PREACHED 0n 22ND MARCH, 1997 by the SON OF MAN APOSTLE PETER ODOEMENA)THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD ONITSHA
I am The Divine Source, The True Deity, The Infinite Being, The Cause of all causes, and of all effects; One who governs the whole Cosmos.
Believe it if you can… —The Son of Man
It is a strict obligation on my side to preach the Gospel without fear or favour; for that reason, I do not shrink by day or by night. When I see you straying away, if I am a Good Shepherd, I will bring you back. But, if you become too “uncontrollable,” I will break your legs, because if you watch a good shepherd, if a sheep wants to be stubborn, becomes uncontrollable and the man is desirous of saving that sheep, he will break one of the legs. That is the only way to bring the sheep into the fold.
If walking with your two feet will give Me “wahala,” I will break one of your legs, so that you limp with Me.
–Son of MAN
(AS I THOUGHT ON MY WAYS VOL.1)
Leadership by the SON OF MAN (APOSTLE PETER ODOEMENA)
PRAYER
Lord, we pray this day that you fortify us physically and spiritually. We give you all glory and honour for your presence in this meeting.
2. Satan has been fighting in different ways but your counsel has prevailed. We therefore say, ‘Thank You’, in the name of Christ, our Lord.
3. We have held discussions with one another; we have walked about, peradventure, some people in one way or the other defiled themselves, Father, we plead that you forgive them in Christ Name.
4. Now, we have rolled into another stage of the meeting to surrender our lives unto your care; oversee all we are going to do in this meeting this afternoon.
5. May Satan never have any access to this meeting oh God. Build a strong hedge around us so that by the end of this section of the meeting, we will be fully refreshed.
6. Let it be according to our request in Christ Name we pray. Amen.
CHAPTER 1
LEADERSHIP IS VERY IMPORTANT
God bless you my Brethren. I know that many have not seen Me summoning ministers’ meeting before. In the End-time Message, which is filled with confusion, anytime somebody summoned ministers’ meeting, he is indirectly summoning trouble; but it is not so with the Faith we profess. This is because in the body of Christ there is Leadership.
2. It pleased the Almighty God to appoint Moses the leader of His people in their age and He surrounded him with men that helped him in his office.
3. First, he gave him Aaron. When the work was too much for him and Aaron, he appointed seventy elders. Moses laid hand on all of them and then commissioned them to judge Israel. Once they encountered a very strong case which they could not handle, he instructed them to refer the case to him. This was because he was the General and from there, we saw what Leadership was all about.
4. There were a lot of people in the wilderness that were manifesting signs of rebellion.
5. You know, the most intricate thing to control on Earth is a human being; you can easily control a sheep, but it is not easy to control a human being because human beings are erratic in their behaviour; they are very unpredictable. They can change with changing times. So, they require a lot of patience.
6. I am trying to build a little background somewhere. Even if I stop there, I believe you know where I am heading to. My address will be incomplete without touching on LEADERSHIP. So, what I desire speaking to you on is LEADERSHIP. It is very necessary that you know how to follow Leadership.
7. First of all, you have to recognize Leadership; two, follow Leadership! It was our Brother, Ugoala’s inability to follow Leadership according to Scriptures that landed him into trouble.
8. The moment you lose sight of the leader, there you will die. The most unfortunate thing that will happen to a group of people is for the people to gang up against the leader or to come up with an idea to reject the Leadership when God has not yet finished with that leader, and then appoint for themselves their own leader after their own heart desire. God will just close His eyes and do away with all of them because they worked against God’s own Leadership.
9. Hence, there is something in Leadership. I believe so much in Leadership. Any group of people or a Church without a leader is likened to a family that has no father. That family must always lack direction. I liken it to a ship on the high sea without a captain. It is just like an aeroplane without a pilot. You now begin to imagine what will happen to the passengers of that plane.
10. There is always the need for somebody that will “pilot” the affairs while others rally round the person giving him a helping hand. But, in our society, you know, human beings are bad. Everybody wants to be a leader in one way or the other. Nobody wants to be led.
11. I will show you Scriptures; few Scriptures because there is already a message in tape on Leadership. I will love it if you repeat that Message in your privacy when you are on your own.
12. I will say few things about Leadership trying my best to convey the Message the way I know it to you. You will understand what I mean as I continue.
PEOPLE LOVE TO CHALLENGE LEADERSHIP (AUTHORITY)
While Moses was leading them in the wilderness, he could see Dathan, Korah and Abiram challenging his authority, challenging his Leadership, telling Moses that he was taking too much; even his own brother Aaron was not spared. He was not satisfied with his position as number two man. Miriam was also not satisfied. Therefore, I want to say something there.
14. In the wilderness, the Lord appointed Moses, Aaron and Miriam. Moses, Aaron and Miriam were of the same parentage; they came from the same father and mother. They were appointed to lead over two million people out of Egypt.
15. Do you think it is easy to carry on with that type of Leadership? That is the problem of the whole world today. But to God, that is the way He has ordained it. If you were living with them as at that time, do you think you would have followed that kind of Leadership—Leadership by one family?
16. Look at Aaron, the elder brother to Moses. Look at Miriam, the elder sister to the same Moses. Won’t you frown and say what Korah said: “Do you mean to tell us that you are the only people that can hear from God? After all, we also hear from God. Which kind of Leadership is this by members of one family; Moses’ elder brother, his elder sister and he himself? Is this a family affair?”
17. Please as ministers; when we mention something from the Scriptures, do not take it that we are preaching a sermon. Reason it very well. Allow it to sink deep. Check whether you can follow that Leadership before you start blaming Korah, Abiram and the rest.
18. Remember that these people died with their doctrine but the spirit is very much alive. If the Lord will appoint Leadership maybe from a particular town in Nigeria and all that surround that Leadership come from the same town, do you think you can follow it? What if the person comes from your family, born of the same father and the same mother? Do you think it will be easy for you to follow the Leadership?
19. What if the Leadership comes from one tribe? Is it not the problem of Nigeria today? This is the problem of every nation. It is not limited to Nigeria alone.
WHAT IS NEEDED IS VICTORY
Let me just deviate a little but I will still come back there because natural things type spiritual things.
21. All these years, Nigeria has been playing a lot of politics even in football until recently when they appointed a new minister, Jim Nwobodo and also appointed a new coach. The minister reasoned with the coach and said: “Let us do away with politics in Nigerian Football Association.”
22. They resisted all the forces and pressures that were mounted on them when they were making the selections for the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.
23. This was because before the last time, the rule was this: every player was attached to one top government official. Some players will be selected to play a match, 24 hours to the match; they will still not be in camp for the match. Then few hours to the match, you see them flying in from Canada, Belgium, England and the rest. These are their agents that siphon Nigerian money abroad.
24. When they are coming back, watch, they come with fleets of vehicles which do not belong to them. These belong to the prominent Nigerians. They use them to make business and the only way they can reward them is to push them into the team anyhow. Some of them will just hop in like Stephen Keshi whom you know very well.
25. What am I saying? Some can even obtain the last ticket. They can fly in at anytime. They can even fly from that country (where they base as professional footballers) to join their fellow players at the beginning of the match.
26. What is more, all those years, we wasted Nigerian money because of all these hopeless things that government officials do. But this time around, they said no to that.
27. All the telephone calls coming from the high places were ignored: “Hello, yes, from where?” The person at the other end would say: “From Aso Rock.” The man would just say: “Not in this match.” “Yes, from where?” “Defence Headquarters,” “Please, not in this match.” Then the coach raised up his back.
28. They dragged him to court; he refused to go to court: “Why should my employer drag me to court?” But when the victory came, everybody rejoiced.
29. What we want is victory; we do not want to know where the players come from. They were given the privilege and you could see that about four brothers from the same family played in a match; four brothers played in a single match. What we wanted were the goals and they went there with the best players—faster players—not minding where they came from; but, prior to that time, it was “quotalization,” depending on geographical zones.
30. Did you get the message?
PEOPLE ALWAYS DEMAND THE IMPOSSIBLE FROM LEADERSHIP
Iam bringing it into the Church now. Be very careful that you do not die in an open Church. An open Church kills. We are not a denomination; everybody has access to the pulpit; everybody has access to everything that belongs to the Church; in other words, it is an open congregation. It kills a lot.
32. That was why many of them died in the wilderness. Because they could approach Moses as though they were approaching their wives, they could go to Moses and speak to him in his face. Their rebellion was not hidden. A little while, you see them complaining; a little while, you see them murmuring.
33. A time came when they said they needed meat and these people were cattle herdsmen; they were there with their cattle and sheep. Moses did not have even a single cow. Because of the people, Moses had to take his family back to his in-laws to take care of them, yet they wanted to strangle Moses in the wilderness because of meat. Nobody was prepared to kill any of his cattle. They had their pots and stoves. If somebody kills his and eats, is it a crime?
34. There was no law that said that they should not kill a cow and eat. But watch their excuse: “If we should start to kill our cattle and eat, it then means by the time we will get to Canaan, we will succeed in finishing all our cattle; Moses, give us meat.” Where will Moses get the meat from?
