In the first post on mentor and protégé, I identified that, when we seek to advance our entire life (spiritual and temporal) we come face to face with our creator—Christ Jesus. As said also in the previous post, it will be the reverse of wisdom to become a man’s protégé or disciple rather than Christ’s.
Importance of the Church
God who is Omniscient has placed His gifts we need to fulfill our destiny in His Body. He is the Alpha and Omega! He pilots us through His ways to prevent our fleshly ambitions dressed up in spiritual facade from leading us to destruction—that is, away from destiny.
Like He often instructed Israel not to adopt the styles, models, aspirations and goals of the other nations, so does the Holy Spirit instruct us individually and as the Church today.
Therefore, if we plant our feet in the shadow of His wings in His household (gathering together of believers) we will certainly drink from His stream of rejoicing (Psalms 36:7-8). Given, that the functioning of the gifts (not mentors) He has set in His household will constantly calibrate us to His ways that places the temporal (marriage, children, degrees, cars, houses, popularity, writing books, own businesses etc.) at our disposal without jeopardizing our destiny.
In 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul tells Timothy, “Take hold of eternal life to which you were called”—That is destiny! All who are in Christ are already in their destiny. The works Christ does through us is the fight of faith or the following of God’s ways that ensures we stay on course of our destiny. But, the devil is standing by to readily fool us that our ambitions are the same as our destiny. Our lack of understanding of the difference between destiny and ambitions is evident when we say, (so and so Christian’s life was cut short of achieving their destiny e.g. Stephen in Acts 7:59).
A Christian’s destiny can’t be cut short by those who can kill only the body and not able to touch the soul Matthew 10:28. At best, they have only hastened the Christian’s destiny. In Philippians 1:23, Paul says, going to Christ is better. But, if it is to stay, it’s for serving the saints for their progress and joy in the faith (verse 24-25). In verse 26, the saints can see Paul’s lifestyle and be encouraged. What lifestyle was to be seen in Paul? Verse 27, A life worthy of the gospel of Christ to be constant in them not playing eye service for Paul to promote them. But for them to be bond by one spirit and having one mind (the spirit and mind of Christ) to the work of His gospel and verse 28, as they oppose the enemies of the gospel and not fight themselves. This standing fearlessly together in the gospel against the emenies is a sign for their destruction but, salvation for the saints. This is God’s kind of salvation in the saints, it is evidenced by boldness in the gospel not compromise.
God alone holds our destiny and it is eternal.
The temporal things we want are our ambitions which are dispensable and must remain secondary—including seeking to establish grand godly things for which we will be remembered and counted among God’s generals which does not exist except in our little competitive minds. The pressure of seeking to institute grand things, whether we admit it or not is a huge part of the reason we’ve adopted secular model of mentor and protégé. We simply need to repent and trust the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truths and blessings.
But, if we insist on mixing our theologies with management courses rooted in ESP, unity of the faith in the bond of peace will remain a mirage though, union will blossom—blossoming to hell except we repent turning again to Christ (the faith) and to Him alone who is the Mentor of the Church.
As the church wakes up to the Truth—to Christ, the following results will be inevitable:
* Many of God’s people will have a healthy desire to be intimate with God and serve others; not full of ambition to be servant-leaders (a cunning word) not found in the bible Romans 8:14. A servant is not a leader, teacher, a guide or mentor and a mentor is not a servant but a leader, guide, teacher or master.
To systematically hype up an individual in the gathering of the church because he or she is giving false allegiance behind closed doors to gurus in Christendom is a shame. Yes they will climb in servant-leadership but, let’s hear this: the tactics by which man has elevated you will be the same way by which man will easily destroy you if the union goes pear shaped. So, to prevent this demise, you have to keep the false allegiance to man going. Under this condition, Christ can speak to you the much He like; you’ll not obey Him at the expense of your elevated position in man’s sight. Saleh!
