Leadership is Foresight, Period

This virus has exposed some of the people we call leaders, and especially those we have made leaders, so badly.

As I have been looking at some measures being taken, and especially the way they are being implemented, I feel so sad because the populace see pitfalls long before the said leadership can get the littlest grasp on the same.

Until the led wonder who should actually be leading, though they will not say so.

I sometimes think the leadership is hitting at the wrong target again and again.

But again I think they are finding great frustration because of who or what they think or believe is the source of their misery.

Some measures, though genuine, may be a way of hitting back or venting at imaginary enemies limiting their pleasures, probably debaucheries.

I was saddened to now that private clubs were still operational so long after everywhere else was closed. Yet a club is a bar and restaurant, among many other social functions, rolled into one.

Remember they closed bars in response to an outcry? Yet they had closed churches without blinking. And a church is safer than that private club as its membership is sober and therefore manageable. You wonder why they limit the passenger capacity of a vehicle yet summarily close a church.

I think they are mad at God for limiting their freedom. They then hit at the poor who apart from having no options should they be attacked by the virus still appear protected. They therefore limit their freedoms so that they can join them in their sorrow.

How does a sane man close a city to movement with a two hour notice? That is unless there is one person you are blocking from entering. Then you must punish millions for your agenda to be fulfilled. And you still do not feel guilty when you hear of whole families spending nights in the cold because their journey has been curtailed just at a clique’s whim.

I suspect that even the private clubs were closed because they had started being avenues of infection.

And this virus will still defy your logic until you start being responsible leaders.

As things stand, it is possible you are ‘praying’ that the lower class get infected as then it would take the pressure off your class.

But the poor have God even though you closed their places of worship. And they pray.

Do not therefore become surprised when God protects them.

How do you close a restaurant and leave a market that has an immensely denser population open? How do you close a church and leave a bar and private club open?

Yet they have not closed the golf clubs, only sending home the poor caddies. They also continue enjoying their fun as they deny others their livelihood. This is because without caddies there will be little golfing and more clubbing. The down (or up depending on where you stand) side is that they will spread infections among themselves.

Isn’t it worrying that the president announces a great ‘offering’ to entertainers when the lower classes are starving since they either can’t get employment or customers as their customers are the ones who have become jobless.

But it is understandable knowing the selfish nature of our crop of leaders, and their ignorance. They have no idea what hunger is. To them it is severe deprivation lacking entertainment or other fun activities. Paying an entertainer is therefore more productive than providing food for the starving.

They could therefore comfortably give a starving family a TV instead of food and think they have done a very good deed.

And do not be surprised if you see them create a slot in this confusion to fix their concubine, relative, business associate to an eating position even as people are starving.

And see the demeaning way they are publishing their benevolence when they ‘give’ food to the disadvantaged. Imagine creating stampedes that cause death just to show how generous they are! Yet they still want us to clap for them when they are breaking their distancing rules to publish their ‘generosity’. Yet they have a fund that should be handling food distribution.

Yet many other people who are not called leaders have been giving food to the same people without creating any ripples as they do not demean those they are giving or expose them to situations that can spread not just the virus.

I will not defy. Nor will I incite anybody to do the same.

I am just saying that good leadership is never reactionary. Any decision taken and order given must have been so well thought of as to remove any doubts that you are concerned and in charge of and for those you lead. Then compliance will seamlessly connect two normals as opposed to introducing confusion as we are seeing. Unless your purpose is punishing those you lead.

Even as I say this, I am also looking at spiritual leaders since many are not much different from political leaders. As Jesus said, they load those they lead with immense loads yet will not lift a finger to help them.

The virus is also exposing them badly. The fact that buildings are closed does not mean your calling (if God called you) has become unnecessary. In fact, it makes your ministry even more vital to the church of Christ. The fact that you have no offerings does not mean you cannot minister. In fact that is the one time you should make yourself most useful.

Lack of consideration to those we lead will ultimately open us to judgment. And I am saying that as a minister. And I am sure we are about to see that judgment on such leadership, whether secular or spiritual.

