[Amotsuka Caleb]

I love the adage you used – You eat the face first before you eat the food. Though not directly related to leadership, it shows how people generally buy in to things. A meal could be delicious but if it doesn’t look great, people will likely reject it. It’s the same thing with the law of buy-in. A cause may be truly beneficial, but if the people don’t buy into the leader, they may never get on board with the cause.
The quote from John Maxwell that you ended with is very spot on, many times leaders focus on championing a worthy cause which is not bad in itself but they are often shocked when they don’t get the response from the people like they had expected. This usually happens because the people have not bought into the leader.
However, even though the law of buy-in does not necessarily lead to blind loyalty, there is a possibility that blind loyalty can come in when followers go to one extreme in their followership. People can buy into a leader so much that even when the leader starts missing it and derailing, they may not catch it or might even make explain it away. I have been in such a situation before. There was a man of God I really loved because I had never heard anyone as practical and unreligious as him. His messages were so relevant and his heart for the Kingdom was obvious. At a point, I told my family that this is the only man that can make me leave the church I am in if he opens a church in Nigeria. Years down the line, this man started employing some methods in his messages that were unsettling. At first, excuse him because I really loved him and so I said to myself that he probably has a reason for doing this but it continued for so long that I had to really check my spirit and my spirit didn’t align with what he was doing at all. I reluctantly had to stop listening to him but there are many people who still do. I still believe he is a genuine man of God but he probably missed it there. A lot of people however struggle to make such a tough decision once they buy into a leader because sometimes, in their eyes, the leader can do no wrong. This is when the law of buy-in has been taken to an extreme and thus leads to blind loyalty.

[Amotsuka Caleb]

Indeed, our praise to God before we see the answers to our prayers is a demonstration that we believe what He has said to us. In the natural when someone makes a promise to us, if the person is someone we know is able to fulfill that promise and we trust the persons character to keep their word, we begin to rejoice and make plans based on the promise. If you are given an employment letter, even before you resume work, you immediately start planning on how to spend the first salary. This is because you trust the contract that was given to you. We should have the same behavior when it comes to God. When we pray according to His will, we must have the utmost confidence that He has heard and answered us and begin to rejoice and make plans like it is already in our hands. If a company will not fail in their contract, God will never fail in His covenant which is much stronger.

[Amotsuka Caleb]

To address this question, it is important to have a right perspective to prayer. Prayer is not placing demands on God to make him do what He was previously unwilling to do. Rather, it is first aligning ourselves with God to understand His will and everything He has already done and provided for us in the finished works of Christ. With this understanding, we now make requests of God to manifest in our experience those realities that we have already received in the Spirit.
This is why 1 John 5:14-15 says – Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
When we know God’s will, we will only want to ask what is in His will because His will if far greater than anything we can desire. This then gives us the confidence in prayer, knowing that our answered prayers are guaranteed.
With this in mind, we can now see why it is very important to praise God even before we the answers manifest. Some reasons to do this are:
1. It is an expression of faith and trust in God. We walk by faith and not by sight.
Mark 11:24 says therefore, whatever things you ask, when you pray, believe that you have received them, and you will have them. When you receive the manifestation of your prayer in the physical, it most times brings joy and rejoicing because you can see it tangibly. Praising God before you see the manifestation shows that you believe that you have received what you have prayed for. We don’t praise God because we want to receive the answers to our prayers, rather we praise Him because we have already received them by faith. It is this faith action that then translates what is already real in the spirit realm to become a physical reality.
When we rejoice for what has not yet become a physical reality, it is a demonstration of our faith in what we cannot yet see. This is why 1 Pet 1:8-9 says whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him yet, believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith – the salvation of your souls.
2. Our praise keeps us focused on God and what He has promised.
Sometimes, the manifestation of what we have asked for in prayer may take longer than we hoped for. In situations like this, it is easy to get weary and discouraged by the waiting season. Heb 13:12 says, hope deferred makes the heart sick. However, when we praise God, we begin to remind ourselves of His faithfulness to us in times past and this strengthens our heart and builds our faith.
3. Our praise is a weapon.
Psalm 149:6 says Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples…
God takes pleasure in our praise and when we praise Him, we align with God to establish His judgment on the earth against everything that tries to exalt itself against the knowledge of God.

