The Great Commission
The bible addresses the issue of deceiving appearances. It’s actually ironical that the very highly informed scribes and Pharisees, who knew the law of God very closely and quoted it at every instance, are the same ones who attacked the Word of God(Jesus) ,when He was revealed as messiah. One then wonders how you can teach about the messiah and fail to recognize Him when he comes.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
( Matthew 23:27-28 NKJV)
In the book of Revelation 3:1-2, the Holy Spirit talks of a dead church:
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write,
‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.
But in this article, I wish to talk of dead ministries. It’s possible to be born again and go about life as if everything is okay, yet there is a calling to God’s work you haven’t answered. Consequently, the kingdom of God suffers scarcity of workers.
Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
(Luke 10:2 NKJV)
Sadly, this is the case in these latter times, despite the fact that the Holy Spirit is being poured upon all flesh.
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
(Joel 2:28-29 NKJV)
Prophesy, visions and dreams should be for edifying the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit releases many gifts and ministries for His work. Despite this, no sooner do many people answer the call to serve God than their ministries die. This results from a number of factors, but here I will discuss only one.
Some ministries die because the said ministers are mislocated. There are many Christians that are members of big churches yet God wants them to be in a small upcoming church, so as to support it to full growth. I was a culprit in this kind of a situation.
Immediately I got born again, I was advised by a certain pastor to join a Pentecostal church so as to grow spiritually. He took me to a number of them and ordinarily, I chose one just because it had many members contrasted with the others. Nevertheless, for the three months I was a member there, I was totally feeling out of place. The pastor was greatly used by God with great teaching, the members praised and worshipped well, but I always felt I didn’t fit. I thus embarked on a prayer to God to show me where I should fellowship, or tell me my purpose for being there. I prayed for a time but God didn’t answer.
Then one Saturday, I told God that the next day, Sunday, I would not go to church, not unless He showed me where to go. That night, I had this dream. I saw so many graves lined up on a patch of land. The graves were cemented white with white crosses. They were beautiful to behold. But then a voice told me that I would end up like that if I continued to go to that church.
In the morning I decided to attend service in a small church deep in the village near there. The lady pastor there was a member of a home cell fellowship I had started to attend. One day, I visited her home and as we shared, I got surprised to realize that a dream I had before meeting her was exactly similar to the things she was telling me about her past life. Her house was similar to the house I had seen in the dream. In the dream, it had been impressed upon me that God had walked in a great way with this pastor and would use her in a great way in the future. As I listened to her talk now in real life, I marveled every now and then, just as I had marveled in the dream, at the things God had done in her life since she started pastoral work while in Form two.
As days passed by, I got more revelations that I should support this pastor and her church in every way, even financially. Later I realized I was to train on mission work under her, and this church was really favored in missions. We managed to hold whole week crusades and revivals in several places in Kenya, then in Rwanda and Uganda. After that, God opened international doors and the pastor went to preach in the USA, actually in seven states within a short period; February to July. God has now lead her to open a church in the USA that continues hosting many missions of the work of God, and for all this we give all the glory to God.
Contrary to this, the other church I had attended earlier was not gifted in mission work, meaning if I had continued going there, my missionary ministry would have died. Of course I believe that church has a different mandate that edifies the body of Christ because the body has different organs and parts that perform different tasks.
Brethren, ask for God’s leading as to where you should serve Him, with whom and how, for He is willing to show you. In the same note, don’t despise a humble beginning. The mega churches we have in the kingdom of God were once small churches but God used people to support them to such high heights. Don’t let your ministry( the work the Lord has called you to do in His kingdom) die, just because you aren’t where God wants you to be. The beautiful, white, cemented graves represent the many ministries that the Holy Spirit has released upon many Christians, but though the Christians appear okay, especially when they fellowship and feel blessed, they are carrying dead ministries inside them, just because they aren’t doing what God called them to do. God bless you as you embark on a self search of who you are in the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit through revelations and prophecy is always at hand to help.
The Power of the Cross of Jesus Christ