Do we fear God’s Authority? (Part II)

By Odon Bulamba (7th June 2002)

Jeremiah 9:22 Says, “This is what the Lord declares: The dead bodies of men will lie like refuse on the open field, like cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather them”.

The Bible says that the man who is wise must not boast about his wisdom, and the one who is strong must not boast about his strength, and that the one who is rich must not boast about his riches. But if someone wants to boast it is better to boast about being able to know God. That is what the Bible says and God is proud of it. If you boast about knowing God, God will allow it. How many times do we boast about knowing God? We boast about our works but deep inside our heart, we don’t know Him.

When I came here tonight Angela was playing the piano and I asked myself, everything she plays I know, this is an A note or a B note but ask me to play the piano and I will be like someone who knows nothing about what is written in the book. This is the way we are living our Christianity today, we know the theory about God but we don’t know how to practice this God in our lives. If someone asks a question in the Bible we can answer this person without hesitation but when it comes to putting it into practice, it is impossible.

For example, I can take a chord that Angela uses to play the piano, but as soon as I play, the sound will be very different to what Angela will produce. When she plays the sound is nice but if I open my mouth and say the notes A or B, it won’t make sense. This is the way if God knows we belong to Him, He sees us as people playing an instrument. One knows the chord but doesn’t know how to play and another one knows how to read and play at the same time.

On T.V something happened to a Christian family. A child was sick and the parents didn’t want to treat this child because they believed in the healing power of God. This is normal because if you have faith the child will be healed. But it would have been good to know what state their faith was in, in front of God. How much did they consider God’s authority in their lives? I assure you brothers and sisters that if you have the gift of miracles and don’t have the fear of God, you will not heal anyone on earth, you may have this gift but it will be completely lost.

So these people presented this child to God and they prayed but because God’s authority wasn’t there, the child died. They knew that it was written if you put your hand on the child the child would be healed, but to practice the authority of God in everything they would read was not possible and the child died. The Pastor of the church was interviewed and he was asked what he thought about the situation and he said, “I thought they should have taken the child to the hospital”. So what was this family looking for? They wanted to show the world that God is powerful and to show that God can heal without medicine, but because God’s authority wasn’t in their lives, He confused them. That is why many people pray and fast for other people but see no results. First of all be conscious and proud to know God in your life, but if you don’t know God, you will do nothing in this life and you will waste your time completely.

When I was very young someone sent me 50 francs. I took it to the bank to change it and the teller told me that he didn’t recognise the bank note. He said I know that it is written French francs, but I don’t know if this bank note is still tender. So to confirm it, this person went to check with people who knew if it was tender or not. The same is with us, each time we pray we have to check to see if we know the God who we are praying to? Before telling everyone you are a Christian make sure you know this God.

In the book of Ezekiel 8:10-12;

“So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel. In front of them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising. He said to me, “son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, the Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land”.

This is a text that teaches us something. These people are the ancients of the house of Israel, they know theoretically who God is but when it comes to practicing this God they practice things from the world thinking that God doesn’t see them. Imagine an Elder, a Pastor or an Evangelist who is worshipping a god of darkness and you as a simple Christian, find them doing that, what are you going to say? If you find out that your Pastor is worshipping a statue, what are you going to say? I think you will be surprised because the Pastor teaches you not to practice things of this world but that is what he is doing.

Paul gave us a good example saying; “imitate me as I imitate Jesus Christ”. But you Pastor, who is worshipping a statue, are you going to tell me to worship a statue too? If you are an Elder of a church and you are always angry will you tell people to imitate you as well? You who are teachers but are also thieves, will you tell people to imitate you?

God showed Ezekiel the elders who were worshipping statues and pictures on the wall in the temple; they were doing it in hiding. When we are with other Christians or Pastors we try not to sin. We show that we are holy but when we are living alone without anyone around us, we practice what the devil asks us to do, believing that nobody is there to judge us. Remember that God knows even the deepest secrets in your heart.