The Man God uses - peacehouseabuja

By Gbile Akanni

(Living Seed Vol. 5 No 3 Dec 1998)

The Need for Usable Men

God has planned from the beginning to do all His works on earth through men. The heavens, even the heavens are the Lord’s; but the earth hath He given to the children of men (Ps 115:16). The scarcity of the power of God in any generation is not the deficiency of God in that generation, it is rather the unavailability of usable men. God’s eyes are always running to and fro all over the whole earth, looking for an upright man on whose behalf He will show Himself mighty. There are many people in the church today, but usable men are very scarce.

God is looking for men who will speak accurately for Him, men who will bear the burden of ministry according to His pattern. He is looking for men who meet the prerequisite qualification for the kind of man He uses. Until God finds a man, who meets His requirements, He will not release the rain. Instead of going up and down crying for ‘rain’, each man should rather concentrate his heart on being the kind of man that can handle a divine visitation. God is judicious with heavenly resources. When there are no hands to handle His resources, they will waste. Rain is good but if there are no containers to collect it, it will waste and cause erosion. It will create gullies and destroy even the little things that you are making do with. God is withholding revival, not because He does not want it but because He has not found hands that can handle it.
In Genesis 2:4-7, while there was no man to till the ground, God held the rain. It was after God formed the man that He began to release rain. While the man was not yet formed, God arranged that a mist should arise from the earth to at least water the ground (vs 6). As long as usable men are not available, God makes a kind of make-shift arrangement to maintain a form of godliness by providing a “mist”. There are ministries already going on, but the best way to describe them, as far as God is concerned, is a ‘mist’. Much of Jesus’s work on earth was to produce usable men. The same thing with Paul. He told Timothy to commit what he (Paul) had taught him to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Again, God is in need of usable men because every man will produce after his own kind. Men who are in leadership have a strong influence upon the people. A church is usually not holier than the holiness of its pastor. A church does not become more evangelical than the evangelistic fervour of its pastor or elders. The obedience of the congregation is also directly proportional to the obedience of its leadership. “Life begets life.” When you have a pastor that is worldly, he can only produce a worldly congregation. God therefore sees it as an important thing that those He will use must become specimens.

I am not just talking about your going to preach. You may preach the Bible, but what you will eventually produce is ‘you’! The genetic connection between parent and child is a very serious issue. Though invisible, it is very strong. It does not only happen physically but also spiritually. That is why God does not rush to appoint men into spiritual leadership. Men in spiritual ministry do not only preach the gospel but they must produce men after their own kind. If your life is not right, then you will contaminate the church by perpetuating your kind!.

A servant of God does not only touch the work of God, but he becomes part of that work. So God’s consideration is whether He can allow the life of that man He wants to use, to be part of what He wants to do eternally. Ministry therefore, is not first of all an activity. It is life…one’s character trait multiplied as it passes into other lives.
After Jesus resurrected (John 21: 1-3), Peter, the leader among the disciples says “I go a fishing”. Automatically almost without thinking, seven of the disciples say “we also go with thee”. A leader does not need to say “Follow me” before people do what they see him doing.
Who else could go forward when Peter denied Christ? There is therefore a need for God to spend meticulous time looking for a man He will use because once a man Is projected by God for leadership, his influence on the followers is difficult to cancel. God is afraid of releasing His power unto men because He is afraid of their genes. Can you produce after your own kind so that God will be satisfied? —. The implications of these, and the scarcity of such usable men is the burden for looking at the “THE MAN GOD USES” . By the grace of God we will diligently study this issue within the following outline:

What God looks for in the man He uses and
What He does to the man He uses. Under this, we shall endeavour to consider

(i) Weaned for the Master’s use

(ii) Divine interruption and

(iii) Divine incubation.

However, in this edition we shall study from 1 up to 2 (i). We hope to go on with the rest in the next edition.