To the Body of Christ (those in Christ and Christ in them) hear this: Jesus clearly said He alone is the Master—that is, Lord and the teacher or Mentor John 13:13-17. Note also in Matthew 10:25—He depicts all his disciples as students and servants, not teachers and masters. Not servant-leaders. Servant-leader is a sanctimonious rebranding of the word “clergy” whom God’s people have come to recognize does not exist among those in Christ by understanding 1 Peter 2:9.
The Safty
Are you led by the spirit of Christ or your “servant-leaders”? Be honest with yourself for it is your own life and destiny being examined here.
* With the servant-leadership crap scrapped, the inevitable importance of the Church on earth will once again come to our forefront. Then, many that are driven by the “leadership rat race” and those giving false allegiance at the expense of their consciences in order to be recognized and promoted to leadership will leave the body of Christ alone. They will go to pursue their leadership thing in the circular workplace or in politics. Or, they’ll repent which is our earnest prayer for our brothers and sisters taken in by the spirit of pre-eminence or leadership.
It is J.R. Woodward who said, “The problem is that when we enter the rat race, we often become rats in the process. Will we fear God and learn from this wise word?
The Church in helping us understand the difference between destiny and ambition will help make us…
*Take God’s word seriously and searching it constantly for the right reasons
*Go consistently to the throne of mercy and grace to obtain grace for the right reasons
*Appreciate the fellowship of believers increasingly for the right reasons
*Submit to one another for the right reason (out of reverence for God)
The benefits will not be theoretical—actual growth in Christ will happen and evidenced by strong unity in the Faith in the bond of peace not union of faiths which is just mutual beneficial friendship and fake peace.
For everyone to believe what they like and practice what they like works against God’s redemptive purpose. It creates religious harmony but not unity of the faith for which Christ specifically gave five dimensions of himself as a gift to some parts in His body Ephesians 4:11.
Every time the church loses sight of the importance of the unity of the faith, we become loud mouthed about how much we have increased in goods and or, the number of people trailing behind us as our own followership. Little wonder we adopt any model available to succeed in our ambitions. This is why we’ve incorporated mentor and protégé approach against what we see clearly in the scriptures.
By the way, the scripture never uses the word growth to describe the church when God joins people to her. The word always used is added. Growth is used to describe the church’s increase in the stature of Christ (loving one another, honoring one another, holy inside and outside the cup, preaching His gospel, perseverance, patience, long suffering, faith, forgiving, praying, no laziness—for short, obedience to the faith Acts 6:7.
But, in lusting to be “successful and recognized”, unavoidably we have muddled up things.
Give thought to Jesus the Mentor—He is the destiny to be taken hold of and to never let go! Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need Matthew 6:33NLT.
In this article, we’ll look at the difference between the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT) Prophets. The aim is to establish that, the New Testament prophets unlike the oldies are not exactly given to loneliness, extreme acrimony and hatred from the majority of the Church “representing the Israel of God”.
For clarity, I am not for replacement theology.
The Church, being those who are circumcised in heart by the atonement of Christ’s blood, have the Spirit of Christ in them. This point is crucial for the positive assertion of the theme of this article.
In the Old Testament, the natural Israel as a nation was unquestionably chosen by God as His people—This, they inherited from their forefathers that had the promise from the faithful Creator of the universe and beyond.
It is interesting and important to note that they did not choose God rather they only inherited His promise to their fathers. This has implications.
One key implication is this: they did not have the faith seed in their lives as their fathers. They were mere men struggling to keep the laws the God of their fathers gave. This had implication on the prophets.
The implication on the Prophets of old
The definition of a prophet elucidates the reason they had to be an extremely set of lonely people in their environment and interaction with this “mere men” who know not the God of their fathers that the prophets represented. The OT prophets had the faith seed in them and were always speaking the things which only faith, not law, could comprehend. See 1 Peter 1:9-25.
