Greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Thank you for heeding the call to ministry. There isn’t any more distinguished honourable and nobler service in the world than labouring in the Lord’s vineyard.
Even in times like this when the whole world seems to have more questions than answers, we should not lose sight of the fact that God in His infinite wisdom considered it fit to call us, equip us and then unleash us to a world that is for the most part drowning in the sea of fear, confusion and unbelief.
However, it is in such moments as we are facing today, with this whole virus situation, that we must be prepared to ask ourselves difficult questions and accept uncomfortable insights. For instance, are we at present correctly representing our Lord in all this? How did we find ourselves in this state; scattered and nearly voiceless? Didn’t our Lord say to us that in our oneness is when the world will get to know Him?
When the Lord has birthed in our midst a gift or a call in the form of one He has anointed, we have continuously failed the test of legitimacy as His co-labourers when we have sought rather to “let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it”, as was with the case of King Solomon’s remarkable test of wisdom (1 Kings 3:16-28).
This “I either have it or we all lose it” mentality has been responsible for our animosity towards each other and not the pretentious accusations of suspicion in the indulgence of the occult and cultism. And yet, even so, some of us have made it clear that though they will listen to pagans; to the ungodly, they have no interest in listening to their fellow labourer in the gospel of Christ in the guise of their suspicion of him or her indulging in the occult.
Man of God, woman of God, our service to the Lord is so critical in such times to remain in division over very petty issues. Yet, because we have been found wanting thanks to our disunity, the world will never forget how so easily it turned us over when this whole pandemic situation was unleashed. And when the prince of darkness shall seek to strike again, he will not forget this. This should never happen again. We have the opportunity to get back on course.
Man of God, woman of God, seek no one’s approval but God’s. We have sought more to be in good books with men; with politicians, with the media, than we have with God. Whereas, we are sent to “go out into the world”, we should never forget that we are in this world but not of it. If indeed we are the Lord’s and have his Spirit, we should never forget that He said “if the world hate you, then ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:18-19).
Aren’t there any of us left, who can for instance, seek to advise the politician or the leaders out there without expectations of any form? Have we considered the benefits of being on God’s payroll over those (benefits) of being on man’s payroll? We should never forget that we are not public servants but servants of God. We can only serve the public truthfully to the degree with which we serve God.
Man of God, woman of God, we must rediscover our spiritual heritage which was seen throughout the days of “the Acts of the Apostles”, or else, we will honestly remain irrelevant in times like this. Yet, it is because of such supernatural feats that some amongst us have either ignorantly or deliberately misguided a few people by labeling the practitioners of such feats as erroneous. In the eyes of such ministers, we who practise such supernatural feats, are seen as extreme, as fanatical and as cultic. But if their labels on us are considered correct, then so too were our predecessors, such as the prophets of old, the apostles and Jesus Himself extreme, fanatical and cult. For there is nothing that we practice, that cannot be traced back to the roots of the scriptures.
Because of the accommodation of such divisive rhetoric from “false brethren”, instead of flashing it away, as commanded in the bible “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:17-18), because of this we have ceded ground to secular opinions where the revelation of God should reign supreme. Because of this, at such a time as this, we are hiding in our “fox holes” waiting for solutions from the world. Oh how we have fallen! Are we really that naive to think that the world has our best interests at heart when planning its future agenda?
The Holy Spirit tells us in the book of revelations that “the god of this world” is setting up a system, an agenda, where no one will be able to buy or sell unless such one has “the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name”. Have we thought about the different stages in which the world is moving towards the implementation of this ultimatum on the ability to buy and sell? Do we know where we presently find ourselves on that roadmap? Or shall we find that we are in partnership or contributing to this final apocalyptic implementation of the mark of the beast?
When faced with such conflict, man of God, woman of God, know that we are bound in conscience before the Great Judgment Seat of Christ to counter and resist every agenda that is geared towards the destruction of the church of Christ, the kingdom of God. However, if we hold up the white flag of surrender in the face of these agendas, a time will come when our mode of worship of Christ will only be as dictated by the world, even as we have at present gotten a sneak peek of this: “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). None of us alive today will dodge the question about how this whole situation turned us over. And, the best answer that anyone can imagine will be, “Lord, it was because of a virus”. Yet, hasn’t He said that heaven and earth will pass away but His word will abide forever?
Man of God, woman of God, if you do not rise up as God through Mordecai warned Esther; if you remain silent in this time, relief and deliverance for the body of Christ will come from another place. As the scripture asks, “who knows that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” Awaken, and do not let “the little ones” who have been entrusted to you to stumble into darkness. Have you not read that “it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble?” (Luke 17:2).
Satan’s agenda has never been so clear than it is in our day. Therefore, ours is to be awake spiritually than ever before; walk in love and fellowship and unity with each other, so that we may easily be able to detect the enemy and lead God’s people to the dominion of His Majesty.
Man of God, be God’s man, woman of God, be God’s woman
Prophet Elvis Mbonye,
Founder and President, Zoe Fellowship Ministries.