What God looks for in the Man He Uses

“And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy Kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy Kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee. And the LORD said unto Samuel, how long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons… And he said, Peaceably: I am come to sacrifice unto the LORD: Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice. And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him. But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearnce, but the LORD looketh on the heart. Again Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, The LORD hath not chosen these. And Sanuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither.
And he sent and brought him in… And the LORD said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah”. I Sam. 13:13 & 14; 16:1,5-13

Not An Emergency Sanctification…

Every time God is looking for a man to use, God looks for something in that man. Before you can understand what chapter 13 is talking about you need to see what chapter 16 dealt with. In chapter 13, it was clear God needed to replace Saul because God had sought him a man after His own heart. But it is in chapter 16 that that man was being anointed. In vs 5 when all the sons of Jesse were brought, they were taken through a crash programme of sanctification in order for them to qualify to come for sacrifice. It is important for you to understand that what God looks for in a man He uses is not a crisis holiness. Several people today if suddenly invited to go and preach somewhere, will also need to go through such crash programme. If there is any quarrel somewhere they will say ‘No, no, I have a message, I am on assignment’. They will be meticulously holy because there is a preaching engagement. I say to you brother, God does not really look for men who are working up their holiness because there is a work to do. That is not what God looks for. There is a place for crisis and crash programmes, but it is not very important in God’s consideration of the man He wants to use. And that is why, if you are desiring God to use you, start living a correct life today.

The men God uses are men He can pick without notice and their lives will still be correct. Whereas the seven sons of Jesse here had time to sanctify themselves, to wash themselves, and to wear a religious dress, David did not have that time. He was in the field when they sent for him, and as soon as he arrived he was anointed. God did not have to say “go, wash him before you anoint him” or “change his garment before he can come to the altar”. Why didn’t God do all of that? He was already sanctified right in the heart. He was a man that even in the bush, where there was nobody controlling him, he was living right. He was not like several persons that are only serious because of a post they occupy in the church. Any time you remove them from that post they backslide. Have you noticed it? You see young people clinging to a post, but once you remove them from that post they say ‘so why do I have to be serious? What I was even doing for God, they have removed it from me. Why should I have to be very prayerful?” They won’t even come for Bible study meetings any more.

You need to also know that when God is looking for a man to use, He will also peep into his family life: He will be asking ‘what has been his relationship with his wife?’ Records are kept. When your story is not straight God will say “No, we can not use this man”. As you look at that story, you will notice that though they were prepared by this “crash programme of holiness,” it did not impress God. There is a prayer I pray for myself: to be a man that God will bang on at any time and anywhere for a divine assignment, and I will always be ready. My first emphasis is just to be a Christian. Preaching, for me, is a secondary assignment. This looks like a very trivial statement. Someone will say ‘but we are all Christians’. I know we are all Christians, but I want to be a Christian. I want men to see me and the first thing they see about my life is not that I am a preacher. I want to be in a place; not known, not advertised, and yet my life would strike men and they can say “ Ha , this man, it looks as if he has been with Jesus”. This is more important to God.

Not Human Approval…
I don’t know how Eliab appeared that even the man of God was confused. You know that Samuel was such an accurate man that even the servant of Saul confessed that whatever he says comes to pass. But this man was going to make a mistake with Eliab. The Bible says;
“And it came to pass when they had come, he looked on Eliab and he said surely…”

You see if he did not use the word surely, I will not worry. Surely meant “certainly, without any doubt, this is the man.” I don’t know what he saw. Even when a prophet, a noble prophet will be confused about your personality, God will not. Appointment unto ministry, is not first an appointment by your church or by men. If it is a man that placed you in ministry, I am sorry for you, because the men that placed you there can remove you. How I pray that you will press beyond human appointment and get a divine appomtment over your life. Several of you are ministers and Pastors today and I congratulate you and thank God for you, but I would like to say something to you. You need to pursue God so that your calling into ministry can be confirmed whether the church organisation you are serving is there or not . A man that has received a divine approval from heaven can not be threatened. You can not sack him. People can say “No, we don’t want you here again”, but it doesn’t affect you. Do you know why? Baba has approved of you. I want you to press on to possess an anointing and a place with God in your life. Make sure you are not just living under the shadow of your president or even because of the congregation in your church. Some people come to your church today, not because of you. They are coming there because of something else. It is all right if you grow, but if you settle on that, the day you will be thrown out, you will be thrown into a vacuum because your life does not command any following. Secretly, in your relationship with God, press on until Baba can approve your life. And when a man has got heavenly approval, it doesn’t matter where he stays. As far as I am concerned, an anointed man has no problem with location. If a man with God’s approval on his life has anointing, if he goes now into the bush and decides to settle there, do you know people will go there? The rule of the game is “where the carcass is there will the eagles gather.” (Matt. 24:28).

He said to Samuel, ‘Look not on his countenance.’ So Let us please note! God is not particularly concerned about a man’s countenance or stature before He places him in His work. Do not judge by a man’s face. Anointing is not on the face. I don’t know how these foolish things have entered the church that ministers, instead of pursuing what matters to God -a correct heart, they go pursuing physical appearance. But that is not what God looks for in men He raises. When I say that, I do not mean you should be wearing, rags. I have not said you should appear dirty. No, that is not what we are talking about. That is odd. Do not appear unkempt. But I want you to know that those things, are not God’s primary considerations in placing a divine approval on a man’s life.

Your Heart Condition…
Look at the scripture. It says, ‘…because I have refused him’. A man that the man of God has said “surely he’s the Lord’s anointed”, hear the heavenly verdict: ‘ I have refused him ‘.
“I have refused him because the Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart”. 1 Sam. 16:7
If God were to put His finger on your life for a specific assignment in this end-time, the first issue that would concern Him is the condition of your heart. The heart of man is deceitful above all things, who can know it? You may be sitting and discussing with people in a meeting , and they may be nodding their heads, as if they agree and are with you in what you are saying, yet their hearts may not be with you… They are either thinking of something else or may have wandered far in their thoughts.

Somebody invited Jesus to come and eat at His house. As they sat down and were eating, there was this woman, a harlot and a sinner who came in and was weeping at the feet of the Lord Jesus, using her tears to wash His feet and her hair to clean it (Lk. 7:36-48). Jesus and the owner of the house were still talking, the man was still talking and Jesus was hearing him, but the man’s heart went somewhere else, his heart was saying something else and Jesus saw it. And what was the man saying in his heart? He was saying, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.” He did not know Jesus had the ability to know what he was saying in his heart. Jesus who wanted to puncture his heart suddenly said ‘Simon’. He said ‘yes sir!!’. Jesus asked “seeth thou this woman? When I came to your house, did you give me water to wash my feet?” He must have said in his heart that it was an omission. Jesus went on “ seeth thou this woman, since I came, she has not stopped washing my feet with her tears. Did you give me a towel to clean my feet. Seeth thou this woman , she has not stopped using her hair, the glory of a woman to clean my feet? Do you suppose that you love me more than the woman? Wherefore I say unto thee. Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little”. Jesus just said that and the story finished. He did not say anything else more than that to the man.

What was Jesus dealing with? He knew the man’s heart. Because God’s consideration of the man He uses is first and foremost the heart, I wish your own consideration also will be your heart. What is the condition of your heart? What goes on in your own heart? Is your heart right with God? Have your affections been nailed to the cross? Are you internally converted? What is your heart condition? This is not what anybody could talk to you about as a leader. But that is what God looks for.
When Gideon gathered thousands of people to go and fight for him, do you know why God rejected them? God came to Gideon and asked, “who are these people with you?” He said “they are soldiers of the cross who are going to fight for us”. God said ‘these people? No, I cannot go with them’. God saw their hearts and said, “They will vaunt themselves against me and they will say my hand delivered me.” (Judges 7:2) They had not yet said it, but God already saw what their hearts were saying.

Sometimes God does not pick a man for His service, not because of what wrong that man has already done, but because of certain tendencies or what the man is likely to do in future which God has already seen. That is more fearful for me. God already sees what a man’s life is going to be, should He give that life an anointing that will bring a breakthrough. If He sees a man that will vaunt himself against Him, He will peg his progress. Jesus, while talking to His disciples; about principles that will make them effective, said “ Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see the LORD”. What is your heart condition? If God were to look on physical appearance, it would have been all right. Many people appear very gentle and zealous on the outside; you may appear zealous and people may be praising God for you, but does God say the same about you? God knows the brother who is in the ministry simply because he wants to make a good living out of it. God knows your quiet attitude towards money that makes you press on saying “Yes it will soon be alright, it will soon be alright”. He knows your zeal is because you are looking for money. God knows several of us that look very gentle because power has not come to our hands yet. He knows how your heart will hold tenaciously to power if He should just show you a little power. He knows what you will do…

