TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 15TH AUGUST 2022)
“We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless.
And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all things until now. I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you.
For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 1 Corinthians 4:10-15 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 227TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
Day unto day we get closer and closer to the consummation of all things. Sadly, events around the lives of mankind is not letting many set their eyes on the approaching day and spend their lives getting ready for it.
We are often distracted by the mundane. We are often made to have no value for the eternal. Yet, the eternal stands before us on daily bases. And according to scriptures, it is not just standing before us, it is written in our hearts. Which leaves one wondering why mankind still ignore it.
The Bible made it clear that once someone dies, they go back to the state of the eternal, either in hell or Heaven.
Now, everyone knows that death is inevitable. But not everyone knows that death returns him or her back to the eternal to be rewarded for how he or she lived their lives on earth. If mankind allows that to occupy their hearts, things will be different.
Beautifully, God has set His kingdom on earth, which is invisible, to help us get ready for the inevitable. In this kingdom, there is the Spirit of Christ Himself, there is the Bible to read and understand, and there is the Church on earth to help mankind meet the Spirit of Christ, understand His will and was by studying the Bible and living ready for the eternal.
In the Church, God positioned Heavenly systems for doing the job of helping mankind to live ready for the eternal. The Bible made it clear that until each of us, mankind, come into the fullness of Christ, we are not ready for the coming day. It says;
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;” Ephesians 4:11-13 NKJV
Sadly, most of what we call Church today is not fulfilling the eternal plan of God for it.
HENCE HAVING PEOPLE EVEN WITHIN THE CHURCH SYSTEM WHO ARE NOT FIT FOR ETERNAL LIFE WITH CHRIST IN THE NEXT LIFE.
Most churches these days, now operate more as a political party, a metaphysical cult, a social club, a place of theatrical performance, or a money-making machine. And when a church becomes any or all of these, it will lose the fitness to get people ready for the approaching day.
From Ephesians 4:11-12 it is clear that God’s true apostles, Prophets, evangelist, pastors and teachers are the ones saddled with the responsibility to make the Church an eternal rescue center for the souls of men not a money-making center for an ecclesiastical order.
In other words, God created the five functions in His church to make it an eternal rescue center for the souls of men, but we preachers have turned it into a relevance and revenue acquisition center for an ecclesiastical order. It has rendered the Church eternally impotent and taken away almost all of her moral authority in the nations of the earth.
But God has a rescue plan; there are fresh leaders He is currently raising in the caves of His glory who will restore the Church back to her original purpose. Maybe someone reading this is one of them.
Yes, the Church will be restored back to her original intent and pioneer the last mass evangelism that will usher in Jesus as King of kings and LORD of lords. She will again, emerge as the glorious Church having no spot or wrinkle.
One of the redemption orders that will be sanitized and restored back is the redemption order of genuine spiritual fathering; a spiritual fathering that evolves around the Tree of life. That is why we have set aside this 31-Day journey with the Cry of the Spirit on such matters, to understand what a spiritual fathering that evolves around the Tree of life looks like.
TODAY IS THE 15TH DAY OF THE JOURNEY.
Looking back on the scripture that tells us why God placed, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers in His church, it is important to note that these five-fold ministry gifts are best administered to the souls of men through a fathering system built around the Tree of life. And there are so many reasons to that.
I call the reasons “the redemptive purposes of spiritual fathering.” These redemptive purposes are apostolic and prophetic in nature.
Everything about the Church is originally apostolic and prophetic in nature, pattern, and order. Do not forget, the Church of Jesus Christ was born on earth on the prophetic knee of the Hebrew prophets and apostolic knees of the 12 apostles of the lamb. That is why when you take whatever concerns the church out of these two original patterns, it becomes demonic, occultic, human, or commercial. It will destroy the eternal purpose of the Church.
Our devotional text presents the first redemptive (apostolic and prophetic) purpose of spiritual fathering. It says;
“We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless.
And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all things until now. I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you.
For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 1 Corinthians 4:10-15 NKJV.
The lines in this scripture that says, “for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel” carries the first and ultimate redemptive purpose of spiritual fathering. It is buried in the word begotten.
THE WORD MEANS TO BRING FORTH INTO EXISTENCE THROUGH THE PROCESS OF REPRODUCTION.
That means, the ultimate redemptive purpose of spiritual fathering is to bring Christ into existence in the spirit natures, moral lives or characters of those God has placed under him as sons and daughters in faith, through an apostolic and prophetic process of reproduction. Paul calls it “travailing in birth until Christ is formed in you.”
