So, at 53 years of age, what am I doing? Do I look to consume myself more with the affairs of this world or do I look forward to liberating myself from them? Should I look for promotions in my job… with my experience I should have more than enough qualifications. But that’s not my passion. I want to continue paying all the bills in our home: buy the groceries, the electricity, water, gas, etc. Paying these bills brings me great joy. I want to continue to enjoy the benefits of a job and not depending on people’s offerings. However, I also want the freedom to be use by God. 

How do I see myself used by God? By truly help fix people’s mess. When they come to me, I don’t want a Sunday order of service in between us, I don’t want to see masks. I want to be in the business of healing souls by the power of God and His Word.

I think that many of us have been fooled by the devil as we continue to give the jewelry of God’s truth to pigs and then we turn around and call it ministry. So we go on social media, we write books, etc. and communicate these truths… and then… we are satisfied with a good number of followers and, called that a successful ministry. If we make a good amount of money out of that deal, we feel very encouraged and call it a blessing; we see it as a sign that God is in it, but in reality, is nothing more than a good business endeavor.

I think we are skipping the true hard work and, honestly, the unavoidable way of doing effective ministry; the good old fashion one-on-one, down and dirty work of dealing with folks’ issues in an honest and transparent way. A place where we take the masks off, confess our sins and seek God’s wisdom and power. 

I think that many are cutting corners with the big buildings, professional worship teams, cool songs, cool pastors, motivational speakers, feel good messages, the Sunday shows and the manipulation of numbers. With that approach, we learned to hide the true issues God wants to deal with, such as: pornography and masturbation addiction, anger, domestic violence, awful communication at home, hate, resentment, regret, frustration, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideations, etc. We become experts in continuing to endorse a system that comfortably allow us to continue in our mess while calling ourselves: pastors, reverend, prophet, minister, bishop, apostle and so on. 

You beat your wife in the secret place while projecting to be a family man from the pulpit. You harshly judge those junkies who are hook in cocaine, while you can’t stop your own gluttony. You teach sexual purity with all the right verses, while every night you can’t stop watching that inappropriate thing you watch every night. The list goes on and on! 

Beloved, the great move of God that is coming is the purging of the church and the cleansing of our own hearts. We will be holy, we will be busy in the Father’s business and, we will have no spots nor wrinkles before the coming of our Lord.