My Reply to a dear Brother

Dear Brother, 

Thanks for your response. Sincerely I hear you and I also feel the same way (Pls read http://pastortunji.blogspot.ca/2015/01/my-frustrations-with-pentecostal.html?m=1).

But what I'm simply saying is this: Let's follow Scripture in addressing issues not sentiments. What my Bible says is: Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, 1 Timothy 5:1 NKJV.

If Adeboye has stolen money, let's call him out on it. If Oyedepo has committed adultery, by all means let's condemn it loud and clear. But if no sin has been established against these men of God, why are we flaying them before the whole world!

This is my point: if we only disagree on doctrinal differences, then that's not the way to go about it. Even when it comes to sin the Bible is clear on what to do: "Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses." 1 Timothy 5:19 NKJV

When Aquila and his wife noted the incompleteness in Apollos' teaching, they took him aside to show him the way of the Lord more accurately, not subjecting him to public ridicule (Acts 18:24-26).

Let the Bible be the guide in whatever we do, sentiments apart. But a situation where we have turned fellow believers especially fathers into mockery and ridicule is totally against biblical injunctions. We can disagree without drawing daggers at each other. 

Forget about all the media accusations and attacks on men of God flying private jets. It's actually an attack on the Church. That's the bigger war. The plan is to "strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter." The plan of the enemy is to discredit the church. You'd made a reference to the church in Europe. And the question to ask yourself is: Where is the Church in Europe today? It's gone, except for the Immigrants' churches that are thriving. 

Let's not join the enemies of God in destroying the church. The unity of the Church is paramount to Jesus. Even when His disciples said they saw some others using his name to cast out devils and were not following them, Jesus said to let them. 

When the organs and tissues in a body begin to attack one another, that's a serious condition in medical science. 

Blessings. 

Tunji 

An Open Letter to Pastor Sunday Adelaja (and Daddy Freeze)

Dear Pastor Sunday, 

Someone sent me one of your Youtube videos on the Nigerian church around August 2017, and your message in that video so much resonated with me that I sent it to all my friends in ministry. I even challenged them to add their voice to yours so that we can amplify what you are saying and make it louder for all to hear. I watched a couple of subsequent ones you made and I was saying, “Amen” loud and clear, “This is what we need.” 

I am one of the people who have also been perplexed by the practices in the Nigerian Christian church especially the Charismatic/Pentecostal ones; and I’ve written on this in my blog (pastortunji.blogspot.com) a few times. So when I started hearing a stronger and respected voice like yours saying the same thing, I felt the time has finally come that God wanted to rescue His church. 

But then, you went ballistic in your videos and you started lambasting and calling names men and women we revere and hold in high esteem even if we don’t totally agree with everything they are saying and doing. And that is when you lost me, and so many others. Pastor Sunday, I still love your principle—the premise on which your messages are based, but your method has become crude, cruel and devoid of Christian humility and respect. 

In fact, it was strongly impressed on my heart to write this letter as I was meditating on a passage in Ephesians chapter 4 written by Paul, the apostle: 

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:1-3)

Pastor Sunday, I still hold you in high esteem. I read one of your books several years ago titled, Knowing God, and it positively changed the way I do ministry. I read of how you would go on a retreat toward the end of each month to seek the Lord for the new month, and I started practising the same principle, and oh, how it bless my life and ministry. The record you set in Ukraine is still there for everyone to see. How a black man went to a white man’s country, and established a predominantly white church which became the largest in the whole of Europe is still a wonder in transcultural missions. You have become a phenomenon in missions studies. You are a pride to so many of us that shared the same heritage with you. 

But sir, looking at some of your utterances and demeanour including those of the brothers and sisters that anchor some of your sessions, they are totally against Christian etiquette and scriptural injunctions in every ramification. You are doing more damage to the course of Christ than you could ever imagine. The Christian virtue of respect, honouring one another, and humility have been thrown to the dogs in your videos. I strongly believe that by virtue of the privileged position God has given you in the body of Christ, it would not be an arduous task for you to secure appointment and sit with some of these men of God for a robust discussion on some of the issues you are talking about rather than the approach you are taking.

Rick Warren said in his bestselling book, The Purpose Driven Life, that we could still walk hand in hand even though we don’t see eye to eye on every doctrine. That we disagree does not mean that we should draw daggers at each other. Everyone you are talking against in your teaching is doing things the way they have come to understand them. That is their level of understanding. Of course there would be some that do not belong to God at all. But when you begin to attack the Adeboyes, the Kumuyis, the Oyedepos and the other men of God that kept us in the faith till our eyes of understanding began to open, you are doing more damage to the course of Christ. 

