THE CHURCH IS GOD'S COMMUNITY
THE CHURCH AS GOD’S COMMUNIT
(Genesis 1:1-28; Isaiah 1:18; Genesis 11:1-8)
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The church is not a religious organization or a service, No! The church is God’s community.
(1 Corinthians 1:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 Samuel 19:3; Psalm 77:6)
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Money is the bloodline of every organization whether religious or non-religious but Jesus Christ is the bloodline of God’s community, the Church.
(Matthew 6:33; Proverbs 4:7; Ecclesiastes 7:12; Matthew 28:18,19)
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We pay people to work in services like the Ghana Education Service (GES), the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the Ghana Police Service (GPS), and so on. Contrariwise we don’t necessarily pay people to work in a community even though there are incentives that are given to deserving hard-working people.
The departments/sub-ministries should therefore be seen as smaller communities coming together to form the large Church community.
(1 Corinthians 12:12-31; 1 Corinthians 13)
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Keywords that characterize a community are collaboration, cultural harmony, fellowship, partnership, togetherness, better, excellence, unity union, etc.
Keywords that characterize an organization or service include competition, prize, winner, first, best, success, boss, *leader, *follower, etc. (there are equally leaders and followers in communities but they are difficult to identify because they are harmoniously blended in with the followers).
(1 Corinthians 12:12-31; 1 Corinthians 13; Matthew 16:26; Luke 9:25)
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In a community, members are blended in and incorporated. Leadership is not too distinguished from the membership or “followership”.
A community is a forest whose branches are interconnected. A service is a collection of individual trees whose branches are detached. In an organization or service, members are unblended and stand as individual trees instead of a forest.
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Funny enough the church thinks they are service providers trying to offer the community a service. Which I believe is never true. The Church is God’s Biggest Community on earth.
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A church is a heterogenous blend of a hierarchy and monarchy in nature but an organization or service is a homogeneous blend of dictatorship, laissez-faire, democratic and hierarchical body.
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People get out of a competition but hardly a true collaboration. In a case like what is happening among secular Musicians, especially those who are into collaboration as teams. Whenever a team or group (duo, trio, or more) begins to break it means that internally there is competition among them.
Where people fall out of the collaboration is a sign that complacency and competition have set in.
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When the church has a hand in the molding, shaping, and grooming of a member, that member has no moral right to be selfish or boast of any personal achievement but rather God-given fulfillment of purpose. He willingly pledges his allegiance and support to the church naturally.
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The fact that a member of the church community provides certain service(s) in the area of a gift or talent does not limit their true ability to one particular aspect. The fact that the heart is the one that does the beating does not mean that the heart is working alone. It is connected to the other organs through veins, arteries, and capillaries. Until you find out the other organs that are linked to the heart you cannot conclude that the heart is the most-hardworking organ in the body based on the fact that it is constantly beating at a particular pace or rate.
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Service is part of a community not a unit on its own. Services are temporary but communities are permanent.
Services will end after the desired pedestal is reached or achieved but a community will continue to strive to achieve better than their next.
Services go with the adage, your next must certainly be your best. Communities strive to get better together. Services rest after an achievement but communities believe in fulfillment and won’t stop until they are fulfilled which sometimes may never happen in a short time.
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Just as communities have festivals that are seasonal and occasional, the church cannot be “a service” because the church is not seasonal.
That’s why Jesus Christ promised to build his church on the Rock of Christ (The Church as a community) instead of the stone of Peter (The Church as a Service).
No wonder he went on further to say that I will build my church (The Church as a community) and the Gates of Hell (The Systems of the Enemy that are services) will not prevail against it.
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Services are common to communities. Every community provides certain services in addition to other resources. Communities don’t exist in services. Services are standalone institutions that compete among themselves with selfish ambitions. True Communities create or make room for healthy competition that is not interested in making one party better than the other.
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There is such a thing as the best service but no such thing as the best community.
Because communities strive to get better together and not to beat each other. That’s why some services are deemed better than others and some service providers are rated high than other service providers.
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Communion is the heart of every community. Service alone is nothing but enslaved temporary servanthood. Services temporarily praise members/clients/workers and rebuke them more and more often but communities appreciate individual concerns and suggestions more and more often and rebuke them less. Communities amplify the solutions to the least problem but Services amplify the least problem and provide little or no situations.
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God values our communion with him and one another more than our service. (Exodus 20:1-20)
That’s why He encourages us to leave the comforts of a church building to break bread in individual homes.
The church needs to go back (Sankofa) and learn good things from the local community setup just as God said “Come let us reason together, though your sins are as red as wine, I will make them white as snow.” He didn’t say we should abolish the appropriate cultural practices of our local community. He said we should reason with them, there are some things they were doing right. (Matthew 28:18;19)
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People belong to a community, not a service. Distant members of a community are likely to be more loyal to a community than to service. It is easier to share ideas, burdens, problems, and solutions in a community than in service.
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A service is like a group of parallel independent lines, they may never meet unless they bend towards one another at some point in time.
A community is a group of interwoven spirals or circles. No matter what they will meet at one point or the other.
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Services in this regard are sub-divided into factions or groups that are semi-independent of one another.
Communities in this regard are full of families that are interwoven. Services are independent and sometimes factional individuals.
Communities take full custody of every member, old or young even newly admitted members. Services take partial custody of their members.
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In service, we are no more than true friends with ends. But as a community, we are a family that says “I love you till the end.”
Services are usually characterized by names, titles, and positions, which is one of their highest priorities. Communities go beyond names, titles, and positions. Their biggest priorities are resources and services.
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Funny enough, people in a community can easily share one another’s burden with the adage “A problem shared is half solved” in mind but people in service are usually made to hide their problems for the common “good” of the service.
Services are usually led by Bosses with leadership titles. Communities do not have bosses but true leaders not afraid of their losses.
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We treat marriages as a service instead of communities that is why there is a huge gulf between the church and the community. If deep calleth unto deep then the church can never be a service but a community so that the church and the community (I mean the actual community). Services make a mockery of one another in their bid to make their problems known to each other but Communities are heartfelt due to their long-distance connection by blood.
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Until the church realizes they are a community they cannot mingle with the community they find themselves in thus fulfilling the word of God that said: “the two shall be one flesh”.
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A country whose communities are treated as independent services cannot stand because a body divided against itself can never stand.
Take a look at our service providers like MTN, Vodafone, AirtelTigo, Glo, and Expresso. Because they are independent services and not community, they have no say against any policy of government concerning them.
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The same thing is happening in the churches. Churches that are realizing their true mandate as communities have become enmity with churches that still call themselves services.
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Churches that call themselves services with community units are a sharp contrast to churches that see themselves as communities that provide services and resources.
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True communities prioritize resources with the human resource being the most prioritized. Services prioritize resources but the most prioritized resource is money.
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The church is a community and not a service. Look at the instance of the tabernacle. It was nothing more than an erected tent like the ones we see at the weddings and MTN promotions.
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After Vodafone is done selling sim cards, they dismantle the tent. The church is permanent, the tabernacle was temporary.
Communities are permanent but services are temporary. Communities are always open but services are closed after some time. So, is the church a community or a service?
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The church is not a building, the church is the people who have come together as a family. A community is made up of smaller communities called families.
Services exploit people to obtain their “resources” and “services” under the pretense of love but communities compel them to come to a place of communion in true love and both parties then willingly serve each other.
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That’s why no matter what the hospitals do not all patients can be healed in a hospital despite the numerous services they provide.
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Services say “This and this and that is who we are. We offer A, B, C, D. Either you take A or B or C or D. Do you have any questions?”
Communities say “This and this and that is who we are. We offer A, B, C, D. Who are you, and what do you have to offer? Looking at who you are, we recommend A but looking at what you have to offer we ask that you add B or C or D.”
