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January, 2025 (Vol.59-No.1) |
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Preached by Dr. Gene Scott on June 28, 1987 Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. 1st Chronicles 16:22 And he gave some apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for edifying the body of Christ… Ephesians 4:11-12 TURN IN YOUR BIBLE TO PSALM 3. The heading of this psalm says, “A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.” How did David get into such a terrible condition? Let’s go back in time and touch on some of the highlights of his life. We read in 1st Samuel 17, “Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle…And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them. And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.” That is about nine and three-quarters feet tall! Verse 8 says, “And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.” In other words, “You look like you want to fight, so why don’t you fight? Here I am! Come on, any one of you!” David was probably only a teenager at this time. We read again starting from verse 20, “And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went” to see his brothers who were fighting under Saul’s command. “And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words: and David heard them. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid. And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that is come up? Surely to defy Israel is he come up: and it shall be, that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father’s house free in Israel. And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” This is one of the most familiar passages in the Bible. David took his sling and ran out and killed Goliath. David would later go on to slay ten thousand of Israel’s enemies. He was made ruler over Israel, he untied the kingdom, and he became the greatest warrior that Israel had ever known. Yet we read, “A Psalm of David, when he fled.” How could David have fallen to such a miserable status? Try to put flesh and blood on these familiar Bible passages. Why would a man like David flee? Let’s look at more of his life. We read in 2nd Samuel 7, “And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies; that the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. And Nathan said to the king, God, do all that is in thine heart; for the LORD is with thee.” David desired to build a house for God. He looked around at all his successes and saw how nice his palace was while God was still dwelling in the same tent that the children of Israel had carried through the wilderness generations earlier. David thought, “God is still dwelling in a tent. I want to build Him something fancy.” But the Lord said to Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.” I can imagine God saying to Nathan, “It is nice of David to think of Me, but I have something to say to him: Tell him, ‘I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep.’” In other words, “David, you were a nobody! But I made you ruler over all My people, over Israel.” These Bible passages are so familiar to most people that I am only recapping the highlights. God, through the prophet, went on to tell David, “I was with the whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. Moreover I will appoint a place for my people, and will plant them.” God was speaking of a future time when Israel’s former enemies would trouble them no more. “And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers,” which is a kind way of saying “when you die,” “I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.” Psalm 89 records that God swore to David that as long as there was a sun in the sky by day or a moon at night, his throne would endure and his seed would rule over Israel. What a staggering series of promises! David was called “a man after God’s own heart,” and here he is at the peak of his strength and career. Then, only four chapters later, David would go for a walk on the roof of his palace and see Bathsheba taking a bath. I don’t need to give the details of that sordid story; most people know about David’s adultery with Bathsheba and how he caused her husband to be slain in battle. The point is that David failed miserably. Again, we ask, how could a man of God make such a descent? With that background, we come to 2nd Samuel 15, where we read about the rebellion of David’s son Absalom. “And it came to pass after this, that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him. And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate: and it was so, that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom called unto him, and said, Of what city art thou? And he said, Thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right; but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee.” Here is David’s son putting himself into a position of prominence and trying to make his father look bad. “Absalom said moreover, Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice! And it was so, that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took him, and kissed him. And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment: so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.” David was called “a man after God’s