Strength of the ‘Woman’

“We’ve observed that when we give the woman the loan, she’ll create a business that’ll feed her children; but when we give the man, he goes out to marry a second wife!” – A.A. Abubakar (Nigerian Philanthropist).

I came up with the ‘YOU Family’ analogy six years ago while trying to explain the importance of the Mind in a seminar for Bible Teachers. Only much later did I realise how apposite the analogy was in explaining the entire  Christian life... and how it eerily mirrors the outside world.

This is especially true for the MIND (the ‘woman’/‘Wife’). Just like her counterpart in real life, she is mostly ignored, subjugated and underdeveloped. However, governments and aid agencies in the world are beginning to realise that the key to any nation’s development lies with the woman. Regardless of billions of aid dollars pumped into a country, as long as the woman is not educated and empowered, no lasting development will be achieved.

The Church should learn from this. There’re thousands of churches everywhere today filled with millions upon millions of Believers yet we don’t seem to see the impact on the wider society. If 120 disciples could revolutionise the entire human history with their exploits, (Acts 2), you’d think 120 million Believers would be more than enough to change this world.

The Church needs to rethink its homiletic philosophy. For too long we have ignored, even demonized, the ‘woman’ (the MIND). This is because it’s more convenient for pastors to deal with the ‘Man’ (the Spirit) than his ‘wife’. The ‘Man’ has no problem with righteousness, prayers, fasting, giving, etc. “The spirit is (ever) willing”, Jesus says (Mt 26:41), it’s the flesh that’s weak!

If you want someone to empty their bank account or sow a “prophetic seed”, you have to PREACH to the ‘Man’ (spirit),not his ‘Wife’ (mind). And make sure she doesn’t interfere with your communication either. That’s why we drown her voice out with things like “DO it NOW, delay is disobedience”, “This is a Prophetic instruction, don’t try to analyse it”, “the things of the Spirit are only spiritually discerned”, etc.

While this approach may get the job done it will have no lasting blessing on the individual. The MIND needs to be persuaded first. Let’s spend time in teachings: sanctification, healing, giving, prayer, righteousness etc. It may take a while to persuade 'her', but the investment will be worth it in the end.  

The pastor will no longer have to SHOUT to make his members believe, or threaten to make them stop sinning, or use manipulative words to make them give...

In fact, just as the world has discovered that building the woman is building the nation, we too will discover that building each individual ‘wife’ will cause lasting positive change in the entire Body of Christ.

AMEN

(Thanks for the overwhelming feedback this week).

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

It’s A Man’s World in the Church Today

When a pastor preaches, he’s talking to the spirit (the heart/‘Man’); when he teaches, he’s talking to the mind (the head/‘woman’). But if you look around, you’ll observe that the Church today does more of Preaching than Teaching. In other words, it ministers more to the ‘Man’ than to his ‘wife’.

This hasn’t always been the case. While on earth, our Lord both taught and preached to the people (Mt 4:23; 9:35; 11:1), the Believers in  Acts were teachers and preachers (Act 5:42; 15:35), and Paul's ministry was characterised by both preaching and teaching (Act 28:31; Col 1:28; 1Ti 2:7; 2Ti 1:11).

Yet today, especially in Pentecostal/Charismatic circles, teaching has been consigned to the background; delegated – if at all – to Sunday School. Why?

1-Because Teaching is not glamorous: for a young minister looking for a title, “Teacher” just does not sound Man of God-ish. All the superstar men of God today are either “Apostle”, “Evangelist”, “Prophet” “Pastor”, etc. “Let’s welcome Teacher Jimmy” sounds lame.

2-Because It’s Harder to Prepare: Teaching requires long, clear, outlines that would probably need to be printed for the congregation. A preacher doesn’t have to worry about that; there’re no such things as “Preaching Slides”.

3-Because it Requires Greater Skill: It takes greater skilfulness to make Teaching stimulating to a congregation than Preaching.

4- It Exposes the Speaker to More Scrutiny: Teaching, by its very nature, requires the audience to critically assess what’s been said, therefore, a teacher won’t be able to get away with some things that a preacher can; (the HEAD is not as forgiving as the HEART, you see).

5-Because Teaching Topics are Unpalatable: Unfortunately, the kinds of topics that require teaching are the difficult and unexciting ones.

6-Because Spiritual Babes Prefer Preaching: It’s only mature Believers that ask questions and want to go beneath the surface of scriptures and doctrine.

7-The List goes on.

The Man may be the head of the family, but it’s the wife that influences the child’s behaviour. Therefore the Church can’t spend January to December ministering only to the ‘Man’ and then complain that the ‘child’ part of its members are “misbehaving”.

SELAH.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Church Should Be For the Whole ‘Family’

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole SPIRIT and SOUL and BODY be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1Th 5:23

What’s the difference between PREACHING and TEACHING? We usually can tell if our pastor is preaching or teaching on any given day, but what distinguishes one from the other? With no clear answer, some conclude that “Preaching” is when the pastor speaks fast, and “Teaching” is when he talks slowly; (interestingly, that’s how they resolved the other pesky question, “What’s the difference between “Praise” and “Worship”? J).