In verse 9 of 1 Peter 1, Peter the apostle spoke of, “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls”. Then, note what he says next in verse 10 regarding the OT prophets, “Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you”.
While the prophets was talking about the salvation of their souls, the Israelites were overwhelmed with desire to be saved from their earthly problems:
*For the God of their fathers to rescue them from physical Egypt,
*Give them cucumber and meat
*Make them greater than other nations they considered better than them because those nations had kings ruling them.
So, the prophets of the OT were prophesying to their people of something to be a gift by faith through grace to a future people in the dispensation of the Church. The prophets talked to a people whose spirit, soul and body was accustomed to naturalism—to only what they could see, feel and touch.
Against the above background, only those who by faith yielded to the God of their fore-fathers not just His laws could ever have been at peace with the prophets.
Only by faith did anyone escape the natural realm at their time to worship God in spirit and, it remains the same today. It is only by the means of faith could anyone interact with the great “I am that I am” the Yahweh of Israel and maker of the heavens and the earth!
Therefore, unavoidably, the OT prophets had to have loneliness, extreme acrimony and hatred from their own people because they were neck-deep with a people who had not what they had. The prophets’ only solace was to keep far away from their people and come to them only as the Spirit of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit moved them to speak out to the people. God kept speaking to the people through the Prophets despite the fact that they were hated.
God kept speaking to the people through the prophets though they were in the dispensation of the law because, He intended for the prophets words to burn in their hearts and ignite faith for their salvation. Even at their time, faith came “by hearing, the hearing of God’s word” Romans 10:17. Praise God the scriptures has record of those who at that time had faith and so, lived beyond the law and gazed at Christ Hebrew 11:17-38. They searched after Him as one searches after a precious city till they died or were taken Heb 11:10.
In each generation of the Old Testament, all who were searching for the City (Christ and His body) whose architect and builder was not man but God never had problem with the prophets. Men and women whose lives were centered around searching for the City no matter what happened to them or trade they engaged in, never joked with presenting their bodies as a living sacrifice to God. They always eventually came to understanding not by some human persuasion and persuaders’ that God, deserves to be loved by being worshiped in spirit and truth—mean, to give God our spirit, soul and body totally and progressively till we’re taken or die Genesis 5:24, 6:9 Hebrews 11: 13-14,39-40.
Prophets in the Church
Having defined the church and the much said above, NT prophets are relieved from the aloofness, loneliness, extreme acrimony and unpleasantness coupled with hatred the OT prophets suffered from their own people. Their people were law en-caged and governed, while the people of the household of faith in the NT are utterly faith and grace regenerated, lead by the Faith and Its grace. This NT peoples (the Church), serve one another by faith and grace in love and honoring one another because they are a spiritual people .
In OT, the people had nothing to give the prophets since they lacked faith while the prophets were motivated by faith. The prophets towered far above them rightly because, faith surpasses law by far! The prophets dealt with the Reality (Christ) while the people followed the shadows (laws). Even the levitical priest feared the prophets and could not really serve them. The prophets walked with God like Adam and Eve did before they fell in Eden garden.
The NT people however, are a royal priesthood headed and lead by only One High Priest, Apostle, Prophet, Teacher, Shepherd and Evangelist from the beginning and so shall it be for all eternity. All the parts of this “many one body” which, the people who lived by faith in the dispensation of law longed to belong and have now belonged as part of the cloud of witnesses above through Christ’s resurrection had their gifts with which they served God and His people.
We in the NT are better advantaged in that, we all have been engrafted by faith as cloud of witnesses on earth, having each our own gift(s) by which we serve God and one another in the different assemblies God has planted on the earth. No gift in anyone is above the gift in another. They just function differently for His vision which is, to glorify Christ in serving one another by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in each part. And together, declaring the manifold wisdom of God to the principalities and power in the heavenly places as we preach the gospel that redeem those outside Christ.
