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Almost cent per cent of the gospel workers in the early Church were laymen mostly from ordinary background with questionable characters from all professions preached the gospel or served the Lord as commissioned by the Holy Spirit. These laymen of all professions were responsible in bringing about the revival of those days. The Bible says that God has given us His Holy Spirit to know the truth and as we have received His Holy Spirit living in us and as His anointing is upon us we do not need any one to teach us what is true for the Holy Spirit teaches us everything we need to know (1 John 2:20,27 etc). But the present trend of serving God by not involving all the people of all professions may have the tendency to go back to the Old Testament time of Levites, Sadducees or Pharisees who were the Old Testament theologians were the only ones (or only a profession) allowed to serve the Lord. Today, unless the laymen of all professions are also or once again challenged to preach or serve the Lord, the revival of our time may not come or preaching to all parts of the world would not be possible. Our Lord Jesus Christ on coming to this world called and brought people from all professions to be His disciples. They preached the gospel and won souls and matured them to disciples and sent them to all parts of the world.
The professions of disciples of Jesus were :- Mathew was tax collector or government servant; Simon Zealot was National worker ( as the Jews of those days were under Roman Empire);Joseph was Jew Council member or politician or MLA or MCM ; Peter, James, Bartholomew etc. were fishermen; Thaddeus , Philip ,Mark etc were tradesmen .According to the Book of Acts from the Chapter One to Twelve, the disciple, Peter was seen as the main gospel worker or preacher and from Chapters Thirteen till Twenty eight speaks about Paul who after receiving the Holy Spirit preached Christ from Jerusalem to the Rome City with better command on the words of God since he was a Pharisee or an Old Testament theologian.
The books of Mathew, Mark, Luke, John and some other Epistles were written by the laymen. The other books of the Bible were written by Paul and we are more blessed with his exemplary life shown in the Bible. In other words the theologians would do much better than laymen in serving the Lord if they are with the Anointing or filled with Holy Spirit. However, if any one who is in the Lord’s ministry is not filled with the Holy spirit would be as stubborn as Saul or Paul before his encountering with the Holy Spirit. If we want revival in our time or to spread the gospel to all parts of the world as commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ, we need to challenge also the laymen of all professions to be the workers of the gospel as of in the time of early Church seen in the book of Acts. Even the politicians, government servants or businessmen are also needed to be pastors, teachers or evangelists, etc. as we all are born again to be priests as per the Bible – 1Peter 2:9 says, we are chosen people, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people ….. to declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light. I am sure many laymen may not like to be gospel workers or would feel ashamed or hated to be called pastors or evangelists, etc.! But the Bible says that if anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the son of Man will be ashamed of him (Mark8:38,Mathew 10:32).
The other aspect that we need also to remember from the Bible is that the affairs of the state and religion were headed by one person till Samuel. He was Priest and king (Judge) at the same time, who took care of both the affairs of the state and religion but the Israelites wanted to separate the state from the religion and though it was not the will of God to bifurcate the affairs of the state and religion from a person, the affairs of the state was taken away from Samuel and given to Saul as king or head of state. Then onwards the corruptions had began and continued till this day. The state and religion are the two facets of the same coin and should be inseparable as designed by God .
Moses was a politician and priest as well; Samuel, Eli, etc. were priests and judges/ kings. Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest ( Genesis 14:18); the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints of the Most High God (Daniel 7:27); the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of God (Rev.11:15); to pray for His kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven (Mat.6:10), Zachariah 6:13
In the OT time, only a profession (Pharisees or Levites) was allowed to serve the Lord but when Jesus came, His calling was for everyone or every professions to serve Him. Church and politics are inseparable as much as soul and spirit are in inseparable. We cannot keep one's soul at home nor keeping one's spirit at home to go out for election or church works because the Body, Soul, and Spirit are intact to one another as long as one is alive. Spirit consists of conscience, intuition and fellowship while Soul consists of mind, will and emotion or in other words the intellect, thought, ideas, love, emotion, discernment, choice, decision, etc. are experiences of the soul. Before the man committed sin, the power of the soul was completely under the dominion of the spirit. A man whether in politics or in the church works, both soul and spirit are within him and so as for born again or godly man need to put the functions of soul under the dominion ship of the spirit as purposed by God when He created man and woman. God desires that the soul is made healthy and sound again by spirit being born again and so God sent His only begotten son, Jesus not to condemn the world but to save humans souls. The value of a soul is much more than all the values of gold, silver, diamond, etc. of the whole world(Mathew16:26). However, these days ,the money is spent more for the church building construction works or other physical developmental works and not for soul winning works.