own heart.” He was chosen by God. Even though he was full of human flaws and weaknesses, he still fulfilled what God had called him to do. If there is a single message that I want to lift out of this story today, it is a warning that must be understood by anyone who wants to please God. It is a lesson about respect for God-ordained leadership. Never has the ministry been more under attack than it is today. The world and especially the news media are on the attack with the intention of destroying every ministry. The ones that should be destroyed probably will be, while the ones that God has called and purposed in His plan for this day and age will survive. The news media would put every minister on trial in this land. If they could, they would brainwash Christian America into their own view of what qualifies as the important issues. But the true judgment of the validity of a ministry and a minister comes from God’s throne and through God’s eyes. The news media would usurp God’s rights and hand over that judgment to the spiritually-limited minds of a non-Christian general public. I am reminded of the words of Gamaliel, the greatest Jewish scholar in the New Testament world. The apostle Paul himself was trained at the feet of Gamaliel. In Acts 5, the high priest and the Pharisees wanted to put Peter and the other apostles to death for preaching about Christ’s death and Resurrection. Gamaliel wisely advised them to leave the apostles alone, saying that if something is not from God, it will ultimately come to naught; but if it is from God, you had better keep your hands off of it. God chose David because he understood this spiritual principle: Touch not God’s anointed. David declared it in 1st Chronicles 16:22, and it is repeated in Psalms 105:15. It is an old-fashioned message. If you don’t believe in God, then you obviously cannot believe in His anointing. The modern news media certainly do not believe in it. David embodied this principle in his dealings with Saul. God had anointed Saul as Israel’s first king. Saul started off well but became lifted up in pride and rebelled against the word of the Lord. The Bible says that God’s Spirit departed from him and an evil spirit entered him. This man who had received God’s word from a prophet ended up consorting with a witch. God rejected Saul and anointed David as His true king. Saul then pursued David and sought to kill him. We read in 1st Samuel 24 that David and his men found Saul sleeping in a cave. David’s men wanted to kill Saul, but David stopped them. Instead of killing Saul, David merely cut off a piece of Saul’s garment. David said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD’S anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.” This principle did not change in the New Testament. It does not matter how abrasive it might sound to the ears of a modern “democratic” population that respects nothing. Ephesians 4 says that God gave some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Because of the distribution of the definite articles in the original Greek, I believe that the last two ministries in this list should be combined into a single office, either “teaching pastors” or “pastoring teachers.” These are God’s gifts to the church. Proverbs 18:16 says, “A man’s gift makes room for him.” As old-fashioned as it sounds, if God calls someone and they become evil, He will ultimately sort them out. Saul died and his body was nailed to a wall by God’s enemies; but David, God’s choice, lived out his life and fulfilled God’s purposes. Even though David was called a man after God’s own heart, he did not always live up to the way that God described him. David was great when he first came on the scene and killed Goliath. He was great when he wanted to build a house for God. God was living in a frayed tent in the desert while David and Bathsheba were living it up. I am sure that David’s sense of guilt about what he had done with Bathsheba and her husband is what made him a ready victim to his own son. You can read about David’s repentance in Psalm 51, which ultimately showed the state of his heart before God. There were plenty of things about David that Absalom could have found fault with. But Absalom, though he knew his father well, forgot that his father was still God’s choice. The sickening thing about this episode is the ability of someone who was so close to David to put him on the run. Here was the man who had killed a bear and a lion with his own bare hands. Here was the man about whom the people would sing in their songs, “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” Here was the man who had declared, “Who is this Philistine who dares to challenge the people of God?” And with only a sling and five stones, David went out and conquered him. Now, David is crushed and fleeing from his son. There must have been some kind of emotional factor, more than what meets the eye, that was destroying this giant of a man. I am warning you that Satan never stops. When you have started the walk of faith and have been called to your place in the kingdom, Satan will never let up on you. After Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Luke’s Gospel records that the devil “departed from him for a season.” That does not mean Satan backed off to give Jesus a rest. Rather, it