He puts it this way in his letter to the Church at Galatia:
“My little children, for whom I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed (molded) within you,” Galatians 4:19 AMPC
Spiritual fathering can be difficult, especially if the intent is to form Christ in people. There are birth pangs you suffer in the process as a father. That is why many will prefer being preachers instead of fathers. It is only in matters of collecting money that they become fathers, calling it “honor to spiritual fathers.”
Come to think of it, the spiritual fathering system in many Churches today is all about money, serving some spiritual leaders and nothing about forming Christ in people. That is a distorted version of fathering. It is those who form Christ in us that we honor with money and service in the process or reproducing Him in us. The reason is simply to cushion the effects of the birth pangs they suffer in the process. I hope you understand me.
That means as the man go through the birth pangs of forming or reproducing Christ in you, you are to minister to him in cash, kind and whatever will result in the refreshing of his spirit, even if its prayer or buying him a property, so that the birth pang he may be suffering in the process will be cushioned.
OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT DESCRIBED SOME OF THE BIRTH PANG IN THESE TERMS;
“We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored!
To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat.
We have been made as the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all things until now. I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you.” 1 Corinthians 4:10-14 NKJV
I want you to read this again, this time read it careful and see what a spiritual father goes through forming Christ in spiritual sons and daughters.
They are considered fools by some. They are made weak while those they labor for are being made strong. They are dishonored while those they labor for are being distinguished. They hunger some times and thirst, with no one to refresh them, and in some cases poorly clothed. I have seen such fathers in my life.
There are cases they have to labor with their own hands to feed themselves like the one who let me to Christ. They are reviled, beaten, made homeless, persecuted, and defamed. During those moments they have to keep blessing, enduring, and treating. There are times they are made the filth of this world by gossips, haters and blackmailers.
If one go through what is stated in this scripture for sleeping with those that were suppose to be daughters in the faith, collecting monies from others in the name of fathering, or doing other unethical things, it is punishment. But when one go through them just for trying to reproduce Christ in others, it is considered in God’s kingdom as the birth pangs. Yes, things you go through to completely and permanently form Christ in sons and daughters in faith.
AGAIN, THE WORDS SAY;
“My little children, for whom I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed (molded) within you,” Galatians 4:19 AMPC
As we bring this to a close, I want to submit to you that any spiritual fathering that is not forming Christ in you is not fulfilling the ultimate purpose of spiritual fathering. Spiritual fathering is spiritual parenting.
Meaning, no one can father a person if he or she is not having the people’s loyalty and trust through pastoring or shepherding. If your spiritual father is therefore not having a Church you both are just playing games. It is like trying to raise children without a home to grow in. You are like streets kids, and it will not impact your life the way GOD intended.
You must understand that Christ is not even reproduced or formed in men in a Crusade meeting. People may begin their journey with Christ in a crusade meeting but for Him to be formed or reproduced in them, they will need an apostolic construction site, a spiritual family, where a spiritual fathering system built around the Tree of life is present.
I pray that GOD use these words, to build you up and give you an inheritance among they that are sanctified. Amen!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“Brethren, I beg of you, become as I am [free from the bondage of Jewish ritualism and ordinances], for I also have become as you are [a Gentile]. You did me no wrong [in the days when I first came to you; do not do it now].
On the contrary, you know that it was on account of a bodily ailment that [I remained and] preached the Gospel to you the first time.
And [yet] although my physical condition [such] a trial to you, you did not regard it with contempt, or scorn and loathe and reject me; but you received me as an angel of God, [even] as Christ Jesus [Himself]!
What has become of that blessed enjoyment and satisfaction and self-congratulation that once was yours [in what I taught you and in your regard for me]? For I bear you witness that you would have torn out your own eyes and have given them to me [to replace mine], if that were possible.
Have I then become your enemy by telling the truth to you and dealing sincerely with you?
These men [the Judaizing teachers] are zealously trying to dazzle you [paying court to you, making much of you], but their purpose is not honorable or worthy or for any good. What they want to do is to isolate you [from us who oppose them], so that they may win you over to their side and get you to court their favor.
It is always a fine thing [of course] to be zealously sought after [as you are, provided that it is] for a good purpose and done by reason of purity of heart and life, and not just when I am present with you!
My little children, for whom I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed (molded) within you,” Galatians 4:12-19 AMPC