21/02/2023
*Receiving the Teachings of Your Pastor - Part 5*
There will always be distractions and obstacles seeking to hinder your reception of the word of God through your Pastor. It's your job to deal with the issues and receive with meekness the word of life.
Satan, perhaps more than some Christians out there know the value of the words, instructions and teachings from their Pastors.
The devil will try to build a wall between you and Your Pastor or distract you from receiving from your man of God.
John 6:60,66-68
[60]Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
[66]From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
[67]Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
[68]Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
These disciples (or Church members) couldn't endure receiving the teachings of their Pastor. They found a reason to leave. Are you like them?
Some disciples today won't leave. They remain in the Church but their ears and heart is somewhere else. Such are worse than those who left physically.
If they found a reason to leave Jesus. If they could justify leaving Jesus, then anyone who doesn't want to receive his Pastor will still find seemingly good reasons to leave.
There are folks today who are like these ones that left Jesus because of his teachings. God gave them a Pastor to feed them with the word but it's for the same reason that they'll leave the Pastor and the Church.
The response of the other disciples is noteworthy and exemplary. Peter on behalf of the others said we have come to discover that you are teaching what we need. Your instructions may be tough but it's for our own good.
You must come to this point in your walk with your Pastor. This is where you'll begin to enjoy the best from him. Those tough instructions are for your good. A good Pastor will not always pamper you.
Lets see and example:
1 Thessalonians 1:6-7
[6]And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost:
[7]So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.
The Thessalonians were examples to other believers and churches. The example was that they disciplined themselves to receive the word from their Pastor.
They had good reasons not to but they refused to accept it. They persisted to keep receiving the word.
Satan is doing his best to limit how much you hear your Pastor or even stop you from receiving from him. He does this by making you come late or even absent yourself from Church.
Don't allow flimsy excuses keep you away from Church where God has designated for you to receive from your Pastor.
1 Thessalonians 2:18
[18]Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.
The devil knows what listening to a Pastor can do to you. He tried to stop Paul from going to the Thessalonians so that they wouldn't have the opportunity to hear him.
Martha was entangled with other things and failed to receive from her Pastor:
Luke 10:41
[41]And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
Your spiritual well being and growth is tied to the words of your Pastor. Don't fall to satan’s schemes to separate you from God's system of feeding your soul.
For the Galatian Christians the trap was to lure them away from listening to their Pastor to someone else that's not ideal.
Galatians 3:1
[1]O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
There are many voices out there seeking for your ears. Give it to none but to the one God put you under.
Social media is not your Pastor or your local Church. Approach it with a pinch of salt. Relate with it cautiously. Stick to the words of your Pastor and the Lord will help you.
*Kevin Ashwe*
*The School of the Local Church*
~_5f_~