There are brothers that God seems to regret over their lives today. You remember God regretted over Saul. I keep praying, “God, may you never have reasons to regret that You exposed me to the ministry and identified my name with Your work”. Many years ago, I remember that I was crying to God for an anointing. You see I had a burden for revival in the church and used to ask “ Is it not possible, oh God, for you to raise men in our land who will teach and get your people back on their knees?” After much prayer when I thought God was already happy with my life, He said something that baffled me. He said “Yes I have heard you. I will use you but I abhor betrayal of trust. I have put my power in the hands of many people and they have betrayed my trust. Even though I will use you I will first of all test you. I will put you on probation, just go.” After twelve years of continuous preaching from one village to another, one town to another, from one meeting or one conference to another. I was praying again, and God said “In the past twelve years, you have been on probation. I am beginning now to think of trusting you”. I asked ‘ You mean for twelve years you have just been watching me?’ I was surprised.

I discovered that what sometimes makes God to withdraw from committing Himself to a man is not just what that man has already done. It is what he is likely to do in future. So when I ask you to pray, I am not just asking you to think of the mistakes of your past. You have to cry to God and ask for forgiveness even for those ones. But I want you to go beyond that. I want you to say “God, I don’t know myself , what are the things that have been planted in my life that have not manifested today, that may manifest in the future? LORD please point at them that I may become useful in your hand in the name of Jesus”. You see when God desires to use a man, the first thing He checks and checks again is the heart of such a man. So if you want to commend yourself unto God, you must check the heart first. You need to check your heart. Is your heart correct? Are there particles of sin that have been planted into your heart that may not have opportunity to grow today, but will grow tomorrow? Is there a kind of ambition, perhaps an ambition for fame, in your life that has made it difficult for God to trust you with a big work?

God has had to peg the progress of some servants of His because of what He saw in their heart, Is it taking several years for God to give you a breakthrough and to enlarge your life? Where you are now can you please check, is there something that God is querying in your heart? Does God see the seed of pride and arrogance in you that if He should fertilise you with anointing, it will spring up? I am talking to you as a man that can become great in the hand of God. I am not just looking at you at the level you are today. May be you are a Sunday school teacher. You may begin as a Sunday school teacher. I do not think God will allow you to die at the level of the Sunday school teacher; I believe that those are positions just for your training and your exposure. There are greater tasks ahead of your life. I believe the Holy Spirit has a large estate into which He would want to call you if you are faithful. But one thing that scares God away from a man is his life. Is your heart pure?

WHAT GOD DOES TO THE MAN HE USES

(A) weaned for the master’s use
God Himself knows and says that no man can serve two masters. It is not possible for you to serve God and mammon. So, every time God desires to use a man, the first thing He does is to wean him from every other allegiance, matter or project of his life. This involves cutting him off, and taking him away from things that tie him down either to the world system or to the kingdom of darkness.
The weaning process may not be the same for every man because we are not all attached to the same thing. But there is a weaning process that is common to all which is the one we will be looking at first.

Weaned from sin… for the masters use.
In John 8, the LORD Jesus confronted some people as He preached and shared the word of God with them. We are told that many believed in Him in verse 30. Then in verse 31 He said to those who believe on Him
“If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”. John 8:31
Jesus answered them “ Verily, verily, I say unto you whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin” (Jn.8:34). I tell you the truth, every one who sins is a slave to sin. What is the meaning of everyone? It means everyone, whether he is a Pastor, an Evangelist, a Deacon, a Pastor’s daughter, or whatever. Did the scripture say some people who sin or most people who sin are slaves to sin? No. The Bible says ‘Everyone who sins is a slave to sin’ .

The scripture goes on to say ‘now a slave has no permanent place in the family (no permanent abode, no permanent portion, or seat). But a son belongs to it forever’. Please note that it was the Lord JESUS Himself that said this. He said “verily verily” that is to say ‘truly’, ‘certainly’, ‘assuredly’, ‘without any iota of doubt’, ‘and if anybody asks you who told you, say I said unto you’.