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Services chase after temporary achievements. Communities desire permanent fulfillment. Services have a lot of things in common but communities have a lot of distinct unique features.
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Services can be as cold as ice or as hot as heaven but communities are as warm as the human blood because families (the smaller units of the community) are related by blood.
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If the blood of Christ Jesus the head of the church is the relational unifying force of the church, why then do we still see ourselves, as services instead of a community?
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Am not being political here but think of this, the E-levy is affecting the service providers more than the people because the people are a community. Communities existed way back in the days when people did not have access to cars, phones, or letters.
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So even if the service providers are extinguished by the e-levy community will still strive and remain. Is that why Christ our Lord says that we should bear fruit (community) and let our fruit remain? Is that why when he got to the tree (the community leader) who had not born a fruit (a community) he got angry and cursed the tree?
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And is that the reason why God is going to start this judgment from the church as the e-levy has started “chastising” the service providers? Please don’t read politics into this one. I beg you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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How can a service fight a community? Witches and Wizards are a community. Wee smokers, drunkards even betting companies and clubs look forward to fostering communities and the church is fighting them as a service. What a paradox?
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Churches that are services are bent on exploiting and using their members in the name of culture and establishing systems so they hardly talk about community-enhancing practices such as cell meetings, frequent youth meetings, and other community-related activities. Even if they do, they just make mockery and fun of them in the end and they do everything to make sure they don’t succeed. That’s the reason why in churches where youth meetings are usually not successful the problem is that the ones in charge are usually made to look non-productive in the eyes of other people.
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Services adopt the strategy of early praise to kill the spirit of the community and then later rebuke them consistently. Communities wait for the service to grow well before they start marketing and praising it to others.
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Services hope to achieve all things at once but communities hope to fulfill one thing at a time for a lifetime. It is the services in a community that is helping to disintegrate the community into factions to fight against each other. That’s why secular artists disintegrate the communities into factions fighting against each other. Political parties are up to dividing the parties into factions to fight against each other. So, if the church looks at itself as a service, it cannot fight against evil services. They must see themselves as a community to fight against the services of the wicked.
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Marriages that are collapsing or not firmly grounded enough is as a result of the couple individually seeing each other as service providers instead of community members or family members. In that case, children are also treated according to the services they provide. If only marriage can be seen as a community and the entities as community members. How pleasant it is for people to dwell together in harmony!
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No wonder Satan stood in the capacity of a service provider to provide Jesus Christ with the world as a service if only he would bow down and serve him but what did Jesus do? He choose to preserve the communion he had with the father (the community of Heaven) which makes him a community leader.
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Esau exchanged his communion (Community with God) in his birth rite for the meal service provided by Jacob.
God saw Moses as a community leader but the Israelites saw Him as a service provider. No wonder they always demanded the services of water, manna, and many more. That is why all through history they kept demanding services instead of seeking the community (communion) with the father.
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Satan’s strategy is very wise. He sought after the church to cause factions to see the church as a service instead of as a community. So, churches that had the concept of God’s community but had doctrines that were against the original intent of God became the weak loopholes which led to aggrieved people breaking away to form churches as services with sound doctrine but eliminating the basic principle of true communion as a community and not as a service provider.
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The early church was persecuted a lot because they were communities that did things in common. They were serving but were not a service.
That’s why whenever the Apostles or Disciples are persecuted, they went back to their community. That’s why when people in a typical traditional society travel abroad and make any progress in the next community they come back to their community and they all celebrate the success. And in their celebration, they don’t just elevate that member based on the little success. They encourage that member to grow enough to a pedigree where their celebration will not be short-lived.
Services are quick to celebrate temporary success which kills the spirit to strive for true in-depth fulfilments and not just achievements. They celebrate shallow successes and cover-up internal and hidden errors that may be found in the individual.
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If most of today’s churches are not being persecuted it’s because they are not different from the secular world today which is Satan’s biggest service.
People dress in nice clothes go to church, shout all they can, the moment the service is over, everything is over until the next service day(s).
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Communities are hard to forget. Services on the other hand are easy to forget. Jesus Christ was a community leader as opposed to the mass of religious leaders who were nothing but service providers.
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And this was the main reason why He fostered a community with the 12 disciples. Judas, on the other hand, saw him as a service provider instead of a community leader, and thus in his mind as he betrayed him, he expected Jesus Christ to perform yet another “miracle service” knowing that He could just ‘miraculously’ escape. Little did he know that Jesus Christ at this time had started a process of bringing the whole world out of slavery to service back into the place of communion (community) with God the Father.
So, if the world is in a crisis today, let us trace the community tree and find out the real source. The church is partly responsible and the family is partly responsible.
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FIGURE 1.1 – THE GREAT COMMUNITY TREE
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If you want to cut a tree, it is best to cut from the bottom because it would be difficult to cut from the top.
So according to this analogy and with the Great Community Tree in mind, the enemy (Satan), our adversary decided to attack the family which is the basic unit of the community. Once the Husband or Wife sees the other as a service provider the enemy has won and they would fight each other because one would want to dominate the other. But the Bible instructs husbands to love their wives and wives to be submissive to their husbands. It is not an independent statement.
?He didn’t say that Husbands are to love their wives as long as they are submissive to them. Neither did it say that wives should be submissive to their husbands as long as their husbands love them.
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That is why he instituted the church to be the community from which the marriage emanates. But the church is seeing marriage as a service while the community sees marriage as its foundation. No wonder the church looks down on traditional marriage and gives high reverence to the church marriage or Wedding. Instead of the two parties coming together (which is difficult because one is a service and the other is a community), they fight against each other. That is why some weddings end upbringing conflict between the families and thus the conflicts emanate into the communities. People pretend in marriage not to have issues because they cannot approach the church since the church will do everything to keep them together because of the doctrines they operate with backed by scriptures that are written in a context and situation and occasion.
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Once the church cannot unite the community, just like other services, the best they can do is to divide the communities into factions or services. That is why some will say I belong to Church A or B or C or D and thus they see themselves as enmity one to the other instead of community.
That is why I believe that instead of saying church service, let’s call the church God’s community. Even the local council of churches creates a legalistic religious mindset because the word council is synonymous with service. We don’t feel at home in a council meeting. We enjoy community, not ‘council’.
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Once the family is disunited, the community is disunited, once the community is disunited the society is disunited, and once the society is disunited, the kingdom is disunited and then the nation is disorganized.
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Therefore, if we have three kingdoms A, B, and C with C being the greatest followed by B and A being the least. The best strategy is to silence Kingdom A since they are the least. By so doing, Kingdom C can dominate Kingdom B. That is why when a President is elected from Kingdom B, members of Kingdom C will liaise with members of Kingdom A since they already have an upper hand over them to fight against Kingdom B but when a President is elected from Kingdom C, members of Kingdom A cannot complain and even if the members of Kingdom B complain they are in the minority and are easily neglected.
Even the members of Kingdom C know very well their President is not doing things right or even if he is doing everything there are some things, he is doing wrong yet no one will speak against him because he is their own. “No one points the left finger at his or her village”.
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That is what has now emanated to a larger extent. In the Political sect, we have two parties, the Socialists and the Capitalists. The problem is the people who claim to be socialist have few capitalist intentions and the people who claim to be capitalists have few social interventions.
A pure socialist government intends to build communities so that the communities will be in charge of the services they provide. A pure capitalist government on the other hand intends to build services and use those services to manipulate the communities into subscribing to them.
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I believe strongly that the Ukraine and Russian war is a result of this analogy. Russia, the bigger nation of the two is a capitalist, wanting to rule the world with services such as fuel. Ukraine on the hand is bent on enhancing communities even in Russia. That is why Russia is using the pretense of creating a community to bring Ukraine down to its knees to serve them.
