Uganda is a beautiful and lush country. I’ve just returned from a couple weeks of formal and informal meetings with leaders there.
There were 19 leaders. Most have several other church leaders and congregations over whom they are responsible. The African propensity toward titles kept getting me lost amongst ‘bishops’ and ‘pastors’ and ‘elders’ etc. (At least there were no ‘metropolitans’ among them!) Several had more than 100 church leaders that they lead. One chap has started over 425 churches. Another guy has about 150 churches, 125 of which have primary and secondary schools attached to them. He also has one Bible School and is in process of starting a banking enterprise. I was mingling with executive types.
When I realized all that display of responsibility, it made me perk up when they made comments about the type of training I was providing. I frequently hear people say this is the first time that they’ve ever received Bible training that they can use so effectively. But one leader testified that he’s had lots of ‘big name’ speakers and preachers come to his country to teach, but the Majestic Creations series we were researching, is deeper and more scripturally sound than what any Doctor of Divinity had taught. That boggles my head a bit. (I may have to get a new hat.)
An illustration from one lesson:
God’s chosen purpose for Israel was to be a kingdom of priests to reach the whole world. And during King Solomon’s lifetime, people came from around the world to learn from his expansive grasp of wisdom. In researching the history of his reign, I note that God had arranged for Solomon to have a prime historic opportunity to reveal the God of Israel to the many foreigners who came to him. Solomon had wealth, wisdom, exploits, a worldwide network, and a priesthood that no other Ruler had ever had. He was at the highest point in worldwide influence and impact of any Ruler in all of history. During his reign everything was in place to make a major impact for God on the world. And he had the administrative ability to accomplish such a task. Worship was at its highest level ever in Israel. He had everything so well organized and everyone so well trained that priests didn’t work fifty weeks a year and have holidays for two. They worked two weeks and had fifty weeks to be evangelists. God’s call and anointing on Solomon, was to launch and accomplish a world evangelization effort. No man has ever had so much in place to accomplish this. He had world peace, world fame, a military force, endless resources. He had intelligence, acumen, wisdom, administrative competence and the opportunity to reach the entire world during his lifetime. But instead, he took gifts and wives from his ardent visitors and refused to give them a chance to get to know his God, the God of Israel.
At the beginning of his reign Solomon realized his inability to rule the small nation that he had inherited, so he asked for God’s input. Unfortunately, for the nation and for the world, that was the only time in his whole life that he went to God. After receiving that gift of wisdom he then relied on it instead of the God of Wisdom. He failed in the anointing he was given. He released curses instead of blessings into the world.
Solomon did not ask God what his purpose was. He just did the normal ‘king thing’, and he missed his calling. At the end of his life Solomon wrote his memoirs and confessed: “Vanity of vanities.” That was because he did not ask God to reveal the one thing that God had called him to do. He was anointed to release generational blessings to his family and to the entire world. That was his birthright. He lived in a once in history window of opportunity that has never been replicated again.
Majestic Creations is a series of studies that reveals God’s anointing on Bible characters and the birthright He prepared for them. Jeremiah 2:5 says God “…knew, approved, and ordained” each of us before conception! WOW. That is highly significant.
(original post July 7 2014)