35. Leadership! Always demanding the impossible. And then they will put the leader in a fix.
LEADERS ARE “CHOSEN DIVINELY” AMONG GOD’S PEOPLE
I want you to underline something in your heart. I want you to recognize the fact that Moses, Aaron and Miriam all came from one family. And if the people must survive, they would fix their eyes on these three persons.
37. Remember I told you that I have fought a good fight; I have kept the Faith, very soon you will desire to see one of the tenures of the Son of Man; but I tell you, you cannot see it. Who then climbs the throne?
38. In the Scriptures, we noticed that the Lord Himself was the one that published the obituary of Moses. In Joshua chapter 1, it is clearly written there.
39. The Lord Himself descended and told Joshua: “My servant Moses is dead.” Joshua knew that Moses was dead. Caleb also knew that. Other elders knew it but nobody had that audacity to mount that throne. Nobody said: “Glory be to God, this man is now away.” Nobody scrambled for that position; they all patiently waited. After all, there is nothing good in Leadership. But everybody wants to be a leader.
40. I will show you some Scriptures before I will say few things that will drag Me into the discussion. I said I would not speak to you too long on Leadership because the Message is on tape already. You can call for that tape; pray to Almighty God to help you to understand that the Church can never move without a Leader.
41. Watch the children of Israel; when Moses died, the Lord appointed Joshua. When Joshua died, Caleb was alive. He never climbed to that throne until the people of God inquired of the Lord.
42. They said, “God, please help us. Our father Joshua is dead and Caleb is becoming too old and we know no other person.” The Lord said; they did not say, “Let us come together and vote brethren; brethren, let us come together. You know how we do this, vote for this person or that person.” We have nothing like that.
43. I am trying to say that in the Church of Christ, we do no voting. We do not use voting to vote in any officer into any office. This is because all positions in the Church are either appointed or ordained. If it is the bishop, he is appointed; if he is the deacon, he is equally appointed; the same thing applies to the Pastor, the Teacher, Prophet and Apostle. They are all ordained ministers in the five-fold. It is a “calling” that is ordained from the foundation of the world.
44. If you use voting, the tendency is there for you to push in somebody that has no pastoral gift into the pastoral office. Then you will repeat the same problem of Nigeria; that will amount to the misplacement of value, just like making a medical doctor the Federal Commissioner for Works. You see them making a lawyer the Commissioner for Education. These are two things that have no bearing; a pure misplacement of values.
45. If you use voting, you may even succeed in pushing a man that has no calling into the office either of, or Teacher or even Evangelist. For that reason, I thank God who has brought this matter back.
WE ARE MEMBERS OF ONE BODY
This was exactly the matter I handled recently. Brethren that came to Me did not know that it was the Lord speaking.
47. You see, the Lord would not inspire Me to put down or preach something for nothing; I mean when there is nothing wrong. It is either something is about to take place somewhere or something is happening already. You will not know why you have gathered until the thing is over. Then you will understand the essence of the Message.
48. If it solves the problem of your Church, it might as well be the problem of another Local Church somewhere and remember that we are all members of one BODY. And it is after settling the problem that we can all rest.
49. Look at your body, if one finger is suffering, I tell you it will affect the entire body.
50. Thus, we go back to the Message proper God helping us. Amen.
I do not need to go about policing anybody again. The truth is that no true seed of God walks contrary to His instructions. Every true seed of God, even if he strays away, once he hears: “come back,” he will come back; “Sit down,” he will sit down. He does not rebel, he does not make noise, he does not complain, he does not murmur, he takes God at His Word.
That is what we know a Christian with, because in Bridal Faith we are likened to soldiers, if we are really soldiers, we are under strict instructions from our Instructor. If He instructs us: “at ease,” He means “at ease.” He does not mean anything more than that; you stand “at ease.”
If He says, “Chest out,” you chest out, that is all. Your duty is to obey.
-Son of Man
(AS I THOUGHT ON MY WAYS VOL.3)
CHAPTER 2
A LEADER MUST HAVE LEADERSHIP QUALITIES
Leadership is very necessary to give the Church a sense of direction. In the message LEADERSHIP preached by Weston Fihala, which was a reproduction of the message preached by the Pastor of the Church at Jos, there are many things missing there.
2. On my own side, I have never touched on Leadership for one day. Hence, I do not intend to preach it as a sermon; but I want to say few things around it trusting that a minister will pick it someday and build a sermon there.
3. In Leadership, it is of a necessity that for one to be a leader, he must have Leadership qualities. There ought to be Leadership qualities.
4. For example, if you come to a Church like Onitsha Household, you have to watch very closely. If there be a Brother in the Church whom people find it difficult to go to for counselling in one way or another when he was not in any office in that Church, people will still find it difficult to go to him for advice when he finally ascends the throne as the overseer of that particular Church.
5. If people were running away from a Brother when he was not the Pastor of that Church, if eventually he is made the Pastor, nothing will ever make the people to go near him. What it will result in is that there will be two Pastors in that Church. One will be the “pulpit pastor” while there will be another Pastor of the people in the Church.
6. For any problem they have, they will go to that Pastor who now happens to be a “silent Pastor.” Did you get the message?
7. That is why no man has the right to appoint the Pastor; it must be the duty of the Holy Spirit. This is because where your eyes may go, may not be where the eyes of the Lord will go.
PEOPLE’S CHOICE HAS NEVER BEEN GOD’S CHOICE
People that are very eloquent and smart, that are always going about showing people how good they are can hardly be good leaders. You see them taking the upper hand in every group—very eloquent.
9. In every conversation, you see them there. In whatever people are doing, you always see them there, watch them; they can hardly be good leaders. I liken them to Aaron.
10. Looking at Aaron, somebody might be tempted to think that Aaron would be a good leader; but he was not. When Moses was away, he listened to the voice of the people and led them into idolatry. Thus, as far as I am concerned and Holy Ghost is also concerned, Aaron was the man of the people; the people’s choice.
11. The people’s choice in every Church has never been God’s choice. So, be very careful about making yourself the people’s choice. Allow God to make His choice and His choice must be final.
12. If the people of Israel were asked to make their choice, they would not call Moses. They had so many things against Moses.
13. I am coming to something gradually.
AIM AT BECOMING A LEADER ONE DAY
In the light of this now, I will make a few comments. I want you to understand very clearly that the qualification for every leader in the Church must be the qualification for every child of God.
15. A true child of God must be a good leader that has Leadership qualities. This is because he may be called upon any time of the day for a special purpose. He may be sent out from one Local Church to another to go and help them. What if he does not develop these Leadership qualities in his Local Church? He will just go out and mess things up.
16. For that reason, all hands must be on deck. Pattern yourself after the Leader. Aim at becoming a leader one day. Amen.
When the going is bad, the Leader must appear, the Leader becomes the talk of the day. But when the going becomes very good, everybody becomes the leader.
Man by nature hates leadership. Man by nature will always think he will perform better than the man leading him. Man by nature will always like to condemn one that is better than him or her.
Man feels he will do better always: “How I wish, if I were in your position. If I will have my way, I’ will do this.” If you will have your way, what will you do? That was what killed Absalom.
-Son of Man
(AS I THOUGHT ON MY WAYS VOL.2)
CHAPTER 3
BEWARE OF FALSE BRETHREN
Acts of Apostles Chapter 20 verse 29 through 31: “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
2. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
3. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. (KJV).
4. St. Paul was addressing the whole Church including elders. In the last verse, he said he spent three years, day and night warning everybody. But I am saying that I have spent over four years with all of you warning you everyday to be very careful, especially, concerning false Brethren.
5. Check the Message entitled: BEWARE OF FALSE BRETHREN. They can creep into your midst unawares. Before you know it, they have waxed very strong. This time around, I have to warn you again to remember that there is what I will call the “rebellious instinct” in man.
6. There is a message I have never preached though I mentioned it long ago when I was rebuking Orjiakor: BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT THE REBELLIOUS INSTINCT IN MAN; the instinct in a man to behave in a particular way without reasoning; without any indication or reasoning. You never intended to go that way but all of a sudden, before you know it, you see yourself behaving in that particular way. It can even rise now. So, be very careful about it.
7. If St. Paul warned that after his departure, that grievous wolves would rise even from among you; that all those people are opportunists. You do not know who is who.
8. If while I was with you I predicted it and before your eyes, a teacher in the Five-Fold who was acknowledged by all the Churches, rose up and impersonated the Apostolic Office after which he went about drawing souls to himself, what do you think will happen if I leave? If that sort of thing could happen while I am still with you, what if I leave you today? Or do you mean to tell me that it is only that man that has that kind of spirit?
9. If that kind of spirit is in you, harbour it very well. Very shortly, I will give way and you will manifest it fully. This is because while I am here, many are suppressing their feelings.
10. Of course, they know that the higher anointing is on the land. So, they all seem to be hiding. The way that man was doing it troubled the Church so greatly that the entire Church did not even know what was going on. It had to take the Apostle all the way from Onitsha to Jos to reveal it.
