Secured yet Scared!

 

The ones who are established with a stabilized income source are the ones who are most scared of losing their security. They want to do everything to ensure nothing is disturbed. Putting this in a Church context, the Church leaders and Pastors are careful that they don’t say anything that can cause offense, even the right and hard stuff. The fear of losing people and income threatens their security. So, they ensure to speak everything favorable to the crowd. They hand pick verses from the Bible that talks about encouragement and blessing of success.

The celebrity preachers have found this mantra and keep speaking words of success, prosperity, goodness and wealth. They are always in demand. People are willing to get them at any cost because they are tied to their personal prosperity. Micaiah’s are rare to be seen today. Let me take you to 1 Kings 22 where it talks about the Jehoshaphat’s alliance with Ahab. Ahab the wicked king befriends Jehoshaphat and urges him to go with him to fight Ramoth-Gilead (1 Kings22:4). Jehoshaphat was unsure about the whole thing but wanted to oblige based on the word from a prophet. Ahab had readymade 400 prophets (22:6) and were summoned. They all prophesized favorably and predicted victory. Because the spirit of the Lord was pricking Jehoshaphat’s conscience he wanted to check if there is any other prophet beside these 400 Prophets. Somewhere down in his heart Jehoshaphat could sense something is wrong. Then we notice Prophet Micaiah is contacted and instructed what to say. 1 Kings 22: 15 The messenger who went to call Micaiah instructed him, “Look the words of the prophets are unanimously favorable for the king. So let your words be like theirs and speak favorably.”

Micaiah was far from being compromised with cheap thrills of money or security. And this is what he said, “As the Lord lives, I will say whatever the Lord says to me” And he was harder to Chenaanah when he mocked Micaiah. As a consequence, we are told Micaiah was put in the prison and instructed to be provided with little bread and water until King Ahab returns. Micaiah ends the conversation with these lines, “If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me.”. The end for the king was a disaster as we learn from that chapter.

 Security at the cost of Mission can be very costly. I have been going to various trainings and speaking assignments in Churches. I have been personally instructed several times to mellow down, speak favorably, so that the crowd is happy and not offended. This is utterly sad and unfortunate state. In my faith journey, I am ready to risk everything for the sake of the Gospel and I wouldn’t budge from the true Mission God wants every single person to follow. As Dr Eric Mason points this out, “The popular preaching of our days is going to catch up with us! We promise people that if you follow Jesus that He’ll bring your dream to pass. We have made better entrepreneurs, dream chasers, and personal purpose Gurus than we have disciples.”. As long as the crowd is successful the Church assumes they can be successful and secured. Can we strip such false security and disturb the people in your Church who have lived comfortably all their lives? Every soul is a Church lying vacant for years, some for decades. They become the student of the Church all their lives. We need revolutionaries not just good Christians. Jared Wilson stated this powerful statement, “The mission is to make disciples of Jesus. Don’t settle for just well-behaved pagans or self-righteous Pharisees.”

 

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