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This practice has dated to the very First Word War. Leaders like Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Gaddafi were killed or ousted because of their Socialist agenda or governments. Gaddafi had succeeded in turning Libya into one of the biggest communities in Africa where the country was self-sustainable and well to do but the Libyans thought Gaddafi was doing them a service and thus, they fought him thinking he was a service provider who wanted to take advantage of them. Little did they know that He was rather a community leader.
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Back to the church, the prime purpose of evangelism is to teach and not to preach. That is not to say that preaching is not important. But remember this one thing; even though it may not sound ‘biblical’ as you might think. Preaching and Teaching are all geared toward giving information to the person. Preaching presents the facts to the person and gives the person the chance to go and find out the details of the fact. That’s why in the University most of the teaching is called lecture. Real teaching takes the facts and breaks them down into smaller molecules and units for the individual to make complete meaning from the units and then put them together to form a picture that will guide him or her towards a conclusive diagnostic and holistic understanding. ?
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Surprisingly, the teaching moments that our churches so much encourage are nothing but another session of preaching.? Pardon me if I seem to be wrong. I stand to be corrected as and where necessary.
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Because we don’t see communities with our physical eyes, we think services are better. No service no matter how great they are is better than a community.
The Kingdom of Heaven suffered violence because it is a community, not a service. Violent men take it by force because they are service providers, not community leaders.
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Kwame Nkrumah lost power to a coup d’état at a point where people saw him as a service provider meanwhile, he started as a community leader through at some point in time he became a service leader wanting to unite the whole of Africa at once.
All the coup d’état leaders lost power because they all came in with the mindset of a community but were service leaders.
Former President the Late Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings came in as a community leader and remained in that capacity even unto death.
And since then, Presidents have come but none has been able to build community. All they seek is to build services instead of communities.
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Services amplify our problems and provide little or no solutions. Communities amplify the solutions for even the smallest problem. Communities amplify the solution for even the smallest problem.? Services tell you what to do like a boss. Communities do it with you like a leader.
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MTN has become a community and that is the number one reason I believe the E-levy is attacking so hard on them and on any other service that wants to become a community. The Nebuchadnezzar mindset. It looks like the church is already “defeated” in this regard because they remain services instead of communities.
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The church of Christ is therefore a community that uses various resources to provide services to people but a service exploits people to benefit from their resources.
Services are isolated from the community but the heart of a community is its service and other roles and functions that are geared towards the people for their benefit. ?
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Services are time-bound but a true community is timeless.
Services are broad and general. They desire to win the hearts of many at once. Communities are narrow and specific. They desire to win the hearts of many, one at a time, once for many years. (Jesus died once to atone for the sins of many, once for all.).?
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Religious organizations are nothing but religious services.
Communities utilize resources judiciously and carefully to provide services but services exploit resources including the human resource voraciously to serve the community.
People in service are artificially passionate and desire to earn achievements to show how successful they are and yet this is temporary.
People in a community are naturally passionate and desire to be fulfilled in permanent excellence.
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Marriages unite two families which dwell in a community, not a service. So, a marriage that is being contracted between a community and the church as a service, in reality, is going to be nothing but an “exploited and manipulated” marriage.
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Remember these facts:
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1.???? Friendship no matter how powerful is a ship with an end.
2.???? A relationship no matter how mutual is a ship that will arrive at a junction.
3.???? Fellowship no matter how consistent is a ship that lies low and below and is less regarded.
4.???? Courtship no matter how legalized is a ship that is a slave to the court.
5.???? But family no matter the circumstances is endless and always says “I love you” unconditionally. And love is the foundation of the family. The family therein is also the foundation of the community.
Families come together to form a community, not service.
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A community is a blend of various families governed by a consistent monarchical democratic culture enshrined in love (storge).
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The church thinks they are offering the community a service.
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One of the most unique strategies of the enemy is to help people amplify their problems. Interestingly enough, the very people who brought Christianity to Africa are now adopting the African strategy of collaboration. There is nothing wrong with Christianity. The problem is the implementation. The Western World Started with the individualized approach until they came to Africa and saw the communion of the masses in the various communities. They then gave us their individualized concept by exchanging our resources with products that would cause us to become selfish. They not only took away our gold, but they also achieved the biblical concept of disuniting the people of Babel by making them speak different languages.
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Speaking different languages in the sense that some people began to learn the white man’s language and use it as an advantage over the others. Those who took the white man’s gun powder and guns used them in fighting their very own.
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The western world used and introduced services to the communities and the services began to disintegrate the communities to fight against one another. Funny enough, the western world today is united in collaborative efforts. Africa is now individualized and thus the desire of the late Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah seems impossible to manifest because the countries are chasing after foreign services instead of grooming the local communities. Churches in Africa have become services and Churches in the Western World are more of communities. So, who is deceiving who? We are still competing amongst ourselves even in our churches.
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I believe one of the reasons why our Lord Jesus Christ went to his own and his own received him not is because they saw him for his services instead of seeing Him for his community. They saw him as a service leader instead of a community leader and builder. Thus, they trivialized him based on his services instead of the true person that He was, a community builder and leader.
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Jack Ma, the owner of AliExpress and Alibaba once said, put a stack of money in a bunch of bananas and throw them before a monkey and they will throw the money away and hold onto the bananas not knowing that the money can buy a bunch of bananas. To wit that services are more important than community.
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And this is one of the reasons why a lot of churches are prioritizing money over members. What happened whenever Isaac dug a well and someone took it? Did he start complaining or did he go on to dig another one? The blessing of the Lord makes rich not money. The blessing of the Lord is God’s idea. And He is the one that gives the ability (the power) to make wealth according to Deuteronomy 8:18. If Gold is what heaven sees as streets, then what then is money before God? Yet we prioritize Money so much above the God-given ideas of members, ideas that can help us earn more than just the money. Don’t get me wrong. Am not saying money is bad. Far from that. But let me ask you.
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If God gave you 100,000 cedis you will spend it at a faster rate and it will get finished. But if God gave you an idea worth 100,000 cedis, you can replicate that idea in just 10 different ways and 10 different locations and you can get 1,000,000. That is why He said, one will kill 1,000. He didn’t say $1 will solve 1000 problems. Funny enough we can spend $1000 on one problem. God was very keen on community. And he went on to say that two will kill 10,000. Ask yourself, what kind of Mathematics did God use in this case? The difference between 1,000 and 10,000 is the addition of a 0.
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So, let’s do this Math.
God was interested in Unity and most of his mathematics was based on Union instead of the Addition we have been. Therefore, where there is disunity, it may not necessarily mean subtraction, and where there is unity it may never necessarily mean addition.
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So, let’s do this Math.
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A = {1,0,0,0}
B = {0}
A union B = {1,0,0,0,0}
So therefore, without the commas A union B = {10000}
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No wonder God says that the foolish things of this world, He would use them to confound the wise. Look at it. Item B is presenting physically is zero and in the eyes of men it is nothing but in God’s eyes, it is worth a lot. That’s why he went on to say that He wants to be the greatest and must become the least. 0 is the least number of all the numbers but it’s the beginning of the great numbers. What I mean is we have 10 numbers including 0.
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{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9} If we want to go to the next number, we need zero to partner with the rest of the numbers that’s why we have {10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90}
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In the words of one Pastor, the devil’s strategy is to get your attention by first giving you the 1.
Now that you have one before you say it is insufficient, he starts adding zeros as often as possible.
So, you can have {1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000}
This figure cannot be mentioned but in the eyes of the world, this amount is so huge. Remember one thing, the devil is smart. He knows that as you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness all other things will be added to you. So, what he does is He presents all the other things to you as one thing and the makes you believe that the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness as the many things. So, after you are hooked up in this equation, He takes away the 1 instead of subtraction he uses disunity.