11. He said, “Stop quarrelling, stop fighting; this is the man troubling you. Look at what he is doing; look at what he is doing.” The eyes of everybody opened. Little did they know that God can allow people with tens of thousands of naira to creep in. If it had not been the Lord, more harm would have been done.
12. As a result, we all collectively joined our hands and threw him out in the outer darkness. The same thing happened at the Church at Obosima where they were just walking about not knowing that the prophecy had already gone forth in Onitsha declaring the two persons as outlaws who had left the Faith and were running their own bunch; that the hand of the Lord was no longer in whatever they were doing.
13. Brethren thought we were playing; but few days afterwards, we saw both of them fulfilling that prophecy. Was it in secret? The entire Church just joined hands together and also threw the second man out, yet he was an Evangelist. For many years, he had been in the Ministry; even in the beginning he was there and was part of the Ministry when we were touring the whole Nigeria.
WAIT FOR YOUR TURN!
What am I saying? You know, God believes in the saying: “Soldier go, soldier come.”
14. If you go into a military camp, you can hardly know those that can participate in a military coup. If you look at their faces, they look so nice in appearance, but inwardly they are more than devils.
15. This is applicable to the Church. We are all soldiers. Are we not soldiers of Christ? This is our own camp. I am talking to you like the commandant of the soldiers of the country, Commander Merci Sime, yet there are people that are eyeing his post.
16. I did not say you should not eye his post but wait for your turn. Do not scramble to that place; it will surely be your turn one day. You have seen all that tried to scramble to that position, where are they today? They are all in the world.
17. Bon Duka tried it, where is he today? He is in the world; so are many others. And all these people had their own converts. This is because when you rise up, by and by people must follow you anyhow. Even if you say that Jesus Christ is Devil, there are people that will echo “amen” to it.
18. That is why it is necessary now that you are in the Fellowship, I would have to draw your attention to that ugly situation.
19. THE LORD DOES NOT LIKE A MAN TRYING TO MAKE HIMSELF SOMETHING, BUT, HE SAID YOU SHOULD HUMBLE YOURSELF AT THE FEET OF THE ALMIGHTY GOD SO THAT HE WILL EXALT YOU IN DUE TIME. SO, I AM SAYING THAT THE SECRET TO GETTING TO THE TOP LIES IN HUMILITY. THE WAY UP IS DOWN.
20. There is one Igbo adage that says that when you bend down, you see afar off; but if you want to stand up, well, your vision will be limited. If you like, you can practise it and prove it for yourself; it is a perfect truth.
BEWARE OF GRIEVOUS WOLVES
Brethren, be very careful about grievous wolves. Did they come into the Church as grievous wolves? No; they came well-dressed in sheep’s clothing but inwardly, they are grievous wolves. Be very careful about such people.
21. How do you know them? By their spirit, you shall know them. Give them a little time, give yourself into prayers; the Lord will point them out. Keep watching, a little time, you see them coming up.
22. All these years, we have enjoyed real peace and unity in all the Churches. But, I tell you that Satan will never allow it to remain like this. He must surely trouble you and where you think the trouble will come from is not where it will come from.
KEEP THE ORDER OF THE CHURCH
Hence, while we are doing our best to make sure we present the whole Church unspotted in the sight of God, I pray that you will try as much as you can to co-operate with your leaders.
24. Every Local Church has God’s appointed leaders. In every Local Church, the god of that Church is the Pastor of that Church. Every other minister in that Church is a helping minister to the Pastor of that Church.
25. In other words, the Pastor of every Local Church has the final say on any matter in that Local Church. Whether you are an Apostle or prophet, whatever you want to call yourself, I do not care. You have no right to fly out from your Local Church to another Local Church without the knowledge of your Pastor. You do not have the right. If you do it, you are not following Leadership. You are breaking the Order of the Church.
26. In the same manner also, you cannot go into financial transaction with any Brother or Sister without the knowledge of the Pastor. For every financial transaction you are going to have with your fellow Brother, your Pastor must be at the middle. He must know everything about it. Otherwise, you may bring a reproach to the Church.
27. I am saying that it is not our habit to go from one Brother to another Brother borrowing money or collecting money or transacting any business in one way or another without the Pastor knowing. Nothing is hidden among ourselves: “Brother, we want to go into this kind of business.” “Oh, fine; it is a wonderful idea.” Bring the Pastor into the affair.
28. This is because the Pastor is held responsible for any problem that emanates from that Church. If I receive a report today that the Church at Zonkwua is not doing very well, I will just hold Brother Elijah responsible before any other person. And it will be very difficult for him to exonerate himself; very difficult.
29. In the same manner also, Almighty God must hold him responsible. For that reason, Pastors, your eyes should be open. You know, in the Church, there are some sheep that do not like to be controlled. You see them walking zigzag all the time. They do not know that it demands some beating left and right to beat them into the line. So, do not withhold the rod. Keep on beating them left and right. At the beginning, they will hate you but at the end, they will love you for it.
30. The Bible said, “No chastening of the present time is joyous but at the end it will produce suitable results of righteousness; to them that are exercised thereby.”
CO-OPERATE WITH YOUR LEADERS
Brethren, do not constitute a stumbling block to the move of the Holy Spirit in the Church. If you do not follow Leadership very well, you can never be a good leader.
32. Now, I said you should develop Leadership qualities to the point that if you see your leader erring, you simply go to him and reason it out with him. You know, at every moment in time, one person must lead. The rest will line up behind him.
33. So, you go to him and reason it out with him; you can present your suggestions to him, but for you to rise up and say: “No, away with this man,” no, we do not hear such things in the Church of God; it is unheard of.
34. Remember that he is God’s servant. If you accuse a servant before his master, you have incurred trouble unto yourself. Accuse a servant before his master, anything can happen to you. He is not your servant; somebody hired him. One word spoken against him is one word spoken against his master. Neglect his instructions; they are not his but his master’s; so you will be neglecting his master’s instruction.
35. For that reason, if other ministers are helping ministers to the Pastor, who are you then to jump and climb on top of your Pastor? No matter how spiritual you think you are, there is always anointing upon the Pastor that will help him to shepherd you very well.
36. If the Lord fails to do it that way, there will be trouble in every Church. When a member of a Church comes to a point where he thinks he is more spiritual than the Pastor, that Pastor can never be useful to him anymore. In such a situation where the Pastor can no longer be useful to you, what do you do? You simply walk out. If you remain there, you will be causing trouble in that Church.
37. Whatever he says from the pulpit, from the back you will react: “I do not see it that way.” Why don’t you want to take it like that? Who are you? If you must protest, why not wait until he finishes?
38. If you felt he misled you, go to him, present the one that should be the correct way; perhaps, you were wrong and did not know it. But, you were somewhere being puffed up by that strong desire to go to the pulpit because you feel you can perform better.
39. One thing is to criticize people that are in power and another thing is to succeed where they failed. That is the problem of Nigeria even till today; the problem of army boys hiding under the cloak of the civilians to poison the hearts of everybody telling them that the masters are not doing well.
40. A little while, they will pull down that government. They will enthrone another one that will even be worse than their predecessors.
41. And now, look at what we are suffering; a corrective regime coming to correct a corrective regime. That is what we have produced because every soldier wants to become the Head of State. Every soldier is aspiring to be the Head of State yet nobody is performing better; a corrective regime coming up to correct a corrective regime. Can kettle call pot black? No!
KEEP THE ORDER OF THE CHURCH
Before you can abuse Leadership, be very sure that you can perform better than that leader if you are placed there. But if it is just to go there and make empty noise so that you become popular among the Brethren, please drop that ambition. It does not help anybody. We are not here to make politics in the Church. Do you know that?
43. In the Church, we have a Legal Order, which no man should bypass. That is why I have formed the habit of sending so many of you back. You do not have any right to take your problems to the Apostle without passing them through your Pastor.
44. For any problem you are passing through in your Local Church, discuss it with your Pastor. If he cannot solve it, he will then direct you to come and see Me. But for you to jump your Church, jump your Pastor and then bring it to the Apostle, you are about to commit suicide.
45. There are a lot of reasons why you should go through all those channels. If you go to your Pastor and you feel that you did not get the type of justice you desire, then you can approach the elders in the Church. They will counsel you. If you are not satisfied with their own counselling, then you will commit it to the Apostle; but if you run straight to the Apostle, let me tell you, it is very dangerous; you put yourself in trouble because there will be no room for appeal.
46. If the Pastor tries your case and he does not satisfy you, you can appeal to the Elders. The Elders will try it and then allow you to appeal to the Apostle; but then, if you jump these two offices and run straight to the Apostle, you are going to hear: “Thus saith the Lord.” You are going to receive: “Thus saith the Lord” on that matter.
47. In other words, you either do it for your good or leave it for your destruction. No other appeal can be heard there.
48. So, please keep the Order of the Church; maintain it. We are very strict over this matter.
49. I have received some reports in the past on how people react in the Church breaking the Order of the Church; when a minister is on the pulpit ministering, somebody in the congregation will be challenging, making a hell of noise, even going as far as demonstrating. What are you doing? You are creating an undue influence. Your action is influencing somebody in one way or the other.
