OF MEN OF GOD AND GODS OF MEN!

When men of God turn themselves into gods of men, then it’s time the sons of men realize that they too are sons of God. In essence, that no one has a monopoly on revelation. Jesus has made a way for us by his death to enter the Holy of Holies and approach God by and for ourselves (see Hebrews 10: 16 – 20). We are in the New Testament dispensation of the priesthood of all believers; if you allow anyone hoodwink you or pull the wool over your face; it won’t be God’s fault but yours. You can know God for yourself. And you should!

The challenge with the church has been that the people in the pews had for long lost the culture of the Berean Christians who double-checked and cross-checked the things they were taught in church (Acts 17:11). When you don’t know God’s word for yourself, anyone can spew baloney into your mind and you believe it hook, line and sinker; and still be thanking and celebrating him/her for it! It’s funny that when Muslims enter a mosque to worship, they leave their footwear by the door. Sad to say, methinks the average Nigerian churchgoer (born-again or not, Pentecostal, charismatic orthodox or by whatever label you choose to give them) unlike his Muslim counterpart leaves his brain by the door of the church! Else how do you explain the credulity with which we believe some stuffs spewed forth in the guise of the gospel by some men of the cloth from our numerous pulpits.

I know you will argue, faith does not agree with reasoning. Yes, and no! Faith agrees with reasoning; reasoning of a different kind – the Bible kind. Paul said; if anyone preaches a gospel different from the one we have preached to you, let him be accursed! I mean, that scripture makes me cringe with holy awe as a preacher and teacher of God’s word. Whatever anyone – and I mean whoever, by whatever name or title the person goes – says that does not agree with the whole counsel of God as set forth in the Bible, vomit it! Before anyone teach you and fill your mind and heart with anything short of the full orbed truth of God’s word, tell him or her, “Teacher, don’t teach me nonsense!” Read the Bible for yourself. Think. Meditate. Compare and research scriptures. Double-check and re-check what you heard in church or by a TV preacher. Refuse to be a twenty-first century slave. Use your spirit, and use your mind! If you refuse to think or you cannot think, you are a slave all the same. And I’m sorry to say, I see a new generation of slaves in the Nigerian church; enslaved by their wrong beliefs and to their overlords (pastors, prophets, teachers etc.) who taught them wrongly. You’re responsible for what and who you choose to believe.

Food for Thought: GAIN IS NOT GODLINESS!

Gone are those days when we thought that godliness had no earthly benefit. Those were the days when being born-again meant being the scum of the earth. Popular choruses were “Take the whole world and give me Jesus…” Believers were so heavenly conscious that they were of no earthly relevance. But those days are gone! Now we know better. We are godly and we are successful. And, our songs have changed. “Give me the whole world and give me Jesus…” seems more like what we sing nowadays. We are more easily to be charged with being earthly good but of not much eternal consequence! We have gone from one extreme end to the other.

Before you start thinking otherwise, I’m not advocating that poverty is synonymous with piety. One can be rich and righteous. Yet another can be poor and be sinful. If righteousness were equal to prosperity, then the most righteous men on earth would be the top dogs on the Forbes rich list. And thus the likes of Carlos Slim, William Henry Gates III, Folorunsho Alakija, Oprah Winfrey, Aliko Dangote etc., would be the most holy men and women on earth!

God does bless his people! You can be righteous and prosper! And you can be godly and broke too. Yeah! Remember the story Jesus told in Luke 16:19-31 about the rich man and Lazarus. That is sufficient an illustration.

An error has gone forth in the church: “If you do not have money, you must have missed God somewhere. Conversely, if you’re wealthy, then you must be in sync with God.” I say, no! You cannot worship God and mammon!

This is the whole counsel of God as revealed in 1Timothy 6:5-10:

“They think religion is a way to make a fast buck. A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that’s enough. But if it’s only money these leaders are after, they’ll self-destruct in no time. Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after.”(Message)

Aren’t we guilty of “using” God to achieve our selfish ends? Are we not fast slipping into this error of equating godliness with gain? A heart search is pertinent here, before we slip so far away from the kingdom of God than when we were infidels. This is not to knock any valid truth of God’s word no matter how much it’s been bastardized but to restore believers back to the straight and narrow. Bottom line: Gain is not godliness. However, godliness is great gain. You will still hear me on this matter. YOU WILL SUCCEED!