Now what you have is {000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000}.
We can translate this into English as the vowel o.
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That is why when a great personality falls, the news sounds like the vowel oooooh. You hear people go like “Ooo He was a great man. He knew how to do a whole lot of wonderful things. Oooo. What a sad death!”
Now let me take you to the digital world. When you look at the numbers from the digital sense you may get a clue why I would tell you 0 is greater than 1.
Well, you might say that I am wrong. It’s my opinion.
Remember the word of God says that the things of the spirit are more real and more powerful than the things we see in the physical. So, when we take the things of the spirit as 0 and the things of the world as 1, is one greater than 0 or 0 is greater than one?
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Now, look at the digital watch or clock. All the numbers are represented by short dashes or bars. These bars are the building blocks. When we look at 0 in the eyes of the digital watch, we see 6 bars, when we look at 1 in the same eyes, we see 2 bars. Now tell me mathematically speaking which of these is greater, concerning the number of bars, 0 or 1?
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I may get much deeper into my digital analysis in the latter part of this book but let’s move back to the bible and back to the Church as a community.
I believe the church is a community and the bible gives us every single clue to that effect. God doesn’t see the bible in Chapters. He sees a unified History which is God’s story (His story). And the continent of Africa was built on oral sayings which was a similitude to its separation. The Bible has the same bearing. It was men that categorized the bible into chapters and this led to the “little imperfections” in the bible. The bible is complete, and concise without the chapters. That is why we cannot just take individual chapters and verses and build a doctrine out of them. One of the characteristics of the bible is repetition and this same characteristic feature is found in the African Communities. How do we tell our children about the things that happened in the past, the things that are happening now, and the things that will happen in the future, by word of mouth? What did God instruct the Israelites of old to do? He asked them to tell their children. But he knew a better technology of writing, not categorization. He said to write them down. The man decided to categorize them into chapters and verses. That is why Old Testament and the New Testament cannot be used as single units but as a community. Even From Genesis to Revelation God had one major thing in mind and that was bringing the whole world into a reconciled communion with the community of Heaven. He said that they all may be one as we, the triune Godhead are one. No wonder King James Version makes it interesting by defying the English by using the singular verb “is” to describe a Plural noun “People”. He said, “The People is One”. That was God’s agenda. That they may be one.
And that was the foundational stone of the Presbyterian Church of today.
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But what do we see, Churches have become independent bodies fighting each other and competing amongst themselves instead of collaborating to fight the enemy? Until the body of Christ is United the battle against the enemy Satan is “lost”.
One of the dividing forces among the churches is money. The number 1 tool that the enemy is using to divide the churches is money. The churches want to build fascinating auditoria, buy fascinating equipment. That is why I call the church a community, God’s community. The churches of today are busy building services in the form of departments, and structures (more physical than spiritual) just to make things look glamorous to attract the masses. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God (Community) and His righteousness (communion in truth) and all other things (Services) will be added to you. Matthew 6:33.
Some will tell you; the word of God says in Ecclesiastes 7:12 that Money is a defense but go back and read the scripture properly. He didn’t say Money is the first defense or money is the greatest defense. The first and greatest defense is not money. It is wisdom. Because He said Money is a defense. Wisdom is also a defense. That is why the writer of Ecclesiastes is the same writer of Proverbs and He made it emphatic what we are supposed to seek after which the wisdom. According to Proverbs 4:7, He said Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom. After that get money, no? After that get an understanding. Because wisdom without understanding is like the Kingdom of God without the Righteousness of God.
Let him that hath ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
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Why have we drifted from the real mandate of God and now the church is being made to seek the things of the world which are seemingly fading away? We prioritize services of the community of God. We prioritize services such as Anointing service, Healing service, Prayer service, Transfiguration service, and all kinds of services instead of the Communion of the saints, the Community of the saints. We are no longer interested in the cell meetings where people get to digest the word of God, the breaking of bread from house to house has become a casual saying that we just use to excite the feelings of members in the church.
What a pity! What a shame!
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Churches are now services that use catchy phrases and themes to entice members to come for all kinds of services but the church is not ready to go down to the level of the members to commune with them in their respective homes. Instead, they collaborate in one location in the name of fellowship.
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We are not against the gathering of the Saints. No! That’s not what I am saying or what we are saying. But ask yourself how many times the Disciples gathered in one physical location as opposed to how many times they went down to the houses of one another to hold meetings and to commune with them? Where did most of the healing take place? If you ask me most of the healings, we read in the bible occurred in the homes and the streets of the ordinary people. The miracles we so much revere occurred in the most common places. But the church trying to affect the community as a service. We expect the people to come yet no one is ready to go out to them. If Jesus Christ was not interested in community, He would have done what the church is doing today. But when the father of Eternity asked in the beginning, “Whom shall I send to them to bring them back into community and communion with us? What did Jesus say? “I will go. Send me.” He didn’t say “I will stay. Let them come.” Exactly what the church is doing.
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Why are people finding it difficult to embark on true evangelism in most if not all churches? The churches are preaching more than they are teaching. Just as Apostle Joshua Selman once said that the church of today should teach more of the Word of God than just preach it. Instead of organizing Services just to excite people and make them happy and excited, seek to build a community of people who understand the word of God in detail and can affect their community and environment with it. The interesting thing going on in the churches nowadays is the fact that Pastors have become offended at the fact that upon all the excitement they expect members to go out in that excitement and excite others too forgetting that out of the fullness of the heart the mouth opens to speak. Empty barrels make noise, Full barrels produce sound.
No wonder not all that glitters is Gold. People can be pretension. The fact that they are excited does not mean that they are fully immersed in the word of God does not mean the word of God is penetrating. That is why the hearts of men are hardened like stone. Imagine pouring water on a stone once every week compared to 6 people pouring small quantities consistently on a stone every day of the week. Which of these scenarios will lead to the breaking of the stone?
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The church’s major problem is we are trying to remove the big stick in the eyes of the world without considering the small sticks that are right in the eyes of the church. That’s why I say the church can never be a service. The church is God’s community on earth.
Services try to identify the problems in other people’s lives first and solve them at the expense of the problems in their organizations or service provision centers. Communities try to identify the problems within the community first and then move out of their comfort to solve the problems in the lives of people in their external communities.
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No wonder Ghana as a country suffers from power outages and food shortages while trying to solve the problems of other nations concerning power outages and food shortages. The same problem extends to Africa. We are busy feeding the Western World because the Word of God says Give and it shall be given to you But God’s intention was that Bring ye all the tithes and offerings that my house might be full and then you can now distribute them according to as every man needs not selfishly but willingly.
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Why was Joseph given the charge to ensure the storage of foods for the Israelites? God asks Him to store not to hoard. That is why when a guest comes to your house, he or she greets you and then you give him a cup of water as a sign of welcome. Whether he or she refuses it or not is not your concern. But these days we have to ask the guest whether he needs water or not?
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I may be wrong but let us be fair. God intended that we fill the barrel with water so that the water can be used to feed not only us but other people in addition to ourselves. But what is happening today? We all fill the barrel with water and then one person tells us the barrel is not full we need to fill it more since He or She has been using it to water the crops in our garden. The barrel will never get filled if the leakages are more. And that is the crisis of the church today. I may be wrong but I am saddened by the analogy of the church acting as a service and ending up as a disservice to the community instead of bringing the community to the place of communion.
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That is the confusion the government is getting wrong. Government for the people, by the people, and with the people. We gather together and we all benefit from what we gathered together.
I think we have to go back to our first love, The community love.
