Context Is Key

Context is Key 

I have followed the ministry of a certain Man of God for many years. I have never worshipped in his church before or sat under his ministration physically but I admire him from afar and I listened to his teachings a lot. He is in sync with the Holy Spirit and he has a divine understanding and command of the Scriptures.

 In one of his teachings, he taught emphatically about the use of material mediums in ministrations and he condemned it He said he would never believe that things can be more empowered than people and a Christian who is full of the Holy Spirit is infinitely greater than a mantle or an oil or water or whatever else which many Pentecostal religious leaders emphasize upon.

I believe he is right with his take on people being spirit-filled than carrying a handkerchief in their bag which they believe is spirit-filled. He also kept strictly to his business and ministry and as much as many would insult or vilify him, he didn't dignify any of them with a response.

When he got divorced and many people with wandering imaginations started insinuating that he did something wrong, he held his peace Oh how I love this man. One day he was in America ministering with an American preacher this American preacher had this money-making gimmick which is common to American preachers. They sell prayer shawls, medallions, momentoes, etc in exchange for cash gifts from their members. To push the sale, they bless the materials on TV and then sweet tongue it by saying anybody that buys will get this or that by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Man of God had finished preaching when his American host told the ushers to bring the prayer shawls and asked this Man of God to bless it on International TV I held my breath and asked myself "What will Pastor do now" I knew he had preached against it several times and he preached from a place of conviction. The American Pastor does not know this and so this is a clash of two different schools of thought Pastor laid hands on the shawl and blessed them, right in front of the whole world Wow! Two weeks after that service, the American preacher came out on LIVE TV to apologize for selling things and collecting money from people and even tithes and said he would never do it again! 

Something has happened in the background that we were not privy to but the American preacher saw the light and changed his ways and has remained steadfast in that commitment till today. 

A friend of mine showed me the picture of the pastor blessing the shawls some months later and asked me to justify why that pastor was praying on shawls on national TV. The picture looked bad because it portrayed a man who was doing something that was against his conviction and would make a good talking point for any naysayer.

 But I had the benefit of context Wisdom is an asset, another pastor could have refused to pray or staged a walkout, People would have hailed him for standing on his principles but he would have gained a reputation for haughtiness on LIVE TV and it would have done nothing positive for the body of Christ. What he did led to changes that caused a seismic ripple throughout the body, he did what was asked and then he showed the American pastor a better way to do things.

 Some years ago, I found myself in UAE, at the airport with seven hours to wait for my connecting flight to another country I walked about the airport praying I prayed for three hours and then I felt like preaching the gospel, In UAE Inside the airport I went about looking for friendly faces from one end of the airport to the other I got none Then I saw a room, guys were there sitting and talking and having a good time ..Wow In this airport? It was the smoking room I ran to the duty-free area and bought a box of cigarettes I blessed it and then I walked into the smoking room I smiled and said I am from Africa and Africans don't come into any gathering empty-handed, the guys laughed "What do you have there?" An American asked, is it from Africa? I said "No sir, just got it from the duty-free area" 

Everybody laughed I walked to the guy nearest to me, and I extended my hand for a handshake He shook me, He was from Pakistan He had a limp on his right leg, I held on to his hand, he swayed and then staggered, people looked at us and at me suspiciously, the man stood straight, the limp had been healed "Oh my God, my leg is fine" He shouted He led me to his wife outside of that smoking room they were going to India from the USA for a surgery, something to do with the wife's respiratory system the wife was healed. The mother-in-law was in a wheelchair, but she was traveling with them too She got healed Other people saw us and joined I ended up with 19 souls won, 11 Pakistanis, five Indians, and three Iranians.

 They are all doing wonderfully well in Christ today imagine somebody taking my picture when I was at the duty-free shop and posting it on the internet with any caption of the person's choice.

Many people will form their opinion and they will be wrong, my life is my business and I keep my nose in my business. Talking about other people robs us of context and as a result, our opinion is always going to be wrong because we are not the one who sees all the dots and connects it, we can only see whatever we saw in the moment we saw it. Let us always remember this. 
-GSW-