Zac Poonen

In Zechariah 2:5 The Lord says: “I Myself will be a wall of fire round about Jerusalem (the church).” The church does not have any earthly, denominational walls. You can’t come inside it by signing a doctrinal statement. Everyone has to come through that wall of fire if he is to become a part of the true church. That fire will burn up all his earthly ambitions and his desire to live for himself. Only then can he become a part of the Body of Christ.

Picture a city surrounded by a wall of fire. How can you enter that city? Only by going through the wall of fire. Everything that can be burnt will be burnt up by God as you enter through that wall. Only what cannot be burnt will go through the fire. “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb.12:29). “Who can dwell with the consuming fire?” (Isa.33:14).

Preachers, through the years, have thrown water on that fire and quenched it so that nowadays anyone can walk in and join the church, while still retaining all their worldly ideas, their worldly ambitions and their love of the world. You can be certain that God is not in such a church, because wherever He dwells, He will be a wall of fire around that church.

And then God goes on to say, “I will be the glory in the midst of it.” If you want the glory of God to be in your church, then you must allow Him to be a wall of fire around your church. The two go together. If you say that God’s standards are too high and you throw water on the fire, then God’s glory will not be in your church either. When the wall of fire goes away, the glory goes away too. Doctrine is important. But no doctrine can be a wall of fire. God Himself has to be the wall of fire. The most important thing in a church is not right doctrine but the glory of God. If that is there, right doctrine will follow. If that is not there, mere rightness of doctrine is useless.

“Come away from Babylon. Escape to Jerusalem” (2:6,7). What a word that is! We need to proclaim it to God’s people even today! Every believer has to make a choice to come out of Babylon. God will not catch anyone by the scruff of his neck and pull him out. The responsibility is the individual’s. You have to make that decision. But personally speaking, I never want to be part of any religious system that does not honour God and His Word. I want to be with the wholehearted people of God who are gathered within a wall of fire having the glory of God in their midst.

If you are seeking to build a church, then build a church like this. Any other type of church is useless. But you have to pay a price to build a church like this. You can’t just imitate a pattern that you have seen somewhere and try and reproduce that. God has to burn up everything that can be burnt up in your life first, before you can build a church that pleases Him. So make sure that every earthly ambition in you is burnt up. Make sure that you don’t love anything that God does not love, and that you hate everything that God Then you can be a man/woman whom God uses to build His church.

⁵ And he said, “Who are You, Lord?”  Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” ⁶ So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”  Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” – Acts 9:5-6, NKJV

Every child grows up to face that one ultimate question: “What would you like to be in life”? The answer to that question is never blowing in the wind; it is often shaped by our socio-cultural environment – family traditions, our child-hood heroes and the friends we make. Today however, such values are largely shaped by the global culture – internet and the media. Be that as it may, we are often driven by the pursuit of our dreams of happiness – our ambitions.

Growing up initially in a rural community of farmers and fishermen, my ambition was simple and cast – own the largest orchard, the largest fishing boat and the largest farm in the community. That ambition changed when I moved to live with my uncle in a more cosmopolitan setting; we lived opposite the magistrate court and High school. And as I watched lawyers, policemen and teachers go about their work daily, my ambition oscillated between being a lawyer, a policeman or just a school teacher.  By the time I got to College, I gave up those “childish” ambitions; I had come across a number of politicians and public figures, I caught a glimpse of the potential of power – to shape communities or my personal circumstances. My one desire thus became to be a politician.

An ambition is simply a dream and an aspiration of what we desire to be and do in life. And we all do have ambitions that drive us. There is nothing wrong with ambition. Even after we might have come to acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and saviour, such ambitions could still be a driving force behind our spirituality.  We could live our Christian lives simply seeking to use our new found relationship with God, and position in Christ, to actualize our previous ambitions. That is precisely what idolatry and paganism is all about – seeking to use the divine for our mundane desires.

An encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ often jeopardizes our ambitions because, in Christ Jesus, God calls us to submission. He calls us to surrender our ambitions, often so little and self-centred, to embrace His eternal purposes for our lives. Like Paul, we find out that it is not enough just to be purpose or mission driven; the Lord Jesus must be the sole determinant of that purpose and mission. Paul’s mission statement could have read: “to wipe out any trace of Christianity and enthrone Judaism as the one world religion for all peoples”. But all that changed when the Lord Jesus encountered him; read his new mission statement:

^“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.  Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ…” – Philippians 3:8-9

Ambitions are not only natural, they could be spiritual. As believers in Christ, we often have god desires of what we would like to “do for God”. But ministry is not a matter of spiritual ambition – what we would like to do for God; it is a matter of submission to what the Lord want us to do for Him.