In our YOU Family analogy, the ‘Man’ (the Spirit) and his ‘Wife’ (the Soul) have their aliases. The other name for the Spirit is the HEART and the other name for the Soul is the HEAD. Understanding this distinction will simplify the problem of distinguishing Preaching from Teaching.

·         Preaching PROCLAIMS while Teaching EXPLAINS.

·         Preaching brings INSPIRATION while Teaching brings ILLUMINATION.

·         Preaching aspires to elicit passion and zeal; Teaching, on the other hand, aims for logic and reason.

·         Preaching appeals to the listener’s HEART, while Teaching appeals to the listener’s HEAD.

·         In summary, Preaching is the ministering of the Word to the SPIRIT, while Teaching is the ministering of the word to the SOUL (MIND).

Not everything can be preached; and not everything can be taught. The Believer needs a healthy balance of both for his spiritual growth. Every church should cater to the whole (YOU) ‘Family’: some preaching for ‘Daddy’, some teaching for ‘mummy’. And while we're there, we can throw in something for the ‘child’ (Body) as well. It’s not a sin for church to have some air-conditioning, clean rest rooms and a nice sound system.

Yes, it's not good that only one member of the family enjoys going to church. Service should be for the whole 'family'.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Does Your ‘Wife’ Agree?

You can’t legislate spirituality. That a man gets saved doesn’t mean he can then force everyone in his household into Christ.  Yet that’s the tactic some men take. So, a cheating, abusive drunkard of a husband/father finds religion; great! But now he expects the whole family to go to church with him – all three services on Sundays, two more during the week, plus a vigil a month. Added to that, he forces his family to fast once a week, and bans snuggle and TV times through his early morning and late evening “Devotions”.

We may legitimately call this household “Christian”, but you can guess what’ll happen the moment any of them gets an opportunity.

Furthermore, while this man may be able to browbeat his children into accepting the new lifestyle, he’s going to have some real behind-the-scene problems with his wife. She married him as a sinner (probably met at a dance hall party) and had lived sinfully with him all this while. Now, he thinks that because he’s “saved” he can make her change her ways with a snap of the fingers; that’s just not going to work.  

Of course, all you’ve read up to this point hasn’t been about marriage, but about YOU family: your Spirit, your Soul and your Body (the Man, His Wife, and their Child).

You cannot force a grownup woman to serve God, you must explain to her why there needs to be changes in the household; without that, your family life and your attempt to serve God will only be full of frustrations. 

Some Believers are shocked that even though they’re saved, they still struggle with bitterness, anger, lust, etc. To make matters worse, they try to solve the problem by fasting, speaking in tongues, attending anointing services, etc. (maybe even add some cold showers and self-flagellation). In other words, they’re trying to force changes in the household without the agreement of the Mind (wife).

You may be Born-Again, but why do you pray? Why do you fast? Why do you give? Why do you go to church? Why do you forgive others? Etc. Any of these questions that you do not have a rational – biblical – answer for is an area that your mind has not been fully persuaded of.

Experience tells us that once ‘mummy’ agrees with ‘daddy’ on anything, nothing’s going to stop them; so if you want to live a victorious Christian life, you may want to spend more effort on your mind by filling her with wholesome doctrine and biblical teaching. 

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Welcome to YOU ‘Family’

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole SPIRIT and SOUL and BODY be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1Th 5:23

In trying to describe the nature of Man’s composition, I’ve found it particularly useful to compare it with a small family of three: a man, his wife and their child.

Under this analogy, the man is the SPIRIT, the wife is the SOUL, and the child is the BODY. The man and woman are co-heads of this family and both control the child. The child does not have a say in how the family is run (and does not even know how it is run); so all it does is make demands that will be to its own comfort and convenience. It’s left to ‘Daddy’ and ‘Mummy’ to determine what’s best for her.

Households where the ‘child’ is given free rein – complete freedom, with no restraints or limitations – inevitably end up in ruin and disaster. Households where the ‘child’ is kept in check (though not abused) by the ‘parents’, end up being healthy and productive.

Of course, there are certain restrictions to this ‘family’ that does not apply to real ones. For example, the three of them are always in the same place at the same time. Which is why when we see the ‘child’ at a raucous, indecent soirée, we do not scold her! Rather we confront the grownup ‘Dad’ and ‘Mom’ that brought her to such unwholesome environment (last week’s “BODY” series).

And here’s another peculiar limitation of our analogy. In this “family”, only the husband can be ‘Born-Again’; God only comes to ‘Daddy’. Therefore, after his salvation, it’s Daddy’s duty to see to the spiritual transformation of the rest of the ‘family’.

This is why Paul in Rom 12:1 orders the ‘Man’ to present his ‘child’ “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God”; and in the next verse tells him that the key to his transformation is in the renewal of his ‘wife’.

How well have you been running you family?

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN