By Olusegun Ibikunle
Daniel 11:32 KJV “…the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits”)
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Let’s continue from where we stopped last week. “Worship God alone no matter what great and good things you are given, even if you are given the whole world; never worship man” – Luke 4: 5 – 8 NKJV “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.”)
The practice of errors of prosperity gospel in the church makes the General Overseer to be a medium through which the church members/congregants are made to believe by which they can reach God. They have conditioned or programmed the minds of the church members/congregants that General Overseer is medium through which they can reach God.
This is the reason for mama, papa, etc instead of teaching the church members to reach God themselves without any medium of pastors (pastor as middleman), that is, pastors are supposed to teach the church members to reach God themselves directly as the Lord Jesus Christ came to reconcile us back to God without any middleman except Himself which no pastor or General Overseer should replace and fill in the life of any true believer : 2 Corinthians 5:18 (KJV) and 1 Timothy 2:5 (KJV) “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation…..For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
The Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples how to reach God themselves: John 20:17 (NKJV) “Jesus said to her (Mary Magdalene), “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.” You, your General Overseer and pastors are all brethren – the God and Father of every genuine men of God is the same for every genuinely born again Christian.
As a genuinely born again Christian, the Holy Spirit who is inside of you is the same Holy Spirit inside of your General Overseer and their senior pastors if they are genuinely born. No church member should call his or her pastor “God of pastor so and so”, “God of prophet so and so”, “God of evangelist so and so”, “God of apostle so and so”, “God of daddy so and so”, “God of mummy so and so”, “God of papa so and so”, “God of mama so and so”, etc., because the Heavenly Father of any genuine man of God is also your Heavenly Father, and the God of any genuine man of God is also your God – this is what the Lord Jesus Christ was telling Mary Magdalene in the above Scripture (John 20:17).
The Lord Jesus Christ does not want any pastor to be a middleman between the church members and God – every church member individually should have a personal walk and intimate relationship with God directly. And this is the reason why He (the Lord Jesus Christ) said the Christians should not call any man of God on earth father except God only – no man of God should be called “papa”, “mama”, “daddy”, “mummy”, etc on earth: Matthew 23:8-11 (NKJV) “But you [Christ’s disciples], do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.” To our Lord Jesus Christ, we are all brethren including the General Overseers and their senior pastors in the kingdom of God – Matthew 23:8 NKJV “…….you are all brethren”
By the special grace of God, we shall continue this study next week.
For more resources that will bless you more and give you a deeper and better understanding on this subject by ONE TRUTH (OLUSEGUN IBIKUNLE), feel free to click and read for free this site: onetruth.com.ng