The Bible prophesied in the book of Daniel 7:27 & 18 that the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints ,the people of Most High….all people will worship and obey Him. In Revelation 11:15 speaks that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of God. Though the wicked may heaped up silver and gold, it will come to the hands of the righteous people(Job 27:17,Proverb 13:22). The blood of Jesus has made us priests and kings to reign on earth(Rev.5:10) which means that we are to work also towards the secular government to be filled with His righteousness and rule on His behalf. Every day we pray , ‘Thy kingdom (government )come and Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’(Mat.6:10) and not doing about it is of wrong faith as faith without works is dead(James 2:26). Jesus is the Lord of Lords and King of kings must rule the Nations through the saints (Rev 19:6 &16).In the Old Testament time all prophets were politicians, e.g. Joseph, Daniel ,Shadrach, Meshach, Esther, Nehemiah ,Moses etc. used their offices to do secular works and God’s works .The present secular government appears to be a Godless government therefore when the system is Godless then the devil must be very happy to bring crisis ,scandals, killings etc. to keep on extending his kingdoms on earth. We also know that whole politics are mostly based on unbiblical policies. Therefore the devil has established the unseen principalities, powers and rulers of the darkness who are ruling the nations. The first constitution for the kingdom was written by Prophet Samuel on the appointment of Saul as first king of all Israel (1 Samuel 10:25). Even Jesus chose a highly active politician as His disciple called Simon the Zealot, was a national worker fighting for independence from Roman Empire.
All OT prophets were politicians who directly interfered with the politics of the day. If we are too traditional as of OT times and do nothing then it does not matter God will use the new wine in the new wineskins(Mathew 9:17). It is God’s desire that we take steps to bring God’s kingdom in the secular government but we know that the kingdom of God does not come by simply observation but of faith in action then only we can install the government of God (Luke 17:20,Mathew11:12). This does not mean that we have to stand for elections unless specifically called by God. We are to intercede and take strategic actions for the battle is not ours but the Lord’s ( 2 Chronicle 20:11-17). Daniel alone fasted and prayed for twenty one days for liberation of his Nation and his prayer was answered (Daniel chapters 9&10 ). Our enemies are not human beings or seen things but evil forces in the spiritual realm and therefore as for Christians, we are to go to the root causes in the spiritual realm and not to fight or wrestle against the flesh and blood (Ephesians 6;10-18, 2 Corinthians 10:3-5). We are to forgive our enemies and also bless those who curse us (Mathew 5:44, 1Peter 3:9) indicating that we are born again to the supernatural beings to be sickness free or poverty free life and to enjoy supernatural blessings. However, we find often our self not dying to fleshly things of unforgiveness, hatred, anger, filthiness etc.(Galatians2:20) and wounding or dirtying our soul thereby causing upon us all kinds diseases or problems in life because the Bible says that as much as our soul is well we enjoy good health and everything would go well with us(3 John 2). If Daniel’s prayer alone brought liberation of his Nation, how about our prayers for healing of our land today!
We are called to be shepherds (Acts20:28) who are only caretakers. The sheep are not shepherded in ornate buildings on Sundays but many lost souls are out or elsewhere or everywhere in the open every day (John10:16) and therefore to go and preach to them .It is wise to win souls (Proverbs 11:31) and therefore if one cannot bring a soul to Christ is a foolish thing . Is it not a great wastage of time ,money or materials for church activities and not bringing a soul to Christ? The value of a soul is more than gaining of the whole world (Mathew 16:26). The best or most profitable investment for our life on earth and in heaven is soul winning works as the Bible says in Mark 10:28-30 that any expenditure made on soul winning works shall be rewarded hundred times more on earth including eternal life in heaven. Jesus has not called a few group of people or a profession only but calling all groups of the peoples or all professions in Mathew 28:19- to go and make disciple of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. Unless, again as of early church believers without leaving your profession take up the responsibility of preaching or serving Him or amalgamating the Church and State affairs again to do the righteous works, then the revival may not come in our time or preaching of Christ to all parts of the world might be abnormally delayed. Therefore, every believer needs to be obedient to the mandate given by our Lord Jesus Christ to fulfil the great commission to go and make disciples of all nations.
Dr. Kevi Chakhesang,
BVSc & AH, MVSc, PhD (retired from Govt. service)
Senior Pastor,
Christian Worship Centre
Near Burma -Camp Bazaar :Dimapur:Nagaland
drkevi2000@yahoo.com