Only the repentance of the leaders will soften the impact of that judgment.

Pillars of Revival

Revival can only rest on what God says as opposed to what we think or do. It is only when we do what God says that we can have true revival.

Only God determines what revival is. And only He should guide how we should go about revival.

I want us to look at the Old Testament to let us appreciate that any revival not driven by the word of God is very short lived and/or disproportional.

The second thing we will notice is that revival sought for its own end does not also go far.

Josiah discovered a hidden (neglected? lost?) ‘Bible’, as we may say.

What happened?

He realized that judgment was sure as judging from what he was reading they had passed the ‘sell by’ date by which judgment from heaven was due.

He repented. But he went farther. He sought to know God’s will concerning the same. He was told that yes, judgment was due. But because of his repentance he would be spared the same. In other words judgment had been deferred to a date after his decease.

What he does after the answer is what I want us to look at.

He continues seeking God using the ‘Bible’. No wonder he could institute a Passover unlike any they had observed since they settled in Israel as well as cleanse Israel of Jeroboam’s idolatry.

You see, he didn’t have to do anything since he was already assured of safety from harm and judgment. In any case the judgment couldn’t be changed by anything he did. Yet he did.

Compare that with many others who had more ‘powerful’ encounters and revelations.

Ahab has an encounter with a devastating drought and God answering by fire. He at one time faces the wrath of God.

Then he repents to the point of wearing sackcloth. Then God says that because of the repentance He will defer the judgment to a later time.

What then does he do?

He continues with life as if nothing had happened.

Look at Hezekiah. He prays in bitterness and entitlement and God adds him fifteen years. Then a team of friends from afar visit him and he does something God was opposed to.

Among the things God said in judgment was that his children would be made Eunuchs in another land.

What do we see in this spiritual giant whose past had so much spiritual potency?

He says that it is fine since he was exempted. And he continued with his downward trend until his son became the wickedest king Judah produced.

Solomon and Saul started very well. Success made them depart from the ways of God.

Samuel was a very effective prophet. But I suspect that the absence of the Bible was the reason his children could not follow his integrity lessons.

You see, Samuel followed instructions from God. But he was not home long enough to pass everything he got to his children.

Compare that with David as he is the closest to Josiah we see.

He was able to keep his focus on God as he was sold out to God’s word. And no wonder he becomes the reference for faithfulness and commitment to God.

Otherwise explain to me how he could feel guilty for just cutting a piece of cloth from Saul’s cloak when the same Saul was there looking to kill him, among other things?

Moses was focused as he was always in the presence of God hearing everything He was saying. Aaron, on the other hand, was with the crowd. It was therefore very easy for him to be swayed by it. As long as Moses was around, he was very committed as he was following what his younger brother had heard.

Only consistency with God’s word can keep us consistent in our walk of faith.

Josiah caught the word and the word transformed him and everything he did just as it had transformed David.

Lack of the same is what made many wither in their walk of faith.

You see, even in water we can only sail when we make it our ‘foundation’. We will drown when it is unable for whatever reason to support us.

It is the same with spiritual things. The only sure foundation is God’s word.

For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. (Psalm 119: 89, 90)

Remember Jesus saying that heaven and earth will pass away but the word will not?

What does this have to do with revival? You may be asking.

Just as a house is as stable as its foundation, a revival is as lasting and powerful as its foundations.

A revival whose foundations are prayer and repentance, though the two are integral ingredients of the same, will fall short of some key elements of spiritual impact. It will be worse if emotionalism and experience are involved.

For one, there will be spite for scriptural instruction and knowledge.

As such, the Bible will only be used to justify the experience as opposed to what it actually says. Even their theological instruction will sadly lean in that direction, fighting simple Biblical truths with their agreed experiential explanations.

Due to that, the marketplace will be inundated with believers who use ‘force’ to explain what they believe. By that I mean they will use their experience to force you to agree with them. And of course they will try their best to force that experience on you.

A case in hand is the Pentecostal (also called Charismatic) revival of 1906.

