Our good is not necessarily Gods good. And above all things we should remember that our definition of everything about us should be that same definition found in Gods mind:
Hence despite wanting good for the nations we live in remember that Jesus lived in Israel but identified himself with his heavenly father and his heavenly fathers calling on his life. Remember there was a colonial master known as Rome that ruled the Jews but there was nowhere that Jesus stood up and attempted politics or tried to mention Pilate. John on the other hand criticized Herod for taking his brothers wife.
Today we lay a lot of emphasis on our earthly identity and assume that that earthly identity is who we are when in reality Jesus reveals something in the garden when He prayed, something that we find too easy to ignore:
John 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT OF THE WORLD, even as I am not of the world.
Jesus’s words expressly describe you and i as not being of this world. I am not a Kenyan first, nor are you a Ugandan or a Ghanaian, you are not of this world just as Jesus is not American or Jewish nor is he Iraqi or Ugandan. This is why i find it amusing when christian folks pray for their football team to win against the team of another nation. How do you think God receives such prayer? Does he award a win to the team with the people who are most praying for it? Or does He award a win to the national team with lesser sins? Lol!!!!! God is about a heavenly agenda, not a carnal, earthly, geographical agenda.
You may say policy affects many righteous and unrighteous things in our environment and i would say to you that what if God, like Paul said, made some vessels or some people vessels to ensure that he gets to his goal? God is not a man with a few flailing senses susceptible to error, he is a perfect being with infinite abilities. Its the reason Jesus gave us a glimpse of Gods abilities by teaching us that God personally feeds the birds of the air, yet if we observed the birds they have no sense of horror about having no bank account to rely on for tomorrow, but they will sing in a tree and chirp away yet every single day they will be fully fed, never seen a bird thats starved. Its those kinds of glimpses that we find too easy to meditate about yet Jesus asked us to consider them, or in short i always ask folks if they have ever obeyed Jesus and considered how God feeds the birds of the air:
26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
I mean Jesus gave us an example of Gods work by telling us facts about the birds He feeds, that those birds dont even sow nor do they reap, nor do they gather in barns. These are principles that we as humans espouse greatly, and thats why we take our kids to school, its the reason we have bank accounts, savings accounts and but government bonds or shares in various entitites, its for the sake of tomorrow. Yet jesus doesnt just tell us about the birds but lets us know that the birds dont even do the prerequisites for a better tomorrow but are fed fully and adequately by God himself.
So do you ever consider or look at the birds of the air and how they feed?
Or do you simply just know that scripture?
If we did we would know that Gods hand is intricately woven into our daily lives. I for one live a very miraculous life and dont even share it with every Jack, Peter or Paul because they wouldnt believe it. And a lot of times the way i live is not outrageously miraculous but Gods hand is woven into my daily life, literally.
The same with the righteousness and unrighteousness around us, we ought to pray but it doesnt mean that God can oly achieve righteousness with a democratic or a republican government. Infact in my opinion those of us who have a clear understanding of the introduction of democracy in African societies will agree that to a great degree it has caused the greatest surge of sin and confusion in those societies than when the societies existed in their original form, thats a discussion for another day.
If a president or a leader mentions Jesus it doesnt mean that the person is a man of God at all. While we hope that leaders be men and women who place the Lord first in their lives remember that behind closed doors politicians make tough decisions that even cause small children to lose fathers, mothers and siblings in wars that seem senseless to us but which behind closed doors could be making real sense to the national intelligence services of that president government. A senior intelligence officer once told me that there have been situations where they have had to eliminate persons that were planning major casualties in our national capital and since the persons were in a convoy of vehicles the intelligence officers, with the blessing of the national intelligence committee had to resort to detonating a whole bus that not only included the dangerous fanatic trio they were tracking but that included innocent fathers, mothers and kids going about their daily lives and travelling to and fro in a bus. They even had the news configured to blame the explosion on something else rather than reveal that these individuals had loaded the bus with nuclear matter that they planned to explode once the bus got to the city center.