Who is a sinner? A sinner is he who sins. Whether it is a pastor, a Sunday school teacher, an evangelist that is committing sin, he is a sinner. You are the one who calls him Pastor, Rev., Evangelist. In heaven, he is known and called a sinner. And as a sinner, he is a slave to sin. You can see how slaves are in our churches today; how many slaves are-occupying pulpits, how many slaves are Sunday school teachers or singers, how many slaves are helping us to beat drums or to collect offerings? Sometimes you are so afraid that your sins will get to the notice of church leadership and they may want to ex-communicate you, so you hide it. But ex-communication from a church building is a small disgrace compared to expulsion from the family of God into the outer darkness. Jesus warns, let me not deceive you “whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house forever”.

Ever before God can use a man, He has to wean him from sin. Why? Sin is a master. One thing I have discovered about sin is that sin will normally approach you as if it is going to be a one time experiment. That is a deception. If you fall into its trap once, you will likely end up enslaved to it. You may think you will just quickly do it and come back. No. If you fall into the trap of ‘Mr. sin’ once, he will be trying to establish a rule over your life as his slave. Do you know that the moment you start telling lies, either to cover up one thing or the other the normal tendency is that you will always tell lies. If you have never fornicated, I congratulate you. But once you go into fornication, it will always be pulling you to go on. Unless you are weaned and cut off from the tyranny of sin, you will always be a slave. There are no two ways about it. So the Bible says ‘you will call his name Jesus for He will deliver his people from their sins’ (Matt. 1:21). That is the first thing Jesus does when he comes into any man’s life. I am afraid when I see you say, “Oh praise the Lord, I have seen Jesus, He is able to do all things”. But you have not been delivered from your sins. I wonder which Jesus you met. Also I wonder who is preaching to you that you are so comfortable in God’s family while still a sinner. You know that sometimes it bothers me that for 52 Sundays of a whole year, all that you are hearing is how you are an overcomer, how you are victorious, more than a conqueror, how you are going to be a millionaire. You have enjoyed all these, yet sin has quietly remained your master. I do not envy you. Do you know why? A sinner does not abide in the house forever. If you put a million Naira into the hands of a sinner, and he is enjoying it, he will still perish with whatever he has when it is time for the master to pull him out. My brother, permit me to disturb your conscience this day. Are you a sinner? The issue is not a matter of argument. I think that scripture is very simple: He who sins is a slave to sin and now a slave has no permanent place in the family. That is the first thing. You must be weaned. Sin is the first Master from whom every man that God will use must be weaned.

Note that I have not talked of Satan. Satan is not your Master. Satan is an exploiter. Satan and sin are in very strong alliance. Satan only comes to sit on top of a man whom sin has already made his slave. So, whenever you want a complete deliverance from Satan, that is a very simple issue: deal with the problem of sin.

The word of God says “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God”. I Jn. 3:5-9

Now the Bible says ‘In Jesus there is no sin’. So because there is no sin in Christ, there is also nobody who can be in Christ and be committing sin. What must anybody who wants to commit sin therefore do? He has to first go out. There is no sinner in Christ. Every sinner you see has gone out. Do you think you can be in Christ and be beating your wife? It is not possible. Before you can beat your wife, you must have said “let’s put the Bible aside, let us face reality” or “ Don’t think you can be using the Bible to cheat me here. I want to show you my true colour now. I don’t care, go and report me to the pastor”. Is this not what people who beat their wives normally say? What is that brother doing? He is going out. And when he has finished, his eyes may open and he will start regretting. He may only come back and knock “Open for me, Lord I will not do that again. Lord I will not beat my wife again”. The reason some of you do not know the gravity of sin is because death has not met you on it. Some of you play with sin as if sin sends men to hell because it is big. Does a snake kill a man because it is a big snake? Why does it kill ? It is because of the venom: Every sin, no matter how small, is capable of sending you out. The power of sin is actually not in its magnitude, it is because before you can sin whether small or big, you have to go out. And when you go out, the door is closed. Coming back is only by the grace of God.

