Old Prophets

I like my church and I agree with almost all that is preached at the pulpit. There is however a particular principle I'm not comfortable with and which I believe is not in entire consonance with the word of God on the issue. I speak with the Holy Spirit about it and he says that my reservations are in order and warns that if I continue to listen to the error preached it will overwrite in my heart God's true intent and counsel on the matter provided in the bible. The word "overwrite" struck a cord. So the bible can say something and a pastor interprets it a different way and if I listen to that interpretation often and long enough, I will take that pastor's interpretation of it OVER the Holy Spirit's interpretation of it even when both interpretations contradict each other. Wow. I was led to study 1 Kings 13. You need to stop here and go read it.

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Lessons from the aforementioned scripture are:

1. The man of God let the old prophet overwrite God's instruction to him and perished for it.

2. Prophets/pastors lie and may do so for personal or ministry gain.

3. God can still speak through a prophet that has lied. 

4. We may not always see the consequence of a prophet lying in God's name. The end of the old prophet as far as I know was not revealed.  

5. The man of God though vibrant did not finish his assignment. It is possible to start strong and not finish well. 

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I have heard people wonder how one-third of the angels in heaven chose to follow Lucifer instead of God and were consequently cast down with him. I believe they listened to Lucifer's counsel often and long enough that it overwrote their experience and revelation of God who created them. 

A Stitch in Time...

When I was buying a car two years ago, all I thought I needed was money to fuel it. Contrary to expectations, the money spent over the years on repairs is enough to buy a third-hand car. It's my fault. I had no idea how to manage a car. All I thought the car needed was fuel.

In retrospect I observe that I spent so much money repairing the car because of its little faults I ignored. Those seemingly small issues resulted in great issues requiring great money to fix. If only I had sought my mechanic's attention when the car jerked a few times. And when the fuel gauge stayed up long after I removed the key from the ignition. I should have called him when it seemed the car preferred the ac off. Like you could literally hear the car heave a sigh of relief when I turned off the ac.

But no. All that was on my mind was how I needed to be at the office in fifteen minutes and how my car was strong enough at that moment to take me there. I'll call my mechanic on Saturday. Then Saturday came. No I have too many places to drive to this Saturday, I'll call my mechanic next weekend. You will not believe (I can not believe it too) that I did not call my mechanic until my car stopped right in the middle of the highway.

I'm not in the mood to start listing lessons learnt spiritual and otherwise. If you like take the lesson, if you like leave it. What should have taken a day and like 10k to rectify has now taken many days and a lot of money. A stitch in time saves ninety-nine. 

Job

The book of Job in the bible has always intrigued me. I could never understand why God would let someone who was upright in His eyes be so humiliated by the devil. Of all people to be toyed around with, why Job? This same brother Job who feared God and shunned evil?

Well I've been facing a few challenges and I have been asking God questions. Yes. Some folks are of the opinion that we shouldn't question God. I'm not sure I entirely understand what they mean. When I am confused, I ask God questions. Thankfully so far He hasn't sent the Holy Spirit to flog me :).

By divine purpose (some may call it coincidence), I was with my phone one night and two of my friends caused me to read certain chapters in Job. One of them tweeted a general tweet and the other told me to do so in the course of our bbm convo. I had read the whole book of Job some years back and was curious to see what the content of those chapters were. All this happened close to midnight and I was sleepy so I left the bible study till the next day.

After studying the chapters, my questions were 90% answered and I learnt a few lessons which I will now share.

1. We hail Job that he feared God and shunned evil (Job 1:1). Well guess who put the fear of God (wisdom) in him? God! God says in Job 39:13-17 that because He did not give the ostrich wisdom it behaves foolishly. It reminds me of that scripture that says blessed is the man whom God causes to approach Him (Psalm 65:4). 

My lesson: Be thankful to God for the wisdom to fear Him and keep His commandments. Don't take it for granted.

2. Job was a guy who knew all the formulas. He feared God, shunned evil, was righteous (Job 31) and constantly sacrificed on behalf of his children. He even writes a chapter (Job 28) on where to find wisdom. Yes he was the man. But things still went wrong at a point.

My lesson: God does not want to be primarily seen as a robot/computer/calculator/atm that you punch in formulas and get a certain result. He still has the prerogative. Serve Him for Him and not just rewards.

3. Job lost everything. EVERYTHING. He was bereaved, sick and poor. The wife and friends he had left were not helping matters at all. It seems like God was more concerned about Job being in His will than He was about how comfortable and smooth Job's life was going. The doctrine preached at modern churches these days is that the richer you are as a christian, the more likely it is that you are truly applying God's word. It is not so. They that say they must be rich fall into a trap (1 Tim 6:6-10).

My lesson: God is more concerned about you having eternal life and fulfilling His will here on earth than He is about your fleshly comfort. Let your christian walk not mainly revolve around applying the seed principle so that you will live a wealthy life. 

4. After Job accepted that God had the final say in his life, God restored him to a better state than he was at the beginning.

My lesson: Challenges come and go. God's blessing at the end will make the process worth it.