Honestly, we need to go back and take our historical background culture, the underlying culture with which our forefathers lived, and reason together with it and what is good we take, what is not so good or entirely bad we eliminate instead of eliminating everything.
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That is exactly what is happening in the church. The church is encouraging people to seek after things (achievements, successes, the very things that the world hails and chases after), the services of this world which are fast fading instead of chasing after the one thing that God cares about which is fulfillment, the one thing that he so much desired to have with me, the community of God expanding). Satan is already winning the masses by presenting the services. We cannot oust him if we also approach the community as a service. We need to stand as a community then we can oust the enemy. To resist the Devil that he may flee, the church services have to come together to build God’s Community which is His Church as a community. Until then the churches remain “powerless”.
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I recall a story I shared with my Pastor and I would at this point like to share the same story. ?
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A Science teacher took his students on an excursion from Accra to Kumasi
in a VIP bus. On their way, the teacher would chant one of His slogans
“Little drops of water every day” to which the students responded “Will
make a mighty ocean one day”. At a point in time, the man became thirsty.
He reached out to take His bottle of water from His bag and to his dismay
the bottle was empty. Unable to detect the culprit, He sat calm and quiet
and said not a word. After a while, the bus came to a halt due to some
challenges but the driver encouraged the passengers not to get off since it
was not safe outside. The students began to share water among
themselves in cups. The teacher observed one student who instead of
giving his friend a substantial amount of water, he released one drop. The
Another colleague laughed and said: “But this water is too small to be called
water.” The other student smiled and replied: “Yes. I believe if you were
God, the oceans would have been dry by now.” The other students laughed
their heads off including the driver.
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I may not be a doctor but I want to ask our Colleague doctors, Why is it that several Doctors come together to cure certain diseases and certain ones can be handled by one doctor? Why is it that in almost every sickness that we have ever had in this world, we have not just one doctor claiming to be a specialist in handling that particular disease? They even perform experiments together. They do several diagnoses before they conclude on a particular sickness or ailment or disease? Why is the church doing otherwise or the opposite? What happened to the council of elders who were supposed to pray for people suffering from infirmities? What happened to letting them go to the elders? Why is the church now making it look like corporate prayers are less important? You encourage individual prayers over corporate prayers. That is not the problem. The problem is that people are also now prioritizing individual living over the corporate living. That’s why we are supposed to break bread together in each other’s homes. Breaking bread is not limited to food. We pray together and then when everyone goes to their homes, they can pray on their own because the sense of belongingness keeps them together in mind.
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Oneness is more of a mental act. And that is why God said that if they are one in body, it can translate into the oneness of the mind. If you cannot commune with your brother whom you see in the physical, what makes you think you can commune with the Father of Love, God who is a Spirit? God is very particular about community.
Let me now present this analysis that I once presented to two of my Honourable Ministers.
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SCENARIO 1
Have you noticed that there are two categories of people in a hospital:
Category A - those that go and are given a prescription and are asked to go
home and Category B - those that have to be admitted for some peculiar
reasons and a specific number of days?
Imagine a Patient in Category A walks to the Doctor with all sincerity,
humility and honesty and tells the Doctor to admit him or her due to
certain concerns whether genuine or not,
1. What do you think the Doctor would do?
2. If you were this Doctor, what would you have also done?
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SCENARIO 2
SCENARIO 1
Student A eats rice once a week. He lives in an environment with 7
different people who eat 7 different types of food, 7 times a week.
Student B eats rice 7 times a week. He lives in an environment with 7
different people who eat rice 7 times a week.
Which of these students will be at an advantage in an examination on
Rice?
SCENARIO 2
Student X eats Jollof Rice once every weekend. He lives with 3 close friends
who eat Fried Rice, Rice Water and Rice Balls respectively 3 times every
weekend.
Student Y eats Jollof Rice thrice every weekend. He lives with 3 closes
friends who also eat Jollof Rice thrice every weekend.
Which of these students will be at an advantage in an examination on
Jollof Rice?
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I hope these scenarios would give you a clue of what I am trying to arrive at.
God is not selfish. The church today is selfish. They have neglected the love of God as seen in 1st Corinthians 13 which is just preached as a sermon and not as a culture. God is love but we are full of independent corporate church ambitions aside from the love of God through the community that God seeks the church to establish.
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It is my prayer that at the end of this book you would come to the understanding of the fact that I strongly believe that God desires the Churches to unite into the Church as a community to resist the Kingdom of God as a community.
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Looking back at the tree that I drew in the subsequent or previous pages; the churches are the basis of the problem because they are disintegrating communities and families in their bid to fight the Enemy. The enemy is not the community, the enemy is hiding behind the community to instigate the church to fight against the community.
THE CHRONICLES OF A PASSIONATE YOUNG MAN
WRITTEN BY J.J.S.T.
From the heart of a passionate young man to him that hath an ear to hear and to him, that hath eyes to see that he may see, understanding in wisdom what the Spirit says:
CHAPTER 1
1 No one lights a candle
2 and puts it under a bucket. 3 Even though it will kindle 4 and can burn even a jacket.
5 In every man is an eagle
6 An eagle that wants to fly so high 7 but in the same man is a buffalo;
8 A Buffalo that won’t even try
9 No matter how long,
10 you put air in a balloon;
11 It will one day break out
12 When the clouds are full of rain, 13 they cannot hold them yet again.? 14 they empty themselves out
15 and die with joy and dignity
16 I would rather fulfill my God-given destiny 17 and die empty and fulfilled with honor and dignity
18 than remain in a job with the mental slavery of job security
19 and die like Methuselah having run a race without a crown, 20 having lived for many years without any fulfillment.
21 For even Jesus Christ, Our Lord dwelt and worked among men thirty and three years 22 yet his fame spread all over the earth 23 as the waters cover the sea.
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CHAPTER 2
1 The blessing of the Lord makes one rich; 2 not a job; 3 not even a bank account
4 The blessing of the Lord makes rich; 5a not the inheritance of a property or substance.
5b let no man convince another to keep a job
6 But speak the blessing and the soul of the other shall prosper.
7 Have you not read?
8 Have you not heard?
9 That Abraham spoke the blessing of the Lord upon Isaac before he gave him any property.
10 No matter how loud actions may speak; words will always be with us even unto the grave.
11 And it was written that the Lord God blessed Adam and Even said, “Be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth.
12 Take dominion over everything that creeps or moves upon the surface of the earth.” 13 This one thing have I desired,
14 This one thing do I seek:
15 That out of my bellies shall flow rivers
16 rivers of living water (words of life, refreshing and energizing to the hearer) 17a unto them that have ears that they may hear and live.
17b Live to fulfill their dreams. 18 Dreams that may have been shattered by the evil utterances of men. 19 I pray thee that thy faith fails thee not. 20 For thus saith the Lord,
21 “I will never leave nor forsake thee.”
22 I pray that thy heart troubles thee not.
23 And out of the abundance of the heart, thy lips shall open
24 to speak the thoughts of peace and not of evil; 25 of joy and not of sadness.
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CHAPTER 3
1 The man Jesus Christ, who spoke scores of years ago 2 under the authority and power of the Holy Spirit 3 He spoke words of life that still carry power today; 4 even to them that believe on his name gave the power 5 that at the mention of that name,
6 every knee will bow down, in heaven and on earth to the glory of God the father.
7 Heaven and earth will pass away, 8 even the jobs that we so much die for will pass away;
9 But the words we speak will forever remain even after we are gone.
10 I would rather have nothing but the words of life 11 than have everything with the utterances of death,
12 like flies hovering over my head.
13 For if even Heaven was a faraway country, therein will my soul find solace;
14 For if the earth were a city set on a hill, therein will my heart rejoice.
15 Oh that I had wings like a dove I would fly.
16 O that I had wings like a dove I would fly;
17 flies to be at a place where my soul is at rest.