50. Even the ordinary natural life; you see, I know the way I get people with hot temper. If you want to get somebody that has hot temper, call a meeting, throw in a general topic and watch him. He will never allow others to speak. Even when somebody else is talking, his hand will be up.
51. Anybody that talks, he must make contribution on what the person said. Note such a fellow; he has a quick temper and that person is not a good man. And I call such people judges’ delight. If you want to settle such people in the court, you will just close your eyes and charge them with contempt. Their heads will then cool down afterwards, at least for three months before they will come out again.
52. What am I trying to say? We are not in party politics where every hand will be going up and down; a situation whereby a minister is on the pulpit somebody will just raise his hand: “I have something to say.” How many gods are speaking to that Church at a time?
53. Brethren, it is a very serious offence. I say, it is a very serious offence. When a minister is preaching a sermon, is he making discussions up there?
54. In other words, you do not believe that the Holy Ghost is speaking through the minister. What he is saying does not concern you. I call it the behaviour of a beast. It is not even the behaviour of a monkey; it is absolutely that of a beast. Amen.
You know, at times people behave as if the Church will tender apology to them. At times people behave as if the Church is dependent on them.
How can the Church tender apology to a man? Who are you? Do you know what the Church is all about to begin with? How can the Church be wrong? The highest Judgment Seat on Earth is the Church. That is if we know what the Church—Bridal Faith—is all about.
The Bible said all that was in God, He emptied into Christ; all that was in Christ, He emptied into the Church. Then can Christ tender apology to you? Christ can do without you but you can never do without Him, for He is the Source of your existence.
-Son of Man
(AS I THOUGHT ON MY WAYS VOL.2)
CHAPTER 4
THERE IS A LEGAL ORDER IN THE CHURCH
I have taught you on the need to solve Church problems with Bible solution. And it is a Message that is in tape. All the new Local Churches should call for that tape. Anytime there is a problem in the Church, there is a solution in the Bible.
2. If a Brother transgresses, do not bury him before his time. Give him time to speak. Let one or two persons speak and the rest will judge. Apply Bible solution to every Church problem. It will help every Church to germinate fully.
3. I equally want to say something on this question of going on ministration tour. Well, you have no right to just wake up one morning because you have money in your pocket and leave your house claiming that you are going to so, so and so place. The Church must know your whereabouts. It is the Church that will commission you; the Church will send you. So, you are going in the name of the Church. Whatever happens to you there, the Church will be called upon.
4. For that reason, if you go about messing up outside without the knowledge of the Church in the name of preaching, the Church has the right to deny you and hand you over to Law Enforcement Agents.
5. Just like what happened to a Brother in our midst. You know the story very well. There was a period Holy Ghost was trying to keep us here for a very special war against some people’s character.
6. Within that period, the Word went forth in holiness that: “From now to so, so and so period, there should be no preaching. Nobody should go out either on morning cry or street evangelism. Everybody should sit down so that we iron out the matter.”
7. A Brother strayed away one morning to defy that instruction and was preaching thinking that he was doing God a service. Can you be wrong and right at the same time? He neglected the voice of an Elder; neglected the Voice of God.
8. Immediately he went out, his preaching caused trouble and they beat him pulp and blue. From beating him up, they went ahead to lock him up. Although what he preached was right but he behaved uncivilly. That was why we condemned him and allowed him to remain there so that he will learn his lessons.
9. He was there when I left Auchi. So, when he came out his head cooled down. There must be a legal order. Maybe many of you do not know that in this Faith, morning cry is completely prohibited.
10. This Faith has nothing to do with morning cry. You cannot just wake up at about 3 o’clock or 4 o’clock in the morning and begin to disturb people; you constitute a nuisance. It is not our Faith. Our Faith is PERSONAL EVANGELISM. We do not even organize morning cry. We meet people as individuals from house to house. We sit down and reason with them. We do not disturb the society like the useless Pentecostals.
11. Every morning, you will hear: “Hia! Wa, wa, wa, wa, repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” If I have my way, I will come out with my koboko and flog the daylight out of them.
12. Thus, all of you that are coming in from Pentecostal groups, I am trying to flush out this Pentecostal idea which you contacted from there. Nobody has ever been converted through morning cry. This is because you cannot deliver a message in a morning cry. While you are walking up and down, some people will be hearing God; others will be hearing Satan. You just keep talking to the air.
13. It is foolishness. It is sheer waste of energy. We do not practise it in this Faith at all. And the order of our Message said it should be two by two preaching. You cannot go alone. Find a Brother that will accompany you; after all, two good heads are better than one. This is why we are not a denomination.
THIS MESSAGE HAS A SYMPHONY
Brethren, if you have the spirit of a grievous wolf and the Holy Spirit has touched it now, let it be known to you that God has called your name. When your character is described; I mean the spirit that is operating in you is described, you will know.
15. In other words, God has found you out. We may not know you, but God knows you and now our eyes are open.
16. You do not scramble to the pulpit. There is a Legal Order. I believe that no man can limit the Holy Spirit.
17. A Brother can kneel down somewhere and pray and the Lord will anoint him with His Spirit and then looking at the condition of the Church, he will be inspired to speak to the Church with a message that will help the Church.
18. You do not just rush to the pulpit or make noise; all you have to do is to put in a paper and send it to your Pastor. Discuss it with him. Tell him: “Sir, I have a message,” or “I want you to grant me time to preach a message I received from God,” or “I have a message I think will help the Church.” That is your duty.
19. Now it is his duty to make time available for you. He has to inform you on the day(s) you are to come up and preach your message. But for you to just wake up, rush to fellowship and say: “Pastor, em, I have a message for the Church now, now, now,” it is against the order.
20. Sit down! I say, sit down. You do not have anything meaningful for the Church. Who are you to force your way to the pulpit? The Pastor has to make the way for you. He will even address the Church and other Elders will sit down to judge what you are going to say. This is because one preaching that contains a little poison can spoil the whole food.
21. I have told you that one single drop of poison dropped into a Fanta bottle renders it useless. It becomes contaminated; a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
22. I know that many of you crossed over from one group to another group. Every Pastor of every Local Church must be very, very careful knowing that the Lord will require the account of that Church from your hands. You are the overseer.
23. God said, “Tend the Church, feed the Church, teach the Church, nourish the Church.” If that Church dies in your hand, you are in trouble. How can you allow somebody who is just very new in the Faith to throw you off balance? This Faith was not on the land before now.
24. Somebody can be in another local counterfeit Pentecostal Church for twenty years ministering on the pulpit, that does not qualify him to be a minister in this Faith. First of all, he should sit down and be taught. This message has a symphony.
25. We do not preach for the sake of preaching. We are aiming at something; we are producing a MASTERPIECE. This is the era the Bible told us according to Romans chapter 8 from verse 22, the time for the manifestation of the sons and daughters of God without spot, without blemish.
26. I have told you in this Faith that the world has heard enough preaching. They have seen a lot of people carrying Bible making noise here and there. We are yet to see a child of God. If not for this Faith, no child of God will be produced in this age.
27. Now, I want you to judge the message you are holding, which you are trying to force into the Church. Number one, what is your motive? Two, who is inspiring you? What do you intend to achieve by that message?
28. This is because when Fihala Weston was in our midst, he could preach and teach the Churches until everybody will clap hands for him. But he had a wrong motive. He was only aiming at cancelling the message of his Pastor so that the Church will no longer recognize him. That was his motive; not that he was living the life of his message.
29. If he had the symphony of the message in his hands, will he be contradicting his message with his life, I mean by the way he lived?
YOUR LIFESTYLE PREACHES THE GREATEST MESSAGE
30. I am saying is that your life must be worthy of your gospel or else, close your mouth. If you come to the Church and preach to us a message you cannot even keep for one day; you have not patterned after that message for one day, keep your mouth shut. You are not preaching experience.
31. What we preach is experience. We do not go to the pulpit to show our smartness or our eloquence or our knowledge of the Scriptures. I do not want to see the knowledge of the Scriptures in you, I want to see Christ form in you; walking on two feet. If I turn you upside down in anyway, I should not see any blemish. There should be no stumbling block.
32. I know some smart people that can use one hour to write up to twenty messages. Anytime they turn the Bible, they do not do so to get the message there into their own personal lives. They are busy, always busy jotting any time they open the Bible, jotting down things they will tell others.
33. Preacher, preach to yourself. In other words, you must be a father of good works. Do not preach me a sermon but live me a sermon. If you cannot live the life of your message, you are just a smart man. Preaching does not make you a child of God. Do you know that?
34. The Bible did not say by their preaching you will know them; but by their character. You can preach and preach and Holy Ghost will come down; everybody will clap hands for you, yet your life is empty. What does it profit?
YOU ARE BEING BUILT AS A STRUCTURE WHERE GOD WILL DWELL IN
I am trying to say that when you open the Bible, do not open it simply because you want to jot what you are going to say which is not in you; rather, when you go to the pulpit, even if you do not open the Bible, say that thing which is in you. We will balance it in the Bible afterwards.