What am i saying here? Politics and such things as political posts are a very tricky matter and more often than not bind those who seek them in haunting decisions that can eat at ones very soul despite the naive perception of the public about governance.
Why on earth didnt Jesus ever mention the “obvious” fact that the Jews were colonised by Rome? Why on earth didnt he call angels to come down and help a rebel group against the Romans?
Well the answer is simply because his mandate was that of God, not that of man. So is your child of God:
John 17:18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
Child of God you were sent into the world just as Jesus was sent into the world, remember that.
In a lot of ways there are parables that Jesus spoke but there are times when we read certain things that are quite intentional, such as the fact that when the folks resolved to make Jesus their president, Jesus actually hid....that says a lot to us.
John 6:15
Then Jesus, REALIZING THAT THEY WERE ABOUT TO COME AND MAKE HIM KING BY FORCE, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself.
The citizens of the day were literally going to make Jesus president BY FORCE.
They had seen his benefits when he fed them bread and fish by breaking the laws of Physics. Who wouldnt want such a man as president? No loans from the IMF would be sought for various projects suuch as food, i believe they assumed and even believed that this is a man who would probably give them food daily for the rest of their lives. Without engaging any loans, or any economic inflation moves that would probably barely make their lives better. This man could easily ask for a small boys lunch and turn it into an international feeding programme instantly!!!!!! Such a person doesnt even need to run for office they said, we will make him president BY FORCE!!!!
So this article is meant to show us that God knows what He is doing, and its all about His kingdom, rather than what we perceive as good or evil. I have lived and studied in Uganda and the president there is considered by certain governments as a dictator but when you are in the country you realize that the alternative politicians peddling the “dictator” tag are on the other hand warming up to especially Western governments and attempting to introduce such things as gay marriages and other obscenities in that beautiful country. So if you are a christian that relies on government information and propaganda its very easy to see the president as evil when he is not.
Bottom line is what God is intending in Uganda, to save the souls of men from sin and have them believe in Jesus Christ the messiah who takes away their sins. As for political shenanigans you never know wether what youre watching in the news is manufactuired to get a certain result from your or not.
Jesus fled to the mountain mainly because He realized that the public were intending to make him president. Would we have that mindset? Methinks we would probably think this was an opportunity to serve Gods purpose in that kind of a position. Yet Jesus’s mandate was very different from what men assumed.
I also meet folks who tell me that i could be one good politician but the Lord has always reminded me that i have a purpose only found in Him, despite the good that men see at my hands in the community.
John 6:15
Then Jesus, REALIZING that they were about to come and make him king by force, WITHDREW AGAIN TO A MOUNTAIN BY HIMSELF.
Even when we have bad leaders they have a purpose for being there. Remember Paul describes Pharaoh as being a vessel raised by God on earth with the express intention of showing Gods wrath:
Romans 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Romans 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
So Pharaoh was destined for destruction from the beginning
, just like Judas part was to deny Jesus from the beginning.
Gods intention for Pharaoh was so that God may show His power in Pharaoh and that Gods name may be declared through all the earth. And His name has indeed been declared through all the earth after what Pharaoh attempted to do in resisting Gods will.
There are vessels of wrath in your life dear brother and sister, there are Herods, and there are Pilates, there are Judases, and you are not meant to pray them away. They have a role to play in Gods plan for your mission on Earth.
But always remember that you are not of this world and were sent to this world.
22What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 23And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 24Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
God endures with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath which are fitted to destruction so that He may make known the riches of his glory on you the vessels of mercy. There is a good intention to the resistance you meet daily. And you as a vessel of mercy should understand why there are vessels of wrath found in your life, they have a purpose and its to show Gods power in the end result. Judas betrayed Jesus but the good that came out of it was unfathomable.
Forget the politicians and focus on your Father and his intention with you in the world in which he sent you. Dont lose the plot by defining yourself according to the world.
