Discovering the Power of Spiritual Covering.....
It’s a blessed and beautiful morning. As I
listened to a message by one of my revered Pastors and Mentors yesterday, I got
an inspiration to write this short piece. It’s a kind of sequel to my post titled
“Follow or Wallow”, talking about mentoring and followership but in a different
line of thought. I hope it blesses everyone who reads it.
God is a God of order and He has set in the church Apostles, Pastors, Prophets etc. We all are members of His body. However He
has put ahead of us people who are Fathers of our Faith; our pastors and leaders;
those who carry grace and unction to be a source of immense blessings to the
body of Christ. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children..( Ephesians 4:11-15). In few words, I would like to
intimate us with few examples from the bible on how we can enjoy the
covering of our pastors in our day to day affairs. We can key into the grace
they enjoy and tap into the anointing on their lives to work for us.
When Jesus was in the world and His disciples were
eating whilst the Pharisees were often fasting, the Pharisees began to grumble
and in Matthew 9:14, they came to question him about why his disciples were not
fasting. His reply to them was that as
long as He was around, they needed not fast. Why? He was a covering for them, they had the privilege of having the Miracle Worker Himself with them. He was the Power Carrier, He often prayed and fasted but He gave them also power to thread upon serpents and scorpions and do miracles as He would do. So they soared on His wings! Elisha followed his master Elijah until He was taken away and there was transference
of spirit. When He got to the River Jordan just after Elijah departed, He
cried, where is the God of Elijah? The spirit upon his departed master wrought
an instant miracle for him and the river parted.
Let me also remind you of the story of Prophet Elisha
and his servant Gehazi. God had just
wrought a great miracle of healing in the life of Naaman (the affluent but
leprous captain of the host of Syria) through Elisha and he had refused to
receive any of the gifts offered to him. But the prophet’s servant Gehazi, out of greed
followed Naaman and lied to get some of those things his Master had refused. When he came back, Elisha
asked where he was coming from and told him that his spirit had actually
gone with him and had seen what transpired between them( 2nd Kings 5:25). I
find it very interesting that his Master’s spirit had gone with him and nothing
was hidden from him. It happened also in the Bible that the sons of the
prophet at one time wanted to make a bigger place of abode for themselves and
they appealed to their Master Elisha to go with them. Thank God he did, because the axe head
they borrowed fell into the water but for his presence and intervention, it
would have been lost in water forever!
Paul the apostle was in a troubled ship with some prisoners on their way to being prosecuted and there was a mighty storm which threatened their lives. He assured them that there wouldn't be loss of lives (as long as he was aboard with them) and so it was. God gave him an assurance that because he was there with them, the lives of the other crew and prisoners were safe… What a sweet assurance, what a man to be associated with!
Acts 27:22
But take courage! None of you
will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down. 23For last night an angel of
the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me, 24and he said, ‘Don’t be
afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar! What’s more, God
in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.’25So take courage! For I
believe God. It will be just as he said. 26 But we will be shipwrecked on
an island.”
We can conclude that when we submit ourselves to
the ministry and authority of our spiritual leaders, there is a covering upon
our lives by the reason of our association with them. And we can tap into this
from time to time in our journey of life. Trust me, when we believe; there are
certain things we stand to enjoy from their physical or spiritual presence.
Now we may not get our pastors to physically go around
with us, we may not even be close to them but when we are cognizant of the fact
that their covering is upon us, we can walk with an assurance that God’s grace
upon their lives, in addition to what we carry ourselves will make a way for us
when we need it, deliver us from evil and deliver unto us all we need per
time. I have heard of the testimony of someone who got a job because He mentioned the name of His pastor during the interview. One of the interviewers reckoned that if He could be mentored by that pastor then He was likely to be a performer.
Thank you for reading and please feel free to share any personal experience or testimony in this regards.
It’s a beautiful week people, enjoy Grace!
The Pen…..
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