No one should accept to be driven to aloofness because of Christ’ gifting in his or her life and cheated out of the rich life of Christ flowing out from the parts of His body. No gift in the body is unique since, it is in the Body— this body whose origin and all who are in it have the same component (Christ) by faith.
How then, can anyone with the spirit of Christ fear, hate or disrespect any aspect of Christ’ ministry gifted to some of His sheep to serve other sheep and also be served.
Let us view this with respect to 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”
For the People of God who love and want the truth, He obligates Himself to give them the truth and they will know what the truth is in living relationship with Him without doubt and confusion.
Those who seek a truth to use for their own kingdom purposes must be astute theological lawyers, authenticating and priding themselves in the knowledge of the law without the expectation of finding the truth in a living relationship with Christ and the Holy Spirit. This is why many of us are unbeatable in theology with our world–wide reputation yet, we remain cessationists which also indicate that we don’t believe in the Holy Spirit at all.
How then, will we not beat down those parts Christ’ ministry is flowing out from.
Have we failed the test…? I fear the subtle sin of being presumptuous therefore, I am examining myself… please dear reader, would you be exhorted to examine yourself too?
To those truly gifted with the ministry of Christ and his spiritual gifts, please come out of the false emotion of being lonely or, confined to walking only with people of similar gifting. Just be wise to know you operate in the gathering or places to which God has set you.
Not as a prophet but, I prophesy this: “We’re in a time for prophets to enjoy. Though, full of heaven’s burden, it shall be lightweight for, the ministries in My Body and the spiritual gifts are about to serve (bless) you greatly by playing their part to you. I the Lord am working in my Body to cause all parts of My Body to function well. Her increase is coming to fullness as each part is releasing My assigned measure. In Her, My banner of “Love” will be seen and Her hidden foundation will remain established as “love”. My glory and peace is with my Body”.
Paul’s exhortation to the church addressed to Timothy does not pass for our modern exclusive leadership training. Actually, leadership training does not exist in the bible.
The phrase in Paul’s speech in 2 Tim 2:2, “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses”, indicates that the instruction was an open one. Some people have different understanding of the verse. However, no matter how we choose to comprehend it, it wouldn’t negate the truth that the exhortation was to the church and not those handpicked for leadership.
Jesus never took the apostles or his disciples aside to teach them how to lead others but how to serve Mark 9:35. He never taught them the psychology of humans since He never intended to relinquish leading or shepherding the people to His apostles or disciples. He always taught them God’s heart; His will for all men to be saved (not Calvinism) —and served. He showed them the general doctrine to be taught to all who truly know Him. Those whose hearts truly know Christ will pick it and follow on with God Hosea 6:3, 10:12, Jer 4:3.
The end part of Paul’s statement in verse 2 of 2 Tim 2, “entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” highlights what should be seen in those to pass on this “open knowledge” not “secret knowledge”. The key dispositions of the people are these;
*A life of faithfulness to God not to Paul
*Willingness to continue to learn ways to be more loving, obedient to Christ and joyfully serving others through the gospel.
This kind of faithfulness was Paul’s emphasis. In other words, not to selfish folks, but Christians (those who are selfless and eager to pass same knowledge they have freely received to others without demanding payment and or allegiance to themselves but to Christ). This is different from the mentor and protégé practice in the circular and religious systems.
In the gathering of the Church, to recognize the gifts in more matured believers and be drawn to benefit from it is perfectly scriptural. Therefore, to give due respect to such persons is highly advocated but to become their protégé is not scriptural Matt 23:8.
In the bible, particularly the New Testament, it was the matured Christians that saw the grace and faithfulness in the lives of younger believers and the areas of lack they can fill in their lives. So, they drew them closer. Paul and Onesimus in Philemon 1, Acts 18:25-26, 12:25.
