ONE OF MY CORE ASSIGNMENTS IS TO BE A CONTRIBUTOR TO ATTAINING UNITY WITHIN THE BODY OF CHRIST
DO NOT TRIVIALIZE ANY DIMENSION GOD HAS NOT GIVEN YOU.
THERE ARE DIMENSIONS OF GOD AND IN GOD THAT CAN NEVER BE CAPTURED AND REVEALED BY A SINGLE INDIVIDUAL, NO MATTER HOW YIELDED, NO MATTER HOW ANOINTED.
IF THE WHOLE WORLD BECOMES A REFLECTION OF JOSHUA SELMAN’S WALK WITH GOD, THE WORLD IS GOING TO BE AN INCOMPLETE AND IMBALANCED SPIRITUAL PLACE.
MANY PEOPLE LOVE JESUS BUT THEY HATE THOSE HE LOVES.
UNTILL WE RESTORE THE MINISTRY OF HONOUR TO THE BODY, FORGET ABOUT UNITY.
ANYTIME YOU SEE WHAT YOU CANNOT DO BEING DONE, DON’T TRIVIALIZE IT.
YOU WILL HARDLY BE ABLE TO CRITICIZE PEOPLE YOU GENUINELY CELEBRATE.
USING CRITICISM, ILL SPEAKING AND SARCASM AS A WAY OF ADDRESSING NEGATIVE THINGS IN THE BODY OF CHRIST IS THE WEAKEST WAY OF PREACHING THE GOSPEL.
CORRECTING PEOPLE IN THE BODY OF CHRIST IS A MINISTRY AND NOT EVERYBODY IS GIVEN THAT MINISTRY.
EVEN IF WHAT YOU’RE SAYING IS TRUE, THE MOMENT THE LOVE COMPONENT IS EXTRACTED FROM IT, PEOPLE NO LONGER BECOME INTERESTED.
PEOPLE SEND ME RECHARGE CARD OF HUNDRED NAIRA ($0.20 ) AND I SEND LONG TEXTS TO APPRECIATE THEM
-Apostle Joshua Selman on Unity of Faith || Birthday Broadcast || Koinonia || 25th June, 2022. (Part B)
- The third message I have first for us and then it extends to the Body of Christ, this is an emphasis, THE UNITY OF THE BODY. I truly believe that among the many assignments that the Lord has given me, this is one of my core assignments to the Body of Christ, to be a contributor to attaining this state of unity within the Body. Ephesians 4:13. The Unity of Faith. Romans 12:4-8. You have heard me say that there are dimensions of God and in God that can never be captured and revealed by a single individual, no matter how yielded, no matter how anointed, there are dimensions in God made for the profiting of the Body that no single individual, no matter how aligns, you just cannot single handedly host it, you just cannot, it is not part of God’s system, no matter how yielded we are. If the whole world becomes a reflection of Joshua Selman’s walk with God, the World is going to be an incomplete and imbalanced spiritual place because no matter how I love God, no matter how yielded I am, there are dimensions that will not be given to me. ChurchGist. Yet, they are needed for the Body of Christ, we must admit this as men of God, unashamedly and then be open to embrace dimensions that are needed and useful for the body but are not captured in our personal experience, no single individual can capture and reveal all of God. No!
The challenge (especially for preachers) is that every dimensions we do not see manifesting in our lives, out of insecurity largely, we trivialize it and even culture people to believe it is not useful and necessary, I think there is a serious problem there. I’m speaking in love with due honour to the body. So, if I’m the one who is not giving to the dynamics of excellence and administration but say I prophesy and I heal the sick, I will easily get intimidated because if I am to receive that dimension in my life and ministry and business, I would have to acknowledge the one God gave that grace to and since I do not want to acknowledge anybody, I want to stand alone as Alpha and Omega, I would rather reject and trivialize that grace than for me to admit that I am incomplete even though yielded and then honour that grace and receive in into my space to improve my life. ChurchGist. Let me tell you sincerely, there are many believers today and many troubles in the Body of Christ whose solution were there before the trouble came but the inability to see the diversity of the body and the wisdom and the grace that has been invested across various dimensions of the body, there are people who have died today who had no business dying, if they knew somewhere in the body is resident the power of life, if they knew that somewhere in the body is the wisdom to bring people out of very simple problems.
The unity of faith!
I have told you this, from a standpoint of administration, from a standpoint of faith and the mandate God has given us, we owe ourselves and we owe the Kingdom the duty to focus on that which was given to us and to drive the vision of the ministry to fruition but with respect to Kingdom come you must look beyond Koinonia to be holistically built, more than Koinonia and more than Joshua Selman contribution to your spiritual life, your arms must be opened to the other diversity within the Body of Christ, men of God we must be secured enough to teach this truth to people, that I do not have everything, even though I have the richness of that which has been given. ChurchGist. Jesus himself as son of the living God needed help and He did not reject the ministry of Simon of Cyrene to help Him carry the cross, He would have pushed Him and say I am self-sufficient, Jesus would have died but not on a tree and He never would have died a curse because a curse would have to die on a tree, someone had to help Him to finish that assignment. I look forward to a time where the Body of Christ will attain this state called the Unity of Faith.
