A story – The minister

There was a certain church, and in that church was a man that God had chosen, through whom He would lead His people.

The Lord gave Him messages that amazed many, gave many courage, hope, and faith. Many rededicated their lives to the Christ, and many others came closer to the Lord.

But there were also who took offense on his messages and wanted him to step down from the pulpit and leave the church, so they could continue to live as they always did.

They had influence in the leadership of the church and won most of them over for their ideas.

An official decision was not yet taken, but on a certain morning six of them were standing outside, waiting for this man to arrive to block the entrance to him.

“You will not enter our meetings again.” The man did not fight them, but but wiped the dust off his feet against them and left.

They then chose an other man who preached exactly what they liked to hear, and they were pleased with this man, but God was not.

This new pastor saw that the congregation stopped growing, and after a little while more and more people started to leave the church. This frustrated him, and he wondered why this happened, and why he was not getting a word to preach. Where had God’s presence gone during the meetings, and why is the church not growing in numbers as well as spiritually?

The church still exists, but there is not even 10% of the people present, of who used to go there.

The Lord showed me in this that He is the One who determines through whom He will lead His people, it is not the decision of the people to. choose.

As this church did not install the right person to lead them, they will not grow in Him, and they will keep starving because God did not give their food to the man leading them now.

The pastor in that church should step down, so a person of God’s choice could take over.

I understood that this was not only true for this church, but for many churches today.

There are quite a lot of pastors
▪︎ who were people’s choice and not God’s choice,
▪︎ who became pastors, because their father was the previous pastor,
▪︎ who became pastors, because the church board liked them, or their message,
▪︎ who became pastors, because they were friends with the previous pastor, etc. etc.

But they have not received grace nor a direct assignment from the Lord to lead His people. So in fact they have nothing from God to offer to the people, and yet some of them have been pastoring for many years.

If you are going to a church with a pastor that doesn’t have food for your spirit, you are definitely going to starve to death spiritually.
For any other food they may give will not satisfy you and definitely will not let you grow spiritually. Because only the Lord can give you the right food, which you need to be fed, and to grow.

Thinking of Saul, the first king of Israel, we remember that God allowed him to become king, because he was the choice of the people. And that his relationship with the Lord did not last long. In the end he even became an enemy of the Lord.

We should learn from this that following the democratic choice of the people, or that the choice after an ordinary job application and interview, does not give any guarantee that the man God appointed for the job will get the position. People may put you after such a procedure in some position, but is that really the place where God wants you to function?

We must never forget that nobody can successfully do spiritual work, if he does not have God’s anointing for the job, for it is not about what you can do, but about what God can do through you.

Internet: harryschoemaker.nl

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Harry Schoemaker

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