However, the matured always recognized that they too stood to be blessed with the calling in the lives of those they had drawn into closer relationship for the work of Christ not their ministries 2 Tim 4:11. This is quite different from the mentor and protégé system where, the protégé submits their resume officially or unofficially for consideration by the mentor who sees him or herself as master having a disciple who owes him or her allegiance. The allegiance becomes the main criteria for passing those who are interested to serve their vision—though, it’s put smartly in scriptural terminology.
The relationship that Priscilla and her husband Aquila had with Apollos, Elijah and Elisha and Paul and Timothy is far from the mentor and protégé humanistic invention.
Only Christ should have us as His protégés or disciples and, —“you all are brothers” Matt 23:8. Paul and Timothy was referred to as servants of Christ and the church in Phill 1:1. For Timothy to be a servant of Christ and the church, he did not have to first be a protege or serve Paul.
Every believer has a spiritual gift which, those with ministry gifts also benefit from and yet, it doesn’t make them protégés. The counsel of scripture is, “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” Eph 5:21, 1 Pet 5:5. The ministry gifts equip those who operate in it. They also benefit from the safety of the spiritual gifts in the body to which God has set them Eph 4:16, 1 Cor 12:7. John and Paul’s statements in John 1:9-10 and Gal 1:8 echo’s it, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting” and “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” Gal1:8, Acts17:11NLT.
Reading verse 8 of Galatians 1 carefully, you’ll notice that Paul is saying that the words they were inspired to preach is Christ himself or, their words were the voice of Christ. The implication is this; if the churches know the Lord’s voice, then, even if he (Paul) or anyone else came with another word, it is not to be received John 10:4-5. For this reason, as seen in 1 Cor 7:12, Paul always made it clear when he spoke from himself and not from the Lord.
The concluding statement of verse 8 of Galatians 1 indicates that God—not us, will be instrumental to those bringing their own words as if it were Christ’s to be accursed.
Paul never saw himself or others as above being derailed. How important that the Holy Spirit resides in every believer!
All believers are encouraged to grow in Christ by interacting with the other spiritual and ministry gifts in the fellowship of saints. In this interaction within and outside of one’s immediate community of faith, no one should be the disciple or protégé of a fellow believer. To use Jesus’ example of having twelve Apostles or many disciples to support the unscriptural practice of having a protector (mentor John 17:12) and the protected (protégé) is to say the least absurd.
Believers are to be equipped generally not specifically. True believers grow in Christ through fellowship with God, Christ and the saints by the power of the Holy Spirit.
When a believer has the privilege to give his or her time specifically to help another believer (for a season) to sharpen his or her comprehension and walk with Christ, it doesn’t obligate the helped believer to work in the gospel with the one who helped him or her. And, it shouldn’t turn the helped believer to the puppet of the one who God used to bring the help.
The Christian life is holistic not specialistic—as such, no individual in the body of Christ can supply another believer all he or she needs to fulfill their destiny. This truth will be appreciated if we understand there is a huge difference between our destiny and our ambitions. All Christians share one destiny which is eternal life but, ambitions run wild 1 Tim 6:12. God fulfils our destiny by taking us through His Way and ways if we’re willing Eph 4:1, Isa 1:19. Blindness and tragedy occurs when we accept His Way but refuse His ways because we want to fervently pursue our good ambitions. Misunderstanding the difference between our destiny and our ambitions is what drives us into the mentality and practice of mentor and protégé relationships.
It is true that mentor and protégé relationship can foster success in a particular specialty e.g., an architect seeking to advance in his field may be better off going to a more experienced and acclaimed architect who shows interest in him or her than going to an academic institution to acquire just a certificate. The additional benefit of profitable experience, contacts or networks the mentor creates is not likely to come from the institution of learning. But, if he or she is seeking to advance the entirety of his or her life as a Christian, the place to go is to God who holds her destiny in His hands. This is the reason all who become believers in Christ are added to a gathering of the saints.
We’ll continue in another post to examine and meditate on the subject
Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
Though our experience with God happens within the context of our life experiences, it is not exactly the same thing. Life experiences shape us in a different way than our experience with God.