means Satan backed off looking for an opening that he might drive through. I don’t believe that anyone could have made David flee except someone he loved like Absalom. Satan doesn’t have any scruples; he will use anyone, anywhere, anytime, to bring you down. But even though it looked like David was going to fall, he did not. I am sounding a warning to Christianity at large. If you meddle with what God has established, even if you appear to succeed for a time, may God have mercy on you in the long run because He always deals severely with those who come against His purposes and His plan. I want to stem the tide of disrespect for leaders whom God has chosen. There is an attitude in the land today that puts God’s gifts to the church on the defensive. I will add that God’s true gifts to the church are people who never sought a position of leadership. David was outside tending his sheep; neither he nor his father nor his brethren wanted what God was about to do to him. God had told Samuel, “Go to the house of Jesse and anoint the king.” So he went to the house of Jesse and had Jesse’s sons appear before him. Everyone agreed that if there were a potential king there, David was not it. After the prophet of God had seen all of Jesse’s other sons, he knew from God’s leading that not one of them was God’s choice. In walked the boy, and the Lord instructed Samuel to anoint David. David did not choose to be anointed. Imagine how David might have felt about the whole scene. How would you like to come in from a hot day of tending the sheep and get olive oil poured all over you? Yet David was God’s choice. Again, “A man’s gift makes room for him,” and obviously David’s gift had made room for him. God chooses people, and the ones closet to God’s choice are often the first ones to oppose God’s choice. It is not unusual in the ministry for those who are closest to you to try to destroy you. Look at Miriam and Aaron, Moses’ sister and brother. They were so familiar with Moses. After all, if it had not been for Miriam, Moses’ mother would never have been able to spend time with him as a child and teach him the things of God. Imagine helpless little Moses floating in his bulrush box into the place where Pharaoh’s daughter bathed. Moses’ mother had arranged for Miriam to hide and watch. And when Pharaoh’s daughter discovered him, Miriam burst out and said, “I know a slave mother who can nurse him and care for him!” So Moses owed Miriam something. Aaron and Miriam knew Moses’ most private human weaknesses, so they confronted him one day and said, “We also have a ministry! We are tired of you one-upping us. God speaks through us too!” Moses was also given bad advice by his foolish father-in-law Jethro, who told Moses that he should divide up the responsibility of leadership. And Moses was strongly opposed by his own wife Zipporah. I do not know why Moses took her back as his wife. She had almost gotten him killed at an inn by the wayside. Moses had stopped at the inn after he finally surrendered to God’s call, and the Bible says that God, not some agent of the devil, would have killed Moses there. Moses’ dear wife Zipporah did not understand what God was requiring from Moses, and they got into a big fight. I doubt that it was the first fight Moses and Zipporah ever had. Considering the severity of their argument, I would guess that there had been some practice prior to that performance. From what I have read about Moses, a person would not have learned to talk back to him without some practice. More likely, she would have first tried to float a few trial balloons. The first time she sassed, she probably said, “Would you mind if I expressed an opinion?” The second time, she likely said, “Well, can’t I speak?” The third time she would have been more direct, saying, “I’d like to offer my opinion!” She must have worked up to her state of presumption that is recorded in Exodus 4:25. After she circumcised their son, she cast the foreskin at Moses’ feet and said, “Surely a bloody husband art thou to me!” you don’t get to that point on your first fight. Obviously, he had let her get away with much, and he knew what was coming. He probably had put off circumcising his son because he knew there would be a big argument if he took that little pampered brat and made him cry. So God met him by the inn and would have killed him. Obviously, circumcising his son was not that big of a deal to Moses. I am sure that Moses would have circumcised his son according to God’s command long before this event, but he was afraid of what his wife would do. God is not fair. There is no record that He met with Zipporah and said to her, “I am going to kill you.” Why didn’t He say to Zipporah, “You are impeding Moses’ progress and if you don’t stop, you will be dead by sundown?” That would have been a better way to do things: get right to the point! It may not have been “fair,” but this is the way God does things: He sets up His orders of authority and responsibility. God had called Moses and would have killed him if he had not stood up to his wife and finally done what was required of a leader of God’s house in that day. But Zipporah didn’t like it. She rebuked Moses and they parted, and Moses married another woman down in Egypt. But later, he met Zipporah again and took her back. If