“ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you .”- James 4:7

“ Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me ". —Psalm 23:

PRAYER INTENTIONS

1. AGAINST ANY DEMONIC INTERFERENCE.

If you discern there is a DEMONIC INTERFERENCE in any ASPECT of YOUR LIFE, just INVITE the 🔥HOLY SPIRIT🔥 to purify that ASPECT of your LIFE.

As I speak to you, some men and women in Christianity are attempting to find God without the agency of the Holy Spirit, they want to hear about God the Father, God the Son- but immediately you start talking about the Holy Spirit then they start looking at you suspiciously- may be because the spirit is quite “ unpredictable ” and humans don’t like “ unpredictable ”- humans like to be in CONTROL - it’s a side effect of being human- the tendency to want to control everything around us-

Take King David, for instance- when the spirit of the Lord took over him and he started dancing like a mad man on the streets- the religious – legalistic people including Michal, the daughter of Saul were not happy, they said “ aaba, what is this king doing now- haven’t we been saying it- that this man of a king is crazy- a king shouldn’t be dancing in public ”- 2 Samuel 6:14-22- so like these people we try to stifle the movement of the spirit with legalism and tradition- this kind of attitudes still pervades our atmosphere-

Permit me to digress a little- I have a question for you- what do we do when people who do not belong to our religious biases begin to express manifestations of the Holy Spirit?

This question reminds me of Grace Davie, who happened to be a British Sociologist of Religion- somewhere in 1994, Grace published a book titled " Believing without Belonging ." In the book, she suggests that most people who do not belong to institutional religions have some form of belief about God. It is only that they don’t want to be part of a specific religion – either because they are tired of the atrocities committed in the name of religion or that they simply don’t have the time for it.

The discussion above invites us to ask ourselves – those of us who are believers and belong to the various Christian sects, (Catholic, Anglican, Charismatic, Pentecost, Methodist and all other churches) – several questions:

1. Why do we belong to our church?

2. How do we look at someone who does not belong to our church – someone who is not one of us?

3. What do we do, if this someone-who-is-not-one-of-us - believes, shows a greater commitment to Christian values, and even has some visible gifts of the Holy Spirit?

4. Do we exaggerate our psycho-social need to belong by inventing an in-group or out-group rhetoric in the name of religion and salvation?

5. Do we want to capture the God of the Universe in our little enclosures (both physical and social) and not allow the Spirit to blow as He wills (see Jn 3:8)?

Permit me to share two stories. The first story recorded in (Num 11:25-29) tells us of two men who had stayed back in the camp while the Lord God descended in the form of CLOUD 🌥 on the Tent of Meeting: one was called Eldad and the other Medad. Even though they were not among the seventy elders initially chosen by Moses, the Spirit descended on these two men and they too began to prophesy. Joshua however wanted to see the action of God only within the institutional religion headed by Moses, so he complains that Eldad and Medad should be summon and dealt with but Moses invites him to have a broader perspective: “ Moses replied, ‘Are you jealous on my account? If only all Yahweh’s people were prophets, and Yahweh had given them his spirit !’” (Num 11:29).

The second story which is recorded in the Gospel of Mark shows John (an apostle who was close to the heart of Jesus as Joshua was to Moses) saying, “ Master, we saw someone who is not one of us driving out devils in your name, and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him ” (Mk 9:38).

Jesus emphatically tells him, “ You must not stop him; no one who works a miracle in my name could soon afterwards speak evil of me ” (Mk 9:39).

Don't misunderstand me, what you are about to read/hear is no indication of me trying to downplay the importance of our various Christian sects, or our physical structures. Neither am I against the various modus operandi that Christian religious institutions engaged in for smooth worship.

However, I strongly believe it is not the building that's important, it is not the clerical garb or liturgical garments we wear that is important, it is not our titles as pastor, prophet, Dr, Elder, Deacon/Deaconess, Catechist's & Rev.Fr, that's important.

It is the MESSAGE and the faithful practice of the MESSAGE that's important. Christ never saw a sanctuary like we see today in our contemporary society and our fidelity cannot be to our structures, denominations, organizations, but our fidelity must be to the *WORD of GOD , the AUTHOR of the WORD of GOD - the Holy Spirit- our Saviour JESUS Christ and the core gospel values and the propelling of the message of Love, Mercy, forgiveness, hope and Peace.

We have gotten to stage where we are gradually relegating God to the background and more concerned about position, power, fame, material things and the pleasing of the ego than the principle itself ( LOVE ).

Here is the problem- Every time a religion succeeds, every time it spreads its message far and wide and comes to dominate a huge swath of human emotion and endeavour, its values change. The religion GOD'S VALUE - no longer comprises the principles that inspired the religion in the first place. Its GOD'S VALUE slowly shifts, the Holy Spirit is relegated to the background, men and women assume the position of gods and the preservation of the religion ITSELF, the quest for material things and the unhealthy control of the followers now becomes the preoccupation and the focus: not to lose what it has gained.

And this is where the corruption begins. When the original values that defined the religion, the movement, the revolution, get tossed aside for the sake of maintaining the status quo, this is narcissism at the organizational level. This was what happened to the Jewish religion, so that by the time Jesus came they had turned this beautiful God value religion into a man value one- they became self-aggrandizing men and women who were interested in only their selfish-interests championing their various whims and caprices- and that is why Jesus had a lot of problem with the religious leaders of his day, and am afraid a similar thing is happening to the good movement that Jesus started and left for us- this is how you move from Jewish Religion to Christianity, from Roman Catholicism to Lutheranism, from Lutheran Churches to Presbyterian, from Presbyterian to Methodist churches, from Methodist churches to Charismatic churches and from Charismatic churches to Pentecostal Churches and churches will continue springing up in the “ name of Jesus” - Then those who are tired will tell you, look am done with Church- I know there is God, I will rather worship him in my heart -

What happened? The corruption of the religions original values rots away at the religions following thus leading to the rising up of newer, reactionary religions in a bid to conquer the original one-

Listen when I tell you- Our structures in our various churches can lead us astray, men and women in trappings of religious power can lead us astray, they can stifle and drive away the power and the workings of the Holy Spirit- that is why our fidelity must first of all be to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the word of God (love of God & Love of neighbour) and the propelling of the gospel values of Love, Mercy, Forgiveness, Hope and Peace.

Therefore, be reminded today that the Kingdom of God is not about territories, it is not about institutions, it is not even about the in-group (the churched) and out-group (the un- churched), but it is about HEARTS of people. And God has the possibility to work within HEARTS of people, as He desires.

“Since Christ died for all men, and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to EVERY HUMAN the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery” (Gaudium et Spes, no.22).

N:B- Gaudium et Spes is a Catholic document.

The spirit blows where it wills- maybe that’s why we become apprehensive, disturbed, and on edge when the Holy Spirit comes up-

TO BE CONTINUED...

#monkreflections

#firemustfall

#HolySpiritConference

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