Saul, who later became Paul, was a major persecutor of Christians at the beginning of the Church age. But he did it with sincerity even though ignorantly, and that was why he received forgiveness. What if these men of God you are attacking are sincere in their teachings and understanding of the Bible, and yet you are flaying them before the whole world like this! 

If you think God has raised you up for a time like this, know that we all know in part, and prophesy in part (1 Cor. 13:9). No one is perfect in their teachings and understanding on this side of eternity. I close with this phrase from my Theology professor in the Seminary as his counsel to us whenever we were engaged in heated argument and discussion in class: “Confident humility.” He said, “Yes, be confident about what you believed, but leave room for the possibility of being wrong, and so be humble.”

Let these “shows” stop. It’s fast becoming a nuisance. 

For the love of Christ and His Church, 

Tunji Olasunkanmi

On Pain and God

Pain is inEvitable

When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. Numbers 22:25

I’ve read a few books on the subject of Pain of recent and often wondered why people point fingers at God. 

Some people confuse tribulations and persecutions with avoidable physical pain. 

Of course tribulations and persecutions can cause pain. For example, when Paul and Silas were beaten in Acts 16, there’s no doubt that they experienced some pain. Also, when he said thrice he was beaten with rods, surely he must have suffered some broken body or bones. 

The Bible never promised us a life without tribulation. Starting with Jesus, very early in his teachings he said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:10). Persecution can come with pain. And toward the end of his journey here on earth, he told the disciples, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). 

The Apostles of the Lord also added their voice to this subject. Apostle Paul said: “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). James admonished those going through trials in his letter, saying, “count it all joy when you fall into various trials” (James 1:2). 

From all their writings, it seems persecutions, tribulations and trials is part of the requirements for entering into the Kingdom of God. And if anyone want a list of what persecutions and tribulations entail, please see below:

Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. 2 Cor. 11:23-28

However, most of the pain the believers of our days suffer, with the exception of our brothers and sisters in troubled zones, is not as a result of any persecution . Like Andrew Wommack once remarked, if many of us are charged for being Christians, there will be no evidence to prosecute us. Our christianity is too lame to provoke any persecution. Our faith is too weak to cause any stir. 

So where do most of our pain come from? It is self-inflicted. Like the story in Numbers above, Balaam pain is caused by his greed. Yet if you asked him, he would say God sent his angel to afflict him. 

That is why I’m bold to say this: Pain is evitable. Pain is avoidable. 

On Paul’s list above, you won’t find any sickness or disease mentioned. No. Cancer is not tribulation. Hepatitis is not persecution. Leukemia is not part of the package to enter the Kingdom of God. Most of the life-threatening diseases that is killing us today come as a result of our lifestyle and bad eating habits. Our fast food culture is inflicting a number of health hazards on us. So also our sedentery life style. Some of us have also engaged in some dangerous lifestyle before we finally surrendered to Christ, and we are reaping the fruits of those habits right now. It’s like the old adage: Curses are like chickens; they always come home to roost.

Two great helps God has given us to protect us against pain: the word of God and the Spirit of God. If we would pay attention to those two, we can live free of pain. We don’t have to go through pain. 

Problems come when we disregard these two agents. For example, Proverbs 4:4 says: My father taught me, “Take my words to heart. Follow my commands, and you will live.” Jesus came to give us life, and life more abundantly. We can’t talk of abundant life when we are groaning in pain of sickness and disease. 

The good news is this: Whatever the source or cause of that pain, there is healing in the name of Jesus. We don’t have to rationalize, philosophize or even theologize it, pain is not of God. God does not tempt anyone with pain (James 1:13-14). That is why we can confidently approach Him for healing and deliverance from whatever we are passing through. 

When God says: Have your way!

Numbers 22:1-20

What else do we need to know when the will (mind) of God on an issue is already made clear in His word? 

All that is left is obedience. 

God had already made it known to Balaam, the prophet, not to go with the messengers of Balak to put a curse on the Israelites. It couldn’t be clearer than that. 

Num 22:12  But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed.”

But then the king came up with a brilliant idea; an offer that is too much to be resisted. 

Num 22:16-17 “This is what Balak son of Zippor says: Do not let anything keep you from coming to me, because I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say. Come and put a curse on these people for me.”

And so Balaam had to go back to God. 

That was where he missed it. 

Don’t we also do the same? 

When God has already said: Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Don’t get into partnership or relationship with them (2 Cor. 6:14-18); we begin to rationalize; we begin to play smart; we ask people to pray about it for us. 

