YOUR FOUNDATION AND YOUR MINISTRY
If deliverance from the areas listed so far are important. the next area which I am going to highlight is. without doubt, the area in which deliverance is most needed. The area under discussion in this chapter is one which has been responsible for the downfall of a countless number of ministers. We will have few casualties among ministers of the gospel if men of God seek and obtain total deliverance in this area.
THE BURDEN
What you have read so far must have shown you that there is a heavy burden in my heart for ministers of the gospel. The high spate of scandals, the increasing casualty rate, the deplorable conditions of the lives and families of modern day ministers as well as the appalling decline in the spiritual lives of ministers who, by calling, are supposed to be examples to the flock, have made me to see the need for hammering the topic in this chapter.
I took this burden to the Lord and He showed me certain deep secrets. The Lord pointed my attention to certain neglected areas in the lives of ministers.
THE FOUNDATION
To understand the import of what we are considering, please read the passage below with rapt attention.
Ps 11:3: If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
The greatest problem among ministers today stems from the gross neglect of the foundation. We have lost sight of the fact that the strength of a building depends on the foundation. The stability of a tree depends on its roots. It is appalling that the foundations of many ministers are either weak or destroyed. Many men of God are standing on collapsed foundations. This has resulted in the opening of cans of worms. Many have fallen and this has been cataclysmic. No wonder the Bible says:
2 Sam 1:19: The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how arc the mighty fallen
2 Sam 1:27: How arc the mighty fallen, and the weapons of warp perished!
We must never toy with weak foundations. If a foundation is weak, it will collapse or cave in sooner or later. A weak foundation will graduate Into, destruction sooner or later.
THE OPEN DOOR
Many of us express surprise when we come across scandals or occasions of falls by the high and mighty among frontline ministers of the gospel. little do we take cognizance of the fact that it is due to the fact that openings were carelessly left by ministers. According to a Czech proverb “Misfortunes always come in by a door that has been left open for them.” Therefore, if your foundation is porous it will be destroyed sooner or later.
When the foundation is destroyed, there is nothing anyone can do. Please note the words, “What can the righteous do?” This should awaken in us the consciousness of the fact that once the foundation is destroyed hell will be let lose. There is no amount of patching up anyone can do to amend a bad foundation.
Yes, the Bible has made us to know that the lord can deliver the righteous from any form of affliction.
Ps 34:19: Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.
If the Lord has promised to deliver the righteous from all afflictions, how come there is an area of affliction that is impossible or too stubborn to deal with? It is simply because the foundation is the live wire of the building. In any building, problems like plumbing, repair of windows, mending walls or changing of roofing sheets can be done with ease. But if the problem has to do with a bad foundation, no amount of patching up is possible. The solution is to pull down the building and, start afresh. If anything is wrong with the foundation of a skyscraper all the money spent to put It up will amount to a waste.
My heart trembles each time I think of the problem of destroyed or faulty foundation among ministers. A lot of things are seriously wrong with the foundations of ministers of the gospel. I am not the oldest minister around, but in my little ministerial experience I have seen a lot. Those who have ministered for close to fifty years have not seen what my eyes have seen or heard what my ears have heard.
I have seen quite a lot. I have stumbled across mysterious happenings in the lives of those I have either counseled or prayed for, over the years. If I tell you some of the things I have seen, heard or witnessed, you may probably find it difficult to believe me.
I once met a woman who menstruated maggots, every twenty-eight days. Instead of seeing blood as it is the normal thing for women, she let out maggot from her private part for some five days every month. I am sure that there is no scientific explanation for that bizarre experience.
A STRANGE INCIDENT
A man was brought to my office by his wife. His story will make you develop goose pimples. He decided to patronize a prostitute. Instead of paying the normal “fees” he decided to short change the prostitute. The prostitute got infuriated and decided to place a curse on him. She declared: “So, you don’t want to pay me my full money. I will prove to you
that nobody cheats me and gets away with it”. The man simply shrugged his shoulders. But right from that day, his penis began to grow longer and longer. The elongation never stopped. It got to a stage when his penis could no longer be kept in his pants. By the time the man was brought to me, the penis had to be wrapped around his waist like a long rope. Again, what type of medical or physiological explanation can anyone give concerning such a strange incident?
THE TALKING PREGNANCY
I was conducting a crusade in South Africa when a pregnant woman came to me for urgent help. I was surprised when she opened her mouth and declared: “Man of God, I have a peculiar problem. I am pregnant but my pregnancy talks! The baby in my womb is speaking in tongues”. I decided to place my ears near the woman’s protruded stomach. Strange enough, someone was speaking a language I could not understand inside. You may ask: “But how can a baby in the womb speak?” Such are the deep mysteries of this world.
MYSTERIOUS!