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CHAPTER 4
1 To you that remain in a job, 2 thinks of work.
3 Because God gave Adam work not a job.
4 To you that hope for a salary increase,
5 think of income maximization.
6 Because God blessed Adam and Eve saying, “Be fruitful and multiply…”
7 To you all that chase after achievement,
8 seek fulfillment.
9 Seek knowledge from books,
10 but let your conscience (intellectual wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit) 11 be your final guide (decision-making force).
12 To you that think of success, remember this:
13 seek ye first the kingdom of God (the majestic excellent splendid presence of the triune Godhead)
14 and His righteousness (unequaled right standing in truth),
15 and all other things (the successes of the spiritual and physical world) will be added unto you.
16 Every job is a possession, not a position
17 but he that works diligently will surely be rewarded.
18 And finally to them;
That think of retirement,
19 thinks of renewing your tires; for it is written:
20 but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
21 To you all that know the Lord your God and are called by His purpose and plan for you in Christ Jesus our Lord, I declare
22 Good Health,
23 Fulfilment of Purpose,
24 Wealth over riches,
25 Spiritual Fortification
26 and all the blessings that come with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
27 And my God who can do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that you can ever ask, dream or think 28 by His Holy Spirit who dwells in you and with you through communion 29 and the Lord of Hosts, Jesus Christ, bless and keep you,
30 as His face continually shines upon you and as He is constantly gracious to you and gives you peace.
31 To Him be all glory, all power, and all honor.
32 Shalom.
33 And all the Saints said “Amen”.
Even though this book is in chapters I hope you still make a lot of meaning from it. Remember the bible we have today, was not originally in chapters but I don’t believe that it didn’t make sense; even if it didn’t, I believe that’s why God said He uses the foolish things (the things that don’t make sense to man) to confound the wise things (the things that man sees as sensible).
Focusing on Africa as a whole is a big issue. One thing is, we cannot deal with a problem of a dirty dress by standing out as the only clean spot on the dress. That is what the church is doing. The church is standing out like white spots in a red dress. White spots in a red dress are noticeable but do not influence the dress. People will only notice the white spots but they will appreciate the fact that the dress is red. And that is the problem with Africa. Our Media is helping us to amplify our problems on TV, Radio, and the media in general. Have you noticed that even with the BBC, BBC Africa is focused and brainwashed to amplify the problems that we have in Africa? The BBC, DW TV, and a few other Western World TV and Radio stations are busy amplifying their solutions or a community of solutions over the services of problems but here we are marketing the services of our problems and undermining the community of solutions. The Devil is using the media as one of his greatest tools to cause havoc in the church.
He makes the mass of churches promote their services on air instead of promoting the church as God’s community.
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If an individual in Africa identifies a problem and finds a solution, they prevent him from achieving the goal of creating community by stealing him to be part of their community. I mean the western world. They then steal that Idea to build their community and pay us money. We end up trading ideas for the money and then the problems continue to exist. Instead of us to treasure the ideas, we treasure the money. Africans are more money-conscious that is why we keep borrowing thinking that the money is worth more than the ideas that can solve the problem.
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The problem with our part of the world is now so deeply rooted in our families and now the communities are affected, the society is messed up, the Kingdoms see each other as enemies and the nation is messed up. We need to go back and heal the communities that are broken. Because the families are broken, even intertribal marriages won’t heal them because two broken pieces cannot stick together but two wholes make a beautiful picture.
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The human body is like that. The arms and legs are like 1s and the eyeballs and nostrils are like zeros. The arms and legs though they can both move together they move most of the time independently that’s why the left leg goes before the right leg. The nostrils and eyes move together most of the time automatically until they are manually interrupted by the hands.
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So, the eyes and nostrils are a concept of a community and the hands and legs are the concepts of services. Because we don’t see the eyes and nostrils doing so much work, we think they are less important than the legs and hands who seem to be doing so much.
The bible made it specific that it is not him that wills (hands) or him that runs (legs) But the Lord that shows Mercy (eyes and nostrils).
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Remember that not all that glitters is gold. Even gold is not on the surface of the earth. Until we dig, we cannot find the real gold. That is why the problems we are facing we need to dig down the family tree and find the real source of the problem. The more we focus on the marriages we will keep adding to the problematic grid because a good family in a corrupt society is effortlessly weak and immunized. If you want to go fast, go alone but if you want to go far, go together. So, my question to the church is, do we want to go fast or go far in our walk of faith?
Africa is a type and shadow of Israel and they are constantly going to God for His services instead of his communion and community. We are enthused by programs like Healing Service, Breakthrough Services, and Anointing Services instead of Teaching Service, Cell Meeting Service, and Community Enhancing Services just to mention a few. We are interested in Services instead of community. We want to benefit from God’s nature instead of his nurture.
No kingdom divided against itself can stand talk less of fighting another kingdom.
The Old Ghana Empire suffered this great loss because it had factions. These factions were largely due to the Old Mali Empire. Interestingly current Ghana is suffering because we are busy helping market our problems.
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The Church is no different because a lot of people in the church have problems and little or no solutions. You come to the church with your problems, they help you to amplify your problems by attributing them to all kinds of things, like witches, your negligence, and all that, and yet they give you little or no solutions.
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Why did God say come let us reason together instead of coming to say “let us look at all the things you did wrong and let me tell you what you did is wrong and that you shouldn’t have done A, B, C, and D.”
That is what services do. If you call to tell any service your problems, they will tell you all the things you didn’t do right. But the community will help you do what is right and not focus so much on all the things you didn’t do right whiles encouraging you to always do what you did right.
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It is a shame that our churches are acting as services. All those visitations and directives are geared toward giving the church members a fake sense of belonging. The church has become like the media the only difference is that they make you say things that you know very well are just to market the church and make the church look good on TV, Radio, and social media. They use you as fish bait to catch the new fishes so they can fry them just like they are frying you in the frying pan. That is the most painful principle that is happening in the churches nowadays. They are using members as bait-to-bait others into the soup of deception.
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The church of God is a community, not a service. Let’s stop the pretense.
I hope you enjoy the poem on the next page. It might look like I am presenting my sentiments but the truth is if your conscience convicts you, it could be God convicting you. I believe that God speaks to all of us just as He speaks to our Pastors, Ministers, and Elders. We need to go back and listen to the Ministers, Pastors, and Elders of Old like Katherine Kuhlman, Kenneth Copeland, the likes Pastor Hagan, and Dr. Myles Munroe just to mention a few.
I can also talk about Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, and Apostle Joshua Selman. But the truth of the matter is even though these top churches are doing a lot of things right, there are little “necromancies” going on which makes the church look like the feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue unable to blend in because of the varied doctrines and differences across the churches all over the world. Don’t misinterpret me to be touching God’s Anointed. Never!
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I think Reggae Musicians were like Prophets of the old even though we consider them as secular artists, true Reggae Artists, I mean true ones, irrespective of their habits of smoking marijuana and all other sorceries they may have practiced were also Prophets. They spoke of things that would happen in years to come. Like Bob Marley once said “Your Worst enemy could be your best friend. And your best friend, your worst enemy. Some will eat and drink with you. And behind you, susupon you. Only your friend knows your secret. And only He can reveal it.”
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That is why those of us who are fond of telling our problems to our Pastors are in big trouble because the Pastors will use them in their messages and some of the messages are so glaring and evident of the fact that they reveal the secrets of the members in their bid to make them change from their ways. This is the reason why I call the church of today nothing but a service.