These days, I hear people saying “I am righteous, because our own righteousness is of Jesus Christ” while they go on living in sin. But let me tell you again, whosoever is committing sin does still not know Jesus. You cannot know Jesus and still not be delivered from sin. And any religion, any activity that does not set you loose from the Master “Sin’’, has not helped your life. What drove Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden? It was sin. It was sin that made God to put the Cherubim with a flaming sword to protect the tree of life so that they would not touch it. It was sin that plucked out the eyes of the mighty man of God, Samson. It was sin that wrecked David, even though he was a man after God’s own heart initially. You remember that at old age, Brother David was driven out of his palace. What drove him out? It was sin. Sin knows no man. Every man that is committing sin is a slave to sin. Again the Bible says “little children let no man deceive you“. If anybody has been shaking your hand, saying “ Eh! it is well with you. I can see all over you the glory of the Lord”, when you know that you are sinning secretly, that man has not seen anything . He is a soothsayer. He is not telling you the truth. The Bible says “say to the wicked, it shall not be well with him”. And for a man to be used by God, he has to be weaned from sin by God. I am not talking about being weaned from big sins. Whether sin is big or small it has the ability to enslave you, even if you are a giant.
Do you know why Judas Iscariot forfeited his place in the service of God? Judas Iscariot had already answered a fulltime call, and was already among the twelve apostles of the lamb. The eleven speaking about him in Acts 1:17 said “this man has obtained this ministry with us”. Do you also remember that by virtue of his position as an Apostle, Judas was to have his name on one of the foundations in the new Jerusalem (Rev. 21:14); and also Jesus had promised the Apostles were going to sit on thrones beside Him during regeneration, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:28)? What happened that Judas Iscariot lost out? It was sin. And the sin was not a big one. At least, it did not start big. He started by borrowing money from the church purse. As a church treasurer, I see you taking church money and writing ‘I. O. U’. It may have started with your daughter crying to you for money one day, and you felt oh, but there is no money here except the church money. So you reached out and took N50 out of it saying ‘I will replace it’. You replaced that first one all right and we praise God. But next time when your father-in-law came without notice and was to go back, what did you say? You said, ‘How can I send my father in law empty-handed since they have not paid me my salary’. So you reached out for five hundred Naira. That is how you started borrowing huge sums until you could no longer give account of the church money. Anytime the church says ‘we want to have the church account’, you say ‘you see I am very busy, and you people should know that this thing is very tedious and complicated. I need sometime to be able to prepare the accounts…. Afterall no body pays me for it”.

Brother, that was how Judas Iscariot left. Sin does not come to a man’s life with a one time agenda. Little by little Judas Iscariot left, until one day, they offered him, ‘how much is your bill, if you betray Jesus to us?’. That was how he betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Maybe he thought it was not going to be a problem. I know that wherever Judas is now, he will be regretting and saying “ Hm, had I known!”.
In case you are confused because when you pray in tongues things happen (though you are living in sin ), and you say “yes, if sin actually is a probiem why is God using me?”, do not be confused . The name of Jesus is credit worthy anytime. If you call that name it will work. But that has nothing to do with you. A slave can be in the family for a while; using family wares, using family name, using family property; but when time comes, what happens to the slave? He is sent out. That is why Jesus Christ would tell them :“depart from me, You workers of iniquity”. Man of God, do not play with sin. Are you a deliverance preacher? Do not let deliverance lead you into playing with sin. It will slaughter you and make you a saddle to yourself even in your life time. See the conclusion in 2Tim. 2:19
“ Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his. And let every man that nameth the name of the Lord, depart from iniquity”.

Do not let me hear you say ‘well, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak’. God told Cain, sin lies at your door and you must master it. Do not come with the foolish explanation “ Eh, you know, we are all weak” The Bible says “you have not yet resisted sin to the shedding of blood as Jesus did”. What the Bible is saying here is that it is better to shed your blood than to yield to sin. No matter the pressure you are going through it is better to die than to sin. Sin comes with a flash. Before you know it, it has put a chain on your neck and is dragging you to hell.

Weaned From Every Affections…
Apart from weaning a man from sin, as we go through the scriptures, we discover that the men that God used, several times, at one point or other in their lives, you see Him demanding to cut them from what looks like their main stay. This usually involves the affections they had grown up with and the things that were so precious to them. God seems to be saying ‘I want to use you, I want your life to become something in my hands but I can not share your love with someone else, I can not share your affections with something else. Get thee out’.

“Now the Lord had said to Abraham, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father’s hause, into a land I will shew thee: And I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shall be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. “ Gen. 12:1-3.

