The Believer’s Authority
The year is 2022. I am just coming from school. I am so deeply engrossed in a story taking place in my mind that my environment is blurry to me. Someone pulls my hand and I immediately snap back to reality. My hands instinctively prepare to deliver a slap greeting to whoever has the audacity to interfere with season 2 of the “KFC, Can I Please, Please Have You for Dinner?” series playing in my head.
“Hey gal, you know someone can easily run you over the way you’re walking?”
I unclench my hands. It is only my friend Ritchie.
You see, I had spent the last two class sessions fantasizing about what to eat for dinner. This happens every time I am strapped for cash. It is like my mind just wants to torture me even more by bringing vivid images of some really cool sticky wings that I can’t have.
KFC’s Sticky Wings
As I passed by Maiyaan Mall, I covertly stared at the KFC joint. I was so tempted to approach the manager and ask if they are looking for someone to “chonga viazi” just so that I could have a taste of their tantalizing wings and fries. Somehow my legs found the ability to pass by without making a fool of myself, though a tiny piece of my heart broke with every heavy step.
You see, I was just about to finish school and I was already (in this case foolishly so) trying to handle my bills without bothering my parents. I was learning that being an adult meant living within my means, not running to my parents whenever I need a new pair of shoes (not that there is anything wrong with it but see, I was on a journey towards independence and proving that I can handle my business). I got home and made some Rice and Kamande. It was not the beautiful wings that I was ready to sell my kidney for but it had to do. The important thing was that the tummy got full, right? Wrong! My mind was still tormenting me.
As I put my house in order after leaving in the morning looking like some detectives had been there looking for some documents that would prove that Kenya had been sold to China, I found my tiny brown purse under the couch. I had not seen this purse in a minute. I opened it and guess what guys, there were some 2Gs inside! You mean I could have had my wings and still had more than enough cash left? Oh, the betrayal! And you know what was even worse? After seeing the money, my mind finally caught up with my stomach and agreed that we are full and don’t need your wings anymore.
It is okay, continue laughing at me. I know you have experienced something of the sort at some point. Going to a hotel and ordering the cheapest meal available since you do not have money, only for you to realize as you get to pay the bill that someone who had borrowed some money from you has just returned it as you were ‘enjoying’ your meal. Or maybe yours is not about food. Maybe at work, you have been using a very old and slow computer, only for you to realize that there is a brand new laptop meant for you that has been in its box for months. It could also be that you once spent hours waiting in line for an event or service, only for you to realize as you finally get to the front that you had VIP access that would have allowed you to skip the line.
Disappointing, isn’t it?
The Believer’s Authority
We have been covering the story of the prodigal son in the past couple of weeks and we’re just getting to the place that, according to me, is the saddest part of this story. The part of the elder son.
While the younger son was out there wasting his inheritance and doing only God knows what, the elder son was busy at home being the ideal “son.” Yet he was way off base, maybe worse than the younger, wasteful son?
Luke 15:28-30 (NIV)
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
The Elder son’s version of the ideal son
According to the elder son, being an ideal son meant slaving for his father for years. It meant never disobeying orders, or even taking some time off to celebrate with his friends. According to him, being the ideal son meant never taking anything that he worked so hard for.
This is why he got so mad after hearing that the younger son was back and that their father had thrown a party for him. Probably for the years that the younger son was not at home, the elder brother was always getting reports of his escapades and being jealous that he got to eat life with the big spoon while the elder son was still at home “slaving away.” Maybe he wondered why the younger brother got to have fun and he didn’t. Perhaps when he heard that the tables had turned and the younger son was now eating with the pigs, he had silently clapped for himself for never venturing out of home or getting himself involved in ‘raha za Dunia’ (pleasures of the world). Maybe he thought that the father would never forgive the younger son, making him the only son. Definitely the favorite? This is why he felt so betrayed by his father’s actions. If indeed he was the ideal son as he thought, the father wouldn’t then dare welcome the younger son back. What a betrayal!
The elder son missed the point entirely.
Luke 15:31 NIV
“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.
The elder son lived like a slave although everything that his father owned was his. He never took a fattened calf and called his friends to celebrate. He spent his life like a slave; spending all the hours on the farm, never touching anything without the express permission of the father; never taking a break; never really feeling like he deserved the honor already given to him.
Psalms 49:20 NKJV
A man who is in honor, yet does not understand, Is like the beasts that perish.
The elder son did not need to prove that he was a son. He did not need to prove that he was better than the younger son. He did not need to work so that his father would love, appreciate, or give him anything. All these things were already his. Freely given. Yet he never saw it.
The elder sons in the church
The sad story of the elder son is a representation of so many people in the church. It represents us when we serve diligently in the church so that we can win God’s love, acceptance, or even forgiveness. It is a representation of us when we work in the kingdom so that we can feel as though we are worthy to now be called sons of God, even though this position was given to us freely the minute we accepted Jesus. As a result, we allow the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life to creep in. We watch those not of the kingdom living so well that we start envying them. We work extra hard and increase the days that we spend in the church, thinking that the more we serve, the more we are going to have all we need in this life. And when life doesn’t go our way, when we get sick or struggle with joblessness, we start thinking that maybe we did something wrong, which is why God is punishing us. We forget that we are Christ’s, and everything He has also belongs to us. We forget that our works can never, and will never justify us.
1 Corinthians 3:20-23 NKJV
20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 21 Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: 22 Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. 23 And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
As a man thinketh, so is he
The Bible is so clear regarding our works. We do not work so that we can attain salvation or righteousness. These realities have already been availed for us. This means that anything that belongs to Christ also belongs to us. So, when we say that victory belongs to Jesus, then we should also come to the realization that victory also belongs to us. If Christ is victorious, and we are in Him, then it means that we are also victorious right?
So, why do we behave like the elder son? Never accessing these realities that have been freely made available to us? As a man thinketh!
Anything that your mind has not captured yet cannot become a reality in your life. This is why we need to learn and embrace the art of meditation.
As a man thinketh
You need to settle these realities in your mind, and then position yourself to make them manifest in the physical world.
So you have had a constant headache that won’t just go away. When you sit with your thoughts, what do you see? Do you see that headache becoming so bad that you can’t even go to work? Or do you see yourself dancing, free of the headache?
So you want to be one of the greatest entrepreneurs the world has ever seen; but what do you see? Is your mind there yet?
As a man thinketh, so is he.
Make this prayer with me:
“Father today, I choose to settle some matters in the mind first. Today I choose to stand in my authority as a believer. I choose to believe in your word that I belong to Christ; that I am seated with Him in heavenly places; and that all things (things in the present and in the future) are mine. Dear Lord, let the eyes of my understanding be flooded with light that I see realities that have already been freely availed to me as a son of God. Let these realities be settled in my mind even as I meditate on your word and your promises concerning my life. Thank you for making me worthy.
In Jesus name, I pray”
And all the worthy sons of God said Amen!