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The church of today is nothing but a service trying to fight the Kingdom of Darkness which is a higher-order society, far higher than the community. Look at the Illuminati Society, they have climbed the ladder to the level of society, and are close to becoming a kingdom and from there they will become a nation. Once the church is unable to become a community, the church can never become a society and once the church can never become a society, it can never become a Kingdom, and finally, the Church can never become a nation. But thank God that there are still righteous men interceding on behalf of the church. People whose desire is for the church to see herself (since she is the bride of Christ Jesus our Lord) as the body of Christ Jesus, as the community of God, and as the unified force of God that will dispel the wickedness of the dark ages.
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We castigate the people who go to the drinking bars and disco centers forgetting that most church members practice church as a service and the masses of church members we see in the churches are the very people we see in the discos and drinking bars.
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No wonder the secular world can see the larger picture of the problems in the church more clearly than the church is seeing the minute little problem in the secular world.
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The paradox here is the Bus Driver (The Church) with an obscured eyesight is “clearly” seeing the broken mirror (reflection) of the Taxi Driver (The World) while the Taxi Driver (The World) with clear eyesight is “obscurely” seeing the broken seats (foundations), the foggy windscreen (confused mindset), the bad tires (the misconceived concept of evangelism), the faulty headlights and broken bumpers (Leadership misconception), the broken engine running on a mixture of diesel and petrol (the doctrinal confusion) among other problems on the Bus.
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The Prophets were ready to die for the truth but the Prophets of today are ready to live for the money. The truth is God’s biggest commodity. It is worth more than money. That is why He insisted all through history that Wisdom is crying on the streets, she is shouting aloud but nobody is ready to listen. Wisdom (the communion and embodiment of God’s righteousness and truth) is crying for the church to listen but the church is busy looking out for the services (the money, the fame, the glamour, and splendor) and it is after these same things that the world is also seeking. I may not be able to fully expand the deteriorating state of the church in just a book. Our Leaders in churches have shut their ears and eyes to the voice of Wisdom, the Voice of the Holy Spirit, and are using their sentiments to make the Holy Spirit look null and void. He is crying every day to the hearts of men but the hearts of men are desperately wicked. Run for your life. The churches that are services, flee them. It is better to commune with the father than dwell in a church serving humanity thinking you are serving God. That’s why I would tell you that when you join a church it is good to join departments. It is good but the first thing that God created was not a department. God created a community. God desires the church to be a community. That is why the Tabernacle (God’s service) was not permanent. No! It was temporary. The church (The Community of God) was permanent. He didn’t say he would build his tabernacle. No! He said he would build His church (The community of God) the gates of Hell (The glittering and splendid services of the Adversary) will not be able to prevail against it.
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No wonder not all that glitters is gold. We are entitled to all things but not all things are pleasing. What looks good may not necessarily be right. Good is different from the right. Right from the time, Eve ate the fruit, how was she convinced to eat it? Satan presented the service behind the fruit to steal the community God had with the man. Satan is not stupid. Let no one deceive you. Satan is very wise. That is why do not let anyone deceive you that your service is more important to God. No. Your service is secondary. Your communion in the spirit in truth is more important to him first. Any other thing less than that is secondary. What will it profit a man to gain the whole world (the services and glittering beauty of the world; the systems that the world is using to captivate the young and old alike) and lose your soul (that part of you that communes with the father)?
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Why are we being deceived to speak things we have not believed? Why are we deceiving people to do things they do not have clear knowledge and understanding of? Why are we in the church pretending and behaving like Hippocrates as the bible says? Why are we pretending to be who are not? Why are pretending to be doing the world a service by wining them to the community and communion of God the father, son, and the Holy Spirit?
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Why have we neglected the true desire of God when He put all the 10 commandments into one big bowl of the community by saying that this is what I desire for you, that you have fellowship with God (Love the Lord your God, which is the first and greatest commandment) and have fellowship with your fellow man (Love your neighbor as yourself, a commandment like onto the first).?
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What happened to the fact that if you don’t love (truly commune and care about the needs of your fellow man) your neighbor whom you can see with your naked eyes what makes you think you can love the Lord your God?
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Who are we deceiving? Husband and Wife go to church and fake their love towards one another meanwhile in the closet of their homes they are each other’s worst enemy?
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What happened to the fact that God himself said that if you are coming to worship me and you know you have something against your neighbor, go and reconcile with your neighbor? Why didn’t He just say, no matter what forsake everything and come with me?
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He could have just focused on only the disciples but he gave the same message to the masses before the masses out of lack of foresight and clear understanding decided to leave.
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God is not a selfish God. Why is it that our leaders knowing the truth are denying its efficacy of it thereof? Why have our leaders in the churches adopted the milk and honey strategy of first preaching the milk to entice the masses into the church and then later throwing the honey at them making them feel as though they just descended from Hell?
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It is a big shame that our so-called “One-Man” Church is yet another wrong concept because the church can never be a one-Man Church. The church is a community (God’s community), the only thing is that just as there is a leader in a community does not make the leader the sole proprietor of the community. In the same way, the church is God’s idea but he gave it the name the Church. God is not looking at names like Christ Embassy, Church of Christ, Church of Redemption, Royal House Chapel International, Lighthouse Chapel International, Fruit of the Womb Church International, or whatever name you can ask of or think of. All He sees is the Church as one big community but the church themselves have disintegrated God’s community into singular units called services.
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So, the church has adopted the strategy of the enemy. Once the doctrine of the other church coincides with ours, we are enemies. Jesus Christ is not a doctrine. That is why it was God reconciling the world back to Himself. Elohim is not a tripartite collection of separate personalities. He is one. The Holy Spirit is His seal upon you here on earth. You have a spirit just like he is a spirit. That is why it is your Spirit that cries Aba Father, not your body. And your body is from the dust of the earth. The earth at present is the Lord’s but the systems governing the earth are in the hands of the adversary. The body is first fighting itself while trying to fight against the Spirit. That is why when you are born again, your spirit is the one born again. Your mind from the time before you got born again is still alive. That is why you have to kill the flesh with all of its desires including the desire for money. That’s what the churches tell you. But why then is the church interested in providing services for the world in exchange for money. Why is the church preaching money through their financial breakthrough services and all services that are money sensitive and particular about money? The churches of today are raising greed and perversion in the hearts of men who are already desperately wicked. It is very sad. The problem today is now the church.
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The Church sees the world as the problem. The World sees the church as the problem. Africa and the African Churches see the European Countries and Western World as the Problem. The European countries and Western World see the Church as Africa’s biggest problem.
God sees the church as the cause and the progenitor of the problems in the world that is why He is going to start the judgment from the church.
Funny enough we call the very things that the fetish priest does evil but we are doing more than half of all the things the fetish priest does in the church and we are just christening them.
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What a shock! So, the members who realize these failings and try to point them to us have become our worst enemies. What a shock! What a shame! What a disgrace!
That is one reason why a lot of people are leaving church these days because the church has nothing to offer apart from the services they have always been offering. Let’s stop pretending and get the real source of the problem.
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Bob Marley said that we’ve been running in a rat race. Therefore, we must repent. Repent. We have to stop running this rat race. Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand. The Kingdom of God is not God’s service. It is God’s highest community. The Church has not attained the level of a community not to talk of the level of society. How can the Church be part of God’s Kingdom??
I cannot pretend any longer that everything is okay. No, I won’t. If I die revealing the necromancies that are going on in the church my conscience will liberate me.
I cannot afford to continue dancing to this ill-fated and deceptive rhythm of “life” which in disguise is death.
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God is watching us from a distance. But we must stop being tools of Satan’s deception. The church is not a service. THE CHURCH IS NOT GOD’S SERVICE. THE CHURCH IS NOT GOD’S SERVICE. STOP PRETENDING. THE CHURCH IS NOT GOD’S SERVICE. THE CHURCH IS NEVER GOD’S SERVICE. THE CHURCH WAS NEVER, IS NEVER, AND WILL NEVER BE GOD’S SERVICE.