Praise also keeps us walking in the light. Psalm 89:15 says Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound, they shall walk o Lord, in the light of your countenance. It is when we are in the light that we can see the light (the answers to our prayers). Psm 36:9
Finally, it is with joy that we draw out of the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:3. If we are not in a state of joy, we will not never see what God is doing, rather, we will be engrossed in what we think he has not done this will take us further away from receiving the end of our faith.

[Amotsuka Caleb]

An understanding of the law of buy-in will show that people first buy into a leader’s person before they buy into their vision, no matter what the vision is. This means that even when there is a grand and highly beneficial vision, people will tend not to buy into it unless they have already bought into the leader. Conversely, even if people don’t fully align with a vision, if they have already bought into the leader, they will in most cases still follow the leader regardless. While this provides an opportunity for the leader to develop their character and charisma to get the buy-in from the people, this also poses the challenge of blind loyalty from the people.
People most times make decisions based on how they feel about something or someone and not based on rational thinking. This means that once the people have bought into the leader, there is an emotional attachment that they have to the leader such that even if the leader brings forth a clearly wrong vision, this emotional attachment often clouds clear thinking, and the people will rather make excuses for the leader instead of speaking up to clarify things. While people should respect and honour their leaders, it is never expected that anyone follows a leader blindly. The Lord Jesus is the only person who is worth following blindly because He is infallible, no other leader is infallible. Leaders can make mistakes and while the people following them shouldn’t be critical or judgmental of their leaders, when a leader you trust begins to derail from the right path, you must be able to think clearly and make the right decision for your own safety.
Also, many times when the people buy into a leader, they tend to only look out for attributes in the leader that confirm their emotional attachment to the leader. For example, if such a leader is sexually abusing the people, those who have bought into the leader and are blindly loyal will make excuses for the leader and say things like that is his weakness, or after all he’s just a man. A great real-life example is Adolf Hitler. His people had so bought into him that they were ready to do whatever he asked them to. It’s certain that there were people who were uncomfortable with his vision to eradicate the Jews but because they were following blindly, such people will rather convince themselves that Hitler must be seeing something that they were not able to see and so continue following in blind loyalty.
Following leaders in blind loyalty creates an atmosphere where the followers are not able to speak up to or question their leader. In many cases, a minority may be uncomfortable with the vision but because they don’t want to seem disloyal to the rest of the group, they keep shouting the praises of the leader and following blindly.
Also, because people buy into a leader first before their vision, the people sometimes put the leader on a pedestal where they believe that the leader can do no wrong. In such cases, no one ever asks question about the vision. If the leader says jump, the only question allowed is how high? Sometimes this could be because the leader has demonstrated competence over a long period and so the people now trust his decisions and don’t bother querying it. This could be good in some cases as leaders sometimes have an intuition that the people may not have and so they may be seeing what the people are not seeing at the time. However, because leaders are not above mistakes, it is still important for the followers to be alert enough to know when the leader is missing it so they can prayerfully and carefully speak up or ask God for guidance on how to handle the situation.

[Amotsuka Caleb]

My last experience sharing the gospel was to a group of 3 young men, 1 was a teenager while the other 2 were young adults. It was during an evangelism exercise and so I went with a sister.
On entering their shop, which was a DSTV sales center, I immediately attempted to create a rapport with them by greeting them enthusiastically and asking them how business was going. They were receptive but still sceptical as they were not sure what we were up to. I then introduced myself and the sister with me and asked them if they have heard about the life promo. They looked puzzled and said no so I told them that we were here to tell them about the eternal life promo that has been running for a while and they need to cash into it quickly. I then proceeded to share the gospel with them and told them that God was offering eternal life to everyone free of charge but there were terms and conditions that needed to be followed. I shared with them the need for this eternal life and how they could receive this life and asked them if they have at any point received this life from God. One of them who apparently was their leader then started to bring up disputes and many irrelevant things to derail the conversation. Apparently, he had some knowledge of the Bible based on the questions he was asking and after a while I perceived that he was a Jehovah’s Witness. Having had several encounters with them in the past and knowing that most of them are just interested in endless arguments rather than any meaningful conversation, I started trying to end the conversation. Unfortunately, my partner with me didn’t know they were Jehovah’s Witnesses and so she continued trying to convince them but it only led to more arguments. I eventually had to tell them that we had to leave but I encourage them to try and know God beyond what anyone tells them. I told them that God is a living person who wants to have a relationship with man and so if they call out to Him from a sincere heart, He will answer them. The leader, still trying to be argumentative countered and said that the only way God speaks to man is through the Bible. The other two were listening attentively to all we were saying, and I believe that the seed to seek God personally had been sown in their hearts.
In retrospect, I the only thing I think I should have done differently was to ask more questions to find out what they believed about Jesus before beginning to share the gospel with them because that will at least have revealed their stand to me earlier and if all they wanted was to argue, I would have left them must earlier and spent the time with someone else.