Experiences of life help shape the majority of people who pass through this world and accounts for why our world is fast decaying in God’s perspective and that of His people. Some good has come out of the life experiences of man such as having learnt how to do many things differently to improve man’s existence on earth. However, when it comes to the way man lives with his fellow man, hardly can it be said there has been improvement.
The reason for the lack of improvement is highly related to what man takes out of his life experience with others. Even for many Christians, this is still true.
The Bible clearly says that the heart of man is desperately wicked and highly deceitful Jer 17:9. Given that what man does visibly comes from this same heart of wickedness and deceit, I guess it is no surprise that man’s experience with his fellow men is but wicked—and deceitful.
Most times, when statements like, “I have learnt my lesson” are made, both by Christians and non Christians, it is usually in reference to— I have learnt how to deal with man better. Better in the sense of I now know what man is like and I must deal with man according to man’s fallen nature.
The essence of this short article is to encourage Christians to rather deal with man by our experience with God. To non Christians it is an invitation to come accept Christ—without whom it is impossible to participate in God’s divine nature. The Christian’s experience with God starts with regeneration of the heart, the sprinkling of the mind with Christ’ Blood and imputation of righteousness. The importance of this initial experience cannot be overemphasized. It is the foundation upon which God calls anyone to deal with life and its experiences.
Without the foundation of God’s nature made alive in man, men may pretend to be good until pushed beyond the limit of human goodness. But, when God’s nature is made alive in man, heaven’s ministration comes upon the heart—sanctifies the mind and empowers it continually to participate in divine living like the Lord from Heaven (Christ Jesus). It is on this basis that the will of God in heaven is done on earth. It has no limitation, for that which is impossible with men is made possible in man by God.
So then, as Christians our light or good (that is Christ) shines before men only when we let our experiences with God govern us. Then, praise is given to God in heaven by men on the earth Matt 5:16. Let us be reminded, those nicknamed “Christians” in Antioch got the name because; they displayed Christ’s nature and not just their belief in Him Acts 11:26. By the Holy Spirit, their lives were a blessing to those of the household of faith and to all men.
What can you say has truly shaped the person you are—is it your God experience or life experience?
So, who are we reacting to according to what they deserve and not according to Christ’s grace? Think soberly about it. The soberness this creates in our hearts can’t fail to lead to repentance, forgiveness—and ultimately, reconciliation unless, we have become reprobates.
Think also about this; God is the One who forgives first and seeks reconciliation with sinful man. This is how I know that God is spiritual and full of love. How do you and I show we are spiritual and having the love of Christ in our hearts not our mouths? The spiritual man ought to be first in good deeds and serving others. Let him who will be the first be the servant (not leader) of all men Mark 9:35. Do you agree with Jesus?
The Christian antidote against sleeping—that is, being spiritually idle and near death, is to watch and be sober at all times. How? It is by rejoicing always in the Lord.
How do we rejoice always in Him? It’s being spiritually minded Rom 8:6. How do we do that? It’s by thinking or looking to Jesus always Heb 12:2.
How can we look to Jesus Christ always?
It’s by meditating on His nature that is in us 2 Pet 1:3. This is the reason, He has given us great and precious promises so that, we might participate in His nature in us 2 Pet 1:5-7, Phil 4:8. The same joy that was set before Christ which helped Him endure all things and pleased His Father is the same joy set before us Rom 8:17.
Now, Christ is glorified and seated at God’s right hand and we, in Christ, are seated in glory–what an unstoppable joy! Joy flowing down from heaven and reaching back to heaven! A supernatural joy!
The Philippine Church was rich in love, prayer and eagerness for the advancement of the gospel. Their love for Jesus went beyond theory to them actually giving from their resources for the gospel of Christ their Saviour. But, it appeared they lacked discernment of the advantage of rejoicing always in the Lord. Their rejoicing was intermittent and as such, they flagged when they faced opposition from those that troubled them.
