Under Cover

csldailydevotion

23 Feb 07

Devotion 12 – Under Cover

This CNY was marked with both joy and sadness in my heart. I was saddened by a fellow pastor’s action. He chose the path of breaking the unity of the Body and in the process, brought much pain and hurt to all.

He decided to move out and start his own church. He must have felt that he could and was called – I will not comment on this subject.

I felt the Lord leading me to reflect on the danger of assuming that we could do what we do because of our abilities.

It is truly a subtle mindset, when one finds success or growth in ministry, to assume we made them happened. We can always camouflage our words with the right vocabulary and slogans. But deep within, it is so easy to accept the view that it was because of us, our anointing, our abilities, ours…..

We need to return to the concept of family again. We can do what we do in ministry only because we operate under cover. We operate under the cover of God through the cover of a local church leadership. God provides our training, our ministry exposure, our “members”, our experiences through the local church. Thus, apart from the local church, we could not have a ministry to start with.

We need to return back to Heb 13:17 - "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. "

Obey your leaders and operate under their cover.

What about pioneers who left their churches to start new movement?

I believe in this but I think there should be proper processes that allow both the leadership and the person to tarry before God. I believe that as in all things, we should honor God, honor His leaders and honor His Body. We should pause and hear God and seek confirmation from a larger body of Christ and not act to tear the Body of Christ i.e. sheep and shepherd stealing resulting in lost and pain experienced by the body.

Enough said.

Let’s guard our hearts and bless our leaders. Let’s arise to be a people that please God in all that we do.


CSL