[Amotsuka Caleb]

Works refer to the outer demonstration or manifestation of inner or unseen realities. For example a person could be said to be kind which is an inner disposition or reality but this can only be verified by an act of kindness or consistent acts of kindness.
Works can be said to be the fruits of a tree. Jesus warning about false prophets uses this analogy. He said in ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ – Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. In this analogy we can liken the tree to the heart of man and the fruits to the works of man.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
This shows that good works are an offshoot of and a testament to a good heart. A tree is recognized mainly by its fruits. If you see mangoes hanging from the branches of a tree, this is confirmation that what you are looking at is a mango tree and not an orange tree.
Jesus speaking to His disciples in ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5:16‬ ‭said;‬‬ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
The primary purpose of the good works that any Christian does is to give glory to God. When people see our good works, it provides a confirmation to them that we are a good tree because only a good tree can produce good works consistently.
Because this world is by default evil and human nature selfish, when we manifest good works that go contrary to the nature and the ways of the world, people are intrigued and want to investigate the reason you are able to behave is such a manner. For the believer, the root of these good works is Christ and when people realize this it provides a great witness for Jesus.
In Mark 10:18, Jesus said “only God is truly good. This means that the root of every truly good work is God. If only God is truly good then only God can manifest truly good works. This was the case with Jesus during His earthly ministry. He went about preaching, teaching and manifesting good works and even though many people didn’t immediately believe His message, even a Pharisee agreed that no one could do the things He did except God was with them. John 3:2. The works of Jesus provided witness to the truth that God was with Him. This is why when Jesus’ disciples were struggling to believe Him, He told His disciples that if they can’t believe His words, they should believe Him because of the works that He did. This shows that the works we manifest are a testament to who we are on the inside.
As Christians, when we manifest good works, it is physical proof of who we are on the inside. When we walk in love, kindness, joy and other fruits of the spirit, unbelievers are surprised at our responses to the same situations they face and they will want to know the reason we are able to respond that way. This is the best opportunity to witness for Christ and let them know that it is Christ in you that makes all the difference.
However, it is important to point out that the world has now realized the value of these good works and character traits and many people now try to manifest them without having a relationship with Jesus. Such good works cannot be sustained and can be likened to placing mangoes on an orange tree to project the image that the tree is a mango tree. Even if you are successful at hanging the mangoes on the orange tree, the tree can never produce another set of mangoes because it doesn’t have the capacity to do so internally. Good works not rooted in Christ can never be sustained.
Also, the motive of any good works not rooted in Christ is questionable. Most times, people do such works for selfish reasons and so the works do not eventually give glory to God.
Good works are important but having a good heart precedes doing good works and only a person who has been saved by Jesus can have a good heart. Every other heart outside of Jesus is desperately wicked and in need of salvation. As believers, we do not do good works so that our hearts can be good. Rather, we do good works because our hearts are good. A believer with an un-renewed mind will likely still manifest works that are not of God but as his mind gets more and more renewed by the word, his mind aligns with his spirit and good works will begin to flow naturally and will be a hood testimony of his new life in Jesus Christ.

[Amotsuka Caleb]

You are so very correct in saying that evangelism is not criticism. A lot of times you see people criticising others in the name of evangelism. While we should not endorse sinful lifestyles, our focus is to share the message of Christ: that He is the Son of God who came to this world to die for our sins and was raised again to life by the Father and is now King of Kings and Lord of lords. Whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Criticising peoples’ looks, dressing and appearance in the name of evangelism is counter-productive and doesn’t show the love of God. Our job is not to judge the sinner but to love them and share the gospel with them. Also, I love the fact that you said evangelism is not by force because these days, some people get angry when the people they are trying to preach to refuse to accept Christ. It sometimes becomes a shouting battle. This is totally uncalled for. While we are called to preach, we do not have the power to convict anyone, that is the job of the Holy Spirit, so if a person refuses to accept Christ, the best we can do is pray for them and keep following them up. With time, the Holy Spirit will do what only Him can do.