Therefore, Paul exhorted them thus; “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice”. Phil 4:4.
Of what advantage was “rejoice (or be glad) in the Lord always” to them, in the face of their troubles and for us today? The answer is vital for the Church upon whom the end of time have come. The knowledge that the things which happened to Israel (the people of God of old), are the same things the Church (new creations in Christ) are facing today is crucial.
We have to walk a path (His way) we have not known before just like the Israelites of old.
Many times, they were overwhelmed, deviated from the One leading them in the journey and neglected good friendship with the compass (Torah) given to them by God. This made them carnal minded people rather than God minded people. For these reasons, they had seasonal joy.
Because they didn’t persist in the joy of their God, they were immensely weakened and their lives were threatened individually and corporately. No strength was left in them to face their enemy who instigated other nations against them.
Given the individual and corporate loss of joy and the attacks on them, they could hardly remember one another’s needs (physical and spiritual well being) since each one focused on his or her survival. With their joy gone, physicalism took them over.
But, God in His love for them as always, brought His word through Nehemiah, Ezra the priest and scribe and the Levites—“The joy of the Lord is your strength” Neh 8:10. His word delivered their minds from the bondage of physicalism. As a compass, His word encouraged them to walk the path to their destination (destiny) which far exceeded matter. This flooded them again with light.
Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians, “rejoice in the Lord always” is doubtless, birthed by his experience and knowledge from the Old Testament that, joy or rejoicing in God gives strength to His people. Rejoicing always, always infuses God’s kind of strength to His people. The Philippine Church needed it and, the end time Church needs it even more.
Meditate on this: the joy of the Lord is our strength individually and corporately. While many of us who are in Christ and in different gatherings of His people know that prayer is a source of strength, few are aware of the enormous strength joy generates in us.
Paul, speaking to the Philippine saints said, “Always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy” Phil 1:4. Earlier, he had exhorted them to “rejoice always in the Lord” and as if to emphasize its importance, he repeated it in the same sentence, “again I will say rejoice”.
To rejoice, we must hold Christ dear in our hearts with all He has done for us.
And of a necessity, we need to grow in grace and obedience to Him while relentlessly wrestling against sin which attempts to make mockery of Christ’s work in us. We should not be like the hypocrites who battle outward sins in others but neglect the sins in their own hearts.
How do we wrestle against sin and glorify Christ in our own hearts? By casting down sinful thoughts that come through the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. When we fail to cast-down wrong thoughts, they make us submit to them, enslave us and act as our master rather than Christ our new Master 2 Cor 10:5 KJV, Rom 12:2.
What happens when we fail to arrest sinful thoughts—give in to sin and are enslaved? Well, that brings us back to rejoice in the Lord which leads to repentance.
Even in a bad spiritual state, still rejoice in Him—in His ever abiding presence to deliver and save from the miry clay and to set you and I on Him, the Rock of Holiness, righteousness and salvation!
Remember, the instruction is for us to rejoice always! It is in the failing to rejoice and yielding to guilt, shame, hypocrisy, denial and covering of sin that we completely lose strength. This could lead us to give in to “living in sin“— anabomination that causes desolation in our lives and our gatherings.
Nothing that stands in opposition to God and us His people, can defeat us if we will only rejoice in Him as He is rejoicing over us Isa 62:5.
We are more than conquers through Christ Jesus—the Lord who lives in us Phil 4:13. Therefore, rejoice then in Him and again I will say, rejoice always! For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
In conclusion, be reminded you are to rejoice in the Lord always as an individual.
This is the patterned order—find your rejoicing in the Lord not in Christian communities. Then, take your joy in Him and join with others who’re rejoicing in Him. The result will be fellowship with God, His Christ and one another in the power of the Holy Spirit 1 John 1:3. This is real Church—the bride of Christ Jesus.
