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Every church has a pastor or pastors who oversee it for Christ Jesus, the Head. A church refers to all the people who confess Christ Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.
In shepherding the people, pastors organise teaching services, breakthrough services, anointing services, prophetic services, healing services, revival services and several others.
Now, which of these services do church members seek or patronise the most? Which of them greatly drives or attracts believers to attend church meetings?
A servant of Christ should sometimes examine his own services to the church. He must find out the impact his services make on the people. He must identify what motivates most people to attend some services and boycott others. He should know the main thing Christian must seek.
Do they seek the knowledge of God’s Word through sound teaching? Do they gather in their numbers for prophecies, miracles, prayers, healing or so-called directions? Are they motivated by dancing?
If the answer is not the teaching of God’s Word to form Christ in them greatly, infuse in them the light that prevents them from stumbling, enable them to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, strengthen their faith or prepare them for ministry, then, the pastor should weep. He must weep because the people have rejected the most important thing.
The greatest expectation of a servant of Christ is to effectively communicate the Word of truth, the gospel of salvation (Matthew 28:18-20).
And the greatest expectation of Christians is to hear the Word of God’s Kingdom which is the gospel continually for their salvation, faith, spiritual growth and preparation for ministry (Ephesians 1:13, Matthew 13:19, Romans 10:17).
This means that genuine Christians seek sound teaching of the Word of God to grow in knowledge and stand against deceptions, distortions and manipulations of false ministers.
However, false Christians do “not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they…accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
When Jesus Christ walked the earth, crowds followed Him because of miracles, signs and wonders. Many even followed Him because of food (John 6:26). Christ did not entrust Himself to them.
However, the Lord’s disciples who were made apostles and a few other believers followed Him because of His sound and powerful teachings. They sought His Word of eternal life.
“So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:67-69).
At this juncture, I should be bold enough to state that any pastor who rejoices seeing his church members gladly participate in prophetic meetings, musical or healing programmes instead of Bible studies or teaching services is a false minister or ignorant.
Miracles, prophecies and prayers are good, but the Word of God is better. It is the main thing. The Word which is Christ Jesus is the pivot around which every other thing revolves. It is, therefore, not surprising that God has exalted His Word above everything else (Psalm 138:2).
As Christians, we must prioritise the teaching of God’s Word. We should seek knowledge, live by knowledge and glorify God in knowledge. This demands that we commit ourselves to reading the Bible personally and hearing others teach us.
By James Quansah