They elevated experience above the scriptures. And I am speaking as a child of that movement.

To them, nothing else matters if you can, or can’t, speak in tongues. Their whole theology revolves around that single experience whether it is real or conjured.

These are some of the things I have said elsewhere on the blog and so I won’t repeat them again.

If I may repeat just one incident, I got saved when I was nine in the movement. I had a lot of questions (I still have them as anyone who reads my blog can attest) concerning my new faith.

Unfortunately, the leaders, especially those who had Bibles (I got mine much later), would always respond to my question with the answer that the reason I had so many questions was because I did not have faith. This more or less insinuated that I was at fault for having so many questions. Until I rebelled. But then God brought me back and connected me to the Bible where I found answers to my innermost inquiries.

That is the reason my passion for the Bible as the one and only authority in faith and practice never wanes. I still rue over the almost ten years I wasted being judged instead of being guided to the Bible for answers.

Incidentally, to this date nothing has changed as I interact with them from many different places, even countries as I have ministered.

No wonder the prosperity ungospel found a very fertile home as they also thrive in using just a verse, or a couple of them, to prove whatever they need to justify.

That is the reason I suspect they are the ones worst hit by this virus as their theology has no place for it since they have no explanation as their tongues have been unable to ‘send it back to sender’ as their erroneous theology indicates.

Yet the scriptures have adequate explanation for this as it has for everything under the sun. And I do not need to have a ready answer for everything nor should I expect the Bible to agree with my experience.

Back to Josiah. The word made Josiah want to not only change but also make a difference in his generation.

And that is what the Bible does. You can never consistently take in the word of God and fail to want to influence whatever and whoever is around you. I can hide my experience and constrain it to only those with similar ones but I can never do the same with God’s word.

You see, the word is alive. This means it cannot be constrained. That is why prison warders are some of the best trained soldiers everywhere as they are dealing with constrained human beings. And even then there are always prison breaks.

That is why the lockdowns and curfews and distancing are so difficult. That is why working from home by force is so limiting as could be called imprisoning. Yet if it were by choice it was viewed as liberating.

The other day they were saying that mental health is becoming such an issue with these lockdowns. In the same report they were saying that divorce rates are shooting through the roof, and not because of infidelity as was the case previously. It is because of that sense of imprisonment. I suspect that a couple being constrained, like most people do, will blame their situation on the ones closest to them.

This is what being without a solid foundation will do to anybody. And in the spiritual it will affect our theology and especially our understanding of God.

A foundation of God’s word also offers security. You can’t be consuming God’s word and fail to trust God as the word always and ultimately focuses on God. As such, the externals will be unable to ruffle one’s faith. An example is useful here.

Jeroboam was given the kingdom God had promised him. He became scared that the absence of the temple in Israel could swing the people back to David’s seed. Then he thinks of better security and introduces idols to kill that insecurity.

Compare that with David when he was overthrown. Then the priests want to take the ark to accompany the king. Look at his response.

He orders them to return the ark to Jerusalem. And why?

God is still in charge. If He decides that He is done with me then the ark is of no use. And if He still has use for me, He will get me back to Jerusalem and the ark. And we see the same when someone grievously curses him. Again the army wants to deal conclusively with him. But David forbids them by demonstrating his surrender to God that he knew was in complete charge of everything and was capable to use those curses for David’s good.

God does not need us to fight for Him. We can only fight His battles when we are completely surrendered to His agenda. And the only way we can know that agenda is reading the word He released for our instruction.

As we prepare for the coming revival, isn’t it imperative that we elevate the place for the word of God in our lives and the lives of the ones who are seeking to be joined to Christ?

Otherwise we could be found unprepared for the hordes God is bringing to His family to help them become spiritually healthy brethren.

Corona

I am thinking of this virus and what it has been able to accomplish in just a few weeks.

Isn’t it amazing how it has been able to put to a stop things that have never even been slowed down for the longest time?

