“Maintain Your Position at all Times”

As believers we have been called for an assignment that we must commit to in order to fulfill it.

Part of that committment demands that we maintain our positions at all seasons whether they be good seasons or bad seasons of our lives.

Seasons often come into our world to determine who we are, whose we are, what we believe, what we have and where we are going.

The way you stand and maintain your position during these times will determine to a great extinct how you fulfill your assignments in God.

Paul wrote a letter, which was his 2nd letter to Timothy during a difficult season in Timothys life and ministry.  As ministers we have a life, and then we have a life in ministry.

A few years before the picture had been great.  The church was growing and thriving and Timothy was a beloved Pastor by his congregation.  It was exciting pastoring because everything was going well.  By the time ii Timothy was written, the great picture of success had changed dramatically.

Nero had become the emperor of the Roman Empire and his insanity was already wrecking havoc in the lives of countless believers all over the empire.  Because Ephesus was the major city of Asia Minor and the seat of the proconsul of Rome, it had been designated as a place where Christians were being harassed and purged and made to be an example to all believers in other parts of Asia Minor.  As a result of these hard times many believers died for the faith they believed in.  Others defected from the Church world and returned to the old systems and temples to save their lives.

As if all of these hardships and disappointments weren’t enough to contend with, Timothy also had to deal with serious internal problems of rebellion among some of the members of his church leadership.

There was a call for an apostolic release!  They needed an apostolic committment.  Timothy had written a letter to Paul his father in the ministry explaining all of the difficulties that he was having.  Pauls response to Timothy was the book of 2nd Timothy.  In 2nd Timothy Paul urged Timothy to remember that he must preach the word, be instant in season, and out of season.

Instant in the Greek is “ephistimi” which means to stand upon as  to take a firm stand or hard position. It also was a term that meant to stay at one’s post.  Timothy’s post was the pulpit of his church.  From that pulpit he maintained his leadership, imparted vision to the people, issued rebukes, taught, preached the Word and brought the necessary correction.  It was his post.  No one else could stand in that place that God had assigned him to.  Even  though times were tough and he was tempted to quit, his responsibilities, he was urged by Paul to stay at his post.

Beloved, we must be in season and out of season!  Paul told him that he was to remain faithful to his post in season and out of season.

The word in season comes from the Greek “eukairos” which means good times, happy times, pleasing times,joyful times, or pleasurable times.

The words out of season comes from the Greek “akairos” which means bad times.  So when Paul told him to be instant in season and out of season he was really communicating to him to be faithful unto God, whether he was having a happy time or a bad time at that moment.

This was the word that Timothy needed to stand and to be brave, and to stay dedicated to his assignment.  Later his struggle was eventually over, and he became one of the respected leaders of the Christians in the region of Asia Minor.

What kind of season are you going through at this very moment?  Are you going to be just as faithful and steadfast as you were when things were well?  Beloved, this is not a time for you to run in fear and abdicate your position or to look for someone else to take your place and responsibility.  If God called you to that position, it is time for you to dig in deeper and take a firm stand and decree over yourself that you are going to be faithful no matter what!  You know, the bad times will eventually pass.  That is why it is unwise to make a decision to move when things are rough.  If you develop this mentality, Satan will know for sure, when things get hot, he can always put enough pressure upon you to move.   No, there must be no shrinking back.  The scripture says God will take no pleasure in the one that shrinks back.

Heb11:38-39  Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him  But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

This particular verse tells us precisely what happens to people who walk away from their post—the life of faith.  The ramifications of their departure are grim and tedious.

The word draw back means someone who is shrinking back; withdrawing, retreating, regressing, receding, backing away, backsliding or someone whi is recoiling from something.  This is a person who started on a journey but then abruptly reversed his direction.  He is now moving backward or away from his post and belief, instead of forward.  For some reason this person is backing out of a position or belief that he once strongly held.  The Bible says we are not of “them” who draw back unto perdition.

The word perdition is Greek apoleia and it describes something so ruined and rotten that it is decomposing, such as a rotten egg that has sat too long and is now spoiled and ruined.  This word was also used to describe the stench of a decaying animal or a human dead body.  The smell is so horrendous that you feel like running to the bathroom to vomit.  This is the image that Hebrew 10:39 gives us of what happens when a person turns and walks away from the call of God or from a life of faith.  It results in a sickening stinking situation.

No matter how severe the attacks of the enemy may be against you or your assignment, stand fast and refuse to budge or bow until you see a change come. 

We must mix faith and patience  Heb 10:36.  For we have need of patience…..

Faith and patience are partners that propel you into a solidified stance.  We need patience after we have done the will of God, so that we can obtain the promise.

