This entry is for only priests. This entry is not for only priests. The command at the beginning of creation, for man to multiply on earth, is about discipleship; to make everyone God’s minister. That presupposes that we may not be priests in practice but we are priests by nature; all of us.
By commanding for you to “take up your cross and follow” Him or saying “he that loses his life shall save it,” Jesus speaks to ministry, not salvation. The way this writer sees it, ministry is intrinsically both a natural and spiritual course. Man cannot not preach about the goodness of God. Man is primarily on earth to publicise what I call the good news of God.
There is a huge call on everyone’s life. The call is by God, for God, from God. The fact that an alarming number have yet answered that call does not mean the call is latent. No, God’s call is active; every single second.
The thing though is that most people play politics with the call, in diverse ways. Some answer the call quite all right, but rather than become man or woman or child of God, they prefer to be feared and worshipped as god themselves. So funny how God calls a person, they answer but instantly turn around to be god of man. Many others think they can hide or run from the call.
When they end up in the belly of a fish or life leaves them in an oxygenless cul-de-sac, they come to their senses. Is it God who did them dirty like that? Of course, I now know, the answer is no. God’s wrath is man-made; God’s wrath only happens when God is absent because of man’s rejection, because of man’s unbelief.
Many thanks, Global Ba’aba, Dr Abel Damina of Power City International, for teaching me good. God cannot change; God is the same: yesterday, today and forever. God is light; God cannot be both light and darkness. God only has and only gives life, love and understanding; God neither has nor gives death, hate or anger.
We all know whose character it is to steal, to kill and to destroy, don’t we? That is the one God should have killed were He a killer. But, the small man continues to enjoy the grace of the long-suffering Creator. God is too good to have any form of evil; any shade of variableness; any shape of wrath.
I said all of the foregoing to say that even you reading this have the call of God hanging on your head. You need no oil to answer it. If you hadn’t already accepted or answered the call, today is the day the Lord has made. Start small small: that is, don’t preach technicalities.
Tell people about God who loves man so much He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die, was buried and on the third day resurrected just to save man from his sin(s). It is that simple. Look for a bible-teaching Pastor, notably Dr Abel Damina, and follow his teachings. That way, you grow fast; in the process learning, unlearning and relearning.
This is how not to hide from the call which everyone must answer. As mentioned earlier, this is the fundamental reason we are on earth. Everybody must tell everybody about God, about Jesus Christ, about the Holy Spirit. Everybody must come to that light, to that understanding.
You would readily know you are born again. You accept and believe Jesus Christ as God’s Son who died, was buried and resurrected for your sake. You suddenly have a burning desire in your heart to share this good news (that is the gospel) with all others; where all others means even plus including family, enemies, harlots, idolaters, murderers, non-Christians, the powerful, name them. Ministry does not judge or segregate or select because the Owner of Ministry loves and cares about all: black and white, poor and rich, dirty and clean.
God’s minister cannot and should not choose to whom or where to preach. He goes everywhere, shares the good news with everyone. Ministry is not a choice, ministry is a command; a divine call. The minister who prefers rich neighbourhoods or city postings did not answer God’s call: he answered his.
On the journey of ministry, you must be wary of banana peels, of distractions. You must be wary of idolatry, of mammon. You must be wary of heretism, of persecution. You must be wary of the other gospel, of the other Jesus.
Experience and revelation confirm that there are many who answered or have answered the call of God but got or have got carried away so badly they forgot or have forgotten who called them. This piece is about them. If you have an open mind and are not terminally stupid, you would readily know them and flee from them. If you love you, no matter their stranglehold, shake off and start dwelling in the endless glory which abounds.
You cannot and should not answer the call of God but keep working even part-time for Satan. Serving two masters or having another god or worshipping money is an anathema of ministry. You cannot and should not commodify Christ or commercialise the gospel. “And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons”. (Matthew 21:12).
Isaiah 55:1: “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost”. John 2:14-16: “And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business’.”
Matthew 16:23: “But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men”. 1 Timothy 6:5: “Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself”. 2 Corinthians 8:9: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. Matthew 7:15: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves”.
God did not call you and it is not His call you answered if your ministry is about another gospel, about another Jesus, about money. You are a false pastor, a false prophet, a false teacher if you use the Bible to deceive those entrusted to you. It is an error for you a supposed minister of Christ to deprive the people to the point of poverty. The same people for whom Jesus was made poor so they become rich.
The so-called priest who swears “if God called me, die by fire in seven days” is of Satan. God does not kill. God is too clean to curse. God is too God to have anger in Him.
The question therefore is: who called you? Or rather, whose call did you answer? Or better still, who do you serve? When you are on that pulpit, is Christ smiling or frowning?
Clearly, ministers who brag about their physical realities represent but Christ. God is not there in such massive congregations. Nor in those shiny worldly company or achievements. There is not one Christ representative who carries on like Satan’s.
Fortunately, as with everything God, it is never too late to be born again (even again). You can and should go back, right away, to winning ways if you had gone astray. Christ needs no add-ons, no mixture. Christ is not only enough, He is really too much so why add to or mix Him with the law?
As we end, if God truly called you and you are sure that it was His call that you answered, never do conspiracy. God never conspires. God never gangs up. He is God, all by Himself: omnipotent, mnipresent, omniscient.
Finally, may He help you to fight the good fight of faith. It is the only way to end up like Paul. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing”.
God bless Nigeria!