May His grace and peace lead you to abound in joy in the Holy Spirit. Amen
The Church came about by one baptism, one faith, one Lord and one hope. It is another way of saying that God has already given the body of Christ unity and peace Eph 4:4-5.
Everyone who is in Christ is in unity with His body and having God’s kind of peace (John 14:27) in him or herself. This unity and peace is maintained or lived out by the individual parts daily by submitting to Christ who is the Head of His body. But, if we choose to rather submit to self, we will be resisting the God of love and peace 2 Cor 13:11. And, by resisting Him, we invite the devil automatically to come in with all manner of his evils because he is the master of the flesh or self James 3:16.
All of the nature of Christ promotes unity and peace. His heart of love, mercy and grace made him humbly submit to His father’s will.
Without a new heart and mind (the heart and mind of Christ), death reigns. Unity and peace becomes a mirage. This is why God’s word to His prophets has been, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” Heb 10:16. This is the covenant of regeneration and sanctification. A new creation covenant!
New creations in Christ are a people of love, mercy and grace—that is the gospel. The gospel transcends the beauty of understanding who Christ is to actually participating in His nature. It is by participating in Christ’s nature that the Church stands in unity and peace.
Two people with the same understanding of Christ can fail to stand in unity and peace if they fail to submit to Him. For example, two Christians can disagree over a matter and go their separate ways. Then, Christ instructs them not to slander each other privately or publicly but if both or one refuse(s) to obey or submit to Him, they then break their spiritual unity and peace and defile others.
From the above example, it is clear that the disagreement is not the cause of the disunity and lack of peace but the disobedience to Christ.
Praise Worthy Example
The incident with Paul and Barnabas was written down for our example. It was not published then as a way of resolving their disagreement. They did not slander each other to gain support to themselves though their variance was so sharp to warrant them walking with Christ separately. However, they submitted to Christ and did not break their unity and peace through speaking evil of each other. Therefore, when the Holy Spirit prompted Paul to ask Barnabas to send John Mark for the work of Christ, Paul obeyed, Barnabas obeyed and Mark refused not the work of Christ on account of Paul’s previous opinion of him. This beauty of submitting to Christ is impossible without God’s amazing grace (power).
For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace John 1:16.
Love, mercy and grace demand we relentlessly help one another grow in our understanding of Christ (Truth) and to correct one another’s misunderstanding of Him since we all don’t arrive at His proper knowledge at the same time. However, in doing so, if we permit selfish ambition, His purpose to bring us all to the unity of the faith and of His knowledge and stature will be defeated.
So then, let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual up-building Rom 14:19. How is this accomplished? The Spirit of God gives us the answer in Rom 12: 1-2. We are to submit our soul (emotion, desire, will etc) to His. A people not willing to do so will be charged with breaking the covenant of life and peace Mal 2:5-7.
Those who are in Christ have one commandment which they MUST keep and it is this; Submit to God and resist the devil. This is how to love God and others. Submit to God, He loves it and rewards it. Submit to others, everyone loves it and appreciates it. Resist the devil on behalf of others by not submitting to do to others what he wants. This is love!
Do not retaliate evil with evil but with good. By this, evil will continue to be distinct and reserved for punishment while, good will continue to bring unity, peace and praise to God Matt 5:16.
It is only in submitting to the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus) that we please one another in a godly way. Pleasing one another outside of submitting to Him is compromise that earns us earthly union and peace which is temporal.
God’s desire is for the Church to maintain the unity and peace that follows her into eternity. Brothers and sisters in Christ, husbands and wives, friends etc, God wants us to be eager to maintain the Unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Eph 4:3.
Therefore, you and I are daily being prompted by the Holy Spirit to walk in accordance to that unity by which we’re baptized into Christ. By His grace, we bear with one another in love by walking in humility, gentleness and patience towards all men Eph 4:2.
You are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, and God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God—who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light 1 Pet 2:9NLT.
