LEARN NOT TO RUSH TO CONCLUSIONS ABOUT ANYTHING, NOT EVEN ABOUT THE CHURCH
COMPLAINING ABOUT GOD’S PEOPLE CAN LEAD TO VERY SERIOUS PROBLEMS. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY TO A MAN ABOUT HIS WIFE.
YOU CAN BE WRONG IN THE THINGS OF GOD, TREAD SOFTLY.
YOU MIGHT BE MORE GUILTY THAN EVEN THE PEOPLE YOU ARE ACCUSING, IT MIGHT BE YOU RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ERRORS THAT YOU ARE POINTING OUT IN THE PEOPLE YOU ARE ACCUSING.
- Pastor E.A. Adeboye at RCCG Special Sunday Service || GOING HIGHER PART 54 Father Almighty, you are worthy to be praised. You are worthy of our honour, you are worthy of our adoration. You are worthy of our worship because no one loves as passionately as you love, accept our worship in Jesus name. Lord, as we continue in our study, we pray that the power in your word will heal us body, soul and spirit and all our needs will be met in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
GOING HIGHER PART 54
1 Kings 19:13-14
Remember I said when a teacher asks a question, it is not that he doesn’t know but he wants to find out how much the student actually knows. Here we find out how little Elijah knows. He was reporting Israel to God, he said Israel had committed three grievous sins:
- They forsook God.
He was trying to say to God, according to Deuteronomy 7:9 you are a covenant-keeping God. According to Genesis 17:9, you told our father Abraham that we are expected to keep our covenant with you but in Israel, they have forsaken your covenant.
- They have thrown down your altars.
I know that in Leviticus 6:11 you said that the fire must never go out on your altars. Church Gist. The fire must keep on burning, Lord not only has the fire gone out, but they have also even thrown down the altar. - Lord, they slew your prophets with the sword.
I know it is written in Psalm 105:14-15, “touch not my anointed, do my prophets no harm”. Not only have they touched your anointed, but they have also done a lot of slaying with the sword. He was reporting Israel to God.
Many times as you are growing in the Lord, you might be tempted to report God’s people to God. “Oh, the Church is no longer what it used to be”. We are not talking about you reporting your nation now, we are talking about you reporting the Church of God to God. When you are talking to a man about his wife don’t you think you need to be careful because the Church is the bride of Christ. “oh the Church is no longer what it used to be” “oh in the olden days the Church used to pray now they even bring jokers to Church to come and entertain them” “oh the Church used to fast, now they will rather eat”. “oh the Church used to be committed now they only want what they can get from it”. Church Gist. We are talking about those of you who are going higher, watch it because in Romans 14:4 the Bible says you don’t judge a man’s servant for the man, let the man do the judgment of his servant himself. As you grow higher learn not to rush to conclusions about anything, not even about the Church.
James 1:19.
Watch it, as you are growing higher, as your anointing is increasing, as you are becoming more powerful in the Lord, watch your actions, watch your words. Remember Luke 12:48 says “to whom much is given, much will be required”. The higher you grow spiritually, the more careful you must be. Matthew 7:1-2, 3-5. Church Gist. Before you begin to talk about the moth in the eyes of your brother, why don’t you check first there might be a log in your own eyes. The African elders have a saying that you can see the back of the head of another person, somebody else is watching the back of your own head. You might be more guilty than even the people you are accusing, it might be you responsible for the errors that you are pointing out in the people you are accusing.
Remember 2 Samuel 12:1-14, God sent a prophet to King David to go and confront him and those days kings were powerful. If you are a prophet and you come into the presence of a king and you don’t behave yourself, the king can cut off your head. So the prophet used wisdom and told David a story of a man who had many sheep and another man who had a little lamb. The little lamb is so close to him that it even sleeps on the same bed with him. The rich man with many sheep had a visitor and wanted to entertain his visitor and he went and used his position to take the little lamb from that man to kill it for entertainment. David, what do you say? He said in my kingdom? That man is dead. Church Gist. The prophet said you are the man. You took the wife of one of your most loyal servants. You have everything and that man had only one wife and you took it away from him. Many times, you don’t know all of the story before you begin to judge because as you begin to grow in the Lord, it will soon become clear that you are anointed and close to the Lord. They will bring cases to you when the prosecutor has finished speaking, why don’t you listen to the defence counsel. By the time the prosecutor has finished speaking, you will want to get that fellow and cut off his head. Listen to what he has to say.
In 1 Kings 19:18, God said to Elijah, boy oh boy you failed the test. You are accusing the whole of Israel but I still have 7000 who have not bowed down to any idol. You are talking to me like you are the only one left. You don’t know the whole story Sir, you may not even know the correct story. 1 Samuel 1:9-20, can you imagine that Eli thought Hannah was drunk. A wonderful woman was pouring out her heart to God and the High Priest, big G.O. thought that the fellow who was praying so hard was drunk. How wrong can you be, watch it? In 1 Samuel 16:1-13, the great prophet Samuel was wrong seven times in one day because he jumped to conclusions. Church Gist. He was sent to go and anoint a king in the house of Jesse and Jesse brought his seven sons. Samuel saw the first son that he was tall and very handsome and Samuel said “God’s anointed”. God said “No Sir”. Do you know why he thought so? Because the first king he anointed in 1 Kings 10:20-24 – King Saul, was taller than everybody else from shoulders upward. So the Prophet jumped to the conclusion that the King must always be tall. Who told you that God will repeat the same thing twice?