In the above scripture, we see God confronting Abraham ‘I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great, you will be a blessing. By you and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed; but you can not do that while you dwell among your kindred’. And the Bible says in the book of Hebrews that “…Abraham obeyed, not knowing whither he goeth” (Heb. 11:8). Do you remember that? When you read about Abraham today, it looks so easy but it is a very difficult point. He was to leave those that knew him and those that he knew. He was to leave his landed property, only to enter into another land as a sojourner. When you study the scriptures you will discover that for 62 years that this man left Chaldea unto the land that God said He was to give him, He did not possess a plot. The climax came when his wife died and there was no where to bury the woman. In Hebrews 11, the Bible says ‘had it been they were not persuaded of what God told them, they would have had opportunity to have returned’. What an opportunity! He would have told God ‘God, I used to be a landlord in my father’s house and you have sent me here to be begging for six-by-three piece of land. I am going home”. You know that in some tribes, if somebody dies outside his home town, you must not bury him there. You must go home no matter what it will cost you. But Abraham waited for God’s promise and before they would give him a portion of land in which to bury his wife, he had to pay. He bought the cave of Machpelah where he buried his wife. But that was not the only time God weaned him.

God had to wean him from another affection when he went to Egypt. I hope you remember that on his way back he picked Hagar as a house girl. She was a very small girl that time. I think she might not have reached puberty when they picked her. She was a young innocent girl, but from Egypt. But she grew up in Abraham’s house and ended up being a snare for the family. And I tell you, anything you take from Egypt will grow in your hand. And as it is growing it would be looking more appealing. I imagine as Hagar was growing, she was becoming robust, the beauty of teenager began to come out. The man of God will occasionally sit back and day dream about the girl. I normally wonder how Abraham, by just one suggestion of his wife lost ten years of walking with God. It did not start that day. It had been
happening little by little. Every time Hagar was called to come and give him water, the eyes of the man of God would be going over the girl. Nobody suddenly falls. Those that fell, fell gradually. It is only that people do not often know when they were beginning to fall. The last straw that breaks the camel’s back is the one people know and talk about. But the camel’s back had begun to break little by little before that last straw. So it was for Abraham that one day, something happened to Sarah and she said “my own has finished. Hagar is there if you want”. As soon as Sarah said that, Abraham went for it. He did not even say ‘let me go and ask God about it.” And that was a man who was known to make many altars. On that occasion, there was no altar, no prayer, and no checking. That same night Abraham went into a small girl. I wonder why it did not occur to Abraham that the small girl would have been his grand daughter; but he went.

And you know when the devil wants to deal with you, he will make sure that something indelible takes place with your first step into sin. Several of your friends have been going on; in and out sleeping with people all around and nothing happened. The day you will do your own, that same day you will be pregnant. Then you will say ‘But this is my first time and I did it only for ten minutes.” ‘You do not know the devil. He is looking for something with which to catch you and make sure you do not escape. The Bible says that is how Hagar took in and for the next thirteen years, Uncle Abraham became useless. There was no family prayer, no scriptural records of anything about him all through those years. In fact, everything became silent.
Before God could use him again, he needed to be weaned even from that affection. He needed to be weaned from Hagar. So in Gen 17:1 God Came and told him “Abraham, walk thou before me and be perfect. I don’t know anything about this Hagar and about this Ishmael, it is over your wife that I am going to make a covenant with you”. Do you know that the day God was speaking to him, if he had surrendered Hagar, and Ishmael, the whole issue would have ended there? I do not know whether Ishmael would have been alive today. But this man prayed a very dangerous prayer. He persisted in praying for Ishmael. And Ishmael is living today! You know there are many things several of us do that may not hinder us from going to heaven only because of the grace of God. But when we get to heaven, it will become a sad memory and eternal regret to us. I do not know how Abraham feels today, each time he looks down and sees the problem the Arabs are giving the children of Israel or the persecution the gospel is getting from Islam. He will be saying ‘I caused it, I wish I never went into Hagar and I wish when God told me to drive him (Ishmael) out I had allowed him to go’.