36. When Jesus Christ was walking about, was He holding the Bible? Was St. Paul holding the Bible? What people saw in them and called them Christians in Antioch, was it the Bible? There was no Bible that time. It was their daily life.
37. All these madness should be over; cleverness should be over. This is the time for self-circumcision. You are now elders; you are ministers, circumcise yourselves each one of you. Cut off all these excess flesh. Stop the war against your members. Stop all these competitions for preaching.
38. One person will preach, the other will try to outclass him. We do not want it. Enough is enough!
39. Let me tell you; a man that really knows what he is doing, when he preaches a sermon, he remains on that sermon until his purpose is achieved; until make-believers will feel offended. This is because a make-believer comes to the Church everyday to hear a new message. If he comes three times and one message is repeated four times, he will feel offended.
40. Sit him down to see whether he has felt the impact of that message, you will see he is all-empty. Of what use is my preaching, coming to the pulpit to give you new messages when the ones I preached, you have not obeyed? Is it not useless?
41. A time came when William Branham was preaching: Job on the ash heap; Job on the ash heap. Every week, it will be “Job on the ash heap.” He continued preaching this until a woman got offended one day.
42. She said, “Brother Branham, all these months, it is only, ‘Job on the ash heap; Job on the ash heap,’ that you keep preaching, when will this Job rise up from the ash heap?”
43. The prophet said, “Well, any day Job rises from the ash heap, I will stop talking about him. The moment your life changes, I will stop preaching that message and go over to another one.”
44. We are building you as a structure where God will dwell in. That is what we are doing. We are not Pentecostals. If you go there, they will increase your madness, sing praises and then dance the whole thing out. That is all.
45. But in this Faith, no; we are taking our time. Before you place any block, we make sure that the one you placed before then has been strongly fitted in.
46. If all that are in the Church will pattern after the messages we have been hearing and preaching, can we have problems in any Church? The entire population of denominations will pattern after us. But you can see a lot of smartness on the pulpit—real smartness. God hates it. I said, God hates it.
GET THE GIVER (CHRIST) INTO YOUR LIFE
Mystery, mystery, mystery every hour; I know you know mysteries; I know that very well. But that is not your salvation. You can know the whole mysteries and still perish. Do you know that?
48. It is applicable to spiritual gifts; you can prophesy, speak in tongues, interpret, see vision, yet you will perish at the end. This is because there is no salvation in gifts.
49. A gift is temporary but the Giver (Christ) is permanent. I am saying that if you should covet anything at all, it should be the Giver of the gift. Once you get the Giver of the gift into your family, He will be residing there with all the gifts. Get the Giver into your own family; into your own life; let Him dwell there. From there, all His attributes will come forth reflecting in your daily conducts.
50. Before now, we used to hear that women trouble the Churches. Now, it is men that are troubling the Churches; young, young men that have no experience at all. The time of young men is over.
51. If you are a young man now, behave like an adult. If you want to be wise, try to carry the bag of a wise man each time he is going to a meeting. If you want to be wise, and you know that wise man in your community, each time he is going to a meeting, try to carry his bag. Before you now it, you will become a wise man.
52. But if you move with a fool and you claim to be wise, you are deceiving yourself. If you move with fools and you want to be wise, it is impossible. Amen.
If we belong to the same Family, and we say we are Brethren, what do we talk about ourselves? What do we wish ourselves? Why then do we laugh when evil befalls one of us? Why do we love our Brethren putting their hands on their cheeks? Always in sorrow.
If I am wishing you well, I will not like to see you wearing a very sad face, I will say, “Brother, what is wrong? Brother, you are not looking good, what is wrong? Sister, you are not looking good, what is wrong?”
If you cannot notice the change in your Brother’s face, the change in your Sister’s face, you are not Brethren.
-Son of Man
(DISPUTE AMONG BRETHREN)
CHAPTER 5
LIVE THE LIFE OF CHRIST
Now, I go back to my Message. These grievous wolves I was talking about, how do you know them? They are very much uncontrollable. Every member of a Church must live a life that the Pastor can, at any time, give full account of.
2. If you are a member of a Church and your Pastor cannot boldly stand before any group of people to testify about your conduct, something is wrong with you. I repeat; something is wrong with you. And you know what causes it. It is hypocrisy. That is what causes it.
3. Before your Pastor, you show the other side of the coin; outside our midst, you show the world the other side of the coin. It is very dangerous. If you are coming to Onitsha, tell your Pastor that you are coming to Onitsha. Do not change your mind and go to Nsukka. If you must change your mind, let your Pastor know so that when you die on your way to Onitsha, he will not be making any argument about your saying that you were going to Nsukka.
4. Brethren, going against the Order of the Church is dangerous. God is no longer happy with it; it is becoming very unbecoming; very hateful in the sight o God.
5. Acts of the Apostle chapter 14 verse 23: “And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.” (KJV).
6. “Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church and prayed for them with fasting, turning them over to the care of the Lord in whom they trusted.” (LB).
7. First Timothy chapter 3 verse 1: “This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.” (KJV).
8. “It is a true saying that if a man wants to be a pastor he has a good ambition.” (LB).
9. If you desire the office of a Bishop, an Elder, a presbyter, you desire a very good work; an excellent work, but one thing is to desire an office, another thing is to measure up with the qualifications of that office.
10. And I am saying that the qualification for that office must be the qualification for every true Christian. Is there a true Christian that will not like to be a Bishop in this Faith? The Bible said that a Bishop must be blameless in all his ways; in other words, I will say that the position of a Deacon or a Bishop is an express ticket to Heaven.
11. When somebody is blameless in the sight of God and in the sight of man, what will stop him again? When you see a Church where nobody desires that office, know very well that that Church is a carnal one.
COLLABORATE WITH YOUR LEADERS
Titus chapter 1 verse 5: “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee.” (KJV).
13. “I left you there on the island of Crete so that you could do whatever was needed to help strengthen each of its churches, and I asked you to appoint pastors in every city who would follow the instructions I gave you.” (LB).
14. Nobody has the right to wake up, maybe as a Pastor of the Church, and call a meeting saying: “Everybody come round oo, we want to make so, so and so.” No! The Church is not a village meeting. There is a Legal Order.
15. There must be one that is conferred with that authority to go from Church to Church to set things in order. If there is a problem which is very serious, all you have to do is to send for him. Alert him immediately; he will rush in and then put things in order.
16. But if you want to act by sight, before you know what is happening, the Lord will just cancel everything about that Church. He will just remove that Church from His Mercy whether the Church likes it or not.
17. You may not know what I am saying. An entire Church in the past was asked to repent. In other words, the entire Church committed the sin. That sin may not be committed by everybody, it could be just one or two persons that ganged up to do something that offended God and the Lord concluded the whole Church in sin.
18. Hence, I am saying that I have tried my best to appoint Elders in many Local Churches. I have even reappointed some Brethren in the same office to go from place to place to ordain Elders and set them in order. I have done that.
19. If I have not appointed you, please sit down. I know you were around; I even saw you in Church when I made my choice and my choice is God’s own choice. After all, the persons I appointed are not serving Me; they are serving the Almighty God whom they believe.
20. If you are not ordained in that office, I say, please maintain calmness. Support those that are holding the office. You will do well if you do that. But if they rise up tomorrow and start petitioning and demonstrating, “Apostle, you acted so unfairly; you came to your town and ordained so, so and so. You did not ordain me.”
21. Who are you to say so? Did anybody bribe the Apostle to ordain those persons? Nobody bribed Him.
22. There were some Churches where He ordained Deacons on the day of the confirmation of the Church. There were some He went to and did not even ordain a Pastor. There are some Churches that have existed for many years they have only but one ordained minister. There are some that will come up today before you know it, there will be three offices or four offices all at the same time and you think that they have bribed the Apostle; do not think that way. It is the Lord’s doing.
23. Why the Lord has decided to do it that way, I do not know. If the Lord says, “Ordain this man so, so and so,” my duty is to ordain. Were you not kneeling down together? Every eye was on the ground with all heads bowed down when the Lord started making His choice.
24. I am trying to show you the more reasons why you should co-operate with your leaders.
TAKE CARE OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST
Acts of Apostles chapter 20 verse 17 through 28: “And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.
26. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,
27. Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:
28. And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,
29. Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
30. And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:
31. Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
32. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
33. And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
34. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
35. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
36. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” (KJV).
37. The message is a very clear one; a direct message; “Take heed over the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ which I have made you an overseer.” You see the Church? Christ purchased the Church with His own precious blood. When you are made a minister in this Church, do not make yourself a tyrant.
38. Pastors, did you get the Message? A Pastor of a Church must be accessible to every member of the Church at all times. Nobody should come to you and you tell him to get his ticket before he will see you. And the Pastor of the Church is the father of that Church; you know all your children and you should be able to call them by their names.
39. You know their characters. You know those that are filled with the Spirit; you know those that are not yet filled. In other words, you will try to make yourself all things to please them.
40. To the weak, you must become weak so as to help them. To the strong, you become strong so as to help them. If you do not adjust, by and by, the whole flock will scatter. When somebody comes with his complaints, place yourself in the shoes of that person.