Aaron and Miriam wanted to be critical of Moses, they had plenty to be critical of. Moses was not perfect, but God had chosen him. David was not perfect, and one very close to him decided that his own judgment was better than the judgment of God’s man. The fact that Absalom was close to David is what made it hurt so badly. So Absalom stood at the gate and when any man came to him, Absalom would ask, “Which city are you from?” And the man would answer, “I am from one of the tribes of Israel,” and name his town. And Absalom would say, “See, thy matters are good and right; but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee.” Absalom was craftily saying, “If David would do things the right way, this is how he would handle your problem.” All over American, because of a few failed ministers, every Bible-carrying saint is in danger of becoming an Absalom. They think, “Well, maybe we ought to decide how the church should be led, because it is obvious that these so-called men of God aren’t doing things the right way. Let’s just usurp their position. Our judgment is certainly better than theirs!” Absalom said, “Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice!” You can tell the difference between God’s chosen leader and a self-appointed leader. False leaders gain popularity by catering to the crowd, and the people fall for it every time. “And it was so, that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took him, and kissed him.” Absalom managed to persuade the people to conclude that David had lost his ability to lead. Regardless of whether or not that was true, there is one thing that David had not lost: he was still God’s choice. As shocking as it may sound, David was still God’s choice when he was in bed with Bathsheba. Did God “choose” for him to commit that sin? No. God is not to blame for what David did; but he was still God’s choice as king. Like it or not, the issue is whether we will do things our way or God’s way. I am sure that Absalom had plenty of ideas about how he could improve upon David’s way of doing things. At this point in his life, David was especially susceptible to guilt because of what he had done with Bathsheba and her husband. He was no longer the lad who had come forth with the purity of a young hero. The sins that abide in all of us had dwelt in him long enough that he had succumbed a few times. Some people would start to say that God had forsaken David, and I am sure that David was ready to believe it. David had always been a winner, and everyone loves to get on a bandwagon with a winner. Now that David had failed, people started to back away from him, saying, “Maybe we need a new order.” It has been said that success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan. I am sounding a warning about the way people can treat a God-ordained leader when they start focusing on that individual’s weaknesses and lose respect for the position that God established. I am still naďve enough to believe that there is an eternity to gain with God versus an eternity to lose in hell. The pastor is an undershepherd who will give account for the flock, just as Moses was God’s choice to lead His people through the wilderness, and David was God’s choice as king. Absalom substituted his own judgment for God’s. He assembled a band of conspirators, and David finally had to flee from him. Watch now what happened to David as he went out of Jerusalem. We read in 2nd Samuel 16, beginning at verse 5, “And when king David came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera: he came forth, and cursed still as he came. And he cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David: and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial: The LORD hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou has reigned.” In other words, “You are getting your just deserts! Finally, God’s judgment has come upon you for all you have done, you evil man!” Abishai, one of David’s mighty men, said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head.” But this wasn’t the David who had killed Goliath, and it wasn’t the David who had killed his tens of thousands. David said, “What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah?” It was a cruel thing to say to one of his mighty men, for they were among the bravest and most loyal men in his army. But David had become so blinded by his reaction to the son he loved that he was wrapped up in his own grief. It is my belief that David owed it to Abishai to say, “Go cut off his head,” because they were not living in a loving Christian New Testament world. Cutting off an enemy’s head was not very shocking in those days. But instead, David elevated his own spiritual imagery and said, “So let him curse, because the LORD hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so?...It may be that the LORD will look on mine affliction, and that the LORD will requite me good for his cursing this day.” This passage has been used as a text for thousands of sermons; but frankly, I am not so sure that David was right. I would have liked David better if he had said to Abishai, “Go for it, man!” The message is about respect for God’s anointed, and yet here I am disagreeing with God’s anointed. Before you judge me, I ask you to understand this, for it is a subtle point. God’s