Sir, you need to be weaned from every attachment before God can use your life effectively. And if you allow the weaning to take place now, it will be easier. What God is asking you to drop today, and you are refusing so to do, in ten years time, it will become more sophisticated and complicated. By the time Abraham was going to be weaned finally, it was with pains.
Apart from Hagar, Abraham still needed to be weaned from Isaac before he could be what God wanted him to be. Isaac the child of promise became the idol of Abraham’s heart, his only affection, and his exhibition stick. Anywhere he went, he went with Isaac as a show piece saying, ‘come and see what the Lord has done’. One day God said,
‘Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the mount of Moriah: and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”

See how God protested: ‘that Isaac whom you love, take him’. God weans men in order to use them. Now we are looking at a very technical issue. I am not talking about sin again, I am talking about the issue of affections which may not even look bad or wrong. They may not even appear sinful. But they hinder one from being used by the Master. I must tell you again that the more God wants to use a man, the more He weans him from every thing sin that could share his heart. The story of Isaac and Abraham was wonderful. God said “take that Isaac your son, whom you love, take him to one mountain I will show you and slaughter him as an offering.” I do not know what Abraham did that day. He must have prayed and prayed, binding the devils, saying, ‘ It cannot be God. God gave me this Isaac after about twenty-five years of continuous fasting and prayer. How can that same Isaac be a burnt offering?’. But the more he prayed, the more he heard God saying ‘that is how I used to talk to you; You know it. You don’t trust my voice now because it is Isaac. Give me that Isaac otherwise my journey with you will terminate.”

And Abraham, after much prayer conquered that issue and took Isaac from his heart. Isaac was now by his side, no longer in his heart. As he journeyed to Moriah, they got to a point with the other servants where God seemed to have said ‘this thing I am telling you to do, sympathy will not allow you to do it if you don’t leave these people.” So he had to leave the servants behind. It also comes to a point where God must wean your life even from sympathisers. These are men who try to shield you from the dealings of God on your life. If God purposes to use your life, he will wean you from such men. And we saw how Abraham had to tell those friends, ‘please wait here, I and the lad will go yonder and we will worship’.

He knew in his heart that Isaac was gone. In fact as they were going on the road, he was looking at Isaac as already dead. Isaac on the road asked him a very terrible question; ‘my father, this is the fire, this is the wood, where is the lamb?’. That was the question that would have made the man of God to collapse, but he technically answered it by saying ‘the Lord will provide, let’s go’. When they got there, the young man was waiting for God to provide and as they looked Ieft and right, here and there, Abraham seemed to have said ‘since God has not provided something else, you are the one.’ And i imagine how Isaac must have been looking at his father with great amazement saying ‘I hope he is not mad’. The boy must have said , ‘Daddy I hope you are not confused. You mean you want to kill me? Is this how much you love me, I thought you used to tell me that you love me?’, The boy was no longer a small boy. He was at least twelve years old. And Abraham must have said, ‘I used to love you but God is demanding for my affection. You must be weaned from my heart.’ And as he was using the rope to tie the boy on top of the stick, the boy must have been asking “Father, are you alright?” And Abraham would have said “Yes I know what I am doing”. With every wrap of the rope he was bringing the old affection he had for Isaac and tying it to the stick while making room for the Lord… God was waiting, He did not intervene, He was watching until he finished tying everything. Do you know that Isaac lost a father in his heart after this experience? He could no longer look unto Abraham or say ‘my father can not do that’. He will now reflect and say ‘If not for God, I don’t know where I would have been today’. Abraham also could not say ‘Oh Isaac I love you’. To the son, he would have looked a hypocrite. Isaac would have said ‘you love me and you wanted to kill me?’. So forever he had been weaned. Isaac lost a father and Abraham lost a son. And the affection that Isaac had for Abraham died and was transferred to God. And from that day Isaac knew that he was living on a borrowed time. Now he could say ‘whatever God had in mind to spare my life from this father, I had better pursue that purpose for God’.

It was not only Abraham who was weaned. Before God could use Moses, God also had to wean him from the palace of Egypt. God had to take away from him what Egypt used to mean to his life so that he could be ready to walk with Him. Samuel was weaned from his parents in order to know God. Paul of Tarsus was a man who was weaned from all his academic attainment, he said ‘All things that use to be gain I count them now as loss.’ All the men that God used were weaned from worldly affections, worldly pursuits and everything that shared their hearts with the Master. Have your affections been nailed to the cross? Surrender to Him today and you will not regret it.

THE MAN GOD USES Continues in the next edition.

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