Sunday 9 April 2017

MIND SHIFT

I spent two weekends in March with my siblings and it gave us some time to gist, catch up and bond again. One of us was getting married and there is nothing like a celebration to get us going. Like my wife will say, we too like play.

In all of that play, I noticed the week before that one of my siblings was sounding a bit deeper than her usual self. You see as the first of five amazing children and the “father” of the house as it were, I keep praying and asking God that He grounds us all in His perfect will for our lives and cause my siblings to develop the sort of relationship I have with Him or preferably something deeper. So hearing one of them sound deep drew my attention and caused something to leap on my inside, I could recognize that there was a change going on somewhere.
As the conversations kept going on, we eventually delved into church and allied matters and then I found out what had changed.

My sister said she currently never looks forward to Sunday service. That for me was a flag but her next comments affirmed something that had shifted in me a very long time ago. Now mind you, she worships with one of the very large assemblies in Nigeria that have been very instrumental in getting the body of Christ in Nigeria where it is today.
She said that however there is this smaller group of people who meet sometime during the week and she never would miss those meetings for anything in the world. She went ahead to describe a meeting she missed and how it pained her that she was only able to attend just one day of the three day meeting. She described with joy how God gave her a word for the lady beside her and that as she wrote the word down to pass to the lady, she was not even sure what she was doing as this was something strange to her.

My dad was a pastor and we grew up in a Christian home, so we were schooled in the “things” of the spirit as it were. However, she had prior to this time not really walked in the fullness of the workings of the gift of the spirit and here she was giving a word from God to a total stranger. She said that after the service, the lady came back to hug her and greet her and thank her. You can imagine her joy and elation.
I can tell you that my sister is not the same person I hung out with in December for my other sister’s wedding. The babe is deep now mehn! Something shifted.

As we talked some more, it became obvious that there was a thirst in her heart for more of God which wasn’t being met in her local assembly and God decided to fill that vacuum Himself.
I am aware that there are so many people out there like my sister who have a burning desire within them for more of God. People who know that there is more to God than what is currently obtainable in their local assembly and have been crying out to God for more of Him. I want to assure you that God sees your heart and will order your steps aright.

Like I shared with some folks who met me privately with these questions, some of you want to leave your local assembly to somewhere else because you feel you are not in the right place. Before you make that move, ensure that that you should even be moving in the first instance. Has God instructed you to leave? If He hasn’t, you MUST stay put until He instructs you (I know how you must feel, trust me I’ve… been there). David had to stay with Saul though attempts had been made at his life on several occasions because it wasn’t yet time for him to be crowned king over Israel, so like David, I advise you stay put.
But some of you like my sister need to run away from where you currently are. I mean like seriously run. And don’t give me that nonsense about it being your “family church”, run for your dear life. There is an assembly where God is looking to grow you, find them and grow or stay put and die.

I connected with an assembly of brethren and have made tremendous progress ever since. The church of God will continue to march on and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. You and I are the CHURCH, the assembly we decide to fellowship in should be aimed towards growing the CHURCH. If you are not growing, then scripture likens you to the heir who due to him still being a child is under the care of servants until he/she attains the level of development where they are able to handle what is rightfully theirs.
As leaders of assemblies, your major drive should be to grow the CHURCH. When I say grow I didn’t mean drive to increase number or attendance, NO. I meant growth as in the people themselves growing.

I am proud of the people my siblings are becoming and I pray that my God who has led them this far in Him will continue to grow them Himself.
I love you guys!