Yet the more I look at it the more I can see another hand playing behind the scenes. But I do not want to arouse controversy by mentioning whose hand it is. Suffice it when I say that the God who created us knows and allows what is happening and is working it out for the good of those who are committed to Him.

I have said enough times that there are gods and kings apart from Christ and His Father. He can’t be called the King of kings if there are no other kings. And He can’t be called the Lord of lords if there are no other lords. And each plays according to their own rules.

When the true God steps in, He starts by proving the powerless nature of these gods before judging them. And many times He will first allow them to thrive to their highest before doing so.

Christ had to die to defeat death. He had to be made sin to defeat sin. And He became powerless to get all power in heaven and earth.

Then He is able to justly judge the earth and these gods.

What does this have to do with Corona? You may be wondering.

The world was spinning so far out of the orbit it was created for. And man had become too self-focused to the point of forgetting that there is God to whom he is accountable to.

Theologians will explain what is happening in two ways.

One is that God is judging the world. But I think that is against How God works. Though He will and still judges the world, the easier argument in that direction would be that God has released the world to its devices or as the Bible says He has allowed the world’s sin to find it out.

Two is that like in Job’s time He has allowed the evil one to ‘judge’ the world his way so that in that ‘judgment’ he will purify His church.

As we read the Bible we see God judging what we value and what runs our lives. Nebuchadnezzar did not eat grass because God hated him. The king had to know that he was not absolute. Remember the statement he made before his judgment?

I believe this is what is happening today. God is simply bringing to naught what is highly esteemed among us. He is disqualifying our qualifications.

Look at what has been brought down.

Ø  Entertainment

Ø  Sports

Ø  Commerce

Ø  Travel

Ø  Hospitality

Ø  Politics

Ø  Religion

Ø  Education

Ø  Culture

I believe that as was in Job’s time, the media has been left for the purposes of letting us know what is happening. But you can be sure it will also undergo judgment as the others.

… I only am escaped alone to tell thee. (Job 1)

In short, everywhere we placed our bets has collapsed. Even the bets themselves have been judged.

And I do not think it started with Corona.

Remember the Me Too movement?

We needed to know the values by which success plays. Simply speaking, wickedness many times determines whether we will succeed or not in this world.

I was in the media and saw up close what the Me Too movement is just now highlighting.

You do not just need to be a great musician to excel. There must be an extra sacrifice to make, from sleeping with producers to buying airplay from anchors. Otherwise you will just excel in your bathroom.

You see the devil does not stop when he leads you to sin. He uses that sin to finish you as completely as he can by shining his spotlight on it. Or do you not know he is called the accuser?

Of course this is for the purposes of leading you to give up on grace. Then he can completely finish you by blocking you from considering God’s offer of eternal life.

It is the same whichever field you take. The higher the stakes will mean the greater the sacrifice required.

But God is not overly concerned with the world. He is more concerned with His own as they are the ones He needs to purify to be ready for Christ’s Second Advent. Yet in this judgment He also seeks to let the world know that His grace is still open to whoever will.

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11:3)

This, I believe, is what is happening.

But the end game is in God’s hands even at this time.

You see, even in Job’s case, though He had released him to Satan, He already had a plan to raise Job’s status and not wealth as motivational speakers posing as preachers teach.

Getting to the motivators, do you realize that they are one industry that has gone completely silent since the virus started speaking?

Have you noticed that it has also completely silenced the healers and miracle workers?

Now I know God and His power. I have experienced miracles and healing. I have witnessed them in answer to my prayers.

But like I have always said, those miracles and healing are not subject to us. They are in God’s domain, and only there.

The minister is therefore subject to revelation.

You see, even Jesus did not perform miracles anyhow. He did not heal everybody.

How then does a healer (pastor, evangelist, apostle) advertise their healing and prophetic capacity?

Bring all the sick, all the sick will be healed, are some of the catch phrases they use to draw people for their ‘events’ and meetings.

They must therefore conjure those healings to meet the demand they have created.

Corona has put an abrupt stop to all that. And the enemies of the cross are calling the bluff on these healers, asking why they have become so quiet.

