Leaders At Christ’s Court

EVANGELIST DAG Heward-Mills, an anointed servant of Christ who leads the Lighthouse Chapel International, wrote in one of his books that, “Leadership is everything and everything is leadership.” Certainly leaders are responsible for the successes or failures of their countries, organisations, businesses or churches.

Men of God are responsible for everything that goes on in their local churches. The state of the Church today is as a result of the actions and inactions of all apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, the five-fold key ministry gifts which the Lord Jesus Christ gave to perfect the saints for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4: 11- 12).

People who desire to do the work of God as shepherds desire a noble task (1 Timothy 3: 1). And it is written elsewhere that those who serve well should be properly honoured. But God does not call, train, prepare and commission people to minister the way they want. We are not tasked to do what seems good in our own eyes. We are to perform our duties on the terms and standards prescribed by God. I mean, we are called to do the will of God.

It seems many men of God in our day do not faithfully believe that Jesus Christ lives and that He watches whatever they do. It appears they have no fear for the punishment that God will bring on ministers who work iniquities. These days, most pastors preach and teach their opinions instead of the Word of God; many preach and teach messages that merely excite people's emotions.

These problems exist because most church leaders are not Christ-conscious; they are people-focused. They minister to make people happy, but one thing is clear that no man of God is free as we shall all be compelled to appear before Christ's Court to give account of our stewardship, and be paid according to what we have done. No one will escape God's judgment.

“For we must ALL APPEAR BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5: 10).

The wise who truly believe in God prepare for that day so they work out their own salvation with fear trembling. But the foolish fool around until they are caught and punished in their folly. Let no one deceive us. Let not Plato, Aristotle or Karl Max and those of their ilk deceive you with their superficial antichristian bookish opinions.

A man who does not have power over death must be humble and fear He who exercises power and authority over death – Jesus Christ. God destroyed the ancient worlds in the days of Noah and Lot and caused it to be written down to warn us that He will destroy this world of sin also and replace it with a world where righteousness dwells. This is the Word of God. Whether you believe it or not, it will surely happen as God has said it. Let us live wisely.

True Christians will receive various rewards including crowns of life on the Judgment Day while the false ones will be rejected and punished for their hypocrisy and disobedience. They will suffer eternal punishment. Christ Jesus is the One who said punishment await stubborn Christians including men of God.

“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25: 46).

On that day, Jesus will say to the stubborn, “Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7: 23). The tone of the speech tells us clearly that the Lord Jesus Christ will be angry on the last day. The Lion of the tribe of Judah will roar; He will have no mercy on stubborn ministers any more. Ancient of Days will look into the faces of some men of God and yell at them, saying, “Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness!”

The Righteous Judge will be merciless. Here are the words He will utter, “Depart from me”. He will not tolerate any nonsense anymore. Workers of iniquities and lawlessness will not be allowed to waste time defending themselves. Our Master will order them out of His presence. It will be the last day so He will say to them, “Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

When you are told to depart from the Lord on the last day, it means you are separated from God forever. And when a person is separated from the presence of God, he is bound to die. That is, he is condemned to die a perpetual painful death in hell. Eternal death is the timeless separation of man's soul from God. And there is no presence of God in hell (2 Thessalonians 1: 9).

One key blunder several ministers have been committing in the end-time is the tolerance of the spirit of Judas Iscariot to permeate the Body of Christ. The spirit of Judas Iscariot is the spirit which betrays Christ Jesus for money. It is the spirit that seeks personal interests and forsakes the interests of Christ.

“For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 2: 21).

From James Quansah, Kumasi