THE DAY YOUR PROPHET RUNS MAD
A man of God once asked his wife who was a stay-at-home mother: “What are you doing with yourself? Why don’t you get a job or start a business of your own?” The wife’s response: “Why should I work? You give me all the money I need, so there’s no reason for me to work.” The husband asked her: “You are depending solely on me to provide for you. What then would happen to you and these children if one day I decided to leave you and to run away from home?” Surprised, the wife answered: “I know you can never do that because you are a man of God.” The man of God asked her: “Have you not read in the Bible about the madness of the prophet?” (2 Peter 2:16).
A lot of times we as Christians forget that our pastors are still in the flesh and have not yet attained unto perfection; we tend to forget that there may be times when they will make decisions which might not be the very best; we expect them to be perfect in everything they say or do, because they are God’s prophets. But the truth is that God is still working on every Christian including our pastors. We want to see here as the “madness” of the prophet those things a pastor does or says which he/she should not, those decisions a pastor makes which you think are inappropriate, those things your pastor fails to do but which you think are vital to the growth and well-being of the church, those things a pastor does which are contrary to your expectation of him/her, etc.
How have you been handling the “madness” of your prophet? Do you fight the prophet? Do you form little groups within the church and discuss your dissatisfaction with what is going on? Do you begin to gossip about your prophet with other Christians who are not members of your church, or even with unbelievers? Do you hope and wish in your heart that the pastor would fail in his/her ministry so that he/she can be proved wrong? If any of the above is what your reaction to your prophet’s “madness” has been hitherto, you’ve been making a mistake that is not just very big but also very costly. It is very costly because the Lord says “Touch not mine anointed” and touching God’s anointed is one of the surest ways to make Him stop fighting for you. And if God decides not to fight your battles for you anymore, you are bound to be beaten because you cannot fight the devil on your own and win. As you discuss your prophet in the negative with other church members you are sowing seeds of hatred, malice and bitterness against the prophet, and the Bible says that whatever a man sows that is what he will reap. If you are telling unbelievers in your family and elsewhere that your prophet is not a good one, what you are doing is indirectly telling these unbelievers not to accept Christ into their hearts, and by so doing you are in your own little way putting a clog in the wheel of progress of evangelism which is very close to the heart of God. Know that for this you will answer to the Judge of the whole earth because He wants everyone to be saved. And if you’re wishing failure to the prophet what you are doing is inviting failure into your own life because the Bible says that the evil ways of the wicked shall return upon his own head.
How then should we handle the prophet when he/she is “mad”? Pray for the prophet. Whether the prophet is sane or “mad” you must pray for him/her. But when you are not particularly happy with the prophet you should pray for him/her even more than you would normally because that will help you to exclude all the wrong ways of handling the matter. Also, if you have to and you can, speak to the prophet, not in a confrontational way, but with calmness and respect. A true prophet of God will listen to you and if he’s wrong the Holy Spirit will speak to his/her heart and he/she will make the necessary corrections. A lot of times when you speak to your prophet and hear him/her out you even discover that you had actually misunderstood him/her earlier.
The next time your prophet “runs mad” how will you handle him/her?
By victoria Baiye
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