Fleece My Sheep?

An increasing number of these impostors today own private jets and the ones who do not aspire to. They claim it helps them to get around quicker as they serve the Lord. Surely there is a vital need to continue pressing forward the wonderful message of the Gospel, but God is able to raise and does raise servants in every corner of the world to proclaim His message. There is no justification for the exorbitant expense of funding private jets in the Christian church—such jets are simply part of the excesses and status symbol of the leaders of rogue ministries. Everywhere we turn, there are lost souls and people who need to be loved so that none of God’s servants can ever suffer a shortage of people to comfort and preach to, necessitating urgent travels by private jet. Of course, it is a great thing when God’s children interact despite distance, and we need to continue to spread the Gospel all over the world, but there is justifiably no need for us to own private jets and fleets of limousines and the most expensive cars for that purpose.

The finances of the Church should be spent on meeting the needs of the underprivileged and oppressed members of the Church and then society. This is what was done and the foundation laid by the early Church under the leadership of the Apostles. Fake ministries that extort the most astonishing amounts of money out of their followers fund the extravagant lifestyles of their ministers rather than care for the poor and oppressed. The overseers reign as kings and queens over their business empire, nicknamed church, and although they deny the fact, the income of their ministry is truly their personal fortune.

They claim to perform miracles of healings and financial breakthroughs, yet the people who actually need such miracles go unnoticed by them. They stage elaborate meetings and crusades in trendy and expensive venues where they display their counterfeit miraculous powers of healing even incurable diseases. Yet we await the news of a minister who visited a children’s hospital and released all the innocent children from the shackles of sickness and disabilities. The world is full of little babies and children who are on the brink of death in hospitals and hospices. These rogue healers have no desire to visit hospitals to heal the children because their acts have to be at their appointed places for which glossy handouts, billboards, radio and TV adverts are invested in, and all activity of healings are staged and controlled by them. They stage-manage their events in this way because they simply do not have the biblical gift of healing! Their miracle performances are by appointment only, never spontaneous. Interestingly enough, in the western world one needs to belong to a certain class in society to attend one of these ‘spectacular’ events. Most of the destitute people who actually need miracles do not generally have access to the sophisticated means of communication used to advertise them, nor do they have the financial resource, outfits and adornment necessary to visit such venues. Oftentimes an attendee has to purchase a ticket to gain entry to the event—and this is supposed to be promoting the Gospel of Christ?

We await news of a known servant of God with healing powers who goes to the inner cities and the underprivileged parts of the world and heals their sick who cannot afford medical treatment. We have not heard of them giving sight to the unsuspecting blind in the street, or relieving the lame person struggling with their wheelchair on a regular road. Their displays of powers and show of wonders are always performed in a pre-organised event and culminate in financial exploitation of the miracle-seekers who attend.

These people have a hypnotic aura about them that grips their audience and gets their full attention and indeed a lot of them use hypnosis to arrest their victims. The parade of pre-arranged miracles and testimonies of wonders completely takes over the minds of their audience, who are then talked into sowing their financial resources into the ministry in order that the miraculous works of that ministry may be taken to other parts of the world where desperately needed or to spur God into action. They convince the people that their personal ‘miracle’ is imminent and their generous giving is actually into the kingdom of God and definitely carries a very high dividend yield of ‘financial breakthrough’. These fools represent God as being helpless without the financial assistance of men!

There are far too many homeless and destitute people around the world. Our Lord showed immense concern for these oppressed members of society. It cannot be denied that God blesses His servants, and He does this so that we have all that we need to fulfil the roles He has assigned to us, and not for us to display the same mindlessness and pride of life that is found in the godless. When we faithfully utilise the resources God gives to us He ensures that we do not lack—all this He does so that we can fulfil His divine purposes and not ours.

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints!
There is no want to those who fear Him.
The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
But those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.
(Psalm 34: 8-10)

Jesus Christ did not ride around on a chariot or even a horse during all His travels across Israel, but on His very last journey into Jerusalem, chose a lowly colt to ride on. If anyone ever needed to get anywhere urgently to save dying souls, it was Jesus Christ, but He let all things happen in God’s own time. Having done everything that God sent Him into the world to do, in humility He rode on a colt on that one occasion, not demanding a chariot or a strong horse. His servants are expected to have the same humility such that the vast amounts of money spent on private jets and fleets of limousines and other expensive material acquisitions could be put to proper and dignified use of helping the needy—evidently our Lord plainly does not send those who indulge in that kind of materialism. There is nothing wrong with the worker earning his wages, but we must live modestly and humbly without oppressing the poor and taking undue advantage of the generosity of the brethren. The charlatans on pulpits today are in competition with the secular ‘celebrities’ of society. They lust after worldly achievements as the godless do and take pride in their celebrity status.

And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. (Ezekiel 34: 1-4)

Cases of fraudulent activities and sexual immorality in the Christian Church are now being taken to court, to be judged by unbelievers. So-called ministers in some parts of the world are being sent to prison and having their churches closed down by government. All such evil are found in the ‘visible church’, which is not the true Church of our Lord but established by Satan to discredit the Church of Christ.