By Festus Ndukwe.
Faith is what sifts what comes to a minister and apportions to him what God has given him.
Regulator of Faith
There are many things that seem good, and that would come to the minister if unchecked. It is faith that regulates what gets to him.
Faith does not permit blood money to come to a servant of God. If a minister lives by faith, trusting only God to provide for him, those who possess blood money or ill-gotten wealth will not see him. God will hide the minister from them. God will ensure that only men and women of good will send supplies to His servant. Those who are not, the Lord will not allow them. God only does this because the minister has decided that He will be his Source. He has decided to trust Him. He has given God all the right to determine what comes to him and what does not come to him. By living by faith, he has given God the permission to control what comes to him. He has come to understand that by living this way, it is for his good and preservation of his soul. It is to regulate and trim his appetite and keep him away from greed.
When a minister spurns or refuses to live by faith, God is not given the right to control what comes to him, and he becomes exposed to great danger.
By their Fruit
It is easy to know those who don’t live by the principle of faith. When someone, after speaking in a bus, and takes offering, he is living in violation to this principle. When during a message, a guest preacher begins to raise fund for the host pastor with the mind of collecting a percentage, he is not living by faith, but by his self. He will, one day, become captive to covetuousness.
When a minister demands that a certain percentage of the income of the church be sent, not for the propagation of the gospel, but to him, watch that minister. He will soon begin to live in affluence.
When a minister begins to drum it on the congregation to sow seeds to him, or give him a prophet’s offering, not so much for the work of missions, evangelism or projects in church, he will soon fall danger to greed.
When a minister or missionary desires to buy an SUV or execute a project for himself, and pencils down hundred names on his list, and writes them to give him N200,000 each, he is an experienced gambler. If each of them give him the amount, and all that he needs to purchase it is less than what he has gathered, will he be ready to return the excess?
This corrupt lifestyle is one of the things that have made the Church weak and impotent before the enemy.
●●Ndukwe, a Lagos-based minister, can be reached via festus-felicia@gmail.com