The God-Breed Pastors We Need for Revival Move
Preamble
Jer. 3:15
Last year in this ministers’ forum God was assuring that harvest time is here and the awaiting revival shall be fulfilled sooner than expected! He alerted us of necessary equipment to use in the fields in harvesting souls and conserving the harvest — wisdom, sharp sickle, baskets and barn. This year the burden of the LORD in our hearts as we wait on the focus of this meeting this year is: ”Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness” (Jer. 12:10KJV). We are witnesses to the fact of these many strange pastors — self breed who had occupied church pulpits for years and were in charge of God’s vineyard globally. To ignore this phenomenon as we are praying for the birth of prophecy of revival is disastrous. We need to pray for God-breed pastors and especially peculiarly discern and raise disciples who are imparted by God with pastoral heart among us.
We need to take a cue from the strategy of King Jehosaphat as he birthed revival in his days by sending Levites and priests across the land of Judah to teach the law of the LORD (2 Chro. 17:7–10). The same strategy of teaching the word of God was employed by Ezra the scribe in the days of Nehemiah when he was rebuilding the dilapidated wall with God’s people, it wasn’t just only the wall that was rebuilt but the lives of God down trodden peoples were restored (Neh. 8:5–9; 9:1–4). Self-breed pastors are not only useless in God’s vineyard but they are equally dangerous to God’s peoples in scattering them into the hands of devourers and pegging the redemption program of God. Christ’s response to this mess in His days was to mobilize His disciples to pray for God-breed pastors, He raised this kind amidst them and commissioned them to take up this noble task in the outburst of Pentecostal revival (Mat. 9:36–39; Jn. 21:15–17).
GOD-BREED PASTORS PROMISED
It is exciting to hear God’s commitment to give us pastors not just a pastor after His own heart! God Himself is a Shepherd as He led the Israelites in the wilderness (Ps. 78:52–53). Christ is the good, chief and great Shepherd of our souls (Jn. 10:11, 14; 1 Pet. 5:4; Heb. 13:20). God-breed pastors are godlike pastors and Christ-like pastors! They are not hirelings who are cowards and runs away at the presence of danger (Jn. 10:12, 13). They are not greedy dogs who parades themselves as God’s watchmen but are only concerned about personal gains (Isa. 56:11–12). They are not unbelieving and unfaithful as the shepherds of Israel who abandoned their care, misled and exposed them to devourers (Ezek. 34:1–10; Jer. 50:6–7).
God-breed pastors shall act like God to search the sheep, gather them, feed them in a good pasture and keep them in a good fold (Ezek. 34:11–15). God-breed pastors shall seek the lost, bring back those who were driven away, bind up the broken ones, heal the sick and strengthens the weak.
GOD-BREED PASTORS’ PRACTISE
God-breed pastors are voluntary, selfless, sacrificial, and servant care-giver leaders who lead by their exemplary life and committed to the wellbeing of God’s peoples (1 Pet. 5:2, 3). God-breed pastors’ practice is to feed the church with knowledge and understanding! Knowledge is power! Knowledge here is beyond mental exercise of a genius mind but deep spiritual understanding of God that guarantees proffering solution to human problems without running helter-skelter.
The absence of this kind of knowledge makes ignorance prevalent and God’s peoples perish (Hos. 4:6). What made deep spiritual understanding rare in our days is the rarity of God-breed pastors whose business is to feed God’s people with knowledge and understanding. Unfortunately those whom God had called and appointed to undertake this task for Him had been hijacked by self and misled God’s peoples because they themselves didn’t know the LORD (1 Sam. 2:12; Jer. 2:8; Isa. 56:9–12; Mal. 2:7).
The knowledge God speaks about here are worthy substantial solid gospel truths — mysteries of God to be known and understood which self-breed pastors are both destitute of them and on how to disseminate them (1 Cor. 2:14). Only the God-breed pastors are made capable to know and to disseminate them not in the energy of the flesh but in the power of the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:4- 7, 12, 13). God-bred pastors are prudent in their practice of feeding God’s peoples with knowledge and understanding. They feed wisely and prudently when they rightly divide the word of truth, give to everyone their portion of meat in due season, feed them in proportion to their age and capacity, give milk to babes, meat to the strong and strong meat to the mature (Prov. 10:21; Lk. 12:42; 1 Cor. 3:1–2; Heb. 5:14).
The practice of God-breed pastors include taking spiritual oversight over the peoples they were set over to feed with knowledge and understanding (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2). They are made overseers, to look diligently upon to know the condition of the sheep, to inspect, to look after carefully to detect diseases among the lambs and sheep among the fold, to detect looming dangers of wolves and to care for and protect by risking their lives and if need be lost their lives to protect the sheep (Prov. 27:23; Ezek. 34:22–24, 31; Jn. 10:11–16; 21:1–6, 15–17).
Finally, the effect of the practice of God-breed pastors promised is the outburst of revival among God’s peoples and the multiplication of God-breed peoples. God-breed pastors by their practice produces God-breed peoples (Jer. 3:16–18; Acts 4:15–20; 5:25–29; 6:7). How does God produce God-breed pastors? It has never been by carnal means of human ordinations, education attainments or exposure but by following the LORD in a practical discipleship relationship (Mat. 4:19). Do you know anything about this? Do you have experience of such relationship that produces in you a shepherd’s heart? Does your own discipleship experience set your heart to focus on becoming such God-breed pastor? What will be your commitment now? Let’s pray!
By Joseph Ola Okunola
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