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There are so many people in the world who are saying that they live for and are doing Kingdom work, but are they really?

The bible tells us to watch out for false prophets and many they are.  The one that you call “Pastor” is she/he really a true pastor/prophet of the Most High God?  Are we calling them Pastors just because they come to our church and say that they can lead us?  Do we appoint them because they are handsome or beautiful and have all of their teeth?  Is it because they are slender and look good in a nice suit? Is it because they learned how to pray longer than a minute and a half?  Whew!  Long prayers……complete maturity, right?

Mat 6:5  ”When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites, who love to pray standing in the synagogues and on street corners, so that people can see them. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already! 

I actually had someone tell me today that I was not a true pastor because I no longer have a church building.  And guess what, it was a relative!  In other words, they were telling me to “give it up.”   David didn’t have a building when he pastored the sheep but those with small eyes cannot understand the hidden, spiritual meaning of that.  We had a church but it flooded twice and we lost it, soooooo I suppose that snatched away my pastoring rights.  I refuse to think so.  I have made my calling and election sure and have full-proofed my ministry and I am not about to give it up now. The calling is without repentance.  It cannot be taken back.  I may not be your type of pastor but there are some who love me and enjoy worshipping God with me. One lady so beautifully put it in a nice card that she sent my by saying that I am “ever on the lookout for those sheep who are lost and those who’ve gone missing from another’s herd and are just bewildered. You have such a heart for those meandering sheep.”  I thought that was awesome.

I don’t mind reminding people out there who have maybe been hurt in churches that, God still loves them and He is a God of a second chance.  I don’t mind shepherding hurt people until God sends them to where He wants them to be.  ”Rent-a-shepherd?”  Remember the term “rent-a-cop?”  Oh well, I suppose that until God gives me another building, that’s what I will be.  Actually we are having a great time at it. When I close down one avenue, they follow me onto another.  No, I am not making Kool-Aid for anyone by using the word “following.”  I applied for a position with a certain online ministry and said that I have a pretty good amount of ‘followers’ in my ministry and they turned me down because of the use of the word, “followers.”  Guess they saw me in their own minds as a (type) of Jesus and thought that I was dumb enough to try to be one.  I suppose David followed the sheep?

Now a days, the sheep do kind of lead the shepherds in churches.  Whatever the sheep says, goes in some churches.  I was a guest teacher of a bible study once in a church and something was going on with the pastor at that time.  He wasn’t there this night that I was teaching bible study.  He had received some mail that the church wanted to know about so the deacon of the church got up and said, “I have a crow bar in my truck, I’ll get in his office!”  The man got up, even in front of me as the guest teacher, and went outside and came back with a crow bar.  The man took the Pastors door off of it’s hinges and went in and got the preachers mail.  I had to be drooling because my bottom lip hit the floor when I saw that.  Like I said, sometimes the sheep lead the shepherd.

The Difference between a Good Shepherd and a Not-So-Good Shepherd:

A good Shepherd moves the flock from hill to hill as not to wear down the grass.  Moving the flock from peak to peak, hill to hill allows the grass to grow for further feeding.  If you ever see a herd of sheep on a dry hill, and yes, I am speaking in the spiritual here too, know that they are not too well nourished.

A bad Shepherd keeps the flock in one space so that they won’t have too much work to do. Much like a pastor who doesn’t teach from the bible or tell their flock to bring a bible to church with them.  He does the reading and speaking and all they have to do it put the money in the plate and go home.  They don’t get nourished nor delivered.  The Holy Spirit is null and void in the house.  They leave feeling just like they did when they arrived.  But! They can tell people that they went to church that day!

