The Great Before God
‘’Then the mother of
Zebedee’s sons came to him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something
from Him. And He said to her what do you wish? She said to Him ‘grant that
these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right hand, and one on the left, in
your kingdom’. But Jesus answered and said, you do not know what you ask. Are
you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptize with the
baptism that I am baptized with? They said to Him we are able. So He said to
them you will indeed drink my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am
baptized with; but to sit on My left hand and on My right is not Mine to give,
but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.’’ (MATT. 220;
20-23).
One very
pathetic issues found among church folks is what I call another-person’s-
success phobia. This is usually why some head pastors of some ministries assume
Do- It all attitude in ministerial work because they do not want their
subordinate to become suddenly ‘greater’ than them. Others, while giving their
subordinates free hands to exercise what they got, are daily afraid that their
subordinates would one day become more celebrated than they. Only very few
people do not fall into these categories.
This article
attempts to explain what scriptural greatness is all about. This will be done
under the THREE FACTS OF GREATNESS
FACT ONE: greatness is not synonymous with performance or
gifting. You are not great because of what signs and wonders God has used you
for. If greatness is dependent on the miracles one has performed, I suppose
somebody like John the Baptist would have no space in the who is who in the
history of the church (John 11:11-15); if greatness was determined by numbers
of signs and wonders, Elisha would be greater than Elijah because Elisha
actually did times two of Elijah’s miracles, but contrariwise Elijah
represented the Prophet in the Mount of Transfigurations (Mark 9: 4).
FACTS TWO: the great is yet to be decided. Jesus told James,
John and their mother that only God would on the last day decides who and who
would sits on Jesus’ left or right hand (Matt. 20:23). This means that what you
do with what you have been given will determine if you are great or lily-hearted.
Your humility amidst the supposed great exploits would tell if you are great or
not (Cons. Matt. 18:4).
FACT THREE: greatness
is judged by assignments, mandate or ones’ place in God’s mandate. I made bold
to say here that if a child of God has not backslidden, his convert or
spiritual son can never or would never be greater than him no matter the
convert’s spiritual exploits. Those that do network marketing know this simple
fact. If God used Mr. A in any way to contribute to what Mr. B is now, Mr. B
can never, under any known spiritual laws, be greater than Mr. A, as long as
Mr. A is still a child of God. Michael the Archangel did not bring a railing
accusation against Satan because he still remembered that if Lucifer had not
fallen he was greater (Jude 9).
But were the two
people under study do not have this father-son relationship, assignment
matters. By assignment I mean how dear your focused ministry is to God. Some
people claim that God had made them Apostles of financial empowerment. I call
such ministry the Periphery Ministry (Cons. Matt. 6:33). Any pastor who is not
focused on ‘the kingdom’ mandate cannot be a great apostle.
The other aspect is
that the ministry you taught you are good at, did anybody pioneer it? You call
yourself a holiness preacher; did you not learn it from someone? You are an
apostle of faith, did you not learn it somehow? Before you come to the picture,
these pioneers must be considered. Moses was the pioneer of the law, so even
though he handed over to Joshua who could be said to have conquered more
cities, in the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses represented the law. What did
Abraham do uniquely that today we see him as the father of faith? Did he
perform any miracle? But he was the first to answer the call of God without any
examples to learn from. But today we have several people and the Bible to draw
from, so whatever exploit we do is not unusual (Mark 9:4). John the Baptsit
ministry heralded Christ Coming. Would you focus from today your ministry on
heralding Jesus’ Second Coming?
Above all we have mentioned, though, the
ability to remain unruffled and humble even when God is doing great things
through one still remains the strongest and the most viable parameter for
greatness. Remain HUMBLE!
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OHIMAI DANIEL
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