Miracles demand someone to be in close fellowship with Christ to be able to know what God is about. Then you will know when to proclaim and when not.

There are times I have prayed and ‘known’ that God has performed the miracle that I will just proclaim healing, sometimes even before the prayer.

Other times the opposite occurs.

But even the healings are as different as the ailments. And that is why you see Jesus giving orders before the healing occurs.

The simplest to understand are clinical ailments. The body is malfunctioned and needs resetting. Stomach upset, food poisoning, broken joints etc.

But some are relational. Though looking clinical in nature, their cause is different. And God will give an order. Forgive your children, reconcile with so and so, etc.

Yet others are as a result of sin. Remember the guy who was brought through the roof?

It therefore means that each category of sickness will require its own intervention, something only a close fellowship with the Creator can distinguish.

There healings that occur just because you decide to dedicate your time to listen. Then they will talk away the poison that was killing them. And they will leave wondering what you did as you ‘healed’ them before praying.

The presumption of the healers is amazing sometimes. Some insist on your falling before you are healed. Others require you to confess or give, etc.

That is why God is bringing them down. Then He will remain as the only Healer, moving only with those who are submitted completely to Him.

Prophecy has suffered the same fate. And it is because it was man-centred. People for the most part prophesied what their followers wanted to hear and not what God was saying.

I am sure there are some who are now renouncing prophecies they had received with resounding Amens.

I can see your green card coming. Receive that scholarship to Europe (or US). God has opened the airspace for you. This especially if the prophecy was for early 2020.

They had even started prophesying about Corona and why it was just a small bump. One said it was completely finished and what we see are just last kicks. And it had not even touched Europe!

That is what happens when you want to thrive outside the Vine.

Again there is true prophecy. And it finds its source in a healthy and worshipful relationship with Christ. Then you will be speaking His mind.

Then of course we see religion being thrashed.

Italy hosts the Vatican, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. I do not know whether that is the reason it has been thrashed this badly.

Mecca is closed.

And of course churches and mosques are closed.

You realize that Islam is a communal religion. By this I mean it gets its power in the herd mentality. Introspection is therefore not encouraged as there is no allowance for considering anything outside Islam.

But for the first time a Muslim is told to practice his faith privately. And that is a very dangerous prospect for Islam as they can easily see the gaps Islam cannot explain outside the herd.

And this is the same with many Christians today. Though we might be the most enlightened generation, we are probably the most Biblically illiterate generation since the Bible was translated from Latin. Many follow their pastors, bishops, apostles and do not read the Bible unless the passages those imposters request or order.

Again they must learn to practice their faith outside those superstars.

And this is healthy as God is interested in having people following Him by choice and joyfully and not by compulsion or due to pressure.

Christian fellowship is one where each member has an individual living fellowship with Christ and not one guided by a few with that relationship.

Even shepherds are sheep with a Shepherd.

I believe this is what lockdowns and curfews are making of believers, seekers of a valid relationship with God outside the herd. And I am sure many Muslims will find it too. Plus of course other religions that thrive on the herd mentality.

I am also sure that believers will develop other evangelistic methods and tools for this dispensation. And of course the same for fellowship and other faith practices.

And that is where the church structure as we have always known it will take a hit, probably collapse altogether as the new flood of believers will have no use for out worn out vestiges of past glory.

New York is the centre of the world in a way, being the headquarters of the United Nations, World Bank, IMF and many other serious controllers of the world and its economy.

Of course the USA is not only a super power but also the leading economy in the world.

It is also taking a huge hit from this virus.

Again look at the places worst hit. They are the most part the places best prepared to handle such calamities. And they are prominent in some way.

Yet they are always overrun.

This is why I am talking about another hand running the show.

That is why I am scared for Kenya. Unprepared as we may be, we could also be in the crosshairs of this hand that is judging the world being the gateway to Africa for the most part.

Is the church of Christ awake?

Let me close with this verse.

Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. (Psalm 127: 1)

Our security is in God, and only there.