Let me give us four keys that would help the Body of Christ attain unity. This is my contribution. It is not enough to talk about issues and problems, we must scripturally (not emotionally) propose solutions that can help the Body of Christ attain that state of unity.
- The First key is genuine love for God and for men. We cannot attain unity if there is no genuine love for God and genuine love for men. 1st John 4:7-21. Romans 12:10. John 13:35. Many people love Jesus but they hate those He loves, isn’t it a mystery, one of the ways you love a man is by loving who and what he loves. ChurchGist. I love Jesus but I hate those He died for, I love Jesus but I hate those He’s interceding for, I love Jesus but I hate those who bear His name, I love the head but I hate His body. No!
- Mutual Honour. I cannot emphasize this enough, mutual honour. Hallelujah!
When the man of God stepped in here to sit here, I had to take that time to acknowledge him, leaving his busy schedule and everything he had to do to come here, he would have just followed at home but then to come and sit down and grace this broadcast it’s an honour and he’s deserving of it and it will be foolish, childish and immature to ignore that sacrifice of his presence, can I tell you this, until we restore the ministry of honour to the body, forget about unity, we will keep talking about it and it will be gibberish that does not have substances. Honour must be mutual. What is honour? Honour is the discerning, the celebrating and where applicable the rewarding of individuals for their unique contributions. Hallelujah!
As much as I love to sing, my precious here (the worship team) have great voices that God has given them, amazing people, sometimes when I hear them sing, I just nod my head and say oh dear preaching, look at what you have done to my voice and I just laugh it over and I appreciate then, let me tell you this, anytime you see what you cannot do being done, don’t trivialize it. You prayed for the sick secretly, the person was not healed and you watched the person healed, don’t trivialize it. You gave somebody counsel and he failed woefully because of your counsel and here is someone who counsel and builds people to an enviable destiny, don’t trivialize it.
Honour must be mutual, what does that mean? That means do not sit in a position where you’re the only one who keeps receiving, do you know, most of the things that we criticize or demean in others if people celebrate us for it, we enjoy it and sap that glory. ChurchGist. You meet a leader who maybe sarcastic or may not be well meaning over people and look at him and say you know I have looked at your life and I think you’re an exceptional person, that same person will be laughing and say really, glory be to God, somewhere within our heart, even when we know it is a lie, we still desire to enjoy and savour that, why would you insult and stop others from celebrating a man, a woman, a politician, a businessman, a man of God for instance whereas that is something you crave for and sometimes so desperately, mutual honour is the solution.
Thank you so much, you’re a great man of God or you’re a great businessman, I read your book and the wisdom that came from that book and you the man that they are celebrating you don’t just say wonderful. No! No! You have to say thank you for the thoughtfulness, to have even communicated this, I appreciate you too. It’s a culture, I have indoctrinated myself, that nobody will indefinitely keep celebrating me and then I keep being a receiver without been a giver and I would do so unashamedly, this is why I started with my honour and appreciation, it’s not a ritual, it is from my heart. Hallelujah!
Businessmen let us respect ourselves, men of God, let us respect ourselves, parents respect yourselves, regions respect yourselves.
The moment we make it a point of duty to be excited in demeaning, downplaying, trivializing the relevance and the contribution. ChurchGist. Listen, by the reason of the election of grace and by the reason of our personal sacrifices, the truth is we are not the same, in terms of impact, in terms of our contribution, in terms of whatever but that least person in the Body of Christ is doing the best he/she knows to do and we must be able to acknowledge it, there are time that I meet men of God, sometimes they come to me for prayer and I ask what are you doing? Oh, I am a pastor by God’s grace we have 30 or 40 members and they are laughing, your entire worship team is more than that and I stop them immediately, every one person Jesus gave you, He died for them and don’t you ever allow yourself to be intimidated with what you think God I doing, many people will enjoy it and say don’t worry you’re a small boy, you’re just starting, don’t do that.
There are times people send me recharge card and they can send me a recharge card of #100 and say Apostle I know you don’t need this, for those kind of people, I even take the time to bend over backwards to send them a long text with a prayer, how do you say sending me a #100 recharge card is nothing, the heart, the thoughtfulness, the intention, how many men of God are in the world, that you get up and send me a recharge card, I just be stupid to not acknowledge that. ChurchGist. Listen, you will hardly be able to criticize people you genuinely celebrate. Mutual honour!
