When God Gives You A Warning.

When God Gives You A Warning.

Colossians 4:17
And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.

Years ago brother Fred was on fire for God. He always talked about how we would do great things for God and the kingdom. He was someone you would love to hang out with if you had a hunger and thirst for the things of God. Influencing and impacting the world for Christ was his passion, everything else was secondary. He was involved in some small business supplying items to a large company. In the process of time the company began to give him bigger contracts and with this came more opportunity to travel the world and make more money. It was like the heavens opened on him and the money poured into his business. Soon he spent more time in foreign countries, pursuing his business and meeting new contacts. The money grew. Then I noticed that he stopped talking about his personal involvement in ministry. He stopped talking about how he wanted to impact the world for Jesus. Now that he was actually going round the world, something he had prayed for for years, he had lost the zeal to pursue the vision. He said he wanted to ‘make more money and give it to the church’, as if God was indigent needed his money to run the affairs of the kingdom. He attended church to pray for his business, not to pray concerning the dying fire in his soul. He had money but he had lost the zeal to pursue the ministry God gave him.

Let us look at some lessons from our text.

1. Paul said he should ‘take heed’.

Paul singles out a man named Archippus and sent him a warning. If it wasn’t so important Paul wouldn’t have mentioned it in his letter to the Colosians.
What does this mean? It means to be careful, to watch your step, to evaluate your actions and make sure you are doing the right thing, you are going in the right direction, you are pursuing the right thing. Why did Paul tell him to be careful? It was because this was a serious matter and if he made a mistake it would be detrimental to his relationship with The Lord.

Archippus, take heed.

You should substitute your name for Archippus. Be careful because if you are not careful you will make a big mistake with your life. There are different kinds of mistakes in life. Some mistakes can be corrected. Some are difficult to correct but you can still manage and struggle to live with the consequences of your wrong, unfortunate choices. But some mistakes cannot be corrected and are impossible to live with. If you make such mistakes you have essentially thrown your life away, you have abrogated your destiny, you have shot yourself in the foot, you have used your own hands to destroy your life.

Paul was telling Archippus that he had only one opportunity to do this, and if he missed it there was no way to fix it. Paul was saying, ‘You cannot do this again. If you miss it, if you miss this opportunity to pursue and fulfil your calling, you would have essentially wasted your life. I don’t want you to waste your life, so be careful.’

Overcoming The Elijah Complex

 

Elijah had just won a showdown with the prophets of Baal. 450 prophets of Baal gathered on top of mount Carmel to challenge Elijah’s God to a public display of power. Whoever won the contest was the true God. The prophets cried from morning till evening cutting themselves with knives, spilling their blood on the altar, invoking baal to show up with fire to consume the sacrifice. But Baal did not show up. The sacrificed bull remained bleeding on the altar, covered with flies and the blood of the false prophets of baal.
Elijah built an altar with twelve stones, placed the wood upon it in order, cut the sacrifice on it, dug a hole around the altar and filled it with water, then he prayed and asked God to consume the sacrifice with fire from heaven, and God did.
Elijah ordered all the prophets of baal to be slain. Not one of them escaped.

Jezebel heard about the slaughter of the prophets of baal and she went completely crazy. She threatened Elijah and the prophet ran for his life. Interesting how he just finished confronting and destroying 450 false prophets of baal but couldn’t stand against one woman. Jezebel’s reputation for extraordinary wickedness preceded her. Elijah knew that if he didn’t heed her threat he was as good as dead. So he fled.

1 Kings 19:1-3
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.

Elijah ran to Beersheba where he had an angelic encounter. He ate supernatural food provided by the angel and he went on the strength of that food for forty days until he arrived at Horeb, the mount of God. Then things began to unravel for him.

1 Kings 19:10
And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts:for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

Elijah told God that the children of Israel had forsaken His covenant, destroyed sacred altars, murdered all the prophets and he was the only one left and they also wanted to murder him. He repeated this twice to God in the same chapter.
But it wasn’t true. He was living inside a bubble of self deception and pride.
That was the Elijah complex.

Prayer For Divine Will.

 

Lord, May Your Kingdom come, May Your Will be done, have full sway in and take total pre-eminence in my life.
May my will give way for your Will to find full, complete, total expression in my life.
May your Will locate and find me.
May your Will bless my soul with peace.
May your Will align me to your plan and purpose for my life.
May your Will redirect the course of my life.
May your Will rescue me from the wrong path, from wrong associations, from wrong relationships and from wrong pursuits.
May the desire for your Will become a stronghold in my heart.
May my heart find peace in and rejoice to do your Will.
Lord bring me into the very centre of your Will for my life.
Lord demolish every resistance in my heart to do your Will.
Lord guide me, lead me, direct me and bring me into the right geographical location, the right place and the right people to carry out and fulfil your divine assignment for my life.
May your voice be heard with total clarity in the very centre of my heart.
Lord as I go in the way, speak to my heart and guide my feet in your Will.
Lord may your Will liberate me from the things that hold me bound, the things that limit me, the things that scare me, the things that confine me.
Lord deliver my mind, my soul, my emotions and my thoughts from confusion.
Lord bring supernatural order and peace into my life.

Understanding Grace and Gifts.

Understanding Grace and Gifts.

We all won’t be millionaires. We all won’t own big businesses and corporations. We all won’t start big churches and ministries. To think we shall is to live in delusion. To teach it is to perpetrate a lie. Unfortunately many people have been sold that lie and try to live it with great frustration.

The media plays on human greed by telling us stories about super successful people, stirring desire for money and achievement in us. However, the truth is that no matter how much we long for such success, if we don’t have the grace and gift combination to attract that level of success, we won’t have it. It is that simple. Whoever tells you that God wants us all to be millionaires is telling you a lie. It is just as erroneous as saying that giving of money to a church or ministry will make you rich. Yes, it makes someone rich, but it is definitely not you doing the giving; it is probably those doing the collecting. If you want to attract money in your life, do what normal people do: work and invest for it.