegration of the country so that they would come to Kenya to hear the same Gospel since we have refused to go. But what do we do? We think they came to enrich us. We sell them everything from plots to buildings, even churches. Since we enrich them with our greed and self interest, we are not willing or ready to give them what they came for, the Gospel.

Now what do you expect? Desperation and hopelessness. They came to the well of the Gospel called Kenya and found a mirage called greed and self interest. The same people we have offered opportunistic refuge will use the wealth they have acquired to hit at these Christians who have sold their birthrights instead of simply sharing the Gospel. They really cannot explain why they hate us so much but I think it is inborn. They simply hate the fact that we who have eternal hope are condemning them to damnation by not sharing the Gospel, the source of all hope.

But it is worse because they are only experiencing a vacuum they do not understand, which is what spiritual hunger is to those not exposed to the Gospel. They then hate the person who has what they need but do not know because he is even worse than a hoarder; he buries the treasure he holds through his greed.

Supposed we stopped trading with the Gospel and simply started spreading it? Supposed we decided to become what Christ called us to become? Supposed we started to ask the assignment Christ has for us? Supposed we decided to radically obey the orders He issues to us?