When the mind of God is already known, there’s nothing to pray about again. 

And if we insist on praying about it, guess what God would say to you: Go ahead! (Num 22:20). 

So I came to this conclusion: You will always hear whatever you want to hear from God. 

If God has already told you to stay in a particular place and you keep on bugging him about how they are (mis)treating you, and how the place sucks, God will tell you to “Go ahead” and do whatever you want to do. 

If God has already said to stay in a particular ministry, church, business, organization, or even relationship, and you keep praying about it, very soon, you will hear “Go ahead, get a new partner, start a new church, join another organization. 

So I’m not surprised when people say God told them to do it; to go ahead and divorce their wife/husband, and marry another person; to marry an unbeliever; or to start their own church or ministry. No surprise at all. Balaam also heard it from God to go ahead. But really, did God? 

If God would not have His way, He would let you have your way! 

Friends, let the word of God, whether written or spoken, settle every issue in your life. There’s nothing else to know once the mind of God is made clear on an issue. His word is settled in heaven; let it settle in your life also. Let it settle with all finality every issue in your life. 

Once God has spoken, let it keep echoing in our mind. The Psalmist said: Once God has spoken; twice he heard it. Let’s keep hearing the same thing. 

May I suggest a better approach to relating with God: If God wants you to do it, He would be the first to tell you, rather than you asking him. 

On Confession and Forgiveness

"We don’t have to confess our sins in order to be forgiven. Forgiveness is not dependent on what I do, but what Jesus has done. … Fellowship with Him is not broken because our forgiveness is not contingent on what we do."

        Excerpt From: Joseph Prince. “Destined to Reign”

When we sin, I believe fellowship is broken but our relationship with God is not broken. 

If your child does something bad and you knew it or heard about it but the child didn’t say anything about it. And he keeps doing or going as if nothing has happened. In your heart, you will be thinking this child thinks he’s smart. 

But when he owns up and confesses to you, the matter is cleared. If you need to rebuke him you do that and the fellowship is restored. 

It is one thing for forgiveness to be provided; it is another thing for it to be received. In Christ, forgiveness is already provided; for past, present and even future sins. But how do we receive the forgiveness? 

The way we receive forgiveness is through confession, just like we receive our salvation (1 John 1:9). 

How did we receive Salvation? 

Salvation is already provided, but is everybody saved? Of course NO! Salvation has to be received before it can be appropriated (enjoyed). Otherwise those who claim universal salvation would be right. That is, everyone is saved, they just don’t know it. 

And how do we receive salvation? When we confess, not our sins, but that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart. 

Same way with forgiveness. Forgiveness has to be received before it can be appropriated (enjoyed). How? By confessing what we have done wrong. 

The word "confession" comes from the Greek word, homologeo; which means, to say the same thing. And in this case, to say the same thing that God has said concerning that situation. When we miss it, we shouldn’t keep going as if nothing has happened. No! Let’s pause and say: Father, I’ve missed it. Have mercy on me. To keep going and say we are in the light and so we are continually being cleansed notwithstanding what we do is tantamount to wilful disobedience. 

As Dr. Robert Jeffress noted: Grace (or Salvation) erases the eternal consequences of our sin but does not exempt us from the temporal consequences of it. I believe when we confess our sin, then we are cleansed from “all unrighteousness” (the effects) caused by our sin (1 John 1:9). This is exactly what Proverbs 28:13 says: He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

What a difference Jesus makes!

Lev 16:2

The Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.

Hebrews 4:14-16

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. … Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

God’s work done God’s way will never lack God’s blessings

Exodus 40:34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

God’s work done God’s way will never lack God’s blessings.

When Moses did everything as was directed by God, the glory of

the Lord descended on the work. They needed not to pray or fast. 

Andrew Wommack said: "Once you know you are doing God's will, you will never have to ask for God's blessing. God's will is already blessed!"

This is not ruling out the place of prayer and fasting. There’s a time for them, but not for God to bless “His” work. If God gave an assignment, it would be wickedness on his part not to support the work. If I asked a child to do something for me in the house, it would be wickedness on my part not to give the child what he needed to accomplish the work. Otherwise that will be like Pharaoh’s taskmasters in Egypt who refused to supply the Israelites with the materials needed to get their work done. And God is not a taskmaster. 

This is the point I’m making: there will always be temptations to do things the way others are doing it, especially if God has not given you any elaborate or grandeur project to do for him. There will always be temptations to fill in the gaps; to “faith” for large buildings. We have this notion that God will always ask you to do what is beyond you. True but not necessarily. If you have to be begging and pleading with your “partners” and members or even threatening them, then we have to question that vision. 