41. When you see somebody that has fallen into a ditch, and was trying to come out and you gathered stones and started throwing them at him, do you actually want the person to come out? You want the person to die there.
42. We are called to give such people a ladder from where they can climb up. When he climbs out, then you can flog him very well. Do not flog him inside the pit. Get him out first and then flog.
43. If you flog him inside the pit, it is a criminal act because he is not feeling comfortable there. He knows his life is in danger there and he wants to come out. But, when you have tried him many times and you discover that he is not making any effort to change, you can help him out.
44. If it has become his manner; his habit to fall into that ditch from time to time, all you have to do is to help him by using a bulldozer to carry enough sand and bury him there. You are all ministers of the Word.
45. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17: “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.” (KJV).
46. “Obey your spiritual leaders and be willing to do what they say. For their work is to watch over your souls, and God will judge them on how well they do this. Give them reason to report joyfully about you to the Lord and not with sorrow, for then you will suffer for it too.” (LB).
47. God will judge them on how well they do this; in other words, give them a chance to do their work. Do not frustrate them. I know that there are some people in the Church that do not believe that some people have rule over them.
48. Brother Emma, take note. It is End-time spirit; in End-time, they can hardly believe that somebody has rule over them. Ask them why they believe that, they will tell you that they are above examination. What are you? Obey them that have rule over you for they watch over your souls as people that will give account unto God.
49. Remember the last Message before this one; it was on STEWARDSHIP.
50. Pastor, be vigilant; anyone that is frustrating your honest effort to oversee a Church the way the Holy Ghost has directed you, please mark that person. After first and second warnings, what do you do? Reject. Is it not Bible?
51. Mark that Brother, mark that Sister that is constituting the stumbling block; he or she does not want to take instructions, he or she does not want to obey; his mouth is always full of words, very uncontrollable; no problem, just mark him, he is not working according to the doctrine we have received. Have nothing to do with him; cast him out of the Church so that others will fear. Do not retain him; he is a dangerous man.
I HAVE A COMMISSION: TO PRESENT ALL OF YOU BLAMELESS AND SPOTLESS
Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17 again: “…give them reason to report joyfully about you to the Lord, and not with sorrow, ‘for then you will suffer for it too.” (LB).
53. Note, they will report joyfully about you to the Lord not with sorrow. If they make any report concerning your character sorrowfully, you will never escape it. You will equally suffer.
54. I remember the day our Brother visited us all the way from Opi; I asked him to go and bring the man that was troubling the Church. Did both of you get out of it? Both of you suffered. The Pastor suffered, the man also suffered.
55. The Bible said that there are people that do not want to enter neither do they want others to enter. Anybody that is constraining your work as a Pastor is trying to mar your report. He is trying to make you to have a shipwreck and you should see him as your greatest enemy; the enemy of your soul, the enemy of your work.
56. I once again repeat this as a way of putting you in remembrance. Any other minister in a Church outside the Pastor of the Local Church is a helping minister. He can never give account of the Church before God; in other words, he is under the Pastor of that Church.
57. Pastors, know your position now or never. The earlier you know your position and rise up on your duty, the better for you. You are the Pastor of the Church; you know the type of food the Church requires at anytime.
58. That is why when you are doing a work in the Church, a real serious work that will take you some time; you have to announce it to the other ministers: “Give me some time; I am checking the spirit in this Church. Wait until I finish.” If you do not do it, before you know it somebody will say, “I have a message.” He will just come up and spoil all that you have been building for months. Then you will start all over again. Who caused it? It is you.
59. I believe in calling a minister down from the pulpit; it is not a crime. Pastor, take note.
60. If I have stayed in a Local Church for some time and I have listened to the ministration coming out from the ministers in that Local Church and I have discerned the way the members of that Church are responding towards the Message, in other words they are growing with the Message and have come to a certain height, if a minister from that Church or from any other Local Church, mounts the pulpit and gives a message that is below that height, trying to pull the Church down, I normally write a note calling the Brother down from the pulpit. He is simply drawing the hand of the clock back. Am I telling lies? I serve them notes.
61. This is because I have a Commission; to present all of you blameless and spotless in the sight of God. Thus, if anyone should try to draw the hand of the clock back, I will never permit that. I could not see the ministers slashing in the pulpit and for that reason, I stripped them of their positions.
62. Nobody should pose as a Teacher again in this Church. That position has remained vacant till this day. Is it not a horrible situation that two Teachers were stripped off their positions at the same time? Were they not warned several times? Were they not given the chance to improve yet they could not improve?
63. I was able to do it because I was stationed in Jerusalem (Onitsha Church) and you know that the Word goes forth from Jerusalem. I do not believe in giving any Local Church half-baked bread; half-baked message is very dangerous.
64. Supposing somebody is coming all the way from Jos to collect tape, he plays it and notices that the message is of low standard, how do you think such a person will feel? God forbid such a thing.
65. Let me tell you; if I deliver a Message at Isialangwa and then go to Enugu and deliver the same Message, there is going to be a sharp difference. How many have noticed it?
66. It was just like when I went to Owerri; I delivered a message: CHOOSING A GOOD PATH, everybody was scrambling for that tape. Till this day in Onitsha, they are still calling for that tape when I had already preached it at Onitsha.
67. Why? This was because I handled the Message at Onitsha when they were in a meek state—in 1993. But now, the Church is of age.
68. Jesus Christ told His disciples in John chapter 16 verse 12, He said, “I have many things to tell you but you cannot bear them now, howbeit, when He, the Spirit of Truth will come, He shall lead you to all truths.”
69. There are many truths you cannot bear now. There are some truths I will tell you now you will see some people fainting. It is just like our Brother who is going to wed tomorrow; I know you have played tapes on marriage. Well, some of them were recorded when we were at the teething stage.
70. If you play them and you start rejoicing, when we tell you the “hard truth” about marriage, you may faint. Do not worry; tomorrow is your day.
71. It is always better for a man to accept this message raw when it comes to him. When the message went forth at Isialangwa during a wedding, the eyes of our Brother who wanted to wed became open like that of the fish. He could not blink his eyes anymore; even his wife was trembling, the parents were just watching, yet that was just a minor Message.
72. I put up a mere cosmetic touch on that Message. By tomorrow, you will know what I mean. If I tell you what I believe in marriage, too many of you will not even marry. But I just give you the much that will help you to understand that your wife is yourself.
73. One thing is to say AMEN, another thing is to follow the AMEN. If your wife is you yourself, you will not behave the way you behave; I mean the married people. I am talking to you all married people.
74. If your wife is you yourself, will you be behaving the way you behave? Will you treat her the way you treat her? Will you react towards yourself the way you react towards your wife?
75. You create a “big gap” between you and your wife simply because you want to exhibit your foolish ego. That gap must be removed if you want to see the Kingdom of God. After all, I am not the one that caused you to marry. I thank God ministers will witness the wedding.
76. So, Brother Igwe, if a short man should boycott a marriage, he must rise up for people to see him. So, tomorrow na tomorrow. I am not running away. We will renew our marriages in this Faith. Many of us will even marry fresh.
77. Pray that your in-laws will come. If I do not see them, there will be wahala somewhere. Even if I am dying, the Lord will keep Me alive to speak to the Church on marriage; even if it means talking just for 15 minutes. Amen.
The picture you paint about someone depends on what you want to achieve. If you cannot talk good of one another, you can never wish your fellow human being good. If I can never talk good of you, I will never wish you good, for what I wish you is what I will say about you.
After all, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. I cannot talk evil of you and wish you good, never, never! What I say about you is what I am wishing you. Believe it if you can.
-Son of Man
(DISPUTE AMONG BRETHREN)
CHAPTER 6
OBEY THEM THAT HAVE THE RULE OVER YOU
Obey them that have the rule over you in all things. You must be subject to your Pastors and to your Elders that watch over your soul. Help them to do that work with joy; not with grief.
2. In what way? By obeying their instructions, keeping them where they are; communicating with them freely; bringing, from time to time, suggestions; appreciating their honest efforts. Even if they are wrong, you try to check the whole thing with love.
3. I believe that every man is liable to make mistakes in one way or another. Some mistakes are honest mistakes. If that action is not a deliberate attempt to deceive you, just brush it aside.
4. I love the statement of our former Head of State who told Nigeria when he was dribbling us: a little to the centre, a little to the left and then to the right. But somehow, he created a problem; the problem of semantics. I say that is the problem of semantics for there is no measurement; he did not tell us the number of poles we will take to the left and the number of poles we will take to the right.
5. Two miles can be a little; thirty miles can be a little. I can back it up with what the pope said: “History will not exonerate me if I fail to take decisions at all but history will exonerate me if I take wrong decisions. For this reason, I am not afraid of taking decisions.”
6. And that was why he was doing all that he was doing. I love that pope.
7. Do not be afraid of taking decisions. I will forgive you; Almighty God will forgive you for taking wrong decisions with honest motives, but God will never forgive you for not doing anything at all.
