Good morning, mighty woman of God! I speak blessings of peace, love and joy upon your life and may you prosper as you follow after Jesus Christ.
(1 John 2:27), But the anointing which ye have received of him
abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same
anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as
it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
Since we've all
seen the Wizard of Oz, I want you to put on your spiritual cap and “ease on
down the road” with me. When Dorothy finally reaches her destination, the Land
of Oz, she realizes that the great and powerful Wizard is a phony. For some reason no one in the entire town of
Oz ever met the great Wizard but they followed him and his laws. They sang and danced all about the great and
powerful Wizard.
Let’s suppose that you are Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz is the minister or pastor of your church. You have put all your faith in him to show you the way to Jesus Christ. You eventually discover that he has been putting up a front for the Land of Oz (the congregation). He has been stealing the building funds, instead of counseling he’s committing adultery, and leading you down a yellow brick road to nowhere. You are disappointed and lost because you put your faith in the creation, not the Creator.
Here’s my story: I was helping out a friend with the birth of their new ministry. I knew the Word of God and had been practicing to live by the laws of God’s Word. I studied my bible daily and through my time of praise and worship with the Lord, I developed a relationship with Him. Although I had those aspects under my belt, I got stuck in the wrong ministry. I saw all the warning signs but I compromised what I knew to be true and righteous when it came to what the bible says about leaders in the church. I got caught up in all the hoopla and façade that was put on in the church and found myself following after the creation and not the Creator. My punishment for doing so was more than I could have ever imagined. I could not blame anyone but myself because I should have done what I knew to be righteous according to the Word of God. I lost sight of the Creator and held on to the creation.
There are certain characteristics and requirements which
are written in the bible that explains in detail how a pastor or leaders in the
church should act before starting a ministry.
(Titus 1:6-8), An elder must be
blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are
not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s
work, he must be blameless, not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to
drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves
what is good, who is
self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.
The Lord God wants you to know two important things: (1) God is the only one that you should be following. If the pastor/minister is not following the Word of God, then you should not be following them. You have an obligation to yourself to study the Word of God and follow the right path to Christ. (2) You have the power to get to Jesus Christ yourself. You have the owner’s manual, it’s called the bible. It does not take the great OZ (pastor/minister) to get you there. Jesus says, “Knock and the door shall be opened to you, seek and you shall find.
I don't care how great and powerful you think your pastor is, he is not God and therefore he is imperfect. When you put your pastor on a pedestal of perfection, you could possibility be setting yourself up for a big fall. People tend to forget that their pastor does make mistakes. When your pastor makes a mistake it is only because he is a man, not God. Your pastor should only be a guide to you through your spiritual journey. The bible says, "study to show thyself approved."
A lot of women tend to get hurt in their church because they have forgotten the fundamentals of the Word of God and decided to follow after the creation instead of the Creator. We are emotional creatures and sometimes we tend to follow our hearts and not what we know to be true and righteous.
Your pastor is not going to be standing beside with you when you are called home by the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to be accountable for your own actions. Don’t be like Dorothy, looking for something that does not exist or finding out that you have wasted your time sitting under a ministry that has only a form of godliness. PRAISE GOD!
