THOUSANDS OF ministers mount the pulpit to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world as millions of believers travel distances to attend Christian public meetings to hear the Word of God, give offerings, sing and pray to the Lord daily. We primarily serve God for the salvation of our souls.
However, are all the preachers and worshippers candidates of heaven? Have we all encountered Jesus Christ and been saved? Have we really been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ? Do we sincerely know God, and are we convinced in our spirit that God knows us? These are some of the important questions members of the Christian community ought to ask and answer frequently.
Jesus Christ, the Chief Shepherd and Great Apostle of the Church gives a hint that a person can preach, teach, pray, sing, counsel, heal and do many great works in the name of the Lord to be known, recognised, applauded, appreciated and revered and yet miss heaven. It is easier for a person to be called a Christian than for him to qualify for eternal salvation. The Lord Jesus says:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7: 21, ESV).
A Christian is not someone who just attends church meetings and participates in religious events. These are important, but as Christ Jesus puts it, a Christian is someone who does the will of God. Those who are committed to doing God’s will are the candidates of heaven. So, now, what is the will of God?
It is the will of God for those who profess Christianity to be genuinely born again. Apostle Christian Titi Coompson aka Brother Coompson, the head Pastor and director of Christian Educational Forum (CEF), a Teaching and Networking Ministry, in Kumasi is one of the ministers of the gospel, who thinks many church folks will go to hell for not doing the will of God.
In a recent chat, the man of God wondered how a churchgoer who is not born again will enter the kingdom of God. Apostle Coompson, a renowned conference speaker, said, today, many church people including pastors are not born again. He was baptized in infancy in one of the orthodox churches, and played his role as a church member but was not a true believer until one day he was invited by the Full Gospel Men’s Fellowship International (FGMF) by one Catherine Ababio.
“It was at that meeting that I genuinely gave my life to Christ. Somebody gave a testimony of his transformed life and based on that testimony I realised that even though I was going to church I had not believed, confessed and accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and personal Saviour. People were talking about being born again; even my wife got born again four years before me.”
In his view, to be born again is to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior by confessing Him as your Lord and Savior. And before that can take place in your life, you have to believe that He died for your sins and rose again in righteousness so that you can walk in righteousness through Christ, obey Him, accept His teachings and be filled with the Holy Spirit so that you become a new creation.
He said true born again Christians are given the ministry of reconciliation which empowers them to bring other people to Christ through the word of reconciliation which is preached and taught to bring peace between people and God as sin which separates us from God is removed.
People are in churches thinking they are Christians when they have not actually encountered Jesus Christ through the preaching and hearing the gospel to spiritually renew and save them. To be spiritually renewed or regenerated is to be born again. And Apostle Coompson, who worked at the State Construction Corporation as an Auditor said, “You need to be born again to become a child of God.”
Many of us may not know much about pastors, but the likes of the Christian Educational Form Head Pastor do. The preacher man said he has spoken in churches and conferences where men of God gave their lives to Christ for the first time.
This means those men of God who were overseeing churches were not born again let alone be divinely called, prepared and commissioned to minster before the Lord, yet for reasons known to them they tricked people into accepting them as messengers of God. People just go to church and they are recommended or influenced to become priests when they have not been divinely chosen. The problem is that if our eyes of faith cannot see beyond the physical we will always accept everyone who preaches as a man of God.
What kind of believers will an unregenerate, self-styled minister produce? A church may be great and mega but if its highly educated preachers and teachers are not sincerely born again they will produce disciples after their kind – people without the Holy Spirit indwelling them and full of sensuality.
FROM James Quansah, Kumasi
jamesquansah@yahoo.com