Patience means to stay, to remain, to continue or to permanently abide in one place.  It carries the picture of a person who is under a very heavy load, but who has resolved that he isnt moving; he is going to stay in that one spot.  Regardless how heavy the load or how long it takes, he refuses to move from his position because he knows that it is where He is supposed to be.  He is intent on standing by his committment, regardless the cost he must pay. Nothing can sway or move him to change his mind.  He is not going to relinguish his territory.  Patience is also translated as endurance.  How many times have we heard Apostle Steele teach on endurance? Patience portrays an attitude that never gives up.  It is a faith that does manifest as a tough, resistant, resilient, persistent, obstinate, stubborn, tenacious spirit that refuses to let go of what it wants or believes.  My definition of it is an unstoppable force.  You must have patience if you plan on beating the devil at his game and successfully maintaining your position at all times, if you are gonna do what God has called you, prophesied to you to do.  If patience is having its full work in you, it is just a matter of time until your victory will appear.  So don’t let go of your faith!!!!!  The day your vision dies is the same day your purpose will disappear.  Your life will then become depressed and you will turn bitter.

You will turn into perdition if you let go of the Word of the Lord that He spoke to you, and quit your post. You will start releasing the putrid stench of a life and faith that has turned sour.  You will begin to rationalize your defeat by immersing yourself into a doctrinal system designed to support your depressing existence.  Perhaps you one time tried to do God’s will but then allowed yourself to become discouraged, which resulted in leaving your post and witthdrawing from doing what you were called to be or do. You can still get back to your position.  God isnt finished with you yet.  The table is prepared an the meal is cooked.  God is waiting for you to pull up your chair to the table, pick up your fork and knife and begin  again to dig into the awesome plans He spoke to you about previously for your life.  I would not let the prophetic word drop to the ground and be trampled on by the enemy, and people that are trying to talk you out of it.  Just because they trampled on their destiny/prophetic word does not mean, you have to do the same. It is not to late for you!

Dont let the attack of the enemy keep you from getting back to your post.  Get back quickly to your post   and commit yourself afresh to your assignment.  There were some naysayers that you hooked up with that convinced you  your assignment was over.  The thing about most people when they hit this bitter state, they are so selfish that they never tell you.  They just keep injecting their venomous poison in the veins of your spirit, and you dont even know you have been onocculated. You dont know when your heart turned away from the ministry.  If you go back and rehearse your girl talk or boy talk, you will find that someone sowed some bad, bad, bad seeds into you.  It cut off your spiritual circulation.  Because the blood couldnt flow in the cesspool of the poison they were injecting into you, in a nice sweet way.  All the while they where unwinding you, breaking your focus, and stealing the vital and necessary nutrients that you once had drank.  Now you are weak, depleted, bloated, and feeling empty and disconnected. And for the life of you you can not figure out what is wrong with you.  Your appetite for the truth has changed.  Your attitude that allows you to receive the truth has changed.  The table is waiting for you. 

There are 4 thoughts that keep us connected to our post:

a) Your post is your very place of assignment.  Your assignment is what God personally spoke to you to do. He told you how, he told you where, and he told you when.  You must remember there are not any alternatives to what you have been called to, no matter how your friends may influence you and tell you something different. Decide that you will not be disobedient to the heavenly vision.

b)Your post is your place of protection and no where else. As long as Adam and Eve were in the right place and obeying they were protected from consciousness of their nakedness.  When they violated instruction they moved from the post of intimacy and fellowship with God and then began to see and know their nakedness.

c)Your post represents your place of joy and fulfillment. Jn4:34 My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish his work. It is not enough to start it, but you must finish it also.  Many believers when times get tight take off without finishing what they began.

d) Your post represent your place of provision.  God always meets us in the place He has called us to . Quitting your post means abandoning your resources.  Some say God can bless me anywhere.  That is true. But if He has specifically told you to be at a particular place and you defy that, it is called disobedience, and God is not obligated to provide where you take off too. Ask Johah about this one.  In fact the prophetic word God gives us is attached to a certain place called “there”.  It wont work anywhere else except where God sent it too.

Add a comment October 24, 2008

Pastoral Wisdom for Leaders in How to Deal with Offence

The thought for today is for leaders.   I was flying into Baltimore, Md for some meetings that we were doing.  The Lord spoke something to me that I have never heard Him speak to me before.  He said “Cynthia when you have people in your ministry that you have given birth to, discipled, and grew them up to a certain point, and they reach a stage where they become stagnant and are no longer growing under your ministry, nor can they be taught any longer, release them and let them go into their own ministry, for I will from  there began to teach them and they will know the value of what they had.  I will convict their heart. I will allow the wilderness to harness them, just as I attempted to do when they were under your ministry, but refused because of a hardened heart.”