Living, out our ambitions simply leads to self-actualization; in Christ Jesus however, we are called to live out God’s dreams and purposes; that calls for submission. What will He have you do…

buti Sam KPUTU is your brother. He has a passion for the Lord, His word and His world. His desire is to see God’s word’s taught simply, believed entirely, lived practically and shared powerfully by God’s people to as many in God’s world that are yet without the basic truth of the word.

 “Jesus tells the story there of the man who went into a far country and before leaving, called in his three servants.  He gave them talents to be held in trust during their absence.  He gave one man five talents, another two and another one, each according to his own ability.  They could not complain for each was given what he deserved.   Then He said, “ I will be coming back – remember that I have delivered unto you my goods.”  ….

 … But the hour will come when our kindly-faced but serious Saviour will call the redeemed and justified to His feet saying:  “ I must have an account of the deeds done in the body since you were saved.  You have had more abilities entrusted to you for faithful and obedient service and witness.”

There will be no place to hide then.  You tried to settle everything in the spiritual life by one act of believing but there are some things that are never settled until death cuts us off or until the Lord comes.  Now what is it that God expects of us morally, and spiritually?  He advises the way of self-judgment: “ If we judged ourselves we would not come under judgment”… I trust many of us are becoming willing to breathe sincerely that prayer with Charles Wesley:  Arm me with jealous care – as in Thy sight to live; And Oh, Thy servant, Lord prepare  – A strict account to give”

I often reflect on the words of Tozer.  The Bible tells us of a man called Enoch who walked with God … so closely that God took Him.  Enoch had a son he named Methuselah. But why did Enoch walk with God?

Genesis 5 [21]  And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: [22]  And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: [23]  And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: [24]  And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Methuselah means “When he is dead judgement shall be sent”… or  in plainer terms – the audit comes when he dies.   We can imagine that God inspired Enoch to give his son this name and every time Enoch saw Methuselah he remembered the coming judgment and must have been often perturbed in that he did not know how long Methuselah would live.  Everyday must have been lived with strict care.  This perhaps was the secret of Enoch’s close walk with God.  Indeed, we know Methuselah lived very long (969 years) and died in the year of the flood that destroyed the world (except Noah and those in the ark).  The fact that Methuselah lived longer than any man known testifies to God’s incomparable mercy, love, patience and long-suffering – that gives and gives us new opportunities to repent. This does not mean He has changed His plan.  The effacement of thoughts about judgment  from our theology causes us to seek fun and be unwatchful.  The apparent delay decieve many to imagine He will no more return.

Someone asked “ How can I be sure I am walking with God in my finances, business and ventures?”…and I answered  ” live a life of constant remembrance that whatever you do, gather and achieve is time-bound and mortal … and after there will be a comprehensive audit…a judgment of it by an all-knowing God who owns it all.”

God will judge what we did with time, career, ability, skills, our marriage, ministry, education…He will judge our response to every sermon we heard…every blog we read…every thought and knowledge He gave us.  He will judge what we did with our nationality and all our advantages…He will judge fairly but firmly according to His word. It is wise to understand the audit scope by studying the word of God and quickly agreeing with it.

He especially remembers what we did concerning the poor, the vulnerable, the widows and the orphans…the hungry and the weak…He will judge all our failures, successes and all our assets acquisition and losses.  He will audit our saving and spending and scrutinise our generous giving.  He will judge our silence and also our words.

He will consider all our aspirations, earnings and luxurious extravagance in the light of the needs of others with neither food nor shelter.  He will judge our comfortable social safety nets in the light of impoverished souls perishing daily and innumerably like unprotected insects  - mere statistics or news items to us.  He will judge the things we missed because we thought they were immaterial – yet someone hungry somewhere could have been fed for weeks on that which we squandered on another gadget we will throw away in a few months.  Everything will be reviewed as  though they belonged to Him and not to us…nor to any government or nation…or even ministry.   They all belong to Him.

Enjoy this video by John Piper giving his own perspective on the Prosperity gospel …

Click here to view the embedded video.

Concerning all the investments, businesses, achievements…Christ constantly reminds us  “ I will be coming back – remember that I have delivered unto you my goods.”    Surely, we all need more grace to walk with constant remembrance of this truth – ever seeking the mercy and help of a God who lovingly and patiently awaits our repentance and is ready to give us a fresh start.  With this mindset, all our business activities will be conducted in a very rigorous self-auditing mode that transcends our accounting standards.  He will examine if we are still full or emptied of every deposit that must have been poured out for the benefit of humanity.  Have all the talents been invested for His glory?  What do we have hidden in the closet of procrastination?