WHAT DO YOU SEE WHEN YOU LOOK AT PEOPLE?

Years ago as an undergraduate, I took a summer teaching job. Whenever I entered the classroom I always took a bow and greet the students as “ladies and gentlemen”. One of the students asked me why I did that one day. I answered her, “Because I see you not as what you are right now but as who you will be years down the line!”

“When I see people, everyone, every human, I understand that I am in the presence of greatness. Maybe potential greatness, or greatness unpolished, or greatness unfound, but every person has the ability.” (Kat Cole) I concur! Every human being carries the imprint of the Almighty.

This quote inspires what I’m sharing with you today, dear friend. Don’t just see people as they are; see them as they can be. So much more important for those of us who have a responsibility for others, whether as parents, bosses, pastors, teachers, heads of department, etc., in any leadership capacity. That is why I wrote the book That I Look Like A Beggar Does Not Say I Do Not Have A Throne! And it is why I volunteer to train and mentor under-privileged kids at Paradigm Initiative Nigeria’s Ajegunle.org project. It’s also why I’ve made it part of my life’s work to build a leadership center for youths where they can be trained and given an opportunity to discover and develop their innate potential for greatness.

Everyone you see is pregnant with destiny. Beneath every face is a precious person loved and valued by God. Respect that always. Never look down on anyone except you want to help them up. Look within your sphere of influence and do something to help someone today. You will succeed!

From My Devotional Archives – 1

My next few posts here will be from my archives. Over the years I have been privileged to learn a lot of things, of which I have been able to document quite a few. It is impressed on my spirit to share a little from some of those writings. Be blessed, dear friends.

On Tuesday, April 14, 1998 I wrote:

God needs manpower
And man needs God’s power
But God works only when man works
The work of praying
For, when man works, man works
But when man prays, God works.

God is sovereign, but He needs our cooperation in the place of faith and prayer to work in our lives and in the world.

ARE YOU EDUCATING WITHOUT ENTERTAINING?

This is an observation to my fellow men of the cloth but it should come in handy for anybody who does any form of public speaking.

Brent Filson in the book Executive Speeches wrote: “The Constitution guarantees free speech, but it does not guarantee listeners. Even if you do get listeners, there is no guarantee that they will be listening. So your first responsibility as a speaker is to gain and keep the audience’s attention.” I couldn’t agree more!

Now, to gain and keep the audience’s attention you must not just have something meaningful and beneficial to say, you must be able to say it interestingly. I believe that as a speaker the way to engage your audience and guarantee their attention is two-fold: entertain and educate. Better put, I want to entertain my listeners while educating them. (You say, “Heaven is too serious for that!”) You can’t be more serious than Jesus yet He was entertaining. How else could He have spoken to more than five thousand people for three days straight and got their attention without a public address system. They were so engrossed in what he was saying that they forgot to eat!

As a speaker I had always wanted my listeners to say something like, “I see! That was interesting. Now let me begin to take action on what I’ve learnt here.” I want to ‘preach’ to people without being ‘preachy’! To tell them something without them feeling being told – that’s what I mean by being entertaining while educating.

I consider it my life calling equipping people to find, follow and fulfill their God-given destinies. My listener must not only be able to discern their life purposes through my messages, they must also be inspired to identify practical steps to take to accomplish the same. Education that lacks entertainment content is not only boring but accomplishes little. In a similar vein, entertainment that has no solid educational value falls short of any lasting impact. The question therefore is “Are you entertaining without educating or educating without entertaining?” YOU WILL SUCCEED!

P. S. I have written on the subject of public speaking here before in a series of posts titled 10-Tips-for-Speaking-to-Impact-Lives. To read those pieces you can click on the link and these: 10-tips (2); 10-tips (3) and 10-tips (4).