Dearly Beloved,

THE LORD WILL GLORIFY HIMSELF, BUT...

"He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and
Moses said to them, 'Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out
of this rock?' Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice
with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their
livestock drank. But..." (Numbers 20:10-12, NIV).

Undoubtedly, there are genuine ministers of God today, and there are
people who claim to be ministers of God. All these people are doing
the work of God. Some of them are doing it according to the directives
and leadership of the Holy Spirit. Some of them are doing it for
selfish purposes. (Compare the words of Paul in Philippians 1:15-18.)
In either case, what is certain is that God does glorify Himself. He
uses all of these people to His own glory. However, He will judge each
of these people according to what they have done for Him (see
Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14; Romans 14:12; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians
5:10).

As a minister of God, I feared God the more recently when I read the
incident of "the waters of Meribah" found in Numbers 20. The
discontented people of Israel complained again about their situation
in the wilderness journey to the Promised Land because they wanted
water. Moses and Aaron went to the Lord and the Lord gave them
instruction on how they would provide water for the people of Israel.
They were simply to speak to a rock, but out of pride, Moses and Aaron
abused the people of Israel, ascribed the honor of providing water to
themselves and struck the rock twice. In spite of these, God
miraculously provided the water for the whole people of Israel and
their livestock. But, the Lord immediately gave a verdict for Moses
and Aaron: they would not reach the Promised Land. Their labor for
almost forty years would be in vain (Numbers 20:12). What a great
judgment!

This is a great warning to us the ministers of God and even others
that God is using in one way or the other. We must beware of how we do
the work of God. Whether we do it according to the will of God or not,
God will still glorify Himself in the work, but the aftermath of our
activities for God may be disastrous if we try to take the glory,
misuse our position, or do things contrary to the will of God.

Apostle Peter gave similar warning: "To the elders among you, I appeal
as a fellow-elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who also
will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God's flock
that is under your care, serving as overseers — not because you must,
but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for
money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you,
but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears,
you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away" (1
Peter 5:1-4, NIV).

In His service,

Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor).
_________________________
Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor).
+234 805 515 9591
http://www.afolabayo.org/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spiritualdigest2003/
"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will
have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted
in my body, whether by life or by death. FOR TO ME, TO LIVE IS CHRIST
AND TO DIE IS GAIN" (Philippians 1:20-21, NIV).