God's children not a beggar

May God not give us beggars as spiritual children.

May God not count you among those who attach themselves to you by claiming you are their father-in-the-Lord so that they can become permanent beggars asking for crumbs at your table.

May you not be that kind of minister of the gospel who finds people easy to use and manipulate in the name of preaching the gospel.

May you not have the kind of mentality that attracts scorn and derision in the name of being a preacher.

These words came to me a few minutes ago in the place of meditation.

I have never been the kind of minister who desired that someone would be calling me "Papa" or "Daddy" or "My Father".

I don't do it for anybody, and I don't want anybody doing it for me.

I sincerely believe it hurts the body of Christ and introduces a level of idolatry or human worship to the reality we walk in as ministers of the gospel.

I never wanted it, and I will never want it.

Nevertheless, I understand that some individuals who have been raised under the serfdom mentality would extend this mindset to me in the name of honouring me or respecting the anointing or submitting to the authority of the man of God.

When such people come into my space, I try very hard to change their orientation and stop them from denigrating themselves in the name of religious servitude.

Most of those who practice this kind of Christianity are extremely unproductive of and by themselves.

They end up using "Yes, sir", "I submit myself, sir", "I am loyal, sir" as a tool to beg for money and other material resources from the person whose ass they are kissing instead of growing in grace and finding their own path to success in life and ministry.

For some of them, the more you tell them to stop this habit, the more they see you as someone who does not want them to eat under you.

Such a ridiculous mindset, but I have encountered it several times. Someone will come to you and say, "God said he or she should submit his or her ministry to you."

What that really means is the person wants you to become the sponsor of their vision, or ministry, or calling, or church, or fellowship, or music career.

In other words, such a person is looking for a patron, a sponsor, an investor, someone to carry the financial burden of their endeavors.

If you then tell the person that you don't believe in that kind of system as a minister of the gospel, you become the bad person.

In some other instances, such a person tries to use their access to you to their advantage by writing letters of solicitation or stylishly cozying up to those in your circle in order to beg for resources for their work.

If those whom they solicited report their behaviour to you and you try to call them to order, they lie that the person gave them the money of the person's free will.

Someone who gave you money of his or her own free will will not report your behaviour or talk about the matter in any way.

When you try to correct this, the person plays the victim.

That mentality will only lead to failure

A pilot fish can never become a Whale.

Parasites can kill their host, but they can never become their host

The kingdom we have received from the Lord Jesus is a Kingdom of independence for all, so that none will be at the mercy of the other in all things

There is nothing wrong with discipleship, training, and apprenticeship (where it applies) and stewardship, where it applies.

The aim is not to end up like Gehazi, the servant of Elijah, who went to Naaman to collect gifts and money behind his master.

The aim is to become Elisha, the servant of Elijah who received a double portion of his master's anointing and became a prophet unto many nations in his time.

In order to achieve this, you must learn dominion through the word and exercise it directly in your own capacity as a minister without looking up to anyone or begging anybody for anything.

Until you learn how to do this, you cannot truly say as ,s I can boldly say, that the Lord is my Sufficiency.

Someone once said to me "It is not your fault. God has surrounded you with capable men and women who are helping you fulfil your ministry."

I remember replying to the person thus, "I build men and women who were weak and feeble into capable men and women who are full of strength by the word and the Spirit of God. I do this daily. It is not luck or favour. It is hard work, and you must also do the same in order to succeed as a minister."

-GSW-