- The third point is forbearance and tolerance; the Bible says to forbear. Colossians 3:12-13. You know what forbearance or tolerance is? There is a difference between forgiveness and forbearance, forgiveness has to do with pardoning a default that you intend not to happen again. ChurchGist. Forbearance is creating a permanent system of accommodation for the weakness or limitation of that individual because it will happen again and again, there are many people you do not need to forgive, you need to forbear, if a noisy person tells you I’m sorry for been noisy, that person does not need forgiveness, that person needs forbearance because 5 minutes after that heartfelt communication of plea, the person is going to rant at it again. I wish I can tell you that every fault that we see today in the Body of Christ will disappear, I’ll be lying.
Let me teach something that I think will bless you, this is kind advice to our global family and as many who care to listen. Using criticism, using ill speaking, using sarcasm as a way of addressing negative things in the Body of Christ is the weakest way of preaching the gospel, in fact the most ineffective way of preaching the gospel, it has never produced any sustainable result, can I tell you the truth? There is nothing happening in the Body of Christ today that started today, it was there right from the early Church, that’s why we need to be students of scripture, whether issue that relates to fidelity and morality, issues that relate to character or extra biblical practices, all of these issues have been there in the Bible, they’re not just coming, they have always been there.
Thank you so much, the crew from Gombe, Pastor Sam Dogara, God bless you. Thank you!
This is not the first-time witchcraft is happening in the Body of Christ, this is not the first time wrong things are happening in the Body of Christ but let me tell you the reason why the Church still succeeded, because your emphasis become your direction, the Bible says so mightily grew the Word not the issues, what was mightily exalted was what prevailed. So mightily grew the Word and prevailed, in spite of what was happening in the early Church, they were commuted and sincere people who continued to give their best and to drive the gospel and in spite of all of the limitations and the troubles within the Body, with gallancy they handed over that baton and transited in glory, there were times of persecution in the Body of Christ, there were times of governmental persecution in the Body of Christ. I have said it and I will continue to say it, correcting people in the Body of Christ is a ministry and not everybody is given that ministry. The same way that not everybody is a police officer or a law enforcement agent, even if you see two people fighting, you may do your best to stop them but when you want to deal with that issue you will have to hand it over to people accredited with wisdom and intelligence to be able to deal with it. If we do not manage this, we are going to produce all kinds of problems within the Body of Christ, uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. When some of our fathers were praying for me today, I listened carefully to everything they said and they prayed and blessed me from their heart. I was on my knees with my hands lifted, listening to them and receiving everything they said. They were pouring out wisdom, from their prayers I understood what they were saying. We have to be careful, especially we the younger ministers, who are just starting, they’re many heights we have not climbed yet, there are many things we do not know yet. ChurchGist. We owe a duty to be contributors to the Body of Christ, not the confusion of the Body of Christ. Now, the challenge with this kind of approach is usually the younger believers who are completely confused.
Some of those younger believers will lose the faith simply because they don’t understand. It is safe to believe that nobody is genuine in the Body of Christ based on many proposition that happened through the years, from people who have had all kinds of vision of seeing every man of God in hell, even if Jesus come now and walk upon the earth someone will still see a vision of Him as Beelzebub, we have to be careful.
One day God will mark our script, all of us, both the commentators and the players, we will stand before the judge. I love the Body of Christ; I respect the Body of Christ. You will never see me open my mouth to talk ill or speak ill of any man of God or any ministry, I sincerely desire the growth of every man of God, every ministry and every individual. Now, in truth I have my reservation doctrinally speaking, based on the dealings of God that I probably would not have approach it that way but in all of it, even in the midst of challenging things that I feel are faulty, I make sure that it is done in love, let me recommend an alternative, Ephesians 4:15, let me recommend an alternative to this wrong or poor approach, this template that we are using in the Body of Christ, in a bit to restore what we call sanctity or restore righteousness, we have to be careful. ChurchGist. Even if what you’re saying is true, the moment the love component is extracted from it, people no longer become interested. This is one thing you need to know with people, before people ever attempt to listen to you, whether as a man of God, politicians or whatever it is, people vet the love factor in you, the moment they find out there is no genuine love, they don’t care about what you’re saying again. Speaking the truth in love is a greater alternative, a more effective alternative to criticism, to tearing down, to demeaning, don’t do that, don’t sit down and be criticizing a parent and their child, you’re criticizing how they’re raising their child, whereas you’re not sure if what your child is but yet tearing down somebody else. No! Don’t sit down and criticize another man’s church, ministry or institution, that is not your assignment. I will repeat, it is the most inefficient way, historically speaking, biblically speaking, of preaching the Gospel. No man has ever won that way, an alternative is this that I speak to you, to speak the truth in love.
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