[Amotsuka Caleb]

True evangelism like we have learned from our course is sharing the good news about Jesus Christ with those who are unsaved with the aim of inviting them to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour so they can become New Creations in Christ and disciples of Jesus Christ. However, a lot of activities are done by the church today in the name of evangelism which are not true evangelism because they do not present the message of the gospel of Christ to the sinner which is a pre-requisite for salvation. People must hear the gospel and then believe the gospel but if the gospel is not preached then there is nothing to believe. Romans 10:13-14 says “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
Below are a few things that are commonly done today in the name of evangelism but they are not true evangelism.
1. Charitable works like feeding the hungry, giving free treatment to the sick, giving clothes to the poor and even providing educational scholarships to people are very great things to do as Christians and are avenues to share the love of Christ with the world but are not in themselves true evangelism. These kinds of charitable works can be used as channels to enable true evangelism, but they are not in themselves evangelism if we do not use these opportunities to share the gospel of Christ with the beneficiaries of the charitable works. Most times Christians engage in these charitable works as philanthropists, but God didn’t call the church to be a philanthropic organization but a light to a dark world. The light that we are shines through the preaching of the gospel and teaching of the word of God. 1 Corinthians 1:21 says that “it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe”. Without the message being preached, all charitable works are just philanthropy and have no power to save anyone.
2. Inviting people to Church: while this may be very closely tied to evangelism, it is not in itself evangelism. It is possible to invite people to church and they don’t get the gospel of Christ preached to them. In a lot of cases, some “Christians” are fixed on making people members of their church rather than focusing on making people members of the body of Christ. The end goal of true evangelism is making sinners members of the body of Christ and not just members of our church or denomination. This is not to say that inviting people to church is wrong as in many cases, people who are invited to a church where the undiluted word of God is taught eventually get the gospel preached to them and can receive Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. The difference between just inviting people to church and true evangelism is that the focus of the former is just to increase church attendance while the focus of the latter is to increase the number of disciples for the kingdom of God.
3. Preaching about morality: some Christians leave the preaching of the gospel during acts of evangelism and go about condemning peoples’ behaviours and actions. They tell people they can’t keep wearing artificial hair, make-up, trousers, and several other items or else they will go to hell. While it is good to teach modesty, modesty in looks will not make anyone a member of the family of God and so such messages are just a waste of time. Such Christians are focusing on the fruits rather than on the roots which is the unregenerated human spirit. Telling an unbeliever to try and live a holy life is like trying to make a dog walk on his 2 feet always. He may achieve it temporarily but because it is not his nature to do so, he will eventually go down on all fours. Evangelism must be focused on getting people to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ so they can be made new creations in Christ. It is only then that any preaching of holiness is relevant because the power to live holy is now present in them.

[Amotsuka Caleb]

Can a person outgrow service? How can a person who has grown in the ranks in church or in an organization still be able to serve?