anointed can make mistakes; but it isn’t your place to correct them. I can preach and say that in my opinion, David was so beaten down with guilt that he was ready to believe that an evil man was acting under orders from God. But I must ask: where in the Bible does is say that the Lord sent Shimei to curse David? Yet David carried so much guilt and doubt that he was ready to believe that anyone’s judgment was better than his own and that man cursing God’s anointed was speaking with the voice of God. That is part of David’s grace. Shimei will later get what was coming to him, but I believe that David should have allowed Abishai to deal with Shimei then and there. Tune in to the human weakness of the anointed one. David was chased into the wilderness in his helplessness. He was so desperate because the son he loved had turned against him that he no longer trusted his own judgment. He was so beaten down by his own failures that he could not even act like God’s king. So what did David do? He went to Mahanaim. Why did David go to Mahanaim? Men and women of faith, like professional boxers, know what to do when they are knocked down. David may have been down, but he had enough experience with God’s ways. David remembered Jacob, the heel-catching, conniving rat that he was, whom God had destined to receive the birthright but who would not wait for God to achieve it in His way. Jacob has used his own talent and craftiness to steal the birthright from his brother. Jacob fled to his uncle Laban and ended up cheating his uncle, who was a great cheater himself; but Jacob out-cheated him. Jacob fell in love with Labon’s daughter Rachel, and he worked for Laban for seven years to get her. But on their wedding night, Jacob went into a dark tent and when he came out the next morning, he discovered he had the wrong woman! Laban had fooled him and had sent in Rachel’s ugly sister Leah! Jacob had his share of problems. Having been beaten down by his circumstances for another seven years, Jacob finally fled with his wives, Leah and Rachel. Rachel caused more trouble for him by stealing her father’s idols. Laban and his brethren pursued Jacob and overtook him, and there was great conflict between them. Then Jacob got more bad news: his brother Esau, whom he had cheated years ago and who had sworn to kill him, was marching toward him with a band of men, and Jacob was caught in between. Jacob went to Mahanaim, and an assemblage of angels met him there. Tune in to David’s psyche and imagine the pressure coming against him from all sides. David had never asked for the call of God on his life. He never chose to be king. And now, with everything going wrong in his life, he no longer has the guts to deal with his rebellious son. David flees and Shimei curses him. David’s captain would have cut off Shimei’s head, but David thinks it was the Lord cursing him. Who would want a weak leader like that? If David were a modern pastor, the natural thing would be to vote him out. But David was God’s king. And he remembered the place where angels came to minister to Jacob, someone who was more conniving and full of failure than any other patriarch who had preceded him. So David went to Mahanaim. Two beautiful things happen in this story. Ittai the Philistine comes to David’s aid, and David says to Ittai, “What are you doing here? You are not even an Israelite! We are heading into a very bad fight.” And this Philistine warrior says, “As the LORD liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be.” Ittai’s loyalty is reminiscent of Ruth in the book that bears her name. Ruth was a Moabitess who placed her trust in the God of Israel as she declared her love and loyalty toward her mother-in-law. Think of this amazing scene: while all of Israel was following the longhaired monster Absalom, a Philistine comes to David and says, “I am willing to die defending you.” Then old Barzillai the Gileadite, rich beyond measure in Israel, hears of the king’s plight and comes down from his vast mountain fortress to bring sustenance to David and his little band in the wilderness. You can read in 2nd Samuel 17 about the preparation for the war. And in 2nd Samuel 18, you can read what happens to Absalom. Now with that background, let’s read Psalm 3: “A Psalm of Daivd, when he fled from Absalom his son.” At this low point in David’s life, some people might have written him off and said that his kingdom was finished. But this man after God’s own heart sat down and penned this psalm. He might have written it around the time when Barzillai the Gileadite came to bring food and supplies for his men. He might have written it after Ittai the Philistine said, “You are my king.” I am certain that he wrote it long after Shimei had cursed him. David knew to go to the place where God had met Jacob, which tells us that he still wanted to have a meeting with God. I often preach on Isaiah 50:10, which describes the condition of someone who has heard the voice of God’s servant and desires to do things His way, yet still finds himself walking in darkness and having no light. What should you do in such a circumstance? As V. Raymond Edman has said, “Never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light.” This man of God went looking for the place where God’s angels had succored Jacob. And