The LEADERSHIP – Part 6 (Continuation from Part 5) (Open Letter pages 99-104).
And then, there had been another pastor of another denomination whom You brought among us and he became another dear brother. I loved him from the beginning and, thank You Lord, my love for him has also been independent of his performance. I love to say this because if Your love for me depended on my performance, I would have been hated and damned and abandoned from the very beginning! But You loved us while we were yet sinners, Your enemies blaspheming Your Name, spitting into Your face! This is Your love – and this is the love with which I am now also able to love this dear brother. It is marvellous, it is far beyond our logic and beyond our understanding … and certainly beyond our own abilities.
Now, this brother is no exception when it comes to pride, jealousy, fears and doubts. (I already wrote that we ALL started from being a bundle of vanity, corrupt throughout, and there was no respect of persons!) But I found no arrogance in him, no malice, no viciousness, no apparent lust for a position or glory; rather, I have found jealousy and deep fears, also an ignorance, human goodness, innocent blindness and naîvete (similar to what I had), a tender heart and moldability – before his heart began to harden. In his zeal and determination, he has been fulfilling his pastoral calling in his own kindness, own love and own gentleness.
He cannot “hurt a fly”; when he feels he is cornered, he uses Christian diplomacy rather than a venomous arrow of arrogance. Yet, there are vessels around him who are quivers containing such arrows. There are powers around him which see to it that he does not break loose … and abandon their traditions, plans, desires and their will.
Nevertheless, my faith is simple, Lord, and it is this. If You called him with a much higher calling than where he is presently, he shall break through and fulfill Your purpose and Your calling even should he pass through a wilderness for some years. And if he is not called, no man will push him forward even an inch. Lord, I believe the former! I believe it in spirit despite the outward signs and facts. One outward fact is that he rejected Your word to him and to his congregation.
There is one elder in his congregation who is so proud that all the church knows it. Yet, he sits on the platform, prays theatrical prayers and prophesies with a very serious face as if You had, indeed, given him a word. He believes he is deeply spiritual … and the pastor and the church believe that You do speak through him – pride or no pride. Have they not yet realized that You NEVER reveal anything to anyone whom You resist? (Jas.4:6). Have they not yet realized that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? (Gal.5:9).
I say, Lord, that if there is anyone in that church who is truly sensitive to Your Spirit, he must always be offended by the “ministry” of this elder. Unless his brothers in the church bring him to see the truth about himself, to repent and turn from his terrible pride and arrogance, that poor man is in danger of perishing! But the account shall be required from those that had seen and known for years, and did nothing!
There is another elder in that church who is well respected and who is devoted to You, to the ministry, and to using the gifts of Your Spirit. How many times You speak through him and how many times You do not is not mine to judge. But I do say, Lord, that You would make him truly fruitful should he be delivered chiefly from his emotionalism, which is of the flesh.
True, we all are different characters; some speak softly, some loudly; some speak looking at their toes, some speak staring into one’s eyes; some speak boldly and some shyly; some speak eloquently and some just cannot find the right words; and some speak not at all. Some make a lot of noise, some are quiet; some are jumping around, and some remain seated, restrained by their etiquette.
I am not judging different characters of different believers. In this chapter, I judge the THINGS in the leadership (and anyone else, including myself) that stand against YOU, that oppose YOUR mind and lacerate YOUR heart; the things that bog down YOUR servants, that limit their ministry, that render them unfruitful! I judge the things that paralyse YOUR Body and make YOUR Church a laughing-stock for the world and the devil.
I must admit, I had judged this beloved brother and elder unrighteously before. I had repented to him in front of the whole congregation, for so You had commanded me. But now, I am saying to this brother in Your stead: “You seem to commence right, and you seem to continue right for a while … and then you begin straying from the road and sinking into a deep mire … until you stop. If a man starts in a calm tenor voice, and half way through his message, or prayer, or prophecy, he ends up shrieking in soprano, that no one understands what is being said, has he not ruined all that he started? Is the church edified, stunned, or deafened? Will you not seek the Lord of Grace for your deliverance? For it is not the church that is fed and satisfied – but your emotional lust!
I pray to the Lord of Grace that you would be seeking Him concerning this deliverance and I pray, yea, I intercede, that you would become truly fruitful unto Him and the whole congregation! Amen.
There is one more word to the leadership and to the whole congregation, yet, not from me but from the Lord Himself, and it is this:
“But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian.
And many congregations are in the Church in your great city in these last days, but to none of them was My servant sent save unto you – a widow in the midst of a famine, and a leper though honourable and mighty in valour. He was sent that he might dwell with you and that the handful of meal in your barrel may not be wasted, and the little oil in your cruse may not fail before I come. Also, that you may be cleansed from your leprosy.
But you have not hearkened unto My voice nor have you obeyed My counsel nor yet followed the example which I had given you those three times.
Therefore, I say unto you, whosoever shall not repent speedily, his barrel shall be wasted, and his cruse shall dry out; and he shall remain a leper unto My coming, for thus have I spoken.”
And to my beloved brother, the pastor of the church, I say this: “I found in you no in-born lust for a position or glory. Therefore, you had to be THRUST into a high position and into a limelight, even through a prophecy you had to be thrust in … that you might be puffed up and separated! But it was NOT of the Lord of Heaven and Earth! Woe unto them that throw stumblingblocks under the feet of the simple servants of the Lord God Jehovah!”
There were more leaders and things You had shown me in that congregation, Lord, but I shall write no further. Because of their refusal, I could not dwell among them and You took me out. How I wished to have ministered to them Your Truth and Life … and cause them to find the narrow road to the Kingdom of heaven (You know, Lord), but they would not.
Yet, I hope, Lord, that there are or shall be true Overcomers, as I also hope for many other congregations and places. Overcomers who will one day, and rather soon, stop playing their religious self-satisfaction games and begin to HEAR and OBEY Your voice. Who will also realize that You never speak in vain, and that it is true wisdom to fear You and to heed Your warnings!!!
But if anyone desires to remain disobedient and ignorant – let him be disobedient and ignorant! (1Cor.14:38).
brother Hanola
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