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| Pastor S.O. Oladele |
In
ancient Greek mythology, there is a legend of two brothers, both of whom were
well-known and respected architects. The
king commissioned them to design and build a royal treasure house in which he
could store his wealth. During the construction process, they became
increasingly obsessed with a desire for the King’s treasure. Ingeniously, they devised
a plan to place one of the stones in a manner that it could be removed without
the king’s knowledge. So skillfully and meticulously was the work done that
nobody except the two brothers had the slightest idea that the secret entrance existed. After the completion of their work, they
would from time-to-time remove the stone
and enter the treasury to steal from the
king’s treasure. The king
was amazed to discover
that although his locks and
seals remained unbroken, his treasure was slowly and steadily being depleted
(As captured from the
preface of David Ravenhill’s book
title ‘Surviving the anointing’).
A
leak is a crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water, or other
fluid, or let
it escape. Leakage is a waste of treasure through an opening.
A leakage, in the context of the presence and the gift of the Holy Spirit in
the body of Christ, is an escape route of spiritual gifts, anointing/power, special
endowments/abilities, covenant, or any
divine treasure possessed.
Attaining
heights of maturity in Christ costs so much and delivers precious spiritual
virtues such that cannot be quantified. But it is quite unfortunate that the
spiritual endowment received in a long-term and consistent sacrificial walk
with Christ can deplete unimaginably in a short while. This is how wasteful
spiritual leakages can be to us when we indulge ourselves or yield to whatever
does not conform to the principles of Christ for us. Fasting, denial of
soul-gratifying pleasures, consistent presence in Church services, etc., may have been sunk into building capacity for
spiritual empowerment, but these painful sacrifices never count when the virtues
possessed are leaking out to self-indulgence of any kind or all manners of
unrighteousness. This is why we have not attained our desired spiritual heights
in God in the proportion of our spiritual sacrifices, because we
fall from our great heights too often and faster than
we rise.
Samson,
in Judges 14:1-3, 15:1-5, 8, 14-16, is
a major
example; he had all he needed absolutely
by divine provision. The two acts of his obedience recorded were adherence to
keeping his hair intact and abstinence from alcohol. His careless fall on the
laps of a dangerous woman was too sudden and incomparable to the decades of his
preparation, through the
lovely team-work of his God-fearing
parents and the special love of God for him. Samson was not just powerful, he was
anointed as the most powerful human that ever existed but his fall was too
cheap compared to the immeasurable deposit of God into him. Despite the list of signals exposing the evil
intentions of his subtle lover, he blindly fell because he was insensitive to
his emotional weakness through which his anointing and life depleted to an
helpless state of choosing to abruptly terminating his life in the midst of his
adversaries, what a pity!
Peter,
in another instance, lamenting over the fall of Judas, sobbing so deeply
that ‘…he was numbered among
us and was allotted his share in this ministry.”(Now this
man acquired a
field with the
reward of his
wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all
his bowels gushed out.’ Acts
1:17-18 (ESV). His fall was a great loss to the Apostles, he lost all the
impartations of Jesus on him. Would you
ever imagine that the same provision encounter and the future promise of Holy
Spirit, that made Peter and the rest of the disciples what they were eventually
after the ascension of Jesus Christ, was the same treasure Judas shared? I think you can still pick the memory
of when Jesus sent His disciples out on their ministerial practicum, demons
also bowed to Judas just as other experienced. So, Judas also healed
the sick like others by his share of Jesus' anointing; all
these and his portion in becoming a pioneer apostle of the Church gushed out
when his bowel busted, and got wasted on the premise of his leakage - greed,
stealing and murder. His main weakness is ‘love of money.’ If you can recall
the scene in John 12:1-8, when Jesus stopped by at Bethany alongside His
disciples to have dinner with Lazarus, Martha and Mary, where Mary took a pound
of very expensive perfume of pure nard, and poured it on Jesus’ feet
and wiped it with her hair. Only Judas, of all other disciples, who may
be there, reacted publicly in the dishonor of his master, ranting: ‘why was
this perfume not sold for three hundred denary and (the
money) given to the poor?’
the Bible exposed
his motive, ‘Now, he
said this not
because he cared
about the poor, but
because he was a thief; and
since he had the money box (serving as treasurer for the disciples), he used to pilfer what
was put into it.’ Jesus shunned him instantly, with an intension to caution
him, but he rather he became more strategic. I believe he had a lot of
opportunities to repent but wouldn’t because he had lost his sense of
followership, hence, lost his position
of leadership. His momentary cravings blinded him to his future heritage
of ministerial legendary in Christ. All
that Jesus invested in him got drained on-the-spot as he hung himself - Judas,
a truncated destiny!
Picture
your life and see which of these
or any other
Biblical examples expose your medium of leakages.
The effort required
to fall is not the same as required to rise. All it
takes to fall is to cheaply release yourself without exerting any strength at all, you are already on the
ground, but to rise, you will need to engage your mind in strategic
calculations, stretch of hands,
flex muscle, and application of expertise and experiences
gathered over time. Rising is not
magical; it follows a set of processes
and adherence to specific principles.
Every
Child of God is endowed with spiritual treasures that make the Christian
journey and life pursuit easy and successful. We carry power to get wealth,
Spiritual blessings in heavenly places, Grace of son-ship, power to do all
things through Christ who strengthens to heal, deliver, convert souls, convict
sin, be holy, pray right, be baptise in the Holy Spirit, and a lot
more. These are our spiritual treasures and strengths in Christ, and losing
then is loss of heritage. Your leakage could be laziness - Romans 12:11, Matthew 25:14, disobedience,
Pride, Covetousness/Greed - Matthew 26:15, Sexual Immorality/Indiscipline
1Kings 11:13, Stubborn heart or a seared
conscience - 1Samuel 15:13-22. Saul began as God’s first
anointed king of Israel, had a
prophetic encounter with prophets and shared in their gift of prophecy, yet,
ended his life miserably with these sad but poignant words: “I
have played the fool; I have erred exceedingly” (1 Samuel
26:21). An anointed man of God who combined the
prophetic with his kingship, deflated
to the point
of not having a channel of communication
with God anymore, but resolved to consulting the dead for solution to
his confusion; what a tragic ending to such a promising beginning!
This
is how disastrous and molesting it could be if people who had once
attained a height in their relationships
with God, enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made
partakers of the Holy Ghost, and had tasted
the good word of God, and the
powers of the world to come; if
they shall fall
away, they sustain
soul-piercing injury, lose the dividends and endowments of all their spiritual
encounters, fall prey of the end-time perils.
Keep
fit spiritually, block all your leakages Hebrews 6:4-6, ‘Be sober, be
vigilant; because your
adversary the devil, as a roaring
lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.’ 1Peter 5:8
~An
excerpt from the book titled "Standard of Christian Living" by
the above writer.
Pastor Samuel Olu Oladele
Minister in Charge,
English Assembly,
CAC General Headquarters,
Ebute-Elefun, Lagos.
Minister in Charge,
English Assembly,
CAC General Headquarters,
Ebute-Elefun, Lagos.
Wow! More grace sir.
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