A time came in the building of that tabernacle in the wilderness that the workers had to plead with the people not to bring any more materials. 

So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.” Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work. Exodus 36:2-7

In the day of His power, His people shall be willing. 

God will give you assignment based on your capacity; based on what He knows you can handle, and based on the resources He has put around your life. 

Matthew 25:15
And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.

According to Heavenly Pattern

Exodus 26:30 “Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain.

Every divine assignment is accompanied by a divine blueprint. 

Every work of God is unique, and so has to follow a pre-determined plan and pattern. 

Many works of God have become carbon copies of others. 

There’s a way God wants His work to be done. We need to seek and depend on Him for the way He wants us to do the work. God's work must be done God's way!

Every work God wants done on earth has a prototype already designed and built in heaven. 

When God wants a work done on earth, he first reveals what he has planned for you in heaven. Until you receive that, you are labouring in vain. 

After he has shown you, then you can say you have an assignment. If you have not received that, you don’t have a ministry or a job yet.

So what do I do? Very simple! Keep waiting. Don’t be like the prophets in the days of Jeremiah.  

Jeremiah 23:21
“I have not sent these prophets, yet they run around claiming to speak for me. I have given them no message, yet they go on prophesying.

The Good Fight

I grew up hearing from my parents and everyone that loved me: Don’t fight! And so I grew up not knowing how to fight. 

But what they didn’t tell me was that there’s a good fight—the fight for my life; the fight for my future; the fight for my destiny; the fight for my health; the fight for my marriage; the fight for the good things of life! 

I discovered in life that you have to fight for every good thing. Spring is coming. Very soon it will be all green. Guess what you will find there? Grass. Weeds. Nothing more. But if you want vegetables, corns, and other good stuff, you’ve got to fight for them. You’ve got to plant, and fertilize. But then, you must be ready to fight—the weeds, the insects, the worms and every destructive thing that wants to fight the good stuff you have planted. 

Same with life. There are so many bad elements around. They want to stop you, hinder you and if possible, destroy you. That is why you need to fight. 

Fight the bad habits. There are things that are pleasurable but dangerous to your health. You’ve got to fight them. And the earlier you fight them the better. Otherwise they will fight you—your health and wellness, finance, fitness. They may even fight your relationship. 

Fight the bad attitude. You know them. Everyone is talking about them—your anger, gluttony, carelessness, laziness and so on. Unbeknown to you, those things are killing you—your relationships, performance, and your finance. 

Fight the bad company. They don’t mean well for you because they are going nowhere. They have no regard for your future. They’ve wrecked theirs, and want you to wreck yours too. They take you where you’ve vowed never to go again. They show you what you don’t want to watch again. The earlier you detach from them the better. 

Friend, to live you’ve got to fight! And to live well, you’ve got to seriously fight! It’s high time to take off the kid gloves, and fight with bare knuckle the stuff that are fighting your destiny. 

Seeing the Invisible

You are going to make a decision everyday how you want to live: whether it’s going to be by what you see or just trust that the not yet seen is much better. 

Sight is powerful but limited. 

Not too long ago, I was in a two day training on suicide prevention, and it’s amazing the statistics on suicide not just globally but even here in Canada. And this is what baffles me, the common refrain from survivors: I looked around and couldn’t see anything to live for again!

Helen Keller, blind and deaf all her life, was asked what could be worse than blindness and she answered: To have sight but no vision. She was the first blind and deaf person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. 

Eyes that look are many, but eyes that see are few. Vision talks about seeing beyond your present reality; seeing beyond the physical. It talks about seeing the invisible. 

Steve Job, the Apple giant, in his commencement address at Stamford University in 2005, made this profound statement: 

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path; and that will make all the difference.

To focus only on what you can see could be discouraging: the bills, the wrinkles, the tragedies, the pain, the misunderstandings, and so on. To focus only on happenings at the present could be demoralizing. 

Two days you shouldn’t worry about every week. One is yesterday, with all its wonders and blunders; with all its pleasure and pressure. Goodnews! It’s gone. Let it go! The other is tomorrow, with all its uncertainties. You just have to trust, like Steve Job, that the dots will somehow connect … tomorrow. Nothing more. 

The only important day is today! That’s not too much to handle. Someone said: “Any person can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when we add the burdens of yesterday and tomorrow that we break down.”

I take solace in the words of a great writer of old simply called Paul: 

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.