8. In other words, when a problem arises, you must ask yourself the question: “What have I done about it?” You must expect that question: “What have you done?” Not when the thing comes, you will just say, “I am waiting; I will do this; I will do that.” You are just telling stories. Before you know it, you will hear: “My friend, surrender that office to the Deacon; sit down until further notice.”
9. Pastors, if you know that God will not call any member of the Church to give account of the Church you are “pastoring,” your eyes will become red from now. I said your eyes should become red from now.
10. In other words, it will not be red on the entire flock alone. Let your eyes be red on the ministers also. Sit down and weigh the quality of food they are giving to your flock. Do not say it is true and remain there. It must be implemented.
11. Any message that is going to the pulpit must have a target. Know the symphony of the message and what we will like to achieve in the end. We do not want the world to know us as very good preachers and poor implementers. We want the entire world to see Christ in us.
12. Thus, when you are building your messages, ministers, aim at edifying the Church; aim at instilling discipline in the Church; aim at bringing the Church to perfection; aim at bringing the Church to a point or a level where sin will not hide in that Church. Lift up a standard by your message that will make every hypocrite to feel uncomfortable until he leaves us.
13. If it is for you to go home, prepare a message only to come and retaliate, may be while your Pastor was preaching, he hammered on you because of your evil behaviour; then you shook your head, swallowed the thing, suppressed your feeling, went home and prepared your own message; the next time, all you hear from him is: “Brother, Shalom; can you permit me to mount the pulpit? The Lord willing, I will like to speak to my Brethren using some quotes from our Prophet.”
14. “When will you want to be there?” “Any time you call me.” Brother may not know that he is coming to the pulpit to retaliate. He has turned the Bible aggressively.
15. For weeks, nobody ever saw him on the pulpit. Before you know it, he will just run to the pulpit, balance like a king and all you will be hearing is: “Amen! Amen!” Now he will take you to quotes first. Pastor will just fold his hands and watch. The young man will use quotes to disarm you first. While he is quoting, anointing will be moving his hand. It is a trick.
16. Then watch; he will keep on drifting and drifting until he starts flogging the Pastor indirectly.
17. Let your eyes be open, ministers especially Pastors. God help us. Why must your eyes be open?
18. First Timothy chapter 4 verse 1: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” (KJV).
19. But the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some in the church will turn away from Christ and become eager followers of teachers with devil-inspired ideas.” (LB).
20. And doctrines of who? Devils. You see why your eyes must be open? We are living in the latter days. Keep your eyes open; be on the look out, otherwise, you will see the Church going into apostasy gradually.
21. Apostasy is just a gradual departure. No Church wakes up one morning and then departs from the Faith. It is a gradual departure.
22. In the latter times, some shall depart from this Holy Ghost Faith. Who could believe that Weston Fihala could depart? Before we knew what was happening, he preached a message which only referred to people that had money in our midst.
23. He said, “Brethren, I will show you Scriptures. You see, it is very wrong for a member of the Church to listen to the voice of the Elders before acting on anything.” They thought that what was happening was from God.
24. He said, “Look at St. Paul; St. Paul came to Jerusalem and was respecting Peter as an elder; before he knew it, Peter forced him to stay back in the temple and then shave his hair.” The unbelievers in the camp were rejoicing. They did not know that he was injecting poison into the Church. He was creating a division between the flock and the Pastor. And he was not doing it from the pulpit but from house to house.
25. What did he do? When he saw that they all had believed the message, he now came up with a request: “I need some amount of money to go into my business fully; there are one or two more things I have to get to establish the business fully.”
26. Having disarmed the Pastor using his message, the Brother will not call his Pastor to relate the monetary transaction to him. In short, he was a dangerous man. Remember that Weston Fihala is a spirit. Though he is outside, his spirit is very much alive inside.
27. If you have that same spirit, going from house to house, spoiling the house of the Pastor and turning the hearts of the members of the Church against the Pastor, desist from it. A little while, you will see him behaving like Absalom.
28. You know when Absalom wanted to overthrow his father; he was always parading himself at the gate. People that came to visit his father, King David, were always intercepted at the gate by Absalom. The next thing they would hear is: “How I wish I were the king; how I wish I were in the position of the king. Oh! I would have done this and done that.” By so doing, he seduced the hearts of these people away from David.
29. Be very watchful. How does it start? Somebody will jump the office of the Pastor and carry the problem to another minister. And that minister will be blind. Instead of sending the person back to the Pastor, saying, “Have you reported this matter to your Pastor?” He will reply, “No.” “Please go to your Pastor.” That is what solves the problem. That is the Order of the Church.
30. How will you feel, if you are a minister; an elder in the Church, somebody comes to you with a report and after reviewing that report, you go to the Pastor with it and he tells you that he does not know anything about it? How will you feel? Tell Me?
31. I will call it loss of confidence in that fellow. The Pastor will automatically lose his confidence on the fellow because he should know more than that. There is hardly a Brother or Sister’s problem in a Church which the Pastor does not know.
32. What is that problem? He can equally entertain the problem of a housewife that the husband does not know. Then after everything, you marry her. Oh yes!
33. You not only entertain the problem, you just marry the woman and she packs into your house and lives with you. So, be very careful. That is how it starts.
34. Somebody just carries a problem that is meant to be tackled by the pastor to you, a minister: “How I wish I were the pastor of the Church. You know our pastor now. He cannot see it this way. If it were I, I would just, I would just,” let me tell you; you would not have done anything. It is another way of biasing the minds of the members of the Church against their pastor.
DO NOT BREAK THE CHURCH ORDER
If you are in this Faith and you are occupying a vital position in the Church, be very careful; otherwise, you will incur the wrath of God upon yourself without knowing it.
36. Do not break the Church Order. Every Local Church has its Conduct, Order and Doctrine. Do not break them. It is a very serious offence. I call it “Church Cook.”
37. I told you a story of a man that over reacted in his house because he had a little problem. Before he knew it, his cook decided to cause trouble in the kitchen; he teamed up with the man’s wife and locked up everything in the kitchen. The man came back, carried an axe and destroyed every door in the house including frames.
38. You see, I call that man a real man. How can you lock the man out of his house when there is an axe in the house?
39. You cannot drive the Pastor out of the Church. Who are you? If you drive him away from the Church, will you pastor that Church? You cannot pastor the Church and you do not want to give chance to the one that is pasturing. It is a dangerous development.
40. If a Brother comes to you with a problem you know is scripturally meant for the pastor, direct him back to his Pastor. By so doing, we will achieve peace in all the Churches. All the new comers, I mean new converts, take note of this.
41. Many of you came in from Pentecostal Churches where there is no order. It should not be so. Some came in from End-Time message which is the worst of them all. Drop all these hopeless experiences. Amen.
Let Me tell you. No Brother looks for a fault among his Brothers. If you are looking for your Brother’s fault, what are you going to do with it in this Faith? It is a stranger that will look for fault so that he can see something he can capitalize on and then make his case.
Somebody might be trailing you all in the name of Brotherhood, waiting for you to make a little slip. Once you make that little slip, he capitalizes on that, aiming at finishing your records once and for all. Is he a Brother? He is not a Brother. A Brother overlooks faults.
-Son of Man
(DISPUTE AMONG BRETHREN)
CHAPTER 7
UNITY OF THE BODY
In the Church of God, let me show you what you will do.
2. First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 10: “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” (KJV).
3. “But, dear brothers, I beg you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to stop arguing among yourselves. Let there be real harmony so that there won’t be splits in the church. I plead with you to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.” (LB).
4. Is it Bible? In the Church of Christ, we do not even know anything called discordant tone. We all speak the same thing. This is because we operate in one Spirit. There should be no divisions in our midst. We all should be perfectly joined together in one mind and in the same judgement.
5. I am attacking a spirit in this Faith. This spirit is the greatest enemy of all the Churches. There is no Local Church that is free from this spirit. There is always that spirit operating in somebody making him feel that he can preach better than his Pastor. He can act more than he (the pastor).
6. In other words, the Pastor is wasting his time; he is delaying the movement. You should know better than that. God help us.
7. Second Timothy chapter 4 verse 3: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” (KJV).
8. “For there is going to come a time when people won’t listen to the truth but will go around looking for teachers who will tell them just what they want to hear. 4 They won’t listen to what the Bible says but will blithely follow their own misguided ideas.” (LB).
9. You see why all your eyes must be awake all the Pastors? A time will come when these grievous wolves can no longer endure sound doctrine. Tell them the truth, you see them shaking their heads, but they will like to heap their own teachers that will tell them what they will like to hear. That was the king of the people of Israel.
10. A time came when they could not listen to the Voice of God again. They started dictating to the prophets of God what they should tell them. They would say, “Enough is enough. This message is becoming too physical. This is the way you should teach us.” It should not be mentioned in our midst.
11. Every minister should be given a free chance to come to the pulpit. If the message is offensive, bear it anyhow provided it is the truth. After all, I believe in one thing called manners. No teacher purposely goes to the pulpit to attack a particular person.
12. So, when somebody is on the pulpit and is talking and he drifts to your side or even mentions your name, it really shows that the Lord wants to help you.