this man of God started to do what he was best at doing: he wrote a psalm. Imagine David sitting with his harp by a campfire burning in the wilderness as he begins to say, “LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me.” This is a prayer that David prayed and he was describing his circumstances. Remember that God had promised him, “As long as you can see the sun in the heavens by day and the moon at night, your kingdom will live on,” yet somehow, Absalom had gotten to him. But here is why David was chosen by God. In the midst of these circumstances, he declares, “But though, O LORD, art a shield for me…” Here is where the message comes right to you. No matter what happens, a man or woman of faith reaches up and says, “But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.” In other words, “No matter what things look like in my life, Lord, You chose me!” Considering that truth, “I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.” Think of that. “I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.” No more sleepless nights; my life is in Your hands. I laid myself down to sleep in the realization that You are my shield and the lifter-up of my head. I cried out and the Lord heard me; “I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about.” We saw why David should not have been king, according to man’s judgment of things. But here is why God chose him. When the chips were down, he was a man whom God could trust to come to this point: “I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou has broken the teeth of the ungodly.” This sounds very different from the David who said, “Let him curse, because God is making him curse me.” David concludes this psalm with a note of triumph: “Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.” Think of that! Absalom got on a donkey and was taking his beautiful self down a trail when he rode under a tree and got his hair caught in the tree! The pride of Absalom’s life was stuck in the tree, and there he was just swinging back and forth. Soft-hearted David had instructed his troops, “Don’t kill Absalom wherever you find him,” which is like saying, “Let me keep this miserable thing that would destroy me close to me. I love him.” A soldier found Absalom hanging from the tree, but he would not slay him for fear of the king’s command. But Joab, David’s captain, said, “Why didn’t you slay him?” And he smote Absalom. Joab’s armor-bearers then finished the job: they slew Absalom, cut him down from the tree, and buried him under a pile of stones. What is the message for this day and age? We had better let God choose whom He will, and let God work with whom He has chosen, His way. We had better not listen to the opinion of this age that would make everyone think that they can be a judge over God’s ministry. The world and the media would brainwash people into believing that only perfect people can be leaders in God’s program, but that isn’t what my Bible teaches. The Bible shows that no one whom God has chosen, from Abram to Paul, was worthy of the choice, with the single exception of Jesus the Christ. Their right to do what God called them to do was a God-given right. It is time to understand that God’s ministers don’t have to be perfect. You should find a ministry whose gift from God is proven. Satan is utilizing the media of the modern world to deny the right and ability of God’s gift ministers to express their calling. The world demands that God’s ministers measure up to some human standard of judgment from those who receive the benefit of the gift. Again, God gave some apostle, prophets, evangelists, and pastoring teachers or teaching pastors. The Bible says that He gave them for “the perfecting,” or literally, “the equipping of the saints.” The word “saints” is a translation of the Greek word spelled hagios, using English letters. The word hagios means those who have offered themselves to God as instruments for His use. Those who have offered themselves are now the Lord’s and they no longer belong to themselves. The Bible says that you are not your own; you were bought with a price. Those who are the Lord’s, who have offered themselves for His purposes and now belong to Him, become kuriakon, which literally means “the Lord’s,” which is the church. God gave gift ministers to perfect the saints. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that He gave these ministries in order that the saints should perfect their ministers. That isn’t the way it works in God’s program. God deals with those whom He has given to the church. And once in a while those gifts, like David, are less than they ought to be; but they are still God’s treasure in whom He has invested much. God will deal with the phonies that He didn’t give to the church. Such ministries will not survive, but those who are truly God’s gift will survive. The question you should ask yourself is whether you will be a Shimei or an Absalom, or whether you will follow the undershepherd whom God has placed over you. Paul said, “Follow me, as I follow Christ.” Anyone who puts themselves in God’s place and passes judgment on His gifts will not survive, spiritually speaking. Guard yourself in your spirit, and thank God for the capacity to see the light of God’s word! 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