There are many, many pastors and leaders over para-church organizations that have a dilemna in their ministry.

What do you do when you have faithfully poured into spiritual children that you have nurtured from babyhood, who began to grow under your leadership and then began to level off spiritually?  By this I mean they stop growing under your leadership.

You receive them into your ministry under your tutelage when they are babies, and provide the spiritual milk, and later meat, and yet  they have become stagnant?

Their is nothing wrong with the food that they are being fed, yet somewhere along the line they become barren?   What I mean is, once you receive them and began to feed them and nourish them and they grow, but later you notice that they are stagnated in their spiritual development?

You once saw fruit in their lives, they began to practice the doctrines of Christ, the soil of their heart had been turned over, that it was no longer fallow anymore.  They have now learned how to feed themselves, they are mature to the point where you begin to place them and give them leadership over a particular area, or they began a new ministry because vision is flowing out of their heart.

But then something happens along the way.  They have picked up an offence that they refuse to acknowledge, and it therefore goes underground and develops into a root of bitterness.  Remember, as a spiritual father or mother, you are able to see the condition of their heart, just as you have all along, and you have spoken into those areas previously, and the counsel and wisdom that you spoke was received and they were able to correct situations in the past, learn from it and grow.  But now, they have become stagnated, they have a calloused heart, and no longer have a teachable spirit.

As a leader what do you do with these type people?  You continue to speak into their life, but because the root of bitterness blocking their view they aren’t able to see, nor hear any longer.

Mind you, it is clearly evident to the eye that their fruit is drying up on the vine. Their attitude changes considerable.  They have the oversight over an area of ministry, with many new babies  under them.

As the root of bitterness grows stronger, their fruit is less visible as the days go on.  You have communicated with them, yet they refuse to acknowledge that there is a problem.

Their attendance began to dwindle, their giving comes to a halt, their fruit is no longer evident. They no longer want input into their lives as they did previously.  The truths they once governed themselves by, have now become obsolete.  They even begin to speak negatively now into the lives of those that are following them.  You have concern for them, and you are concerned about the place they are walking.  You also lovingly point out to them, the areas that they have fallen down in, and give them the opportunity for change and growth.  But because there are many that are under their care, there is the potential for spiritual harm to those they have been given oversight to, you must protect the health of the community that are in their care.  So you speak to the leader and attempt reconciliation.  If they are still in denial about their condition, you should be interceding for the person, because their walk and relationship with God is in jeopardy.  It is the love of a spiritual parent that will cause you to pray for the individual, that they will get back in sync with God.

Oftentimes they will make excuses for the place they are in, such as there is a lot going on in my life right now, or my children need my care and attention, or my job is calling for greater comittment, or my husband, or my finances, etc, etc, etc.  Mind you, these are all valid excuses that you really can’t argue with, and the person knows it.  It is not the excuse they give, but the “condition” of their heart.

When really this is not the case at all, it becomes an excuse that covers the offence that they refuse to deal with.  They also may become angry at you the spiritual parent, or the entire ministerial staff, ministry or church.

But until the person is willing to acknowledge what is really going on in their life, there is little that you can do or say to help them.  They may even pull other leaders into their offence and transfer their offence to them.  Then you began to see the offence duplicated, because the same traits and fruits you saw in the one, now begins to manifest in the others that they are affecting.

What are some of the signs?  They go into isolation.  They began to see themselves against the ministry or church. It is “them” against the ministry.  They form strong bonds and ties, and rehearse and feed the offence in their “behind the scenes” communication.  All of a sudden you can identify all those that have been bitten by the “spirit of offense.” They are distant, quiet, non-talkative. Where they use to dialogue with the body, they no longer communicate.  Or they communicate vaguely to keep the appearance up to the body that they are ok, and all is well.  It takes a true gift of discernment to discern their spirit.  The most obvious sign is their countenance.  Where they had joy, they now look as though they have dried up and are dieing. Yet they sport the appearance that all is well, and that God is good and doing great and mighty things in their lives.  They may even try to convince those that do have discernment, that this is true.  It takes a keen sense of discernment to identify this spirit.  When they are around those who are truly mature they will say things like, “I love the ministry. I really love my leaders, when in fact in their heart, there is a deep offense that they are nursing.  They find something wrong with everything that is said and done in the ministry.  Outwardly, they portray a smile, inwardly their hearts have become like dead men bones.  They take on the spirit of Machal,  David’s wife and they began to mock those that have a right spirit and heart and are flowing with God.  They actually become envious of those who are flowing with God because they can no longer drink from the cistern that the Lord that  has provided. Their bitter spirit is much to strong to allow them to drink and be nourished.  So those that are drinking and being nourished and are excited about God and all that He is doing, become their targets.