Mechanisms:

Do you know what happens to animals when they are fenced in and mechanically handled? First of all, the meat is not as blessed because they are fed whatever the owner decides to feed them.  They don’t grow big and healthy because of their limited space and also, when slaughtered, the meat bleeds profusely due to the stress of the animal.  That’s why I choose to eat ‘free-range’ meat.  Free-range animals taste better and whatever it is that they produce tastes better.  Even speaking in the spiritual….sometimes free-range Christians make the best ministers.  Oh no,  I really don’t ‘eat’ them.  No cannibalism here folks. :)

Sheep-tipping:

Sheep can tip over if not watched correctly and can die.  It takes a good pastor to see that one of His sheep has gone astray or flipped over.  He leaves the 99 to go get the one because he knows that he has trained them well enough to behave until he gets back with their brother or sister.  A good pastor does not leave one soul behind just because he “has the other 99.”  These are the ones who haven’t made their calling and election sure because they’ve allowed money or some other distraction to take the place of souls.  If you haven’t been to church in years, who cares!  ”We got our own.  If you don’t come shame on ya!”

After we lost our church, my children and I were hurt.  It was like we had the “timid deer-syndrome” or something. You know, where you have to let them smell the back of your hand first before they trust you?  I don’t mean to be rude but NO ONE  offered to help us, take us in or wrap their arms around us except my old home church in Canonsburg, Pa.  I felt like no one cared.  No one got in touch with us.  I guess we were like the “Untouchables” in India.  We spiritually lived in a grave yard.  No one came to comfort us or speak life to us.  It seemed as though we had leprosy.  Folks who used to love us and copy everything that we did, sang, said, wrote or preached, never checked in on us.  We were hurt.

I’ve learned that if you listen to the voices around you, you will definitely end up crazy.  If you believe all that people tell you about yourself or your ministry, you will be crazy. The bible tells us to do whatever we do as unto God and  not men.  You especially do not want to become a man pleaser as some have done and turned their faces from God in order to please mankind instead of Him.   Col 3:23  And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.

Jealousy is running rampant across the world and if someone can find something wrong with your ministry or whatever it is that you do down here on Earth, they will.  I think that at some point we all have been tripped up in some kind of way in judging others.  No one is exempt from sin.  I always say that you can tell who is on your side according to their actions.  An enemy laughs when you cry and cries when you laugh.  Have you ever told someone something that you did and it was very serious to you and you were definitely in need of some counsel, and they just laughed it off as though you were taking it too seriously? (Sign.)  Have you ever lost someone or something that you loved and they almost seemed as though they wanted to crack open a bottle of Champagne?  (Sign.)

When you have made your calling and election sure and proven your calling, there is no one to answer to besides God Himself so don’t sweat it trying to answer to anyone else but Him.  Yes, you will get your feelings hurt so grab a tissue and stick it in your pocket.  The devil will see to it that he uses someone to hurt your feelings.  After all, he has to keep your self-confidence down somehow. he just wants to make sure that you don’t get TOO big-headed.  If a messenger of satan buffeted the Great Apostle Paul he will send one to you too.  {2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.}

Let’s look at that in the Complete Jewish Version :

2Co 12:9  but he told me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is brought to perfection in weakness.” Therefore, I am very happy to boast about my weaknesses, in order that the Messiah’s power will rest upon me.

God is saying here that His grace is enough.  We don’t need anything else.  It all boils down to the fact that all we need is Him.  Our flesh tries to make us think that we need the help of others at all times when in all actuality, all that we need is God and He will send the correct help for every instance. I needed glasses, God sent a way for me to get them.  I needed food, God sent a way for me to get food.  I needed a bill paid, God sent a way for me to get the bill paid.  I needed friendship in my life, God sent a friend from the past that I had considered  ditching.   Someone in a church told me to “come out from among them” so I dropped my friend only to find out that God wasn’t ready for me to drop them yet.  In fact, He removed someone else out of the way and placed them where they should have been in order to re-establish my relationship with this person.  ”To everything there is a season……

Please keep me in prayer and all who connect with me on the internet.  When and if God decides to give me another church, I will still be shepherding, even if it seems unconventional.

IHS,

Essie