Related Posts
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.
Maranatha!