A lady also came to me for help. Her own problem happened to be more complicated than the ones I have narrated so far. She had the usual biological features of a normal lady until, one day, a man proposed marriage to her. She gave the man a positive answer. From that moment, she experienced a strange phenomenon. She suddenly grew a male organ close to her female organ. In other words, she had both a penis and a vagina side by side. She was embarrassed and shocked. She decided to seek for help. Of course she could not disclose the. fact that she was a hermaphrodite to just anyone. She knew she was a female. But how come the sudden growth of a strange male organ!
Someone offered her a piece of advice saying, “You can get rid of the embarrassing growth if you travel overseas for a surgical operation.” However, a strange thing happened when she was examined by an experienced surgeon. The doctor had to examine the nature of the growth before carrying out surgical operations. By the time the doctor
raised the woman’s dress there was no male organ anywhere. The male organ had disappeared. The doctor simply told her: “Sorry, you have no medical problem. You are every bit normal. I will only refer you to a psychiatrist. That is the only help you need.”
The woman was confused. She got up and left to where she was residing. By the time she got on the train, she suddenly sensed the return of the male organ. Behold, she regained the status of a hermaphrodite. What the surgeon could not detect was fully back to her private part. At that point she knew that she was a victim of unexplainable mysterious growth. She had to travel back to her country when she discovered that no medical help was in sight. She decided to live with her strange condition.
On a particular day, armed bandits raided her home. After removing her valuables, one of the robbers decided to rape her. As he was about to do so, he was shocked when he discovered that the woman had both male and female organs. He dropped his gun and took to his heels. What he saw baffled him. It was more than he bargained for.
Indeed, I have seen strange things. In any case, the only way to avoid seeing strange sights is to avoid solving human problems as a minister. But if you are going to remain a source of succor to the masses, you will surely come across strange sights.
Recently, a woman brought her three children to me because they needed urgent spiritual help. The ages of the children ranged between 12 and 15. However, the strange thing about the three of them was that each of them had one tooth. The mother marched the three boys into my office. When I discovered that the three children looked normal physically I asked the mother to tell me why they were bought for prayer or deliverance. She simply answered me by asking each of them to open his mouth. To my surprise, all I saw were gums with one protruding tooth.
The woman pleaded for urgent assistance and I asked to know why she was bothered by the strange dental arrangement. She narrated a queer story. “Man of God, I have lived with three strange children. I have had to change their schools three times. Each time they attend a school, they place curses on the teachers and the curses stick. In all the three
schools, mysterious things happened to the teachers who offended them and my little children have been expelled three times as a result’s.” The woman pleaded with me to do anything I could in order to help her out.
However, of all the battling incidents, I have come across in the course of my ministrations, none shook me to my roots more than what happened some years ago when a seventy year old pastor stormed my counseling office asking to be rescued from the mess he was involved in. When the elderly pastor narrated his ordeal I opened my mouth agape. Here was a man who had been a minister of the gospel for over 50 years. He had been ministering before most of the present crop of ministers were ever born. It is, indeed, strange that he fell into the sin of adultery with a twenty year old girl. At age seventy! With tears streaming down his wrinkled face, he pleaded passionately for help.
I instructed him to undergo deliverance and it was during the process that he discovered that being a product of polygamy was bringing his ministerial career to a shameful end. According to his confession. his father had fourteen wives and over thirty children. The seeds of polygamy became a full blown tree. The old pastor’s fifty years involvement in the ministry did not prevent him from suffering shame as a result of immorality.
SHOCKING!
I was invited to minister in a Church, a few years ago. While ministering, the Lord gave me a word which I thought was meant for one person. I said: “There is a lady here. You slept with a minister of God. Come out and repent now or else something tragic will happen to you within seven days!” I was closing my eyes. But when I decided to open my eyes as a result of the massive sounds of movement which I could hear, I was shocked. I discovered that there were over two hundred ladies who came out because they were involved in immorality with pastors.
I got confused as I found it difficult to believe what I saw on that day. I keep wondering why ministers of the gospel are falling flat on their faces before the enemy. My heart is disturbed, having seen the fall of the
mighty. I have read church history and I have also heard the sad news of one mighty man of God after another falling after embarrassing scandals in contemporary times. Yes, I have seen powerful men of God fall like young converts.
I got so disturbed that I had to go to the Lord in tears, with disturbing questions. Several nights were spent in the presence of God in order to find answers to this nagging problem. As the burden got to a climax. the book of Jeremiah became my prayer point.
Jeremiah 14:8: O the hope of Israel, saviour there of in time of trouble. why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?
I bombarded the throne of grace with questions like:
O God, how come You are folding Your arms as if You don’t know what to do?
O God, why are You looking dazed and astonished as if You can’t take any action?
O God, why are You behaving as a stranger in the midst of Your people?
As I prayed for nights, I discovered that situations could arise which will make God helpless, There are areas of problem In the life of a minister that are capable of turning God to a spectator, God will be forced to fold His hands and watch you go from bad to worse.
When you have the type of problem that can reduce the Almighty to an onlooker, nobody on earth can keep you.