Some people will say in 2 Kings 1:1-8 since Elijah was hairy, anointing must have to do with plenty of hair. Until you read 2 Kings 2:28-24 and you find out that the man with the double portion anointing was bald. Do you wonder why I am laughing? I am laughing because of a man who came to Ebute Meta years ago that he wanted to see the General Overseer and they said: “Alright, go in, he is there waiting”. He came in, he saw me and he said: “I want to see the General Overseer”. I said how can I help you? He said I want to see the General Overseer and I said “I am the General Overseer ” and he said who are you deceiving? He left my office very angry. Church Gist. Luckily for him as he was going he met another fellow coming in. He said, “I will wait for you after you come out, I will then go and see the General Overseer”. Then I came out and the other fellow greeted me and told him that I was the General Overseer. He said is this him? Where is his beard? (Laughs). You can be wrong, in the things of God tread softly because you are going to be great. If you have stayed with me this long on going higher, there is no doubt about it because all this effort of mine will not be in vain. All that you have been learning is not going to be in vain. In things of God tread softly.
In Luke 4:25-26, the Bible tells us that there were many widows in the time of Elijah but he was sent to only one – the Widow of Zarephath. If you are not careful, you will accuse God “how come there are many widows and you rescued only one”. The Bible didn’t tell us the details but many widows died of hunger during that period of no rain but God knows the end from the beginning. Church Gist. 1 Kings 17:8-16, God knows which of all these widows will be willing to sacrifice the life of her son and herself just to please God. God knows which one will say “yes! I have only one meal to eat for me and my son. We are on the brink of death anyway and God wants it, fine! Let Him have it”.
In Acts 11:1-18, After Peter came from the house of Cornelius, the great Apostles came together and called him to a meeting and challenged him “what were you doing in the house of a Gentile ”. They didn’t tell us all that they said but they probably told him that he went there because Cornelius was rich. Peter had to say that the Spirit made me go, I heard his whisper. He told them what happened in Acts 10. I didn’t want to go but I had to obey the Spirit. Whether you believe it or not, I got quite some queries recently from well-meaning Christians “Daddy G.O. we learnt that you went to dedicate a white garment church, you of all people”. Those who will listen to me, I said the Spirit made me go. I was obeying the Spirit. Years ago, I think in 1982, I was invited to a white garment church to go and preach because they said they had heard about me and invited me. Church Gist. I went, I got to the door and they asked me to pull off my shoes, which I did. The Spirit made me go because there was a man in that Church who was an Engineer that God knew He was going to need in the building of a campground that we had not even located at the time. I went and preached and he gave his life to Jesus, he came to the Redeemed Christian Church of God and he became the Engineer who started the work of the camp. He was the second in command to the Baba Adura, I went because God said I should go. In the things of God, don’t jump to conclusions. Tread carefully.
Can you imagine the reactions of people to what happened in Luke 1:26-38, when all of a sudden Mary became pregnant? Mary with all the training we gave you in the house, what happened? We thought you were a virtuous girl. She said an angel came to me. Hey! An angel? Matthew 11:18-25 made it clear that the husband didn’t believe her but because he loved her and didn’t want to disgrace her, he wanted to put her out quietly. He needed an angel too. Now, because some of you by the special grace of God, God is going to put you in charge of His people sooner or later. Complaining about God’s people can lead to very serious problems. Don’t forget there are His people. He said I will build my Church”. It is His Church, not yours. If you are not careful, if you see what you may misunderstand about the congregation you may begin to query your calling. Numbers 11:10-14, when the children of Israel were disturbing Moses, it got to a stage that he said God what is happening? ChurchGist. Am I the one who gave birth to them? If you are not careful you might make an ungodly request. Moses said in Numbers 11:15, Moses said: “Kill me”. If you are not careful it can lead to a reduction of the anointing, Numbers 11:16-17, God said alright Moses you said the load is too heavy, gather me seventy elders and I will take of your spirit and give to them.
I will gladly spend and be spent for you even though I know the more I love you, the less I am loved. So whatever you are going through, maybe you are Pastoring a Church, leading a house fellowship and you look at all the people and you see the way they are reacting to you, pay the price. I will tell you a story and then I will close. I was fasting and praying unendingly, seriously fasting. I was sitting in the camp. In those early days, my little wooden office was very near the expressway and I woke up in the morning. I was tired because I had prayed all night. I was worn out and low in the Spirit and I just said to myself why am I killing myself? Those I am praying for don’t care anyway, all they want is “pray for me” “pray for me” they never even care about you. I dozed off with my head on the table and I woke up and a young girl was standing before me in the door leading directly to the office, carrying a cake in her head. A very little girl came all the way from Ikoyi. Church Gist. She said “Sir, I don’t know whether it is God I heard or not. I have never heard Him before but the voice I heard said I should take this cake to you in the camp. I don’t think the devil will ask me to take a cake to a Pastor”. I took the cake from her, I prayed for her and she left. I heard God say “I thought you said nobody cares?”. I am not a cake man but I ate every bit of that cake with joy. As you grow higher in things of God, tread softly. Some of you might say “if it is this tough, I don’t want to go higher”. It is not good to be at the bottom. My prayer for you is that you will be the head and not the tail.
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