Right now as many of you pastors are reading this, the light bulb is coming on.  You are saying that sounds like……  You are right it does sound like… because that is exactly where sister/brother so-in-so is.

As the shepherd of the house, you can see that bitter spirit on that group. The funny thing is they will never do anything outwardly that you are able to put your finger on, and confront.  Just pray and wait on God’s timing.   Eventually as they gossip, and form battle lines in the spirit within the ministry,  they will also, look for others that they can inject their poisonous venom into.  Unbeknowst to them they will go after someone who is committed to your ministry, that they believe they can sway over to their side and can get them to find a reason to be offended with the ministry also.  At some point the head of the ring will slip up, or someone within the ring will slip up.  Prayer will provoke the enemy to expose his hand in all his undercover activities within the church or ministry.  So do pray, pastor, and watch and wait for God to open an inroad into the devil’s stronghold. 

For example, something that they begin to say that is unscriptural in some way will arise.  Seize the moment at this time to call that entire group in and address the issue.  Why the entire group? Because you will never get to the bottom of it unless you bring them in together.  Then  the hearts of men will be exposed!   At this point the ring leader that began it, can repent and receive mercy.   If the the ones they have baited decides to  cover that person though, then the gift of discernment will expose the heart. Sometimes those that have been bitten will even lie for the person and cover them.  God will show you who is lieing and where the lie began.  Again, they have the opportunity to repent.  The reason God allows it to be exposed is because He loves His people very much.  It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.  At this point, forgiveness and reconciliation should happen.  That is the purpose of the meeting.   But it takes a humble spirit and a contrite heart for repentance to flow.  If they continue in the lie, you have exposed the enemy, and brought his fiery darts out into the open to be judged by leadership.  Once you expose him, one of two things will happen:

1)The parties will repent and turn their hearts over to God

2)They will keep the offence and eventually they will leave the ministry.

It is just that simple.  God does bring separation.  He tries the heart, finds it wanting, and he separates.  It will not be long before one by one, the spirit of offense, and the power of God will drive them out one by one.   You will see this process repeated over and over again in the local church.  That is God’s way.  He said the sinner(one that refuses to repent) will not be able to sit in the congregation of the righteous.  This doesnt mean everyone else is righteous and they only are sinners.  God is only referring to those that refuse to repent and turn from their wicked ways.  An offence is wicked!  Those that are sitting in the congregation (the righteous) are not righteous because they have not sinned, no! They are righteous because they have sinned and repented and turned their hearts toward God. Whereas the sinner, chose to keep walking in that same unrepentant, nonremorseful path.

Then when God begans to remove them, you must pray for  the cleansing of the house.  You must pray for those remaining victims that were participants in that spirit of offence, because remember, they were bitten by the bitter spirit of the other individual. So you pray and ask God to restore them.  With lovingkindness He has drawn us.  Those affected by the offended one, may turn around once God removes the one originally offended.  So prayer is needed on their behalf.  But if they don’t repent and have a change of heart, eventually you will also see them moving towards the back row, and eventually out the door.  It doesnt matter whether they are in the choir, an intercessor, or even on the praise and worship team, or the evangelism team, or maybe they are a key person in a key position.  The position is not important, it is the heart that God is waiting for to change.  Perhaps, once the influence is removed they may be able to see the light and turn.  There is hope for those that remain.  But remember, it is all about walking in the unity of the faith.  

If you have people like this, pray for God to either change their hearts, or remove them from the fold.  The ministry will do much better, if you have people that walk with the fruit of the Spirit.  Your focus should be on those that have the same heart and spirit that you do.  Paul once said, we need to be speaking the same thing.

Paul also experienced something similar to this scenario.  He had John Mark travelling with him.  One day John Mark decided that he loved this present world more than he wanted the purpose of God.  Paul allowed him to leave the field because he was unuseful to his ministry anymore.  John Mark simply wanted to live a normal life without the pressure of the ministry.  Paul released him and let him go.  Sometimes you need to release people and let them go!  If they are continually against what you are attempting to achieve for God it is better to let them go.  Just as God brought them in for a season, He will be faithful to bring others in.  By trying to hold on to them, you do yourself and the ministry an injustice.

Later, John Mark became profitable to Paul again.  I won’t promise you that this will happen in your case, but I will promise you that God has tailor made a people that fit perfectly in your ministry.  What you have to give is awesome and powerful.  There are some Timothy’s that are waiting for you.  Wait on them.  You will be glad you did.  Usually, once God removes those with the spirit of division,  you will find that the “real” begins to show up.  By the way the scripture does say “mark” those that cause divisions among you.  Mark them (means pay close attention to them) simply means they are “hazardous” to your ministry.

Prophetess Cynthia Steele

Add a comment October 16, 2008