BE POSITIONED TO RECEIVE HELP
By Rev Michael Benson Ajayi
1 Samuel 25:6-7
"And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.
And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel."
"After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers. "Acts 18:1-3
The word 'wrought ' in Acts 18;3 is the Greek word 'ergazomai' it means to toil (as a task occupation etc.) (by implication) effect be engaged in or with etc.: - commit do labor for minister about trade (by) work.. This describes Paul's engagement as part of his missionary journey . He was involved in the business of tent making.. It was very tedious involving processing animals and removing the skins and scraping the hairs off , Stitching the skins to get the desired size and shape of the tent and drying under very hot weather conditions . It was a manual process and yet this anointed man of God joyfully engaged in it to help his hosts in their business and make it easier for them to take care of his welfare and those of his companions. Imagine what the newspapers will say in Nigeria if one of our megalomaniac preachers was seen preparing hides and skin or as a vulcanizer or carpenter. Many may say that the anointing is no more upon them. It is this type of thinking that has created a very high level of unemployment and poverty amongst God's people .
Our preachers have made parishioners believe that hard work and toiling is a sign that a person did not have the ' anointing of favour or 'grace for sweatless success'. These are misleading terms used to defraud the gullible and frustrates enterprise . Apostle Paul must have sweated a lot , he was businessman and his inputs reduced the cost of production thereby increasing the profit margin of his host's business
Paul instructed that preachers without a meaningful source of income outside offerings should be avoided as they were a bad influence on society ( Read 2 Thess 3:6-11) . The modern African church has abandoned the customs of our ancestors as exemplified by Apostle Paul and king David.
This is the reason for the increase in hunger and poverty as they spend over 70% of their income on food. This should not be. Imagine if every church in Nigeria had a farm, that will result in a reduction in food prices drastically.
Always , seek for ways on how to add value to the businesses of friends , relations and other believers by so doing it becomes easy to find help in times of distress. Be ready to work for free like apostle Paul and king David.
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