Many may ask?  Why have I dedicated many posts to Haiti and ugly scenes of crisis and death amongst the poor brethren in Jos, Nigeria…surely these have nothing to do with managing money and success.  Others may not want their consciences assaulted with images of the poor living under subhuman conditions… and a few have had disturbing nightmares caused by realities they are not used to considering.  But our responses to all these scenarios may all be part of His judgment …

Isaiah 58 [6]  Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? [7]  Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? [8]  Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.

Get back on track… and back into the ark. This time – be sure you remain in the ark  – in Christ Jesus.   May the Almighty God who is able to keep us faithful and save us till the very end arm us with jealous care and bless us indeed.  Amen

Bode

King Uzziah

This article is not remotely a critique of any or a lack of appreciation for the great pastoral/evangelical works of the distant or recent past.  But as King Uzziah died … a renewed Prophet of God emerged. So …

Isaiah[6:1]  In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Tozer wrote of his vision of a new prophet that will be very different from the norm.

“If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation, it must be by other means than any now being used. If the Church in the second half of this century is to recover from the injuries she suffered in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher. The proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay and asks no questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting.

Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne. When he comes (and I pray God there will be not one but many), he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, denounce and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christendom. Such a man is likely to be lean, rugged, blunt-spoken and a little bit angry with the world. He will love Christ and the souls of men to the point of willingness to die for the glory of the One and the salvation of the other. But he will fear nothing that breathes with mortal breath.

This is only to say that we need to have the gifts of the Spirit restored again to the Church. And it is my belief that the one gift we need most now is the gift of prophecy. “Of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred” – 1 Chr 12:32. A prophet is one who knows his times and what God is trying to say to the people of his times….  Today we need prophetic preachers; not preachers of prophecy merely, but preachers with a gift of prophecy. The word of wisdom is missing. We need the gift of discernment again in our pulpits. It is not ability to predict that we need, but the anointed eye, the power of spiritual penetration and interpretation, the ability to appraise the religious scene as viewed from God’s position, and to tell us what is actually going on….

Where is the man who can see through the ticker tape and confetti to discover which way the parade is headed, why it started in the first place and, particularly, who is riding up front in the seat of honor?…What is needed desperately today is prophetic insight. Scholars can interpret the past; it takes prophets to interpret the present. Learning will enable a man to pass judgment on our yesterdays, but it requires a gift of clear seeing to pass sentence on our own day….”

Perhaps Tozer speaks of you…If you will let God truly reign…and let the dead King Uzziah remain buried.   Reflect on what a deceased King Uzziah could represent.  The fallen icons of Wall St, the dethroned pillars of  modern capitalism and disgraced princes, the leprous financial institutions, failures of promising well-meaning ambitions and legitimate dreams, exposed religious bigotry etc.  The death of Uzziah did not only serve to punish his errant habits. Perhaps when we cease mourning or analysing Uzziah’s death and look up to God, we will see differently and move forward.  The greatest value that was realised from ending Uzziah’s already leprous reign was not to correct Uzziah’s excesses but to enable Isaiah to enter His new call … i.e. recognising first his depravity and then the sin of the people, calling for repentance and prophesying of the coming salvation in the Messiah - Jesus Christ.   Reflect on this.  Jesus Christ is indeed coming back soon.   Who is the Prophet now freed to alert us of sin, identify and clean our stains by His blood, iron out the wrinkles on the bridal gown with the “hot” press of His word and thus make us fully ready for the coming Marriage?

Indeed in the more recent past, several tough social and ethical issues have been raised, debated and tackled but King Uzziah (though leprous) vowed to uphold his unassailable fortress and positions – and few dared an open challenge.  With King Uzziah dead – who will risk cosy mission field assignments, a sound reputation of a preacher, a promising future ministry career or a revered leadership position or place of influence only to be derided and isolated as a foolish ranting religious lunatic (not fanatic)?  Who will cause conviction by the Holy Spirit that the best of man today is as a foul rebel…thus demolishing all of King Uzziah’s previous strongholds? Who will lead us to confess as Isaiah did “Woe is me for I am undone”?

Lord, we pray for that gift of prophetic insight. Move us beyond the knowledge You’ve enabled us to gain through education, reading, and study. We  pray that we might lead as one who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the throne.  Amen.

Our God reigns – God bless you.

Bode

(Also see (side bar) two other recent previous posts related to King Uzziah)