Service is defined as the performance of a duty or function.
This very definition implies that everyone no matter your current status or situation is able & required to serve because there will always be a function or duty that you are capable of executing to the benefit of the organization.
A lot of people associate service with the performance of menial tasks and so the word serve is often used when referring to people of seemingly lower estate carrying out tasks for their superiors. This however is not a wholesome view. True service is the performance of a duty for the benefit and betterment of others or a group. This means that the kind of tasks to be carried out may vary based on the position a person holds but the purpose of fulfilling the task remains the same irrespective of position; which is the benefit and betterment of others.
A Pastor has duties they must perform in service to the congregation they lead which are different from the duties that the members of the congregation will perform in carrying out their own acts of service. However, both the Pastor and member must serve with the same attitude and purpose in mind. A Pastor will need to spend time in the study of the Word to ensure that they are able to rightly divide the word of truth and teach the members accurately. They will also need to select and train other leaders to supervise various operations in the local assembly. All these duties are a form of service to the congregation and even though they are different from the duties that will be required of members of the church, they are still necessary acts of service.
A pastor who doesn’t have a servants heart will take the members for granted and will not spend time studying the Word and building a solid team. A lack of servanthood from Pastor will eventually lead to the failure of organization to fulfill its purpose.
This shows that elevation to the position of a Pastor is not a call to an endless holiday but rather a call to an even greater level of service because the duties performed or not performed at this level will have a greater impact on the entire organization. This is why the higher you go in the ranks the more a servant you become but the duties to be carried out may change.
An example from scripture was when there was a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists in the early church in Acts 6:1-7 and Stephen with 7 others were chosen to serve. The apostles made a very important statement and I quote: “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables”
This statement may sound to some like the apostles saw serving tables as demeaning but nothing is further from the truth. The Amplified version puts it this way; “It is not appropriate for us to neglect [teaching] the word of God in order to serve tables and manage the distribution of food.
What they were saying is that because of the responsibility they have over the people to teach them the word of God, it will be very inappropriate for them to neglect the duties required of them in serving the people and become busy with other duties which people lower in the organization can carry out effectively. This was not a selfish statement or a show of pride. Rather this was a display a true humility and servanthood because if the apostles had neglected their primary duties to serve tables, the health and growth of the entire organization would have been jeopardized. The apostles were however no less servants than those who were selected to serve tables. All of them served in various capacities focused on the same purpose which was the growth and spread of the gospel.
We can therefore say that no one ever outgrow service and the higher you go, the more you are required to serve though the duties will change. This is why Jesus said that the greatest must be the servant of all.
To be able to continue to serve effectively as you grow through the ranks, one must have a strong revelation of who they are in Christ and the purpose for their role. This will help them avoid pride or false humility and also help them avoid pressure to carry out duties for the group that may look seemingly important (from an emotional stand point) but will not give maximum benefit to the group in the long run just like in the example of The apostles in Acts 6. A leader who has grown through the ranks, if your focus remains on building and improving the lives of the people you are leading, you will always be on the look out for tasks you can perform to make their lives better and this is service.

[Amotsuka Caleb]

The fall of man came as a result of man’s wilful disobedience to God’s command. In choosing to disobey God and rather obey the devil, man was aligning himself with the devil who is the enemy of God. This singular act introduced sin into the world and brought about many effects; a few of which are discussed below.
1. Man became separated from God.
From the beginning, man was created to fellowship with God which is why Man was created in the same image and likeness as God. In Gen 3:8, we see the scriptures paint a picture of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. This was obviously a familiar sound and sight to Adam & Eve that’s why they could recognise it was God. We can then conclude that Adam & Eve had constant fellowship with God before the sin was introduced at the fall. However, after the fall this God-nature that man had was now corrupted and perfect fellowship with God no longer possible the first thing we see is Adams reaction to the presence of God. For the first time Adam was afraid of the presence of God; fear had now been introduced by sin. While the normal response of a child to his father’s presence should be to eagerly run into his fathers embrace, this was not the case with Adam because from that point on, his nature had changed, and he no longer carried the nature of God. God in His love instituted the offering of animal blood as an atonement for man’s sin, but this could not restore perfect fellowship between God and man. Hebrews 9:8 says: the Holy Spirit indicating that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was standing.
While God throughout history remained involved in the affairs of men working out the salvation story, man would never be able to fellowship with God on the same level as Adam did before the fall because mans nature had changed fundamentally.

2. Sin and death were passed to all men.
While it was Adam and Eve who committed the original sin, because their nature spiritually had now been corrupted by sin and so they now carried the sin nature, all their offspring carried this sin nature by default. Romans 5:12 say; Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. Hebrews 7:9-10 explains the concept of vicarious liability where Levi was said to have paid tithes to Melchizedek because he was in Abraham’s loins when Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek. The same way, the entire world came from the loins of Adam and so Adams sin is passed unto them automatically.

3. Man became an enemy of God.
Adam in choosing to disobey God and obey the devil became a slave of the devil and an enemy of God. By choosing to take sides with the enemy of God, Adam himself became an enemy of God and so the whole human race became enemies of God. Romans 5:10 says; For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Eph 2:14 – 16 also talks about Christ abolishing in His flesh the enmity through His death on the cross. This shows that man became an enemy of God as a result of the fall.

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