13. Second Peter chapter 2 verse 1: “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” (KJV).
14. “But there were false prophets, too, in those days, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly tell their lies about God, turning against even their Master who bought them; but theirs will be a swift and terrible end.” (LB).
15. You see the people we are fortifying ourselves against? It said, “As we have false prophets, so also are we going to have false teachers who will just creep into our midst quite unnoticed. Before you will know it, they will bring into the Church damnable heresies and the Church will roll into captivity.
16. Then who will be held responsible? It is the Pastor of that Church.
CHECK YOUR STAND
There is one Message that is boiling in my heart everyday. The Message is: IT MUST BE SHEPHERDS.
18. Anything outside shepherds do not come to the pulpit in the Church. It must be shepherds.
19. There is a message I used to hear from Erwald Frank which caused Me to write to him telling him to cancel it. That message is not from the Almighty.
20. He said that the evangelist should be a flying evangelist. In other words, the evangelist has no Local Church. What makes him a flying evangelist? He said he could fly in and fly out; that he does not know the condition of the Church; that he can come in and inject a message into the Church that can cause serious trouble which will take the pastor months to correct.
21. I said, “Erwald Frank, you have erred in doctrine. Any evangelist that has no Church role, is not God’s evangelist. The Bible said that we should speak one thing and by one Spirit are we all attached into one Body.”
22. Can you imagine a house that three brothers gathered and said that they are building? Brother A will put his own block; Brother B will come and put his but instead of putting it on top of that of Brother A, he decides to put it on the ground. The third Brother comes up and puts his adjacent to that of Brother B. When do you think such a building will be completed?
23. Any evangelist that has a ministry that is scattering the Church is a devilish evangelist. This is because the essence of the Five-Fold Ministry is to build up the Church and bring the Church to perfection.
24. If your ministry is to come in and scatter the Church, you better go to the altar and pray. The Bible said that he that is not building is scattering.
25. You know the End-time message can support you to stay away from Church without going to fellowship all in the name of evangelism; I mean simply because you are an evangelist. We do not need any Scripture to support the gathering of the Saints.
26. You do not know that any work that will prevent you from going to fellowship is from the Devil. I believe one thing; I believe that no sensible Head of State will have his hand in a military coup that will oust him from his office.
27. In other words, God can never give you a work that will hinder you from worshipping Him. If God does that, it then means that God is now against Himself.
28. So, check your stand. Any job that will keep you away from the Fellowship, you better reconsider your stand on that job. I repeat: reconsider your stand on that job. The earlier you tell yourself the naked truth, the better for you.
29. My duty is to guide you. Will I force you to obey? The answer is “No.”
30. There is always a Scripture that helps Me on matters like this. While we continue, I may even come up with it.
THE ORDER OF LEADERSHIP
Acts of the Apostles chapter 15 verse 1 to 2: “And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.
31. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.” (KJV).
32. “While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers that unless they adhered to the ancient Jewish custom of circumcision, they could not be saved.
33. Paul and Barnabas argued and discussed this with them at length, and finally the believers sent them to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local men, to talk to the apostles and elders there about this question.” (LB).
34. Verse 6: “And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.” (KJV).
35. “So the apostles and church elders set a further meeting to decide this question.” (LB).
36. Verse 22: “Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren.” (KJV).
37. “Then the apostles and elders and the whole congregation voted to send delegates to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, to report on this decision. The men chosen were two of the church leaders–Judas (also called Barsabbas) and Silas.” (LB).
38. Have you seen the order of the Leadership? The apostles and the elders; in other words, the apostles and the bishops—“Elder” is another term for bishop or presbyter.
39. Many of you do not know that the Pastor is not an Elder. Many of you do not know that. The Teacher is also not an Elder. That is why I can ordain a Brother that is not even married as the Pastor of a Church, just like Timothy and Titus. The Pastor is not an Elder.
40. Whenever they concluded the matter, they would inform the entire Church. The Apostles and the Elders and the entire Church now agreed with the Holy Spirit to put the decree in writing telling the Gentiles never to allow themselves to be circumcised and gave them only but just two laws; to abstain from eating blood of strangled animals and fornication.
41. This was read in all the Gentile Churches. They glorified God. I accept that the Church can make laws; the Church can equally cancel laws. So, we and the Holy Spirit can agree to cancel laws.
KNOW THE CHURCH ADMINISTRATION
Acts of Apostle chapter 16 verse 4: “And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.” (KJV).
43. “Then they went from city to city, making known the decision concerning the Gentiles, as decided by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem.” (LB).
44. They were ordained by the Apostles and the Elders which were in Jerusalem. And they put down decrees, gave them to Paul and Barnabas to be delivered to the people. If you believed we have Apostles and Elders in Jerusalem, believe also that a day may come when you will receive a decree from Jerusalem written and signed with the hands of the Apostles and Elders in Jerusalem. And if you do not obey it, that is your destruction.
45. Know how the Church is run, I mean Church administration. The earlier you know it the better, although we are not a denomination.
46. When that problem arose, they all came down to Jerusalem; both the people that were agitating and Paul who was defending it. They all came down.
47. Thus, it is not out of place that each time you come to fellowship with a report, instead of hearing you; we send you back to go and call those people. At times, they will make their written submissions. Before I will listen to you, you must bring the people that are accusing you.
48. Am I saying that the Pastor is above correction? The answer is no. If you see Me doing that which is wrong, correct Me with the spirit of meekness and then you will save Me from death. I am your Brother for goodness sake.
49. But if you have that spirit that tells you that you know too much; that you know higher than I, then you are wrong. I said you are wrong. We are not in the Faith to compete, to find out who knows better than the other. I will show you few more Scriptures before I end this Message.
IT IS IN SOMEBODY’S OFFICE TO APPOINT MINISTERS
I would have ordained more Bishops in this meeting but for one thing; nevertheless, by the time I will be going to some Local Churches I will fill the gaps of Bishops or I will appoint somebody in my stead to ordain these Elders in all the Churches.
51. Every Local Church must have Bishops or Elders.
52. Philippians chapter1 verse 1: “Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.” (KJV).
53. “From: Paul and Timothy, slaves of Jesus Christ. To: The pastors and deacons and all the Christians in the city of Philippi.” (LB).
54. I think you have seen it; with the Bishops and the Deacons.
55. Acts of Apostles chapter 14 verse 23: “And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.” (KJV).
56. “Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church and prayed for them with fasting, turning them over to the care of the Lord in whom they trusted.” (LB).
57. They ordained them what? Elders; not just one.
58. Acts of Apostles chapter 20 verse 7: “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.” (KJV).
59. “On Sunday we gathered for a Communion service, with Paul preaching. And since he was leaving the next day, he talked until midnight!” (LB).
60. I will not continue until midnight. This is because I will like to grant you some time; I know very well that somebody put this Scripture in his heart in this meeting. I equally underlined it here so that by the time I will start talking to you, you will know that I saw that Scripture before coming to the pulpit.
61. If the Lord wants to kill somebody, He can rake up something that does not exist. In the Bible, in such a meeting, St. Paul spoke until midnight, but why is ours not like that? If I speak from midnight to morning, you will not rake up the part of the Bible that states that Paul spoke from midnight till morning.
62. When somebody wants to die, he can hardly see.
63. Titus chapter 1 verse 5 through 11: ” I left you there on the island of Crete so that you could do whatever was needed to help strengthen each of its churches, and I asked you to appoint pastors in every city who would follow the instructions I gave you.
64. The men you choose must be well thought of for their good lives; they must have only one wife and their children must love the Lord and not have a reputation for being wild or disobedient to their parents.
65. These pastors must be men of blameless lives because they are God’s ministers. They must not be proud or impatient; they must not be drunkards or fighters or greedy for money.
66. They must enjoy having guests in their homes and must love all that is good. They must be sensible men, and fair. They must be clean minded and level headed.
67. Their belief in the truth that they have been taught must be strong and steadfast so that they will be able to teach it to others and show those who disagree with them where they are wrong.
68. For there are many who refuse to obey; this is especially true among those who say that all Christians must obey the Jewish laws. But this is foolish talk; it blinds people to the truth,
69. and it must be stopped. Already whole families have been turned away from the grace of God. Such teachers are only after your money.” (LB).
70. Haba Brethren, have you heard what the Bible is saying? It is in somebody’s office to appoint ministers. You cannot just wake up one morning and say, “Brother Sam, you are now the Bishop;” no. We are not sharing land. I want to quench that spirit once and for all.
71. First Peter chapter 5 verses 1 through 2: “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:
72. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.” (KJV).
73. “And now, a word to you elders of the church. I, too, am an elder; with my own eyes I saw Christ dying on the cross; and I, too, will share his glory and his honor when he returns. Fellow elders, this is my plea to you:
74. Feed the flock of God; care for it willingly, not grudgingly; not for what you will get out of it but because you are eager to serve the Lord.” (LB).
75. Look after the Church, not for what you will gain out of it but because you are eager to serve the Lord. God bless you all, and remain blessed in Him eternally