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY! THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S COMMUNITY!
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The church which is God’s community is supposed to be the pivot on which the world will be reconciled back to the true communion and unity with the father. But if the center which is the church can no longer hold what makes you think that the church would be able to achieve that. Christ Jesus is waiting on you and me to reconcile men back to the community but we cannot do that when we continue to offer the church to the people as God’s commodity or service. A commodity is nothing bigger than a service. THE CHURCH IS BEING TREATED AS GOD’S COMMODITY INSTEAD OF GOD’S COMMUNITY. THE CHURCH IS NOT GOD’S COMMODITY, IT IS GOD’S COMMUNITY. STOP DECEIVING INNOCENT PEOPLE WITH YOUR DOCTRINAL DECEPTIONS. GOD IS NOT DOCTRINAL. MAN IS DOCTRINAL. GOD IS NOT DOCTRINAL. GOD IS NOT A MAN THAT HE SHOULD LIE TO US. NOR IS HE THE SON OF MAN THAT HE SHOULD FAIL. LET GOD ARISE AND LET THE SERVICES BE SCATTERED. LET GOD ARISE AND LET THE SERVICES BE SCATTERED. LET THE CHURCH AS GOD’S COMMUNITY ARISE AND LET THE CHURCHES AS SERVICES BE SCATTERED. OH, LORD! ARISE TO THE RESCUE OF THE DYING CHURCH OF TODAY!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
THE CHURCH IS GODS’ COMMUNITY!!!!!!!
AND NOW THE POEM ENTITLED: “LET’S JUST PRETEND!!!!!” INSPIRED BY BOB MARLEY’S SONG “RAT RACE” AND CATCHPHRASE IN THE SONG “TELL THE CHILDREN THE TRUTH”
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LET’S JUST PRETEND
WRITTEN BY SELASSIE FORTUNE KOMLA TSADIDEY (J.J.S.T.)
Let’s just pretend
That the world would never end
Or probably not as we intend
Because there’s a lot, we have to mend
Yet things don’t seem to blend
Let’s just pretend
That corruption will never end
Or probably not as we intend
Because there’s a lot, we have to mend
Yet things don’t seem to blend
Let’s just pretend
That mismanagement will come to an end
Or perhaps not as we intend
Because there’s a lot, we have to mend
Yet things don’t seem to blend
For how long will we continue to pretend
While things remain in shambles
And the citizens become the samples
For all forms of experiments
And studies of all rudiments
For how long will we continue to pretend
Acting like babies with dimples
Yet in reality, adults with pimples
The pain of making things look real
Whereas they are not even a big deal
For how long will we continue to pretend
As the nation remains in doom
And we behave as though it were all gloom
Sweeping flooded rooms with a broom
Making our dreams die out like streams
Enough of all the pretense
It’s nothing but a life sentence
To a prison of agony and suspense
A breeding place for anger and offense
I intend not to pretend
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FACTORS TO NOTE
The fact that I didn’t quote a lot of scripture does not mean that I don’t know what I am saying or I am trying to fabricate stuff. Far be it from me that I would lie against the church.
For what will I also again if I am praised for this “depth of revelation” and it all turns out to be a lie? Nothing.
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The fact that I seemed angry in a speech at some point in time is actually to tell you the severity of the state of the church that I am unhappy with. I am not interested in body-shaming any Pastor, Bishop, Reverend, Apostle, or any Man of God who is called by God. Because He is the one that called them and reserves the absolute right to judge them.
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I never mentioned a specific church name or church because the Church of God is God’s community, not individual churches. I also didn’t attack any specific church in this presentation.
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I am ready to die for what my conscience has been pricking me about for years now than continue to pretend with the masses. No church was mentioned. I apologize to any church that may feel hurt by this presentation. I cannot hold things back any longer. I am ready to die if I ought to. I am ready to lose all the glitterati and the beauty and the splendor of this world if that is what you call success.
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I would rather look wretched in the eyes of men having a right standing before God than look splendid in the eyes of men and my heart be far away from the Father of All Righteousness., God Almighty.
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I will not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit because He lives in me.
Dear Holy Spirit, If I in any way have despised you or blasphemed against you in this write-up, please for the sake of Heaven and the Righteousness of God as well as the Communion of Saints, Forgive me.
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If you want to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and that you too can personally commune with Him by the power of His Holy Spirit who is at work in you, please pray this prayer in all urgency and sincerity. The time is limited. Don’t take things for granted.
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Dear Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that you are not just the Son of God and the Son of Man. You are God Almighty. You are not an idea. You are a person. I believe that you stood in the gap for me and died for my sins. You exchanged my unrighteousness for righteousness. Thank you for reconciling me back to the place of communion with you. I thank you for the seal of the Holy Spirit in me who prepares me as a member of the Church as your community in readiness and preparedness towards the triumphant takeover by the Kingdom of God.? I declare that as long as I have breath, I will commune with you through the power of the Holy Ghost who is working in me. Teach me to pray the right prayer and not speak in Tongues of Men and Angels without love in my heart towards the Saved and Unsaved alike. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for this Glorious victory, over death, hell, and the grave and all the schemes of the Adversary, Satan. Amen.
My prayer for you is that:
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace; peace not according to His standards and not according to the standards of men. The peace that surpasses all understanding. I pray that Faith, Hope, and Love continue to abide in your heart but that above all His love which enjoins us all as one big community and family will continue to keep us until the seconding coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I pray that as we occupy ourselves with the communion with the Saints as God’s Community, The Church, we may be able to discern and know the schemes of the wicked one who seeks us like a lion to devour.
And finally, The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, The Love of God, and the Communion and Fellowship of the Holy Spirit abide with us now and forevermore. Amen.
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My caution to you is as follows:
1.???? Look out to join the Church as God’s Community not the Church as God’s service. I don’t mean to say that there is a church by the name of the church as God’s Community. What I mean to say is, that any church that is interested in building community above just providing services is worth partnering with. But the truth is there is nothing like the perfect church. Every church may have setbacks or drawbacks. But if the setbacks are becoming too glaring you should be discerning to know you may be in the wrong place.
2.???? Don’t seek so much to serve alone. Seek to have communion with God and then with your fellow Saints. The Church may want to put so much responsibility on your shoulders by making you appear to be doing so much whereas in the sight of God you are doing nothing. Be careful when the Church begins to praise you at an early stage. It is very dangerous. ??
a.???? Ideally, the church should nurture you before they present you to nature. But when they present you to nature before they want to ‘forcefully’ nurture you it is a sign that you may be in the wrong place.
b.???? What I am saying is, if the church at your “triumphant” entry, begins to praise you often in the open and rebuke you less in the secret place, expect them to do the exact opposite by rebuking in the open and secretly praising you pretty soon. Remember they did the same to Jesus Christ wherein the same people were the ones who said “Crucify Him” meanwhile at His triumphant entry to Jerusalem they said “Crown Him”.
c.????? I, the writer of this book, am not an ordained Pastor and I don’t intend to start a church because that is not my calling. Remember Christ said that the parts of the body are many and yet the many parts of the body are required to make the body complete as one and function as one unit.
?I desire to be a heart in the body of God’s community, The Church. Interestingly the Heart gets oxygen from the Lungs and then pumps oxygenated blood to the other parts of the body with the aid of the Veins, Capillaries, and Arteries. So, the Heart is not independent. He is dependent on the other parts of the body.
d.???? So, this gives me the next point, if you are in a department and it looks like you are the only one who seems to be doing everything, getting praised and rebuked often for the shortfalls of the department, be very careful. A word to the wise….Y